We must not look at goblin men, 
We must not buy their fruits: 
Who knows upon what soil they fed 
Their hungry thirsty roots?

- Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti

“Storm’s coming. We’d better hurry up and leave before we get caught in it.”

Eric looked up upon hearing his cousin’s statement. Overhead, the late summer sky that had been clear and blue all morning was quickly getting overrun by roiling gray clouds, and there was the faint sense of something electric in the air, like a distant humming. Before them, the lake was smooth and still as warm glass. Dongwan was right; a storm wasn’t too far away.

“I’ll get the tent then. You get the chairs and things.” Eric glanced at their campsite. “Where’s Andy?”

“He was looking at rocks a minute ago.” Dongwan was already gathering up the camp chairs they’d left on the beach, folding them up with an almighty snap! before loading them onto the bed of their borrowed truck. “Should be around here somewhere.”

Eric took a quick scan of the nearby shoreline for a sign of his little brother. Andy knew well enough to stay away from the water without either him or Dongwan along, but he couldn’t help the niggling worry he always felt whenever the boy was out of sight.

“Hey, Dongwan, I don’t see him—” he started to say before being interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps on the rocky path that led away from the lakeside.

“Eric! Eric! Come quick!”

Dongwan’s head snapped up. “‘Hyung’! Eric hyung, Andy, jeez, how many times do we have to tell you?”

Andy appeared in front of them, hair matted down with sweat and his cheeks, full and plump like small moons, flushed pink and streaked with dirt. Although he ignored Dongwan to go straight to his brother, he quickly heeded their cousin’s advice.

“Eric hyung! You have to come quick!” He grabbed Eric’s hand and started pulling. He was surprisingly strong for a small eight-year-old.

“What’s the matter?” Eric crouched down to have a better look at his brother to make sure he was unharmed. “Are you okay? What did we tell you about wandering off?”

Andy swatted his prying hands. “There’s something you have to see. You have to help it!”

“Help what?”

“C’mon!”

He couldn’t really protest as Andy started pulling him towards the direction he had had just come from, the path from the lake that led to a small copse of trees and eventually into the nearby woods. Eric looked back at Dongwan who was collecting their towels and folding it into a neat pile.

“Hey! The tent, Eric!” Dongwan yelled in disbelief as he watched them stumble away. “Get back here!”

Mouthing an apology, Eric fished around in his pocket and tossed him the car keys so he could already start the car and sit in it in case it rained. Dongwan caught it with one hand but also with one finger raised.

“Andy, we have to pack,” Eric said, trying to wrench his hand back as he was hauled farther from the campsite and into the shade of the trees. He was surprised at how tight Andy’s grip was around his wrist, something he had never really expected from his gentle little brother. “Where are we going?”

“You’ve gotta help it first, please, hyung,” Andy said, his tone sounding almost desperate.

“Help what?”

“The bird…there’s a bird caught in a net and it can’t get out. I can’t get him out; I think I made it worse.” Andy’s voice trembled which meant that he was trying to hold his tears in. Eric sighed. All this drama for a bird. Dongwan is going to kill me. 

It wasn’t at all far, thankfully. The site was in a shaded glen fifty feet or so uphill from their campsite, and the bird was a rather large raven that had somehow gotten entangled in an abandoned fishing net. It cawed loudly upon their approach, its eyes like black fire and glinting menacingly at them. Andy immediately let go of his wrists to hold both his palms up.

“It’s okay, we’re not going to hurt you,” he cooed at the raven. “I brought my big brother. He’s going to help you get free.”

There was something in the way Andy wholeheartedly believed that he could solve anything that always made Eric feel simultaneously pleased and guilty. A warm burst of fondness bloomed in Eric’s chest and, despite his initial hesitation, he followed in Andy’s wake towards the trapped animal.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he made shushing sounds as he stepped forward, not wanting to frighten the poor creature more than it already was. He backed off a bit when the raven started batting its wings in a frenzy as soon as he produced his pocket knife, the flurry kicking up dust and small stones that had him pushing Andy to hide behind him. The bird was larger than Andy’s head! “It’s okay, I’m just going to use this to set you free, all right?”

He got on his knees a distance away from where the bird was and started sawing at the net, starting from the farthest edges. The fibers were thin and offered little resistance against the blade of his knife, but Eric could already see that it was going to be trouble once he got closer to the animal; because it had probably tried to get itself free, the raven had become haplessly entangled in it.

“You can save it, right, hyung?” Andy asked, staying obediently in the spot where Eric had pushed him towards.

“Shh. I’m working on it. Stay right there.” Sweat was already starting to bead on his brow. He hoped the raven was not going to panic. He didn’t want to accidentally injure it.

The knife blade started approaching the bird as Eric cut his way through the net. It struggled against its trappings, cawing frantically, and Eric considered using his palm to trap it to keep it still…

An unholy ululating suddenly exploded from nowhere accompanied by the furious batting of wings. Eric ducked in time to feel as something large and feathery swooped inches above his head, a horrible screeching sound following it.

“What the hell—!”

“Holy cow!” Andy shouted, pointing at a large barn owl that flew up into the trees with a speed Eric hadn’t known birds of that size were capable of. It disappeared as quickly as it had come, although Eric’s ears were still ringing from the sound it had produced. The raven by his feet, in response, had started cawing more hysterically.

“Andy, get into the clearing and cover your head!” Eric ordered, heart beating wildly against his chest. Did a bird just try to attack him?!

“But—!”

“Sunho, that’s an order. Now!”

He could hear as Andy scampered off to what was hopefully a safer distance. He looked at the space above their heads for the owl in case it attacked again, but there was no sign of it. Seizing his chance, he started slicing through the net more quickly, ignoring the increasingly louder croaking of the raven.

“Stay still, why don’t you,” he gritted his teeth as he gently held the raven down with his palm so he could safely cut the fibers that were wrapped around its wings. “I’m not trying to…OW!”

A talon or a beak had caught his palm and it started bleeding. Eric’s temper flared. Goddamn birds.

A screech again. The owl was back. Eric cut through the fibers faster, mindful of the raven’s moving parts. Wing, head, tail, talon, he maneuvered his knife quickly past them and ripped with his fingers the ones that he could quickly tear. Slowly the raven got disentangled, although the owl tried two more times to claw at his head.

“Argh!” he shouted as he snipped at the last fiber and immediately started scooting away. The raven was still cawing like crazy and once the weight of Eric’s palm was off it, it immediately started flapping its wings once more.

“It’s okay,” Eric pulled Andy, who was under an oak a few feet away with his hands on his head, up and got him on his feet, “let’s go before that crazy owl attacks us again. Or that other crazy bird decides we’re dinner.”

“Is it okay? Hyung, is it okay?” Andy tried to look past him. “You didn’t hurt it, did you?”

This kid. Eric shook his head in disbelief. “I’m the one bleeding here and you’re concerned for the bird? C’mon, get up. Let’s get out of here…”

He did one last check on his brother to make sure he was unharmed and was getting back on his feet to lead Andy away when he heard it: voices in the glen, so soft he thought he had misheard first, but no, there—

“Junjin, are you all right? What in Danu’s name were you thinking?!”

Perplexed, Eric turned his head back towards the glen so suddenly it made his head spin, but the clearing was empty, save for the remains of the fishing net, its shredded fibers glistening like tinsel under the weak afternoon sunlight. Despite the raven having thrashed so much, it hadn’t even left a single feather. The owl had also seemed to disappear. Silence had suddenly swallowed the area whole, so sudden and deep that Eric felt as though he had gone temporarily deaf.

“He’s gone!” Andy said, dismayed, his voice shattering the stillness. “Where did he go? Eric hyung, where did he go?” Eric thought for a second if he had also been referring to the voices he’d just heard. He decided against the notion when he realized Andy seemed more disappointed than frightened.

The wind picked up, gusting through the path they had taken with a low howl. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

“C’mon, Deedee, up we get,” Eric hefted Andy into his arms, figuring it was a much faster way of getting out of there. “I’d rather not be pecked to death in case they come back.”

It’s nothing. It’s likely nothing. He held Andy close to him and started walking back towards the campsite. Get a grip.

Another wind blew past, bringing with it the charged scent of a late summer storm, and this time Eric swore he could hear the faint tinkling of bells.


tbc


Author's Notes:
Thank you for reading! Love it? Hate it? Please comment if you're interested in this story! :)