Gyerim Forest
The Lonely Prince and The Thief
The ship came down hard, the noise loud as the ship scraped against the ground; crates, objects, broken wood, debris in general flying every where. Chansung was rolling along with all of this, the ship coming to a painful halt after what felt like a lifetime, trees crashing to the ground around it with loud echoing noises that rang through the entire forest. Everything was ringing by the time his body stopped moving, he had some how gotten thrown off the ship at the last minute, his whole being lucky enough to be alive as he had gotten entangled with a few soft objects and the soft mushy ground below that broke his landing when he came off the ship. Thankfully he had lost his dagger somewhere a long the rolling and it hadn’t stabbed him anywhere… He still felt paralyzed though, his body in a state of shock as he lay upon the ground, deep breathing to make sure that he WAS still breathing.
After a long moment, the ringing had stopped; Chansung could only hear his own breathing now, the silence around almost deadly. He managed to lift his head, though a little painful, he was able to look around, his surrounds covered with different parts of the ship that had just been in the air moments ago.
‘Ahhh, .’
Chansung cursed to himself, using what strength he could find to lift himself off the ground and onto his feet. The place was a disaster, great amounts of damage as far as Chansung could see. Running shaky fingers through his hair, Chansung tried to recollect his thoughts. The ship had crashed, those s who had boarded the ship were probably the ones to blame and now he had no ING idea whether or not Junsu or Wooyoung were even okay. They could be squashed underneath the ship for all he knew! Cursing himself mentally again, he kicked at the ground with a frustrated sigh, his hands being placed on his aching hips. Could this whole thing get any worse?
‘I need to look for them at least…’
Chansung mumbled to himself, about to turn back towards the wrecked ship when something caught his attention. The man he had been fighting with, JR was it? Lay on the ground not to far where he himself had gotten up. Was he alive, not that Chansung honestly cared… But he strolled over to the man any ways, kneeling beside him. He could hear a faint breathing, he was still alive, but he looked pretty badly beat up, probably something broken some where. Chansung groaning yet again at the situation, rolled his head back before moving around so that he was in front of the man, his arms being grabbed, body being hoisted up onto Chansung’s back. He didn’t have the heart to leave him there, even if it was a possibility that he might die. Making sure the man was secure on his back, Chansung turned again towards the ship and set out in the direction he thought maybe he could find someone he knew… Alive.
He prayed that Junsu was alive, hell he prayed that at least someone was okay and not buried beneath this ship dead. It was hard to maneuver through the rubble that lay on the ground, though the man on his back small in stature, he was still pretty hard to carry when you were looking for something. He didn’t want to set him down though, not with random spouts of fire and rugged areas that could break at any moment. He didn’t like the man, but fate wanted him alive apparently and Chansung wasn’t going to let fate change it’s mind.
‘Heeeey, can anyone hear me?’
Chansung shouted, his voice echoing, also slightly being swallowed by the crackling of the small fires. Chansung frowned slightly, a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek as silence answered his call. This wasn’t turning out very well at all. He didn’t want anyone to be dead, it just couldn’t have happened… He had already had one death in his life and to have a whole lot more added to his list. Chansung felt his body aching now, pain washing over him as he bit down on his lower, his body carefully lowering itself to the ground, the pain slowly easing, trying to pass through.
‘What the hell are you doing…’
A low, soft voice asked, it almost sounded like Chansung could have been hearing it within his own mind, but when the body on his back took in a ragged breath, he knew exactly who it was.
‘Trying to find my friends…’
He spoke, the pain now only a dull ache as he rose again to his feet.
‘I figured that much… I mean why are you helping me?’
JR asked, a unpleasant cough being heard, Chansung shuddered, but adjusted the man on his back, he would have to find some where to rest soon, he didn’t think his body would be able to handle being up and about for too long, but he also needed to find someone, anyone, but preferably Junsu.
‘I’m helping you, well because if it was destined for you to die… You would be dead already. But something, or someone wants you alive, so I’m not going to go against them.’
He replied, feeling JR give a faint chuckle, Chansung rolled his eyes.
‘Just shut up and take it. Plus with how bad you sound you shouldn’t be talking in the first place, save that energy.’
He retorted, JR remaining silent now, his chest heaving up and down against Chansung’s back. Chansung continued on through a few more piles of rubble, occasionally kicking over the piles in hope to find something that could maybe lead to his friends…
‘You are getting fatigued…’
JR spoke again, his small voice startling Chansung, his head hanging as he stopped, looking around where he stood. He still hadn’t found any of his friends. Did that mean they had gotten thrown off the ship too?
‘You should stop and take a break.’
‘And you should really shut the up right now, just because I saved you doesn’t mean you are out of hot water…’
Chansung growled, though JR was right, he could feel that same pain slowly creeping up on him again… And what if this time he couldn’t handle it. JR was already hurt pretty badly, if he dropped him. Chansung closed his eyes for a long moment, taking in a deep breath before opening his eyes again. He needed to sit down whether he liked it or not, plus he never took the time to exactly check to make sure his own wounds weren’t really that bad.
‘Alright, we’ll take a break…’
Chansung replied, JR silent again as Chansung shuffled them through the debris of the ship over to a well shaded area of the woods nearby. Managing to make a makeshift bed out of leaves and grass; laying JR down, Chansung now began examining his own body, a good few bruises and scratches all over his body, but he wasn’t sure why that pain from earlier had shaken his so bad, maybe the shock and impact of the ground had just caught up to him at the moment. Resting back against a nearby tree Chansung leaned his head back against it.
‘This is not getting anything accomplished… Stupid ing ship…’
Chansung grumbled, ignoring a snort from JR who lay on the ground with his eyes closed. Chansung glared daggers in the man’s direction, but gave up seeing as the man was pretty badly injured and it wasn’t like he could do anything now.
‘If you had just surrendered the prince, the ship probably wouldn’t have gone down…’
JR spoke, this time Chansung snorting,
‘If you s hadn’t of shot the ship in the first place it would still be in the air!’
Chansung retorted, smirking when JR frowned, Chansung knew what he said was right, JR was just trying to protect those people he worked with.
‘I guess you are right…’
JR replied, his eyes opening, they seemed deep, young, but old for his age, this man couldn’t be no older than eighteen now that he thought about it.
‘You look so young, why are you working for a bunch of thugs?’
Chansung asked, JR looking in his direction, his lip twitching, it was obvious he didn’t like them being called thugs.
‘The one that should be referred to thugs should be you petty peasants.’
JR responded, apparently not going into detail as to why he was working for them, Chansung shaking his head back and forth, his arms crossing over his chest.
‘You’re probably about as much as a peasant as I am, the only thing protecting you probably is working for that stupid man.’
Chansung spat, JR furrowing his eye brows, opening his mouth again to argue, but was only silenced when he winced; teeth gritting together hard as he grasped at his dirty shirt.
‘Stop arguing right now and just rest.’
Chansung snarled, his own eyes closing again as he sighed, sitting here made him realize just how tired he was…
‘Why did you kidnap the prince? What are you planning to do with him.’
JR asked now, Chansung sighing louder, this kid sure did talk a lot when he was injured.
‘Because I was told to… We are taking him to Busan like he asked.’
Chansung spoke, not bothering to open his eyes to see JR’s reaction, it probably wasn’t much of one anyways.
‘He asked you too? You mean Prince Junsu wanted to go?’
JR asked, Chansung nodding his head,
‘Yup, what was supposed to be a kidnapping, turned none other than a chauffer trip.’
Chansung answered, JR shifting where he lay. It got silent after that, the wind being the only thing heard, and the slight crackle of what little fires remained on the ship. Chansung carefully opened his eyes again to reveal a grayish sky. Was it supposed to rain? Rain would only make things worse and harder to find anyone.
‘Damnit June… I need to find you…’
--
‘Owwwwwwwww.’
A small feminine voice squeaked, a pile of rubble twitching, two hands suddenly appearing out of no where.
‘Just give me a moment, it feels like I can just push this all away and we can be out of here…’
A male voice spoke now, the two hands feeling around on the rubble before finally pushing it off, Taecyeon and Min appearing once the dust vanished. Min coughed loudly a few times but got the rest of the debris off of hers and Taecyeon’s body. Taecyeon sneezed himself from all the dust, his hands blindly feeling around him, pushing off any type of weight that was on him.
‘Sorry Taecyeon, I’m free now, let me help you.’
Min responded, pulling away a few things Taecyeon missed before reaching out, grabbing his hand in hers and guiding him to a safer area to walk. Taecyeon kept his head lowered, his ears trying to listen out for anything different. What with his vision gone, his ears and smell were probably the next best thing he had.
‘We’re in a forest?’
Taecyeon asked, hearing the rustling of leaves as Min lead him to where ever they were headed to. He could smell the damped trees and grass around him as well. Min gripped his hand firmly now, causing him to raise his head.
‘A rather dangerous forest…’
Min replied, Taecyeon’s shoulders stiffening, allowing Min to turn him around and head in a different direction.
‘It’s not good to wander around, we should just stick to an open area near the ship, we should be okay then.’
Min stated, Taecyeon nodding his head up and down, unsure exactly what was so dangerous about this forest in particular, weren’t most forests dangerous in general? Finally coming to a halt, Taecyeon allowed the question to pass through his lips, unsure of Min’s facial expression, to be honest he didn’t even have a clue what this girl looked like, he remained in the dark and allowed the girl time to answer.
‘Gyerim Forest… We’re probably dead center in the middle of it judging on our position, but I’m not so sure… Though it’s only a small woodland in Gyeongju, there have been many rumors of a dangerous tribe that lives out here… One that has supposedly killed over hundreds of people who ever dared tried walking through it.’
Min explained, Taecyeon resisting the urge to raise an eye brow, he didn’t feel like being in pain. A rumor of a tribe killing a bunch of people? Seemed a little far fetched in Taecyeon’s mind; a frown forming on his face now, Min had finally stopped for a moment, allowing the two to sit down and catch there breath, not that Taecyeon was tired, but his face was beginning to burn again and he also needed time to think a little more.
‘That just doesn’t seem likely… I’ve read plenty of books about this forest, seen pictures, and none of them talk about a tribe that supposedly lives out here in the wild and kills people… What’s your source?’
Taecyeon asked, Min snorting as she moved around, he wasn’t sure what she was doing, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know.
‘Not everything is going to be recorded by a stupid book. When you’re a traveler such as me, you learn things that books would never be able to teach you. And sure there are some writers who have traveled, but even those travelers might not look into everything. True travelers never reveal their secret!’
Min stated, Taecyeon holding back a sudden urge to laugh, it was interesting to hear such a thing come from a female such as her.
‘You make no sense.’
Taecyeon responded, earning a tap on the shoulder, his large body faltering for a moment, but he managed to keep himself up right, his lips puckering as he looked in what he hoped was Min’s direction.
‘You’ll never understand anything from where you are coming from.’
Min explained, Taecyeon shrugging his shoulders, brushing off the topic and bringing up another.
‘Did you get hurt anywhere?’
He asked now, hearing Min huff and wince through her teeth,
‘Just a scratch on my hip, other than that my body surprisingly didn’t get hurt that much. And besides your obvious wounds, you’re okay too.’
She spoke, scooting next to Taecyeon now, her leg pressing to his, showing him that she was there, her hands reaching up to touch his head. Luckily it didn’t hurt to bad, a dull ache coming over him as he tried to hold back his own wince of pain.
‘I just need to double check the damage on your eyes… Maybe there is a stream nearby that we can use to clean up some of this blood on you… And maybe sooth your arm, is it in any pain?’
She asked, and he was sure she was touching his arm, but he couldn’t feel it, there was no pain to feel in it. He was sure this would terrify just about any normal person, but Taecyeon wasn’t any normal person… He knew that if he were to freak out about the situation, then things would only get worse, how he looked at it, he could still move and feel with his hand so there was not much else he could do.
‘I can’t feel it.’
He replied, Min’s fingers again back to his head, unraveling the bandages around his eyes, he knew he still couldn’t open them, the crusted blood probably wouldn’t allow it.
‘I thought so… Some good news though, once we wash away some of this blood, you should be able to open your eyes again, the scratches didn’t go to deep so your eyes won’t be affected, like I said earlier, you’ll just have a pretty big awkward scar.’
Min spoke, Taecyeon hearing the joy in her voice, it was funny how she was so happy, it was funny how unusually calm he was in the situation… Well he was calm until he would end up find Chansung and his idiot friend. It was there fault the prince may very well be hurt some where without him being there to protect him.
‘Are you angry at something? And I’m rewrapping this so no bacteria will get into the wound and infect them. Normally you would need to let it air out, but this place just gives me bad feelings.’
Min instructed, already rewrapping the bandages around his eyes, thankfully she didn’t make them to tight… Was he that easy to read right now? He couldn’t do many facial expressions so how could she tell?
‘This whole situation.’
He managed after a minute, his teeth gritting together out of frustration; the wounds on his face stinging from the tense muscles. He had to relax them after a minute,
‘I couldn’t protect Junsu probably, now he could be out there dead for all I know. And yet all I can do is sit here waddling in misery because I can’t even see at the moment!’
Taecyeon felt himself shouting now, his fist coming in contact with the ground, his palm hurting from the pain his nails were dealing. Now he felt a hand being placed on his fist, soft and warm; he let his hand relax.
‘You under estimate Chansung and Wooyoung, Taecyeon. These two men may have not been trained by any royals, or even taught by the greatest scholars in the world, but those two mind’s are so strong that they could probably over power any man that get’s in there way. And plus the guy they work for, or did work for was a complete and hard headed!’
Min laughed, Taecyeon wanting to rolling his eyes, but held back the urge, the female continuing,
‘But what I’m trying to say is, those two know how to protect and I’m sure they would use all their skills to and such to protect June.’
Min finished with his bandages finally, Taecyeon relaxing back on the ground, uncaring about the cold damp feeling that was seeping through his clothing. He let him mind think about exactly what Min had been telling him. Trusting Chansung and Wooyoung… Taecyeon wanted to go insane!! There was no way in hell he would trust such petty thieves, but what else was he supposed to do? Junsu was out there with one of them, hopefully… Maybe, all he could do was trust them.
‘Hey, Taecyeon. Let’s go find the river that should be near by, so we can wash away all that dried up blood!’
Min announced, apparently already up and grabbing Taecyeon, pulling him off the ground, even though he honestly didn’t want to at the moment, he was enjoying the time to rest.
--
He felt something tugging at his arm, his vision blurry so he didn’t exactly know what, he couldn’t really breath either so that didn’t help much. Something that he was sure, was water, it surrounded his entire body and made all sort of movement and breathing practically impossible. Though he wasn’t sure why? Had it been the impact of the ship crashing that made his body paralyzed or something? No, he could feel his fingers and his arms, he could move them. Then was it the shock? He wasn’t sure, maybe. But he knew something was trying to pull him up, and it eventually did, his body being dragged out from the water’s depths, his lungs being filled with fresh air, a coughing fit getting rid of the water that had filled them. Junsu lifted his head, the weight feeling heavy as water still blurred his vision, but he could tell who was pulling him out of the water at least.
‘I did not plan to be landing in water…’
Wooyoung huffed, finally getting Junsu all the way out of the water, his hands resting on his shoulder, his own body soaked. His head was hung low and the sheet they had used to get off the ship and drift weirdly to the ground was wrapped around his waist. Junsu coughed again, managing to push himself up on his elbows.
‘You mean we survived?
Junsu asked, Wooyoung nodding his head, wringing the water out of his clothing, fingers running through soaked hair. Junsu immediately did the same thing, the air flowing through him properly again, his clothes being rung out, hands shaking the water out of his hair, he was just about to start working on the hem of his pants when he heard Wooyoung groan loudly.
‘Awww man, your arms bleeding!’
He groaned, Junsu furrowing his eye brows, looking down at his arm… Sure enough, blood seeped from underneath his shirt, funny how it really didn’t have any pain, it couldn’t have been to bad, though there was blood, it didn’t seem like much, he shrugged his shoulders.
‘I’ll live.’
Junsu shrugged, Wooyoung raising an eyebrow, but managed a laugh,
‘Interesting to hear coming from a prince, most would probably be crying about how they were dying.’
Wooyoung spoke, slicking his hair back before flicking it forward, Junsu smiling slightly,
‘Well, traveling with a thief teaches you a lot of things you would think you already knew.’
Junsu replied, rolling up his sleeve to look at the damage done to his arm. It was like he suspected, nothing heavy, just a small scratch that was bleeding a lot. Looking down at his already tattered shirt, Junsu gripped a torn edge and ripped off a good size piece. Wrapping it around his wounded arm his arms fell by his side, his shoulder that had recently started to feel better dully aching. He looked in Wooyoung’s direction, he felt exhausted now;
‘What are we supposed to do now? How are we supposed to find the others? We don’t even know where the ship crashed…’
Junsu responded, Wooyoung sighing a loud, leaning back using his arms to support his body,
‘I know where the ship crashed. We can head over there as soon as possible, but we need to take a break for a moment, our body’s went into shock when hitting that water, we may seem fine now, but I don’t want to risk getting up and hurting ourselves…’
Wooyoung implied, Junsu frowning, but he had to agree, remembering the medical books he had read in the castles library, even after the incident was over, the person could still be in shock and not really even know it.
‘Okay then, I guess we are stuck here… Maybe Chansung or Taecyeon will be smart enough to know there is a river near by, and they could come to us.’
Junsu spoke, his mind being as positive about the situation as it could be, the fact that he had seen Chansung practically rolling down the deck of the ship, and had left Taecyeon with serious wounds, it was hard being optimistic at the moment, but sadly that was all he could do. And Wooyoung seemed to want to keep it that way, his head nodding up and down.
‘Min knows a lot about the world and places, I’m sure this forest is something she knows about as well, so she’ll probably be the first person we see.’
Wooyoung added, Junsu leaning back on his own arms, his eyes staring up at the sky through the trees, the sun wasn’t exactly shining, light fluffy, dark grey clouds blocking even the blue sky.
‘It’s going to rain…’
Junsu said, looking back down at Wooyoung, who was doing the exact same thing he was, though his face was sour.
‘Great, we’ll have to find some sort of shelter soon…’
Wooyoung replied, also looking down; today just didn’t seem like the best day for any of them. If only things could have gone smoother….
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