Discovery.
Bloodied Antlers.Sehun leaned forward on his black horse and urged it to go faster by squeezing its sides gently with his armoured ankles. Tao wasn’t far behind, on his own black and white stallion. The rest of the army were waiting just outside the border of the forest, awaiting orders by means of the gunshot of Tao’s flintlock revolver.
Quite honestly, Sehun had no idea where he was heading. He couldn’t rely on a map; bushes and shrubs grew everyday and obstructed paths that had been there just a few days ago. He didn’t like the idea of setting up traps in order to catch the deer nymphs, they were probably too clever for them anyway. And besides, they were half-human. The only thing he could do was to set up camp in some damp moss hole and wait for them to reveal themselves.
And so, with Tao keeping a vigilant lookout by his side, he did. For a whole week, they mapped out places where the tallest and sturdiest trees were, where there were the most carvings left in the bark by the nymphs. They tracked all the special unique flowers that the nymphs were rumoured to leave behind wherever they stepped, the head-height scratches on the tree bark where they had sharpened their antlers, much like real deer.
Then there were the flowers. There was no lack of the beautiful flowers. Some were large and vibrant, some small, but left a strong, lingering fragrance in the air. Nearly all of them were in orderly lines, limited to one part of the forest, but there was that one flower that kept on appearing wherever they went, no matter the place. It was unruly, and seemed almost wild, but it stood out from the rest of the forest too much. It was too perfect, too unique, too fragile to exist in a forest. Rather, it seemed content to spread out all over the place, withering within a day and growing again in another place.
It seemed to follow wherever Sehun and Tao went. Or more accurately, the nymph leaving the blossoms followed them wherever they went. They would be squatting behind another bush under the cover of night, observing their position from the stars and writing it down on their worn map by means of a stubby pencil and a single candle, and then they would hear a rustle in the bushes behind them, or Tao would see a dark shape fleeing to another tree further away. Sehun never got a glimpse of whatever was following them. He was always too slow to look up whenever Tao urgently shook him and pointed into the shadows, but whenever they went to investigate, there would be a trail of pristine bright red and white camellia buds sprouting as they watched, then shrivelling before they got the chance to follow the track back to its owner.
It looked like the nymphs could control when they wanted their flowers to die, and when to bloom.
But then, why hadn't the nymph killed off the flowers before they saw them?
***
"Luhan, come on, stop playing with them like this. What if you really get discovered?" Kris tugged Luhan's arm gently. Luhan shushed Kris and slapped his hands away with his free hand.
"What's life without a little risk? Honestly, Kris, if I didn't know you better I'd have thought you were a rabbit nymph, instead of one of the Dragon people." Luhan slapped Kris's bare shoulder teasingly. "Loosen up."
Kris winced at the stinging sensation on his shoulder, still not quite used to Luhan's outgoing and daring personality. As the younger of two princes, he'd been brought up to listen to what everyone else had to say, to let the guards defend him and not to use fire unless absolutely necessary. He'd always been favoured by the King, since his brother, Chanyeol, had always been the louder, much more skilled risk-taker. His father had the conception that Kris needed to be protected, and he was partly correct. After all, at the end of the day, Kris was the one who preferred to sit down beside a fireplace with a cup of warm tea at his left, some toast on his right, and a nice long book in front of him.
Chanyeol would be the one to disrupt Kris and burn his book.
It made sense, then, that he would be feeling uncomfortable with engaging a couple of humans in an extremely dangerous situation. He didn't approve at all of the way Luhan would purposely shake the nearby bushes to get their attention, of the way he purposely left his trail lingering before shrinking the buds down, the way he purposely left his flowers all over the place wherever they went.
But then, he expected nothing less when Chanyeol had clapped him on the back as he sat in his favourite chair beside his favourite fireplace, reading his favourite book, and told him to accompany Luhan to observe the humans after they had been 'discovered'. 'It'll do you good!'' He had exclaimed while playing with the fire in the hearth, twisting it into an exact replica of Kris's face, which then morphed into Chanyeol's.
Kris shrunk his tall frame back a little as the two humans started to near them, poking the bushes with their weird metal weapons. He pulled Luhan's arm again. "We should go, now."
The deer nymph seemed to be deaf to Kris's words; instead, he kept on staring at the pair as they kept up a friendly chatter.
Kris glanced at them again; he'd never actually had a good look at them, since he'd been too scared. But looking closer at them, he could tell why Luhan seemed so fascinated with them. The one who was commanding everything, the one in silver, held an aura of importance that commanded everyone's attention immediately. But he looked too young though, barely twenty, yet bearing the battle scars of a veteran.
The one in black appeared to be his bodyguard. He looked scary whenever he wasn't smiling or laughing, an observance that Kris had made through the nights of monitoring the humans. Still, Kris wouldn't like to cross paths with him, ever. They were probably total opposites, anyway.
Kris tore his gaze away quickly, afraid that he would be noticed. That would be disastrous. Who knew what the humans wanted with them.
"Luhan, come on." Kris pleaded as the two humans started attacking the shrub about two metres away.
Luhan let out a noise of frustration and snapped his head back to Kris in irritation. "Will you stop it? I know when to go, ok? Trust me, I have experience in these things. They're gonna poke the next bush, be frustrated that there's nothing there, then leave. If they discover us, we run? What's so difficult about that? Just run! Are you always this dense?" Luhan growled.
They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds. Luhan was already beginning to regret his words, seeing tears starting to moisten the Dragon Prince's eyes.
"Oh my God, Kris- I'm- I'm so-"
Then, their bush rustled.
Everything happened so quickly. One second, Luhan was raching out for Kris's large hands to apologise, then someone was grabbing his antlers, and he could hear Kris's surprised yell, and the world was upside down and his antlers, his precious antlers, they hurt so much. He felt his body roughly leaving the safety of the bush, the branches ripping at his exposed skin and thorns scratching his feet.
And then everything stopped. He was laying on his back, staring up at the blue sky. Black doom ate away at his vision, coupled with the feeling that his antlers were tearing their way out of his skull, and his feet and legs were scratched bloody, he could feel the crimson red liquid leaking out and staining his flowers. He gasped for air as a boot landed on his chest and pinned him to the ground.
A face filled his vision, but it wasn't the face from before. This face didn't emanate anything which Luhan felt deserved respect. Rather, it looked twisted, mean, and his eyes glittered with what looked like greed.
"Got you."
************
Haha they finally meet muahaha
Things will be picking up from here :D I can't wait to write it tbh.
Also, I wanted to make Kris a little less...scary, since that's how he's usually portrayed in most fanfics. So he'll more more docile in here ^__^
Thanks for reading and commenting!
((happy kaisoo day everyone hehe))
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