Lay's letter, because the font is probably too hindering to read.

Luhan shifted. His entire body protested by means of creaking, joints cracking and muscles straining after long days of disuse. The cobwebs of dreams still clung wispily to his senses, dousing his every motion in a thick layer of resistance as he tried and tried again and again to sit up. His vision was filtered through what looked like clouds and even the meagre amount of light slipping in gently through the windows created a biting ache in the middle of his head from eyes that had become too used to darkness.

Deciding it was for the best, he flopped down back onto the bed and closed his eyes. His antlers knocked against the headboard as he did so, a dull, thick, woody sound pulsing through his brain, making him a little more alert.

The covers rustled as his hand slipped across the surface. The blankets felt soft under his fingertips that still tingled from waking and the mattress gave off a scented, dry, scratchy feeling that was deliciously rough against his sensitive nerves. Luhan inhaled deeply. Straw. A straw mattress. That meant that he was in the bed of someone well off. Someone like...

Luhan’s eyes shot open and he let out a mangled cry. His throat was stiff and parched and his first instinct was to choke. He rolled off the bed as he violently did so, knocking down the bedside table and a very nice vase full of deep blue roses that shone turquoise in a certain light.

Xiumin’s flowers.

The water from the vase branched out from the initial puddle and seeped into the tiniest cracks in the wooden floor. Luhan groaned in frustration and banged the floor with his fist. Xiumin would murder him if his boards rotted.

“Luhan! You’re awake!” Footsteps came around the corner outside, muffled and frantic. “Luhan! Lu-gah!” There was a loud thud and the person shouting his name paused for several tense seconds. Pained groans travelled around to his ears and Luhan soon deduced that whoever was coming in wouldn’t be much of a threat.

There was a rushed scuffle and several more bangs and thuds before someone came dashing into the room. There was a blossoming pink-red spot right above his left eyebrow, some areas of his clothes looked recently torn, and there were scratches all up his unpolished antlers.

“Baekhyun?”

***

After Luhan had drunk several glasses of water (from the jug on his other bedside table) and Baekhyun had brought in freshly cut fruits on a plate, Baekhyun excitedly filled in Luhan on what had been happening.

Apparently, Luhan had been sleeping for nearly a week; a mini-coma. Baekhyun had been so worried if Luhan would ever wake up but now he had so everything was ok. Xiumin took in Luhan and the others and looked after them all this while. Baekhyun rambled on, in that way he always did, while Luhan bit into a pear from Xiumin’s backyard, half-listening.

Baekhyun had been by his side for as long as he could remember and was the closest thing he had to a brother. Their mothers had been the best of friends, so Luhan often found himself being stuck with Baekhyun as their mothers went off to do womanly things. At first, he didn’t like the younger fawn, who was a little too clingy and took a little too long to learn how to walk. He tried to run away from him many times, but they always ended up together no matter what. After a while, Luhan gave up and simply let baby Baekhyun crawl all over him.

They grew up, and Baekhyun was always there for Luhan, and Luhan for Baekhyun (even though Luhan had always disliked the fact that Baekhyun always took so little care of his antlers). Through each other’s first scraped knees, first antlers, but the best part of their relationship was that they were each other’s first love. It was beautiful and unprecedented in anything known to their kind, and their families all hugged them and cried and welcomed the new couple in every way. For the first few months, they were in a living fairytale, head over heels for each other, but it never really worked out in the end and their split was a happy one, one for the best.

Luhan chuckled when Baekhyun told a completely unrelated joke and chucked the pear core at his head. It bounced off his forehead and stabbed itself onto a new pair of antlers that had just appeared in the open doorway.

Luhan shrieked and fell off the bed.

***

Now both Baekhyun and Luhan had matching bruises above their eyebrows. Beautiful purple circles that would surely swell and obstruct their vision a little. Luhan hissed as Xiumin threw him a balled, wet cloth that hit him smack in the middle of his forehead.

“Is this water in my floorboards? Damnit, you knocked over the vase.” Xiumin picked up the vase and the flowers and set it nicely again on the table.

“Sorry.” Luhan whined cutely as he dabbed the pulsing spot with the cold fabric.

“Did you read Lay’s letter? He said it was important.” Xiumin flicked a damp wad of paper through the air to Luhan’s head, successfully jabbing the edge into the same spot the cloth hit.

Luhan exaggeratedly gasped and collapsed backwards so that he was lying on Baekhyun’s thigh. The letter plastered itself to his face and he made a face, peeling it off.

“Ew, vase water. No, wait, ! The ink! Ah! Xiumin! Help!”

Luhan flailed desperately as he tumbled off the bed yet again. This time, he chose to stay there while he tore the sealed top of the letter open. He turned the envelope upside down, trying to shake out the letter which stuck a little to the envelope because of the water. Blackened water dripped from the letter and formed another small dark puddle on the wood floor.

“It’s smudged!” Luhan cried out. Xiumin sighed exasperatedly and rolled his eyes.

Luhan carefully extracted the letter from its envelope and peeled apart each surface to unfold it entirely. The bottom of the letter was completely smudged and unreadable, but the top had somehow been saved. Luhan held it like it was a pure gold sheet and began to read.

Luhan let out a high-pitched ‘what’ and scrambled to his feet. He held the paper up to the light, holding it this way and that in futile hope of trying to see the water-stained words. He had to pass on a message to the knight? But what was the message?

************

ohgod formatting the image into the text was horrible I hope it showed up ok if not I'm sorry 

yey past baekhan i have no idea where that came from wow 

I hope this chapter was good I'm trying to get the plot to progress so I can get to the good stuff /cackles I can't wait

Thanks for subscribing and commenting!