He felt as if the dying evening sun was taking away with her what little energy he had left. After riding for 15 days and 14 nights his whole body was stiff and painful beyond belief-even the fairest elf was subject to humane weaknesses under extreme conditions. Even the usually  hyper Luhan was getting antsy and chanyeol was tripping over his own feet more than usual whenever they stopped for bathroom breaks.

But kris kept guiding them through the quite town until the swinging board of the “Angel-Fire” came into view. Getting to know the natives was a priority. Typical of the elfish town the board of the pub was humming in tune to the breeze. He wanted to sag in relief but he was the leader and leaders were not allowed to show weakness, he thought as he straightened himself.

“I know you are thinking right now that you can’t relax because you are a leader” Luhan says, suddenly sidling up to kris and nearly making him -plant on the dirty ground. “but there’s nobody but me and chanchan around to see to you and we already know how lame you are.”

“dammit Luhan you don’t sneak up on people who are riding like that!”

“I thought as leader you were supposed to be constantly vigilant and aware?”

Kris refuses to grace that stupid comment with a reply and instead urges Sehun forward into a fast trot towards the stable of the pub. Sehun whinnies at this like the lazy brat he is and kris thinks of the bad things he could have done in life to deserve this. First he has to get uprooted from his own division where he had been perfectly fine following Suho’s lead and bossing around Xiumin and the others. And then he gets to know that he is replacing the leader of the troops in the opposite side of the kingdom and that out of the 100 elite trained warriors at disposal he gets stuck with Chanyeol and Luhan as his second and third-in-command.  Somebody somewhere really, really hated his existence.

As if to prove his point Sehun , who was tired and cranky from the long journey, came to an abrupt stop making sure to make it a jerky halt. Just enough to startle the spaced-out kris off his back and on to the hard dirt as gracefully as a new born calf. Clutching his aching -cheeks kris glared up at Sehun who just tossed his colourful mane imperiously and trotted away to dip his head into a water trough.

A sound akin to a cat being gutted sounded from above and kris knew without even looking over that it was chanyeol trying to control his freaky laughter. Kris sent a silent call to the heavens asking for Chanyeol slow, painful demise as he watched Luhan slid gracefully down, making at exaggerated bow at his perfect dismount.

“it’s ok, leader, at least nobody else saw yo-oh, on seconds thought…….”he trailed off as he looked towards the back door of the pub that opened to the stable.

Kris’ head whipped around fast to see who has witnessed his disgraceful entrance to the city and he sees a man standing at the door silently watching them, half shrouded in the black shadows of the fast-falling night.

“who are you?” he asks as he scrambles to his feet, bounces off the side of luhan’s mare back to the ground and then manages to climb to his own feet again as if nothing happened.

The person at the door seems to take no offense at his rude question instead thinking for a moment before hesitantly saying “I’m……….the bartender?”

“then what are you doing here instead of working at the bar?” kris asks as he dusts himself off imperiously while literally screaming inside his head THANK YOU THANK YOU ITS NOT ONE OF MY NEW WARRIORS.

“I…..I think I came out here for something…but I don’t really remember what it is.”

Kris turns to share a “what the actual ” look with Chanyeol who has come to stand next to him but Luhan merely brushes past them to bow to the bartender.

“Le suilon!” I greet you he says his melodious voice lilting with the soft Sindarin sounds. “forgive our leader for his-his abrupt manner, he is quite over-tired from our journey.”

“in polite talk that means sorry for his utter stupidity,  he can’t help but be an sometimes” Chanyeol translates in kris’ ear and kris stomps on chanyeol’s big foot. He stomps it hard.

Chanyeol’s little whelp is covered by  the strangers reply. “Mae l'ovannen! Le nathlam hí ! why don’t you come inside. Perhaps a drink and a warm bed to rest will put your…er…leader in a more hospitable mood?” kris can almost hear the impish grin that accompanies those words even though he can’t see it well.

“that means yes I know he is an , I feel for you guys, let me try to mellow the bear so that you guys can have a moment’s peace” Chanyeol jumps away from kris’ foot so kris simply reaches out and smacks the back of his head instead.

The wounded puppy joins Luhan at the door, who disappears inside with the strange bartender without even a glance back.

“what is life?” kris asks Sehun, who eyes him back dispassionately. By the time he finishes tying up the horses and making sure they have enough food and water for night and walks in the pub is already full-bustling with snatches of music, and laughter and constant chatter.  When there are non-elves around they automatically become a more refined bunch, but right now they are free to be themselves after a day of hard work.

 It’s beautiful, kris thinks, how the goblets sing when they clang on the table,  how a girl perched on the edge of a chair is wrapping her long, corn-coloured tresses around and around the forearm of a laughing boy, how the elves are dancing in the spaces between the tables their feet barely touching the ground. But it’s still not home. He suddenly misses the table that would have been filled with his friends back home- Xiumin trying to stop a music-drunk Chanyeol from proposing to the painting of a horse on the wall, Dara’s boisterous laughter as she lounges in her chair in men’s pants finding new ways to make fun of kris with luhan, Minho sitting calmly surrounded by groups of giggling girls and Suho who always silently points to the seat next to him and pushes a drink towards him.

Things that made it home for him so effortlessly, things that he never stopped to think about twice before makes the burning emptiness inside him felt suddenly and he hasn’t even started his life here yet. 

Forgetting his previous plans of ‘getting to know the natives’ he turns to go back out to have a moment to himself, but finds himself unable to move. He blinks confusedly and looks down. And down. And down. Oh. There’s a tiny person clinging to his body, his head barely reaching his middle , eyes narrowed into half moons and twinkling brightly up at him.

Kris opens and closes his mouth a few times and wonders how ok it would be to take the stranger clinging to him and hurl him out of the door. He is not called the “Dragon” for nothing -  he does not take kindly to people applying themselves to him like this. The little elf has shiny purple hair and mischief all over his face when he grins widely at kris and says “Gi suilon!” hik.”aren’t you a little too tall?” hik. “but tall looks very cute on you.”hik.

That’s it kris thinks as he takes the little one by the back of his collar- nobody gets to invade his personal space, greet him so informally, hiccup over him and call him cute. CUTE. He would have been ok with fearsome. Or even dangerous. Heck he would have been fine with ‘’. But cute? Hell no!

He drags the boy away from his body, his feet hanging about an inch off the ground and still grinning impishly at kris but before he can do anything somebody lays a hand on his shoulder.

“put Beakhyun down.” Kris turns around, feeling slow and sluggish in his exhausted state. (http://24.media.tumblr.com/f80407cee12f1926ffc36ca6c20b8731/tumblr_ml32dkbNxf1r54shjo1_500.png )

“Put Beakhyun down. He gets a little handsy when the music is good. He means no harm. He just loves his own voice so much that he gets drunk on it.” Comes the lengthy explanation and kris blinks again at the soft mouth, even softer voice and burning hair. It suddenly occurs to him that he is about to pick a fight on his first minute in the new town and this will not look  tomorrow when he is officially introduced to his new warriors.

When put down Beakhyun merely grins more widely, pats the other man on the head and pats Kris’ on the before swaggering off. Kris decided to let him live just for today.

“well, come along then let’s get you that drink.”

Kris looks confusedly in the direction of where the man walks off to and spots Chanyeol and Luhan sitting atop stools carved out of purple birch. Who would want to sit on stool that makes it look like there’s a hug, purple wooden hand holding your ? Weird.

“what took you so long?” Luhan questions when he gingerly places his precious on a huge hand.

“Flirting with one of the drunken boys.” comes the mild reply from behind the bar top and kris whips his head around to the sound. And oh, it’s the burning-haired man and also apparently the bartender they met at the stable.  Luhan and Chanyeol are staring at him.

“oh reeeeally now?”

Kris doesn’t like the tone in luhan’s voice- it doesn’t bode well for him.not at all.

“no. no! I was just-”

“just what?”

“nothing! Just this little thing was clinging to me and talking to me and I pulled him off me. No flirting, absolutely no flirting. Just getting to know the natives.” He says firmly, looking hard at the bartender as if to say you will pay for this. The recipient of his glare merely shrugs and continues tinkering with some glasses and bottles.

“so is that what young people call it these days?” Luhan asks smugly.

“Luhan you are the same age as me.” Kris deadpans.

“oh lord.” Chanyeol breathes out. His eyes are shinning with wonder. “I love this town already. Nobody is scared of you here.”

Kris slams his head on to the bar top with hopes of never lifting it up again. But all too soon somebody is tapping on his forearm. He peeks out at the bartender who is holding out a glass of something purple to him.

“here’s your order.”

“but I didn’t order this.”

“oh. But I don’t remember what you ordered so drink this anyway.it’s good.”

“but I didn’t order anything.”

“oh for the sake of all wood nymphs! Drink it already.” Chanyeol shoves the drink at him.

Kris looks between Chanyeol and Luhan and the bartender and takes a cautious sip of the drink. A wonderful warmth spreads from the top of his head to his toes and seems to take a lot of his aches and pains away with it. The bartender is watching him with his head cocked to the side.

“this is- this is heavenly. What is this?”

The tiny smile on the bartender’s face turns into a full-blown pleased smile. (http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8rjqqyE6M1qjntx6.gif ) And maybe it’s his tired brain or maybe the drink but kris feels as if something heavy had thunked him on the head and then slid down to settle heavily in the bottom of his stomach. There are stars floating in front of kris’ eyes framing that soft, smiling face and he feels more dazed than a young elf on mid-summers eve.

“who are you?” his voice sound stunned even to him and he barely registers the giggling luahn next to him.

“umm…..”

“Lay….you said your name was Lay.” Chnayeol prompts from the side.

“oh yes.” He nods happily and grins some more.

Kris downs the rest of the drink to keep himself from doing something he might regret a lot the next day because Where the hell did that dimple come from?

A/N- yes I am aware the elves never used coarse language like WTF but meh. i have a feeling this is not the end of this au for me.....i can't stop with the whole elf thing.....

And yes I made sehun a bratty horse -  so sue me. And this was supposed to be a drabble not a novel >_<