It was almost a pity they’d found the demon as early in the day as they had, since it set everyone on edge and made things between Kris and Jongin particularly tense.  After the sighting, the majority of the villagers focused on Kris who had been all for running the demon down without a second of hesitation.  Jongin’s delay had cost him more than he had thought it would and it still brought him no closer to figuring anything out.

                In point of fact, it made him more thoughtful and curious.  He glanced down at his sword again, chewing on his rough thumbnail as he stared at the sigils on the hilt.  While he didn’t know what they meant, Kris had recognized them when he’d first seen them so would he be able to tell Jongin something useful about his own weapon?  Would there be a means available to actually track a demon or at least know if one was nearby?

                Sitting on the wood chopping stump in front of his parent’s house facing the foggy forest, Jongin bounced his knee impatiently and debated about actually asking the other adventurer.  Was it worth the additional blow to his pride?  Exhaling loudly, he blew a gust of air into his overly long bangs and slumped forward over his knees, feeling far more tired than he should for the late afternoon hour.  “Stupid sword,” he grumbled, scratching the back of his head before he froze, hearing what sounded like footsteps approaching him.

                “Jongin.”  He was certainly surprised to hear who it was come to speak to him.

                Steeling himself for whatever conversation they were going to have, Jongin took a quick breath and hopped to his feet, pivoting in place with the ease of practice while he plastered on a fake smile and waved at Kris.  “Yes?”

                The taller male smiled slightly and nodded his head while he gestured with his hands to either side of him.  His sword was nowhere to be seen but he had a strange confidence about him that made Jongin uncertain if he actually needed it or not.  “Listen.  About this morning,” he started with a noncommittal shrug, glancing at the younger male to see how he’d react.  Jongin didn’t move or offer to say anything so Kris went on, “I may have been a bit more forceful than I intended.”

                “You don’t say,” Jongin murmured with a slow nod, letting the smile fade to something more neutral.  Where was he going with this…?

                Kris chuckled low in the back of his throat.  He turned his dark eyes to the tree line and hummed quietly to himself.  “I think it’s the demon I’ve been searching for and I was just a little upset when we weren’t able to take care of it,” he admitted.

                “So… you saw a demon for all of two seconds and you think it’s the one you’ve been searching for?” Jongin tried to clarify, confused by his conclusion.

                “Yes,” Kris turned his head and smiled at Jongin with such easy certainty, the younger male was taken aback by it.

                Jongin’s brow furrowed and he gave the elder male a wary look.  “Why are you so keen to take care of this one?”  He waved his hand to forestall anything Kris was going to say at first so he could add more before the hunter did.  “I mean, lots of things have tried to kill me but it’s not like any of them were worth tracking down as determinedly as you have sought this demon.”  Whether the equine thing was Yixing or not, it felt odd, and he would be damned if he was just going to let Kris get his hands on him if it was his demon.

                “We all have our reasons,” Kris murmured cryptically, a smug smirk pulling at his lips, making it abundantly obvious he wasn’t going to be saying much more on the matter at all.

                More than a little annoyed by the response, Jongin’s eye twitched once and he struggled to hold his tongue so he wouldn’t say something particularly rude.  “So, was there something I could help you with, then?” he asked instead, trying for a semblance of neutrality, even though his response made him feel decidedly uncomfortable.

                “Well.  I was curious how you plan on acting the next time we get close to it,” the other adventurer admitted with a slow shrug, expression slightly challenging since he wasn’t particularly agreeable to Jongin’s performance the first time.

                Jongin bristled at the statement and sniffed once.  “I plan on figuring out what we’re dealing with,” he responded firmly, hand tightening on the hilt of Demon Killer.

                “What if it’s trying to hurt somebody?” he asked, giving Jongin a level look.

                “Then I’ll stop it,” he promised determinedly, shifting in place as he didn’t like the other’s tone.

                Kris noticed it and raised one brow.  “Getting antsy?”

                If he didn’t know better, Jongin would have thought that Kris was trying to goad him into doing or saying something.  Grabbing hold of his tongue firmly, he tilted the sword to get a better look at it instead, drawing the adventurer’s gaze to it as well.  “The sigils.  Can you tell me what they mean?” he asked, meeting Kris’s eyes evenly, taking one steady breath after the other.

                “Maybe,” he responded, taking a step forward to peer at the sword with speculation, a peculiar gleam in his eyes.

                “You recognized the markings when you saw it,” Jongin reminded him, turning his body to deprive the taller male of a more focused look.

                “True,” Kris nodded, holding his hand out expectantly with a glance at the sword.

                Lips pursed, Jongin pulled the blade free from its scabbard and held it out towards the other adventurer but kept a firm and guarded hold on it.  “You’ll forgive me if I don’t exactly feel easy about handing it over,” he explained with terse politeness.

                “Afraid I’ll do something with it?” Kris laughed, dropping his hand after a pause.

                “No.  I just don’t let other people handle it,” Jongin snorted, feeling an uneasy shiver travel up his spine.

                “Smart,” the other adventurer nodded, eyeing the markings with renewed interest.

                After a moment of silence with no obvious answer, Jongin cleared his throat.  “Can you read them or not?”

                Kris scratched the back of his neck and sighed, “I’m not sure what you were looking for but there’s nothing much of any use that I can see.  Some are supposedly protection markings.  To keep it safe from the elements or wear and tear.  I think that one is for a keen edge.  Anything in particular I should be looking for?”

                Jongin grimaced at the explanation.  He’d been hoping for considerably more.  “Is there anything I can activate?  Some sort of tracking sign or something…?” he asked, letting his frustration guide his questions.

                “Ah.  No.  All the sigils are already active.  Although,” he added softly, leaning closer towards the blade with a clear gaze and a smile gracing his lips.  “Binding.”  One long finger pointed at three symbols that were etched onto both sides of the cross guard and the bottom of the hilt.  “That is certainly an interesting sigil to have on a weapon,” he commented with a glance up at Jongin.

                Reactively, he pulled the sword back and closer to him, peering at the sigil he’d just pointed out.  Binding?  That wasn’t going to help him find Yixing… but how was it supposed to bind something?  Everything he’d gone up against had died when he’d used it.  “Is that all?”

                Kris shrugged and stood up, hands drifting to either side of him.  “Unless you feel like giving me more time to study it, that’s all I can see at the moment.”

                “I’m fine,” Jongin murmured, sliding it back into its scabbard quickly.  There was something about the way that Kris kept looking at his sword that also made him feel uneasy.  The taller male had never made any motion to try and take it, but his expression was… hungry.  Especially now after the demon sighting.

                “Pity,” Kris admitted with a sideways tilt to his head.  “So.  Will you be planning another midnight foray into the woods this evening?” he asked, clapping his hands together once as he waited for his companion’s response.

                Jongin shifted in place uneasily.  He wasn’t really sure.  He’d patrol all night if he could but he needed rest at some point and after his patrol the previous evening, he wasn’t even remotely sure what he’d find.  “I’m not sure yet.  My parents aren’t too keen about me heading off on my own with a demon on the loose,” he explained with a wry grin.

                “Not that it stopped you last night,” Kris laughed, giving Jongin a knowing look.

                “I keep telling you guys!  The demon wasn’t even confirmed then,” he grumbled, frowning at the reminder.

                “Whatever you decide, try not to freeze up again,” Kris chided softly with a shake of his head as he stepped closer and clapped the younger male on the shoulder.  “Wouldn’t want anything to happen to you this close to home now would we?”  Though the words were obviously meant for Jongin, Kris shifted his gaze to the woods, glancing up and down the stretch of trees as if he was looking for something.

                With an annoyed grimace, Jongin rolled his shoulder to dislodge the taller male’s hand.  “I’d be more worried about you.  Weaponless with a demon running around.”

                “That’s what you’re here for,” he winked with a frustratingly charismatic smile when he turned to focus his attention back on Jongin.  “Just keep your eyes open and let me know if anything changes,” he waved, stuffing his hands into the front pockets of his coat as he hunched his shoulders and headed back into the village, aiming for the stables.  He hadn’t made it far before another villager stopped him on his way, much to Jongin’s annoyance.

                He was left feeling decidedly unsettled again about how he should feel in general.  Since the sighting, there had been a very discernible shift in his and Kris’s relationship and he wasn’t entirely sure what it entailed.  He didn’t know if Kris just thought he was too young or too soft or what but he made Jongin edgy as hell.  It was probably just that the elder hunter was so focused on finding this demon which might well have been Yixing for all Jongin knew and that freaked him out even more.

                It wasn’t even that things between them were hostile.  Potentially strained yes, but downright at odds… not so much.  They just had different ways of looking at the whole thing and the village wasn’t helping any either!  He was just as knowledgeable about demons.  Sort of.  They could talk to him too.

                Eyeing the retreating male over his shoulder, Jongin exhaled slowly and focused on the trees again, able to discern a slight trail of fog winding its way through the bottoms of the trunks.  They were a defensive ploy.  He was almost positive, but whether it was Yixing or an unknown demon… that still remained the main question.  “Yixing.  When this is finally sorted out, you owe me a seriously long explanation.  Stupid.”

                Chewing his bottom lip, Jongin tore his eyes from the tree line and set his sights on his parent’s home again.  It was getting close to dinner time and there were still mandatory patrols going on around the village anyway.  He could try and get things further sorted out a bit later; on a full stomach and maybe he would make another late night run.  He’d have to wait and see though.  His parents might have learned a thing or two since he’d left.

                Things in the village didn’t really change so much as just grow tenser in the meantime.  Tempers were easier to rile and Jongin’s credibility was weakened by Kris’s presence since they all seemed to want to defer to him as the elder hunter; what with his act first and ask questions later approach anyway.  He figured it was also probably an appearance thing but Jongin didn’t really care.  If it left him more time to scout on his own, that was all the better, except for the fact that his parents were considerably more aware of his coming and going at any hour.  He could work around it but it was tricky.  Nor did he mind it altogether, so long as he and his friends and family were left alone.  But that also included Yixing, whom he still had yet to find any additional sign of, which was perhaps the most worrisome part about everything.

                There had to be a reason he wasn’t showing himself to Jongin, but what?  Was he hurt and unable to make his presence known?  That would mean that there had to be another demon on the loose though, which was possibly a good thing.  Could he maybe be afraid of Kris?  He’d always seemed so confident about his ability to handle a hunter though…  There was no way he was still upset at him enough to purposefully avoid him, was there?  Eh…  He did experience brief moments on occasion where he thought he might glimpse him or something but every time that happened, Kris was never far behind, calling his name or rushing up to join him in his ‘search.’

                With no definite answers to call his own, Jongin made forays into the woods by himself as often as he could, regardless of the tongue lashing his parents gave him after the fact.  He’d been doing this sort of thing long before Kris had ever shown up and he certainly didn’t need his assistance now, nor did he want it, all things considered.  Kris wanted to kill the demon and Jongin didn’t even know if it was hostile or Yixing or what…  Even at night, Jongin patrolled into the woods when he knew he shouldn’t, but he was ersely pleased to see Kris doing the same thing so it wasn’t like the other hunter could berate him for it either.

                They didn’t work together and when they happened to sight the other, they nodded acknowledgement and headed their separate ways.  They weren’t exactly standoffish so much as covering as much ground as possible in various shifts; at least that’s what Jongin kept telling himself.   He made no effort to keep tabs on the other adventurer since their goals were rather different when it came to locating the demon.  Neither questioned that there was obviously some sort of personal agenda for both of them, and they were eager enough to let sleeping dogs lie while they tried to solve things on their own, at their own pace.

                Such a mindset was always harder to maintain on those nights when Jongin was by himself though and the fog was at its thickest.  Every now and then, when he couldn’t see much more beyond the stretch of his arm, he could hear what sounded like a horse running.  Sound carried differently in the mists and it was always hard to tell what direction it was coming from, but even more alarming was that if Jongin didn’t know better, he would have thought there was another creature as well.  It wasn’t something he could verify by any means and the tracks the next day always looked pretty similar but it felt like too much noise for a single creature.  Not to mention there was never any sign of backtracking and he couldn’t exactly tell if the tracks that were trampled were completely new or if they’d been there the day before.

                In the first couple days after their initial announcement, sightings were rare and only at night.  Villagers reported seeing a pair of silver eyes looking into the village from the misty tree line or saw a large shadowy creature running in the space between the houses and the woods, though with the dim lighting, they could give no better description of color.  Each time, Jongin and Kris both were too late to apprehend it, when either of them could be found in time at all, though there were plenty of tracks left behind.  It was confusing because there were human-like prints as well as those strange equine tracks and Jongin at least could make neither heads nor tails out of it; especially because it was nigh on impossible to tell if the former were just left by the villagers or the adventurers themselves.

                As often as not, the demon showed up when one or the other was out on patrol, leaving the village relatively unguarded.  Villagers were always on watch but they were not accomplished fighters trained to fend off anything like a demon.  The only saving grace was that it had yet to make any blatant overtures towards the village, content to remain in a relative holding pattern.

                “Aish,” Jongin sighed heavily on the third day since the sighting, running his hand through messy locks of hair while he knelt beside the latest set of tracks Sehun and Tao had led him to.  It was the end of another fruitless day of patrolling and he was tired.  Functioning on minimal hours of sleep and worrying about the fate of Yixing was starting to wear on him and it was beginning to show in the bags under his eyes and the drooping of his shoulders as he turned in at night.

                Kris seemed impervious to such effects, though Jongin figured he was pulling similar hours, but he never looked tired…  Damn the man.  It wasn’t fair.  Resting his elbows on the tops of his thighs with his hands dangling between his legs, he glanced up at the seemingly inseparable pair that was holding the torch for him to see better by.  “Same dark creature?” he asked, feeling helplessness gnaw at him incessantly.

                “Yeah,” Tao nodded with an apologetic shrug, the torch held high in his left hand while his right lingered conspicuously close to Sehun’s.  “Seems about the size of a horse maybe but it won’t stand still long enough ta get a good look at it,” he grumbled with a frown, the expression making him look more severe for the circles under his eyes.  He’d always had them but they’d grown more pronounced of late with the constant patrolling and everyone was on edge.  Jongin knew the feeling…

                “It looked… fatter this time,” Sehun commented, letting his fingers slide carefully through Tao’s, just the lightest of clasps, but the contact was obvious to Jongin.

                He barely managed to keep himself from smiling as he glanced at the contact and then back up at the younger male’s face, curious about the comment.  “Fatter?”

                Sehun looked immediately nervous and he shifted in place, ducking his head until Tao tightened the hold on his friend’s hand, grounding him with an encouraging smile.  “Yeah,” he nodded in agreement, worrying his bottom lip as his brows dipped in concentration.  “Like, not so clear.  I don’t even know if he saw us at all,” he admitted, looking to Tao to confirm the statement.

                “Were you hiding?” Jongin asked, blinking once before looking between the two.

                Tao shook his head and shrugged again.  “No.  Just patrollin as usual,” he explained.  “Sehun saw it near the trees and by the time I looked, it was almost gone.  He thinks it mighta been chasin somethin.”

                “Hmm,” Jongin hummed to himself once more, dropping his gaze back to the tracks like he always did.  These ones looked like the ones near the pond but they had those strange claw-like markings around the edges as well.  They were really confusing and he was seriously contemplating the thought of two entirely different demons…  “Damn,” he muttered, finally pushing himself to his feet as he looked at his companions, feeling weariness in every part of his body.  “Thanks for the heads up, but I think I’m a little too late here.  Again,” he groaned with a roll of his eyes.

                “It’s not yer fault,” Sehun assured him, reaching out with his free hand to clap Jongin on the shoulder.

                “The damn thing’s bloody fast,” Tao agreed with a grimace.

                “Yeah,” Jongin agreed with a knowing nod.  “You’ve got that right.”  Yixing had always been fast and if there was another, it would have to be almost as quick to keep up with him.  He let his eyes scan the dark line of trees and exhaled gustily, blowing his bangs out of his face for but a moment.  “Why don’t you guys head on in.  I’ll stick around for a while.  See if maybe it comes back,” he suggested airily, projecting far more confidence than he felt.

                “Ya sure?” Tao asked, glancing at Sehun who just shrugged.

                “Yep.  Go on,” Jongin shooed them off, still struggling to hide his smile when they had yet to release their hands.  While he was pretty sure it could just be for comfort, he had a pretty good idea it was a bit more than that.  It wasn’t as unusual in Lorrelstown but out here… they were likely going to have a tough time of things.

                “Be careful, Jongin,” Sehun encouraged with a wave, nodding at Tao to signal he was ready.

                “You guys too,” he smiled, waving them off.  He watched them depart and turned to focus on the trees again, hand resting on the hilt of his sword.  “Why don’t you ever show yourself when I’m around?” he muttered, annoyed that he was always too late…  With narrowed eyes, he approached the tree line and glared into the misty gloom.  Visibility was low and the moon was not casting enough light to give him a better view but the fog wasn’t as thick as he’d seen it other times.

                Striding up to the very edge, he stopped, feet planted and hand resting firmly on his sword.  “Hey!” he yelled, tightening his grip on the hilt.  “I’m here!  Come and get me!” he challenged, feeling foolish and desperate.  “Come on you stupid demon,” he grumbled worriedly, eyes scanning the expanse of forest before him.  When nothing happened and the time stretched on, the tension simply drained from Jongin, leaving him feeling weak and useless.  His shoulders slumped again and he exhaled slowly.

                Nothing.  Again.  He rubbed his face with his left hand tiredly and got ready to turn around but froze when he heard something in the woods.  It was quiet, whatever it was, though at least decently large and it seemed to be moving near him.  His sword whispered partially free from the scabbard, a hesitant warning since he still didn’t know what he was dealing with.  “Yixing?” he asked, lowering his voice as he bent over in a modified crouch, ready for anything.

                Fog swirled lazily ahead of him and while he still couldn’t see whatever it might be, it felt damnably like something was watching him.  The blade slipped free the rest of the way when a chill ran up his spine, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.  Was that something moving?  Jongin gasped when the fog actively thickened further, presenting a veritable wall that he couldn’t see through as whatever it was moved away, feet beating swiftly.

                “Hey!” he cried, taking a step as if he was going to follow it but as soon as he tried to breach the tree line, a large gust of wind threw a blanket of fog into his face, sending him flailing backwards in surprise.  Heart beating fiercely in his chest, Jongin searched the roiling mist with wide eyes, swallowing hard as he straightened up and held his sword before him.  “What the…?”  That was new.  After another moment, the fog thinned again and nothing remained save for the sounds of the forest and his pulse hammering in his ears.

                If nothing else, it was more than he’d seen or heard in days so the encounter was… encouraging?  Not that it meant anything had changed but what if that had been Yixing?  It hadn’t felt menacing.  And he’d been plenty out in the open so if it had wanted to hurt him, it had ample opportunity to try.  Hissing quietly in displeasure, Jongin sheathed his sword once more and rubbed his face with both hands.

                “Come on, Xing.  I need you to help me out a bit here,” Jongin admitted with a weary glance at the foggy forest once more before he shook his head and headed back, moving slow, just in case something decided to return.  By the time he reached his house, he had to give up the ghost for the evening, feeling exhaustion settle on him disagreeably.  It was going to be another long night…

(a/n: So not a lot of progression but some near sightings and Jongin's thoughts are seriously troubled.  And while I'm probably not going to do terribly much with them, I've had some TaoHun (SeTao?) feelings lately and they're adorable together in my opinion.  So something at least moderately light, given the situation.  Thank you for reading though and I hope you look forward to the next update!  Any questions, comments or concerns are welcome and appreciated!  <3)