Traveller DH

In the country where I live, the winter is already coming. Well, we call it winter but a thin jacket and maybe a sweater is enough to keep you warm during the coldest days. Not that I´m complaining. It´s just a bit boring when the change of the season shows only on the calendar. Yeah, spring, summer, autumn, winter, everything´s the same. Maybe in summer you can put down the sweater and wear only a shirt and maybe jacket, but that´s all. I don´t have many clothes in my wardrobe.

And it´s not only about the weather. Our country is often called the ´never-changing land´, people here take it as their pride. It´s probably the safest place in the world, no one wants to change anything or invade the peace made by others. I´m not saying it´s a place as perfect as Utopia, occasionally things go wrong too, but nothing that couldn´t be repaired or turned back as it had been before. Places may be different, but I believe, people are the same everywhere. They can be rude, dangerous, greedy or whatever, only in my country there´s less of them, they can´t develop their full potential here. As I said, peace, safety and a total boredom.

Do you know how it feels to live a third of your life in never ending stereotypes? And what´s worse, my future doesn´t look very much different. I wonder, if all the people living here ever doubted their lives. I do. Every single morning I wake up, greet my parents, eat my breakfast and go to work. I work as a carpenter. It´s a job I inherited from my father and I like it, really. Me, my brother, father and my cousin, together we work in the same workshop and we can make wooden furniture, houses and even boats to use on rivers or lakes, since our country doesn´t even have a sea. In the evening, I come home and eat a dinner with my family. I´ve never changed my routine. Every night I dream of going out of my boundaries and far into the world. So often, that it became another stereotype of my life.

Sometimes I feel like a victim of a stern regime, even though I live in a free country. I am very curious about the things from ´the outside´, always listening to the stories of passing by travellers and merchants. I´ve been collecting stories and legends from them since I was a small child. I have pretty nice collection of tales from faraway lands, travel know-hows and exotic knowledge. I even made a scrapbook out of it. Wouldn´t it be wonderful to go in the footsteps of those travellers? See the same things as them. But honestly, it´s just a fantasy. I´m too scared to go out of my routines, I lack the courage to make that step. At least I won´t get eaten by some hungry beasts on my way.

"Wolf! It´s a wolf!"

Loud scream echoed through the whole village. I got up from my bed and looked out of my window. Wolf? Like a real wolf? That´s nonsense, there are no dense woods nor mountains, what would a wolf be doing here? Lots of men were already outside and looking for the beast. I too decided to go out. I´m a man after all.

I didn´t bring my jacket, instead I grabbed a shovel. I didn´t believe it was a wolf, but a stray dog could be equally dangerous. Carefully I went to check the backyard of our house. We were raising a few chickens, so naturally I went to check on them. Oh, wrong move, Donghae. I should have never left the room, man or not, how am I supposed to fight a real wolf?!

Yes, there in the middle of our yard a big wolf was standing. Call me an idiot, having nonsensical thoughts in the middle of the dangerous situation, but I thought, the animal looked astonishing. The wind was playing with the clean silver fur, the moon light was reflecting on the sharp teeth and those fierce brown eyes were watching me with the perfect calmness. I should call for help, I thought to myself, but nothing came out of my mouth. Instead I continued to stare.

I didn´t even notice that out of my consternation, I let go of the shovel and it came crushing on my foot. I yelped and started jumping on my good leg, while I was holding the injured one with my hands. At that moment, I had other thoughts than of embarrassment but I was going to be told soon.

"Are you an idiot?"

Excuse me, but there must be something wrong. Did, I hit my head instead of foot, because I´m pretty sure the wolf just insulted me!

"Hey, idiot. I´m going to sleep at your place tonight,” the wolf announced in a deep charismatic voice. I was stunned.

"What? Why? Why would you sleep at my place and why do you even talk, when you´re just a dog?" I started blabbering when I woke up from my trance.

"First, not a dog, a wolf, you idiot,” if the animal could roll its eyes, it would have surely done so. “Second, I´m not asking you whether you want or not. I´ll be up in your room in a second, let´s meet there. And bring me something to eat or else I´ll eat you," the wolf growled in a very annoyed tone.

Then it let out a low bark and jumped up on the henhouse from where right into my open window. Why did I leave it open again? There was no purpose in getting mad. There was a big hungry wolf in my room and I had to go and see it.

Indeed, on my way back I brought a leftover chicken we had for dinner. For some reason, though, I didn´t alarm anyone. I should have told my dad and brother and they would surely take care of the wild animal, but I was curious, what actually is that strange creature. Why I wasn´t scared, I didn´t know.

I went upstairs to my room, but when I opened the door, I was again left surprised. This time a man was standing in my room. He had black soft hair, pale skin and a very slim body clad in black. He didn´t look much older than me. He walked to me without saying a word and took the tray with food I was holding. The man sat on my bed and started eating.

I sat on the chair near the window and watched the man in dark but probably expensive clothes eating his heart out on my bed. Where is the wolf? And who´s the man? My questions were answered the moment he looked into my eyes. Fierce but calm brown eyes. This man is the wolf.

"Stop staring, idiot," the man said, wiping his lips with his delicate fingers.

"Donghae, my name is Donghae. Please stop calling me an idiot. I can be slow sometimes, but I gave you dinner and a place to sleep, so I would appreciate, if you called me by my name."

Maybe I got too daring, because the man furrowed his eyebrows. I was at least expecting to be eaten, but he suddenly started laughing. His laugh was so hearty and carefree that I couldn´t anything but laugh too.

"Ha ha ha, okay Donghae. I´m Eunhyuk."

I didn´t expect him to introduce himself and it made me insanely happy. Finally, something interesting happened in my life. I wanted to ask him about the wolf, but he started eating again and I didn´t have the heart to interrupt his meal. One thing I could feel, though, that things were going to change.