Wolf DH

Lonely tear escaped my eye when we crossed the borders of my country. The sky was cloudy and dark, indicating heavy rain to fall soon. I could feel some kind of tension in the air or it was just the fact I was leaving the place I was bound to never leave? Whatever it was, it made my mood go completely down. Eunhyuk must have noticed because while we walked, he kept glancing at me.

We haven´t been together for a long time. Just about a week, four days on the journey plus some at my village, but I could already tell, that Eunhyuk is a weirdo. I´m sorry, it´s not very nice to talk about someone like that, but really, you should see it yourself. I haven´t seen him transform into a wolf nor a mouse since the first night I met him. Still, I´m sure I heard him howl our first two nights on the way. It´s my own fault for not asking him yet since Eunhyuk is not the type to start talking about himself from his own initiative.

But that´s not the reason I call him a weirdo. I believe he must be at least bipolar. He´s always so distant and cold, but put some food especially sweets in front of him and he turns into a complete cutie pie. Shining eyes, pouty lips and even that insane let-me-show-you-all-my teeth-and-gums smile are kind of creepy. But after he last of the sugar off his fingers, he turns back into that stupid ice princess. It makes me feel awkward and I have no idea how to strike a conversation with him. Not like he seems interested in talking to me.

I let out a sigh and looked at Eunhyuk, which caught him by surprise, since he was again staring at me. Quickly he turned his head to the front and a small blush could be seen on his cheeks. Well, this is new. He´s embarrassed for a mere look, as much for being a cool guy, Eunhyuk. I laughed aloud and didn´t feel so depressed anymore. Why being all gloomy when it´s only making my companion worried? Maybe he´s not such a weirdo after all, just shy?

As I continued pondering about my bipolar guide, I didn´t even notice we entered a forest. I was woken up from my thoughts by a raindrop falling right on my nape. "Ah, cold!" I yelped.

"Put on the coat. it´s raining, you idiot," Eunhyuk finally spoke to me and indeed he was already wearing a cape himself. This time I decided not to protest about his favourite nickname slash insult he has for me.

The rain became heavy in no time, but Eunhyuk said we would be entering deeper parts of the woods soon and the trees should lessen the amount of water that threatened to drown us both. I am a bit overreacting here, but it´s all so new for me. In this kind of weather, I would be definitely sitting with a warm cocoa in my warm room reading a book or something. Fortunately, just like Eunhyuk predicted, the rain started to weaken as we arrived into a much denser part of the forest.

I was getting tired and wanted to ask my companion for a short break when I noticed that he stopped on his tracks. His face looked uneasy with his eyebrows knitted together, lips tightly closed and an intense gaze somewhere far behind me. Then he scrunched his nose and started sniffing, if I wasn´t so nervous myself, I would think it looked funny. Suddenly his ears twitched and he widened his eyes.

"This is bad, Donghae," Eunhyuk said, still looking to the front, "we need to hide. No, wait, there are dogs too, aish!"

As he said that, I finally turned to see what he was talking about and surely after a few moments I heard a noise coming from the direction. What´s going on? What´s there? My question was answered soon. The noise was getting louder and even I could differentiate what it was by now. Bandits. About six guys on horses with, yeah, ferocious dogs.

"What do we do?" I asked scared, we were just standing there on the wet road.

"You do nothing," standing behind me, Eunhyuk whispered, "stay still and wait until I tell you to run."

Just this? Is he crazy? I didn´t have time to argue because to my horror, the bandits already stopped in front of me. Knives and swords in hands, sitting on their fast horses, with wild dogs dangerously growling at me. My body was shaking, I wanted to cry.

"Hey, travellers! Nice meeting you in my forest. I knew, in this ungodly weather some poor souls would pay me a visit," one of the bandits, most likely their leader, I guessed from his front position in the formation, spoke up. Others laughed so darkly that it made me shiver all over again. Eunhyuk said nothing.

The leader got probably annoyed by our poor reaction because he made a bitter expression and without any other words, he signalled to his gang to launch an attack. As if we were capable to defend. This is my end, I thought. Before I even started, I´m going to die just a few kilometres away from my country borders in a deep forest, murdered by bandits and eaten by dogs. But before anyone could reach to me, blood curling howl resonated through the woods and I felt the wind blow violently right above my head. A great wolf jumped over me, taking the leader down.

"Run, Donghae!" The wolf barked and it send a shock like reaction to my feet, which started to run by themselves.

As I ran, I had to cover my ears, looking behind was also a no. My mind couldn´t take those disgusting groans, howls, growls and screams. This was too much for me, I wanted to go home, to my parents, to my comfortable bed. I started crying, the noises quieted down, but I didn´t dare to stop running. Far, far away from here was the only thing on my mind. I completely forgot about Eunhyuk, if he was the wolf, did he kill the bandits or was he killed?

Hushed stomping behind me sent a new wave of fear to my terrified heart. I had no strength to continue though, so when I tripped and fell, I didn´t try to get up anymore. Something stopped right next to me, but all I could hear was tired and heavy breathing.

I was lying there defenceless, clenching my teeth and sobbing. Then that something sniffed right next to my ear, I jumped in surprise just to see a big wolf leaning down on me. Naturally I screamed, but the wolf just let a long sigh and took a few steps back, to let me calm down I suppose. And then it finally hit me. "Eunhyuk?" I asked.

"Yeah, I´m glad to see you too, Donghae," the wolf said with quite an annoyed voice. And he had the right to be like that, I must have hurt him by not recognizing him and even causing a scene like that. Yet I didn´t want to look at him, I wasn´t scared anymore, but I wanted to avoid the obvious disappointment in his eyes.

"Are you alright? Things like this happen a lot on journeys, usually I try to avoid them, but we had little time and not many options, sorry," Eunhyuk spoke again. I felt really bad, here I was panicking when he had to do all the work and even coax a cry-baby. This wasn´t fair.

"Let´s take a break, what do you think?" I said striking my best smile.

The wolf only hummed but it sounded more relaxed and I even dared to look at him. His silver fur was dirtied by mud and blood, and I cringed at the sight. Eunhyuk only laughed and said that he would clean himself if I make a fire in the meantime. There was a small cave about twenty meters ahead, we were far from the bandits, if the men were still alive.

I agreed with everything he said but when he was about to leave, I couldn´t help myself but to call nervously after him: "I want to know. I want to know, who you are."

“That´s fine with me," he simply murmured and disappeared into the woods.