I walk forward with caution, clenching my sword tight in my hand. I’ve been walking around this misty forest for hours, had followed the howls I can only assume could be a wolf pack. I’d take the time to admire the beauty of this emerald forest but I know the second I let my guard down is the second the wolves attack.

I feel relief hit me when I see a pool of water surrounded by many sizes of different rocks and plants. Running toward the open area, I search around for danger, seeing if it was alright to take a brief drinking break. Once I see the coast was clear I set down my warded sword, dipping my hands in the clear liquid and bringing it to my lips.

As soon as I bring my hands to my lips I hear a low growl ahead of me, stopping me dead in my tracks. I tilt my head up ever so slightly; try not to make any sudden movements. Instead, I keep eye contact while taking a sip, hopeful he’ll wait untill I was done to attack me.

Oddly enough, it did. The wolf just stares at me until my hand extends out to my sword. That’s where he growls again and it caused me to move my hand back to my knee, forgetting the sword for now. The wolf seemed satisfied with that as he stops making threatening noises. The beast came in closer toward me, never breaking his eye contact.

This isn’t the first time I’ve hunted a wolf. I know their patterns, their movements and I’ve never seen one like this; one that seemed a bit more civil and less aggressive then most.

I hold my breath as the wolf closes in on me, sniffing and observing. In a swift motion, the wolf looks as if he were about to chop down on my arm, so I grab my sword and try to swing. But when I turn back, I’m pinned against a nearby tree by hands. Human hands. Before I can clearly see the figure, the man’s lips are close to my ear, opening slowly to whisper.

I close my eyes in anticipation. The man speaks in a familiar voice that causes me to shiver. “Zitao, wake up.”

My eyes fly open and stare at the speaker. But everything becomes a blur before I could get a good look. I can feel the world spiral rapidly before everything turns blank.

I don’t understand...

   ~~~

‘The same dream as before.’ Is the first thing Zitao thinks when he awakens. That was the dream Zitao has been having his whole entire life, the same dream he often tries to ignore or forget; only because it seems to disturb him so much lately.

“Zitao, Wake up!” Zitao takes note of the different tone of voice. This one was familiar and-

“Zitao, don’t make me pour cold water on you again.” Zitao lets out a groan and turns to his side, opening one eye to find himself face to face with his second youngest brother, Jongin. Like Zitao, his skin is flawless and lightly tanned that, Yixing always tells them, makes them look exotic. Jongin has a very dancer look to him; plump lips, short chocolate coloured hair that was pretty much always messy, and a very slender body. He was probably the most physically charismatic in their village.

“I know how much you love showers in well water.” There’s a smirk on his face and Zitao wonders if he should slap it off. With another groan, the older brother sits up and pushes Jongin away from him, gaining a small pout from him. As fast as the expression came, it changes to a fond smile, “Did you sleep well, brother?”

Zitao looks up at his worried brother and suddenly thinks about the hunting mission. Everyone seemed a bit too worried about this one, and it makes Zitao all the more curious.

“Do you know what the mission is? Is this why you are worried?” He asks in a husky voice. Jongin’s smile turns into a frown. “Father says this mission is very important. It won’t be like your other ones,” Jongin lets out a sigh as he sits on the edge of Zitao’s bed. Zitao leans over and gives him a pat on the shoulder before kicking off the red blankets that were tightly tangled around his legs.

“Did Sehun already get up?” Zitao asks, looking over to the empty spot beside him. Jongin nods and stands up, leaning down to grab Zitao some new clothing.

“Yeah, he woke up early and decided to let you sleep in.”
Zitao accepts the clothing, giving his brother a thankful smile. Jongin gives him a brief hug, “Come down soon, alright? Or I might eat your food!” He yells as he runs out the door and down the stairs. Zitao huffs and shakes his head, knowing full well no one would dare touch his food.

Zitao and his brothers share a room, which is fine with him because he knows Joonmyun and Yixing try their best with what they have and make. There is a lot of red in Zitao’s part of the room; his bed, his favorite cloak, curtains, and even most of his shirts had or even were red and he doesn’t even know why. Different types of weapons are hung securely on the wall along with a lot of the poorly made daggers Sehun and Chen had made him to use for practice. Around his side of the room were also sewing things, different materials, hand-made jewelry, and unfinished clothing; variety of things to make the perfect outfit, as Zitao often states.

When Zitao heads downstairs, Joonmyun and his fiancé, the village healer Yixing, are seated quietly at the table as Sehun and Jongin chatters about their plans for that day.

Joonmyun was a short, lean man with very neat dark brown hair, peach skin, and dark kind eyes. He’s fatherly to even the other boys of the village and he tends to dislike things that bad for their health. His attire is tidy and always rather old fashioned; that’s what his children always say, anyway. When his sons were not looking, he seemed rather tired.

Yixing on the other hand was tall, slender, and pale with a long face like Sehun. He was always out of it, day dreaming, and rather forgetful. His hair cut short and very, very messy which was a rust-brown sort of a colour. His expression can turn from very kind to very confused or to a look that gave people the impression that his head was suddenly up in the clouds.

When Zitao sits at the table with his brothers and fathers, Yixing gives him one of his loving smiles and offers him freshly made food. Zitao takes it with  thanks and immediately begins stuffing his face.

Joonmyun waits until the eldest son no longer has his mouth filled with bread and jam before beginning to talk. Zitao pouts slightly when Yixing makes a ‘tsk’ noise and uses his thumb to wipe off a bit of grape jelly from Zitao’s chin. Despite the whole house’s mood being dark and down, Yixing still finds the time to baby and coddle the boys.

“Zitao, I don’t like the idea Chen and Baekhyun recommended but now I can see this is the only way,” Joonmyun lets out a long sigh, “The wolf clan has warded off all outside magic, so we need someone who can fight without it...which is why we need...” Joonmyun trails off and Zitao nods, understanding what he driving at.

 “What do I have to kill?”

“It’s who you’ll be killing,” Joonmyun corrects him; “They tracked the killings down to a wolf clan in the southern forest. From what I hear, we’ve never seen or heard about them before these recent events. I need you to track down and kill the pack’s leader. You’ll know him by his dark brown and golden, as well as white fur; he is also larger than the others.”

“Baekhyun says he saw the leader of the pack wearing a silver bracelet tight around his right front leg, the symbol of a phoenix carved on the front surface.” Yixing finishes, gently starting to caress Joonmyun’s hand in comfort.

“When will I go?” Zitao tries not to sound nervous when he asks this, but it’s difficult; this will be the first time he’ll be attempting to kill a pack leader.

“As soon as you’re done preparing,” Joonmyun responds, finally looking back up from his plate. Zitao takes note of the tired bags under his eyes and frowns. Both of his fathers work too hard.

“I’ll only need my sword, cloak, waterskin, and food rations,” Zitao says simply while standing up after he finishes his meal. Zitao figures if he’s going to kill this beast then he shouldn’t waste any time.

As he dresses in the outfit he wore yesterday, his hunter gear, he couldn’t help but think back on the wolf from his dream. He didn’t know why he’s thinking of the wolf at a time like this...perhaps if he told his father...

No, no it was defiantly just a coincidence. He won’t bother his father with such silly things.

The wolf wasn’t even the same colour his father had described anyhow.

It took Zitao an hour to prepare, with his sword tightly tied to his belt and his thick red trademark cloak around his shoulders. He stands by the village gate, listening to the many advices and worries of the other hunters. Zitao’s best friend, Baekhyun, kept going on and on about how the wolf was fiercer than they thought and how he shouldn’t underestimate him.

Zitao never underestimates wolves and neither do the hunters.

He also decides it best if he didn’t linger around the village for too long, as he didn’t want to avoid such an essential threat for much longer. Zitao gave everyone a quick hug, received many ‘Be safes’ and had even got a small good luck bracelet from Yixing.

Drama queens.

Zitao lets out a huff and hugs both of his brothers at the same time, turning his head and kissing each other their cheeks. Perhaps other brothers would find it weird, but the three of them found it to be the most normal thing. So did Baekhyun and the others; it was just how everyone showed their affection.

“Remember your promise, alright?” Sehun sniffs, crossing his arms and attempting not to sound discouraged. Zitao nods and ruffles the younger’s hair, “Of course I remember, it’s only been a few hours, Hunie. I have better memory than that.”

Sehun grumbles as Zitao turns to Jongin, grabbing on his shoulders, “You take care of yourself, alright? Make sure Sehun and you attend Joonmyun’s classes, as well as the others. You know how annoyed Baekhyun and Chen get when you two keep on slacking at their shops.”

Jongin groans, “Zitao, I-”
“Ah, no excuses, my brothers. I want you two to grow well.”
“You’re talking as if you’re leaving forever, idiot!”

Zitao glares at Baekhyun, “I’m just worried for my siblings, beef-boy.”

Baekhyun grins widely and pulls Zitao into a tight hug.

Oh crap! He’s really strong for someone so thin!

“Shut up and hug me, Taozi,” Zitao shakes his head at the nickname used; “This is your first major kill, Zitao. If you don’t come back in one piece, I’ll kill you myself.”

Jongdae slaps Zitao’s back, causing Zitao to vaguely wonder where the hell he came from, “Yeah! Finish this mission and Joonmyun will give you a spot as a teacher! You can finally teach a wushu class to us!”

Zitao grins widely at that thought thinking about himself having his own, huge building. All for him to use for his martial arts and weapons practice.

“Yeah and we can earn extra gold from travelers wanting to learn how to arm themselves!” Baekhyun explains excitedly, clapping his hands.

“Yeah!” Chen agrees, “That means more people will buy my weapons! For self defense!”

“Is it really about gold?” Zitao asks quietly, sighing when the two ignore him.

Chen and Baekhyun bounce up and down, holding each others hands while chanting, “Gold! Gold! Gold!”

Zitao stares at the pair, wondering why the hell he became friends with such ridiculous people in the first place.

He decides after he leaves, that it’s just because they grew up in the same village.

That’s the only reason.

Its a few hours walk to reach the forest; it would have been rather peaceful if his mind wasn’t clouded with images of the wolf in his dreams. Was it a coincidence? Should he have had told Joonmyun about it? His father would probably just say Zitao was stressed or something.

Zitao honestly tries to ignore the fact that the emerald forest is just as foggy as it had been in the dream but he shrugs it off, assuming it’s because it was still so early in the morning.

He doesn’t stop his fast pace of walking even when he hear many howls deep in the forest. His hands clench tight around the hilt of his sword while he focus on the trail ahead through the cold mist.

Zitao begins running deeper in emerald, easily dodging the branches and roots that threatens to either impale or trip him. He knew he was being followed no doubt by the pack but he had to keep going. He couldn’t take a pack down on his own, not like Joonmyun or Yixing could; especially not with his sprained wrist.

Jongdae had given him a plan to wait outside the wolves’ camp and wait outside until nightfall. When they were sleeping, Zitao would sneak in and slit the beast’s throat. Be out and in before the pack knew what hit them. He’d tell Sehun and Jongin the story of how he-

Zitao’s thoughts are interrupted when he slams hard onto the dirty ground, a loud scream ripping from his throat. He cries and looks down whatever caused the pain in his leg, wincing every time he made any slight movement. Zitao positions himself to sit up against a tree, staring down at the rocks clamped tight around his leg and impaled in his thigh.  He his lips before he tests the sensitivity of the wound, pressing just barely on the rock. He lets out another cry and lets go of it quickly.

Zitao is able to get his lower leg free from the binding rocks but a thick rock is still impaled in his thigh. Zitao his lower lip and looks around for anything to aid him but let out a groan when he found nothing. If he stays here like this with his heavy bleeding, then the wolves would be on him and they’ll have hunter-soup for dinner.

With this thought, Zitao grabs one of the sharp rocks, wincing when it cut his palm. He closes his eyes tight and clenches his jaw as he prepares himself for more pain. He grips tight and rips it out in one fluent motion, trying to muffle out the screams by biting his bottom lip but horribly failing.  

Zitao lets out a loud wail as he slowly rises to his feet, still enduring the pain of the main rock in his thigh. He figures if he takes it out, it’ll just help him bleed quicker. Behind him he hears crackling. Looking down, he sees...Is that frost? He limps backwards as the frost creeps up on him, causing the boy to shiver at the sudden cold air.

He lets out another cry when small sharp shards of ice stab into him like thousands of needles. He fumbles a bit but turns and tries to run, ending up with a fast limp. 

What the hell is this? Magic? Since when did wolves have magic?

Zitao limps as fast as his wounded leg would let him but he couldn’t hear whoever was chasing him anymore. Well, not just one person was chasing him, that’s for sure. It sounded like five humans. Why would humans hunt their own kind?

He cringes at the shards in his body, wishing he had at least brought Baekhyun or Chen since they were second best when it comes to physical fighting.

He’d never put Sehun or Jongin in this sort of dangerous situation when they were still learning.

But was the area really warded off magic? Because THAT was defiantly magic.

Zitao turns to see if he had lost them and was immediately reminded of his mistake to let his guard down. He feels a log hit him hard on the back, forcing him forward and against a tree. Zitao turns to see who his attacker is but lets out yet another loud scream when something clamps shut on his other leg. Zitao looks down at the bear trap he stepped in but didn’t have the chance to fully think about the situation.

Not even seconds later, rocks and ice flew at him, stabbing and pinning him against a nearby tree. The rocks that missed the tree had cut deep into his body. He lets out a particularly loud scream when the large rocks impale his other thigh and arm.

Zitao tries to struggle but every time he does he could feel a jolt of pain run through his body. His head falls back as he tries to move his limps, despite the pain. , who were these people? If they were human then why the hell were they attacking me!?

Zitao’s head falls back down when he hears fallen branches snap, groaning when he sees four figures approaching him, their hands up. Zitao notices a wide-eyed boy with rocks in his hands. So he’s the one who attacked me first...and impaled my ing legs and arms. He turns his gaze to a gentle looking boy who, to Zitao’s surprise, was rather pretty; maybe too pretty to be out in the woods. The boy’s hands were spread wide, many things floating around him. The log maybe? What the hell does he do?

The boy with the baby face has his hands up as well; there was ice forming around him, giving Zitao a good guess what he was in charge of. The taller one’s eyes were wide, looking more frightened than threatened. They all did except the earth user.

Zitao lets out a small growl when the shortest of them all approaches him, a spear-shaped rock forming in his hands. Regardless of the fact that he was about to face death, Zitao continues to struggle and trying to kick his attacker.

Zitao glowers darkly as the boy wraps his hand around Zitao’s neck and pulls his arm back to make the fatal move. He stares back at the boy with a glower, looking dangerous even when about to face death.

“Kyungsoo, Luhan, Minseok, Chanyeol! Halt!”  A loud voice roars though the forest, causing the four boys to quickly stumble back in a line. They lower their hands and heads, all magic now gone and all threats disappear. Zitao struggles even when the man steps forward toward him, a bow clenched tightly in his hand. He stares at the man with the same look he gave the other boy.

Zitao his lips and tries to speak but lets out a small noise because of his dry throat; screaming had taken away his voice temporary. Like in the dream, his vision begins to blur before he could really get a good look at the man. Zitao lets out another noise and tries to move his arm.

Who the hell is he?

“Who are you?” It’s his turn to ask this question but Zitao doesn’t answer, “I said, who are you?!”

“Go... yourself.” Zitao hisses out, narrowing his eyes when the man laughs and shakes his head. He looks back at the wide-eyed boy with the earth magic and takes a step back, nodding.

“Don’t kill him,” He looks at Zitao with a look of interest, “At least not for the moment..”

The boy bows respectfully and approaches Zitao, staring back at the wounded hunter, “This won’t hurt, sadly.”

Zitao opens his mouth to say something but his visions darkens when the boy reaches up and presses somewhere along this neck and shoulders. He reaches out slowly, grabbing the boy’s shirt and let’s out a grunt before slowly closing his eyes.

They aren’t going to kill me...what will they do?

I have to...stay alive.

Who the hell are they?

---------------------------------------------------------

Greedy Chenbaek

 GOLD GOLD GOLD

Tao: I just wanted to enjoy myself but I got pinned againast a tree and impaled; I came out for a good time and I'm honesty feeling so attacked right now.