[wʊl]

the fine soft curly or wavy hair forming the coat of a sheep, goat or similar animal, especially when shorn and prepared for use in making cloth or yarn

From my lamb, you take this gold.

From your heart, I reap your payment.

No matter what anyone said of Jiyong, he had always been a man of utmost diligence and consideration. He was rather handsome, in Donghae's opinion as compared to the many faces he viewed through the glass clock face, and he moved about with a quiet grace that had affected Donghae himself as he grew up. He had always been the figure of authority in their little family and always took Donghae's side in the fights which oftentimes broke out between himself and the toys. The particular steam engine which wound about the floorboards of the station clock had been a particular favourite and was the cause of many of Donghae's tears and turbulent childhood experiences.

For as long as Donghae could remember, Jiyong had always been there. He felt a strange affinity with his brother; wherein he could oftentimes guess exactly what the blonde was thinking and vice versa. Just as he was able to sense his dreadful, horrific fear on the night of his conscription despite Jiyong's wistful smile and cupping of Donghae's cheek even as the train began to depart and he withdrew from the carriage window, only to be replaced by another tearful soldier making his way to the battlefields. His fear reeked from him in great waves and Donghae could almost see his spasms of terror. The Great Sorcerer had left his other half small and shaken on the platform; a speck amidst the rush of relatives and friends sending off the latest trainload of conscripts.

This same terror which had stained his brother's aura now shook within Donghae as he stared blankly up at the sky, eyes unseeing and lips slightly parted as though to allow the muted screams building up within him to slowly seep silently out. He couldn't do anything. His hair fluttered against his eyes and across his lips, yet he couldn't bring his hand up to brush them away. He was paralyzed; stretched akimbo against the tussocks of grass digging into his back and tickling the nape of his neck.

He didn't understand. He couldn't understand.

Not to dream…

"Hello brother."

Donghae's gaze shifted ever so slightly from the expanse of blue to a blurred figure peering over him. He simply stared blankly, taking nothing in; his mind in a void of its own.

"It's been a while. Several thousand years, if I'm not mistaken. So very long, yet now we're the last of them, aren't we? Look at the evil beneath us. It sickens me so greatly. If I had realised what monstrosity we would birth, I would never have followed your descent to insanity. Our children play with black magic and cater for the mere whims of humans until they themselves are lost in the inferno of sinners in that universe."

The figure stretched and shifted into focus before Donghae; narrowed eyes piercing and a mess of white and hazed red for hair. They fell over his eyes like feathers and the man grinned a sharp toothy smile.

"Get up brother. Your consciousness is calling and our father is weeding the darkness from your heart. It's a disgrace; what you're doing. You ought to join me here. He'll never find you where I am. He's going to use you."

Donghae blinked and would have risen to his feet of his accord were it not for a gentle pushing force against the entire length of his body lifting him up. Now upright, he could now make out the towering height of the man before him. He was like a tree blocking out the light from above and the dark robes he wore only served to make him seem all the more willowy.

"You really haven't changed at all, have you? Though I guess you're frozen in this state. Forever my baby brother, I see, though I'm surprised you chose this stage at all. You really were handsome as a young man. After all, you did take after our father completely."

The man stepped closer and tenderly cupped his face in his large hands, slowly bending down and drawing closer until their noses were brushing. Donghae stiffened out of reflex and jerked backwards, face tilting to the side in confusion. His brows were drawn together and he couldn't help but wonder who exactly this person was despite a strange feeling within him that sang in greeting.

The man stopped, his lips a mere inch from Donghae's skin, and the brunette could feel the tension in the air as he gauged the younger's reaction. He looked away, feeling the latter's warm breath against his cheek and leaned further away.

"Am I not allowed to kiss my own brother?" The air ran over his ear in heated whispers and Donghae shivered from its touch, "You've become so cruel to me. I think I liked you better as a man than a boy. You always were picky as a child and it seems the trait has carried on even to your next generation."

Nevertheless, the man pulled away and Donghae let out the breath he had been holding in relief, peeking at the amused smirk on the man's face. The air was hot and steamy and filled with the scent of flowers, thousands of them. They evoked within Donghae of the faintest memory of a certain scent mixed with the heady smell of vanilla. The place was truly marvellous.

Between the bushes and their loads of purple, red, and white flowers, the wet grass was full of smaller flowers: pink ones with only three petals, giant pansies, wild phlox, lupines of all colors, orange lilies, tall white lilies, irises, and a myriad of others. There were creepers growing flowers as large as Shindong's head, cornflowers, poppies, and plants with strange shapes and stranger colors of leaves.

Donghae soon forgot his woes and gazed about with delight, his fingers itching to lift the blooms to his nose and to smell the fragrances. He felt the urge to run about the tall grass and was struck with a sense of déjà vu. How odd, he wondered to himself quietly.

"Call me Zelo as you always have." The man watched him closely and there was the faintest stirring of a genuine smile on his face, "Though you're different in body, you're still the same mind. It wouldn't do to change things around."

"Zelo?"

"Do you like it? I made this place for you." Zelo drew closer once more and trailed a finger down Donghae's cheek. The boy simply blinked, unsure of how to respond, and simply opted to keep quiet and continue gazing about him in a befuddled fashion. "I was tired of the world; of the universe we had been born into, so I created our own." His gaze shone with a bright intensity that hadn't faltered since the beginning of their acquaintance. "This universe is our own, brother. Nobody else could come in. No human, spell caster, demon or spirit. Not even our father."

"You want me to stay here?" Donghae frowned in disbelief, thinking of his home, the station clock where he had lived his whole life alongside Jiyong. He could hardly imagine spending his days anywhere else, least of all in such a wild, unkempt place no matter how much he loved the smell and the bursts of colour. In fact, he wasn't even sure how he had ended up in such a place nor why he was accosted by this strange man who called him brother.

"Not now. Not with that darkness within you. You've cursed yourself with this parasite and now you must cleanse yourself of it before you can enter our paradise. Anyhow, our father will only need you once you are free of it, so until then, you are safe enough to venture within that wretched universe."

"But-" Donghae bit hit lip uncertainly and fiddled with the edge of his tartan shift; finger winding and winding around the fabric, "I don't even know who my- our- father is." His gaze shifted up to the tall boy's sharp angular face and he narrowed his eyes with suspicion. "Why do you call me your brother? Or is it a figure of speech?"

"I'm your only brother. We have- we had- many sisters who bore much evil into the universe you came from. We're the last of them all. I've said this before but you've never liked to listen to me before and I doubt you would now. I did love you, you know?" Zelo's brows drew together into a strained expression as he stared down at the brunette. "I loved you as my own brother. But you cannot enter this universe I've created for us yet. You have to leave and rid yourself of the darkness which taints your heart, lest you bri