Le Plot thickens.

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Hope you enjoy!

The arrow glides away from his fingertips, naturally, swiftly.

Chanyeol doesn’t have to check to see if the tip of the arrow caught the small rabbit. He knows it did. He is of the Parkpencari clan and they are the best of the best. He is the best of the best.

If there was anything the hunter loved more than tracking down an animal, it was mornings like this. Fog from the mountain had poured down into the thinner parts of the forest. It gave the air a crisp chill that tickled his nose. The trees seems to be sprouting from thin air instead of the dark soil. And the way the sunlight filtered in through the heavy mist was like gold rain.

It’s early. It’s quiet. Chanyeol can think peacefully out here. In this morning he is on his own, in his own world that makes sense. If he throws his spear, it will plunge into an animal. If he listens closely he will hear the light way a deer’s hooves trample over fallen leaves. Here, in the forest, life makes sense.

Here in the wilderness, no hindrance of a pale face with full lips lingers to bothers him.

“Your father asked me to keep an eye on you.” the voice behind him is expected. He’d heard the obnoxiously loud footsteps a few feet back. Baekhyun wasn’t exactly a subtle person. Sneaky, yes. Subtle, no.

“I don’t need a caregiver, leave.” Chanyeol’s base voice is harsh and he doesn’t turn to look back at his old friend.

Baekhyun does not leave. Instead he follows the hunter’s back, covered in the thick leather of boar hide, the tusks still intact.

“You’re still upset about the failure.” the tukang sighs.

“Yes.” the hunter admits easily and continues to walk. He easily hops over a fallen tree trunk, climbs up a path of rocks and jumps down where the earth dips low. He can hear the craftsman struggling with grunts and curses.

“I understand that you loved him, but seriously it’s been over a week.” the tukang yells. Chanyeol spots it then, an unsuspecting squirrel busy stuffing its cheeks above him. Quickly but quietly he snatches a new arrow from his back and lines up the sharp blade with his fingers. His opposite fingers hook onto the bow’s string lightly. He holds his breath and-

“Don’t ignore me!” the rodent startles at Baekhyun’s high pitched screech. It takes off. The hunter grinds his teeth together.

He turns to face his old friend and glare at the craftsman standing above.

“What is it you seek? I am hunting. I am doing what I need to do. Leave me alone!” he orders.

“He is dead! You saw it yourself! Fine, you loved him. I am sorry you are hurting from his death but-”

“He was mine!” The hunter screams. Baekhyun rolls his eyes at this,

“You courted him. But he was chosen Chanyeol, he was chosen and he is dead.”

“He was mine! I claimed him!” The pencari pounds his chest with fury, “My effort, my patience, my mate!”

And it’s this sentence that seems to finally intrigue the tukang, whose eyes turn into thin slits as he asks, “What do you mean? Your effort? Patience?”

“I wanted him first! He was mine to claim!” Chanyeol roars. He cannot hold this in anymore. It makes his blood boil.

Baekhyun is visibly taken aback, “What did you say?” his voice becomes small.

“I put in the effort, I hunted wild buffalo for him, I waited for Ketua to announce him induk!”

Baekhyun’s mind is spinning, “Announce him induk? We didn’t know he would be...he was born a warrior how could you-”

“He couldn’t hold a spear to save his life, I waited for so many years, I knew he’d become a submissive induk! I waited!” Chanyeol jabs his finger into his own chest and screams on, “ I put the effort in to make him mine! He was mine! I wanted him first! I was willing to break laws for him! He was supposed to be under me every night! My mate!” Chanyeol’s voice carries into the forest, the base booming and echoing in the atmosphere.

“It was enough that those stupid people put him up to be sacrificed, that Kyungsoo denied me when I went to the dukun’s sacred hut that night, I should have just mated with him then whether he liked it or not. I should have claimed what was mine. I treated him like royalty, I showered him with expensive gifts!” Chanyeol is now pacing back and forth, eyes on fire and chest puffing with each breath. And Baekhyun is at a loss for words. This was not the same hunter he’d grown up with. This was not the hunter who doted on Kyungsoo, who treated the sacrifice like he was made of precious moonstone. This was a monster, an animal, a liar.

“But then he mates with that monster! He mates with it and let’s himself be dragged away to die! I couldn’t fight it! It was a man! I can’t hunt a man!” the snap of wood catches the pencari’s attention.

The arrow he was going to use is split in half. The top half with the blade falls to the ground with a dull thud.

Baekhyun is staring. His mouth is hanging open. And now it feels like he is the one with missing pieces of a puzzle. He keeps replaying the times he’d seen his friend openly flirting with the failure, courting him and following him like a puppy. The confession he’d made the night of suci kado, about love, there were missing pieces.

“You said you loved him.” the tukang checks. And a part of him wants to believe that now. He wants to hear it confessed the way Chanyeol had done it that night, with passion. He wants to believe that the person he grew up with is under this madness.

“He was mine to claim.” Chanyeol explains with bitterness in his voice.

Ah. Baekhyun’s neck feels like he’s been snapped backwards. Ah. So that was the case.

It was interesting really, that you could know someone all your life but not really know them at all. And it only took a few words to change your opinion of them, for you to see the real character underneath.

And the tukang never thought he’d say these things in defense of the dead induk, never thought he’d feel this strangeness towards the hunter he’d had eyes for all his life.

“A mate is not something to be claimed, Chanyeol. They are to be cherished.” Baekhyun recites what his mother had always taught him. Yes, he hated Kyungsoo. He had always thought of the failure as the annoyance that stole the heart of his hunter. He’d always gotten in the way, he’d always failed and been a nuisance.

But the things Chanyeol says are just not true.

“What does it matter to you? You will claim a mate as well, you are not induk.” Chanyeol scoffs.

So many pieces he’d missed. So many.

How his envy had planted itself and how it had grown. It was because of his selfishness, his spite that he’d sent his hunter into the woods with a special silver sword. And it was because of that dark act that his fantasy of Chanyeol of the Parkpencari clan had been ripped apart.

“I want my sword back.” are his last words before he turns to retreat.

“I offered to run away with that .” Chanyeol mutters. He probably thought the tukang wouldn’t hear that slight, but he had. And his heart seems to be breaking. It hurts.

And it’s after Baekhyun has left, after the retreating footsteps leave the hunter in silence with nature, that a few words that the tukang had said stick out in his mind.

“He is dead! You saw it yourself!”

No. No he hadn’t seen any death. He’d seen disgusting things but...not death. There had been no blood. No screaming. No death.

Maybe it was time to take a trip back up to Mati Dolok.

His chest is burning with every breath. All is dark and there is no light. His legs feel weak and fluid as if they were made of water. He stumbles every few steps for he cannot see the massive roots in front of him.

One, two, fall. One, fall. One, two, fall. One, two, three, fall. He clenches his teeth in frustration every time, feels a new cut open on his feet and the sting of the fall, but then he gets up again. His palm wipes at the tears on his cheeks and he keeps trying to run.

...therefore you will be a wolf just like me.

No. No, he hadn’t agreed to that. He hadn’t asked for that. All he had ever asked for was death from the wolf. He’d asked to be killed, to be given relief from being thrown out and abandoned by his tribe. He’d been brave, he’d done the right thing and been a willing sacrifice.

Why? Why him?

Kyungsoo whimpers as his feet drag him on in an effortless hope to get away from his new destiny. As if running away from the wolf will help him escape his impending doom.

The bite.

He’d thought it had been a mark to claim him, a mate’s mark. Something only wolves or wild animals did.

He didn’t want to become a monster. Not the thing that ate his people, the thing that was feared. The creature who shifted from man to beast with sharp teeth and neon eyes. Kyungsoo didn’t want it. He wanted to die.

It’s a long while until he hears the quiet trickle of water. The soil becomes muddy and cold, the roots stop blocking his path, and Kyungsoo stumbles into a wide clearing.

The sight of the moon makes his tears well up again. His breath is caught short and he cries out to it, “Why me? Why? Please!”

He had been born a failure. He’d been labeled a failure. He’d been outcasted as a failure. Even the wolf who had claimed him as a mate thought he was a failure, didn’t he? Why else would the wolf treat him only as a child bearing vessel?

Kyungsoo was nothing. He’d always been nothing.

“Please.” He begged the moon. Her crescent smile beamed down on him, her light creating deep blue shadows along a large body of water in front of him. It’s a lake. It’s beautiful.

The induk sighs and slowly lies down, the wet mud outlining his body. It’s cold. Freezing in fact, and Kyungsoo shivers. Deep in his thoughts he wishes he had the warmth of fur to surround him. But he has nothing. Nothing.

The stars watch him and the moon smiles, Kyungsoo cries himself to sleep.

Sweat has made his hair stick to his forehead. His hands feel clammy. His mind is running around and around, and endless sprint.

Yifan is panicking.

He hasn’t felt like this in a long time. Not since he was young. But he’s feeling it full force now. It’s eating at his stomach, at his chest and at his mind.  

He hadn’t been able to sleep last night. Each minute had dropped down with each drip of rain. Of course it had rained last night. Of course the temperature had dropped down. Of course. And Yifan’s mind had been running and waiting. His eyes had watched the cave entrance with anticipation and hope. But the curtain of water had not stopped flowing and it had not been interrupted. When morning had come, the sun finally shining through, Yifan had let the panic sink in.

You’re a monster!

The words made his eyes glow. A warning growl emits from his throat. And it was these words that made him hesitate to follow. He was a monster. He was something to be feared, something his mate would not want. He hated him.

But then he’d picture his mate, small and frail in the rainstorm. He wasn’t wolf yet, he wouldn’t be able to keep warm. He’d freeze to death.

I hate you!

And it was these words that always brought Yifan down to his knees. They made him weak, vulnerable.

Had he made the wrong decision?

But he’d been so sure. He had been brave in the face of death. He had demanded it, but he had said yes, hadn’t he? Yifan had been...rough...yes. But it was necessary in his world, in this jungle. Creatures like him, with magic, could snatch up his mate at any moment.

And the possibility of his mate leaving always remained. Isn’t that what his mother had done? She’d waited for the opportune moment. She’d given his father a child, she’d taken his father’s trust, and she was able to leave with the excuse of pushing Yifan onto his father.

Mates didn’t stay around. They left. They were vulnerable. They were only supposed to give you a child. And hopefully eternity wouldn’t be so maddening.

But Yifan had given Kyungsoo one look and he’d known.

Kyungsoo would make eternity blissful.

And he was out there now. He was probably lost. He was amongst the creatures of the forest and…

“Yesterday I wanted to strangle you,” Yifan sighs, “Today I will find you and hold you.”

He shifts effortlessly, and the white wolf leaps out of the cave and into the forest.

Aw snap what you think about that? You think Yifan will find him? (maybe for once I should show my characters mercy hm?)

Oh Chanyeol. Precious Evil Lord.

Hope you enjoyed! 

Much Love Doves,

Porter