Chp. 1 


Luckily, without further interruptions they arrived at their destination at the lesser-known and poorest division of the village, the homeland of the musher. 

Kyungsoo's house stood on a slight rise just on the edge of the village. It stood on its own and looked over a broad spread of farmland. Not a remarkable house by any means, far away from it - it was approximately thirty years old, squattish, squarish, made of brick, and had four windows set in the front of a size and proportion which more or less exactly failed to please. A crumbled beauty of an era long past. Even the walls no longer kept him safe, no longer repel storms of rain or snow. 

No postmen ever delivered mail to its rusting letterbox, no milkmen has ever been brave enough to crumble the doorstep and the birds know better than to fly over its chimneys. 

A creaking wooden sign advertised by whom the house was occupied - Do Kyungsoo. Without even opening the front door it was easy to tell that it will be damp and dirty with fixtures so out of date, but he couldn't afford much more. One day he is going to follow a rainbow to get the bucket of gold, he always believed in those mysteries. 

A path made out of leftover bricks made a shallow S-shape between the gate and the front door. Yet he was content with the circumstances, he hasn't had the advantages others had. He was never able to visit school, as a result no one would offer him a job without any proper education. 

"Well done!", he hollered out to the dogs, as they came to a halt at the farmyard. Almost clumsily he jumped off the sleigh, nearly slipping on a frozen puddle right beside the sleigh in the progress, before he hurried to free the huskies from the leash that connected them to the sleigh. 

Wintry air swirled around, taking every of warmth it could. There was no hint of warmth left, nothing of the autumn or the kiss of the vanquished sun. Kyungsoo wrapped his arms around himself, pulling his coat close and tucking his chin downward into his pullover. His breath was now only visible under the notion of brightness coming from a full moon, and even her light was a chilled silver beam, the sporadic light from the stars barely lit up the farmland. 


As he walked back to the sleigh, he felt the icy sidewalk beneath his boots for the first time that season. The cold breeze blew right through Kyungsoo's jacket, despite his amends to somehow warm his body. It caressed his skin until it stole the pink blush and replaced it with blue, the air so chilled it hurt to breathe. 

The night came with such a bitterness that the rutted brown fields took on the appearance of a sugared cobbler under the moonlight. The cold stole every bit of water from the air it can in its frenzy to frost over the countryside.

"Let's get you inside", he whispered, his voice muffled underneath the layers of his scarf, jacket and lastly his pullover. Cautiously he embraced the wolf, pulling it towards his upper body. 

The weight of the wolf, however, was so intense that he immediately thought of nothing but the growing pain in his shoulder as he rather stumbled, than walked, down the lane toward home. If there were a single unnecessary bump, he wouldn't stand a single chance to balance it out. 

Of course, the animals weight was a burden to carry for the fragile male, but he knew he had to push on - for the sake of rescuing Mother Nature's wolf. His face was a tight grimace as soon as he reached the front door, his breath shallow. Drawing a long breath, he took out the keys, fumbling around with the door-lock, before they finally made it inside. 

Using the walls of the wooden hallway as a support, he made his way to the heart of the house - the living room. 

The furniture of the room was crammed like an overstocked consignment store. There were solid wood pieces and peeling vinyl; there were floral lamps and sleek metal coat stands; there were coffee tables and and a random assortment of chairs. 

If he painted the walls black the room couldn't be any darker. The once frilly net curtains at the window were now thick with over a decade of grime. The light that struggled through failed to reflect from the once beige carpet that is more like a forest floor in both colour and texture. The walls could be any shade at all.

How long had it been since the house heard the laughter of a precious child? How long had it been since it felt the coolness of fresh paint or contained the fragrance of Sunday dinner? 

It felt so empty. 

Kyungsoo's soft snoring during nights, the sound of his prancing feet, the sound of the huskies running to the kitchen to get their meal, was the finest music the house had heard in so many years. After so long in dark silence the house creaked in happiness, the new sounds being as welcome as a lion's roar on the savannah. 

The wolf would vest a change. 

Right in front of the chimney, his legs gave in and he stumbled towards the cold, hard floor. 

The pain was like a knife being twisted in his spine, the wolf's body fell right on top of him. The pain shot up fast, erasing every previous thought from his head and paralyzing his body. He placed his palm on the shoulder of the wolf, before he rolled the animal on the skin of a sheep that lay in front of the chimney.  

"Wuff", he turned his head sidewards to see the alpha from his sledge dogs, standing next to him.  His eye brows twitch from side to side in that way he does when he's trying to figure something out and it just wasn't working for him.

"Wuff?", he barked again, tilting his head in a way that made the musher think that the dog wanted to check on his w