Sehun didn’t really understand what had been Jongdae’s intentions when he invited Kyungsoo for dinner; he knew that there was one, Jongdae didn’t usually act on impulses like that, especially knowing how stressed they were over Jongin’s vision and everything else that had been happening around them, but he just couldn’t figure out exactly what. Plus, he hadn’t had the opportunity to speak with him and prepare himself.

While Jongdae and Kyungsoo headed to the first’s hut and begun preparing dinner, Sehun took a chance to deliver the aloe plants to Luhan, who thanked him and delivered him some cucumber extract for him to apply on his sunburns, and to take a refreshing bath, to clean himself from all the sweat and dirty that clung to his skin after a day of working on the fields.

When he arrived again at Jongdae’s hut again, there was a faint appetizing smell lingering on the air and, while he knew that Jongdae knew how to cook, it was more than obvious that it was Kyungsoo who had taken over the kitchen. He could smell cooked meat and vegetables and his stomach rumbled.

He imagined that Jongdae had time to bathe already since he appeared squeaky clean and smelled like the mint soap that Kyungsoo made on his free time, standing next to the said man, looking curiously as Kyungsoo stirred something inside a pot.

“It smells really good Kyungsoo.” He said in a loud voice, announcing his arrival to the two males, who looked over to him, smiling in greeting.

“Thank you Sehun!” replied the priest, eyes crinkling in pleasure at the compliment. “The vegetables are almost on point but the meat needs a little more time so that it can be tender and succulent.”

Kyungsoo briefly showed Sehun a glimpse of the vegetables, the carrots, roasted with honey on top of them, the small potatoes with rosemary and garlic, the pumpkin with ginger and sage and some bell peppers. It was more than enough to have Sehun’s mouth salivating at the image.

“It smells amazingly and, by the looks of it, it will only be more delicious than I ever imagined. Jongdae and I might cook well enough to survive but that does not mean that the taste is anything like your cooking.”

Kyungsoo looked bashfully at them while Jongdae nodded at the words. Kyungsoo was indeed an exceptional cook. The man replied that it was due to the excellent quality of the harvested goods they had, which wasn’t really a lie since their village dedicated a lot of time to agriculture and shepherding, in order to have food.

Jongdae and Sehun set up the table while Kyungsoo finished the food and, making use of the priest’s distracted state, Sehun enquired Jongdae about the invitation, asking, in a whisper, what was the purpose behind it.

“As I went to see Minseok today, since I had a message from Jonghyun to him, something about a mine being found somewhere, nothing important, I overheard Minseok talking to Kyungsoo about his mission and how this was, again, another time where the sighting of creatures was a problem.” Began Jongdae, voice soft and flat, trying not to raise suspicion. “And then it hit me: if there is anyone who probably knows about Minseok’s missions, it is Kyungsoo! You know how close they are and, despite the fact that Minseok says otherwise, he does nothing to conceal the affections he has for Kyungsoo. If there is anyone who knows everything that Minseok knows, it’s Kyungsoo.”

Sehun seemed to understand the point that Jongdae was trying to make and he raised an eyebrow, probably figuring out what Jongdae wanted to do.

“You want to question him over dinner, which is subtle enough for him to spill and not be suspicious about it since it’s a casual gathering and he is probably a little torn over Minseok’s absence, which will make him more pliable.”

Jongdae nodded, confirming Sehun’s thoughts.

“I have things to tell you as well and you better brace yourself because if I am right, we can have the partial solution to a lot of our questions in our hands.” Replied Sehun also in a low tone of voice, stopping himself and smiling at Kyungsoo when the man turned to him and announced that dinner was ready.

He was feeling rather poorly to be doing this to Kyungsoo; bringing him to dinner with the mindset of asking him questions was weighting on his conscience a little. He really liked Kyungsoo and felt that using him like this horrible, he felt truly bad. However, he also understood that there were much bigger problems at hands at the moment and they needed answers without compromising someone’s safety, in this case Kyungsoo’s, by telling him a secret that would endanger him: the existence of two berserkers and an Oracle wolf at the outskirts of their village.

Sehun sat himself to eat, gracefully accepting a hot bowl of food, and he noticed that Jongdae was probably feeling the same, since the man had a gleam of guilt on his eyes as well; he just hoped that Kyungsoo didn’t notice it.

They started to eat, in delight as the flavors burst into their mouths, while making small talk to warm the conversation up and prepare it for the direction they wish to take it upon. They talked about the festival, the work on the fields, Sehun’s apprenticeship and Jongdae’s students, they spoke about the need of preparing for winter, although they were still on summer, so that they wouldn’t be unprepared and, as the topics changed naturally, they also discussed some of their friends, such as the fact that Junmyeon wanted a child; Kris’ burdens as a leader; Hongki’s new punishment, there always seemed to be one when he was involved; Yoona being courted by some male. Since luck was on their side, as they talked about Chaeyoung’s and Lalisa’s addition to the higher alpha ranks, Sehun took the opportunity to approach Kyungsoo about Minseok since he remembered that both girls were part of Minseok’s squad on this mission.

“Lalisa and Chaeyoung are on Minseok’s squad, are they not?” he enquired nonchalantly, biting on a piece of carrot, almost forgetting the topic at hands thanks to deliciousness he was eating.

“They are!” nodded Kyungsoo, confirming what he already knew.

“I talked to Minseok and the told it’s a reckon mission but it seems kind of odd doing a reckon mission out of thin air.”

Kyungsoo’s eyebrow lifted a little at Sehun’s words.

“A reckon mission?” he repeated, a little bit uncertain. “Well, it is a reckon mission but it was requested by an emissary from another pack from the eastern lands!”

Jongdae, who hadn’t really heard, on first hand, the news from Minseok, after all it had been Sehun to talk to the older male, looked over the two completely flabbergasted at the news.

“An emissary requested it? That is not very common, at least not with any pack from the eastern lands; as far as I know there isn’t any peace treaty signed between our pack and any pack from those sides.”

“Well, it was requested apparently.” Confided Kyungsoo. “As it seems, there was an attack to their pack and only a small number of wolves escaped, forming a nucleus on a safe place. They asked Kris for a squad to help them investigate it since a lot of their alpha soldiers were decimated on this attack!”

“That’s horrible!” exclaimed Jongdae, absolutely shocked at the news; Sehun wished that he had spoken to the other beta in order to prepare him for the news; he knew that Jongdae was particularly sensitive when it came to any news regarding violence.

“What caused this attack?” asked Sehun innocently, albeit completely interested in the topic being discussed. “It had to be a really powerful group to do this! To actually almost manage to neutralize a wolf pack it is necessary a lot of organization and power; wolves aren’t necessary gods but they do represent a force to be recognized.”

“I know.” Acquiesced Kyungsoo with a nod. “However, Minseok told me that the emissary isn’t sure about what attacked his pack. It was a night attack and, while wolves possess sharp senses, the descriptions given by the emissary, and the general population of said pack, were unprecise and fantastical. They talked about horses with gorgon torsos, harpies that looked like fawns, mixtures of the two even, and a whole more than that. It is not the first time that attacks like these had happen, I mean, with those fantastical creatures appearing in the descriptions told by the survivors but the reports are never the same and, well, it’s not that possible. That was the main reason why Kris wants to investigate, although the Council was very much against the decision. Minseok thinks that these are generalized attacks made by the wizardry community and they are just hiding themselves with spells and potions.”

Jongdae seemed pensive; he kept munching on his food, eyes slightly unfocused, as his mind wandered through all the pre-existing thoughts and the recently formed ones, meaning the ones that he had just acquired with Kyungsoo’s words.

“You think that it’s possible?” asked Jongdae after a while. “I mean, that type of knowledge, the possibility of the existence of another creatures that are not what we find daily and that we know nothing about, are extremely scary; for me at least “

“I don’t know if it’s possibly and I don’t know if it’s a good thing to validate or not their existence.” Admitted Kyungsoo.

“Why so?” questioned Sehun.

“Because it will change the dynamics of our pack and I am afraid that, if it proves itself to be real, then the Council may try revoke Kris’ powers by stating that an alpha, even if it is our leader, does not possess the ability to deal with this matter, claim something as idiotic as the pack needing a strong government lead by a group of people, or even that Kris is unfit due to his short time as this pack’s alpha.” Replied Kyungsoo calmly. “In reality, we all know that this is only a reason to push Kris from a position where he has power. Right now, Kris is directly confronting them, telling them, in no uncertain ways, that he doesn’t approve some of their decisions and it diminishes their power. That is a position that they don’t want; how else can they control people and use them to achieve all their plans if they are powerless?”

It was actually a very good point of view, if Sehun said so, Kyungsoo had made a very valid point: if it turned out to be truth, which Sehun knew by experience that it was, or at least if it was divulged, the Council could very well use the information to dissolve Kris’ power and make him step out of their way. Of course that, being Kris, we would go without a fight, but the masses were very much under the influence of the Council and, in a pack like theirs, with about one hundred and twenty people living in the same village, Sehun could said that only about one fourth of the people, more or less, would actually question the Council’s motive and searched for truth and reason, valuing it over tradition.

“That makes absolute sense.” Said Jongdae in a calm voice, although both Kyungsoo and Sehun knew that it was a purely deceptive calmness and that the man was more agitated than he showed, mainly because it was too much of a serious matter to take it lightly.

Although it wasn’t really voiced out loud, Sehun knew that Kyungsoo feared the possibility of a change of power from Kris to the Council the most out of the three men sitting at the table; if somehow that happened, Kyungsoo would probably become the Council’s number one target, among people who blatantly shown their disagreements with some actions, and he would either die or be exiled. Taking into consideration his conversation with Sooyoun this afternoon, Sehun wasn’t quite sure of his destiny either.

The conversation had taken an unpleasant turn, no matter how hard Sehun tried to lighten up the mood, both Jongdae and Kyungsoo looked too deep into thought and certainly worried about the possibilities.

Funny is that Sehun never thought much about the word possibility until he met Jongin, the Oracle wolf with visions, that he found himself saying it more often and actually pondering over the meaning of it. Everything he knew so far had been based on possibilities that had, or hadn’t, came true; for example, he had been born due to a possibility of life that led his parents to decide and have a kid, if they decided they didn’t want a child, he wouldn’t be here! The choice they made, to fall in love and build a family, made it possible for him to be here.

He understood now, to a deeper level, that everything that they done altered the future; every single gesture and action, to the most grandiose one to the smaller and apparently insignificant. Jongin just had the bonus of seeing those possibilities and allow the better choice.

The dinner had eventually ended in a darker mood than anyone anticipated and certainly quicker than they wanted but Sehun could see that Kyungsoo had closed himself off, not that the man noticed it himself, and Jongdae was, once again, lost in thought; the promise of negative changes haunting them, could do that to a person. Although the answers that he wanted were not enough for him but this was the best he could get at the moment, he refused to push Kyungsoo just for the sake of it.

Eventually, after some small, stilted talk about the fields, medicine and just life in general, Kyungsoo had left for the temple, probably retiring sooner since the sun had already set and it had been a tiring day.

Jongdae and Sehun cleaned everything in an instant and they both lay down on Jongdae’s pelt, protesting a little as the sore muscles finally having a little bit of rest after a long day working in the fields.

They didn’t talk for a long while, basking in the warmth and the feeling the tiredness seeping into their bones, manifesting itself tenfold, while the soft pelts seemed to draw that pain away making it all more bearable and, if they were truthful, a little sweet.

“What did you want to tell me?” asked Jongdae suddenly, eyes almost closed, looking sleepy and a little more cheered up than he was at lunch.

Sehun had startled a little at the sound of Jongdae, he had been close to sleep as well and on the next day he would be working on the fields again really early in the morning. He looked over Jongdae, eyes regarding the other’s face, a little confused at the conversation, until he hit him that he hadn’t told Jongdae yet about his conversation with Sooyoun.

“I forgot to tell you but I had a not so pleasant encounter with Sooyoun today, after working in the fields.”

“What?” asked Jongdae a little alarmed, his eyes opening wide and staring at Sehun in concern, hissing slightly when the crust on his back pulled a little.

“I got a little sunburn today and I went to Luhan to pick something for my skin, he said he missed aloe plants to create some ointment for it and sent me to pick some plants at the northern part of the village, even though he had cucumber oil. As I was there, I was picking up the plants, scratching myself all over, when I noticed that, on one of the thorns of the plants there, a piece of fabric was there. I can guarantee that it belonged to some member of the Council because it looked exactly like the fabric on their robes.”

While saying this, Sehun picked the little piece of fabric from his pocket, suddenly remembering that he had left that there to show it to Jongdae. The older wolf picked it carefully between his fingers, examining it close and twirling into his face, sniffing it slightly.

“It does look like the fabric from the Council members’ robes and it does have a smell that I recognize, but it’s being overpowered by the smell of plants and dirt; it’s far too subtle for me to be able to identify it. Have you tried?”

“I did!” nodded Sehun. “But I don’t recognize any of it.”

“Odd!” replied Jongdae since Sehun had a better olfactory system out of the two; maybe the younger wolf didn’t really recognize the source of the smell. “I swear I smelt it before, I just don’t know where!”

“But you agree with me that it is from the robes, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do agree.” Nodded Jongdae, eyes still fixated on the fabric piece. “It’s exactly the same; I look over robes with fabric like this, all day. What was this doing on that part of the village? It’s not like many people go there! There is nothing to see, it’s basically just a natural limit of our territory. Aside from some plants that grow there, because it’s not very illuminated and it’s colder, there is no purpose for those lands.”

“Exactly my thoughts!” replied Sehun. “However, when she talked to me, Sooyoun seemed very intent on keeping off of those parts of the territory. She started very, very coldly, enquiring me over my motives for being there and then when I explained, she only told me to send a message to Luhan, asking him to relocate the aloe plants out of there and to never go there. She mentioned that that part was dangerous and that being there alone was risky for me. When I questioned her about her motives…”

“Tell me you didn’t actually confronted her directly, Sehun!” interrupted Jongdae looking worried, he knew that confronting the Council members, especially Sooyoun, could put one in a lot of trouble, defiance was not tolerated.

“I didn’t mean to, it just came out!”

“You better be careful! She’ll do something if the thinks you’re being defiant, regardless if you are, in fact, being it or not! I really don’t want to have you punished!”

“Well, I’ll try to stay low on everyone’s radar in order to prevent that from happening.” Replied Sehun, a little bit dismissively, trying not to let Jongdae wonder over the possibilities of his disrespect to Sooyoun, aside from the fact that it wasn’t disrespectful at all. “But, back on topic, she replied like he would’ve expect by saying that it was none of my business. However, the question remains: why does she want to keep people away from that spot? What’s hiding in there?”

“What leads you to think that there is something there?” asked Jongdae, not totally persuaded by the idea but curious and listening, receptive to a good argument that would change his mind.

“First of all the blatant effort to keep me away from there and she also made it seem that it was anybody who went there and not only me; it’s forbidden to anyone who goes there. Also, there is the fabric found, someone from the Council had to be there and, as we concluded before, there is nothing there to see or do. Plus, we were discussing about how they seem to be hiding things for us and, in my opinion, where better place to hide it then right under our noses, where it can’t afford suspicion?”

“Well, when you put it like that, it raises suspicion. We already know, as you said, that something is being hidden, could it be that is really there? But why only protecting it now? I mean, Sooyoun and the Council had a lot of time to make than zone interdict to people, why starting actively doing so, only now? It’s weird!”

“Maybe because someone is getting close to it, like I did! Maybe seeing me there raised suspicion on their part and they are afraid that I know more than I should, or that I find more than I should. I don’t really know.”

“That would be leverage on them that I would’ve liked to have over them!” grumbled Jongdae, letting himself fall into the soft bed again with a sigh; he did not like this one bit, it was too much uncertainty and too much of walking on their tippy toes, through egg shells, afraid to step where they shouldn’t and trigger something bigger that would blow them all. It was a dangerous game what was starting to brew, politics versus community and it was getting darker and shadier than Jongdae liked.

“We need to speak over with Jongin.” Spoke Sehun softly. “We need to know if he has seen anything else and we need to inform them over this, the attacks I mean; the rest has to do with our village and it doesn’t concern them.”

“And how exactly do you plan to do that? With Sooyoun watching over you like a hawk, which is an assumption but I can guarantee you that it is what it’s going to happen.”

“I really need to talk to them! If we have got to prioritize, the murder is top priority and then we see what they are hiding in there!”

“How do you plan to do that?” asked Jongdae a little more sleepily.

“I plan on going there tomorrow!” replied Sehun slowly but confidently, getting sleepier by the second since the heaviest part of the conversation was out of the way. “You’ll stay here so it’s not suspicious.”

Jongdae nodded; although he didn’t exactly liked the fact that Sehun was going alone and putting himself in danger like this, he knew that the two of them disappearing at the same time, given that they had been busted the last one, would only bring unwanted attention if they were got again. Also, he knew that Sehun was asking him to play interference by showing himself out to the villagers to keep them from noticing his absence: as kids they had done it a lot of time when one of them wanted to skip classes or work for the day; when that happened the other would draw attentions to himself and never once they had been caught on their little scheme but those were years of practice and a solid friendship.

“Well, you’ll tell me all about it tomorrow morning because right now, I am too tired to think.” Mumbled Jongdae, this time with his eyes closed and half way into the dream land.

Sehun hummed, a low sound deep on his chest, making him almost rumble, ready to sleep as well. He had no motivation to get up and go to his house, therefore, he just pulled himself into Jongdae’s body, basking in the warmth, while Jongdae rested his head on the other’s chest. It would see strange to anyone but wolves were very tactile and this was only a show of their affection for each other, there wasn’t any kind of mating instincts on their part, only a very strong friendship and brotherhood, a platonic love.

They both let themselves fall into sleep, their tired bodies succumbing into it and their even more tired minds begging for it. There were a lot of things they needed to talk and to discuss for tomorrow, namely a plan to get Sehun safely to Jongin but, for now, sleep was far more important, anything else would have to wait.

On the next day, after working a lot on the fields and after a good bath, Jongdae had gone out through Sehun’s door after the man escaped himself from one of the windows on the back of his place. He stood low, making himself smaller and always finding a dark corner or a bush to hide himself from people.

Sehun could hear Jongdae talking to people and saying that Sehun was home, since he had woken up not feeling good, probably catching the moon flu, which was one of the diseases that affected wolves the most, especially when the full moon was nearing, which was the case, only two days to it. People said that it was due to the fact that wolves, the ancient animals, were more susceptible to it and they had inherit it from them, in form of a sickness similar to their human’s ancestor flu.

As Jongdae say it, people immediately scrunched up their noses and praised Jongdae for taking care of Sehun. What they didn’t know was that Jongdae was lying with all his teeth, helping spread a lie that would keep attentions out of Sehun. Sehun, for his part, had worked poorly at the fields, constantly complaining of a headache and shivering a little to be convincing enough. Jongdae just had to tell it to a bunch of people for it to believable but without exaggerating.

Sehun had planned to go through the northern part of the village but since Sooyoun could be there, he actually took a detour finding himself in the forest, soon after, breathing a little in relief at the fact that he had managed to get out like he wanted. Jongdae was doing is part and taking attentions from Sehun, at least unwanted one, while he escaped.

He ran through the green scenery, not bothering to look around like he often did, looking instead, of being deft and quick in order to get to Jongin. He just hoped that the trio was still there, despite the fact that they hadn’t seen them in quite a while: he wasn’t like he didn’t want to, he just couldn’t.

He was running swiftly when the sound of something made him slow down, to a light jog. Sehun strained his ear to listen to all sounds around him and there was the faintest sound of footsteps behind him. He didn’t turn around, not wanting to alert whatever that it was following him.

It was a nerve wrecking situation; who was behind him? What was behind him? Was it an ally? Was it an enemy? He didn’t know and he also didn’t know if the intentions were good or bad! It could be a coincidence, it could be curiosity on the other being’s part or it could be a murder attempt.

Either way, Sehun proceeded like nothing was wrong, slowing down his pace enough to properly ear what’s going on behind him. At a certain point he decided it would be for the best to simply lose whoever was behind him, no matter who or what it was.

Taking a swift turn right, Sehun let himself go into the heart of the forest, forgetting the normal paths and simply using the thick trunks and tall trees to evade. He was thrown off his game when someone grabbed him by the arm, he could feel the lean, muscular arms pulling him into a solid chest, and clamped a hand on his mouth.

Sehun immediately started squirming and shaking himself, trying to get rid of the hold he was being kept on, however, no matter how tall he was, he was no match for whoever has behind him. Panic was quickly dominating him until a familiar voice travelled to his ear.

“Stop trashing! Someone is following you.”

Baekhyun’s low, rough voice was music to him; he felt so incredibly relieved that it wasn’t someone to harm him, although in retrospective, if it was the case, he wouldn’t exactly be held but dead on the spot. His body sagged and relaxed completely against his holder.

“Someone has been following you for a while. Whoever it is has been trying hard to be inconspicuous. Just control your breathing and don’t say a word.” Whispered Baekhyun while extracting something out of his pocket: a little flask with some sticky substance inside of it.

Once the flask was opened, which required a lot of dexterity on Baekhyun’s part, Sehun almost gagged: it smelt like durian fruit mixed with rotting ginkgo berries, it was utterly revolting. He let the substance fall on top of Sehun’s clothes, to the other’s horror, while looking him in the eyes.

“It will help disguise your odor.” He whispered as an explanation, not that Sehun asked, albeit he didn’t seem fazed at all by the smell.

They both stood behind a thick trunk tree, pressed closely against each other as their ears strained themselves to hear the sot pitter patter of footsteps. It was near but not so much that they could get caught. There was a definitive confusion on the creature’s steps: they would go on forward, then backwards, turning sideways and even stopping a few times; clearly it had lost the faint smell of Sehun and it was very confused and lost.

It took about twenty minutes but, after the long wait, the steps seemed to be retrieving, or at least, that was the information that Baekhyun relayed upon him, stating that the odor, something smoky and musky, exuding of basically, had backed up enough for them to move. Baekhyun only effectively let him go after seven more minutes or so, making sure that the follower was gone.

Baekhyun looked over at Sehun, eyeing him up and down and regarding his state, he seemed to approve what he saw, which Sehun guessed it was his calm state; Sehun wasn’t the one to be prone to panicking, that was Jongdae.

With a head motion, Baekhyun beckoned Sehun to follow him, leading the taller male through the thick mass of trees and plants. Sehun did follow him, running a little to keep with the smaller’s wolf footsteps.

“Why did you come here?” asked Sehun, looking over the berserker, slightly in fascination, as the compact but powerful body moved so graciously.

“We relocated.” Replied the other simply. “He knew you were coming so he sent me.”

“Are you better?” asked Sehun quietly. “We tried to come for you sooner but… due some circumstances it wasn’t possible.”

Baekhyun looked at the taller over his shoulder, an unreadable look crossing his face.

“I’m fine, thank you.” He replied after a few uncertain seconds of silence.

It was kind of awkward; Baekhyun wasn’t much of a talker, like Jongin, nor did he possess the same temperament as Chanyeol. Sehun liked to relate himself to all people, although he wasn’t the typical social butterfly like Luhan or Tao, he possessed some charm and some intelligent to keep people interested on talking to him, which was not the case with someone as Baekhyun or, at least, someone who had gone through the same as Baekhyun.

He resigned himself to make the rest of the way in silence, since Baekhyun seemed to have reached his quota of words for the moment. He just hoped that Jongin had much more to say. With a tired sigh and the double of the questions he had at the moment, he followed the other wolf, he just hoped Jongin could answer some of those.





A/N: I know it's already a week in but HAPPY NEW YEAR! I wish all of you the best and may 2017 be much better than 2016! Always better!!
Now, for the story, we have ourselves a little filler chapter that unveils some important information about ... well everything! First our little duo managed to corner Kyungsoo and ask him some questions, we know that Council is trying to keep these attacks in secrecy and that packs have been eliminated by creatures, although Minseok thinks it's just a play from the wizards and witches. What do you think? Any correlations between these things? Why are pakcs being killed and what's the Council interest in keeping this a secret? Then, we got some mystery going on with someone following Sehun and a little SeBaek moment, a lot of contact, even though the intentions were pure (...at the moment!). There are a lot of questions yet to answer and much more rising by the second!!! What are your thoughts on everything that is happening? Please, do tell me about it in either a comment or a PM, don't be afraid to come and talk to me! Also, please, if you like the story upvote it and subscribe it! It makes me very happy when people do it! ^^
Lastly, but no less important, please, all of you, be safe and be healthy, love and allow others to love you and ALWAYS BE HAPPY!
Lot's of love to all of you al, warm cuddles and big, bear hugs and have a magnificent week! 
<3 <3 <3