20.DH Gold

I wanted to close my eyes but couldn´t. Eunhyuk was kneeling in front of me and I haven ´t seen him this vulnerable since he got poisoned by ammonia. His arms were lifelessly hanging by his sides, his knees were buried in the dirt. But the worst was that devastated face. It was impossible to see Eunhyuk cry, I felt guilty that I was always the cause of those precious tears. My heart was throbbing and I would have run to him if the blade under my neck wasn´t stopping me from doing so.

“Don´t be stupid,” I hissed at him, “stop it already! Stop sacrificing yourself for me, I don´t want that!” I barked at him. Eunhyuk was obviously hurt by my refusal and I suddenly thought that I might have gone overboard but at that moment echoed in the jungle a gunshot.

“Hyuk!” Everything was happening so fast.

Kyuhyun used the chance when Zhoumi´s attention was on Eunhyuk and pulled out a small pistol he had on him. Kyuhyun never wore only one gun, after all. I don´t want to know where he took the confidence when he disarmed Zhoumi of the machete with one shot. It was right next to my head!

Not even two seconds after Kyuhyun´s scream, Eunhyuk was already missing. I didn´t have perceptions fast enough to understand. From behind me came a loud groan. I turned around and Eunhyuk was sitting on Zhoumi´s body and squeezing his throat. Eunhyuk was in his human form but his actions were clearly feral, we had to pull him away from unconscious Zhoumi or else he would kill the man. The morpheles shook us off but in order to get a hang of himself, he stretched himself up on his toes and howled. We were shocked to hear a man howl, it was a terrifying sound but after that Eunhyuk calmed down. Breathing out, standing firmly, wiping his sweat, he was back.

“That was close,” Kyuhyun slouched down into the leaves, “that was ing close.”

“It was an amazing hit,” I glanced at Zhoumi´s bleeding hand, “and great plan. I totally believed Hyuk´s acting.”

“Ah, that,” Kyuhyun snorted, “that wasn´t a distraction plan. That idiot was serious, he´s so whipped it literally hurts.”

“Shut up,” Eunhyuk appeared out of nowhere and lightly kicked Kyuhyun in the guts. “There´s a stream ahead, let´s build the camp there.” After that Eunhyuk passed between me and Kyuhyun and picked up Zhoumi. Then he silently began walking toward the stream.

I glanced at the hunter who only smiled. Kyuhyun usually liked to annoy us. He wasn´t worried of being hated, he tried our patience every day, specially Eunhyuk´s. But today he saved us and I felt grateful because without somebody calm and level-headed, we wouldn´t be able to solve the situation without any sacrifices. I helped Kyuhyun stand, and then we followed behind our crying morpheles.

Once at the stream, it was already dark, Eunhyuk began cleaning Zhoumi´s wound. Apparently, the man was slightly feverish too and it made us believe that he wasn´t in his right mind when he attacked us. To tell the truth, I´ve heard about the magic of the curse from various travellers but I refused to believe that any of my friends would have fallen for that. When Zhoumi wakes up, I´m sure he will feel sorry. Hyuk can surely sense that too or else he wouldn´t have spared his life. As a precaution Eunhyuk tied Zhoumi up, though. Kyuhyun built the tent and I started the fire. But before the dinner even warmed up, Kyuhyun was already fast asleep. Level-headed or not, the day was long and hard.

“Come here,” I got startled when I noticed that Eunhyuk took place next to me. He was holding a clean towel, my mom´s ointment and a bandage while his eyes were focused on my neck. He was so close it made me gulp dryly. “It might be infected,” he frowned, “the machete was all dirty.”

“What are you doing?!” I panicked when he bared his teeth.

“Don´t move,” he hissed and grabbed my shoulders to keep me still.

And then I had to bite my lip to not squeak. Eunhyuk leaned forward and the wound on my neck, my body shivered as never before. He attached his lips to the cut and a little before spitting the blood out. I hoped that was all but he did it one more time and then the wound again. Only then he used the wet towel, ointment and bandage. By then I had already tears in the corners of my eyes and my limbs were all tingling. Dear Lord.

“This should work,” Eunhyuk nodded and smothered my hair. “Let´s eat quickly and then sleep, the morning will be surely merrier.”

Although he wasn´t smiling, Eunhyuk´s eyes were sparkling. He might have felt guilty, as it was usual for him whenever I got hurt, but he was also happy. Was it because the city of gods was within reach? Or because he was, indeed, whipped?

“Don´t look at me like that,” he sighed, “forget about what Kyuhyun said and get ready for tomorrow. You will see something amazing.” Eunhyuk´s distraction plan worked, I felt excited right away.

“Did you see it back then? The gold? Is the city from gold?” I asked eagerly.

“Tomorrow, Hae,” Eunhyuk only said with a puzzling expression and then left.

I didn´t know what to think and thinking kind of hurt this late. I sighed, instinctively touching the throbbing wound on my neck. Sometimes was Eunhyuk like an unreacheable creature, his strong demeanor and pride wouldn´t allow me to see through him. But then there are times when he´s suddenly very close and very visible. In those times I can hardly take my eyes off of him. Eunhyuk is enchanting, as a wolf, as a falcon, as a human. Deep inside I catch myself wishing the journey would never end, I scare myself by the thought of not seeing him the next day again. Yet, I have no choice but to close my eyes and trust him that he will be there again. Tomorrow, he said.

“Hae, Donghae,” I woke up sore the next morning. Hazily opening my eyes, I saw Eunhyuk crouching next to me. I frowned and he chuckled, and although he was probably laughing at my morning face, I felt much better seeing him smile. “Come on, silly, wake up.”

“Is it morning already?” I yawned.

“Almost,” Eunhyuk whispered.

I washed my face in the stream and drank some fresh water. The sky was light blue, it was the colour right before the sunrise. Eunhyuk was nervously circling around me until I gave up and let him lead me wherever he wanted so early in the morning. He pushed through some bushes and then after a short while of walking, at once he pulled away a huge palm leaf. My knees almost gave away.

It was the ancient city. Stone that was older than anyone could guess was covered in greens and red sunlight. Hard walls were painted in sunshine and I lost my breath. Eunhyuk lightly pushed me forward and I found myself stepping into the legendary city of gods. It was amazing and majestic, insanely beautiful. But in ruins.

“Hyukkie, there is no gold, is there?” I asked quietly.

“If you wake up early enough, it´s practically covered in gold,” Eunhyuk grinned, “you found it, Hae!”

“I did?” I couldn´t believe my eyes.

“Of course!” Eunhyuk was smiling and then turned to look at the beauty.

I wanted to feel disappointed, I wanted to be sad as it turned out to be another tricky treasure. But I couldn´t. I was perhaps even happy that there was no treasure because it felt like this wasn´t the end, like I could continue travelling around the world. The city was in a large clearing and the fresh wind gushed through. I closed my eyes and then opened them again only for my stare to fall upon Hyuk.

He was just standing there and smiling. Just like the city, he was bathed in the sunshine, his dark clothes shining and his silky hair flailing in the wind. His wild features seemed much gentler if not completely tame. Eunhyuk closed his eyes, allowing himself to get lost in the ancient world. My heart was beating in the same pace as his, things became too obvious. I couldn´t pretend anymore that I didn´t see it, I couldn´t act like there wasn´t anything amazing going on between the two of us.

My body moved on its own.

Eunhyuk´s sharp senses warned him that something was going to happened but not even in his wildest dreams he could guess what. I pulled on his leather coat until he spun around and kissed him right on the lips. At first was Eunhyuk startled but then his instincts kicked in and he returned the kiss. Lord, it felt so good. I should have kissed the hell out of him ages ago.

“What was that?” Eunhyuk only managed to whimper when I pulled out.

Perhaps all this time I wasn´t even looking for any treasure, I simply wanted to be with Eunhyuk. With the morpheles that I found utterly precious. Eunhyuk was blushing, and watching me with his confused dark eyes. He didn´t know what to do, I had to embrace him. Pushing him against myself, I whispered into his ear so quietly that only a great wolf could hear my words.

“If I found the gold, I had to claim it first.”

THE END

Uhuuuu T_T So this is the end, I hope you´re not disappointed. I really loved the morpheles-adventurer combination. I will miss the hunter and all Yesung´s franchises. Thank you to everyone that finished the story till the end, especially I thank the few people that made me regularly happy with all their guesses and cheers (u guys know who im talkin about). There was once a person who wished for an epilogue to the Half past full-moon for her b-day, I might write one for this story too if anyone really wishes for that. One more time, thank you everyone! Check out my summer moster eunhae collection and the new eunhae story too, please. And wherever you are, at school, at work, at the beach: have a nice and merry summer! - PandaHero