EUNHYUK´s POV

FRIENDSHIP AU!

Axed

It was unusual to be called for a job right before Christmas. I didn´t really mind, on the other hand I was excited to spend the time around humans. I wondered what troublesome issue they had for me that it couldn´t wait until the next year.

My black leather shoes were leaving long imprints in the white snow and I grinned widely seeing the village in front of me. It was a relatively small village I thought, when I counted all the fuming chimneys. It must be nice to sit in front of one of those fireplaces, drinking hot wine or grog. I was already imagining myself sitting with my legs up and buffing from my pipe. I hope people in this village are generous or I´m leaving. Christmas with humans is nice, as long as there is enough food and wine. If there isn´t, I would rather spend my time somewhere else. Like Hell, there´s always lit fire whenever I come to visit.

I entered the village in the late afternoon, the time when the villagers were slowly gathering in their homes to be safe from various things that lurk around in the darkness. Who? Well, wolves? I smirked, slowly getting the attention of the inhabitants. All I had to do was to stop in front of the church and somebody would surely come to pick me up. And as expected, I didn´t have to wait for too long before the word spread around, and a group of people came to welcome me.

“Good evening, Sir,” a woman in her late thirties came to welcome me, “you must be-“

“Eunhyuk!” I gave her a wide smile and taking her hand in mine gently, I bent down and gave her a polite kiss on the limb. “Pleased to be here.”

“Oh,” the simple woman was a little surprised by the politeness towards her and blushed. “Please, follow me inside, it´s drat cold!”

I followed the woman with the rest of the group inside one of the houses. The people around me were members of the same family. The woman´s husband, her mother, brother and two of her four children. In the house I met the youngest child, nine years old boy named Donghae. On the first glance I knew that I was here because of him. Donghae´s eyes were deep and dark, and I could tell that he was a very smart and sensitive being. I was going to treat him seriously, compared to the rest of the band in the house that seemed only ridiculous to me.

“Nice to meet you, Donghae,” I bowed and then gave him my hand for a handshake, “is it alright if I call you Donghae?”

“Hello,” Donghae nodded his head, his eyes couldn´t leave mine. I smiled wider, this boy was trying to look through me, I was impressed.

“What is the problem then?” I straightened myself and looked at the most dominant woman in the room. “It´s about Donghae, am I right?” Donghae´s mother seemed surprised and at the same time pleased by my guess. It gave me more credibility.

“That´s right, my son keeps having nightmares,” she sighed, showing me to my seat near the fireplace, “it´s the same dream every night, we don´t know what to do. Look how pale he is! Poor child!” She exclaimed in a learned tone of voice before ordering her daughter to bring me something to eat. I knew that tone, it was the voice of complain, many people, especially elders had it. It meant that they have already said the same sentence many times before and the words became a part of her routine. Like that they lacked the sincerity and I was sure that the boy also knew that. I looked at Donghae but the boy was busy studying my attire, his mother´s words were falling on a deaf ear. I see.

“Thank you very much,” I smiled at the young woman that brought me a plate with thick soup and a fresh bread.

“What is this?” I turned to look on the floor, where Donghae was sitting and holding a brooch, that must have fallen off my hat when I placed it on the table.

“Donghae, we are talking here!” His father scolded him but I raised my hand to stop him from doing anything.

“It´s a golden rooster with ruby,” I explained, “I got it as a present from the mayor of Basel.”

“Why?” Donghae asked, his eyes glistening with the mirage of the red jewel in his hand. I felt somehow connected to the creature sitting on the floor, even though Donghae was a human child, I wanted to treat him respectfully.

“Because I saved Basel from a disaster,” I said and those deep eyes looked up at me, I couldn´t but smirk, “a rooster laid an egg.”

“Roosters don´t do that, only hens do,” Donghae commented and I shifted my body towards him to give him my full attention.”

“That´s right, Donghae, only hens do that,” I patted the chair next to me and invited the boy to sit down, “that rooster was possessed. It could give birth to a basilisk.”

“What happened to the rooster?” The boy asked me after climbing up on the chair.

“It was arrested and put on trial in a court for demonic possession,” I told him calmly, Donghae couldn´t take his eyes off. “They burnt the rooster at the stake.”

At that Donghae hummed in understanding. Then his attention was back at the brooch, I was tempted to just give it to him, but I knew that the moment I stepped out of this village, his mother would have taken it away