..CHAPTER TWO..

Tear streamed down the Jongin’s flushed face. Embarrassment and humiliation rocked through his body as he felt the grimed face woman prod and poke his private areas. He lay on his bed, face smashed on the feather pillow, body for others to see… helpless under the investigation his mother seemed hell bent on running.

He glanced at the side, noticing his brothers back turned toward him. Jongin didn’t want his sibling to see him like that… but neither did he want them to leave him all alone to face the fierce women using his body like a ragged doll. Nevertheless, he was thankful to his brothers for not gawking while he goes through such horrendous ordeal.

“Well?” Jongin’s mother asked, urgency lacing her word. “Am I correct to fear the worst, Tyme?”

“Fortunately not,” The midwife murmured, hands still prodding open Jongin’s private area. “I don’t think he has been touched in that manner.”

“But the mark?” The mother of children cried, distress transparent. “Tyme, why would that animal bite him otherwise? Is it the bite of wolf or-?”

Tyme, a tall and elegant looking woman, nearing her forties, exhaled a sigh before straightening up. She gently gripped Jongin’s arm to raise him to sit and face her. Jongin’s eyes, rimmed red, were swollen but not as much as his lips that had gone through all the chewing and biting as the young lad stopped his sobs from slipping out of his mouth. The tall woman lightly traced the teeth marked on Jongin’s neck, making the latter to shiver at her cold touch.

“Clearly, no animal could have marked with such precision,” Tyme whispered in a deep voice, tossing a knowing look at the chief’s wife. “I think you would agree with me, Wihium.”

The mother of children was render speechless for a moment, hands fisted at her sides as she locked her eyes with Tyme’s pretty green ones, before her gaze moved toward her crying son. The mark on Jongin’s neck mocked her for an uncertain reason.

“Which Clan?” Wihium demanded in a barely audible voice.

“Same,” Tyme supplied offhandedly, fingers once more tracing the well placed bite mark. “The very same… closely related, if I am not mistaken.”

“Can we do something to remove it?” Wihium’s urgency kept growing with passing seconds. “It’s just a mark, isn’t it? Maybe we can uproot the body part?”

Jongin looked up in horror, only to find his mother’s looking in pure loathe at the bite he had received earlier that day. If he had any idea his small act of rebellion would cause such problems, Jongin would have thought a hundred times before acting on his impulsive plan. But to cut off his body part? That sounded insane.

“This is deep magic, Wihium,” Tyme shook her head regretfully, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “The mark stays, until it fades of its own accord. If he is not claimed then the mark would dissolve solitarily.”

“But how am I gonna stop it?” Wihium shouted shrilly, shaking up Jongin’s body in a rough manner. “This child does not heed anything I say.”

“M-Mother?” Jongin choked on his own tears, wrapping his own arms around his torso while curling his legs to fold himself in his own skin.

“I tried masking his scent even,” Wihium informed the midwife, eyes popping in anger. “But then he went running to that waterfall and presented himself to that beast!”

“M-Mother, I-I had n-n-no i-ide-dea,” Jongin hiccupped pathetically, his chocolate orbs blurred due to tears swimming in his eyes.

“Jongin, listen to me now,” The mother said, after taking a deep breath to calm herself down a bit. “No matter what happens, you shall not leave the village area. The people from north side are coming. If things went as they should, I shall marry you off and you can live your life away from this place. You heard Tyme, the mark will fade on its own. Do you hear what I am saying? Do you understand?”

A scared and confused Jongin vigorously nodded his head, afraid to make his mother even madder.

Wihium stood heaving for a second longer, before she gestured for Tyme to leave with her. As soon as the drape closed behind both women, Jongin broke into a wailing sob. Gently someone wrapped a blanket around his cold and body. Jongin fell in the awkward embrace of his brothers, unable to fight off the fatigue his constant cry brought him. It took several minutes of Taemin and Jimin’s soothing voices telling Jongin that everything would be alright when the latter’s sobs turned to sniffles.

“What were they talking about?” Jimin broke the silence of Jongin’s hut once the latter has completely stopped his weeping. “Why does the mark on your neck looks like a human bite, Jongin?”

“I-I have no idea,” Jongin said weakly. “All I remember is seeing a humungous wolf, taller than my own height, creeping toward me, while I was clothing myself. I fainted before he pounced on me.”

“Were you fully clothed?” Taemin asked, and a frown was noticeable in his voice. “I mean, the hunters found you fully clothed. No one could even guess that a mark laid under your clothes… no one except mother, I suppose.”

“I…” Jongin scowled in darkness before abruptly sitting up to face his elder brother, the blanket tightened around him a bit. “I wasn’t clothed. I remember tugging up my pants but… I am sure nothing else.”

“A human bite on your neck,” Taemin started slowly, eyes narrowed in concentration. “Someone, with hands, obviously clothed you before dropping you near the village entrance. Now what could that imply to?”

“You don’t mean…” Jimin said, shivering in fear. “A werewolf?”

“A werewolf?” Jongin sounded incredulous. “A human that can change himself into a wolf, at will, you mean? But that’s not possible… werewolves are a myth.”

“Old Simon seems to believe he fought ten werewolves on his own, in his youth days,” Jimin retorted.

“Old Simon, the senile?” Jongin scoffed and the trail of dry tears on his cheek long forgotten. “Everyone knows he makes up stories in which he stands as a hero.”

“But we can’t deny that several old villagers seemed to believe that werewolves existed long ago,” Taemin pointed out. “What if that is true?”

“The old villagers also say how they killed all the werewolves,” Jongin mumbled, annoyed to see Taemin and Jimin looking at him in triumph.

“Killed or drove away, maybe?” Taemin suggested delicately.

“But it still doesn’t sum up,” Jongin denied strongly shaking his head. “Why would a werewolf bite me? Do they even eat humans?”

“Then let’s find out,” Taemin advocated, shrugging in nonchalance. “Let’s find this werewolf then, because no normal wolf can be as tall as you Jongin. There must me something going on and by the looks of it, Mother knows it.”

“However we should do as she suggested,” Jimin jumped in the conversation, forcing Jongin to look at him. “Stay inside the village… stay safe, Jongin.”

Jongin thought back to that certain moment in forest, a beast, a hungry bloody wolf advancing toward him… a shudder of fear ran down his spine.

“Yes, mother is right,” Jongin muttered. “The mark would fade by itself… as long as I avoid trouble.”

Taemin looked a tab bit guilty for letting his excitement for an adventure take over his mind, forgetting the trauma his younger brother must have suffered in the forest. Unhurriedly, Taemin coaxed Jongin in come comfortable clothes, before sliding him under the thick duvets. On Jongin’s silent plea, his brothers slipped in his small bed, on either side of him.

Jongin had had his brothers with him as long as he could remember; they were the famous trio menace of Village Hokmo since an early age. They were Jongin’s happiness, comfort, strength and love. Their mere presence could make Jongin fall under ease.

Just then, a flash of a faceless person, covered in fur coats, coming from north side ran through Jongin’s mind. Soon, he would be separated from his brothers... and that was not a comforting thought.

O-o-o-o-O

Not a single soul in the village suspected that Jongin could have gone through some serious trouble while he was wandering the forest last night. If anything, some of the victims- who had been on the receiving end of Jongin’s mischiefs- sneered loudly at the three siblings the next morning. The grumpy Lami was heard muttering her wishful remorse at Jongin not been eaten by the wolf in the forest.

“If only she knew how near the truth her statement is,” Jongin had mumbled to his brothers, looking a tad bit sour. “By any fluke her wish might be fulfilled soon enough.”

The next morning, chief’s wife had seemed hesitant in letting Jongin off to the small school of Village Hokmo, but she had no solid grounds to make her desire transparent in front of the Chief, not wanting to broadcast the scenario Jongin had faced a night before. The chief had very kindly inquired after his second son’s well-being… with the children’s mother pointedly glaring at her sons to keep their lips sealed. That’s when the three brothers realized that the mark was to remain a secret even from their father.

“Why though?” Taemin had asked, after the three had started making their way to the one room school ran by a rather petite man, Bob, who had spent several years studying a little of this and a little of that in the city. Bob, at the age of mid-thirties, had returned back to village when his city lover had broken his heart and ever since then, he had started convincing the villagers to send their children- regardless of their age- in order to gain some of the knowledge he had acquired from the city.

“It’s like what mother always say to us,” Jimin said, thoughtfully. “Since father is busy managing the village, we shouldn’t bother him with trivial problems.”

“A wild wolf has marked me as his next food item,” Jongin cried shrilly, mindful at the fact that they were strolling through the busy path in the village since several small and big kids were running toward the school at that time. “How is that a trivial problem?”

“But the mark would fade, right?” Jimin had piped hopefully.

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