Chapter twenty-two: Back to where it all started

“-zi…” Jihoon rolled around on his other side, “-Ozi…” He groaned as the annoyance wouldn’t shut himself up. “Woozi…” One of his hands went up in the air, trying to hit the oversized bug that didn’t let him enjoy his sweet slumber. “Woozi!” Could he get any louder in the morning? Jihoon supposed he the answer was ‘yes’ after his nickname got called again. “WOOZI!” He let out another unhappy grunt before turning around to face the disturbance. With unimaginable effort he managed to open one of his eyes soon followed by the other. The death glare that it created dedicated to the tall man that was hovering over him.

“I’m ...wake.” He mumbled still half asleep, but the giant shadow that loomed over him obviously didn’t believe him as he thought Jihoon needed another scream directed to his ears in order to wake up. Little did Chanyeol know that it only encouraged Jihoon to turn around and bury his head deeper into his makeshift pillow of furs.

Obviously annoyed at this point Chanyeol let out a groan of his own, this little morning ritual was something he didn’t appreciate. How different it had been during their first month of travels. Jihoon had always been awake before him and this whole show had been the other way around. It almost seemed as if the small man did it on purpose to punish him for his own mishaps. “Come on mister Grumpy Pants. The sun is shining and you need to get up.”

Of course Jihoon wasn’t moving. Why would he be? It was only the tenth time this morning that Chanyeol had tried to wake him up. After a while he even dared to snuggle closer to his furs and the sight of it was quite adorable, leaving Chanyeol to wonder if he should actually wake up the short(tempered) man. How vastly different this peacefully sleeping Jihoon was from his awake counterpart puzzled him. Yet today Chanyeol had to be strong. Jihoon had to wake up and quickly.

“Woozi! Come on! You really have to get up now. We are meeting with Baekhyun in half an hour and we still need to get to ing Holstead.” The mention of the town woke Jihoon up a bit, his nose scrunching up in disgust at the idea of walking through the stinky, muddy, dirty village. “I know you dislike the town, but this is important Woozi.”

Finally a sigh came from the short male and he started to rise up, furiously trying to wipe the sleep out of his eyes with his sleeve. “Cute.” As soon as he spoke Chanyeol covered up his mouth, that was a mistake. A big one. Jihoons eyes shot up and he was wide awake now, his face angry. With a speed that no one would’ve guessed came from the person that was still sleeping peacefully seconds ago Jihoon placed a well-aimed fist on Chanyeol ribcage. Causing the tall man to stumble backwards.

“Alright, alright I take it back, not cute.” Chanyeol grunted in pain. 

Jihoon nodded in appreciation and got moving. In ten minutes time the both of them were ready to leave and their camp in which they had lived the past two weeks had been demolished.

“So we are finally marching onto Strenyard?” Jihoon asked.

Chanyeol nodded, “I’m still happy that you decided to tag along. I promise to do everything I can to help you find your family members.”

“Oh well, I don’t have anything better to do anyways. Besides who’s going to spar with you if I’m not around.” Jihoon grinned from ear to ear at that.

In the last few weeks they had become unexpected training buddies. Following the events at the camp word had spread about Jihoon being a decent fighter and Chanyeol insisted he trained with him. In his own words:  “No one else manages to keep standing after one punch.” And so Jihoon had become even closer with Chanyeol, which greatly irritated a certain red haired omega.

At this point Jihoon had met with Baekhyun a few times and he was certain about one thing, the omega liked Chanyeol. A lot. The second, Chanyeol was dense as can be. He was oblivious to the very obvious devotion that the poor omega had for him. Normally other omegas knew to stay out of Chanyeols way, because if not they tended to disappear into thin air. Yes, Baekhyun was that petty if he became jealous. One day he would succeed that was for sure. Now he still tolerated Jihoon for one simple  reason, he still had to find out about Jihoons true nature. Everyone assumed that he was a beta and so he got treated as such. Still it amused Jihoon to drive Baekhyun crazy. It had become one of his greater joys in life to make the omegas day a bit more miserable, by sticking annoyingly close to the alpha. He wouldn’t call it clingy just yet, since Jihoon hated touching people but he was never far from the alphas side. The alpha who provided him with a steady stream of information about the armies development and possible plans for the attack on Strenyard.

As a result from hanging around Chanyeol Jihoon had learned how they would travel, where the supply carts would be and who would protect them. Baekhyun had even invited him to a tactical meeting himself. Word had reached him that Jihoon travelled around a lot and so the question was raised whether or not he had been to Strenyard. Sensing an opportunity Jihoon had answered positively and afterwards he told Baekhyun some vague details about the towns defence and the pack dynamics such as who the head alpha was. He didn’t reveal anything useful but that slipped passed the attention of the men. Nor would the defence of Strenyard be the same as it was during his last visit.

During the short summer nights Jihoon had frequently travelled to the camp and he always took his time to tell stories about the Cursed Forest, but also to sing happy songs and tell sweet love stories. He hated the last one, far too emotional and it was embarrassing to tell them but if he only told ghost stories it would stand out too much. He needed the cover that was provided by his varying repertoire. Never the less he put the most effort in his stories of abduction and death in the Cursed Forest and as such they were his most popular request. Little did the soldiers know that they would experience his tales first hand in the future.

It was easy enough to influence the moral of the normal handmen. They didn’t even want to partake in the coming war. If they had it their way they would be at home, taking care of their fields and livestock, enjoying their time with family and friends. But the General had demanded otherwise, they had been called upon and so they had travelled from far and wide to help support the General in his war efforts. As a result most of them were demotivated as hell. And Jihoon was sure that they would take any weird occurrence as an excuse to desert and run back home. He had done his job for now and the only thing left was to travel back to that horrible town one more time before the army would start their march. He really couldn’t comprehend how Baekhyun had spend over two whole weeks in the mess that was named Holstead. Let alone how the townspeople survived.

He shook his wandering thoughts away and looked in front of him, staring at the wooden gate that