3rd person´s POV

April forest was like a mandolin play. The lighter tones evoking fluorescent green buds and fresh spring smell, while the lower lone tones represented the omnipresent fog and eerie silence of the deep forest. Hyukjae was at home in this atmosphere of natural uncertainty. He wasn´t afraid of darkness, he wasn´t afraid of bright light either. He was like that himself, his ordinary looks seemed almost familiar but in reality, were deceiving. If anything, he could have perhaps been the most dangerous one lurking in the forest at that moment.

“This is the place,” the old elf with white long hair was showing Hyukjae the way through the dense forest. “When I saw him for the first time, I was only a young boy. Now I´m an old man,” he laughed laboriously, “but he still looks the same. Handsome fella.”

And at that, they walked around a huge ancient tree where he lay asleep. The old elf still remembered his name, Donghae. Hyukjae smirked, this was the sleeping elf of the sacred tree. Donghae was wearing light blue robes and was being hugged by the tree, sleeping in the crib of long branches like a baby. He was handsome, just like most elves are, and he was special because for the past fifty years he has been trapped by the old tree and put to eternal sleep without aging by even one day. No wonder Hyukjae was offered a full million to find this person. One million in gold for the elf, but only if Hyukjae could get him out of that tree and stand him in front of the buyer.

“What are you doing?!” The old elf panicked when Hyukjae pulled out a small axe from behind his belt and cut into the tree. Donghae´s peaceful face contorted in pain, as if Hyukjae just had cut into his flesh. “It hurts him!”  The man protested when Hyukjae didn´t seem to mind whatever face the sleeping elf was making and continued cutting into the crib. “Get away, I didn´t bring you here to take him away from us. This place is sacred!”

And as the old man tried to pry Hyukjae away by force, he met with the merciless force of the cold metal. And the deaf thud of the old bones on the fallen leaves did not make the bounty hunter spare him a glance. He kept cutting the sacred wood, sometimes feeling the branches and roots move on their own around. Hyukjae hunted down scarier beasts than the ancient tree, without blinking he forced himself through until Donghae began sliding down with his silky blue robe down from the thick trunk. Quickly securing the axe, Hyukjae stretched his arms under Donghae´s body. He lifted him up in one try and smiled for himself. Here goes one million.

After a while of walking, the hunter noticed Donghae´s face returning to the peaceful expression. His breathing was stable, he was finely alive. All it took was the courage to fight the tree, you need to break a few eggs if you want to make an omelette. It was almost evening when Hyukjae finally made it back to his horse. He carefully climbed up with the sleeping elf still in his arms. But the hunter´s sharp senses noticed, his breathing changed, he would soon regain consciousness.

“You have to be joking, Hyukjae!” Boom was laughing like never. Hyukjae´s lackey was an older tall man with crooked sense of humour and lack of good manners. But the hunter kept him in the house anyway. “You can bring any sort of legend back home, can´t you?”

“I guess I can,” Hyukjae chuckled but didn´t put Donghae in Boom´s open arms. This one million he would handle by himself.

Hyukjae´s house was a little further away from the main road, as the bounty hunter´s business has ever been a little iffy, he liked to keep the privacy. It was an old house but well maintained, the money was present after all. On the ground floor was the kitchen, something like a living room slash waiting room where the business was talked, and two dirty rooms, one for maintenance and one for Boom who preferred the dirt. On the second floor were Hyukjae´s rooms, clean and nice with parqueted floors and warm wooden furniture. His study, tilled bathroom and also small bedroom where he placed the elf on his bed. Still no movement but he was probably conscious by now.

“Donghae?” Hyukjae tried and the light brown eyes fluttered open even so slightly. Lanky man with rough but good quality clothes, light hair and pale skin was the first person he saw in fifty years. “So, you were awake after all. I´m Hyukjae, a hunter. Can you move?” No reaction. “Talk?” Lips twitching but barely only opening.

“I see,” the hunter nodded for himself, “this will take a little time, but you will get used to it. You were asleep for about fifty years and I woke you up. Up until now it was the forest that kept you alive, now you will have to do it by yourself. I will help you, though.” Hyukjae smiled a little bit, the kind of smile you make at children when you don´t want to scare them away. It wasn´t a warm or gentle smile, only a smile. And the elf somehow understood just like that.

Donghae doesn´t remember well how he ended up captured by the tree. All he remembers is sudden fear and loneliness that was overpowered by time with false comfort provided by the enticing magic of the ancient tree. He was woken up from that never-ending dream by intense pain, as if his flesh was being cut off. He wanted to scream and to cry but couldn´t do anything else but to endure the terrible torture. When it was over, the comfort has never returned again. He felt cold, nauseous, tired and gradually scared and hungry. The man that was the first vision he had in fifty years was on the first glance an enemy. Donghae´s superior connection to the magic beyond human understanding told him everything he needed to know. That man, Hyukjae, wasn´t going to harm him but he wasn´t going to comfort him either. For the first time after fifty years, Donghae had to become independent if he wanted to survive. And his will to live, to conquer the new curious world was strong enough, especially with the magic of the ancient tree he carried with himself.

The most important was to enable Donghae to eat, possibly within two days. Hyukjae was patiently sitting on the bed and spooning a strong beef broth to feed it to the elf. Every swallow hurt, Donghae couldn´t even feel the taste of the liquid in his mouth but even when he refused, the hunter would force him to eat. At one point, he couldn´t take it anymore.

“Huh?” Hyukjae looked into the bowl when the spoon clinked against a hard surface instead of dipping in. The soup was frozen still. Hyukjae glanced at Donghae, who avoided the stare. Right now, he could only make expressions and slightly move his hands and feet, he couldn´t get into any confrontation. The hunter didn´t say another word. After helping Donghae lie down on the bed, he quietly left the room. Donghae sighed, this man was really difficult to decipher.

“When do you think he can be ready?” Boom was waiting for his boss under the stairs.

“A few more weeks at least,” Hyukjae answered, “don´t be hasty with him.” Boom shivered under the stern eyes of the bounty hunter. He has known him for many years but never managed to really get to know him. Hyukjae had many sides to him, a lot of them were fun and loud, but some were mysterious and dark. Boom believed that he didn´t need to really know the hunter that well to get paid.

It would be mostly Hyukjae personally looking after the elf. Bringing him food and checking if it was eaten properly, Donghae could eventually move enough to eat by himself. He couldn´t walk yet, nor stand for a longer time. The hunter would help him change or bath, often pressing the latter to start speaking. If he sold the elf mute, it could significantly lower the price. But he wasn´t particularly harsh, Hyukjae would call himself careful. His instincts might have been just as strong as Donghae´s senses. While Hyukjae was gone, Boom was allowed upstairs. At first Donghae thought that the joking older man was friendlier and easier to get along with but soon grew a strong dislike for him. This person lied a lot to him and treated Donghae like a fool.

“What´s with the damned door again?!” Hyukjae arrived home in the evening just to find Boom fighting with the door to his bedroom.

“Boom?” The hunter walked slowly upstairs to meet his beet red angry lackey.

“It´s stuck! It´s always stuck and I´m hella sure there is no key in the keyhole! It´s not locked!” Boom fought with the doorknob but when Hyukjae reached for it and turned the knob, the door effortlessly opened. Boom began apologising and arguing but the hunter paid him no attention. His eyes quickly searching around until they caught a retreating root disappearing in between parquets. Then he studied the other side of the door and found a tiny leaf on the doorknob.

“Stop using violence and just open it slowly the next time,” he told Boom and closed the door behind himself. “Hello, Donghae,” he greeted plainly. The elf watched the hunter slowly walk across the room and meaningfully throw the tiny leaf out of the window. That gesture made Donghae suddenly scared.

“Hello,” he ended up whispering back. And Hyukjae smiled.

“I´m not angry,” he said with honest amusement in his voice, “I see why you wouldn´t open the door for him.” Donghae used his power to talk to the nature and fixed the doorknob with slithering roots whenever Hyukjae was gone so nobody could enter.

“I can´t,” Donghae whispered, still at loss how he got scared into talking, “trust him.”

“All the more you need to work hard to be independent,” Hyukjae answered, taking off his cloak and putting it on a hanger. “If you can get yourself a glass of water or make something to eat, I will have him stay away from you.” The hunter changed his clothes and was just putting on more comfortable shoes to wear at home. “I don´t trust him with you either, after all,” he chuckled and Donghae was very surprised. Not by the distrust between the two long time friends but by the ringing voice of the hunter.

“Anyway, since you can talk to me now,” Hyukjae stood up and finally looked at the elf sitting on the bed. “Is there anything you need me to get for you?” It was a casual question and Donghae wanted so many things he could never get as they were gone in those fifty years, that´s why gave Hyukjae a casual answer.

“Warmer clothes would be nice,” he said quietly. Hyukjae saw the supressed tears in the sad eyes, he wasn´t oblivious. But he couldn´t get himself involved, it would cost him f