Hansol – Weeping Woodlands – Shadow Lands

Hansol studied the bowl of the now cold soup sitting right beside him. He hadn’t touched any of the contents and was not even planning on laying a hand on it, but he was curious about the food. Using his nether senses, Hansol looked into the things inside the bowl, careful not to stir the astral that is sleeping peacefully on his chest. The soup looked decent from its appearance, there were indeed uneven chopped pieces of carrots and potatoes swimming in a brown watery broth. Small pieces of white meat floated. It looked like bird meat, however Hansol hasn’t even heard any chirp of a bird since entering the misty forest. In fact, he hasn’t heard any sound from a normal animal since he stepped foot in the forest, just the casual wailing of demon beast here and there. Another thing that didn’t seem to add up to the nether was the place they are seeking shelter as of the moment. It was a cave and for Hansol he was more than thankful to live in a cave even for a short period of time. He felt really comfortable, like he was home.  What was strange about the man living inside the cave though was the fact that it was hollow. There was a lack of furniture in the place, just a few pots and a rickety bed that didn’t even had any pillow nor blanket. Seonwoo told him that he lived here all his life, even before his family and friends was slaughtered into oblivion. So why is the cave hollow of personal belongings when it was only two blue moons since his family was gone. 

Back to observing the food, Hansol tried to check the kind and level of miasma present in it. This method is usually done by healers to check the level of bad energy a person has before healing them. However, the nether has also seen a number of nether warriors during raids perform this method to their catch to cleanse and make sure they don’t take in some dark miasma and become a threat to their kind. 

Concentrating his mind and energy, Hansol closed his eyes. He willed his nether sight to work and once he had his eyes open, his pupils turned bright red like rubies under the sunlight.

Hansol gasped a little as he observed the contents of the soup. The food, as harmless as it looked was covered with dark, evil miasma. Even the scrumptious looking carrots and potatoes had an aura so evil that under his nether senses it looked black. 

It looked disgusting, and the nether almost puke just by looking at it. Studying the contents further, he took the old makeshift spoon made out of some poorly carved out wood and scooped some of the meat. Again, Hansol thought of how uncivilized everything looked inside the cave. The wooden bowl and spoon were only a few things of a many.

Scooping the meat, he grimaced at the sight. If the vegetables floating on the soup had an extremely evil aura, the meat looked much worse. Like it was personally the limb of satan chopped into cubes and was thrown on a cauldron to be made into a stew. The nether almost laughed at the silly thought, until it clicked.

The meat, with an aura so evil did not belong to any bird or even any normal animal. It was from a demon beast and Seonwoo, or whoever this man is, is trying to poison them. 

Demon beast meat is poisonous if consumed by humans, but to demon beast alike, it is not. Yet, the effects of the poison do not present fast. Most of the time it gradually kills the victim. So, at most cases if a very unlucky person consumed demon beast meat, they have much chance to survive. 

Hansol is confused as to why the man would kill them, he also wondered why would he use such a weak poison if he does intend to finish them. In fact, if Seungkwan actually ate the poisoned stew, all he would get is a bad stomachache due to his body naturally healing itself without prompting. While for him, he would probably feel nauseous but with a little healing and cleansing spells, all the effects will be gone.

“This is my pillow Jeonghan hyung.” Hansol had to bite his lower lip to not squeak. The astral, who was first timid to even place his head on the nethers chest has now tightly wounded his arms around him. The young nether was feeling giddy by how the astral was softly nuzzling his head on his chest. He doesn’t know why though, he also shouldnt be wondering about this because there are more pressing matters compared to his stomach doing summersaults. 

Ignoring the distraction that was perched on top of him, Hansol tried to think of ways on how to get out of the cave. He has no plans on fighting the man. The nether didn’t want to take the risk, for he is sure there are more secrets hidden than just an innocent youthful face.

“Sol-ssi? Sol-ssi?” Hansol, in a flash immediately placed the wicked bowl of soup to where it was placed before, he then closed his eyes and pretended to be fast asleep.

“Tsk, so they weren’t able to eat it huh? I better knock them both out tomorrow and prepare them before he wakes up.” Seonwoo took the bowl and left to whoever knows where, leaving Hansol and Seungkwan untouched.

“Prepare them for what? And for who?” Hansol deeply thought after the man left. He knew that the man had ulterior motives for attempting to poison them but for what? More so, they have to get out of here before morning or else they might be doomed.

Shaking the astral who was soundly asleep on his chest, he softly whispered his name. “Seungkwan, Seungkwan wake up.” Just like earlier, the astral only grumbled at him and wounded his arms even tighter than before.  As much as Hansol wanted to feel the astral clinging to him like he was his only lifeline longer, they were in a very dire situation. So, he had to wake him up.

“Seungkwan please wake up.” Hansol tried to wake the astral once again and thankfully, the other started to flutter his eyes open. 

As soon as the astral attempted to speak and ask why, the nether covered his mouth and signaled the other man to talk through their minds.

“Hansol?” Hansol let out a small smile as he heard the astrals voice in his head. He thinks he is finally getting used to this kind of communication.

“Im sorry if I keep waking you up.” The nether paused shortly as he let his gaze lock on with the astral. “But we need to get out of here and we need to get out of here quick.” The nether continued with the trace of fear and determination converging in his tone. 

“I don’t really understand what is happening.” Seungkwan immediately replied. He didn’t sound mad, he even slowly raised his right hand and placed it gently on the nethers left cheek. “But Im sure you have an explanation to this and I trust you.” The astral added.

“Seungkwan that man tried to poison us with that soup. He is planning something.” Hansol held the hand tightly that was on his cheek, he was clueless as to why he did that but it somehow gave him a new kind of strength. “I also think he is not alone. I heard him murmur to himself about knocking us both down and preparing us before HE wakes up.” Seungkwan internally gasp at the information and Hansol heard it clearly through the channeling.

“I know it is shocking and frightening, that’s why we need to get out of here before he notices.” 

********

Both of them planned to sneak out of the cave by midnight or whenever the other man is deeply asleep, then Hansol will turn his nether senses on to at least see through the foggy haze once they’re out. There was only one entrance and exit to the cave so they have to make sure that the man is dead asleep. They waited patiently until the man was snoring and murmuring incoherent nonsense. Hansol took Seungkwan’s hand and led them through the darkness. They both made sure that there were no sounds created that might wake Seonwoo up. The nether did a quite sigh as he felt the opening of the cave. They were just a step to freedom when suddenly things turned black.

“Stupid humans, for them to think that I didn’t knew about their little escapade makes me laugh and pissed at the same time.”

Facts about the Fic:

• Cleansing - cleansing is a common thing to do if one lives inside the safety of the three realms.  It is mainly used by healers. but in some cases warriors also use this method. Especially if they are assigned to guard near the borders where the shadow lands and the land of the three realms meet. They mostly perform this to themselves and sometimes to the food that they eat.  They do this in order for the miasma to not consume their well-being and become a demon beast themselves.

• Raids - raids are like hunting trips done by warriors. It is a given that there are warrior guards posted near the borders to make sure everything is safe, with them are few gawges to measure the amount of miasma present around the area. If the gawges observe that there is a large level of dark  miasma, a raid will be called on for demon beast are attracted to places with high amounts of dark miasma. Cleansing will also be done by warrior healears to make sure that the land is free from dark miasma.

• Appearance of Nobles during trips - the nobles only accompany the warriors if it is too much for them to handle. Naturally, nobles are stonger and faster compared to normal people. Not to mention they posses more abilities (powers) than a normal person does. With the nobles assisting the warriors there is a bigger chance of vanquishing demon beasts.

Y'all verkwan is in deep, like really deep. What do you think will happen to them? What is Seonwoo planning and who was the "HE" he was talking about? Tell me what you think in the comments.

Anyways remember when I told you guys imma post 3-4 chapters this December? This is me right now really trying to do it. I'm posting this today cause I'll be out for a few days for a little vacay with my colleagues. I'm gonna be back before december 25th to post another update. I hope you guys like this, sorry for those who are waiting for the others ships appear. I promise your ships will sail soon and they will sail hard just like verkwan.. So bye for now and have a nice day/night wherever you are in the globe rn <3