Jinyoung rose early the next morning. There was not much for him to pack other than his healer’s kit, but all the same, he needed to ready himself to return to camp. He wondered if his absence had been at all noticed—according to BamBam, there had been no evidence of a search party sent out to see if he could be recovered. Jinyoung wasn’t terribly surprised by this. It was a great risk for human tribes to venture too far from their encampments when beasts were in the area.

All the same, he would be going back. There would be an organized march back to the lowlands, and Jinyoung would return to his birthplace in Low Lofferin for the cold winter to continue his medical studies under his mentor Healer Hyun for a few months before once again being deployed back to the battlefield to tend to the new batch of soldiers sent there to die.

Or maybe, he thought wryly, I can go on a single handed crane hunt, since that seems to be the key to ending this war. If I were holding a rare, nearly extinct crane hostage, where would I keep it?

Before he could come up with a logical answer, Jackson, Yugyeom, and Mark were padding into the room in their beast forms, their mouths full of freshly hunted kills. Jinyoung wrinkled his nose and averted his eyes. He was starved for a bit of meat himself, but seeing the graphic, bloody way the beasts preferred to eat theirs had a way of killing off his appetite.

Mark had hooked a basket onto his tail and dropped it to the ground in front of Jinyoung. They’d found him persimmons this time. Jinyoung accepted them but decided to wait to eat them until after the beasts finished tearing into their carcasses and his stomach was more settled.

“You went hunting,” Jinyoung said to Mark with a frown. “I don’t recall telling you that you could.”

“Am I yours to command?” Mark asked. His expressions were harder to read in his beast form, but he didn’t sound annoyed, but rather amused.

“You’re my patient, so yes, I should be able to instruct you on matters regarding your health.”

“I told you that yesterday would be my last day of healing.”

“Tell that to the injury still on your back.”

“Yeah, stop sassing your boss, General,” Jackson said gleefully. Mark whipped him hard across the face with his tail as Yugyeom practically rolled on the ground, laughing.

“I felt no pain during my hunt,” Mark said firmly once the other two had calmed down. “I took care not to agitate the wound, as you advised. I am ready for the journey ahead.”

“May I at least check it one last time?” Jinyoung asked. “I would like to check Yugyeom, as well.”

“If you must.”

Jinyoung crouched down beside the lynx first, and Yugyeom obligingly let Jinyoung check his shoulder. His injury was healing well, though Jinyoung was concerned the nine day walk to Calovia might set back his progress. “Don’t overexert yourself,” Jinyoung said as he wrapped it back up. “I wouldn’t go around leaping across cliffs or climbing up difficult passes in the name of getting home faster if I were you.”

“Hmph,” Yugyeom responded. Jinyoung didn’t get the feeling that he was the type to listen when he wanted to do things his way.

Next, Jinyoung checked Mark’s injury. This wound he was a bit more regretful that he would no longer be able to monitor. It was still at a stage where it could either heal well or take a bad turn depending on how careful Mark was with it. And though Mark had been careful enough with it over the past few days, Jinyoung doubted that would stay true in his hurry to return home and report back to his king.

“Do not worry.” Mark’s rumbling voice jolted Jinyoung from his thoughts, startling him a little. “I do not plan to undo what you have done.” And with that, he nudged Jinyoung away with his muzzle and towards the basket of persimmons he’d not yet eaten.

Jinyoung had just finished taking his breakfast when he heard cawing echoing through the tunnels. A moment later, BamBam flew into the light, and dropped down to the ground as he shifted into human form in front of Mark.

“Bad news,” he said. “One of the falcon messengers delivered our report to the king, and was ordered to immediately turn back with a message for us from His Majesty. And…and…he stopped by our troops on their path home and ordered the Inquisitors to turn back and join us here. They’ll be at our location within minutes.”

Mark immediately tensed. “The Inquisitors? Why them? His Majesty does not wish for us to stay and storm the lab, does he? We’ll never make it before the snows come, and we have no strategy.”

“No,” BamBam said, his eyes darting briefly to Jinyoung. “It’s something else. They-”

Before he could finish, they heard steps echoing through the tunnel leading to the inner cavern. Moments later, a falcon flew inside, followed by three spotted hyenas. At once, the hyenas' eyes locked onto Jinyoung, and they quickened their pace, releasing deep and throaty growls which made him shiver with discomfort. Mark stepped in front of Jinyoung, blocking the hyenas' path and snapping violently to show them his sharp teeth.

The falcon dropped to the ground and shifted forms into a long-haired man with brown wings. “A message from His Majesty King Jaebum I, General!” he screeched. Behind him, the hyenas’ tongues lolled out of their mouths, and they continued to creep closer, their beady, hungry eyes fixed on Jinyoung.

“Tell the Inquisitors to step away from the human, first,” Mark ordered. “We’ve already questioned him. He knows nothing about the Sacred Prince. My report imparted everything we were able to discover.”

The falcon turned around and glared at the hyenas. “Stand down. NOW!”

The hyenas whined in annoyance, but backed off when Mark swiped forward with his massive paw, sharp claws glinting.

“Ahem!” The falcon stood back at attention. “His Majesty thanks you for the word you have brought of where his mate, the white fox, has been taken. He wished to order you to retrieve the white fox immediately from the hellhole the human scum have caged him in, but your scouts reported that the snowstorms of the highland winters would make this mission impossible. His Majesty regrets that the troops must wait until spring to give the human captors the deaths they deserve.”

“That’s surprisingly reasonable of him,” Jackson interrupted. “I thought for sure he’d send us in, anyways.”

“It’s probably because even if we rescued the Sacred Prince, we’d never be able to return him alive through the mountains,” Yugyeom said.

“I thought cranes did well in snowy conditions?”

“Not ones that refuse to fly and think they’re hunters but can’t actually hunt,” BamBam said. “He’d die for sure.”

“I beg your pardon,” the falcon snapped. “I hope I am not hearing you refer to the Sacred Prince the white fox by a false title like ‘crane’. His Majesty would not appreciate hearing this slander against his mate, or the suggestion that the Sacred Prince is not as fine and gifted a hunter as there ever was.”

The three subordinates fell silent.

“Might I continue?” the falcon asked, ruffling his feathers indignantly. “I reported to His Majesty that you had been poisoned by the humans, General, and that Lieutenants Jackson, Yugyeom, and BamBam had found a healer to treat him before the rest of us returned home. His Majesty commands you to bring this healer with you when you return to Calovia. In acknowledgment of his considerable skill in healing one who is not even the same kind as him, he will be invited to serve as healer to the captured Feral-”

Mark tensed immediately into a stance that to Jinyoung looked predatory, cutting the falcon off. “NO,” he thundered. “This is insanity. We cannot obey this.”

“To not obey a direct order from the king is treason,” the falcon said coolly. “You forget yourself, General. His Majesty is not giving you a choice.”

“It’s a death sentence! You saw what happened to our own healers when they tried to get near the Feral!”

“Am I supposed to be sorry that a human will die in the name of righting the injustice his kind did to ours?”

“This human is not a death-bringer!” Mark growled. “He saved not only my life, but Yugyeom’s as well. Do you dare insist we ignore this blood debt we owe him?”

“If he heals the Feral, he will be free and may keep his life. If he fails, you can hardly blame yourself. It would be his own failing as an ineffective healer.”

“You know as well as I do that the Feral will tear out his throat and feast on his flesh the moment he enters into the room with it,” Mark snarled. “He will be destined to fail through no weakness of his own. It is as good as an execution, and I will not allow it.”

“If you will not allow it, you are a traitor to His Majesty and the Sacred Prince,” the falcon said, unruffled. “And as a traitor, your family will also pay the price. Would you want Nia and Palla to suffer a traitor’s fate, General? What of little Tanie?”

Mark threw back his head and released a roar, so deep and painful that it broke Jinyoung’s heart. What was he to do? He did not want to go to Calovia. He did not want to be executed, as it seemed clear his fate would be if he was brought before the gray fox king. But would his desire to live and go free bring death to others, innocent elders or beloved brothers and sisters who had nothing to do with him?

“Seize the human, Inquisitors,” the falcon commanded. Jinyoung had not realized, but the hyenas had shifted forms and crept up behind him while the falcon and Mark had been arguing. As soon as the command was issued, they grabbed him by his arms, roughly jerking his wrists back so they could tie him up.

Mark and Jackson snarled and snapped, Yugyeom very vocally hiss and spit, and BamBam issued a keening caw, but none attacked the hyenas. The last threat the falcon had issued against their families seemed to have had an effect. Whoever Nia, Palla, and Tanie were, they were most likely far more important to Mark than Jinyoung was.

All the same, there was pure fire in Mark’s eyes. “If you harm a single hair on that human’s head,” he thundered, “I will tear the flesh from your bones and spit your remains out at the feet of His Majesty. I gave him my word, and any harm that comes to him is an insult to my honor. I will make you suffer if you make an oath-breaker out of me.”

The falcon and hyenas at last looked properly cowed by this outburst. Likely, they very well knew that Mark could kill them all in a heartbeat if he so chose. “We won’t harm him,” the falcon grumbled. “His Majesty wanted him to arrive in the capital alive and well.”

“See that he does,” Mark said. “I’ve never feasted on a falcon before, but if you go back on your word, I’ll make you my first.”

“Y-Yes, General.” The falcon took a step back. “Inquisitors! Confine the human to a cage. We set off for the capital at once!”

The three hyenas dragged Jinyoung into the tunnels and towards the entrance of the cave, all the while their lips and staring at him like he was a prime cut of steak after months of fasting. Jinyoung felt tears pooling in his eyes. What would happen to him now? Would Mark really be able to keep him safe, or was this the last he would ever see of his homeland before he died in the hands of enemies?

The hyenas pulled him outside, into the crisp, winter air. There had been another dusting of snow since Jinyoung had last been out of the cave, but the passes still looked clear enough to traverse. Waiting for him at the cave’s entrance was a metal cage set on sturdy wheels, the same kind the human tribes used to take beasts as prisoners. They must have stolen one from a human camp, or mimicked the design for their own uses.

The hyenas shoved Jinyoung inside and shut the door behind him. Immediately, they pressed their ugly faces up to the bars. “What makes a beast Feral?” one asked in sing-song.

“Who devised the method?” the second sang.

“What has become of the white fox prince?” sang the third.

Jinyoung didn’t answer, not having a clue what they were talking about. Had there been a problem with beasts going feral and losing the human half of their nature? And who was the white fox prince? The gray fox king had no siblings and was the sole remaining member of the beast tribe’s royal family. And from what he’d heard in the cave, it sounded like the white fox prince and the red-crowned crane were one and the same, but that didn’t make sense. How could a fox also be a crane?

After a moment of silence, the hyenas began their song again. What makes a beast Feral? Who devised the method? What has become of the white fox prince?

“SILENCE!” Mark roared. He’d made it out of the cave, alongside Jackson, Yugyeom, and BamBam. “I’ve told you, he knows nothing! None of the human commoners do!”

“It is their job to find answers,” the falcon reproached.

“Is it also their job to annoy us with their incessant chanting when there are no answers to be found?”

The falcon looked to be debating the point internally, but at last sighed and gave up. “Inquisitors,” he screeched. “We’ll leave any further inquisiting to His Majesty. Guard the prisoner, but do not question him.”

The hyenas looked very much disappointed, but Jinyoung was relieved as they shifted into their beast forms and dutifully formed a perimeter around his cage, at last silent.

“I’ll pull the cage,” Jackson said, padding over to the front and picking up the rope between his teeth. “The General and Yugyeom are still injured.”

“Isn’t it too heavy?” Jinyoung asked weakly from behind the bars.

Jackson looked at him as if he was trying to make an encouraging smile. It didn’t work. “Nope. You’re just a human, Jinyoung. Not heavy at all.”

With that, he dragged the cage forward and down the pass. The hyenas marched on either side, and Mark and Yugyeom followed behind. BamBam and the falcon shifted and launched overhead, monitoring the route from the skies.

Jinyoung sat in the cage miserably, tears pouring down his cheeks. He would probably never be coming back. He wished he’d at least had the chance to see Low Lofferin one more time, and to kiss his parents one last goodbye.

The days passed in a dull rhythm. In the mornings, the beasts would hunt, and Jinyoung would be brought back whatever edible fruits, roots, or seeds they could find him. Then they would march without break for hours until the late afternoon, when they would pause so Mark could trade off with Jackson in pulling Jinyoung’s cage and BamBam and the falcon could make a report on the safety and conditions of the route ahead.

Then they would march again until night fell and the falcon ordered a halt. Then there would be another hunt. The hyenas would drag their violent kills to just outside the cage and eat them while staring beadily at Jinyoung. Mark, Jackson, and Yugyeom would bring back food for themselves and something small like a rabbit for Jinyoung. Now that they were moving away from human territories, they could make a fire to cook it for him, though none of them were particularly good judges of how much it needed to be kept over the fire. When it was deemed ready, they would slide it into Jinyoung’s cage, and he would eat it with all the dignity of the hyenas.

After that, two of them would be chosen to keep watch, and the rest of them could sleep. For Jinyoung, this meant an uncomfortable night on the metal floor of his cage. It was warming up slightly as they made it south, but the metal cage held the cold, and Jinyoung was usually left shivering, unable to sleep through his chills. After two nights of this, Mark had unceremoniously pushed the hyenas aside and forced his way into the cage to curl around Jinyoung so he could sleep nestled against his warm fur. The next night when Mark was on watch, Jackson and Yugyeom took his place.

No one spoke much during the course of the march. Occasionally, Jinyoung would overhear Mark and one of his lieutenants conversing in low voices, but he could never catch specific words or phrases. The hyenas also regularly attempted to restart their sing-song What makes a beast Feral?, but it usually didn’t take long for Mark to start threatening them so violently that they cut it out for the rest of the day, though nothing could stop them from fixing Jinyoung with their disturbingly starving gazes.

As the days passed, the landscape became more and more foreign to Jinyoung. Once they’d passed through the mountains, they were emptied out into sprawling grasslands that were still green and untouched by the thick frosts of the highlands. It was an easier journey with smoother terrain and fairer temperatures, but the sight of it reinforced to Jinyoung how far he was moving from his own country. He had no more tears left to cry, but his heart ached terribly with every mile they progressed.

On the eighth day, they reached a heavily forested area and passed under the canopy of trees. Jinyoung knew immediately that they entered within the borders of beast territory. There was a collection of birds in all the trees, some in human form and others shifted, and various beasts poked their muzzles out, calling greetings to their party or growling at Jinyoung in his cage.

As night started to fall, Mark, who had been pulling Jinyoung’s cage, abruptly stopped in his tracks. The hyenas also halted, and the king’s falcon dropped lower to see what was going on.

“My wound troubles me,” Mark said. “I need the healer to examine me. I wish to camp for the night.”

“Now?” the falcon grumbled. “It’s not much further to court. We shouldn’t delay our arrival.”

“Will you take responsibility, then, if my wound festers and His Majesty loses his General?” Mark snapped.

“N-No. Very well. We may camp.”

A moment later, Mark shifted into his human form and stretched out his limbs. “The wound will need to be washed,” he informed the falcon. “I will have the healer take me to the stream over there.” He pointed to the winding ribbon of water they had been following into the heart of the forest.

“Are you sure you aren’t actually planning to help him escape?” the falcon asked with narrowed eyes.

“I give you my word that I am not,” Mark said. “Why would I do something so stupid as set him free in a country of his enemies? He wouldn't last a minute on his own."

With that, he opened Jinyoung’s cage and helped him to his feet. This time, Jinyoung was the one barely able to walk after days stuck in the cage with only minimal rations to eat and drink. Mark didn’t comment on it, but grimaced and quietly supported Jinyoung’s body weight on himself as they made their way to the stream.

When they reached the water, Mark undid his robes and pulled them off so he was as he stepped into the stream. “Might as well wash myself so I don’t look like a Feral in front of His Majesty,” he said. “You should, too. Or help me wash. Or both. We need to take our time here. I have much I need to tell you.”

Jinyoung hesitated, but could feel for himself how disgusting he had become in his captivity. He quickly pulled off his shirt and trousers and got into the water with Mark.

“Is your wound really troubling you?” he asked in a hoarse voice.

“No, but you may look at it. Our messenger friend is likely watching, so it would be better if you did.” He turned his back to Jinyoung. The wound was knitting together well, and though still a little tender, it was neither infected nor inflamed.

“Jinyoung,” Mark said. “Before I say anything else, I want to promise to you again: I will not allow any harm to come to you.”

“Can you really promise that, where we’re going?”

“Yes. I swear to you. I will assure that for as long as you are in Calovia, you will be safe and under my protection.” He drew a breath. “I would explain to you, but it’s more important that you understand the situation you are walking into. You know nothing of the true war being fought, and I don’t want you to walk into court blind and ignorant. It is too dangerous.”

“Tell me, then.”

As Jinyoung washed the area around his wound, Mark began his explanation. “This war is rooted in the existence of the red-crowned crane, the last of his kind. The red-crowned cranes were driven to extinction centuries ago. The human tribes considered them to be symbols of good luck and prosperity, and would capture them and mount them as display pieces in their homes. One band of humans, greedy with the prospect of gold, smoked out an entire forest of cranes and killed all of them as trophies for the nobility. And so it was that the red-crowned cranes died out. The bird tribes, who had once lived united with the beast tribes, retreated to a separate territory, blaming the beasts for not keeping the humans out and failing to protect the vulnerable cranes. The tribes have remained separate ever since.”

Jinyoung frowned. Already this was different from the story as he had heard it. According to the human tribes, the cranes had been killed by an avian flu, and the bird tribes had left the beast tribes as a form of quarantine.

“We all believed the red-crowned cranes to be fully extinct,” Mark continued. “But twenty years ago, a dying female crane arrived in Calovia. Apparently, a small colony of cranes had fled to a remote island when the humans had first started hunting their kind, and because of this, they survived the massacre. They had been able to live on for generations undetected, but living in these reduced conditions with few opportunities to mate led them to begin to die out again. When the last surviving adult male crane died, his mate, weak and sick from lack of sustenance, carried her hatchling son across the water to Calovia before succumbing to illness and dying herself. The gray fox king, His Majesty Jaebum’s father, still felt the weight of guilt from his ancestors failing to protect the cranes in the past, and vowed to raise the hatchling crane among the foxes and provide it every protection he could offer.”

“And did that work?” Jinyoung asked. “Foxes and cranes can’t have much in common.”

“They don’t,” Mark agreed. “And I cannot say it ‘worked,’ as that implies the crane was raised to be a crane, the true last of its kind. Youngjae, the hatchling, grew up well among the foxes…so well that he actually believed he was a fox. As such, he never learned to use his wings, would never shift into his bird form, and tried to hunt and attack exactly as a fox would. He wouldn’t answer to being called a crane, but preferred to be known as a white fox.”

“I see,” Jinyoung said, though he couldn’t imagine a creature as elegant as a white crane running around like a fox kit.

“He also grew up very closely bonded with Jaebum, who also believes Youngjae is a fox. When they grew up and Jaebum took over as the gray fox king, the two of them…ah, what is the human phrase for it? Courted? And mated.”

“A bird and a beast can mate?” Jinyoung asked in alarm.

“Not in beast form, or at least not very well. But Youngjae can’t shift, which means they would mate as two men, which would be just the same as two men in your human tribes mating. I assume they never ran into any difficulties since they always seem…er…quite pleased with each other. Besides, in their minds and hearts, they are both beasts, so it doesn’t even come as a question to them. They are just two foxes in love, and one just happens to have a pair of unused wings on its back.”

Jinyoung nodded. Put in these terms, he could understand it.

“In any case, once the bird tribes were aware a red-crowned crane had returned and mated into the beast line of kings, they at last forgave the beasts of the old grudge and petitioned to rejoin the two kingdoms with Jaebum as King and Youngjae as the Sacred Prince. As is proper custom, Jaebum sent messengers to the human tribes to alert them of this change in borders, and the human tribes sent ambassadors, including the human king himself, to attend the wedding and coronation. But the very same night Youngjae was crowned, he vanished along with all the humans. Jaebum was wild with distress, but went through the proper protocol of sending a delegation to the human tribes to question Youngjae’s whereabouts and petition the human king to bring those who took him to justice. But that delegation also disappeared, and was never seen again. After that, Jaebum dispensed with niceties, and sent out teams of beasts and birds to seek Youngjae out and rescue him. None of them ever returned either.”

“I have heard nothing of this!” Jinyoung cried out. “No one told us anything about the birds and beasts reuniting, or anything about a red-crowned crane being found and marrying the gray fox king! We were never alerted to the presence of any incoming delegation from your people!”

“That is because they do not want you to know.” Mark’s voice lowered. “Jinyoung. My people came to your lands to find our missing kin. We fought for answers, not to kill you and all the humans who are ignorant of this, though you eventually left us no choice. In our hunt for the truth, we have discovered terrible things your kingdom is hiding. Some manner of chemist or man of science is holding Youngjae in the highlands to lure my people to attempt a rescue. Whenever a beast or bird comes within his clutches looking for Youngjae, this chemist does something to them that makes them Feral—trapped in beast form and wild only to kill and tear apart enemies.” Mark took a breath. “Whoever this man is, he is training these Feral beasts as an army for your people, Jinyoung.”

“No,” Jinyoung said in horror. “That can’t be true.”

“It is,” Mark said. “We found evidence of it during last year’s campaign. I captured a Feral under the king’s orders to bring it back to Calovia and see if we could cure it. It struck down every healer that came near it.” He winced. “Just as it would strike down you, if His Majesty tries to use you to heal it. I apologize for his cruelty in this command. His Majesty hasn’t been right since Youngjae was taken. He thinks only of vengeance and retribution. But as I said, I will protect you. King Jaebum may be wild with grief, but he hasn’t fully lost his reason or honor.”

Jinyoung still didn’t want to believe it. How could his people do such a thing? How could they dispose of human lives just to draw more beasts to the kingdom to turn into weapons? What did they hope to achieve, and how many people were they intending to send to their deaths to do it?

But he knew in his heart it was true. He couldn’t forget the mumblings of that delirious soldier, begging for the white winged prince to be found and surrendered. That was what the beasts wanted. That was what Jinyoung’s people had taken from them. He had been on the bad side of the war, after all.

“Jinyoung,” Mark said softly. “The tide of the war will turn in the next campaign. We know where Youngjae is now, and I will personally lead his rescue and kill those responsible. Not your foot soldiers or your innocent recruits, but those who have orchestrated this plot to capture and abuse my people. And when Youngjae and the rest of my kind who were taken are free, I will return you to Low Lofferin. I promise this to you. But to make this happen, I need you to trust me while we are in Calovia. I need you to have faith that all I will do is in service of the debt I owe you for saving my life.”

“And if you fail me?” Jinyoung asked softly.

“Then I’ll let you kill me. I promise you.”

Jinyoung took a breath. “Fine. I will trust you to return me home. I promise.”

“Thank you.” Mark pulled himself out of the water, shifting back into a lion as he settled back on the grass. “To start, there is one thing I need to do to assure your protection. Come up here with me.”

Jinyoung lifted himself out of the water and sat beside Mark on the grass, looking at him expectantly. He didn’t have a clear guess as to what Mark would do, but was still shocked when Mark began running the underside of his chin along different parts of Jinyoung’s body. Mark did this methodically, until nearly every patch of his skin had been touched.

When he was finished, Mark inhaled deeply. He looked momentarily troubled, but then the look passed and he nodded in approval.  “Good,” he said. “That will serve.”

“What did you do?” Jinyoung asked.

“Covered you in my scent,” Mark answered.

Jinyoung couldn’t figure out why this would help. Did he assume King Jaebum, who was convinced a crane was a fox, could also be convinced a human was a lion?

Before he could ask, Mark shifted back into a human and picked up his robe off the ground. “Come,” he said. “We need to rest well tonight. We will arrive at court tomorrow, and we must be as alert there as possible.”​

Jinyoung followed him back to the camp where the others were waiting. The three hyenas trotted up to Jinyoung to nip at his heels and urge him back into his cage, but as soon as they got close to him, their noses twitched, and they immediately scattered away as if they'd smelled something foul.

Surprised, Jinyoung lifted his arm and smelled it. To him, there was no particular aroma, though according to Mark, he was now scented like a lion. Maybe that particular smell was repellent to other beasts, though Jinyoung hadn't noticed the hyenas treating Mark as if he smelled to them.

As Jinyoung passed Jackson and Yugyeom, their eyes widened. "General, you didn't," Yugyeom said, sounding aghast.

Jackson simply laughed in a kind of smug, knowing way. "Ohohoho! How sly of you, General!"

Just as Jinyoung was about to ask them what they meant, BamBam and the falcon swooped down from where they'd been circling the area.​ Like the hyenas, the falcon also made to urge Jinyoung back into his cage, but as soon as he got close, he instantly swung back, tumbling to the ground and crash landing in his human form.

"General, what is the meaning of this?" he screeched. "That human reeks of you! I take my eyes off you for a few seconds, and you...with him!"

"And what of it?" Mark said in a frosty voice. "Does it bother you, who I choose to consort with?"

"Y-You...you! The General of our armies! With a human! The human who is supposed ​to be our prisoner! His Majesty will not be pleased!"

"I do not exist to please His Majesty." Mark lifted his chin proudly. "Now. I'd rather not have my mate spend another night in a cage or arrive at court as your captive. He will walk into His Majesty's presence at my side. Understood?"

His mate?, Jinyoung thought, dumbfounded. No one's mentioned him having a mate before. Who...? 

That's when he realized everyone was staring at him. That to them, the scent of Mark all over him meant that he'd been marked as the lion general's territory. That when Mark had referred to having a mate, he had meant no one else but him.

"What are you playing at?" Jinyoung hissed under his breath to Mark as the General cleared out an area to set up a bedroll for the night. He wished he could focus on his delight at finally getting to spend a night sleeping outside of his cage, but his mind couldn't so quickly move on from the fact that everyone else in the camp was watching them with either smug or disgusted expressions.

"What do you mean?" Mark asked in a perfectly serious voice, as if he truly couldn't comprehend why Jinyoung would possibly protest anything that had just happened.

"Why...why are you letting everyone think that we...we..."

"Mated?" Mark supplied. "Or, how do the humans say it...? Coupled? ed? Or was it ed?"

"Don't list every way there is to say it!" Jinyoung whispered furiously. "Why would you ever imply to anyone that you and I would do such a thing?"

"I told you. I'm doing it to protect you. And you swore to trust me to do so. Have you already changed your mind?"

"And how will this protect me?"

"Because there is no more sacred bond than that of two beings who are mated. To bring harm upon one's mate is an unforgivable offense, one that would demand the severest of retribution. This is part of why our king's fury against the humans who took is own mate is so terrible." Mark patted the bedroll, gesturing for Jinyoung to take it. "If His Majesty believes I have taken you as my mate, he will not dare to make a single move against you. He will have to treat you as a guest, and not a captive. To do anything less would be an insult to me, and as the General of his armies, the king cannot afford to make an enemy of me--nor can anyone in his court. You will be safe, under that protection."

"And you think he'll actually believe it?" Jinyoung asked. "That you would choose to mate with an enemy human like me?"

"I told you, Jinyoung. Mating is sacred among our tribes. We would not bind ourselves for life to anyone less than the one we are deepest devoted to. He knows you saved my life, and will assume that was what influenced my devotion to you."

"For life?" Jinyoung echoed. "But...don't lions mate with all the females in their pack?"

"You are thinking of the animal. Our tribes have our own culture, independent of the rules that govern the animal kingdom and humankind. And in our tribes, we mate for life."

"But you and I...we're not...you're not going to be bound to me for life just because you did this, will you?"

Mark shook his head. "We haven't actually mated, so ours is not the sacred bond I speak of. I have no expectations of binding you to me permanently. My promise still stands. I will return you to your people, and after that day comes, you will never have to see me again if you do not wish." He paused. "Come, Jinyoung. It has been a long day today, and it will be a long day tomorrow. We should rest."

As Jinyoung grudgingly settled into his bedroll, Mark stretched and shifted into his beast form to lay down beside him. While Jinyoung probably wouldn't have felt at ease sleeping with the human form of Mark at his side, it felt far more comfortable to do so when he was a lion. It didn't strike him as all that different from when he'd been a child and slept curled up against the fluffy sheepdog his family had kept for a pet. He'd been very much grateful for the warmth Mark, Jackson, and Yugyeom had provided during the journey to Calovia, and hadn't thought any more of it than that. But now he was beginning to think of it a little more, that the person at his side really was a person , and not an animal.

Jinyoung sighed. He wasn't sure he was going to enjoy all the implications of having the court believe he and Mark were sacredly bonded mates, but he could understand the benefits of it to him. As long as it kept him alive, what did it matter if everyone else believed a falsehood that had no basis in reality?

"Very well," Jinyoung grumbled. "I'll play along with this arrangement. But can we at least tell Jackson, Yugyeom, and BamBam the truth?"

"I wouldn't advise it. They're not known for their subtlety, and none of them can stand up to His Majesty when he's in one of his moods. They may not be able to keep our secret."

"Fine. Just...make this as painless for me as possible. I am not sure how to play this role or what will be expected of me, based on your customs."

"No one will expect you to be familiar with it," Mark said. "In fact, since you're a human, most will assume you know nothing of anything, and that I'm a fool for being infatuated with one such as you. Even if you should make a slip up or do something odd, everyone will only say 'that is what the General gets for choosing a human.'"

"Is it very uncommon for beasts to mate with humans?"

Mark didn't speak for a long moment, and Jinyoung wondered for a moment if he hadn't heard him. "Recently, yes, thanks to the war," he said at length in a quiet voice. "But it's not unheard of. Members of the wolf tribe are popular with human females, so a few packs have human den mothers." Mark rested his muzzle on his paws. "Please, do not worry. I will keep my promise to you. That is all this is. I will demand nothing of you that is not in the name of returning you back to your homeland safely."

Jinyoung nodded. He had to keep that fixed in his mind, that this was all in the name of going home. He closed his eyes and thought of Low Lofferin, the cozy village nestled in the valleys between the mountains. The smell of ink and parchment in his father's study. The warm bread his mother would bake. The smell of poultices and tinctures in the clinic he ran. He had to have faith he would see it again. He had to believe that Mark would keep his word and repay his blood oath by bringing him back where he belonged.