The two of them sat around the fire and talked about their plan for the rest of the day. They did not believe they would make it through the rest of the forest today and needed to figure things out. Since they had already seen there were a bunch of rocky overhangs and places to seek shelter, they knew they could always hope to run across one of those for some extra shelter. If they were unable to find some shelter they would have to find a dense area surrounded by a lot of trees and set up a makeshift tent.

With their day planned out, and everything accounted for in their bag, their journey started once again. Their pace was not as fast as it was earlier in the day, mainly because they were looking for places where they would be able to spend the night, but they did not stop unnecessarily. If they passed a good spot again, they planned to stop there for the day and get more rest for the next day. 

“Oh look! What about here?” Baekhyun asked. “It’s almost like a miniature cave…”

Chanyeol took a closer look and saw that Baekhyun was right. It was like a cave, only going in five feet or so, but it was at least eight feet high to give them plenty of room. It was the best shelter they had found all night, and that was great considering the wind was beginning to pick up.

“I think we should rest here for the night. Even though we could go for a few more hours, this will do the best to protect us from the wind,” Chanyeol explained as he ran his hand over the stone surface. “We can even grab large fallen branches and stand them up against the outside for extra shelter.” 

“Could we use the tent tarp as extra shelter instead of branches?” Baekhyun questioned. “It would be thicker and have no gaps.

“We wouldn't be able to secure it to the rocks though,” the wizard told him while shaking his head. “Even if we could secure it properly, with all this wind I would be worried it would tear a hole in it or ruin it somehow. Then we would be screwed until we could buy another,” he explained simply.

“I’m glad to be traveling with you or I would have never thought of that,” Baekhyun stated before giving Chanyeol a small hug. 

Chanyeol placed their bag in the small cave and the two of them set to work on finding some large branches. It was not an easy process, but they were making good work with the remaining sunlight they had left. 

It was not until dusk approached that they ran into a problem. A rather large one at that.

Baekhyun was dragging back a large branch when he suddenly heard a deep growling noise. At first he thought it was Chanyeol’s stomach, but then it got louder. Turning around, he saw a huge gray wolf with piercing eyes standing on the top of the cave they were preparing. 

Dropping the branch he had been dragging, the prince slowly started backing away from the cave. As he did so, more wolves started appearing around the first, growling just the same. His eyes quickly darted around and counted seven of them. Seven large wolves who all looked very hungry. 

“Ch-Chanyeol…!” Baekhyun cried with a broken voice, trying to be quiet but loud at the same time as to not cause the wolves to lunge at him. 

There were footsteps coming up behind him that stopped suddenly. Baekhyun did not have to turn his head to know that Chanyeol now understood their predicament. 

“Can you run fast?” Chanyeol asked in a hushed voice.

“Not enough to outrun a wolf for long,” Baekhyun replied, feeling his legs shaking beneath himself. When in his life would he have ever needed to prepare for something like this?

“About thirty feet behind us, there’s a good climbing tree. Wolves can't climb, so if we can get high enough up...we’re safe,” Chanyeol explained as he did not dare to take another step towards Baekhyun. 

“So how do we do this?” Baekhyun asked, his voice now shaking a lot more.

“On the count of three, run,” Chanyeol told him as another large gust of wind blew through.

Baekhyun swallowed hard and slightly nodded his head. The wolves were pawing at the ground now as if they had heard and understood their plan to run. They were getting ready to pounce as soon as they moved. 

“Ready?” Chanyeol asked, and watched as Baekhyun slightly adjusted his stance so he would be able to turn and run better.

“As ready as I'll ever be I guess…” Baekhyun replied in a nervous voice as his feet slightly shuffled against the ground.

“Okay...run, on one…” the main wolf growled louder, “two…” some of the wolves took a few steps towards them, “three!” Chanyeol shouted, and watched as Baekhyun took off as fast as he could. The wolves let out barking and yipping sounds as soon as Baekhyun turned and fled from them. “Shreehak!” Chanyeol shouted right after, causing their bag to fly towards him and into his grasp. 

As soon as the bag was in his grasp, Chanyeol heard one of the wolves give a howl and then saw as all of them jumped down and started running towards them. 

Spinning away from the wolves, Chanyeol started running after Baekhyun. Thankfully he saw Baekhyun was running towards the correct tree he had thought of and was drawing near. The sound of paws behind him thundered closer and closer with each second. Turning his head to get a better look, Chanyeol knew he would not make it unless he used some magic.

“Shra!” Chanyeol shouted, sending a small ball of embers from his hand. 

It landed in front of one of the wolves, which startled it, and made it stop in its tracks. The embers were enough to startle the wolf, but he had not wanted to make the spell so strong that he would start a forest fire. If he did that, they were as good as dead.

Chanyeol sent out a few more ember balls to give himself more distance between him and the wolves. Looking in front of himself again, he saw Baekhyun was already working on climbing the tree. The wolves were clearly becoming agitated that their meal was getting out of their reach by the increased number of howls and barks coming from them. 

Chanyeol could feel the effect that using magic was having on him, but it was not a terrible energy drain. He only hoped he would make it to the tree before the wolves caught up with him.

“Chanyeol, hurry! You can make it!” Baekhyun shouted from the tree, pausing to look back at the wizard to see his progress. “You’re almost here!”

Thankfully, Chanyeol made it as well, and was helped up by Baekhyun who reached his hand down to assist in hauling him up faster. Sharp teeth gnashed at the air where Chanyeol’s ankle had just been before it found perch on a low branch. Chanyeol gulped nervously as he hung onto the tree and worked to catch his unsteady breath.

The wolves beneath them were scratching at the tree and jumping at the branches. Some of the lower branches they had used as leverage to get higher were snapped off either by the wolves paws or in their mouths. It was evident that these wolves were not going to give up without a fight.

“Can you do anything?” Baekhyun asked in a winded voice.

“No...nothing that wouldn’t risk us falling from this tree,” Chanyeol replied as he tried wracking his brain. In his frazzled state, he was forgetting the most basic of spells.

Below them, the wolves were getting more agitated by the second. They were howling and barking up the tree, scratching deep grooves into the trunk with their claws. A few of them had even started snapping at each other, causing small fights to break out.

“They have to leave eventually,” Chanyeol stated as he ran a hand over his face. “They will have to go find food somewhere else if we do not come down.”

“Or they can be stubborn and stay here,” Baekhyun replied before taking another glance down at the wolves.

“If that's the case, are you capable of sleeping up here?” Chanyeol asked.

“Why would I be capable of sleeping in a tree!?” Baekhyun shouted, shocked by the question. “I would fall asleep and fall out of the tree within the hour!”

Chanyeol sighed and ran his hand over his face again, this time ruffling his hair in agitation. He did not know what to do and was worried they would be stuck in the tree for the night if the wolves did not give up. The way he realized Baekhyun was fighting to keep a firm grasp on the tree was not calming his nerves either.

Suddenly, the wind started to pick up and build up speed. It was so strong that weak branches started snapping off trees and were sent flying along with leaves and small rocks. Both Chanyeol and Baekhyun clung to the tree even tighter and held onto their cloaks, bringing them up to their faces as protection from the flying debris. The last thing they needed was to be knocked from the tree and sent down to their deaths, or blinded by everything flying past them. 

“Hold on tightly, Baekhyun!” Chanyeol shouted over the howling of both the wind and the wolves.

They were holding on for their lives when suddenly there was a mighty gust of wind that blew through. It was so powerful that it made the tree they were clinging to sway, and sent the wolves all toppling off their feet and scattering across the ground. When the gust had come, Chanyeol could have sworn he heard “Woshra” but dismissed it, figuring it had just been a strong autumnal breeze caused by some sort of wind tunnel formed by trees. In desperate times, he knew the mind could make you hear and see whatever you want.

When the wolves got back up, they shook off and growled a bit. All of them then looked towards the direction that the wind had come and froze. Their ears went down, their tails were between their legs, and they went sprinting off whimpering, not looking back.

“Are...are we safe?” Baekhyun asked as he continued to watch the wolves run and disappear off in the distance.

Chanyeol took one more look in the direction the gust of wind had come from just to check if someone was there, but saw no silhouette or sign of anyone. 

“Yes. I think we’re safe now. We can get down,” Chanyeol answered with a nod