Jonghyun didn’t quite know how to respond to seeing the creature he called a maiden, so he let his instincts take over. The young man hid behind the nearest tree, holding his breath. He was unsure whether he had seen it correctly, but the maiden’s eyes had clearly had a brief connection with his own.

Jonghyun had to remind himself that he needed oxygen to live. He took a deep breath and was still quite unsure whether it would be a good idea to take a look, but he argued with himself, he was quite sure he would regret it if he didn’t look.

The young hunter slowly peeked from behind the tree. It was clear that the maiden had noticed him, but hadn’t really paid any attention to his presence yet. It was a rare opportunity, one Jonghyun was eager to take. He moved forward towards the edge of the small hill he was on.

It was the first chance he had to take a good look at the creature of which he assumed it was a maiden. His eyes protested at first, his vision remained blurry for a bit, but focussed after a while. The young man was struck. The maiden possessed a beauty he had not witnessed before.  The maiden possessed a finesse that was like the first day of spring, unharmed and untamed. The young huntsman was impressed by the sight,  but the other didn’t seem to actually acknowledge Jonghyun’s presence at all. 

A new spark was added to Jonghyun’s curiosity, he wanted to be closer to the creature, who didn’t appear to be afraid at all. The young male didn’t know how to judge it. It could be that the maiden was naive or just very bold. It confused Jonghyun to no end.

The young male grew bolder by the second and decided to come out of his hiding spot, so he would have a clearer view of what was happening down below. The only proper way he could describe what the creature was doing, was as a dance, it was graceful yet enchanting. Jonghyun was captivated by the sight and just couldn’t help but to want to get closer to the creature. It was as if he had suddenly gained a obsession. It was as if he had no other choice but to get closer, as if his life would depend on it.

Driven by this sudden obsession, the young hunter decided to take the leap and jump down. It didn’t go as planned though. He stumbled over one of the roots of an old tree and tumbled down. For a brief moment Jonghyun thought that that might have been his end, but luck was on his side. Even though the man fell face down, the slope was covered with grass, it was softer than the hard rocks he was expecting.

“Oh by the Gods” he cursed under his breath once he managed to get up. Jonghyun rubbed his aching nose, he was quite sure that it would bleed, but it didn’t . He forgot about the maiden for a minute. His fall had brought him almost all the way down to the open spot in the forest .

The animals that had once surrounded the maiden, had fled. Jonghyun felt somewhat bad over it once he noticed them missing, but it was worth it once he was eye to eye with the creature.
He had been wrong to assume that the maiden was female, where in fact the maiden was a he rather than a she. It was quite evident to Jonghyun.

“You…” the young hunter stuttered, his bow long forgotten, he was captivated. The maiden had somewhat feline features, high cheekbones and bow shaped lips. In his eyes there was a clear hint of fear. Jonghyun assumed that the other had never seen a ‘human’ before.  He laughed at Jonghyun, of course  it had been a funny sight, seeing a hunter tumbling down face first. Jonghyun felt a slight blush coming to his face, this was not how he imagined presenting himself. It took his a second to recapture. He looked into the other’s eyes again, not daring to inspect the rest of the maiden’s body. Jonghyun had always thought that the eyes were the best feature of most people, but this wasn’t a person in front of him, this was something much more interesting. It didn’t took long before he started to get lost in the maiden’s green eyes.  With  a few quick blinks from the creature, Jonghyun was brought back to earth.

“You’re a maiden right?”  he started. The maiden shook his head and backed off. The off-white robes that he wore, fluttered as if they were made of butterfly wings, that light. Slowly the creature backed into the forest, but Jonghyun was determined to make some more contact. To him the maiden didn’t seem to be running right back, so the hunter took his chance.

“My name is Jonghyun” he introduced himself without a stutter. “What is yours?” of course he hoped he would get to hear the name of the beautiful creature in front of him. Instead he heard another, most amazing sound, a giggle. It wasn’t like the laughter from before, although that had been very captivating as well, it was lighter, much more innocent, as it seemed.

The maiden shook his head and turned his back to Jonghyun, gracefully running back from which he came, or so the young hunter assumed. Jonghyun was left dumbfounded and it took him quite some moments to process what had actually happened.
It was a fact that the maiden he had wanted to chase, was now gone. The young man was capable of hitting himself, but he refrained from doing so. Jonghyun knew he had to think, and to think well. He couldn’t go chasing after the creature since daylight was running low and since he hadn’t truly paid attention to his surroundings, one could say, that the hunter was lost.

His hopes faded away, but he forced himself to stay calm and just took a moment to regain the peace in his mind. There was just a small moment of panic but that subdued rather quickly thanks to his reasoning. He knew that the village was near the river, the only river he had passed was at least some miles back. It wasn’t that he wasn’t fast or strong enough, it was a bit of a gamble. Jonghyun knew he had walked in eastern direction so his best option was to go west.

The male sighed, he knew he had been foolish to just follow the sound, it did bring him some good, but wasn’t helping at all right now. Jonghyun continued to walk aimlessly, he knew he was going west, but that was about it. Somewhere along the way, Jonghyun got the strong feeling that he was being followed. It were just his instincts kicking in, but he was more alert than he had been on the way to the open spot. He sighed and looked behind him, to see nothing actually following him, of course. He decided to ignore the feeling as much as possible so he could focus on getting back to the village.

Jonghyun wasn’t too scared in the forest, he couldn’t explain why he was that comfortable in the alien surroundings, but even with the dusk approaching fast, he still had the feeling he was quite safe. It wasn’t until he heard something rustle in the bushes that he became somewhat anxious. The young man quickly scanned his surroundings, but found nothing that could form a threat. Jonghyun had an ominous feeling about it though. He knew he had to move a lot faster, it might ease his unsettling feeling, or so he told himself. The male picked up his phase and didn’t really pay attention to his surroundings anymore, he was too focussed on moving through the forest as fast as possible.

The male didn’t watch his step and before he knew it, he ran into a tree, it was a small one, but because he was moving so fast. Jonghyun passed out from the impact and fell to the ground with a thud. It wasn’t before the darkness had fully taken the forest that he would woke up. He opened his eyes first, it took a few seconds before they were accustomed to the light. The male stared right into another pair of eyes. In shock he head-butted the person who was hovering above him. The other shot back as Jonghyun got up as fast as he could. He backed off and took his time to inspect what he was seeing, or rather, what he had just head-butted. As if out of instinct, he assumed that the other didn’t carry a weapon of any sort. The male somehow felt superior even though he had been the one on the ground, it was all very confusing to him. He looked over at the person he had just ‘hurt.’

What Jonghyun saw both stunned and amazed him, it was the maiden he had seen before, but this time rubbing his head in pain. “You...Why...”He couldn’t come up with a reasonable sentence so he decided to wait for the other to respond.

The maiden looked up, a frown on his face and an unpleasant expression present. He just kept frowning and glaring at the hunter. Jonghyun didn’t expect the other to respond like that at all, he hadn’t meant to harm the other, but he wanted to save himself. “Erm...” He figured that the creature must have been shocked, so Jonghyun tried to move closer to the maiden. The creature shot back an inch for every inch the male tried to get closer.

“Well, I guess you don’t want me to approach you...” Jonghyun mumbled, mostly to himself. He held his hands up in defeat. “I won’t come near you then, you can come to me.” As if he had said some sort of magic words, the maiden came closer with a remarkable speed. He inspected Jonghyun, but didn’t touch him yet.

“You’re not from the forest!” The maiden had come to that conclusion. The sitting hunter looked up to the green eyes that were inspecting him. The other’s voice was somewhat deep, but was somehow melodic and light, it wasn’t something he would call ‘earthly.’ The male decided that the best thing to do was to just sit and wait.

The other male continued his inspection, allowing Jonghyun to have a better look at the maiden as well. There were some things that stood out when he observed the creature; his skin was glowing, not much, but it seemed to reflect the moonlight better than his own did. Another thing was the fact that there was a shackle attached to the right ankle. It made Jonghyun wonder what it’s purpose was. He had wanted to wonder what it was for but his train of thoughts was interrupted.  

“You must come from beyond the plains” Jonghyun could only assume that the maiden meant the grass fields between his village and the woods.
“You smell funny too” The maiden didn’t seem to have any form of judgement over the statement, it was said on a neutral tone. The hunter guessed that he was the first ‘human’ the creature had ever seen this close before in his life.
“You came to the forest for food right?” Jonghyun nodded at that, the other smiled and pointed at a nearby tree. By the tree lay a dead deer, it wasn’t too big, but never the less it would do. The hunter looked at the dead animal and then back at the maiden in front of him.

“You did that?” he questioned. The creature nodded ad if it were something he could do at any given moment.
“I felt bad for you, you fell all the way down and I just laughed at you, that wasn’t very decent....” The maiden averted his eyes so they wouldn’t meet Jonghyun’s . The other male was just stunned, he had assumed that the creature before him was pure, if not the purest, everything he had believed was thrown out of the window. Nevertheless, he was still very impressed by the other’s ‘kill.’ He took it as a peace token, but he wondered whether that was the true ‘purpose’  of the offering.

“I did make a fool out of myself, didn’t I?” Jonghyun knew perfectly well that he was clumsy at times. The maiden nodded, but suddenly looked around and started to pull the hunter to his feet.
“You... he pointed at Jonghyun. “You need to get out of here, fast, this is no place for you after dark!”

There was an initial confusion from Jonghyun’s side, the other’s mood had turn a hundred-and-eighty-degrees in mere seconds. The maiden’s frown grew as he kept scanning their surroundings. “Just take the deer and get out” he uttered.  Jonghyun wondered what the sudden hurry was for. He couldn’t make any sense out of it, but he decided to take up the other’s ‘kind’ advise and leave. The male got over to the dead animal and threw it over his shoulder. He started walking in the right direction, when he suddenly thought of something, before making his way back to the village as fast as possible.

“Hey! My name is Jonghyun, what’s yours?”

“Key”

“Will I see you again?”

“If the will-o-wisps want you to” 

----------------------------------------------------------

And there it is. Their first encounter, I love Jonghyun's funny side and Key's somewhat more dominant male side, they have a nice dynamic character wise.

I didn't beta read it as much as I usually do, so bare with me. Yes, another update, I'm making monday/tuesday my offical update days, so a chapter will be added on either of the days. 

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and stay around for there is more to come~!

<3<3