"So you're the prince, eh?"

Baekhyun sniffs and wipes his nose, glancing over at Xiumin. The older man's face is glowing with fascination, and he's leaning so far in he looks like he might fall off his horse. Awkward under the former's look of awe, Baekhyun clears his throat and sits up straighter.

"So you have like, the power to kill or spare anyone--even like, for example, pardon criminals, right?"

Baekhyun absentmindedly tucks a loose string of long black hair back into his top knot, "yeah, if father allows it"

"But he'd absolutely allow it, because you're his son, and all."

Baekhyun nods thoughtfully, "I guess so."

A great grin spreads across Xiumin's face and he holds out a grubby hand-cracked dry skin and nail beds brown with dirt, "I think you and I will make great friends."

Baekhyun looks from the hand to its owner, scrunching his nose, "who are you, again?"

Ah, sorry," Xiumin wipes his hand across his tunic and holds it out again, "I'm the uh, the navigator. You can call me Min."

Bedgrudgingly, Baekhyun takes the man's hand, "Baekhyun."

Both men jump as a jet black horse carrying a man with long, straight hair flies in between them. Xiumin quickly grabs Soju's reigns to calm him down, and Baekhyun his horse's neck. The man slows down and looks over his shoulder.

"My apologies," Yixing smiles; nothing but a thin, practiced curve on his face. He turns and continues trotting through the group towards Sehun.

"What's with that guy?" Xiumin snorts, dusting off his tunic.

Baekhyun shrugs, "Chinese ambassadors. They're always snooty bastards."

A clamor begins to rise up among the men, first gasps, then shouts, as a beautiful temple nestled in the crook of the mountain comes into view--only a few leagues away. The roof tiles are made of glistening jade, and though time has worn the wood down, the timeless engravings of the mountain gods still dance across the temple walls. In the center of the tempe is a stone courtyard carved with a mural of the mountain gods and dieties. Things of the old religion.

"Is this Yeosansa?" Yixing asks, pulling his horse up beside Sehun's.

"It is."

"Be careful!" Xiumin warns, and drops from his horse, "it's very rocky here. The horses won't make it. We need to go on foot from here."

Immediately, Sehun obeys. Dropping from his horse and tying the reigns to the trunk of a tree.

"Dismount men! From here we go on foot!'

The men do his bidding, each tying their own horse to a tree.

Sehun leads the march down the mountain path to the temple, with Xiumin close on his heels.

"Keep your weapons ready," Sehun warns, "the beast may be inside."

Xiumin picks up the pace to reach Sehun, ducking under branches whilst Sehun simply slashes them off with his sword.

"S-so there's actually a monster in there?"

"Yes."

"Okay, alright, yeah. Um, would you happen to know, like, what kind?"

"A fox."

Xiumin stops in his tracks, "what?"

Sehun continues.

Xiumin jogs to catch up, "a fox? All the fox gods disappeared a thousand years a--"

Sehun's eyes are black marble, "or so we thought."

xiumin grips the strap of his quiver tighter, "I've heard stories of foxes. I heard the one on this mountain was nothing but a bloodthirsty killer. But it was killed hundreds of years ago--it took a whole army."

"The rumours are true. But it's certainly not dead. He's very much alive."

Xiumin's eyes widen, "he?"

Sehun runs up the steps of the temple and swivels his heard around the courtyard. His soldiers pour in around him, spears ready.

"Seize the temple!" Sehun commands, "Find the fox!"

The men twitch, glancing around at each other and at the temple walls; the painted eyes of gods and demons watch from above the murals in the rafters and on the walls.

"Fear no god or demon," Sehun shouts, sensing their hesitation, "I said GO!"

Flinching at their commander's words, the men rush forward, bursting open the temple doors and searching through the rooms.

Sehun storms through the grounds as well, keen eyes searching. An open door in the left wing draws his attention, and he rushes inside. The plain room is emply albeit for a few knocked over candle sticks, and a few strings of jet black hair.

"Minseok!" Sehun calls.

The older man peeks out from behind the door and drops his shoulders, ruffling his hair, "I told you not to call me that..."

"What do you think this means?"

A crease forms in his forehead, and he runs his eyes over the scene.

Sehun reads his expression, "what is it?"

Xiumin's eyes narrow to slits, "someone was here. Recently." He bends down and takes a string of hair between two fingers, "the hair hasn't even been blown away by the wind. My guess is two hours."

Sehun looks over his shoulders, out the door and towards the looming mountains.

"If you were a vengeful god, where would you go?"

Turning the hair over in his fingers, Xiumin purses his lips, "He was killed by an army, right? What army do you think?"

Realization falls across Sehun's poised face.

"The king."

Xiumin nods with raised eyebrows, "your guess is as good as mine."

Before the older man can even stand up, Sehun is out of the room, calling on his men.

"Leave the temple! Get back to your horse! We're setting course to Hanyang!"

Sehun growls in frustration as he pulls at the knot of his cape, throwing it over his horse's neck before climbing into the saddle one-handed.

A voice startles him.

"What a waste of precious time."

Looking up, Sehun's eyes meet Yixing's where the man leans against a tree trunk, arms crossed comfortably.

"What are you doing here? Didn't you go to the temple?"

The man fiddles with the ends of his blue-black hair, "Why would I? I knew he wouldn't be there."

Sehun's brows knot together, "how did you know that?"

Slanted eyes draw up to meet Sehun's, and Yixing pushes off the tree, pulling himself gracefully onto his horse as the first men begin to appear on the path. 

A pleasant smile eases its way on Yixing's face, the rising moon reflects in the inky pools of his eyes, "Call it intuition."

"Go!" Kai roars again, this time arching his back and tilting his head towards the moon. He covers his face with his hands. Then suddenly, he is still.

Eun takes a shaky step back. "Kai...?"

Kai drops one hand from his face. Slowly, purposefully. Then another. Moonlight lights up his unearthly beautiful face as he tilts his head to look at her.

"Is this what you wanted to see?" he asks. His voice is different. It rises from somewhere deeper. From the rocks beneath her feet; the earth itself. It makes the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

Kai tilts his head again, and a repulsively pleased smile tugs up the corners of his lips, revealing shining canine teeth.

"He told you to run. Now it's too late."

"W-what are you--"

Suddenly Kai is in front of her, and he snatches up her hand. Turning it over, his eyes drift and settle on the protruding blue vein inside her wrist.

"It's amazing how he resists you," he watches her pulse in awe and takes in a deep breath, savoring it, "even though he must smell it, too."

Eun flinches when Kai's fingers grow even tighter around her wrist, until her skin burns white from the pressure.

"A-ah!" Eun releases a cry and Kai looks up at her, brows knitting together. The yellow in his eyes flickers.

"Stop it!" she pushes at his scarred hands to no avail. He simply stares at her, bewildered.

"Idiot, let me go!" screaming again, Eun bares her eyes into Kai's, and rips at his hand. Eyes wide with confusion, he lets it fall away. 

Rubbing at her wrist, Eun shoots him an angry glare, "why are you grabbing me like that?"

Kai blinks at her, and the embers in his irises flicker out, fading back to a duller amber. Veins below his eyes recede back into his warm brown skin. Then Kai in a gulp of air and keels over, dropping to his knees, his body shaking with coughs as he gasps for breath.

Eun holds her wrist, frozen in place. Until Kai's head whips up, sending a jolt of electricity up her spine.

"It ran," Kai breathes, and drops his head down to inspect his own hands. The knuckles no longer jut out unnaturally, the white etchings of battle scars have vanished, only warm brown soft skin remains. Kai shakes his head in awe, "the curse ran from you."
 

Slowly, a crease forms in Eun's eyebrow. 

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"It's happened twice now," Kai says, pushing off the ground to bring himself upright, "it's clear this is no coincidence."

As Kai takes a step forward, Eun brings herself one step back. 

She eyes him wearily, as if he'll transform again any second, "You've been uttering nonsense for a while and I don't have any idea what any of it means."

"You cannot leave my side from now on," Kai orders.

"I--what?"

"I need you," Kai's voice is firm, hard like the stone of the mountains. There is a resolution in his voice that twists Eun's stomach. One she cannot deny. 

Clearing , she stands up straighter, "Why should I help you?"

Amber embers dance around Kai's irises, a sparkle that makes Eun's thoughts grow blurry. Pressure and electricity buzz around her head. 

"You will help me."

It is not a demand. It is a fact. As solid as the wind and trees. 

The pressure on Eun's skull grows stronger as the fire in his eyes rises from a spark to an inferno. Still, she forces her thoughts outward, lays a wall of ice between the blaze and her concious. All of her focus is centered on keeping the fire at bay. So much that it feels like her head will explode. Letting the electricity gather in her mind, she molds it into a ball, freezing the fire over. With a burst of will she turns it back on him.

Kai flinches, and in an instant the fire in his eyes is out. 

Releasing a breath she felt she had held for a thousand years, Eun brings a hand to her head. 

Before Kai can open his mouth Eun holds a hand up. Regaining herself, she looks up at him.

"I will help you. But not because you told me to."

Confusion drips away from Kai's face, replaced with solid resolution. He nods. 

Without another word, Eun turns away from him, and heads back down the hill toward the camp.

When Eun arrives at the camp, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo stand beside the fire with angry looks on their faces.

"I'm the teacher, I deserve to sleep closest to the fire!" Chanyeol booms.

"You haven't taught me a thing in the past three months!" Kyungsoo counters.

"Well I certainly haven't taught you respect, that's for sure!"

Eun storms into the camp and snatches up her bag from its place beside a stump. Breaking apart the argument, she walks right in between the two men and throws down her mat. They stare at her, completely taken back.

Chanyeol raises an arm, pointing at his sister's mat beside the fire, "y-you!"

Eun shoots him a glare and drops to the mat, opening and rummaging through her bag before pulling out a piece of wood she had been whittling.

Her brother opens his mouth to protest again, but Kyungsoo grabs his arm and drags him away before he can start.

Letting out a sigh, Eun begins to slice the wood. On the red-crested hill Kai's form appears with a glowing outline from the setting sun, lighting up his figure like an angel.

Pausing his bickering with his apprentice, Chanyeol waves a long arm back and forth over his head, "Hey! The god has returned!"

With an unreadable expression, Kai walks into camp, steering clear of Eun.

Chanyeol's eyes flicker between the two, "did something happen...?"

"No." they answer at the same time, before Kai bounds into a tree and settles into the branches.

The historian and his apprentice exchange glances and then look up from below with wide eyes.

"Won't you get cold up there?" Chanyeol asks.

"I don't get cold," Kai answers, before rolling over to show his back.

Kyungsoo purses his lips and frowns at the man in the branches before heading back towards the fire.

"I didn't know gods could have such nasty personalities."

The mountainside is anything but quiet, the forest booms with the laughter and tall tales of Sehun's men who sit around a bon fire, slapping each other on the back and drinking flasks of Soju. One pulls out a bamboo floot and begins to play, inciting a holler from his audience who laugh and sing along. Baekhyun sits a few feet away from the rest of the group with a bowl of rice in his hands, chewing quietly.

The prince jumps when Xiumin drops down beside him with a chicken leg in his hand.

After taking a bite, he waves the leg at the singing soldiers, spitting bits of chicken out as he speaks, "rowdy group, eh?"

Leaning away, Baekhyun looks the man up and down, "Indeed."

"Say," Xiumin leans over his knees and looks at the prince, round eyes glowing with excitement, "you're gonna be the king right?"

Baekhyun clears his throat and raises his eyebrows, sits up straighter, "Yes. That's right."

"Then that means you can have aaall the wives you want, right?"

The proud expression on the prince's face drops and he frowns, "I'm only going to have one wife."

A jarred Xiumin leans back into a tree and relaxes with an arm behind his head, "why would you do that?"

"I'm going to marry for love, that's why."

Baekhyun jumps when the older man releases a guffaw of laughter, "you really are a kid, aren't you?"

"I-I'm not a kid!" Baekhyun protests, puffing out his chest, "I'm the future leader of this country!"

Xiumin raises an eyebrow, "so who you gonna marry?"

Baekhyun swallows another spoonful of rice, a crease forms in his forehead, "I don't know."

Xiumin nods and goes back to eating.

Across the fire, Sehun sits tall and poised. Admist his rowdy and playful men, their leader appears to be no more than a regal stone statue. His expression is unchanged, disinterested.

"I hear your sister married that guy," Xiumin says, and tsks, "why would she ever do that?"

"He saved her life. Ever since then, she can't see anyone but him. She even convinced father to let her have him," Baekhyun explains, "girls are insistant like that, I guess."

Xiumin rolls his eyes, "he's saved everyone's life. He's ended more than a handful, too."

"That's a magistrates job," Baekhyun concludes. He stands up and turns to go and wash his bowl.

"Hey, King!" Xiumin scrambles to his feet, "let's go together!"

"Licorice root and ginger for cough, Astralagus and Yarrow for a cold," Hyohe counts the assortment of plants on her desk, writing each one carefully in her catalog.

"Anything for cuts?"

General Joonmyeon saunters into the room, wearing noble man's clothes and a scholars hat.

Hyohe smiles, "I would imagine so."

The general takes a sits down on the ground before her desk and waits while Hyohe opens and closes several drawers before reaching into one and pulling out a pouch of green herbs and setting it on the counter.

"Comfrey," she explains, "wonderful for sanitizing wounds."

She offers a hand to Joonmyeon, "would you please?"

"But of course," he smiles and sets his hand in hers, letting her bring it to the desk and pull up his sleeve, revealing a long and bloody mark across his arm.

​Hyohe's eyes are calm and unfazed, assesing the cut like a hunter asseses his aim, pulling the bow string to his ear. Steady, focused.

​At last, she speaks, turning back to her herbs and shuffling through the pile, "wolf."

​Joonmyeon looks up, "hm?"
​"You were attacked by a wolf while on patrol. It was a male. Unusually large, white like snow. It pounced on the youngest recruit, but you blocked the way."

​The general stares awstruck, "H-how did you--?"
​Hyohe stops her fingers and looks up, "Did you kill it?"

​He closes his mouth, swallows, shakes his head.

"No."

​"Good. That was wise."

A look of understanding settles on Joonmyeon's face, softening his chiseled features.

​"You knew, didn't you? You knew from the moment I came in."

​Crushing herbs in a jar, Hyohe smiles at him, "sometimes I know things."

​"So you really can see the future," Joonmyeon flinches as the pultus of herbs hits his skin.

​"I wouldn't say that. I don't see the entire future. I see a single consequence of a single choice. Cause and effect."

"So you saw me save my soldier?"

"What happened to the wolf?"

"It tried to pounce on our youngest soldier, but I pushed it out of the way. While it was laying with the wind knocked from it, we ran."

"Why didn't you use your sword?"

Joonmyeon shakes his head, "I looked into the eyes of the beast, and knew better than to try to harm it. I knew it was weak, so I took advantage of that weakness and made my escape."

"Good. You made the right decision."

Joonmyeon looks up from his arm, "what did you see?"

Hyohe lifts Joonmyeon's arm and begins to wrap it in gauze, pressing the pultus into the cut.

"The wrong one."

A shriek sounds through the low hanging snow-covered branches of the quiet wood.

A young soldier turns in the direction of the voice, raising his torch and squinting into the darkness.

Ahead, the general stops his horse, and looks at the soldier.

"Something wrong?"

The young soldier nods and stretches his arm even further, "I thought I heard--"

The tree branches sway from vibration, knocking snow to the ground.

"Wolf!!"

In an instant, Joonmyeon drops off his horse, turns his body and sprints towards the sound. Brush rakes against his armor and embers from the torch in his hand bounce onto his skin.

"Yong-oh!" He calls, searching for the boy who had called wolf. Then a snarl hits his ears like a hum; a warning.

"S-sir."

The voice turns his head and leads his eyes to where Yong-oh lay on the ground, face bloody from a jagged scratch running from his cheekbone to his neck. Another growl sounds and Joonmyeon's eyes flash up. The creature is beyond this world, shimmering white like fresh fallen snow, with piercing ice-blue eyes, and the massive beast is the size of a bear, if not larger.

"Yong-oh," Joonmyeon's voice is barely above a whisper, "look away. Don't look into its eyes.'

The younger boy immediately shuts his eyes as tightly as he can, his ragged breaths form clouds in the cold night air.

Slowly Joonmyeon brings his eyes back to the creature's, to the piercing glow of cool blue that makes his thoughts grow weaker, his mind foggy. The beast's lips rise into a snarl, and each deep breath shoots clouds from its nose.

"Go," Joonmyeon swings his torch like a baton, "go back where you came from."

The wolf snarls and snaps its teeth, shaking itself. Joonmyeon's eyes catch a jagged end of an arrow sticking out of the creature's shoulder. He jumps forward and swings the torch again, this time drawing his sword with his other hand and flashing it in the light. The wolve growls and steps back, watching the general's every move with piercing eyes.

"Get out of here," Joonmyeon wills the wolf, swinging the fire nearer to the beast's snout.

"What are you doing?!"

Yong-oh's voice breaks Joonmyeon's focus, and he turns to look over his shoulder. A flash of white hits his eyes as the wolf seizes the opportunity, pouncing towards the younger man. But the general is faster, ducking under the wolf's ivory chest. He shoves the wolf to the side, throws his arms above his head, and plunges his sword straight down. Hot blood hits his face, and the mighty creature screeches in pain and writhes.

Yong-Oh uses a tree trunk to scramble up, "General!"

Scarlet hands release the sword as Joonmyeon stumbles back, dropping to his knees. The thrashing beast stares at Joonmyeon, with eyes aglow like blue fire. It releases a snarl, but not only that. A pain like sharp claws digging into his skin hits Joonmyeon's head. Not even a scream escapes his opened lips. His skull feels like it could cave in, like the electricity in the frozen winter air could stop his heart.

Foolish human,

A penetrating voice shakes his very being, like a rumbling earthquake, like the roaring waves, the spinning stars.

You dare to kill a god.

Tears spark at Joonmyeon's eyes and frost over on his cold cheeks. Shaking his head at the beast he tries to near him.

"No, no I didn't know--"

I will not die alone.

You will follow.

May your starving soul wander this earth for a thousand years to pay for your sins.

"Forgive me," Joonmyeon cries and gasps for air.  Blood begins to pool on his shoulder, and he reaches for it, only to find the jagged end of an arrow jutting out.

As the wolf's icy blue eyes intensify in color, its shape begins to change. At first a gradual change in the fur of the beast, a single hair turns black, which in turns changes another, and another, until its entire pelt has transformed. some hairs grow shorter, others longer, some morph into threads of dark blue fabric. A long snout shortens to a nose, and ivory fangs become square teeth. Before his very eyes the monster becomes a man. Only intense blue eyes give away evidence that the two are one and the same.

Know my name so that you may suffer as I have.

the man's voice booms in Joonmyeon's ringing ears. A smile crosses the man's lips as he raises an arm for the arrow in his shoulder.
One at a time, he wraps his fingers around the feathered edge, eyes never leaving Joonmyeon's. Then in one swift go, he tears it from his own body. Joonmyeon's world goes dark.

I am Chen.

New character introduced! *sigh* there's so many characters, good gracious. I'll try my best to keep up with them all if you do.

Thanks for reading this chapter, and sorry its out so late! I had serious writers block about how to write this for a long time. But a bonus is its longer than my usual chapters!

if you like the story, leave me a comment and subscribe for more!

thank you always!

~Violet