On the plus side, having no armor, no weapons, no heavy bags of provisions to carry meant that walking through the woods was nearly as pleasant and casual as if he was walking through the castle gardens on a lovely spring day.

On the negative side, though, it meant Chanyeol had no food, no water, no tools and nothing with which to protect himself.

Being well-used to hunting and camping trips - with his father, with the army, with the palace huntsmen - Chanyeol’s first order of business upon leaving Yixing’s glen was to find a thick, fairly straight branch and strip off all of the smaller branches and twigs to make a walking stick. It gave him something to poke at suspicious patches of ground and shifty-looking foliage, anyway; after his recent experiences Chanyeol knew better than to take any part of this forest at face value.

There was little in the way of wildlife, still, which Chanyeol thought was odd. He could hear birds, hear the rustling of small creatures, and the trail which he was following was very clearly a deer trail, marked with hoofprints and the occasional clump of hair caught on a thorny branch, but he did not see one living creature that was not a plant or an insect. It was, to be honest, a bit unsettling.

By midday - or what he thought was probably around midday, anyway, the treetops were still too thick to get more than an occasional glimpse of the sun - Chanyeol was sweating, tired, hungry, and absolutely dying of thirst. So when he heard the faint rush of water in the distance, he found himself breaking into a jog.

Sure enough, there was the river Yixing had spoken of, surprisingly wide and fast-moving for these woods, edged with slippery, moss-covered rocks and small beaches that were more mud than sand. But the water looked clean and inviting, glinting in the rays of sunlight that managed to break through the canopy, and Chanyeol climbed out onto the largest, flattest rock he saw and cupped water in his palms. It tasted as good as it looked, cool and clear, and he drank as much as he could manage with only his hands.

His thirst slaked, Chanyeol sat down on the rock, letting the edges of the river lap at the toes of his boots. Now what? Yixing had said that his guides - plural, he’d specifically said they - would find him where the deer trail met the river. Should he wait?

Probably. Yixing’s advice was the only lead he had, and with his new realization that his damsel was not only real, but waiting for him right now, Chanyeol was not about to take any chances. He was, however, awfully hungry, so he didn’t think it would hurt too much to forage a little - as long as he didn’t go very far.

With that in mind, Chanyeol began to poke about his surroundings, looking for edible plants, for nuts or berries or tubers or something to put in his stomach. He did manage to find some dandelions, and munched on those greens while he was looking. Without any sort of sauce or dressing they were bitter and a little bit terrible, but they were edible, so it was better than nothing.

He was just weighing the consequences of expanding his search when a terrified cry shattered the quietude.

“Help! Gods, someone help, please!!”

It was coming from further downstream. Thoughts of food, and of waiting, forgotten, Chanyeol sprinted down the riverbed, using his walking stick to catch himself whenever a slippery rock threatened his stability.

He’d gone perhaps a quarter of a mile down the stream when he saw a figure caught in the rapids ahead, splashing and struggling against the current. Putting on an extra burst of speed, Chanyeol raced towards the figure, glancing about for any likely way of getting close enough to reach out his stick for them to grab. There was a rather large boulder up there that stuck out a ways; if only he could get to it fast enough…

And then, Chanyeol realized that the flailing figure was not human. It was a stag, a terrified, gangly young stag who was perhaps moments away from drowning or being crushed against the rocks, and he instantly revised his plan. A stag was not going to be able to grab a stick.

Chanyeol dropped the stick on the riverbed and dove into the water.

It was freezing, and rushing very quickly, but Chanyeol was a powerful swimmer, and tall enough that he could kick off the rocks at the bottom of the river when the current threatened to tug him under. He fought his way across the current to the stag, adrenaline and determination lending him strength and speed.

“Help me help me help me!”

That panicked voice was not the same voice he had heard before - but it definitely came from the stag. Chanyeol saw its mouth move and everything.

He didn’t have time to question it.

It took a moment - and some calming words yelled out in an unfortunately not-particularly-calm voice - for Chanyeol to get his arms around the stag’s ribs, pulling it back so that much of its weight rested in Chanyeol’s arms and its head was out of the water, long, graceful neck laid over Chanyeol’s shoulder so his short antlers were back behind Chanyeol’s ear.

“Kick!” he commanded roughly, spluttering as the stag’s weight threatened his buoyancy. “I’ve got you, I’m here to help, but you have to kick!”

“HELP!!” the stag screamed, louder now that its head was held out of the water.

“KICK!!” Chanyeol roared back, and perhaps it was the increased volume, but he finally got through, and the stag started to kick all four legs wildly. With Chanyeol holding him such that its legs were held out in front of them, it produced just enough force that Chanyeol was able to drag them both back to shore, across the current at an angle. He hit some rocks, stumbling back and up onto them as they reached the shallows, and as soon as the water was shallow enough that he could stand steadily on both feet, he stopped moving backward. The river was still deep enough that most of the stag’s weight was held up by the water, but if he went any further he’d be bearing too much of it and his arms would give out.

“Okay, you can stop, you can stop,” he said, aiming for a calming tone even though he was breathless and freezing and shaking with the adrenaline rush. The stag froze, and Chanyeol didn’t need to look back over his shoulder at the stag’s face to know it was terrified. “I’m going to lower you, but I’ll still be here to help keep your head up, okay? You need to swim to shore. Can you do that?”

“Uh. Uh. I. No. Yes?”

Poor thing. “I need you to try,” Chanyeol said. “I’ll help any way I can. You can do it.”

“Um. Okay. I. Okay.” The stag shifted in his arms, and Chanyeol began lowering it forward. “No!” it screamed, jerking in fright. “Nonono!”

Swearing under his breath, Chanyeol heaved himself back up straight, again bearing much of the stag’s considerable weight, his arms and back and shoulders burning under the strain. “Look, if you don’t let me put you down, I’m going to drop you. You’re too heavy. I’ll be right here, okay? You’ll be fine.”

Another voice, this one from the riverbank - the same voice Chanyeol had first heard calling for help. “ing listen to him, Lu!”

“Okay,” the stag said, sounding very, very scared. “Okay. I can do this. I can do this.”

Chanyeol ignored the little voice in the back of his head, the one going this is the absolute ing weirdest thing that has ever happened to you, and you’ve encountered a fairy AND a unicorn in the last twenty-four hours alone. He did not have time to contemplate the total insanity that had become his life right now. “Alright, here we go,” he said, and started to bend forward, tipping the stag back onto its feet.

To its - to his - credit, the stag did manage not to panic this time, and Chanyeol got him upright and submerged up to his flanks. He could feel that the stag was not tall enough to touch the rocky riverbed, so he kept his arms wrapped securely around the animal’s ribs, helping to keep him afloat.

“Alright,” he said. “Progress. Now swim. I’m right here.”

“Okay,” the stag said again, his freakishly human voice shaky and terrified. But he did start to kick, an awkward little doggy paddle, and Chanyeol walked beside him, each step carefully felt out on the uneven, slick rocks and pressed hard against the still-swift current.

Chanyeol let out a sigh of relief when the stag touched bottom, but kept his arms around him for balance, because he had thin, gangly legs and his cloven hooves provided no traction on the mossy rocks. Eventually, though, they made it all the way out of the water, and the stag managed a total of seven shaky steps forward before it collapsed in a heap on the riverbank, soaked and shivering.

“That was terrible,” the stag said, laying its head down in the mud in total exhaustion. “Terrible.”

“You absolute idiot,” the second voice said, and Chanyeol turned towards it to see - a rabbit. No, not a rabbit, a hare, chubby-cheeked but long-legged, bounding towards the stag. The hare braced its little front paws on the stag’s flank and sniffed him thoroughly, clearly checking for injury. “You are so incredibly lucky this man was near enough to save your idiot venison hide. What were you thinking?”

A talking hare.

Well alright then. It wasn’t any weirder than a unicorn or a talking stag, anyway.

Freezing, sopping, and feeling a bit knock-kneed himself, Chanyeol followed the stag’s example and collapsed into the mud. “You’re welcome,” he muttered, stripping off his waterlogged shirt and leaning away from where he was sitting to wring it out. “How the heck did he end up in the water in the first place?”

The hare snorted indelicately. “Sir Antlers Von MushForBrains here decided it was a lovely day for frolicking by the water and frolicked himself right off a rock.”

It was very, very odd to see an animal pout without having lips, but that’s precisely what the stag was doing. “It is a nice day,” he grumbled. “And you were frolicking too.”

“I have traction,” the hare cried. “Idiot. Moron. Why do I bother with you.” As he said it, the hare was hopping over to the stag’s head, leaning up to clean the water off the stag’s face with a delicate, careful tongue, a gentleness that totally belied his annoyed tone. Chanyeol’s heart gave a funny little swoop in his chest.

“Um,” he said, suddenly feeling like he was intruding. “Forgive me, but...I have not met a talking stag before. Or hare, for that matter. How did you - ” No, Chanyeol, manners. Manners. “May I ask your names?”

The hare looked back at him for the first time, and Chanyeol’s breath caught. His eyes were far, far too intelligent, too human. “I’m Minseok,” he said. Watching a hare pronounce an ‘m’ was one of the more unsettling things Chanyeol had ever seen. “This idiot is Lu Han.”

Lu Han glanced his way without moving his head. His eyes, unlike Minseok’s, were totally animal, if a bit too intelligent. “What’s your name, hero man?” he asked, sounding tired.

“I’m Chanyeol,” Chanyeol replied, feeling an odd sense of deja vu. He hadn’t expected to spend so much of his quest introducing himself.

“What are you doing so deep in the forest?” Minseok asked, hopping over to Chanyeol to inspect him as well. Chanyeol let him, resisting the urge to pick the little creature up and snuggle him. He was quite a cuddly-looking little fuzzball. “We almost never get humans this far in.”

Chanyeol sighed, wondering if they would be offended if he stripped off his leggings. Wet leather was terribly uncomfortable. He settled for unlacing his boots. “I’m on a Quest,” he said, pulling open the rows and rows of soaked lacing. The biggest issue with these boots was how long it took to get them on and off - curse his ridiculously long legs. “I was told to come to this river to find my guides.”

Wait.

Chanyeol stopped with his boot halfway off, staring. Your guides will be there. They may not know that’s what they are, but they will lead you where you need to be.

Oh.

Oh.

“What sort of guides?” Lu Han asked, curiosity coloring his exhaustion.

“Um.” , really? A talking hare and stag? “I didn’t get that much. Just that there would be more than one, and they would be here, and they would lead me where I need to go.” Lu Han’s literal doe-eyes didn’t seem to react his pointed tone, but Minseok definitely did, his little head whipping around to stare at Chanyeol.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Minseok said, incredulous.

Chanyeol shrugged. “I saved his life. Doesn’t that mean he owes me a debt? That seems to be how it works around here.”

Minseok made a distressed noise, somewhere between a rabbit’s tiny wail of dismay and a long-suffering groan that was much more human. Lu Han’s gaze shifted to him. “He’s not wrong, Min. He completely saved my life. I was very definitely going to drown. My life was flashing before my eyes.”

“You’re barely two years old. All you’ve done your entire life is eat and frolic.”

“There was an awful lot of frolicking,” Lu Han admitted, his big brown eyes fluttering shut. “Still. I’m glad I’m not dead. Thank you, Human Chanyeol.” Watching a deer pronounce a “ch” was almost as unsettling as watching a hare pronounce an “m”.

“You’re welcome,” Chanyeol said again. “Does this mean you two will be my guides?”

“Yes,” Lu Han said, as Minseok said, “No.”

Chanyeol raised an eyebrow as the two animals started to bicker. They didn’t come to an immediate conclusion, so he ended up standing and stripping off his leggings - to hell with propriety, he was soaked - and clad in only his cotton breechcloth went over to a nearby tree to hang his shirt and leggings and stockings to dry. He spared but one wistful thought for the multiple changes of warm dry clothes he’d had in his saddlebags. (Okay, maybe more than one.)

Soaked though his breechcloth already was, Chanyeol was not willing to sit down in the mud in it, so he remained standing, bare toes squishing in the riverbank, and waited for the two animals to finish arguing. In the end, Lu Han managed to convince Minseok that they did indeed owe Chanyeol a debt, and Minseok huffed and hopped over to Chanyeol, stretching up on his hind legs with one paw braced on Chanyeol’s shin to look up into his face.

“Alright, Chanyeol,” Minseok said. “We’ll be your guides. Where do you need to go?”

Great. If only he knew.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



Since Chanyeol was tired, and both he and Lu Han were soaked, and all three of them were hungry, they decided to move away from the river a bit and make a camp for the evening. Minseok led them to the best place, a little clearing bisected by the old, dried-out trunk of a felled tree, which he swore was in no way inhabited by sentient plants. (“Those are mostly along the outskirts of the forest,” he said. “They don’t like coming this far in, there isn’t enough to hunt.”) Chanyeol made them a fire and hung his clothes near it to dry, and they left Lu Han curled up in front of it to warm up while Minseok took Chanyeol out to forage.

It was interesting - and oddly freeing, really - to be out in nature like this, barely clothed with mud streaked up to his knees and a rough-made staff in his hand. Very different from how he’d set out, only a little over thirty hours ago. (Had he really only been gone a day and a half? It felt like a lifetime.)

Minseok, fortunately, was intimately familiar with this area, and knew exactly where the fruit trees and patches of root vegetables grew, knew not only which berries weren’t poisonous but also which greens were sweetest, which fruits were ripest, which mushrooms wouldn’t cause Chanyeol to hallucinate. He was also, surprisingly, a very good travelling companion, talkative and shockingly sarcastic for a rodent.

Arms full of vegetables and munching on a wild carrot, Chanyeol followed Minseok back to the camp. “If I may ask,” he asked around his mouthful, “how did your ability to talk come about? Is that just a product of living in this forest?”

Minseok snorted, picking his way over rocks and under branches. “I was born with it,” he said, “same as you. Exactly the same as you. I’m human.” He stopped, and threw a very long-suffering look over his shoulder, ears twitching. “Or I was human, until about two years ago.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol said, feeling terrible for bringing it up. “That’s...I’m sorry?”

“It’s not so bad,” Minseok said with a shrug. (Seeing a hare shrug was nearly as odd as seeing one speak.)

“How did it happen?”

“Long story. Suffice to say, it doesn’t pay to insult a fairy.” Chanyeol blinked in surprise. “Anyway, this particular fairy, he didn’t have great aim, and Lu got caught in the crossfire. He was just a fawn at the time, but suddenly, he could speak. Poor kid was terrified. None of his herd could understand him, and it was sort of my fault he ended up that way, so I stuck with him. Just so he wouldn’t be alone, you know.” Minseok shrugged again and turned to keep moving. “I think growing up with me made him a little bit smarter than your average young buck, but he’s still a deer you know? He’s kind of an airhead.”

“You seem like you’re close,” Chanyeol observed quietly.

“Out of necessity, yeah. I mean. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great kid, he’s absolutely the sweetest and most innocent thing, but he’s. Just. I miss talking to actual humans.”

Chanyeol could imagine.

Lu Han was asleep by the time they returned, so Chanyeol and Minseok scarfed down their portions of their wilderness salad. Leaving the leafiest bits for Lu Han, they went back down to the river, and Minseok kept Chanyeol talking as he sharpened his walking stick against a rough rock and attempted spearfishing. It took a while, but Chanyeol did eventually catch himself a bass, maybe as long as his hand. It was all he needed for the moment, though, so they headed back and Chanyeol roasted it whole over the fire, having no knife with which to gut or clean it. He instead had to pick it apart with his teeth, carefully spitting out scales and bones and separating the flesh from the inner organs with his fingers, and the fish was plain and a little dried-out but it was meat and after the day he’d had Chanyeol did not care one little bit that it wasn’t good-tasting.

“I don’t suppose either of you know where I could find a knife,” Chanyeol grumbled, pulling yet another bone from his teeth. Lu Han and Minseok exchanged a look, and Chanyeol sat up a little straighter. “What?” he asked.

“Well,” Lu Han said, “there’s a place, out on the western edge of the forest, where you might be able to find one,” he said slowly. “It’s perhaps...a day’s travel?”

“No, Lu,” Minseok said, his little brown eyes wide.

“He needs a guide,” Lu Han argued. “We promised we’d take him. He saved me, Min.”

“I’ll take him. It’s too dangerous for you.”

“I am at least twice your size,” Lu Han said, annoyed. Chanyeol blinked, wondering if he was purposely underestimating for effect, or if he just didn’t have that great a grasp of math. “And I have antlers.”

“You just got your antlers a few months ago. And you regularly trip over your own feet,” Minseok snapped back, but Chanyeol could hear the real fear behind his tone.

“If you’re that worried,” Chanyeol said, his brow furrowing, “you don’t have to take me the whole way. Just get me as close as you can and direct me the rest of the way.”

Minseok shook his head. “Won’t work. This is the Enchanted Forest, you won’t make it to the other side if you don’t know the way. The forest has tricks of its own.” He took a deep breath, his narrow little ribs heaving in resignation. “We’ll take you. Not tonight - in the morning. No one should travel in this forest at night, let alone that close to the edge.” He moved over to Lu Han’s side, curling up against the stag’s side with his back to Chanyeol as if to say this conversation is over.

“Thank you,” Chanyeol murmured, not sure what else to say. Lu Han gave him the cervid impression of a smile, nothing but eyes, and dropped his head, curling his neck around Minseok’s fuzzy back.

The fire was warm, but the night was cold and the ground was hard, and Chanyeol was quite . It took him quite a while to fall asleep.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



His dreams were filled with fire, with lusciously curved lips and beautiful eyes that were becoming familiar.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



“Chanyeol!”

Chanyeol startled awake, staring up wide-eyed at the fuzzy brown face in his vision. It took him a moment to remember the last two days’ adventures and why there was a hare shaking his cheek with tiny paws and calling his name in a human voice.

“I’m up,” Chanyeol mumbled automatically. “I’m awake.”

“Good,” Minseok said. “You were making noises in your sleep. Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Just dreams.” Chanyeol sat up, pushing the heels of his hands against his eyes and trying to hang onto the remnants of his dream as it slipped away. All he could remember was the eyes, his future betrothed’s incredible eyes. He knew there was more, and he was almost certain it was important, but he just...couldn’t remember.

One meal of partially wilted greens and the last bit of roasted fish, a semblance of a bath in the river’s edge, and Chanyeol pulled his now-dry clothes back on. Then, they were off.

As Lu Han had guessed, the journey took most of the day. Time passed more quickly with company, though, and both Minseok and Lu Han seemed to be in good spirits. Lu Han asked him dozens of questions about being human, questions Chanyeol was sure he’d probably asked Minseok before, but Chanyeol answered them all as best he could. It was interesting, getting an outsider’s perspective on humankind, and Chanyeol learned a few things himself.

As the sun passed its zenith and the forest became less dense, though, the two animals quieted, becoming more and more wary. Chanyeol started to notice sections of forest that were yellowed and dry, and as they moved forward, areas that were blackened, as if burned.

“Here,” Minseok said suddenly. “This is the hard part. Follow me exactly, alright?” He began weaving his way up a rocky incline, going slow enough that Chanyeol and Lu Han could follow in his wake.

Chanyeol found out why Minseok was being so adamant when he let his steps stray a little too far to the left and the ground completely gave out from under him, like there was a hidden sinkhole in the mountain. Only because Lu Han was behind him and managed to snag Chanyeol’s shirt in his teeth did Chanyeol have enough time to scramble back onto solid ground; without that extra second of stability he would have been lost.

“Thanks,” Chanyeol said breathlessly.

Lu Han spit out fibers of Chanyeol’s shirt, which had torn in his teeth. “You’re welcome.”

“What part of follow me exactly was hard to understand?” Minseok asked in exasperation from up ahead.

“Forgive me, Your Rabbitness,” Chanyeol shot back. “My feet are a little bit bigger than yours.”

“Go piss off a fairy, that’ll fix that problem quick,” Minseok grumbled, and Chanyeol chuckled, despite his heart still pounding in his ribs from his near-miss. “Come on, just a bit farther.”

‘A bit farther,’ as it turned out, was a small cave opening halfway up the mountain, barely large enough for Lu Han to pass through. Chanyeol himself had to duck quite a ways, and inside the cave became very dark very quickly.

“Hey, wait,” he said, stopping Lu Han with a hand on his flank. “You two might be able to see in that but I can’t. I need to make a torch.”

“How about this?” Minseok’s voice floated from further in the cave, and Chanyeol heard the sound of metal scraping on rock. Frowning, he made his way down the sloped cave floor until he could make out a little fuzzy shape with eyes that reflected oddly in the dim light, next to a very obviously man-made object.

Chanyeol bent down and ran his hands over it, feeling smooth metal and cold glass. A lantern. Was there still a wick inside?

There was. With the hare’s help, Chanyeol found some fuel and tinder and started a little fire, just enough to light the lamp before he stomped it out. Raising the lantern over his head, Chanyeol looked around.

The inside of the cavern was an incline even steeper than the outside, but angled the other way; a shale wall coated in dirt and rocks and debris. Raising the lantern as high as he could reach, Chanyeol peered down the climb and spotted a flicker of reflection at the bottom.

“Is that...water?”

“It’s an underground river,” Minseok said, starting to pick his way down the incline. Even as sure-footed as the little animal was, he skidded a few inches as pebbles came loose under his feet. Chanyeol looked back at Lu Han, who was eyeing the incline with extreme trepidation.

“Lu,” he said softly, “you can wait here.”

Doe-eyes looked up at him. “But you need a guide,” Lu Han said. “You saved my life. I can’t just quit.” He took a step forward, feeling his way head-first down the incline, and Chanyeol winced as pebbles and rocks came loose around his hooves and tumbled down the hill.

“I absolve you from your debt,” he said hurriedly, reaching out to stop Lu Han before he tumbled like those rocks and snapped all four of his skinny legs.

A blink. “Really?”

“Honestly and truly,” Chanyeol promised. “I’ve gotten kind of fond of you and would rather not see you kill yourself for no reason. This cave shows no signs of habitation - wait here for us to return, okay?”

Lu Han looked over Chanyeol’s shoulder. “Min? Should I do that?”

Minseok, as it turned out, was already halfway down the climb. He popped up on his hind legs to look up at them. “Probably,” he agreed. “This is a nasty hill, and you’re a klutz.” One of his hind legs slipped out from under him, as if to illustrate his point; he caught himself on his front paws and glared at the rocks, nose twitching. “I’m honestly not too sure how the human’s going to do.”

“Reassuring,” Chanyeol mumbled. He reached out and rubbed Lu Han’s head, between his modest antlers. Lu Han pushed into his touch. “We’ll be back, okay Lu? Stay out of trouble.”

As Minseok had warned, the climb down the hill was steep and treacherous, with the very ground seeming to shift out from underneath him. Chanyeol slipped several times, but fortunately only fell back onto his and skidded a few feet; he didn’t pitch forward and tumble -over-teakettle down the hill. He even managed to keep the glass lantern from dropping and breaking, which was almost a miracle.

The hare was waiting when he reached the bottom, furiously cleaning grit and gravel out of his toe pads. “That was a bit awful,” Chanyeol proclaimed, following his example and brushing himself off. He held the lantern up and looked around. They were indeed at the edge of an underground stream, the cavern here as large as the biggest ballroom in his palace back home, with a ceiling twice as high.

“Just a bit,” Minseok grumbled. “Okay, come on. Let’s get moving.”

They started upstream, following the riverbank. Without any sunlight there was no moss to make these rocks slippery, but Chanyeol chose his steps carefully anyway, wary of obstacles in the darkness.

They’d been traveling for probably about a quarter of an hour in relative silence when Chanyeol kicked something that clanged. He held up his lantern to see what he’d kicked.

It was a helmet.

Upon closer inspection, Chanyeol realized it was a helmet with dried-out, decapitated skull still inside.

“,” he swore in surprise, dropping it like it burned him. It clattered to the ground and rolled, coming to a stop resting against something...equally dead.

Chanyeol raised his lantern.

Ahead of him was a pile of dully glinting metal, of dried and desiccated bodies both human and animal. They were at a bend in the underground river, and it seemed that something about the way the current was rushing around the corner deposited anything in the river right here, washing it ashore.

“Minseok?” Chanyeol called. The hare looked back at him. “Is this what you were talking about?”

Pulling himself up on his hind legs, Minseok craned his neck forward to see. “Oh. Yes. This is what I meant.”

Chanyeol took a deep breath. It made sense; after all, it wasn’t like these poor sods would need their armor or tools anymore. Steeling himself, he stepped closer to the pile and used his walking stick to start sifting through it. Most of the bodies were old - some quite old, old enough to be mostly skeleton. Some, though, particularly those closest to the shore, were recent enough to smell horrendous.

“Where do they all come from?” Chanyeol asked, crouching down to check the condition of a knife that tumbled out of the pile. It needed some honing, but it was mostly functional, only a tiny bit rusted, unlike the majority of the armor and weapons there. Chanyeol set it aside for the moment.

“We don’t really know for sure,” Minseok said, hanging back away from the gruesome stack. “Some of the other inhabitants of the forest say that there’s a great monster who lives on the other side of the mountain, far to the west. A chimera, or a giant, or perhaps a dragon.”

Spotting something that shone brighter than the rest in the light of the lantern, Chanyeol leaned down and gingerly dug for the source. As he did, his fingers brushed a shield, its painted face twisted and blackened, and sudden brightness flashed behind his eyes.

Greenish-black scales - gouts of fire - the beat of massive wings blowing him back

Yanking his hand away, Chanyeol stared. He’d seen those same scales, those same wings, when Yixing kissed him, in the same vision as…

He swallowed. Hard.

“A dragon,” Chanyeol murmured incredulously. “At least it’s more impressive than an ogre.” A hell of a lot more dangerous, though, and with the added dimension of fire-breathing. And flying.

Wait a moment. Did that mean his princess was captured by a dragon?

Chanyeol blinked unseeingly into the dim light, ice crawling up his insides at the thought. She was...well, who knew, honestly. Imprisoned. Terrified. Helpless and alone. And the rumors, the stories, of just why dragons captured maidens…

Chanyeol’s hand clenched hard around his newly-found knife.

“I need a weapon,” he thought out loud, digging through the pile with renewed vigor, heedless of the body parts he was disturbing. He found the source of the brighter reflection - an older body, dried to nothing but a husk, clad in a chainmail shirt that appeared to be made of brass rather than steel. It was tarnished, but because brass did not rust it was in good condition, still quite strong. Chanyeol wrestled it off the body and pulled it on. The weight hung awkwardly from his shoulders without a gambeson to distribute it, but just the reassurance of having some protection went a long way.

What he wouldn’t give for his exquisitely crafted full plate armor, his longsword, his ing horse right now. Stupid Enchanted Forest.

“Hey,” Minseok said, “look over here.”

The hare was a little past the pile of bodies, standing near a lone body that had washed up a bit further upriver. Chanyeol picked his way over, covering his nose. This one was fresh.

“Disgusting,” Minseok said, “but look. He’s still got his sword belt. And there’s a waterskin tied to it, as well.”

Indeed there was, and Chanyeol tugged the sword half out of the scabbard, checking it. It seemed to be intact, still well-oiled even, and the oil had protected it from the water.

No such protection existed for the poor sod who had been wearing it, though, and as Chanyeol unbuckled the sword belt he tried hard not to look at the man’s blackened, bubbling flesh, the places where his armor had melted to his skin. Maybe it was a blessing he’d lost his plate, after all; facing a dragon in armor like that he’d roast like a duck in an oven. There was the remains of a bowstave in the corpse’s hand, explaining why he’d been facing a dragon with his sword sheathed.

Chanyeol brought his prize away from its previous owner and inspected it thoroughly in the lanternlight. The waterskin he emptied, rinsed in the stream and re-filled, then he pulled the sword belt tight around his chainmail-clad hips and sheathed the sword, settling it comfortably at a good angle to be drawn.

Minseok watched him with a cocked head. “You look...much more heroic,” he observed. “Very rugged. Are you really going to fight a dragon?”

Pushing his fringe back from his face, Chanyeol briefly wondered if there was a leather thong or a cord or something in that pile that he could use to tie his hair back. His stint in the river the day before and his lack of opportunity to properly bathe afterwards left it tangled and messy and very in his way. “I think I have to,” he said. “I think it’s my destiny.”

“That .”

Yeah. “I’m not going to back down from it,” he said stubbornly, thinking of dark round eyes. “I’ll do what I have to do.” He sighed as his hair fell in his face again - if he was going to fight a dragon, this would never do. “Hey, you didn’t see a cord or tie in that pile at all, did you?”

Between the two of them, they found a leather cord that was not too damaged to use, and Chanyeol gratefully tied his hair back. Much better.

“Are you…” Minseok trailed off, his beady little eye trained on Chanyeol’s hands as he worked. “Do you...need me to come with you?”

Chanyeol blinked at him, then glanced back the way they came, where Lu Han was waiting. “Are you familiar with the other side of the mountain?” he asked.

“Not in the least. But you should probably have someone to watch your back. Even if that someone’s doing it from around your ankles.”

Visions of scales and flames danced behind Chanyeol’s eyes. “I think Lu Han needs someone to watch him more than I,” he said. “You should get back to him.”

Minseok’s nose twitched irritatedly. “Someone has to pay that idiot’s debt,” he grumbled.

“Minseok,” Chanyeol said, exasperated. “I absolved him of his debt.”

The hare looked away. “But you didn’t absolve me of mine.”

Chanyeol blinked. What did he...oh. Oh.

“I didn’t save him to get payment out of either of you,” Chanyeol said gently. “I saved him because he needed to be saved. You owe me nothing.” He smiled. “Go back to him.”

Minseok let out a long bunny sigh, his nostrils flaring. “Don’t ever fall in love,” he grumbled. “It’s crap.”

Fighting to keep his smile from widening, Chanyeol promised he would keep that in mind. Wishing him luck, Minseok started the trip back to his stag, and Chanyeol turned back towards his future.

The question was, how was he going to get there?



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



As it turned out, the answer was walk. A lot. Through the cave, following the river by the meager light of his lantern, because those burnt bodies had to come from somewhere.

His meal that night - not that he honestly had a concept of night or day within the mountain - was cave-river fish and mushrooms that he fervently hoped were not the poisonous kind. He slept badly, on the flattest stretch of rock he could find, still dressed in his stolen armor for fear of losing his only protection.

More than once as he traveled, exhausted and alone, he wondered why he’d ever thought this was a good idea. Why he’d ever let the mutterings of the populace and the remarks of his mother get under his skin, that he made such a rash decision.

But every time his loneliness and unsurety got such that he considered giving up, he remembered the vision he’d beheld at Yixing’s touch, and remembered that the woman he’d seen was out there, in trouble, in danger, and if he gave up she’d remain that way. The thought kept him going, gave him strength.

When he reached a place where the river disappeared into a solid rock wall, though, he couldn’t help but question if he really was insane. Because now he could either turn back, another full day’s travel back out of the mountain the way he came, and then try to find a way up and over…

Or he could get in the river and swim into the tunnel, knowing from the pile back the way he came that the space was wide enough at least for a man’s body, and just pray that the air space would remain the entire way through.

He ended up getting another meal and a nap right there, figuring if he was going to be plunging himself into freezing water for an unknown distance, he had best do it with as much energy as possible. Exhaustion made it easier to fall asleep this time, and he dreamed again of eyes and of flames, and this time, he swore he heard a voice whisper his name like a prayer.

It was enough. When he awoke, the cavern into which the river disappeared looked just as foreboding, but he found himself barely hesitating as he re-tied his hair and clenched his recently-sharpened knife between his teeth. He briefly considered leaving behind his borrowed armor, but it was all he had, and the rocks at the edge of the hole looked jagged enough that he thought the protection was worth the extra weight. He did, however, have to leave his staff behind, and his lantern; the fragile glass would be more of a danger than a help in that kind of current.

The water was as cold as it looked, colder than the river from which he’d pulled Lu Han. Chanyeol submerged up to his chest and began to wade, against the current, his arms braced carefully against the sides of the narrow passage to guide him in the total darkness. He learned quickly to keep his hands below the waterline, despite the chill; above it the rocks were jagged and sharp, but below they had been worn smooth.

He moved as quickly as he dared, not knowing how long he had before the chill made his body numb. It was hard going, and his already overworked muscles were screaming at him with the strain before too long. Fish and bigger, unidentifiable creatures swam past his legs, and occasionally tried to take a bite of him; fortunately his leather boots and leggings provided some protection, but at least one managed to dig in deep enough to draw blood, forcing Chanyeol to slash blindly in the water with his knife until whatever it was - some kind of eel? - was driven off.

Worse was that the cavern kept changing shape, narrowing and widening with the randomness of nature. At times Chanyeol was only submerged up to his waist, and he used those times to try and warm his arms, his hands, his shoulders with friction; but at times the water came up so high Chanyeol had to tilt his head back just to keep his nose and mouth in the scant few inches of stale air at the top of the tunnel, making it impossible to see where he was going. More than once, claustrophobia and the very real fear of drowning or getting trapped forced him to pause, to close his eyes and breathe deeply, until his jangling nerves settled again.

He’d been going for what felt like an eternity when he realized he was running out of space. The water was rushing too fast and the air pocket at the top too narrow for him to maintain breathing room; he was going to need to submerge. In the total darkness of the cavern he had no idea whatsoever if this was a temporary situation or if it went on like this for miles, but by this point he had no choice but to continue forward; he knew if he went back his body would give out before he made it out of the tunnel.

So he turned his back into the current, braced his hands on the roof, took a deep breath, and leaned back into the water, letting his feet come up off the bottom. Kicking his legs mostly just kept him floating near the surface; to get any forward movement he had to haul himself bodily hand over hand, scrabbling for whatever purchase he could find on the jagged tunnel ceiling and praying his hands didn’t slip.

More than once, they did slip, and Chanyeol lost ground as the current swept him back the way he came, but somehow he managed to regain a handhold, dragging himself up to the narrow pocket of air to take a few gasping breaths before submerging and starting again.

His hands were bloodied, slashed up by the rocks; his arms were shaking and his senses were swimming from lack of consistent air, but somehow, he kept going, not through courage or strength of character or a desire to rescue anyone so much as just a simple will to not die.

Something large and heavy hit him right across the backs of his shoulders. Chanyeol cried out in shock without remembering he was underwater and choked as his lungs were suddenly filled. Lashing out blindly, he sank, somehow keeping one hand on the wall enough to keep him from being dragged downstream. He twisted his body until whatever it was untangled from his limbs and flowed past, and as it did Chanyeol realized from the feel of cloth and skin and metal that it was another dead body. Horror made him panic and for a moment in the darkness and weightlessness he forgot his sense of direction, could no longer feel which way was up.

As the lack of air made his systems begin to shut down, Chanyeol opened his eyes and saw in the total darkness the shape of a pair of plush, strikingly curved lips forming his name. He reached out instinctively - and his hand broke the surface, bumping into sharp rock.

The pain jolted him back to awareness, and he dug his fingers into the rock and pulled himself up with all the strength he had left. His face emerged into breathable air, the space so narrow he could feel stone pressing against his nose, but it was enough to cough the water out of his lungs and inhale.

“I’m sorry,” he gasped out loud, not really certain to whom he was apologizing or why. The stars swimming behind his eyes seemed to form the impression of a beautiful smile, curved like a heart. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Chanyeol, whispered a soundless voice in his mind.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, but he reached up, found a handhold in the rock, and pulled himself forward hand over hand, slowly at first but faster and faster. Maybe it was the fact that he could no longer feel his legs, or that his mind had been so dulled by the lack of oxygen that everything was a blur, but he found himself pouring every last ounce of his strength, every drop of energy he had left into moving forward. Time ceased to matter, and Chanyeol felt his body moving out of his control, his mind floating detachedly somewhere outside of it.

That was, until his hand grasped for rock and found only air.

Spluttering back into reality, Chanyeol d around until he realized what had happened - the tunnel had ended. He found the edge of the rock wall and yanked himself forward, gasping with relief as his head and shoulders emerged from the close, claustrophobic tunnel walls into a high-ceilinged cave. Hanging on hard so that he wasn’t washed back into the tunnel, Chanyeol looked around.

The light was dim, but at least there was light, enough to see that the walls of the chasm opened out a few yards ahead, that there was an actual shore. With a surge of strength that seemed to come from the very depths of his soul, Chanyeol fought his way forward. He dragged his battered, shivering body out of the water and collapsed, gasping like the fish he felt he’d become.

He wanted nothing more than to pass out right there, but something, some soft but insistent voice in the back of his mind, told him that if he collapsed now, in this dark cave in soaked clothes, he would not wake. Somehow, he managed to stumble to his numb feet, making his way clumsily towards the light.

Sunlight hit his face, totally blinding him after so long in total darkness. The warmth shocked his frozen limbs, and the agony of blood rushing back into his extremities crippled him. With an aborted cry, he collapsed into the sparse grass at the cave mouth and out.







muahahahaha

I failed to mention yesterday - this seven-part fic will be posted every day until it is complete! I’ve finally learned my lesson and will not be posting any stories until they are totally done and I can put them up all at once. So track this story however you like or just check back every day this week!

This story is crossposted on livejournal, and you can also come say hi to me on tumblr! I don’t bite :D

~bee