A/N: so I’m pretty convinced that I’ve like royally ed up this story by now, so I’m really really sorry I haven’t updated in a while, I have to admit I’m having a hard time with this fic haha. Not that I don’t like it or that I’m going to discontinue it, it’s just right now im in a ‘oh god i need to fix this’ mode and the pressure is on lol

anyway, MOST importantly I am so sorry to everyone for having been an with my replies lately - there’s all sorts of excuses i could make about being stressed lately, but i don’t foresee that ever not being the case, and yall deserve to have replies to all the wonderful comments you guys leave. seriously, they’re always so sweet, and i really do appreciate them so, so, so much. they make my day and fill me with joy, and i wish i could share that kind of reaction with each and every one of you. i’ve always had a lot of social anxiety and i feel like i am the most awkward turtle when it comes to responding to people, but you guys deserve a response and its my fault for not having always given it.

anyway, point is, i solemnly swear i’ll respond to every comment for this chapter. and if i don’t in a timely manner, you guys have free range to kick my about it.

-

There were many things Tao loved about his husband.

Even though they had been strangers when they were first married and had not been able to understand each other through the barrier of language that had existed between them, he had always appreciated from a distance the fair blonde hair so different from his own dark auburn, the pointed nose and severe features that made his lover look truly the regal king that he was.

In his eyes, of course, there was no man nobler than his Yifan - no man more deserving of his title and no man more capable of taking his father’s place.

And though perhaps it was still too early to tell, Tao somehow knew that from the uncertain young man he had first met, Yifan would grow to become the greatest king the northern moors had ever seen.

They had come a long way since those days when they greeted one another with the pointed tips of their weapons, and although those callused fingers now held a quill rather than the nocked shaft of an arrow, there was still a careful skillfulness in the way Yifan reached out for him, warming his fingers and caressing the back of his hand with an ever gentle touch.

Tao turned his hand in Yifan’s grip, weaving their fingers together and marveling at the way they seemed to fit together so perfectly.

“Tao.” His husband’s voice greeted him, bringing him slowly out of his daydreams. “Tao, have you been listening?”

“Mmmm?” Tao responded with a half stifled yawn. Over the past few hours of long and frightfully serious dialogue, Tao had continued to slump forward over the table until his head was nearly resting on the edge of it, his drowsy face illuminated by the warm red and orange hues of the fireplace.

There was a small smile on Yifan’s lips as he trailed a few fingers through Tao’s hair, chuckling softly to himself.

“Sleepy little one.” Said Yifan fondly, picking up the feather quill he had been using to write with to teasingly tickle the other man’s nose. Tao’s nose scrunched in discomfort as he brushed the feather away with his hand. “I was asking for your thoughts on the state of our repairs.”

“My thoughts?” Tao asked, crooking his head to the side in a manner that was both familiar and endearing to Yifan. The former Dinnish prince leant over the map that Yifan had spread before them, already marked up in dashes of Yifan’s messy black scribble.

“Yesterday, we lost eight more to injury in the repair of the western gate. Here, I believe.”

With a soft rustle of paper, he examined the many new encampments their cartographer had drawn, tapping a single finger on a small black mark.

“Eight?” Yifan cried out in dismay. He quickly bent over the map as well, examining the same encampment with his arms propped up onto the table and his head in his hands. “How could this have happened?”

“The su-ca-pol-” “-‘scaffold’, my dearest-” “scaffold collapsed under them. The weight of the stone is too heavy for rope and lever. Bless the fire that they all managed to survive with their lives, however there will need to be some time for recuperation before we will be able to continue reconstruction on that gate.”

The king looked weary as he sighed, haggardly scraping a hand over his face and leaning back slowly into his creaking wooden chair.

“What terrible news.” Yifan said, rubbing away at the tired lines under his eyes. “We have already lost thirty to these careless accidents already. How many more will be injured before we see this to its end?”

With a worried murmur, Tao slid fluidly across the table to perch on the arm of his husband’s chair, pulling Yifan in close and letting his husband lean into him with a groan.

Despite being a king most earnest in his efforts, Yifan was still young. Though he was devoted to his people and the cause, he became overwhelmed by the enormity of the task some days. Not yet thirty summers, and already given a kingdom of thousands whose future now depended on him. The enormity of such a task did not escape Tao, and though he had never seen Yifan’s moments of vulnerability as any weakness, it was in times like these that Tao chose to step in.

While Yifan continued to rest against him, his cheek pressed against Tao’s hipbone, Tao glanced back down upon the map, his eyes scanning across the dark hatch-marks and the embroidered letters, the tiny little camps and tents, a stark contrast of black against faded yellow.

Then he let his eyes trail past. Past the gates that surrounded the castle. Past the village outside. Through the fens and past the bog-waters, to the south where he knew they were - the old ancestral homes of those who had once been their enemies.

He thought. Long, calculated and slow. Feeling something come slowly together within his mind.

“What of our neighbors?” He asked, quietly.

After a moment, Yifan shifted ever so slightly in his embrace, speaking without lifting his head. “...what of them?”

“They have their own skills, do they not? The Trivanese are natural born hunters, as talented with crafting wood and sinew as we Dinnish are ourselves. Those from the Pale bring mastery of that strange machinery of theirs. Just think, Yifan - they seek our favor already. Surely, if we offer them this opportunity, they will be falling over themselves to aid us in return for something as simple as our favor.”

“...and what will we hope to achieve by giving them intimate knowledge of our weaknesses?” The king sat up straight, pushing out of Tao’s arms to stand and pace across the table in a huff. “Do not forget, Tao - they’ve fooled us once before. I will not allow it to happen again.”

Yifan stood from the chair with his arms folded across his back, walking to the barred windows in order to stare out at the rainy green landscape of his childhood home. His expression, stiff and unyielding, looked as if it were cast in iron.

“Yifan…” Tao sighed, wrapping his fur tighter across his shoulders as he stared at the back of his lover.

“We must not let our anger sway our decision. The wellbeing of our people must come first. Yifan - we should take the help if it is being given freely to us.” Said Tao, though his voice was tired and drawn. He’d fought this battle before, to no avail. “I’ve heard tales of lord Kyungsoo’s wonderful automatons, perhaps he can lend us his knowledge of such things to -”

“He is the brother to that which is the living embodiment of evil.” Yifan interrupted, with a troubled frown. There was a great fire burning in his eyes.

“But -”

“No, Tao.” Yifan repeated, with a voice that brooked no argument. He turned to Tao, eyes stern as he shook his head resolutely. “As the king of these lands, I cannot and will not allow such a thing to happen.”

Stubborn as a mule, just as he always had been.

It was a quality that had always seemed so endearing, but one that also led his husband directly into a dangerous cycle of anger and vengeance.

Such foolishness, Tao thought to himself, though he spoke aloud none of his irritated thoughts. With one last glance down at the map lying between them, he shook his head silently. Disapprovingly.

The sound of echoing footsteps against the stone floor prefaced the hesitant hand that came moments later to his cheek.

I am sorry, the hand seemed to say, its touch as gentle as it was apologetic.

Staring through the warm eyes of his lover, Tao blinked twice, leaning into the hand as he slowly closed his eyes.

-

  we    have      given   you   your     orders,      kyung    soo

He was a statue carved of black marble.

Or perhaps he had been carved into it.

In the numbness, he could barely make out where his legs began, encased as they were in a cold sheath of stone.

And in front of him, in a sparkling sea of black and white, lay the remains of his fallen compatriots, broken pieces oozing rivulets of red upon the checkered floor.

listen     closely    now  and    remember   -----

Behind, the black queen called out to him in a hazy voice oozing dreamy wisp and blurry smoke. She seemed to be someone he knew, but he could not recall her - for the features of her face were too blurry to comment upon, the details hidden behind the curtain of long ebony hair that lay draped over a blood red throne.

She was indeterminately beautiful, handsome in a strange way.

And yet, despite all her fine garb, nothing struck him more than the snake upon her shoulders, staring at him through golden slits of eyes. He could almost hear the scales sliding against each other as it coiled itself tighter around her shoulders, and its tongue, flickering and fast, turned inwards to whisper innumerable secrets into her ears.

The woman’s face remained featureless and blind, her form unmoving and still.

He wanted to call out to her - to warn her - of the danger fast approaching - of the poisonous bite that was to come - but it was far too late.

For she had been asleep for centuries, and though he searched for her in those pale features, she was naught but another puppet in the game, just as helpless as he himself had been until the very end.

 not     to  disappoint  me     this    time  ,

the snake hissed in a voice so vaguely familiar, opening its gaping maw to swallow him whole.

-

Kyungsoo jolted awake, startled by the prick of pain that had him quickly back into awareness.

Glancing down, his eyes met that of a tiny wooden figurine resting in the circle of his hands, the small whittling knife he’d apparently been using to carve it now resting just inches beside the shallow cut in his hands. From it bled a single red droplet of blood.

With a soft sigh, he tucked the knife away into his belt, switching the automaton to his other hand as he absently the wounded finger into his mouth.

For a time, Kyungsoo watched and waited, perhaps for the figurine to come back to life, perhaps to witness the unnatural quirk of its head and its sinister smile, wooden hands that came alive just to claw his eyes out.

But the toy remained but a toy in his hands. A clown with blandly carved features, lifting his little hat in friendly greeting.

Another waking nightmare, Kyungsoo thought, rubbing the tip of his finger upon the crooked edge of its wide smile. And nothing more.

For a moment, he had been frightened of his own creation.

It was silly, he knew, but for some reason he could not shake off the strange sense of dread that sank to the bottom of his stomach like stones in water. He gave it one last lingering look before tucking the toy within the folds of his clothes, slowly sliding off of his bed.

Looking down upon himself under the light of the moon, rather than the loose tunic he usually wore to bed, he could see that he was still fully dressed, something which struck him briefly as quite curious before his memory finally caught up to him.

The twisted and mottled features of a creature twice his size, eyes pleading and outstretched hands hopeful for any measure of kindness.

The promise I’d made, he remembered with a bleary blink, reaching out mechanically for the extra sheet of cloth he’d draped against his dresser. The one I have yet to keep.

He glanced around, squinting through the dark. It certainly would have been far easier to have taken from the personal coffers of his sister, however, seeing as Virgil lay soundly asleep atop the very chest which contained the dried nuts and berries they had brought from home, Kyungsoo would have no other choice but to seek food elsewhere.

Perhaps he would be able to sneak something from the kitchens. He had seen how much food came out of it every day - surely no one would miss a plate or two.

He wrapped the extra swatch of cloth up tightly, folding it carefully under his belt where it could be held securely until he was to make use of it.

Drawing an extra shawl over his head and mouth, he turned in a quick circle, checking one last time for anything else he might have needed.

His foot caught on the rug.

Losing his balance, he would have nearly fallen if not for catching himself upon his wooden bedpost.

The bangle he wore on his wrist, at first an annoyance but now a constant and steadily forgotten presence, clattered loudly against the wood. Kyungsoo in his breath.

His sister shifted in her bed, the hiss of silk and satin bedsheets sliding against one another so loud in the silence of the room that it made Kyungsoo freeze like a statue.

And yet, instead of a loud shout of discovery, there was only silence.

He hazarded a glance up - face contorted in a nervous grimace - only to find that although the dark fabrics of her sheets were wrapped tightly around his sister’s form, she remained fast asleep, eyes closed and mouth opened in a deep and slow exhale.

Kyungsoo breathed an inaudible sigh of relief, releasing his iron grip on the bedpost and this time carefully gathering up his robe to prevent any further spills.

Before any other misfortune could strike, he slipped through the crack of the door he pulled open, letting the door shut quietly behind him.

-

It was growing quickly dark.

The workers, a mixture of men and women of all ages, both fair-skinned and dark, were making their way unhurriedly back to the castle courtyard where they would be greeted with a hot meal and a well-deserved night’s rest.

Colorful chatter peppered the air, a dizzying combination of fast tongues and sloping intonations.

“Did you see the way this one tried to follow Wen’s motions?” Spoke a woman whose hair was tied back in an intricate weave of beads and feathers. The dark black kohl lining her eyes made her appear more cat-like than her other companions.

“You mean when he tried to climb the pole?” Barked a man by her side, his eyes dark with mirth and fiery red beard trembling with barely suppressed laughter.

“Yes. Like watching a baby monkey chasing after its mother - clumsy and charming!”

“I wish you would stop talking about that.” Came the disgruntled voice of the one who was being teased - a very bashful looking Sehun who no longer looked quite so princely with a smudge of dirt on his cheek and hair standing in every which direction. “I will have you know that it is the effort that counts.”

Long and meaningful looks were exchanged before laughter burst out over the group. Sehun could not help the embarrassed groan that left his mouth as those around him slapped his shoulders and ruffled his hair, but he eventually joined in with his own soft chuckles.

He huddled in closer, though, to the young woman by his side. As if using her as a human shield.

The ever effervescent Lady Bita, a guest for the night who had volunteered her services in an ill-disguised attempt to stay close to the prince whose attention she favored, grinned at him. She threw an arm over his side, pulling him in with her chin raised high as if proudly announcing her intentions.

Such a bold action did not go unnoticed, and soon whistling catcalls replaced the laughter, the teasing ‘oooo’s and ‘aaaah’s growing louder in volume until even Bita’s dog joined in with a baying howl of its own. The tips of Sehun’s ears were colored pink in his embarrassment.

Somewhere in the back, a young baker’s son with a ruddy complexion and a dimpled smile chuckled at the sight. He nudged the closest person to him in the side, pointing at the prince’s expression with a laugh.

As usual, lingering in his own slow and leisurely pace, Kai only cracked a lazy smile, small and genuine.

At the bright laughter that soon followed, Kai shook his head with a chuckle of his own. The beads in his hair were still swinging as he brought the handful of seeds he’d been carrying to his mouth and one in. Cracking it open with his teeth, he spat out the husk, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, rolling the seed left behind between his tongue and teeth. His eyes traveled to the setting horizon for a moment, watching as the day unraveled into the purple pink hues of an early night. He could still feel the faint heat of the sun against his skin leaving him slowly, casting long shadows upon the ground.

They were still chattering ahead. Even with his eyes closed, Kai could still hear the bright voice of his brother, the low and hoarse timbre that had at first seemed so strange to him but now had grown to be a familiar sound.

His brother through marriage, prince Sehun was a child of the light. Perhaps not as serious of a counterpart as his elder blood brother, the king. Nor as cunning, as Yifan had to have been during the war. But his cheerful and sociable nature drew others in like moths to a flame, for there was power in the warmth of his smile. When one had Prince Sehun’s friendship, one could always count on him to aid them in troubled times. And though his blind loyalty sometimes landed him in more trouble than what it was worth, it was a quality of his brother’s which Kai had always greatly appreciated and admired.

Though they shared a similar fierce loyalty, Kai was, on the other hand, far different. Sehun had always lived a life of relative luxury and little responsibility. Kai had spent countless summers of his youth walking the fires of war. The days spent breathing in the smoke and ashes had filled his lungs with a bitterness that had lingered ever since he was a child. And although theirs was a bond of friendship that was tried and true, while Sehun bloomed in the center of a crowd, Kai belonged instead to the night. He had howled at the red moon countless times with the great wolves at his side, and he lived beneath the light gifted to him by the stars.

He had spent a lifetime with his ear pressed against the ground, had grown intimate with the cold touch of the soil beneath his fingertips and the tickle of wet grass against his cheek. There was no greater lover than the night, nothing more beautiful than the black trails the fires drew against the ground, beckoning to him with their crackling whispers.

And he had drawn comfort in the darkest of things. Whispering trees and flittering shadows. The smell of the fire burning away in the night.

Drawing in a deep breath as if to remember it, Kai smiled when he instead drew in the familiar smells of the kitchen - cooked pheasants, stuffed pigs and drooling blood sausage, sweet tarts and fresh pies left hot and steaming in a row.

The others soon spotted what he had already knew to be true - the flickering lights of the castle ahead. And, as if seeing the flickering flag of victory on the battlefield, a rousing cheer swept over the group, a dozen tired countenances brightening at the thought of a warm plate of food awaiting them just across the way.

-

The bellies of men hungered for food to fill it, and their thoughts were of nothing more than the succulently sweet and savory.

Like a trail of ants being led in single file, they passed merrily through the courtyard singing songs of feast and glory, holding their torches skyward to light their path.

Having fallen back to Kai’s side, Sehun was yawning, lazily the head of the panting dog that had eagerly wedged its way between its owner and her lover.

Though not lacking in enthusiasm, the youngest prince was unaccustomed to days of physical labor. He was tiring quickly, looking nearly asleep on his feet if not for the arm around his arm which held him up.

“We are nearly there.” Bita encouraged, pinching his side with her fingers. “Soon you will be able to rest your weary feet.”

“And tonight? Did we not have plans for the night?” The prince asked blearily, rubbing balled up fists into his scrunched up eyes. Kai smiled upon seeing it - though they were nearly the same age, Sehun seemed, at times, quite child-like in his actions.

“Well, I believe the plan for the night is to lay our heads upon our beds,” Bita , “and to dream of wild and distant lands.”

While Sehun complained loudly and petulantly about how dull that seemed, Kai looked away with a smile.

Wild and distant lands.

They had all gathered here, in this one place together - and yet it seemed that in their youthful hearts, they all still yearned for the adventure.

“What,” Sehun mumbled, drawing Kai’s attention with the questioning tone in his voice and a single pointing finger, “might that be...?”

He trailed off.

Kai followed his brother’s pointing finger with his eyes, only to see there was something moving in the distance.

He stopped suddenly, lifting his own torch higher as he squinted into the dark, trying to make out the features of what seemed to be a mysterious figure looping through the open stone archways of the southern courtyard.

“Surely you don’t believe it to be a g-g-ghost?” Sehun wondered aloud, a note of fear tinging his voice as he inched minutely closer to Bita. Looking down at him, she puffed up like a preening bird.

“‘Tis not a ghost. And even if it were, fear not, young prince. My holy blade will pierce even the most incorporeal of foes. And if that should not be enough, my dog would be there to rip apart all the pieces that remain.” She said, tossing her hair back in a moment of haughty arrogance. However, with the exception of her pet at her side who woofed in agreement, no one else seemed to be paying her much mind.

Of course, by now the other workers had long left them behind, and beyond the echoes that were still lingering in the courtyard, of quickly fading of suppertime gossip and chattering conversation, there was no other response given to her words.

She glanced over.

Somehow still stiffly keeping pace, Sehun face seemed frozen with fear. Though by no means a coward, the Moorish prince was, quite strangely given his otherwise bravery, terrified of all things phantasmagorical. Devoutly religious and hugely superstitious, the idea of such a bloodied and ghost appearing right before his very eyes was one that struck him with such fright that he could not wipe the wide-eyed expression from his face.

Kai, quite contrarily, did not look afraid. The reason being that he had already recognized the shadowy figure for who he was, and, upon doing so, had already very quickly decided that supper could wait.

“Kyung-soo.” He said in a hushed tone, identifying the stranger in the darkness with a grin that spread like fire across his face. He glanced down bashfully to his feet in blushing memory of the last time he’d met with his lover. Soft and lips meeting his halfway, scalding touches trailing up his side - it was a memory that he’d all too often revisited in the cold nights spent alone in his bed.

“Lord Kyungsoo?” Bita asked with great confusion. “What business might the lord have outside the castle walls at this late hour?”

“Another one of his nightly walks, I suppose.” Said Sehun, voice more hoarse than usual as he attempted to draw attention away from how pale his face had been just moments prior. “It would not be the first time we’ve crossed paths in such circumstances.”

Kai turned quickly, snuffing his torch and ing it forth. Sehun, rather at a loss for words, accepted it with little question, cradling it within his hands as he regarded it with an owlish look.

The Dinnish prince stood in front of his two companions silently, running a slow hand through his auburn hair. Glancing behind him to see if Kyungsoo was still in sight, he took a few steps back, announcing his intentions with a single shy grin that lit up his handsome face.

Reeling with disapproval, Sehun’s face was twisted in a grimace, staring at Kai as if he were not in his right mind.

“Now, must I remind you of the danger you incur with your midnight gallivanting -”

Before Sehun could even finish scolding him, Kai was already out of earshot, ignoring all warnings and swatting aside his brother’s restraining hands as he loped after Kyungsoo in a careless pursuit.

“Kai!” Sehun cried out after him in shock, only to have his loud and repeated cries falling upon deaf ears.

He gave up quickly after a pair of patrolling knights happened to walk past with curious looks, opting instead to curse silently as he stared out toward the greens where the man, woman and dog watched the figure of their friend rapidly disappearing.

It was only when the knights had passed beyond the archways out of sight that Sehun finally reacted, tossing the extinguished torch onto the ground in a fit of childish anger.

“I cannot believe it! That he should continue to ignore the words of his very own brother - does he not realize that I only speak these words out of concern?” He threw out with a dark look.

He made a clicking noise of disapproval with his mouth.

“There always was that foolishly romantic side to him. He delights in saving others, and I fear he truly believes that it is his responsibility to save that wretched lord from himself. As if the sickly little squirrel were some beautiful swooning princess, and he, a knight in shining armor! What lovesick fools, the pair of them are.”

Though he tried valiantly to come off as angry and dismissive, there was a hurt quality to his voice.

Bita’s dog, now sitting on its haunches by his side, looked up at him, tilting its head in question. Bita was giving him a similar look, although this one was colored with more skepticism than her pet’s. Sehun cleared his throat under the scrutiny, folding his arms over his chest nervously. “But I suppose I - I shouldn’t bother myself with caring about it any longer.”

And yet he continued to stand there. Watching Kai leave with a strange look in his eye - as if - contrary to what he had just said, there was a part of him that was truly worried.

“Should he wish to, let him chase the lord.” Bita’s soft voice was wafting into his ear, her hand laid upon his arm with a soft, featherweight touch. “Whether you like your brother’s choice of lover or not, there is nothing we can do to stop them. All that remains to be seen is whether or not your doubts are well and truly founded, and only time will be able to give you the answer you seek.”
He was only half-listening, his face tilted towards her even as he bit his lip, chewing on it jaggedly in deep thought. She tugged more insistently at his arm.

“Come now,” She said, trying to lead him back toward the castle. “we can do nothing more than to greet the warm meal that awaits us.”

Something in Bita’s words drove Sehun to action. However, it was not towards the castle that Sehun took a step. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves, tying them back before bending down to pick up the forgotten torch off of the ground. While Bita hesitantly called his name, he turned towards the wall, lifting the torch and lighting it upon the sconce.

While the flames of the torch burned bright, illuminating the harsh lines of his face, he turned toward her with a look of deep determination.

“I will follow them.” The young prince spoke.

“You will what?” Bita asked, though she did not move to stop him.

“I will follow them.” Sehun repeated, jerking his head in the direction of the moors, where, upon the flat landscape that stretched for miles, they could still see the two figures in the distance, now becoming smaller and smaller. “Whether or not you choose to accompany me will be your choice, but we must hurry before we lose them.”

Bita reached out a long arm, gripping Sehun by the shoulder and pulling him back as he began to step away.

“Why is it so important for you to interfere in your brother’s affairs? For all we know, their love may be sincere.” Spoke Bita evenly, trying to search his eyes for something that would help her understand.

He turned to level a look at her, holding her gaze fiercely.

“Because I was there. I watched as a woman no older than you or I have her innards ripped out by the hand of a man dressed in Lord Kyungsoo’s colors. I was forced away by my brother - told to save myself as I watched my friends fall one by one to those machines of death - their arms ripped to pieces, bodies left to rot in the dirt.” He spat, his hands shaking as he voice grew hard. “And I promised myself - that I would never willingly allow someone I know and love to fall to those bloodstained hands ever again.”

Bita looked at him with a strange expression.

“And yet you seem to forget that my people were amongst those who fought against yours.” She countered, only to see Sehun’s eyes begin to soften. “And that my hands are just as stained with blood as any of our warriors who fell on the battlefield that day.”

“That may be, but you - you are different.” Sehun tried, his voice tinged with obvious favoritism. “You are not like those whose blood you share.”

“You say that as if I am secretly ashamed of who I am.” Bita told him, with a note of disappointment in her voice. “But I am not.”

However, before he could respond, she pulled back her hair, tying it up quickly into a thick and swinging ponytail before reaching to her belt. She pulled out her own torch, leaning the tip of it against Sehun’s until the flame was shared. Holding it aloft, she whistled sharply. Her wardog came immediately to her side, ears and tail erect and alert.

“We will talk of this later,” She said to Sehun’s confused look, looking toward him with a nod. “For now, I believe the hunt is on.”

-

By some miraculous effort, Kyungsoo was able to find the cave.

It was cleverly hidden from view. Covered by green and mossy stone, dripping with beads of water and only just faintly lit on the inside, Kyungsoo barely remembered its details.

When he had left the last time, it had been through a half-awake stupor, and each plodding step through the wet and foggy mist had all seemed so very much the same.

So, what great luck it really was that he had not found himself at the bottom of a bog pit as had been the fate of so many others.

He ducked into the cave, slowly following the light inward as he clutched his precious cargo to his chest. The ground was uneven so he stepped lightly and hesitantly, shuffling forward with eyes wide open.

Just as it had been before, there was a simple fire burning inside the cave, a few large and wet leaves laid out along the ground, topped with the stray remnants of a sparse meal of berries and nuts.

“Udo?” He called out into the darkness, staying within the ring of light provided by the fire as he shook off the cold slowly, peering into the cold depths of the cave beyond and waiting for his eyes to adjust.

There was no answering call.

Slowly setting his bundle to the ground, he called out his friend’s name a few more times, this time louder. He thought he heard distant movement from deep within the cave, however, it was difficult to tell from where or what it was.

He was not alarmed.

Udo may have been too deep within to have heard him clearly - or perhaps his friend was outside - gathering what little food he could. Either way, it was a chilly night. It would only be a matter of time before the giant would return to the fire.

Kyungsoo endeavored to wait. Resisting a yawn, he slowly pulled off his thick outer robe, laying it on the floor beside the fire in preparation to sit.

A clatter of movement by the mouth of the cave had him straightening back up though, and when he turned in the expectation to see the hulking shadow of his friend standing outside, he instead found himself quite suddenly face to face with a breathless looking Dinnish prince.

Kyungsoo felt his heart stutter, crying out in fear and stumbling backward. He would have landed on his back if not for Kai’s arms circling around his waist, drawing him in quickly and closely.

“Kai? What are you doing here?” Kyungsoo asked in a crackling voice, his eyes flicking between his lover’s face and the inner depths of the cave from which his friend had yet to emerge.

“Ma na prit halad.”¹ Kai said, in a dizzyingly fast flurry of words. Kyungsoo searched Kai’s brown eyes for any hint of what the other man could be saying, his mind flying through what words he did know - very little and far between. “Se ma na malad p’am. Ma basi kanad ye an-an tale. Na ‘an tale ya?” ²

“I - I do not understand.” Kyungsoo was only able to answer, shaking his head and waving his hands to convey his confusion. Following the movement with his eyes, Kai’s smiling expression fell when he spotted the injury on his lover’s hand. Kyungsoo hissed when Kai grabbed at his hand, trying not to flinch away from the biting pain. This only seemed to spur more colorful words to spill out of Kai’s mouth at a speed in which Kyungsoo could not follow. He could only stand there as his lover began to frantically pat him down, running his hands over his chest and arms as if trying to look for any other injuries he might have.

“How did you get here?” Kyungsoo asked, attempting to take a step back, only to have Kai follow with a step forward of his own, still muttering loudly in a language only he understood.

Kyungsoo shook his head out of bemusement, allowing the other man to ruffle him like a mother hen would her chick, although he grunted in discomfort when the hands grasped him a little too tightly.

A look of confusion crossed Kai’s face as his fingers stumbled upon the toy and the knife tucked away in Kyungsoo’s belt. He reached toward them with a questioning noise, only to be interrupted by a strange shift in the air that was followed closely by the loud noise of rocks crumbling in the distance.

Two heads snapped toward the origin of the noise, one filling with slow horror and disgust, the other with recognition as a giant hand reached out toward them.

A large figure stepped out from the shadows and into the light of the fire.

“Kyung...soo?” Udo spoke upon seeing him, his posture suddenly less threatening than it had been moments before.

Before Kyungsoo could respond though, he was being lifted bodily, placed firmly behind Kai. He had been lifted so easily - as if he had weighed nothing at all - and though a part of him was frustrated at the other’s actions, a tickle of heat curled around his insides. He blinked.

“Soo?” Udo drew his attention again, although this time his voice was filled with a hint of uncertainty and fear. Kai, who heard the familiar words coming from a mouth of a creature he had never before seen, narrowed his eyes frostily.

Without taking his eyes off of the monster before him, he reached back, digging into Kyungsoo’s clothes for the knife he’d seen earlier.

“Soo??”

When Udo saw his only friend being forced into what he thought was a position of submission, his face twisting in what appeared to be discomfort, dark and fearful thoughts began to spread inside of his head. And as Kai finished what he had begun, pulling out a knife from what appeared to be Kyungsoo’s midsection, Udo’s vision suddenly filled with red.

This - this was Udo’s only friend. Kyung-soo was Udo’s only friend!

While Kyungsoo tried in vain to speak, to grab at the hand that tried to pull the tiny whittling knife away, neither party listened.

One was too busy being consumed with rage to listen, the other too distracted with the urge to protect.

And as the blood in Udo’s veins began to pulse hot and heavy, his breathing growing labored as his joints cracked with building energy, what began as a low growl became a loud and mighty roar, shaking the ground and sending pebbles falling from the ceiling.

Kyungsoo blanched at the volume, covering his ears with a cry as he fell back from it.

Kai’s eyes only narrowed, on his face a look of grim resolve. He held the knife out in front of him.

And as Udo began to step toward them, his face twisted in rage and fear, his mind inevitably falling to the pull of senseless violence that had taken his father’s fathers before him, Kyungsoo could only shrink back against the floor, fearful of what was to come - of the two who suddenly seemed so determined to kill each other.

-

1: I came to find you.

2. I saw you running. I wanted to make sure you were safe. Are you safe?