Written by: "Green Elf" 

Pairing: Yadong

Prompt: Fantasy AU where everyone is a magical animal shape shifter and they live in a hidden magical forest but somehow some human finds their way in and is enchanted by all the magical animals and especially that one dragon shape shifter. 

Author’s Note: Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoyed your little gift and have a wonderful day and a happy new year, too!!!! <3

Thoroughly Enchanted 

(Words: 2,034)

Taking a deep breath, Howon plopped himself down onto the small bench in his grandfather's backyard and let it out slowly through pursed lips. He hadn't even wanted to come to the countryside, would rather have stayed in Seoul itself and pursued his dream of being a dancer, but when his mother's father grew too sick to care for himself, Howon knew he had no choice. Not in a bad way, either; he truly loved the older man and he would do anything for family, but it was hard to uproot everything and give up all his dreams just because his mother couldn't be bothered to care for her father. She would have sent him to a retirement home without a thought, selling his small country home and continuing on with her life if she had had her way.

And so he had willingly packed his belongings, albeit with a large dose of sadness, and moved in with the elderly man. The last couple of months had been worth it, in his opinion, to be able to spend time with his grandfather as he lived out his last few months in his own home instead of in a sterilized room somewhere. Yes, Howon thought, staring at the forest stretching out beyond the cultured lawn and small white fence - it was all worth it.

His grandfather was resting in the house then, and Howon took the time to enjoy a bit of peace to himself. The sun was falling in the sky with the onset of evening, casting the backyard into shadow. He knew he would need to go in before true dark fell and start on making dinner, but for the moment, he just let himself relax onto the old bench. His eyes fell closed and he leaned his head back onto the rest behind him, enjoying his time alone.

Then a twig snapped. His eyes popped open and his head came up, and he peered into the deepening shadows of the forest. He was certain that the noise had come from beyond the fence, out there in the wilds, but there was nothing there. "Hello?" he called softly, knowing all along that if he got an answer then he would be running for the house to call the police. No one was supposed to be out there at all; that was private property and trespassers were not welcome.

No answer came, except for another snap of a twig. He jumped up off of the bench and took several steps closer to the fence, his eyes narrowing as he tried to see if he could spot anything among the trees. There. Was that a glint of metal, shining out toward him from the trunks of the trees? With a glance back toward the house, his mind going to his sleeping grandfather, he hesitated. Should he really be wandering around in the forest? The noise was probably a cat...

Another twig snapped and before he could stop to think about it more, he stepped over the small fence and moved into the forest. Even as a small child he had been afraid to venture into the woods behind his grandfather's house, mostly because of the stories the old man would tell about dragons that would eat wayward little boys. Now, at twenty-four, he could no longer justify his fear of the forest and so with a gulp to swallow down the inexplicable fear, he moved deeper into the trees.

The metallic glint inexplicably seemed to draw further away the deeper he got into the forest, and he gave a sigh of resignation as he realized that he was going to have to give it up for the time being. He wasn't going to waste time chasing some flicker through the woods when it was falling dark. He turned to head back to the house, intent to put the whole adventure out of his mind, and promptly tripped.

He fell before he could catch himself, something that rarely happened to him. His hands scraped on small pebbles in the dirt and he gave a grunt of pain, accompanied by a quiet curse at himself for being so clumsy. He climbed back onto his feet and brushed the leaves off of his clothing gingerly before he turned his attention to the small cuts pebbled there. They weren't so bad... what had he tripped over, though?

He turned to find the offending object, and his eyes widened in disbelief as he watched the long tail slide across the ground out of his way and back behind the griffin standing before him. "Hi!" it chirped from it's eagle's beak, accompanied by a little wave with one taloned hand, and his eyes nearly popped out. He turned to run then, and instead of tripping, this time he ran into something. Or, someone. He bounced off of a solid object and fell to land on his rump, his breath whooshing out of him at the impact. 

The first thing he noticed was the feet on the ground in front of him, scaled things with five fingers and ending in wicked looking claws. His eyes travelled up the knobbly legs and deep chest of the creature, further up the long neck, and into the massive, smiling face of a dragon. "Sorry we scared you," it said in a decidedly masculine voice, lifting one big hand to point at the griffin behind him. "Sungyeol was just too eager to meet Dongho's grandson!"

"Uh."

"I'm Dongwoo, by the way!" And before he could even think of how to respond to that, the griffin piped up.

"I think we're scaring him..."

"Oh!" The dragon's reptilian eyes widened and he looked down at Howon, who had forgotten how to breathe as he stared up at the terrifying creature above him. Who seemed to know his grandfather's name. But still. "I'm sorry." And with that, his form blurred and shifted, shrinking down and changing into something much more human. "Where were my manners?" the dragon-boy asked, holding out a hand to grip Howon's and pull him to his feet.

"Um."

"Is that all you know how to say?" Dongwoo asked laughingly, reaching around Howon to begin brushing the leaves and twigs off of him. Having a stranger brushing the dirt off of him was weird enough, but when said stranger had just magically transformed from being a dragon...

"Um, who are you guys?" he stuttered out, and much to his chagrin, Dongwoo only laughed. His smile still had a very reptilian edge to it, sharp teeth and all, but his laugh was booming and loud and nothing but friendly.

"We're the spirits of the forest," Dongwoo told him with a wide, overly showy bow. The griffin snickered in laughter at that, a strange sound coming from that face, and Dongwoo's smile only widened. He had a strong jaw and bright eyes, his sleeveless white shirt setting off the deep tan of his skin and showing off the muscular tone to his arms. Howon mentally smacked himself for even vaguely considering a dragon attractive, and shook his head before answering.

"Um," he began, to which the griffin howled in laughter. "Who are you?" he asked instead of his original question, pointing at the chortling griffin, who sobered up immediately and put a sober expression on his face.

"Why, I am the angel of the forest, the beautiful, gentle, wise-"

"That's Sungyeol," Dongwoo interrupted, waving his hand at the griffin in a go-away motion. The other gave him a wounded look but obeyed, cluing Howon in to which of the two was in charge. Then again, the fact that Dongwoo was a dragon might have had something to do with that, too. "I know," Dongwoo mock-whispered, leaning in until he could very nearly whisper in Howon's ear. "He's irritating, isn't he?"

The grin on the dragon-man's face was enough to let Howon know that he was joking, and he was able to choke out a laugh in response. It sounded a little more like a gurgle than anything else, but oh well. Dongwoo smiled in satisfaction and turned to face the same direction as Howon, then tucked his arm inside of the human's. "Let's go!" he said cheerily, half leading and half dragging Howon forward.

"Um, where are you... what are we..."

"Relax, I am just walking you home. We'd hate to have you get lost in our little forest here."

Lost? He looked around, sure that his grandfather's house was just a few hundred feet away, right in front of them, but to his surprise he found that there was instead just a large forest stretching out in front of him. He pulled his arm way from Dongwoo as he turned a full circle, eyes wide and mouth fallen open as he realized that somehow, he was in the middle of nowhere, without a sign of any civilization to be found.

Dongwoo reached over and with one finger, shut Howon's jaw for him. That centered his thoughts, and the human focused his eyes on the dragon-man, unsure of where to even begin. Dongwoo's smile was soft this time as he tucked his arm back through Howon's and started them walking again, nice and slow.

"As I said, we're the spirits of the forest," he began, his deep voice pitched to sound soothing. To Howon's embarrassment, he actually found it kind of y, but he wasn't about to say that out loud. Not when Dongwoo could transform and have him for a snack easily. "We live in this, in a world that is but an echo of yours. Or maybe yours in the echo of ours. I'm not sure. But anyway!"

He glanced at Howon to be sure he was still listening, and, seeing the rapt attention, continued. "So yeah. There are actually a lot of us, but Sungyeol likes to follow me around. This is my home," he explained, waving his arm around to indicate the forest they were currently in. "I mean, technically. Like, my turf, I guess. We are in everything, to be honest, in all of nature, but very few people can see us. It seems that you can, but that was to be guessed. Your grandfather can, too!" 

A wistful expression crossed his face then. "Your grandfather used to visit with us," he said sadly, turning to search Howon's eyes. "He would sit and talk with us for hours, telling us stories about his life. About you." The dragon-boy's ears turned pink then, but he didn't look away as he continued. "He didn't tell us that you were so cute, though."

Howon flushed red, his face feeling hot as he ducked his head to avoid the other's gaze. Dongwoo thought he was cute? But... "Um," he said, and Dongwoo laughed again.

"Oh man, we need to get that habit out of you," he giggled, the waved a hand around in the air ahead of them. "There we go!"

Howon looked up, curious about what the dragon-boy was talking about, and found to his surprise that his grandfather's little house was back. Looking just as it always had, with the little white fence and the small garden along the back porch. There was a light inside, in the kitchen, which Howon guessed was from his grandfather waking up. He was probably wondering where his grandson had gotten off to, but then again....

"You said my grandfather could see you?" he asked, an idea forming in his mind as he looked between the little house and his new found friend. Dongwoo smiled with a bright glint in his eyes, and Howon found himself returning the gesture.

"Um," he began, and Dongwoo began to laugh at him. After a moment Howon joined in, shook his head, and continued. "Would you care to join us for dinner? I'm sure he'd like to see you..." And Howon would love to be able to speak more with this handsome, charming dragon.

"I would love that," Dongwoo agreed, and they stepped over the little fence together.

THE END

Admin’s Note: Where do I begin—! Hoya and Dongwoo’s interactions with each other in this fic made me blush and smile a lot at the screen. Also Sungyeol—you poor child, it’s okay I love your dorkiness C: Good job on writing this! You really brought alive the prompt ^^  ~ KyashiiKun