Chapter Text
“You don’t know me, you never have! The moment you met me you decided you wanted me because of what I smelled like! What you claimed that meant to you and your wolf!"
Tears threatened to spill down my face as I felt my voice warble and waver - but I refused to let him get a word in edgewise, not after what I had just seen.
"And sure, fine, great! That works for you because you ARE a wolf! But I’m not! I’m a witch - a damn good one - and I don’t have instincts that convince me I’m supposed to be with somebody just because they smell like fucking vanilla cupcakes or rose petals!"
A single tear managed to escape from the corner of my eye, the diamond-like drop sliding down my cheek... damn it ...
Just keep going-
"You have never wanted me for who I am! Any of your pack! You made me feel valued - but that's not the same, no matter what you try and say! I tried to ignore it, but it's clear now! You held me up as a prize, a trophy for all of you, the powerful witch who showed up one day - the witch who makes you all stronger and keeps you safe from him in ways no one else can!
Damn it to hell with this bastard of a man in front of me...
"And who cares if we upset him, he has nowhere to go!”
.
.
.
Burning.
Nostrils flared.
Hm?
Something was…...burning?
Eyes slammed open.
Something was burning!
Like a marionette having its strings viciously yanked upon, I was suddenly sitting up with a gasp, heart pounding against the inside of my chest as my eyes began to whip and dart around, trying to take stock of their surroundings, desperately trying to find the source of the concerning scent that typically meant nothing other than imminent and or already present danger.
Except-
Where was I?
As I frantically searched around for whatever was causing my nose to be filled with odors of fire and char, I found that I was sitting within the interior of a...cottage? cabin? It was wooden whatever it was, which unfortunately meant that the source of the smell could be coming from any direction, or very well be the entire structure itself. But, as I cast my frenzied gaze further, I failed to find anything of real alarm; no flames, no embers, not even a bit of smoke - no tangible cause for concern at all...
And yet…the smell remained, and it was strong, so while I couldn't see anything, I also couldn't help but still feel a firm and pressing sense of urgency within my core, trusting in whatever my nose was trying to tell me. After my head had whipped around several more times, I took a moment to become aware of my position relative to the few pieces of furniture spread amongst the cabin's interior and realized that I was sat upon the wooden floor of the dwelling. If this place was burning, sitting on the floor like a confused toddler would do me zero good...but the question still remained-
Where was I?
I planted my hands firmly on the ground and began to push myself up, and by doing so, I finally found just what I had been smelling. The danger wasn't around me, it wasn't above me, nor was it outside - it was below me. Below me, on the floor, were marks, dark marks, marks of burnt and scorched wood, a clear indication that it had been on fire at some point, and judging by the singe marks on the ankles of the pants I currently wore - so had I!
Had I passed out in the middle of a fire!?
I immediately reached down to my ankles with a startled gasp, practically hysterical in my movements as I tried to inspect the damage, my heart ridden with a fresh onslaught of anxiety as I expected to find my skin blistered and burnt to who knew what type of degree…only to find that there was nothing more than a slight tenderness and redness. As I continued to run my fingers over my flesh, I found that it was as if the skin had already been healed, if it had ever been burned in the first place. No, no, there was no question that I had been burned, the marks on the floor and my pants were proof enough, but somehow, someway, the damage had already been all but reversed.
What might have been a relief to most was only the cause of more concern and confusion, because, well, if my pants and the floor underneath had caught fire at some point...how was I seemingly fine and with nothing to show from it? There was no boiling, no bubbling, no split or charred skin, nothing, nothing other than some tender flesh.
And it made no sense…how had whatever flames burned strongly enough to leave marks on the floor and ruin the ends of my pants left my own body with nothing other than some slight redness? The fire had to have been recent, even if the marks were old, it wouldn’t explain the smell, no fire long gone would have left such a potent reminder of the life it once held…and then there was also the fact that if the floor had been on fire, how had it been put out? The cabin seemed to be made entirely of rosewood, so how had a flame with one of its favorite types of fuel just...stopped? My list of questions was rapidly growing and I had a grand total of zero answers thus far.
And as I looked away from my bare feet and back around the cabin my mind was still plagued with the same, initial, and most pressing question of the bunch.
Where was I?
As I tried to rack my brain for the answer, I realized I had another, much, much larger problem...
And a question that immediately usurped 'where was I?' at the top of my list of things I wanted, no, needed the answer to...
Who was I?
It was only once my heart had calmed slightly that I was shaken with the most startling realization in my bewildering list...I had no idea where I was, I had no idea how I hadn't been burned by fire that I may or may not have been laying in the middle of....and worst of all, I had no clue who I even was.
If the initial shock of having laid in fire had been an earthquake on my heart, the more pressing knowledge that I had zero idea who I even was, was the equivalent of an aftershock five notches higher on the sickening Richter scale I was currently experiencing.
I stumbled slightly to the side and away from the scorched floor as I was overcome with a new tidal wave of panic, tripping over myself like a baby deer that could feel a drowning sense of danger around them, but was helpless to know where exactly it was coming from. My vision began to blur next, the stress and anxiety making even breathing seem like a monumental task while I tried to remember who I was, where I was, anything, anything at all! As the panic continued to surge I whined in fright as I felt my limbs going numb as not even a single sliver of memory came to me. When I finally lost my balance I thankfully fell close enough to a bed that had been pushed into the corner of the cabin. I gasped for any breath I could hold onto as I found my face buried in the rose gold-colored blankets.
Breathe!
You have to breathe!
But I can’t!
What is happening?!
Breathe!
What's HAPPENING?
Breathe!
I said I CAN'T!
BREATHE DAMN IT!
My vision went spotty, the blurred color of rose-golds starting to turn black...
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when I finally felt any other emotion other than pure panic and terror, when the darkness and blur of my vision began to cease.
"Who am I?" I whispered myself.
Who am I?
What's going on?
Who am I?
Why am I here?
Who am I?!
The questions and panic flashed on loop through my head as I took deep, deep gulps of air to try and calm down, but- FUCK! What was happening? Why didn't I remember anything?! Help! I need help! Somebody please help me!
Except I was alone, no one else present in the mystery rosewood cabin, no one was there to help me, a feeling that, somehow, was the first familiar and recognizable thing in my head since first waking from my slumber on the charred floor. And if no one was here, that meant I would have to help myself.
I needed to ground myself, focus on something, anything, that could divert my mind away from the panic. Still consumed in and by the paralyzing terror though, vision and limbs barely functioning as it was, I did the only thing I could think of and began to rub my hand and cheek against the blankets I had fallen onto. Another pathetic whine left my throat as I forced myself to focus on the soft kiss of the blanket's fabric against my skin, the almost floral fragrance that seemed to waft up from each individual fiber and into my nose, the sweet aromas chasing away the previous smell of smoke and flame, instead replacing it with visions of gardens overflowing and blooming with petals.
Slowly but surely it became easier to breathe, feeling returning to my body as if the nerves that ran throughout me activated one at a time until even the tips of my toes were once again responding to my command.
I could breathe, I was okay, and god....it was so tempting to just pass out and fall asleep in the blankets, to hope and pray that I would wake up and find answers back in my head. Instead though, I decided I'd only give myself another ten minutes, or what I estimated was ten, before I would force myself to sit up on the bed. If I couldn't remember anything then that didn't mean I was safe to relax and let my guard down, the cabin had been on fire at some point, I had been on fire at some point, and regardless of whatever reason behind that, fire never was a sign of safety or the absence of bodily harm. I also was not going to rule out that whoever's cabin this was, wasn't friendly; perhaps whoever the owner of this dwelling had brought me here and was the cause for my complete absence of memory.
Once my self-awarded ten minutes had expired I pulled my face away from the blankets and took stock of my unfamiliar surroundings once more. I was still in the cabin, so this entire nightmare was real, and confirmed with the utmost certainty that I was the only person present within its confines, for now at least. The cabin itself was moderately filled with various items, aside from the few that one might expect, like the bed, a stove, a bath, there was also a desk with markings scrawled all across its structure, a rather large bookshelf with a bounty of tomes arranged by color, and a wall dotted with framed pictures. I rose and stood from the bed on still shaky legs and began to creep toward the pictures, wondering if they would be my first clue as to who owned this cabin or why I might be here.
Once I was close enough I began to inspect the various photos that someone had deemed important enough to hang up. Unfortunately none of them jogged any type of memory within me, each location and face only serving as another question mark on my list of present unknowns. My heart rate was beginning to kick up again as paranoia that one of the faces I was looking at was the mysterious boogeyman I had crafted in my mind as the assailant who had brought me here and wiped my memory. Were they on their way back now? Was that fire supposed to end me and any existence of who I was?
As I went through all the pictures again to try and make sense of anything, one common and reoccurring detail finally caught my eye...
A boy.
I hadn't noticed at first, perhaps given the time range that some of the photos must have spanned, but there was one boy who seemed to be present in nearly all of the photos. It had been hard to catch at first, his hairstyle having changed several times, doe-eyes growing smaller as he aged and grew into adulthood, and his arms...at first it was hard to catch given how some had been bare, no ink on their narrow canvas, but in the photos in which the boy appeared older, I noticed how tattoos of various symbols and insignias that I didn't recognize spanned and covered the flesh of his arms.
It was only once I raised a hand to touch the photos with my fingers, and the oversized cuff of my shirt began to slide down my wrist, did my gaze lead me to my first concrete piece of information. Just above my wrist was one of the same symbols I had just gazed upon in the photo I was now touching.
It was me...
I was the boy in the photos.
I stumbled backward away from the rows of frames and began to look around the cabin for a mirror, or any type of reflective surface, marching over to another corner of the dwelling once I found one attached to the same area that the bath had been placed in. As soon as I was close enough and able to gaze upon my own reflection, sure enough, staring back at me was the same face I had found in nearly all of the photos.
Dark, doe eyes, skin the color of peach cream, hair messy and long in a way that I could only think to describe as a wolf cut (although I wasn't sure how I knew that), piercings in both ears, and my arms, I pulled back the sleeves of my oversized shirt to examine my arms, finding the skin covered in so, so many mysterious markings, markings I had never seen before, unsure if I was even supposed to follow their path from top to bottom, or bottom to top, or maybe even like a constellation from right to left.
'You have seen them before though...you just don't remember,' I told myself. I mean, clearly I had gotten them tattooed on my own body at some point, it was just, like everything else, I presently had zero memory of any of it. Whatever these symbols were, whatever they meant, clearly they had been important to me at some point...were still important, the importance hadn't gone away just because I couldn't remember them...fuck, this was all so terribly confusing.
As I tried to process the rush of information my head turned back to the numerous pictures that had been hung to the wooden walls. Based on the fact that most of them were of me, and ones that seemed to span most of my life, that seemed to answer that this cabin was mine, and with that knowledge came the relief that the fear from earlier that someone was on their way back here to, I don't know, finish me off, was an unfounded one.
But now I was back at square one, with another pressing problem. If this was in fact my cabin, why had it been on fire...why had I been on fire? Had someone invaded my home (was it my home?) and tried to off me? Maybe I still had to worry about that boogeyman after all. I couldn't for the life of me think of any reason I'd set my own cabin on fire while I was in it, and then lay down in the middle of it, and with that in mind, if someone was trying to dispose of me, they may come back and finish the job once they saw that this place was still standing and not a pile of ash. On top of that, if I couldn't remember anything, such as why someone would want to burn me alive, I was nothing more than a sitting duck with amnesia if I stayed here alone.
I needed to leave - now!
Stumbling around the cottage with a fresh wave of fear and panic, the only thing on my mind was to find some shoes. Wherever in the world I was I'm sure I would need those at least, especially if I needed to run. Shoes, shoes, where are some shoes? As I stumbled around the cabin trying to locate any pair I could get my hands on, I continuously stepped over the char marks that were now branded upon the floor. This entire time up until now I had paid the marks no mind other than the fact that they had been a signal that the floor had recently been on fire, but as I stepped up on a stool to try and see if I could find some shows in a high drawer, I finally saw a much more concerning image.
The burn marks on the floor weren't random, not just some unlucky and misfortunate bits of timber that burned for no reason....no...
The burn marks were in the shape of a pentagram.
Fuck the shoes. I needed to get away from whatever freaky devil occult shit was going on here right fucking NOW!
With my heart booming like thunder I leapt from the stool and made a dash for the cabin's door, somehow keeping enough wits about me to not cry and scream my head off like a frightened lunatic lest I wanted to alert whatever murderous psychopath had tried to burn (sacrifice?) me in the middle of their devil magic shit!
As I threw open the door and ran outside I was not met with any type of salvation though, the only things to greet me being wet dirt with a sprinkling of grass, and a thick, thick blanket of fog that practically obscured my entire vision beyond just five feet in front of me. Even with the droning roar of panic in my ears, I could also make out what sounded like the crashing of waves against rock; was I near the ocean? As my headed darted around for any sign of danger with the limited vision I had, I decided to sprint the direction my instincts were telling me to go - straight ahead!
But I was sprinting for not even a second before I finally released a scream and tried to skid to a halt. I wasn't near the ocean...I was above it! I had nearly run full sprint over the edge of a cliff and down to my likely doom as I heard the continued sound of waves slamming against rock. I tried to peer forward through the fog and found that it wasn't as thick at the cliff's edge, staring forward to find and see that another cliff line dotted with stones and forest trees was about thirty feet across the wide gap.
Obviously there was no way I could make it across, especially not knowing how far the drop was down into the water below, so I scrambled backward, trying not to slip and fall in the mud as I turned about-face and sprinted the other direction. I darted past the side of the small cabin and zoomed behind it, only to scream once more while trying desperately to stop myself as I found another cliff end. What the hell? I stumbled back once more and decided to go left, slowing my pace in case...yep, another cliff. A cliff to the front, back, and left of the cabin....that only left only one direction to choose from....it had to be the way out of this place...right?
Except, as if I just knew, I slowly meandered forward toward the only option I had remaining, not having to brake my ankles this time in order to stop myself as I came to the edge of yet another cliff.
What was going on?
Was the fog playing tricks on me? It had to be! How...how could this patch of land be surrounded by a cliff on each side? Had I accidentally gotten confused and gone the same direction twice? No...I hadn't...had I?
I slowly turned back once more, my handles trembling and shaking as I found the cabin through the thick fog and placed my hand near the top of the open door, my fingers gliding against the wood of the door frame. I had tried every direction out of here...but it was like there was nowhere to go....
I turned away from the door once more and started to march toward the first direction I had initially picked. Maybe I had missed something...like a narrow walkway? Going forward had been the only direction to yield a glimpse of more land in the distance, so it had to be the way, I had to have missed something. But, as I reached the cliff once more and the fog lessened, once again giving me a view of the other cliff across the gap, my fears were confirmed that I hadn't missed anything. All along the cliff edge was...nothing...just a sudden drop off from the cliff to empty air.
I fell to my knees with a sudden, crippling feeling of hopelessness, uncaring that my pants were now being sullied by the mud.
Maybe...a bridge?
Had whoever tried to kill me and set me on fire cut down some sort of bridge to trap the evidence of their crime on this tiny, isolated plot of land?
No...because then were the posts? There were no posts or stakes dotting this side of the cliff....a bridge would have been impossible, a bridge had to be tied off to something....but then how did I end up here?
My mind suddenly went back to the pentagram on the floor of the cabin, and my thoughts darkened...
Maybe I did burn...
Maybe I wasn't alive...
Maybe this was hell?
No.
No!
This isn't real! I refused to accept that this was reality! This wasn't happening! The cabin, the cabin had to have something to help me!
But as I tried to plant my hands and push myself up I failed to realize just how slick and loose the mud was, my hands sliding from underneath me as I applied pressure sending me careening forward and well over the edge of the cliff.
Fuck. If I wasn't dead before, I was sure about to be.
Except, instead of falling and crashing down into whatever water and waves waited for me below, almost instantly I was hitting solid ground with a grunt, the air slamming out of my lungs as I face planted into leaf-covered grass. I coughed and sputtered as I pulled myself up, quickly dumbfounded as I found a narrow strip of land that had seemingly grown from the cliff and extended forward. I was paralyzed with shock for a moment as I sifted a hand through the leaves and grass of this strip of land, the foliage almost...glowing? As I planted another hand in front of me I tried not to scream again as the new patch of land seemed to grow and extend right before my eyes, slowly closing the gap between this cliff and the next the further I moved forward.
Okay...yeah...I was dead...and I was dead and clearly trapped in some weird liminal space hellscape.
Or...
As I examined the faint glow and shimmer of the leaves and thought back to the pentagram back inside of the cabin there was one other idea that made its way back across my mind.
Magic.
Was magic real? No...I was being absurd...but...how else could I explain what was right in front of me? How else could I explain a cabin that was seemingly floating on a patch of land in the sky?
Fuck this, it wasn't my job to figure out if this was real or not, I suddenly had a path forward and away from the mystery magic cabin where someone may or may not have been trying to burn me alive. If the breadcrumbs and glowing leaves lead me forward and out of this place, that was good enough for me right now. I gingerly rose back to my feet, trying to not be gross out by the mud still covering my hands and pants (that also was now causing some of the leaves to stick to the aforementioned places) and slowly began to tiptoe forward, waiting for the path to continue growing out of thin air. I moved at a snail's pace, not wanting to overtake whatever rate the path was spawning at, just in case it decided I was proceeding too fast and let me drop to the waves for real this time.
But whatever devilish trick I was preparing for, never came, and in less than a minute I was across the path and stepping onto the solid ground of the other cliff edge. I turned behind me to watch the glowing path of leaves shimmer out of existence and trail back toward the heavy cloud of fog I had just stepped out of. As I followed the fading glow, I realized that from this side, I couldn't even make out sight of the cabin, it's structure entirely hidden in the fog. But I knew it was there, just...waiting...looming...disguised by its thick camouflage...
None of it made any sense to me, because clearly the cabin itself was supernatural and magic of some nature...but did that mean I was? My pictures had been on its walls...I had been living there, right? And if that was the case, how did I even find it...who put that cabin in the sky? I wanted to spend more time asking questions, but without any type of memory to my name at the moment, magic cabins and glowing leaves weren't going to make any sense to me. I need to find help, another living person, maybe then I could start piecing together some answers, that or at least ensure that I would be safe to take a breather and try and force my brain to cooperate with me.
Turning away from the cliff and the cabin I began to march forward into the forest ahead of me, doing my best to walk in a perfectly straight line lest I needed to retreat and come back the same way that I came.
One minute forward became two, two minutes walking turned into five, and soon five had doubled into ten. I grimaced as I stepped on a somewhat sharp twig.
I really should have found some shoes to wear.
But even with just ten minutes on my internal clock I knew I had already made it a fair amount of distance forward and into the seemingly normal forest, and I wasn't about to turn back now just for some shoes, especially if whatever boogeyman had tried to burn me alive had returned to the (my?) cabin and found that I had left and escaped. Had I made enemies with some sort of evil warlock? Was that a thing? I mean...they had to be, right? The glowing leaves implied as much.
It was that (unfounded or not) fear that kept me from calling out for any type of help in the forest. I had no way of knowing if the first person I found would be friend or foe - hell, I had no idea of knowing if there was any other person to be found in these woods at all. All I had was hope, hope and a desire to not be dead. It was with these musings however that I forgot to look where I was going and stepped on a very sharp twig this time.
"FUCK!" I cried out into the still air as the twig pierced my heel just slightly. I whimpered as I hobbled over to a boulder as best I could, trying to make sure I didn't press down and push the wood deeper into my flesh. I nearly slid down and off the stone as I tried to then hoist my foot into my lap and examine the damage, water beading up in the corners of my eye as I saw that, while not super deep, the twig had still pierced deep enough to tear flesh and cause a small trickle of blood to seep toward the surface.
I gently pulled the twig out of my heel before snapping the offending piece of wood in half to get back at it and tossing it harshly away from my being.
This was perfect; no memory, no shoes, bleeding, alone, possibly the prey of an evil boogeyman warlock!
"Could things get any worse?" I moaned at a whisper to myself.
And sure enough, they could!
Because no sooner had the question finished leaving my lips did I begin to hear what sounded like something massive, thundering and charging toward me through the forest. I immediately felt a sense of panic and dread as whatever it was was getting closer and closer, like whatever it was had undoubtedly heard my cry of pain from earlier and was now honing in on the source - me!
I looked around me for any place I could hide, only for my heart to sink as a the thundering charge reached its apex and crescendo just as a giant wolf burst forth through a towering bush and directly into the clearing before me.
It. was. HUGE!
A mammoth of a wolf had stopped just feet in front of me, black fur, large fangs, and piercing yellow eyes that I thought could vaporize my soul if they truly wanted to.
I was stunned. Too stunned to do anything but stare back at the wolf in fact. Was this beast going to eat me? Was this why I was hidden in some mystery, floating cabin? Had I unknowingly left a sanctuary that I thought had been a would be tomb? Between immolation or being wolf chow I definitely would have chosen the former instead; at least there was dignity in being turned into ash versus being digested and turned into wolf excrement.
Fuck....this sucked...
Except my fears of being the massive wolf's dinner evaporated as the blank stare the wolf had been fixing me with suddenly turned into a look that almost came off as....happy? It was as if the wolf had finally decided that yes, I was really here, because gone was the piercing glare that seemed to root me right in my place, and now instead was excited mirth pouring out of those yellow eyes as a tongue the size of my head lulled out of its snout.
And still I said nothing. Was I supposed to? I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I didn't remember anything, and even if I did, I didn't think I'd be comforted by the fact that a giant wolf possibly didn't want to eat me seeing as it was still a giant wolf! I was about the give into my instincts to say 'fuck it' and turn around and run back for the cabin, only to stop as the wolf gave what I could only describe as a yip and began to...shrink?
I didn't know why I was doubting what I was seeing considering not even fifteen minutes before I had walked across thin air on a path of glowing leaves, but still, I couldn't believe my eyes as the large form of the gargantuan wolf began to shrink and morph, black fur receding into flesh as once were the wolf stood was now a rather tall and large man....a rather tall and large naked man. Half of my being tried not to gawk, while the other half tried with everything it had to not pass out. Maybe I was somewhat of a voyeur when I had my memory, because despite the sheer absurdity of what I had witnessed, I couldn't help trail my eyes down the naked man in front of me, from his shaggy black hair, toothy grin, muscled chest (very muscled!) down to his navel and patch of black pub-
NOPE!
Stop!
Don't!
I felt myself blushing and then mentally scolded myself that the thought of looking at the naked man's...thing...had incited the biggest reaction out of me, and not the fact that, oh yeah, he was also a giant fucking wolf!
"Thank god I found you!" the man said, "We've been worried sick!"
Huh?
I couldn't get my brain and mouth to cooperate even remotely enough to try and formulate some sort of response.
He had been looking for me? 'We've?' More than one person had been looking for me? Before I could even get a 'what?' to slip from my tongue though, the tall man was leaning and throwing his head back as he howled into the forest air.
That sound....it felt...familiar...
A howl answered back, this one sounding much more wild, more animal. Whoever had answered was more than likely still a wolf. But that wasn't what frightened me, no, there was something about that howl, something that I knew I recognized, memory or not, and it was something I knew that I had to get away from. I didn't wait for the man to finish whatever wolf song he was singing to anyone else out in this forest, all I had right now were my own instincts, and they were telling me to run, to get away, and so I turned and dashed back, throwing myself behind the trunk of a large tree just as the pounding sound of yet another thunderous charge crackled through the air.
When I was sure that I was hidden, I peaked around the bend of the wood just enough to see the still naked man now darting his head around as if puzzled by where I had gone off to, and just enough to see another large, larger, black wolf crash through the same tall brush and transform to an equally naked, but noticeably larger man than the first.
He was gorgeous. Cropped black hair, bulging arms, a dimpled face, tall, so very, very tall. He was anyone's walking wet dream.
He was also my worst nightmare, at least if my subconscious was to be trusted. Something about this man was putting me on high alert, and it was screaming one simple message; Get. Away.
"What is it, did you smell him?!" The new and taller of the two (still very naked) men asked as I ducked my head in hiding back behind the tree trunk.
"I...saw him.." Another voice said, almost certainly belonging to the first man that I had seen.
"You SAW him?" the other voice cried out, "Where is he? Don't tell me you let him go! We have to find him Tae!"
"He must have ran off, he couldn't have gotten far...but, Namjoon, something was...odd about him," the man who I assumed was 'Tae' responded.
I put my hand to the bottom of my face, covering my mouth and nose to muffle the sound of my breathing.
"Odd how?" Namjoon(?) was asking of Tae, "Damnit Taehyung, why are we just standing here? We have to find him! He's been missing for three days! This isn't like him!"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you," Tae(hyung?) said to Namjoon, "I heard someone scream and then followed his scent into this clearing, and I just found him standing here...but it was like he didn't recognize me, even when I shifted back, it's like...it was like he didn't even know who I am..."
"What?" Namjoon was asking. I heard the snap of a twig, perhaps Namjoon having stepped on it as he got closer to Tae, "Are you sure?"
"You said it yourself, he's been missing for over three days; ever since we met him he's never gone that long without visiting," Tae responded, giving me information about my life and behavior that I no longer could remember, "You don't think....you don't think that he did something to Kookie, do you?"
I heard a deep rumble, one that I realized was a growl, escape Namjoon's throat, the thrum of the sound reverberating so deeply it felt as if the man my brain was telling me to get away from was standing right behind my shoulder. Who was the he that Tae had mentioned though?
"It's seeming that way," Namjoon hissed, "Fucking hell...we can't think about that right now though, whether or not that parasite did something we need to find Jungkook and make sure he's alright, make sure he's safe! We've wasted enough time, damn it Tae I smell blood! Jungkook's blood! Which way did he go?"
Jungkook.
My name is....Jungkook...I am..Jungkook?
Finally....I knew something...
But it came with a new fear - how did the man called Namjoon know what my blood smelled like?
"He's never been that fast, not compared to us, you know that," Tae said, like he was trying to placate the other man for letting me go, or what he thought was letting me go, unaware that I hadn't gone that far at all. In fact, I probably should have taken that as my cue to keep running, to make a break for my cabin back in the sky. I had no way of knowing if these men were friendly simply because they knew my name, and I was trusting my instincts at the moment because they were all I had to go off of. Something about seeing this Tae person, hearing Namjoon's voice, it had filled me with a sense of dread, so even if my active conscience didn't remember them, something in my body did - and it didn't like them.
"The problem isn't his speed Tae!" Namjoon growled, "Or did you forget how none of us have been able to find him for the past three days! Or that his house is GONE! Or that I just said I smell his BLOOD! He's HURT!"
"It has to be his magic," Tae reasoned, "But like I said...something is off with him...if he didn't want to be found, then why did I finally get a whiff of his scent? Why did he scream? None of this makes any sense!"
His magic?
My magic?
Magic.
It wasn't that I was in a magic cabin, or in magic forest, where glowing leaves sprouted out of thing air to give me a path from the cabin to the cliff's edge.
I was the magic.
I bolted.
The adrenaline of my escape was fueling me on, the pain and blood seeping from my heel seemingly chased away as I focused on the task of fleeing the area, fleeing away from the two wolf men who, by all accounts of my instincts, seemingly couldn't be trusted. The two men seemed confident that they'd be able to catch me, but if I made it back to the cabin I was sure that I'd be safe from them. They had said I had been missing for three days, they hadn't found me, and based on that cloud of fog that only seemed to dissipate away from the cabin, I was willing to bet they still wouldn't find me! Afterall, who would expect a cabin to be floating in the sky, camouflaged by nothing more than some fog?
I was thanking the high heavens that I had ventured into the forest in a straight path, not having to waste any time trying to retrace my steps back to where I first came, and it was proving to be a decision that might have saved my life as I suddenly heard the distant rumble of thunder sound from behind me. It was the same sound I had heard twice before, which could only mean one thing - they were chasing after me.
As I swatted a low hanging branch out of my face I burst through the final stretch of forest before I found the edge of the cliff that served as the starting point of my journey. I hadn't stopped to consider whether or not the glowing path of leaves would spawn once more to safely guide me across, but at my current speed, there was no time to stop and hope that they would, I simply had to believe that they would.
And they did!
Because as soon as my left foot went over the edge of the cliff, the path of leaves lit up in a straight line forward into the dense cloud of fog where I knew my cabin was waiting for me.
It was just as I made it fully across and the leaves shimmered out of existence did I hear the thunder reach a high as two wolves crashed out of the forest and both skittered to a sudden halt right at the cliff's edge, the smaller wolf, Taehyung, knocking several stones and pebbles over and into the murky waters below.
I fell to my knees and began to gulp down air as quietly as I could, knowing that while the two wolves probably couldn't see me thanks to the fog, that didn't mean they couldn't hear me, and I had no way of knowing if the leaves would spawn for them and let them traverse the empty air across as well. I stayed on my knees and lowered myself even further to the ground, watching as the two wolves shifted back into their human forms, still naked, and frantically moving around the cliff's edge.
"Where is he?!" I heard the taller one, Namjoon, scream over the crashing sound of the waves, "His scent ends right here!"
"You don't think he went over the edge do you?" Tae asked, sounding very panicked, "If he's not in his right mind he may have fallen straight off!"
"No!" Namjoon growled, "No, no, he wouldn't have! Don't say that!"
"Then where did he go!?" Taehyung howled, the sound of distress pulling at my heart in a way that Namjoon's hadn't.
"I don't know Tae!" Namjoon replied, "But....I just know he didn't go over....maybe he tricked us...used some magic or something? Maybe he's under his influence and we were meant to go over the edge?"
"You...you think so?" Tae asked.
"I don't even know at this point...but...I just know he's not down there...I can feel it...can feel our bond...it's still active..." Namjoon responded.
Bond?
Add whatever that 'bond' was to my growing list of questions.
"We should, we should go back," Namjoon continued, "Tell the others, increase our searches. Jungkook is still here somewhere...we have to find him and make sure he's okay."
I watched Taehyung nod at the larger man before both turned and shifted back into wolves, escaping back into the forest from which they came.
Great....
So....
My name is Jungkook...two giant wolf men are after me....I may or may not live in a floating sky cabin....aaaaand I'm apparently magic....and that pretty much sums up the only shit I seem to know at the moment....awesome.