The Wanderers [Epilogue]
Title: The Wanderers
Pairing: Kris/Lay/Luhan
Genre: Friendship, Historical!AU
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,083 words
Summary: When the number of people you know only amount to fourteen in total, how difficult is it to leave them and start a new life for yourself with two others out of the fourteen?
A/N: Finally done moving my story here from elsewhere. Ugh my writing's so awkward throughout this entire epilogue. :/
As the oracle had said, Kris had actually fallen in love with one of the villagers. A charming and bright girl who he met when he was working an odd job at the village’s market. The couple was a sweet pair, but there was something about Kris that she felt was hidden from her, and it was no doubt that it was about the two childhood friends that he had. She had heard that they had gone through thick and thin together, and they were the ones who had brought him along on their journey, and finally to the island, where they met in the end. One of them had even become their esteemed leader for a few years before leaving on a journey to broaden his horizons. She really felt as if she had those two men to thank for bringing Kris to her.
But she didn’t like how he almost always seemed to be on the verge of forgetting, and then all of a sudden, he would retreat back into his shell again. She didn’t like how he kept on pulling away from her.
And so, she decided to seek advice from the oracle.
“What may I do for you today, sweetie?” The oracle asked in her usual raspy voice, turning towards her, clad in her signature style of flowery cloth robes. She plucked a clove of garlic from the strings of herbs dangling from the roof of her tent and peeled off the top layer, eating the garlic raw.
“It’s about… Kris.” She said uncertainly. Although she knew that the oracle would do no harm to her, she disliked coming here. It gave her goose bumps, as it did to many others as well. There was something queer and unsettling being in her presence, people told her. She agreed wholeheartedly with them, now that she sat before the oracle alone.
“Ah…” The oracle replied, nodding her head in a knowing way. “You’ve come to seek the truth at last?”
She blinked hard and swallowed, nodding slowly in response.
The bared all of her yellow teeth in a slightly menacing smile, and tapped her long fingernails on the tabletop. “You’ve come to the right place. I can definitely tell you some secrets about his past.”
And so, the oracle began to divulge Kris’ long journey here, from his own island to a place where he and his friends almost died, to where they were at now. She listened with a kind of shocked awe on her face, and she learnt of Kris’ troubled past, of how life on his original island forced him and his friends to leave. Their previous leader, Yixing, had been the most important person in their journey here, with him doing everything all the way.
She was so focused on the story, she never even realized when a server came in and cleared the tea that the oracle had set out for them earlier. He bowed politely in their general direction, but there was something about him that seemed strange.
The way he walked, it looked as if he was uncertain of what was in front of him. Furthermore, he had a lame leg and it was apparent that it took a lot of effort for him to put any weight on his right leg. Whenever he did, he would wince. Sometimes, he would breath in sharply as if his ribs hurt him. The oracle introduced him as a man who she took in when the times were bad and jobs were few. He never seemed to pay much attention to them, but on closer observation, the girl realized that the limping boy seemed to be eavesdropping on them. This made her even more uncomfortable than before. He always kept his face turned away from her, and she didn’t like how he avoided any questions that she asked him.
When the oracle had finally finished her story, the girl thanked her and stood up to leave, but not before approaching the strange man one last time.
Walking up quietly behind him, she tapped him on his shoulder. Stunned, the man whirled around, holding out a wooden spoon in front of him for protection. She gasped in shock when she saw his face, and realizing his mistake, he immediately shied away and turned his back on her once again, hiding his face behind his long hair.
She fell back onto a chair placed behind her. His facial features were beautiful, save for the one scar that cut across from his right eye down to the side of his nose. And that one scar told stories of an injury that caused him to lose his vision in that one eye. The left eye was a beautiful, warm brown, but the other was a clouded milky white, cold and unfeeling. It gave her the creeps. It explained why he walked strangely besides the limp. With only half of his vision, he couldn’t see what obstructed him on the right side, and so he walked slowly, limping his way through the house.
What struck her further was that he was crying. That man was shedding tears that rolled down his cheeks noiselessly. She couldn’t tell why, and could only assume that something about the oracle’s conversation with her had touched him.
A moment of silence passed where she didn’t know what to make out of his reaction. And when he made no further movement, she decided to leave the place quickly after muttering a quick apology. Then, she sprinted back to Kris’ hut.
The moment she entered the mud hut, she ran straight to him and hugged him tightly, heart pounding with shock at Kris’ past and the strange man in the hut. The previous sorrows after hearing his story at the oracle’s place came flooding back, and she finally understood why he looked so utterly depressed at times. Of course, the oracle’s powers had its limits, she couldn’t really tell much of the story after Kris’ friend had died.
Kris, surprised at her actions, proceeded to laugh at her in a lighthearted manner. But she could tell that he had been doing some thinking. He was trying to sound as if he didn’t have a care in the world, when broken relationships gnawed away at his heart.
As they stood there, locked in an embrace, her thoughts kept on drifting to that half-blind cripple in the oracle’s tent who had the exact same honey brown locks as her Kris.
Pairing: Kris/Lay/Luhan
Genre: Friendship, Historical!AU
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,083 words
Summary: When the number of people you know only amount to fourteen in total, how difficult is it to leave them and start a new life for yourself with two others out of the fourteen?
A/N: Finally done moving my story here from elsewhere. Ugh my writing's so awkward throughout this entire epilogue. :/
As the oracle had said, Kris had actually fallen in love with one of the villagers. A charming and bright girl who he met when he was working an odd job at the village’s market. The couple was a sweet pair, but there was something about Kris that she felt was hidden from her, and it was no doubt that it was about the two childhood friends that he had. She had heard that they had gone through thick and thin together, and they were the ones who had brought him along on their journey, and finally to the island, where they met in the end. One of them had even become their esteemed leader for a few years before leaving on a journey to broaden his horizons. She really felt as if she had those two men to thank for bringing Kris to her.
But she didn’t like how he almost always seemed to be on the verge of forgetting, and then all of a sudden, he would retreat back into his shell again. She didn’t like how he kept on pulling away from her.
And so, she decided to seek advice from the oracle.
“What may I do for you today, sweetie?” The oracle asked in her usual raspy voice, turning towards her, clad in her signature style of flowery cloth robes. She plucked a clove of garlic from the strings of herbs dangling from the roof of her tent and peeled off the top layer, eating the garlic raw.
“It’s about… Kris.” She said uncertainly. Although she knew that the oracle would do no harm to her, she disliked coming here. It gave her goose bumps, as it did to many others as well. There was something queer and unsettling being in her presence, people told her. She agreed wholeheartedly with them, now that she sat before the oracle alone.
“Ah…” The oracle replied, nodding her head in a knowing way. “You’ve come to seek the truth at last?”
She blinked hard and swallowed, nodding slowly in response.
The bared all of her yellow teeth in a slightly menacing smile, and tapped her long fingernails on the tabletop. “You’ve come to the right place. I can definitely tell you some secrets about his past.”
And so, the oracle began to divulge Kris’ long journey here, from his own island to a place where he and his friends almost died, to where they were at now. She listened with a kind of shocked awe on her face, and she learnt of Kris’ troubled past, of how life on his original island forced him and his friends to leave. Their previous leader, Yixing, had been the most important person in their journey here, with him doing everything all the way.
She was so focused on the story, she never even realized when a server came in and cleared the tea that the oracle had set out for them earlier. He bowed politely in their general direction, but there was something about him that seemed strange.
The way he walked, it looked as if he was uncertain of what was in front of him. Furthermore, he had a lame leg and it was apparent that it took a lot of effort for him to put any weight on his right leg. Whenever he did, he would wince. Sometimes, he would breath in sharply as if his ribs hurt him. The oracle introduced him as a man who she took in when the times were bad and jobs were few. He never seemed to pay much attention to them, but on closer observation, the girl realized that the limping boy seemed to be eavesdropping on them. This made her even more uncomfortable than before. He always kept his face turned away from her, and she didn’t like how he avoided any questions that she asked him.
When the oracle had finally finished her story, the girl thanked her and stood up to leave, but not before approaching the strange man one last time.
Walking up quietly behind him, she tapped him on his shoulder. Stunned, the man whirled around, holding out a wooden spoon in front of him for protection. She gasped in shock when she saw his face, and realizing his mistake, he immediately shied away and turned his back on her once again, hiding his face behind his long hair.
She fell back onto a chair placed behind her. His facial features were beautiful, save for the one scar that cut across from his right eye down to the side of his nose. And that one scar told stories of an injury that caused him to lose his vision in that one eye. The left eye was a beautiful, warm brown, but the other was a clouded milky white, cold and unfeeling. It gave her the creeps. It explained why he walked strangely besides the limp. With only half of his vision, he couldn’t see what obstructed him on the right side, and so he walked slowly, limping his way through the house.
What struck her further was that he was crying. That man was shedding tears that rolled down his cheeks noiselessly. She couldn’t tell why, and could only assume that something about the oracle’s conversation with her had touched him.
A moment of silence passed where she didn’t know what to make out of his reaction. And when he made no further movement, she decided to leave the place quickly after muttering a quick apology. Then, she sprinted back to Kris’ hut.
The moment she entered the mud hut, she ran straight to him and hugged him tightly, heart pounding with shock at Kris’ past and the strange man in the hut. The previous sorrows after hearing his story at the oracle’s place came flooding back, and she finally understood why he looked so utterly depressed at times. Of course, the oracle’s powers had its limits, she couldn’t really tell much of the story after Kris’ friend had died.
Kris, surprised at her actions, proceeded to laugh at her in a lighthearted manner. But she could tell that he had been doing some thinking. He was trying to sound as if he didn’t have a care in the world, when broken relationships gnawed away at his heart.
As they stood there, locked in an embrace, her thoughts kept on drifting to that half-blind cripple in the oracle’s tent who had the exact same honey brown locks as her Kris.