southern winds [2/3]
➹➷
"I swear to God," Sehun mutters. Sweat drips down his brow and he raises a tired arm to wipe it away. A rock hits him in the stomach.
"Lu Han," he yells across the field. "I wasn't looking!"
"Well, your enemies aren't going to care about that are they?" Lu Han yells back. "Hey! You over there! Look over here so you can see the arrow I'm about to shoot you at!" he mocks, picking up another rock from the ground to aim at Sehun.
This one grazes past his cheek.
"I told you not to duck Sehun!" Luhan calls. "The rocks won't go past chest height for gods sake."
Sehun pouts over at him, and brings a hand up to touch his cheek. When he looks down at his fingers again, there's blood. "Can we stop?" he whines. "I'm hurt and my powers aren't coming out."
Lu Han sighs and nods, gesturing him over, away from the riverbank. "Whatever," he says. "Joonmyun's going onto the river soon so we can't stay here for long anyway."
"The river?" Sehun turns his head and narrows his eyes at it. "Why?"
"Se~cret," Lu Han sings. Sehun is about to retort when Lu han beats him with an answer to his unspoken words. "Maybe I'll tell you, once you've found your Gift."
"But," Sehun starts, but then he sees Zitao coming along with Joonmyun over the hill and he falls silent. He lifts a hand to wave at them.
"Lu Han!" Zitao squeals as if he hadn't just had breakfast with them a few hours ago. He then turns to Sehun and greets with him with a nod.
"Sehun," Lu Han says gently, nudging him forward. "You're with Zitao from today."
"I know," Sehun snaps back, moving quickly out of the range of Lu Han's touch before he realises what he's doing. He flushes.
"Well then," Zitao says, obviously not amused, "let's get going."
➹➷
It had started like this:
"We all have powers, apparently, Gifts" Joonmyun breaks the news to them one morning. "It's just that they've been buried within us for so long that most humans will live their whole life without ever realising. It came from a time when all were both dragon and humans."
"What?" Baekhyun says at the same time Chanyeol says "Like, we could all breathe fire a long time ago?"
"Not exactly," Minseok cuts in. He had been another member of the dragon-turned-human clan that Sehun hadn't met until the third day. He had been away negotiating, apparently. "You see, magic is in the blood of dragons and even after humans split themselves away, it remained dormant in their blood."
"Um," Jongin says.
"Um," Sehun echoes.
"So we might be able to breathe fire and fly?" Kyungsoo asks.
Lu Han laughs. "I'm not sure about that," he says. "Wu Fan can fly in his human form though."
Sehun looks over Lu Han's shoulder at Wu Fan sitting at a desk, having an extremely intense staring contest with a scroll. Wu Fan looks too big to fly.
"So what's my power then?" Sehun says to the room of people.
"Well," Minseok says slowly, "that's the thing."
"What thing?"
"We don't know yet."
Sehun blinks at Minseok incredulously. "Excuse me?" he asks; he had a habit of being strangely polite when he's at a loss for words.
"But!" Lu Han cuts in happily, "that's what we're going to find out! We managed to find Joonmyun's power and train him on how to use it properly so we have experience in this already!"
"I... see?" Sehun replies slowly. They all turn to stare at Joonmyun. "What's your power?"
"I can control water?" Joonmyun squeaks out from under the pressure of their gaze. "Like, I can throw it at people?"
"Can you turn into a dragon?" Chanyeol asks excitedly.
"Not yet," Joonmyun replies, "but I'm getting there."
"Yeah remember that time Joonmyun walked around with a forked tongue for a week?" Jongdae cuts in from nowhere. "Damn, I'm still upset it went back to normal."
"Shut up Jongdae."
Sehun taps Jongin's shoulder to get his attention, and when he has it he gestures around. "You want to train?" he whispers.
Jongin shrugs. "If you do."
"So Joonmyun, give us some tips," Baekhyun says. "How did you find your powers?"
Everyone on the other side of the room starts laughing and Joonmyun flushes red. "That's not important," he flusters. "Everyone will probably find their own powers a different way."
"But we should get as much help as can," Baekhyun argues back. "Come on, it can't be that bad."
Joonmyun stands up. "I'm going to go feed the main fire," he puffs.
It's not until he turns the corner into another part of the cave that Lu Han speaks. "Joonmyun was washing in the river," he wheezes out. He's trying not to laugh, and he's not succeeding. "Zitao tried to jump in and wash with him and Joonmyun panicked."
"And that's how he found his powers?"
"Yeah," Lu Han snorts. "He almost drained the river making a barrier between him and Zitao."
“Well then," Baekhyun says after a the laughter dies down. “I guess that didn’t really help us after all.”
➹➷
Sehun misses the rocks that Lu Han would throw at him.
Rocks, as he comes to realise are inanimate objects and hence very safe compared to a black fire-breathing dragon.
Zitao's method of "training" turns out to be very different from Lu Han's method of using both his mind and hands to throw rocks at Sehun from every direction. Zitao had decided that shock was the best method of getting one's Gift to show itself (I wonder why, Sehun thinks quietly to himself).
This results in Sehun spending a significant amount of his day inside a huge hole in the ground.
“I dug that myself,” Zitao had told him proudly before pushing him in. Sehun had tumbled to the bottom and had looked up just in time to see a huge black dragon lunging down at him.
“I could hear you screaming from the caves,” Baekhyun tells him later over dinner.
Zitao sniggers. Sehun doesn’t grace either of them with an answer.
Recently though, things have improved. Sehun has stopped screaming every other time he sees Zitao in his dragon form and instead of Zitao flying them back home after each training (because strangely enough, home has stopped being his little village on the outskirts of the Southern Territory borders, but the chain of caves embedded in the second mountain west of the river), they’ve started to walk back together.
The walk is by no means short or easy-- a treacherous hike for the common civilian, but Sehun is a soldier and Zitao is--well, he’s accustomed to living like this.
“Were you always human like this?” Sehun asks one night as he edges along a ledge on the face of the mountain. They were out later than usual and according to Zitao, this was the only way that would see them back home in time for dinner.
“No,” Zitao replies, right behind Sehun, ready to catch him if he falls. “All of us were born dragons.”
“Then how are you,” Sehun almost takes his hands off the rock to gesture at Zitao before realizing that he’s holding himself to the face of the mountain with his hands. “You know, like that.”
Zitao laughs, as if he had known what Sehun had been seconds away from doing. “Dragons aren’t as stupid as you humans think they are,” he explains. “Although we cannot talk as you do, we are able to communicate through our minds, and we are able to pass legends down through generations.”
“Dragons have a language?”
“The language is the same, Sehun,” Zitao chides. “Don’t you remember that we used to be the same race? Although time and ambition has separated us, we still speak the same tongue.”
“Oh.” Sehun feels as if he should have been able to guess without asking, especially after all this time.
“If you want to know more,” Zitao says, “Ask Lu Han. He knows a lot more about this than I do.”
“But Lu Han’s always busy,” Sehun replies.
“He’ll be at dinner,” Zitao says. “And I want to eat dinner so hurry up and walk faster.”
“Why don’t you just fly us back then?” Sehun retorts, but he speeds up his steps anyway.
“Because, Sehun,” Zitao replies slowly as if he were speaking to a child, “I can’t talk to you when I’m a dragon.”
Sehun’s walking steady over the ledge and he’s in no danger of falling but for some reason, he wants to fall. Because falling means Zitao will catch him, and every time Zitao catches him, Sehun feels as if his stomach is still plummeting down into the depths.
➹➷
“Wake up! Sehun, wake up!”
Sehun is shaking, no, there’s someone shaking him. He opens his eyes and four worried pairs of eyes stare down at him. "What?" he yawns, rubbing his eyes to clear away the dizziness.
"Where's Jongin?" Joonmyun snaps. "This isn't funny at all."
Sehun sits up. "What do you mean, where's Jongin?" he snaps right back. "How am I supposed to know?"
Kyungsoo places a hand onto Joonmyun's shoulder, holding him back from a retort. "Jongin usually is one of the first to get up. He runs for a while before practicing his swordsmanship with Zitao," he explains.
But Sehun knows all this, not that he's ever seen it himself, being one of the people who gets up the latest. "I know...?"
"This morning, Jongin never turned up to practice with Zitao and no one saw him go out this morning. We think he left sometime during the night."
Sehun scrambles to his feet, all thoughts of sleep gone in an instant. "What?" he asks again. "You think Jongin ran away?"
No one answers, but the silence is answer enough.
"How could you think that?" Sehun asks through gritted teeth. "Jongin wouldn't do that, he wouldn't betray us like that."
Kyungsoo nods comfortingly. "We know," he says. "We just wondered if you knew anything, after all, you're the closest to him out of all of us."
And then, a wave of guilt crashes over Sehun. It he had spent a little more time with Jongin and a little less with Zitao, would he know right now where Jongin was? Or perhaps he would be with him, going wherever he was because there was no way that Jongin would betray them, betray him.
"I don't," Sehun replies dumbly. "Jongin didn't tell me anything."
There's already a discussion taking place on what to do with the missing Jongin situation when they walk out into the main cave. While Lu Han seemed to want to wait for a bit to see if Jongin returned, Yixing, who was surprisingly present for once, thought that preparing for the worst and immediately retreating back to the territory of the dragons was the best idea.
Sehun doesn't listen for very long before turning his back and walking straight towards the exit. "I'm going to go search for him," he states. Sehun isn't seeking permission to go out, he's telling them that he will go out and search for Jongin no matter what they say.
"You will do no such thing," Wu Fan tells him. "You're staying right here."
"No I'm not," Sehun retorts. "Jongin could be hurt somewhere, I'm going to look for him."
The pressure of Wu Fan's glare is intense, but Sehun does not flinch away front it. Instead he stands straight, meeting the glare with his own determined eyes.
"How do we know that he did not betray us?" Wu Fan demands. "How do we not know that you are not going to join him right now?"
Because I know.
Sehun hesitates, but before he can answer, Zitao cuts in.
"I'll go with Sehun," he offers. "You trust me, don't you?"
Wu Fan's head whips around to stare at Zitao who nods and makes his way over to Sehun's side. Grudgingly, Wu Fan nods.
"We'll be back by nightfall," Zitao calls as a steers a numb Sehun out. "Send someone to find us if Jongin comes back before then."
Zitao stops just outside their hidden entrance. "Where do we go first?" he asks.
"You think we'll find him?" Sehun replies.
"Yeah, we will," Zitao hums comfortingly. He wraps his arm around the back of Sehun's shoulders. "If you believe he's innocent, then I do too."
"Really?"
"Of course."
Sehun feels himself lean into Zitao as he scans the landscape in front of him. "There first," he points with his head on Zitao's shoulder. "Let's check along the river first."
➹➷
Sehun feels a gust of wind past him. It's coming from further down. He turns to look.
“Where the fuck have you been?" Sehun scrambles to his feet behind the table.
Jongin blinks for a moment, taking in his surroundings before stumbling back. "Woah," he had gasped out. "How the fuck did I get here?"
Lu Han stands up calmly, and leads Jongin over to his seat at the table. "Have some meat," he says. "We caught it yesterday while out looking for you. Congratulations, you have found your Gift."
Sehun seethes at that, not only because Jongin seemed to be getting off lightly for worrying them all so much, but he was being praised. But unfortunately for Jongin, and more satisfactorily for Sehun, Wu Fan and Joonmyun, the two who had somehow fallen into a leadership position in their group, were less pleased.
"Where did you go?" Wu Fan asks. He corners Jongin after breakfast, waiting until the excitement of Jongin finding his Gift had died down a bit.
"Uh," Jongin replies. "I was out... exploring?"
"You went over the mountains to the other side, didn't you." Joonmyun saw through him in a second, and Sehun wasn't surprised. Despite the way they all laughed at Joonmyun, there had been a reason he was able to fall into a leadership position both back when they were cadets and even now, deserters hiding out in the mountains.
"You what?" Wu Fan asks, his voice dropping dangerously close to a growl. "After I told you not to go there?"
Visibly, Jongin gulps. "I- I-" he stutters. They had never seen Wu Fan truly angry before, and never before had he been angry at another person rather than at his own mistakes. It’s frightening. "I wanted to see for myself," Jongin continues, attempting to keep his voice strong. "I wanted to see that they were intelligent, just like you said."
Apparently, it had been the right answer to give before Wu Fan sighs deeply, and he seems to exhale most his anger along with it. "I guess we've kept too much from you," he says. "One of you was bound to get curious."
Jongin straightens up. "Does that mean I'm--"
"No, that does not mean we're going to leave it at that," Joonmyun cuts through his words. "Do you have any idea how stupid it was to do that?"
"But--" Jongin's tone takes on its familiar, defensive edge, ready to argue.
"Jongin," Wu Fan interrupts. "He's right."
"Sehun and Zitao spent the whole day flying into valleys and looking inside every damned cave for you," Joonmyun snaps. He turns to face Sehun, who takes a step back at the intensity of his eyes. "Didn't you?"
"I--" Sehun starts, but he feels a hand on his shoulder and he freezes up.
"We did," Zitao's voice answers for him.
"See!" Joonmyun practically screeches at Jongin. "What if you had died? What then?"
Jongin deflates. "Sehun, I'm sorry," he says. All the fight in him has left. "And Zitao, I'm sorry for troubling you."
Sehun feels the hand on his shoulder extend until Zitao's drawing him close. He feels warm.
"Jongin," he says. He doesn't remember the last time Jongin had apologized with his head down. His closest friend is a proud person; Jongin laughs everything off and never looks back. "At least you're safe," he finally manages to say. The words feel strange when he says them, it doesn't sound like something Sehun would say, but rather something Kyungsoo might say after punching Jongin in the arm a million times for worrying them.
"Yeah, at least I am," Jongin repeats.
➹➷
They're lying side by side, backs on the grass and staring up at the sky.
"Did the sky ever look like this back in the Southern Territory?" Sehun asks. The sky is deep, and the clouds wispy, thin and translucent.
"I don't know," Jongin replies slowly. "We never had to time to look, did we?"
"Wake up, train, sleep," Sehun says. "I can't believe we spent so long living like that."
"Neither can I."
Sehun doesn't reply, instead he follows a wisp of cloud across the sky. The clouds are layered, some lower than others and Sehun tries to see them all.
"Sehun," Jongin suddenly whispers to him. It breaks the quiet. "You know, I thought I wasn't scared anymore."
The clouds continue to be blown across the sky, and Sehun continues watching them. His hand shifts ever so slightly.
"After all this time, seeing you with Zitao everyday, seeing Lu Han and Minseok fly together, Jongdae shifting for fun, Yixing coming back and forth, and even Wu Fan hasn't seemed so bad lately. I really thought that I was over it."
Sehun doesn't look over. Jongin's voice shakes, but Jongin is proud.
"When I went over there, all I wanted to know was--" Jongin breaks off. Sehun moves closer.
"I thought they were going to devour me," Jongin whispers. "I thought they were going to burn me, devour me, just like they did to him."
Sehun feels the side of his hand brush again Jongin.
"Jongin," he whispers back. I'm here, I'm listening.
"They're so big, and even after everything that we've learnt, day after day, they were able to just push me over into the dirt and pick me up." Jongin's voice cracks. "I had a dagger on me, the ones they gave us. I wanted to kill them, for what they did to him but," Jongin pauses again. Sehun can hear him breathe deep, steadying himself.
"They knocked the dagger out of my hands, and they melted it," Jongin's voice is rising. It's shaking. "There was no fire, with just one breath, they melted it."
"But you know," Jongin continues. He laughs, only it comes out more like a choked cough. "I thought they were going to melt me down like that too, I thought they were going to melt my skin into my bones and devour me but--"
Jongin's breaths are deep and shuddering. His words are no longer controlled and steady. He's gasping them in and coughing them out. Sehun keeps his eyes fixed upon the sky, frantically blinking when he feels dust gather in his open eyes. He can't close them, no, he won't.
"The dragon, he looked at me," Jongin chokes. "He looked at me and then they all just flew me back to the edge of the forest and let me go."
Sehun finds Jongin's hand, flat on the ground and he covers it with his own.
"I couldn't do it," Jongin sobs. "I couldn't do anything because I know it's all true."
In his short time on both on the battlefield and off it, Sehun has seen many things. He's seen blood pour from open wounds and bodies charred black. He's seen snow atop the highest mountains and he's seen fields of crisp green.
But he never once sees Jongin cry because his closest friend is proud and Sehun understands.
➹➷
I've been left behind, Sehun thinks. It's a thought that has reoccurred to him many times over the months. He's really the only one left yet to discover his Gift. Kyungsoo had found his a while back when Zitao had tried his method of tossing him into a hole and lunging at him in dragon form (Zitao was met with a mouthful of dirt and complained about the taste for days; Dragons eat meat, not dirt!) and Baekhyun had found his through the most anticlimactic way. He had been thirty one night and couldn't find candles, leading to his discovery of his Gift of Light.
Only yesterday had Chanyeol accidentally set fire to Wu Fan's hair after being scolded, marking Sehun as the only one yet to come discover his Gift. He’s holding them up, holding their plans up and even if the dragons had not yet told them everything, Sehun could feel it. Time is sand, slipping through their fingertips and they can’t afford to wait forever for Sehun.
"Jongin," Sehun whispers with a tap to his friend's shoulder. "I'm going out for a walk. I'll be back before supper."
"Sehun, are you okay?" There's a concern in Jongin's eyes rarely seen. Sehun realizes that he's serious, perhaps more serious than Sehun's ever seen.
"I'm okay." Sehun forces a smile to his face. "I just want to walk for a bit. Zitao flew us back today." It's not a lie but it's not why he wants to walk either. He just wants a little time to think by himself.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk?" Jongin asks. "I can go with you--"
"Jongin," Sehun cuts in. "Really, it's okay." He forces his lips to remain fixed in a smile. He doesn't know why he bothers-- he knows that Jongin can see through it. He’s always been able to.
"If you're sure," Jongin replies slowly. He forces a smile to his face and laughs, a little awkward. "If you're late for supper you miss out," he says. "I'm not saving you anything."
Sehun laughs in return, nodding as he turns around. "That's what you say now," he laughs. But you'll save some for me. Even if you have to battle Chanyeol and Baekhyun, you'll make sure I don't miss out. Because I'd do the same for you.
When Sehun walks alone, he sees that the forest is alive. It's not something that he often sees, and not anything close to what he had ever felt back in the days he trained among men. He wonders if the little patch of forest the main army hide out in is alive like this too. He wonders how many men are too blind to see it, too deaf to hear it, too heartless to feel everything around them.
Moss grows right over stones at the edge of the pond at the base of the mountain but Sehun doesn't mind, not anymore. He sit down on top of a soft looking round stone, it's edges long worn down by rain and wind. It feels as if nothing could disturb him here, as if nothing could upturn the calm inside of him.
Sehun closes his eyes and lets himself wander.
When he opens his eyes again, the fireflies light his sky.
"You've woken," a wonderfully familiar voice says. "Did you sleep well?"
"I wasn't asleep," Sehun replies, his voice soft. It blends in well with the forest. "Just...thinking."
"What were you thinking about to not notice my approach?" Zitao laughs gently. The sound is warmth to Sehun.
Sehun hesitates for a moment. The reason why he was here comes trickling back to him like the river through a crack in its stone boundaries.
"Don't think about that," Zitao says before Sehun can compose an answer. Sehun wonders if his answers can be seen written clearly on his face.
"But, aren't I a burden?" Sehun asks.
Gracefully, Zitao leaps from one moss covered stone to the other until he's right there, in front of Sehun. His breath his warm in the night breeze.
"No, you are not," Zitao whispers. "You have been chosen, you are Gifted and you will never be a burden." He leans in, and Sehun feels Zitao's hand in on the back of his neck.
Everything feels so right.
The first kiss was tentative, the second encouraging. The third he waits for, his eyes closed and back against the cool trunk of a tree. But the third kiss never comes.
Instead, a gust of wind so strong it leaves the tall blades of grass pressed nearly flat to the ground, pushes past them both, and Sehun opens his eyes to see Zitao staring up at the sky, an expression of wonder on his face. Sehun follows his gaze up and he gasps.
The light of the fireflies dims. The thick clouds that had covered the sky only moments before have parted to leave only the stars in their place.
"Your Gift," Zitao breathes, looking back down into Sehun's eyes. "Your Gift is the wind."
There are no words that Sehun could possibly use to describe how he feels to Zitao, so instead he just smiles and smiles, returning the pride in Zitao's eyes with pure joy.
"My Gift," he finally says. "You found it."
Zitao just laughs softly in reply. "We're ready," he says. "It's finally time."
➹➷
Training continues, but with more vigour than ever before. Now that Sehun's Gift has shown itself, Wu Fan takes over his instruction with the occasional help from Minseok and Yixing when they’re home. Everyone knows that Minseok and Yixing spend most of their time away from their little cave and return at strange times, together or alone; but for what, nobody knows.
"Sehun," Wu Fan says slowly. Lately, he seems to have taken to speaking to Sehun as if he is a child.
Perhaps it's because in the space of a little over a month, Sehun has made as much progress as a child writing poetry, or perhaps even less.
"Now, do you know what to do, Sehun?" Wu Fan asks again. "I’ll fly up into the sky and then I’ll glide down at you. You must stop me."
Sehun scowls. "I know," he mutters. "We've been doing this for weeks."
"Knowing isn't enough.' Wu Fan arches an eyebrow. "You need to know how to do it as well."
"Whatever."
"I didn't see you complaining when you trained with Zitao using the exact same method for months. It's only been a few weeks, don't scowl at me," Wu Fan calls down, already up in the air.
Sehun blushes scarlet, and looks away. He hasn't told anyone about his newly found relationship with Zitao, and Zitao had assured him that he would keep it secret too until they were both comfortable with others knowing. That hasn't stopped everyone else from figuring it out though. For Sehun, it’s a suspicious Jongin who notices first, followed by an amused Joonmyun. Apparently, Yixing had seen Sehun out spending time with Zitao in a little forest clearing. He had asked Lu Han about the relationship between the two of them and Lu Han had been so amused he had asked Wu Fan if he knew anything. From there everything had exploded into teasing comments on the side and daily embarrassment for Sehun.
"Sehun! Are you ready?" Wu Fan calls from above. "I'm going down now."
"Ready," Sehun calls back even though he feels anything but. He's said the word so many times it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth because he knows that, no matter what he says, he'll never be ready.
Like the last time, and the time before that, Wu Fan starts to slowly descend down towards Sehun. He keeps his hands locked straight down his side, a fistful of his cloak clutched tight in each hand. Sehun knows what he needs to do-- it doesn't take a genius for his to work it out. All he needs to do is to direct strong winds into the cloak and throw Wu Fan back, or at least off his track.
It's an easier concept in theory than in action.
Tensing as he directs all his focus on Wu Fan, Sehun wills the wind to fill up the space between Wu Fan's body and the cloak behind him.
What would usually have caused a light breeze is today a gust of wind. While it doesn't deter Wu Fan in the slightest, its causes a small smile to emerge on Wu Fan's usually stern face.
"You're finally improving," Wu Fan says as he touches down in front of Sehun. "What was different this time?"
"I... don't know?" Sehun replies slowly. He considers, what had been different? Had anything been different at all?
Wu Fan laughs lightly. "Remember that feeling," he instructs. "Remember that feeling and will yourself to do better."
Sehun nods, eyes wide. The advice is sincere and he can hear it. I want to hear it again, he thinks. I want to hear pride in his voice again.
➹➷
It doesn't take long for Sehun to improve after that. Despite his stern appearance and intimidating demeanour, Wu Fan is a good teacher. Sehun learns how to control and direct the wind quickly, and soon, it's not just Wu Fan who is zooming down at him from the sky.
Yixing, a beautiful white-blue dragon, lunges down at him from above. Sehun directs all his power onto Yixing's two wings and they snap back and Yixing screams in pain. "Yixing," Wu Fan yells. The panic in his voice shocks Sehun, who stands numb as the wind dies down around him. Wu Fan transforms in a split second and he's in the air, catching Yixing as he falls. By the time Wu Fan touches down onto the ground, they're both human again and Yixing lies limp in Wu Fan's arms.
"Yixing!" Sehun calls. His body allows him to move again and he sprints over, the wind at his back propelling him faster than he ever could have dreamed of going. "Are you okay?"
Wu Fan rounds on Sehun the moment he gets within an arms length. "Fuck off," he snarls.
Sehun stumbles back. The venom in his voice scares him like nothing else. For a moment, the man in front of him in not the mentor that had taught him and honed his powers for months, but a beast.
"Is Yixing alright?" Sehun tries again.
"He will be," Wu Fan snaps. "Now just run along."
Sehun backs away, and away, until he turns his back on the two and runs.
➹➷
“Sehun?” a quiet voice prods. “Are you okay?”
After reaching the cave, Sehun had found himself a dead end and had sat himself there facing the stone wall. Zitao had tried first to coax him out, but Sehun had just stared resolutely at the cracks in the stone. Jongin had tried next, telling him that Wu Fan and Yixing had returned and Wu Fan really wasn’t angry with him anymore.
But at this next voice Sehun jerks up. It’s not a voice he hears often, but still, he recognizes it. Perhaps it’s the voice that he’s been waiting for.
“He just gets a little upset when something happens to me,” Yixing tells Sehun gently. "I'm alright, and Wu Fan isn't angry at you anymore."
Sehun turns around. Yixing is crouching on the same level as Sehun, smiling gently at him.
"I'm sorry," Sehun mumbles into his arm. "I really didn't mean to hurt you."
"I know you didn't," Yixing replies, his voice every bit as comforting as his smile. "That's why it's okay, I'm fine and I forgive you."
"I'm still sorry," Sehun says again. "Are you sure that you're okay?"
"Of course," Yixing says, moving his arms up and down as if to prove his point. "Did no one ever tell you why I volunteered to help train you?"
Sehun shakes his head, looking up at Yixing with curiosity in his eyes. "No, why?"
"Because," he says. "I can do this."
And with that, he picks up Sehun's hand and traces his finger lightly over a scar on his palm. Sehun had got that during his first year of cadet training when someone had played a cruel joke on him and had sharpened his practise sword. As Yixing runs his finger over the scar, it disappears.
"Woah." Sehun can't help but exclaim, drawing his palm back to himself in order to examine it carefully. The scar is really gone, and he can't feel even a trace of it left.
"I have the Gift of Healing," Yixing says. "What you accidently did to me, it had healed by the time Wu Fan carried me back."
"Oh," Sehun replies, relieved. "I'm glad."
"Do you feel ready to come back now?" Yixing asks him. "Come on, let's go. We'll both miss supper if we stay here much longer."
"I'm not hungr--" Sehun's stomach rumbles.
"Of course not," Yixing laughs, rising to his feet. "Now come on, even if you're not hungry, I am."
Sehun feels himself being tugged to his feet by a warm hand around his wrist. He doesn't struggle, he just allows Yixing to lead him out.
They enter the main cave where everyone else is already eating. Sehun feels ten other pairs of eyes fix on him--everyone's home tonight. Wu Fan's eyes seem to flicker over the two before narrowing suspiciously on Yixing's hand around Sehun's wrist.
"I'm fine now, I won't run away," Sehun whispers frantically to Yixing, trying to tug his wrist out of Yixing's grip.
"Don't worry," Yixing insists. "Wu Fan doesn't mind."
If doesn't mind equals a glare almost equally intense as the one that Sehun had received earlier that day for injuring Yixing, then yes, Wu Fan does not mind at all. Sehun casts his eyes elsewhere, to Zitao who's sitting at the end of the table closest to him with an empty seat next to him. He pats it, gesturing for Sehun.
After what feels like forever, Yixing finally lets go of Sehun's wrist and dances his way over to Wu Fan. Sehun feels as if part of a huge weight has been lifted right off his shoulders as he plops down next to Zitao who immediately wraps his an arm around Sehun's waist.
"I'm sorry," Wu Fan suddenly says gruffly. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."
It takes a fair amount of Sehun's courage to look up at Wu Fan, but when he does, he doesn't regret it. The man looks almost sheepish as he stretches a hand across the table. "Are we good?"
Sehun nods. "I'd be mad too if someone hurt my friend," he replies, leaning forward to take the hand. "We're good."
But supper descends into a sombre affair not soon after.
"So," Wu Fan starts after every last scrap of food had been eaten or stored away. "We think it's time that everyone knew just what has been happening."
Zitao yawns, very loudly.
"And pay attention," Wu Fan emphasizes with a pointed stare at Zitao. "We will be telling this in turns. No one knows the entire situation so everyone must listen carefully in preparation for tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Joonmyun asks.
"We'll get to that later, but for now, Joonmyun, you should start the story."
"Oh, right," Joonmyun shifts awkwardly in his seat. Jongdae whispers something quick into his ear and he settles. "You know how I left the Southern Territory for the Capitol right?"
There are nods.
"Well, um, I--"
"Tell them what you found in the Capitol," Lu Han prompts gently.
Joonmyun nods, and when he speaks again, he speaks more confidently.
"In the Capitol, I heard the solution to end this war we have with the dragons," he says. He doesn't stutter. "It's a long story how I found out so I'll just tell you what they're planning to do."
He pauses for a moment, grimacing.
"The river that runs down from the Capitol is also the river which runs through our land and into the land beyond the mountains-- that is, the land of the dragons," Joonmyun says. "They're planning to poison it downstream from the Capitol. The land and the dragons cannot survive without water, but neither can our families."
The silence is cold. Sehun can feel himself shiver.
“But, the Capitol wouldn’t do that to its people,” Chanyeol protests. “The King wouldn’t kill his own people just to win this war.”
Joonmyun smiles bitterly. “Our human nation is dying already,” he answers. “For how long have we been at war? There are no men left in our villages to wed the women, to have children, to continue the generations.”
"But--" Chanyeol tries to say again, but he has no words to interrupt with. What Joonmyun had said was true, and Sehun knew that in his own village at least, there were no longer men but only those too old or crippled to fight and those too young to lift a sword.
The war effort against the dragons was going nowhere. Although the people within the borders had been told that the sacrifices of their men had meant something, that their loved ones had not died in vain, Sehun knew that, after being out on the battlefield himself, that they were all lies.
Men stood no chance against the might of dragons. Men were confined to the ground, and dragons would just swoop over, blowing fire over men and killing or maiming many. The only chance men had were to aim their arrows up into the sky at the soft membrane of their wings, hoping to wound the dragon enough to bring him down onto the ground. Of course, this rarely worked and even on the ground, dragons were no easy opponent.
With their scales harder than the iron shields men carried, their swords could not pierce through into the body of the dragon so they were forced to aim for the eyes and wings to prevent escape. However, to reach the eyes, one would have to pass the mouth of the dragon and it was a tale that none had survived to tell.
Sehun remembers how, by the second day of his time in the main army, he had found out the army had only slain one dragon in the last ten years. Sehun remembers the despair that had overcome him for a moment because he had heard so many lies. There was no honour, there was no victory, the army supposedly containing the living souls of most of the nations men was small. There was only death in this war.
"There's only death," Sehun whispers. "But there's only death left for us, in every way."
Joonmyun nods, and Chanyeol stiffens.
"Believe what you will," Joonmyun says, "but I am not the only one who knows this."
Yixing dips his head, his face grave. There is no hint of the smile he had shown Sehun only a few hours before.
"As you know, Minseok and I are rarely here," he begins. "We will share with you the reason today."
"We travel back and forth between, communicating with both the dragons and the men," Minseok explains. "Most men do not know what their King is planning to do to them and so they are forced to blindly believe the lies that are fed to them by heralds from the Capitol every recruiting season."
"The dragons, they are able to communicate by the mind," Yixing continues. "What one knows, all must know. There is an exception for the six of us," he says with a gesture around the table, "and it has caused their anger. They cannot keep secrets."
Sehun screws up his brow, wondering. "Did one of them find out what the Capitol was planning to do?" he asks.
"Yes," Minseok answers. The single word hands in the air. "On the field, there was a soldier-- perhaps he was from the Capitol-- who knew about the plans. You have heard about the last dragon that was slain. In the last of her moments, the soldier laughed at her and told her what the Capitol was going to do, perhaps in the height of their small victory."
"And what one dragon hears," Yixing says. "They all hear."
The tale ends with a silence even colder than the one which had preceded it. Sehun shivers, and feels Zitao pull him closer a moment after.
"What are we going to do?" Jongin asks.
Wu Fan gestures over to Jongdae, who straightens up importantly.
"We're going across the mountains to the other side of the forest tomorrow," he says. "We're going to meet an Elder of our kind. They have the rest of the story."
The reactions are mixed. Chanyeol looks excited, Baekhyun skeptical. Joonmyun and Kyungsoo look slightly frightened but Jongin starts to shake.
"Do we have to?" he forces out. "Can't you just, tell us now?"
Lu Han looks sympathetic as he answers. "It's better for you to see," he says. "This Elder is able to link minds with men. He can show you what we cannot."
Quietly, Sehun wriggles out of Zitao's hold. "I'll be back, later," he whispers.
Sehun gets up, and finds himself behind Jongin. "Move over a bit," he says with a prod.
Jongin shift over and Sehun squashes himself between Jongin and a scowling Jongdae.
"You okay with this?" Sehun whispers.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Jongin whispers back.
The shaking grip that Jongin's hand has Sehun in under the table tells another story.
➹➷
The day starts clear with no sign of cloud or rain. Sehun can only hope that it's a good omen.
Jongin seems to be calm as they head outside to the clearing that Sehun had trained in for months-- it's the nearest clear space where men could comfortable transform into dragons on the ground.
“You ready?” Zitao asks.
Sehun doesn’t answer. His eyes are fixed on Jongin.
Lu Han has his hands cupped around Jongin’s face, and he’s speaking to him. Sehun wills the wind to bring him their words.
He feels something tug at his heart. Don't listen, something tells him. If the words were meant for you, then Jongin will tell you.
But it's too late as the wind brings him Lu Han's voice.
"Jongin, look at me," Lu Han says. Sehun can see Jongin's eyelashes flutter up. "Just as you were willing to kill to keep your family and people safe, my brothers were willing to do the same."
Oh, Lu Han knows. Jongin had told Lu Han about everything, about Taemin, and it had somehow escaped Sehun's notice how close the two must have become.
"I know," Jongin murmurs. "I understand now. I'm not afraid, not anymore."
Lu Han nods, and he turns his head. Sehun freezes as their eyes meet-- Lu Han had caught him listening. Expecting a scolding for using his Gift to listen without permission or invitation, Sehun steps forward so at least Zitao doesn't hear. But instead, Lu Han shakes his head, and motions him back with a swift flick of his wrist. It's fine, his lips trace. You're his friend, I know of your concern. But don't do it again.
Sehun nods, and offers a sheepish smile. I understand, thank you.
And then Zitao's pushing him gently away to give himself the room to safely transform and before Sehun knows it, he's on Zitao's back and in the sky.
Although he's seen the forest from above many times before, never fails to stun him. As they soar over the green and through the mountains, Sehun feels free.
Time seems to pass differently when they are in the air. Minutes seem like hours and days seem to pass in seconds. It feels like hours to Sehun, in the sky, but he knows that it only takes minutes to fly to the other side of the forest.
They touch down. There is no one waiting for them, but Sehun takes in the land of the dragons. It's beautiful, and it's crisp. Perhaps it was what the land of the men had looked like once, before they had destroyed so much of it to build on, sell off, and maim for their own purposes.
"We're early," Wu Fan says from somewhere behind Sehun. Apart from Minseok and Yixing, they've all changed back to their human forms.
"He'll be here soon," Lu Han instructs. "When he lands, bow. Don't look up again until he acknowledges you."
Sehun is about to ask how he'll know that the dragon has acknowledged him when they see a shape in the sky, drawing closer and closer at an inhuman speed.
"Bow!" Wu Fan commands. "And remember to stay silent until he acknowledges you."
Quickly, Sehun forces his back to bend and his eyes down. Curiosity itches at him to catch a glimpse of the approaching Elder dragon but he forces the itch down, resisting the urge.
The ground shakes when the Elder lands.
Nothing seems to happen, or perhaps Sehun just can't see anything happening. He stands, tense, hands by his sides.
Then, he feels it.
Sehun feels as if his mind is opening.
Colours fill his mind and suddenly, he can feel the world around him as he has never been able to before. The green is more crisp, the snow atop the mountains more white, and the flaws in the mountainside more profound. Sehun can also hear what he’s never been able to hear before. He can hear the voices of generations, the sounds of history flickering through his head.
This is the acknowledgement, his mind has been linked. This is what it feels like to be a dragon, for one to know what they all know. For all to be one, and one to be all.
Sehun looks up, and he sees the Elder. He is smaller than Sehun had envisioned, but more magnificent than he could have imagined. Pearl white with age, endless colours seem to swirl beneath his scales and Sehun stares at them, transfixed by the movements.
Those are the memories of my people, a voice rings in Sehun's head. I have gathered them, and given them a place to rest and be restored every generation.
Gasping, Sehun doesn't realise that he's stumbling forward, hands outstretched to touch them until Zitao pulls him back.
It's fine, the same voice rumbles, obviously amused. Let him approach. Let them all approach.
So Sehun stumbles forward again, and he feels the scales under his hands. They are neither brittle, nor are they hard. They are not fragile, but nor do they seem unbreakable. His fingers trace the edges of one, then another, and another. Under his fingertips, they feel timeless.
Now, the voice says, let me tell you why you have come. Let me show you what already has been lost among men.
➹➷
The world started from only twelve.
They were neither solely man nor dragon, taking flight to the skies when they so desired and travelling on their two legs as they wished.
These men had a purpose, and they were Gifted to allow them to serve their purpose.
Light, movement, control of the mind, freezing of time, water, wind, earth, flight, fire, ice, healing, lightning.
Reborn time and time again, it was the duty of these men to come to the aid of the land when it most needed them.
For a while, all was well.
But then, as the ambitions of men grew, conflict began to arise. They became selfish and they had forgotten about the world that was once theirs to cherish.
For a while, the two races lived in peace, men inhibited the ground and dragons the sky. The twelve remained, keeping peace. Six born as dragons, six as men.
But then, they disappeared. The six born as men never came forward one generation, and the power of the Twelve were lost.
And it was then that chaos struck.
Those who had once been brothers turned on each other, and war began and it continues to this very moment.
But it has always been known, among our kind, that when the world is at its time of greatest need, the Twelve will be reborn as it once was and will guide us out from the depths of darkness.
The time has come.
➹➷
Sehun opens his eyes, and gasps for breath.
The link fades, and Sehun feels his mind slowly become his again.
He looks around at his friends, and Jongin seems to be digesting the information slowly with a realization on his face. Baekhyun and Chanyeol seem to be still reeling from the power of the mind link and Kyungsoo looks awed. Joonmyun looks as if he has just cried.
"So, that's why we're here..." Sehun slowly says. "We were born for a purpose, weren't we."
The Elder nods.
"Yes," Wu Fan answers instead. "We were born and reborn for a purpose." He glances up at the Elder, and then nods. "Some have already served out their ultimate purpose lifetimes ago, and some will not in this lifetime. However, we must all strive to do what we were born to do."
Sehun nods, and next to him, he sees the others nodding as well.
"I understand," he breaths, "I was born for something."
He doesn't feel ready, and he doubts that any of them will ever truly feel ready. But Sehun has had already accepted himself as he is, and he is willing to give up even his beating heart.
part three