Chapter Text
“I’m sorry you have to act as a beast of burden right after we got married,” Jimin told Jungkook ruefully, as he hitched the sturdy black dragon to the cart.
Jungkook shrugged placidly, flexing his shoulders and extending his wings upward to get the straps settled into place along his scaly back.
“It’s fine, I knew what I was getting into,” he said, giving Jimin a shy little draconic smile. “Better this than go hungry once we get home, right?”
Jimin gave Jungkook a beaming smile at hearing him refer to Jimin’s little homestead - which Jungkook had never yet laid eyes on even once in his life - as home.
After that, it was just a matter of rechecking that everything they needed had been loaded up on the carts: salt, oil, flour, beans, rice, knives, whetstones, tools, cloth, medicine, ink, paper, and further boxes and wrapped packages and jars and canisters that Jimin wasn’t quite sure the contents of. It was all gifts from their clans, to try to set them up for success out in the isolated all-but-wilderness. Jungkook would be pulling the larger cart, as in his dragon form he was about twice as large as a horse. Jimin would be walking alongside the smaller one, which was being pulled by two of his trained goats.
Jungkook had been very excited to meet the goats, finding the idea of trained goats entirely charming. Jimin had shown him where on their heads and necks Hodu and Tttangkong liked to be petted and scratched, and as a result Jungkook had quickly become their favorite person. They even got used to the way he switched between his human form and his much-larger dragon form faster than Jimin had expected. Jimin thought privately to himself that it was funny that Jungkook seemed happier to meet the goats than Jimin himself - his own husband! - but he figured that was to be expected under the circumstances. Just give it time, and he was sure they’d get along just fine in the end.
Jimin and Jungkook had gotten married on the first day of summer, exactly as Jimin’s coven and Jungkook’s weyr had been planning for several years already. Their wedding day wasn’t the first time they ever met, but only just barely. They had met about seven years previously, when the alliance was first proposed, and Jungkook had been a lanky youngling, barely fledged. (Not that Jimin, only three years into adulthood at that point, was terribly more mature, looking back on it.) Jimin was pleased to see how well he had grown up in the meantime: now a well-built, powerful black dragon; also strong and tall in his human form, but with a pleasing face, the highlight of which was his big, expressive eyes. He hoped Jungkook had a similar positive impression of him.
The combined witch and dragon clans organized a large, joyous feast day to celebrate the union. So the crowd that came to see the Black Dragon and Grey Thorn clans form an alliance was well fed by the time Jimin and Jungkook, each with a flower crown, were brought out in front of everyone and made to jump over a broom. Jungkook was very handsome in his suit, handmade by his older brother Seokjin, who was the head of the Black Dragon clan. Jimin wore his full formal robes, which had embroidery from each member of his coven, presented to him when he became a full coven member ten years before.
Jimin could tell how nervous Jungkook was, even though he was trying to hide it. He had reached out and squeezed Jungkook’s hand as they walked forward through the happy, cheering crowd, and was relieved to get a squeeze in return. The ceremony itself was mercifully short - just one little speech each from Seokjin representing the dragons and Jimin’s coven head in turn, then the jump over the broom, and then they were being whisked away by the excited crowd for dancing - witches and dragons mixing alike.
The music, dancing, singing, feasting, and drinking lasted late into the night, lit all around by multi-colored witchlights that floated in the air. Then, at long last, the party started winding down and everyone started to go their own ways. Since the gathering was out at the festival grounds, since it was a good halfway point between witch and dragon territory, almost everyone was either staying in a tent, a horse-drawn wagon, or, in the case of those dragons who didn’t prefer to sleep in human form, just in big dog-piles on the bare grass.
Seokjin materialized from somewhere to escort the new couple to the little canvas tent that had been set up for the two of them. Bleary, hoarse, and suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the day catching up with them, the new couple suddenly found themselves together in a little enclosed space, their two bedrolls already set up side-by-side.
They sat for a moment, exchanging stunned glances.
Then Jimin smiled.
“It’s considered good luck for us to spend the first night under the same roof,” he said gently. “I don’t know about you, but I’m really tired. I’m just going to get changed and lie down and sleep. I’ll turn my back so you can change first, okay?”
Jungkook nodded, relieved.
So, they took turns getting out of their nice dress clothes - carefully folding them up and putting them away - in somewhat awkward silence, still able to hear the last of the revelers dancing and whooping on the far side of the festival grounds. Then, they were lying down on their bedrolls, the night too warm to need any blankets. Jimin lay flat on his back, already closing his eyes, but he could feel Jungkook watching him.
“Tomorrow’s going to be pretty busy,” Jimin said to him, figuring he was a little too keyed up to fall asleep yet, and talking might help. “So we might not see each other much during the day. Do you want to hear more about the homestead?”
“Yes please,” Jungkook said quietly.
So Jimin started telling him all about it: how the house was partially a dug-out built into a hillside, so it had a sod roof with real live grasses growing on it (and even some wildflowers), so that sometimes the goats came up on the roof to graze. He didn’t get any farther than that before Jungkook’s breathing slowed down and he was fast asleep.
The next day was indeed busy: starting from first light, there were intra- and inter-clan meetings and all sorts of preparations. Jungkook, being a person who preferred action over talking (part of the reason he had been chosen for his side of the alliance, no doubt) was often gently excused from meetings by Seokjin during the day and sent out to make himself useful. So as Jimin walked about on his own business, making arrangements and purchases and trades, he often spotted Jungkook helping out other random groups of folks clean up from the gathering - packing up their tents, scouring out the giant pots used to cook the feast, flying up to catch stray witchlights that were in danger of drifting off into the wild.
They had one more night to spend there, before they were to head off to their new home together. Jimin had started the homestead by himself four years ago, anticipating all the while the day that was just now finally in reach: the day when Jungkook would be his husband and join him there. Jungkook had one last family dinner with his weyr, and Jimin had the same with his coven, and then they found themselves sharing the little canvas tent one more time. The evening, even though they were retiring much earlier this time, was significantly quieter than the previous one, as many of the people who had come to celebrate had begun their journeys back home during the day.
“Ohh, I can’t sleep,” Jungkook whispered agitatedly after they had been lying there for ten minutes or so.
“Would you like to hear about our neighbors?” Jimin asked.
“Oh, yes, I would!” Jungkook said, and rolled onto his side so he could look at Jimin while he talked.
So Jimin smiled and told him about the two witches that lived at the homestead just down the river from them. They were named Hoseok and Taehyung, and had started living there just a month before Jimin had. They had a whole flock of sheep, and Jimin told Jungkook that if he played his cards right, they’d probably let him name some of next year’s group of lambs.
And once again, it didn’t take long for Jungkook to relax and fall asleep.
So, morning came, and they packed up the last of their things. Jungkook ran off to find his brother and they hugged for a long, long time, both of them crying.
“I’ll come visit in the spring, alright?” Seokjin promised, smoothing his thumbs over his little brother’s cheeks.
Jungkook couldn’t speak, but he nodded. Jimin remembered with sympathy how hard it was for him to leave that first time, four years ago. Still, he and his coven all cried again when they hugged, and they all wished him luck. In any case, Jungkook had recovered his spirits soon after, and that was when they started the final preparations of hooking up the dragon and the two goats to the carts.
So there Jimin and Jungkook found themselves with their carts packed with the goods for their new life together, they had said their last goodbyes to everyone, and there was nothing left to do but to start walking forward. Jimin estimated it would take eleven days to get there at a nice easy pace. Fifteen minutes down the road, after a slight curve and hill in the path, they had lost sight of the festival grounds and were entirely alone.
“It’s fine to be sad, you know,” Jimin told Jungkook gently, listening to the dragon’s hitched, unhappy breaths as he walked alongside him. “I think I cried for the first two hours solid the first time I did this walk.”
Jungkook sniffled.
“It won’t hurt my feelings,” Jimin continued. “I know how it is, you can be excited about something and still sad at the same time.”
“Okay,” Jungkook said in a small voice.
Jimin kept his hand up on Jungkook’s shoulder for a while as they continued walking. Even though the route they were on didn’t see much traffic, it was still clearly marked, and even had cairns every so often indicating where streams ran nearby.
It was all part of the big picture. Ever since the tremendous landslide ten years ago had made the main trade route to the south impassible to all but the most determined travelers, causing the prices of many goods to increase dramatically, there had been negotiations and scheming to create an alternate route. The alternate route, however, went through not only Fae territory, but also the woods of the westernmost werewolf clans. So it had taken years and years of careful negotiations between the witches, dragons, werewolves, and fae, but finally an agreement had been reached and an official map had been drawn up (and made copies made thereof), and a slice of land was allocated where each group gave up a little part of their land to make it work. The long-term plan was for there to be first a trading post, used by all four groups (and anyone else who came through), and then someday a full town, right there at the intersection of it all, the lynchpin of the new road between the two great rivers.
But first, they had to get some people to live there. And for now, there would be four: the witches Taehyung, Hoseok, and Jimin; and now the dragon Jungkook. All of them volunteers, the best and most eager representatives of their people, prepared for lots of hard work (and probably a fair amount of loneliness and homesickness as well).
“Since- since I fell asleep before,” Jungkook finally said to Jimin as they kept walking, “could you tell me more about the homestead?”
“Ah! I’d love to!” Jimin replied with relish.
He promised Jungkook that one of the first things they’d do once they got everything unpacked and settled he’d take him for a tour around the area. They’d meet Taehyung and Hoseok, who’d probably even cook a feast to welcome Jungkook. They’d walk the borders of their entire plotted region, so that Jimin could show Jungkook the border markers for both the wolf and the fae territories.
He’d show Jungkook around their whole homestead, and let him pick out what he thought would be the best sunning spot for himself. Jimin was going to offer him the sod roof of the house, but then figured Jungkook would know best if there were an even more ideal spot that Jimin didn’t realize. He described how their entire plot was on a gentle slope, going from the edge of the forest all the way down to one of the smaller tributaries to the great river. Near the bottom of the hill, where the land got a little marshy at a wide spot of the stream, they had patches of berries and a pond where Jimin was breeding newts. And downriver from that, the banks of the stream exposed a wide deposit of clay, which Jimin wanted to spend some time experimenting with to see if they could eventually fire their own ceramics. Jungkook perked up at that and looked very interested.
In the middle, largest part of the homestead was an orchard: mostly apple trees but also some nuts. There were just a few mature trees which had been growing there wild when Jimin had arrived, and the rest had been painstakingly planted and grown by himself, and were still small. The small flock of goats had essentially free reign there, as did a few hives of bees Jimin had coaxed into straw beehives he had woven himself. Off to one side were some fenced-in areas: one for the quail that would supply their eggs, and another for a vegetable garden. Jimin warned Jungkook half-jokingly that the fence around the garden was probably the most important part of the estate, because if the goats got in the two of them would be eating rice and beans alone for months. The backup for the fence was Jimin’s prized companion - as he joked - a very mean, very tough old goose. It looked over the quail benevolently but knew that the goats were to keep away.
Then, at the top part of the hill, right next to the edge of the forest, was a little nest of brownies. They helped keep the whole place in good shape, in exchange for a daily portion of goat’s milk. Jungkook was very excited about this as well, and very eager to take over the duty of daily goat-milk-delivery-man, in order to get to meet the brownies.
And so the days passed, as they trudged along the lonely trail, keeping each other’s spirits up as they told stories from their childhoods, and of the skills they’d learned from their families in preparation for this long-awaited move. Each day when they stopped they made sure the goats were healthy and well-fed and watered and that the wheels of the carts were still in good order. Jimin would cook them a quick meal over a small campfire while Jungkook shed his harness and flew for a few minutes, needing the daily flight to stay in top condition. Then Jungkook would resume his human form and they’d eat together, and as soon as the sky shaded into twilight, they’d lie down on their bedrolls and fall asleep nearly instantly. Then, at dawn, they’d get up, eat some dried fruit and crackers, get to walking and do it all over again.
Finally, on the eleventh day of travel, Jimin pointed out a location marker on the side of the trail to Jungkook. It meant they’d be home a few hours before dusk.