Chapter Text
Taehyung is crouching behind the bushes and eyeing the noisy villagers from afar. They usually don't come this deep into the forest but today they were uncharacteristic. And not only were they making a ruckus but some of the children around Taehyung's age also followed along, scaring away all of the animals that usually came to this area to feed. (As well as Taehyung's next couple of meals, Taehyung thought, as he rubbed his empty belly). He sighed, he will just have to eat the berries he had picked for a while longer. He was about to return to his cave when he noticed one of the adults carrying a sack, the size of a small animal, still wriggling. Most of the other children's and adults' jeers and taunts seem to be directed to that. This piqued Taehyung's curiosity and he decided to stay to see what they were doing.
Since Tae was so far away, he couldn't hear their exact conversation, but it looked like the villagers was surveying the area and decided that it a was good enough for them to set down the brown sack. After the children threw some more sticks and rocks at the bag, they left. The forest was finally peaceful once again. Taehyung, carefully checked his surrounding once again to make sure they had all left, and then approached the large sack. It had stopped moving a while ago. Tae was sure there must be some animal inside and calculated that it seemed small enough that he could take it on- whatever it may be. So, armed with a large tree branch, he untied the opening and threw the bag open while jumping back at the same time into a defense stance. What he saw caught him off guard however. It was a human boy, with a bed of wavy dark brown hair. The boy seemed to be in a bad state, with his eyes closed shut, possibly unconscious, and pink and blue bruises starting to form under his tattered clothing. Tsk, Taehyung thought, trouble. Taehyung was already struggling to feed himself, he wouldn't be able to take on another mouth to feed. So he turned away and decided to go back to his cave. "The villagers probably left you here for good reason anyway" he said unapologetically to the unconscious boy.
Taehyung decided to collect some fresh water by the stream on the way home. “Ah, stop it!” Taehyung couldn’t shake off the image of the smaller injured boy left defenseless in the middle of the dense forest. He knew that if he didn’t do anything larger predators will inevitably come by, when the darkness of night blankets this side of the forest. Such a defenseless boy, even if he were to wake up from his injuries, he would have slim chances to survive. Which was probably the villagers’ intentions in the first place. Taehyung had avoided human contact previously since this part of the forest was all he knew. He was raised by his grandfather to survive here. The actual purpose was that their family line was destined to protect something precious this deep in the forest. His grandfather had been intentionally vague about what that was, but had passed down a necklace with a pendant to Taehyung two years ago, when his grandfather fell sick and knew he did not have much time left on this earth. His last few words were that Taehyung would know everything when the timing was right, and to keep the necklace safe and keep out of the way of other humans lest they find out and their greed overtakes them.
With his fingers absentmindedly thumbing at the pendant around his neck, a nervous habit, he turned back towards where the other boy lay. When he got there, he was relieved to find the smaller boy still there, and no wild animals seemed to have found him yet. Taehyung knelt down and nudged his body, trying to wake him up. After several moments, the smaller boy started stirring. “Wa- water,” came the hoarse voice. Taehyung took some water from his jug that he had freshly refilled and dripped some into the boy’s parched lips. It seemed to be just the right thing to do, as the boy recovered enough to open his eyes and tried to push himself into a sitting position. Even despite the dirt smeared face decorated with bruises, Taehyung could see this was a beautiful boy with large round eyes. His eyes were captivating, as he stared at Taehyung, Taehyung felt like his soul was getting sucked into the glossy eyes that somehow also shimmered like stars in a clear night sky.
“Can you talk? What happened to you?” Taehyung asked.
“I- I-,” the boy’s face fell and his eyes started welling up with tears.
Taehyung didn’t know what he could do to comfort the boy and awkwardly patted his hair, his docile animal friends usually liked that. It seemed to calm the boy down, and Taehyung tried again “It’s OK if you don’t want to talk about it right now. It’ll be OK. I’m Taehyung, what’s your name?”
“My name is Jungkook,” the other boy replied timidly.
“I’m assuming you can’t go back to the village now, do you want to come live with me?” Taehyung offered.
Jungkook nodded lightly.
“Great, well we have to start moving since my place is a while away, and we want to get there before it gets dark. Can you walk?” Taehyung asked.
Jungkook tried to get up with the help of Taehyung but he was still too weak to stand on his own. Taehyung sighed, he will have to carry the boy back then. He hoisted the boy onto his back and told him to hold on and started walking briskly back. The usual one hour walk had taken two hours due to the extra weight. By the time Taehyung got back to his cave, he realized that Jungkook had fallen asleep some time during the transit, still weak from his physical condition. Taehyung fed him the last of his meats and some berries while the other kept dozing off. Realizing the other boy needed rest, Taehyung didn’t keep him up further and wiped him down with water carefully not to put pressure on the bruises. Taehyung then helped him change into Taehyung’s own clothing which was rather large for the boy, but the best they can do right now. After taking care of Jungkook, Taehyung ate some berries himself and fell asleep on the fur lined bed alongside the new boy. The setting sun casts a soft warm glow on the youthful faces of the two boys.