Jewel Tones

Taehyung is a skilled physician and apothecary, content in the knowledge that his peaceful mountain community is safe from outside attack, thanks to the Red Dragon that guards them from above.
It had made them a deal centuries ago - protection, and in exchange, Attendants to bring up into the mountains with it. Taehyung has never imagined he might see the creature outside of occasional glimpses of an inky silhouette in the sky. That is, until a group of Attendants descend, looking for a skilled physician.
Someone on the mountain is very sick.

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The gentle grinding sound of the mortar and pestle has always soothed Taehyung. It puts a smile on his face, a warm feeling of home in his heart. That sound was introduced to his infant ears as frequently as the sound of his mother’s heartbeat, and it raised him all through his childhood and teen years.

His family has been a line of doctors and apothecaries for generations, and he grew up amidst medicines and patients, being taught how to make remedies, how to recognize herbs, how to mix things to make them potent or neutralized. He has grown up in a family that helps people when they need it the most, when they are sick and weak and desperate for some hope to hold onto.

As a child, as a teen, and now as he sits with a serene smile and grinds dried laurel leaves into a fine powder, he knows that this is what he’s meant to do as well. Nothing could ever give him purpose like holding someone’s hand and promising them he’ll make them better, like watching a sickly child return to the vigor and energy that should fill them. Nothing fulfills him like nurturing, healing, loving, helping.

The sound of the mortar and pestle, the medicinal smell in his family’s centuries old clinic, now his own workspace, the clinking of vials and jars as he sorts through his stock or looks for the right ingredients...these are the sounds and smells of home and happiness.

The village knows there is no better person to go to for remedies than Kim Taehyung, no more knowledgeable man in practice, no more determined man to help, no kinder a bedside manner. Those who are sick to the threat of death seek him, not others, and he has earned this reputation every step of the way. His passion for healing and caring is indomitable.

The building he sits in doubles as a clinic and a storefront, where he sells minor remedies that he keeps stocked or that people order, and where he tends to patients who need more than just the fleeting attention of a vial of solution for muscle aches or insomnia. It is a large but cozy space, warm, all dark woods and lofty ceilings. Charms, garlands of dried ingredients, robes and blankets and other such various gifts from grateful patients of wealthy families and more all hang from the rafters. Shelves and hanging racks populate the walls densely, bottles upon bottles and pouches of herbs, incenses, aromatherapy bags for sale or for Taehyung’s use in making product.

His furniture is all old and admittedly rickety looking, but it’s still very sturdy and useful when it comes down to it, and he doesn’t intend to change it if and until he absolutely has to. He loves this place the way it is.

All of the drapes and cloth hangings on the inside and outside of the building are shades of deep, dark burgundy, or crimson reds. This doesn’t apply only to Taehyung’s shop - the entire village adheres to this. These are their colors, colors of protection and loyalty.

Taehyung mixes the powdered laurel into a solution otherwise finished, and covers the small bowl it’s held in. He slips off of his creaking stool and takes it carefully in his hands, humming in a deep timbre as he weaves in and out of the organized chaos he works in and towards his door.

The air is brisk and fresh as he shoulders his way through the door and outside, though not so cold as to make him shiver, and it makes him smile as he takes a deep breath. He loves this clean smell, the quality of the air they get living so close to the mountains. It gets cold in the winter seasons, certainly, but it’s worth it for so many reasons. Taehyung loves their climate, even when the snow comes and makes life complicated for everyone.

Taehyung carries his little bowl down mainstreet, on which most of the businesses in their town are located. They all refer to it as a town, as a village, but it’s really much bigger than the word implies. Mainstreet stretches as far as the eye can see, businesses and some residences lining it. Other residential areas branch off to either side, but for the most part their civilization is much longer than it is wide. They’re somewhere around four hundred thousand residents strong, kind and persevering people with their north border up against the mountains, and their south overlooking the lower, flatter lands below.

All the buildings here are just about as old as Taehyung’s place, built strong and lasting through the coldest winters and harshest storms for generations. As a community they’re very good at keeping an eye out for any warning signs in the infrastructure of buildings, and keep their structures mended and reinforced well. Oversights of that kind could be disastrous in the tougher times of the year.

The paving stones of main street are light gray, reminiscent of the tones of the land around them, mountains and scattered patches of light snow, cold air and hardy plants. The buildings are mainly constructed of dark wood, and the same shades of red hang on them all, in between them, decorate stalls and streets.

Taehyung smiles at the greetings of children as he ventures into less paved roads, modest homes packed in on each other here. They know him and love him well - he often indulges them in games of ball or tag, or whatever else they concoct. He has a hard time saying no to smiling faces and small, grabbing hands, voices that plead for him to come play. He does have a job to do, though, so at the moment he can not indulge them - he promises that in a little while when he comes back through without his medicine he will destroy them in whatever game they ask.

He and they both know they’ll probably run circles around him, but his bluster is part of the routine.

There’s no knocking necessary when he reaches the door of his patient. This delivery is regular, and he walks right in.

“Miss Hanuel, I’m here for a visit~,” he calls, and chuckles fondly as he hears the urgent shuffling of slippered feet. An old woman comes into the room, a kitchen and living room in one in this small home, the only other spaces a few bedrooms to the rear. She is small and frail and Taehyung knows her spirit to be so fiery she could beat off a pack of wolves with her cane and a sour look. He loves her like his own grandmother, and often comes by to help her with whatever she asks. Sometimes she wants things moved, sometimes he sits and does her hair up all pretty while she talks about times long passed.

“Taehyung-ah, sweet child!” She grins at him and her wrinkled face lights up like the sun, eyes scrunched and smile almost toothless at her advanced age. “Come, sit! You’re such a good boy, always coming all this way - why don’t you get an assistant? You do nothing but work, at least someone could help you deliver remedies.”

Taehyung sets the bowl on the small kitchen table, round and rough-hewn, and sits down with warmth in his eyes and his heart. “And give up these visits with you? You’re the highlight of my week. How are your legs? I brought your medicine.”

The old woman braces a hand on the table to ease slowly down into a chair, and Taehyung gets a whack to the shin with her cane when he starts to rise to try and help her. “Stop that! You’d coddle me until I couldn’t do anything on my own anymore, if you had your way. Unbelievable.”

She eases into her seat on her own, albeit with some strain, and catches her breath. Haneul suffers from old age, mostly, and that Taehyung can do nothing about, as much as he dreads the day she will eventually pass. What he can do something about is the nerve pain in her legs. The condition is not curable, but he can help with the pain. Were it not for his weekly visits with her medicine, she would not be able to bear it enough to be up and about, and Hanuel is a woman who values her independence to her last breath. Taehyung will give her that for as long as he possibly can, and when she no longer has it, he will continue to be a frequent presence in her life. He knows she values the company as much as if not more than his remedies.

Easing her pain is always his first priority when he comes, so he slides the bowl across the table to her, and urges her to drink. She does so, though not without the grimace she always sports, setting it back down with a disgusted sound.

“Ach, awful stuff. Get me a drink of water, will you, dear? I swear if it were not always accompanied by such a fine young man to ogle at, I’d not tolerate this swill.”

Taehyung laughs, getting up to fetch her the water she asks for. This is just another way she makes him feel like she’s his own grandmother, really. She’s always letting him know that he’s handsome, and always asking why he hasn’t found someone to marry yet.

“Are you well today, Haneul?” he asks as he fills a cup, hands gentle and dwarfing hers in size as he hands it to her, making sure she has a good grip and won’t spill.

“As well as a decrepit old bat like me can be. Always better with company. How is the shop, angel? I suspect that if it weren’t for coming to see me you’d never surface to see the light of day. Always working, working, working. When are you going to allow a wife to knock some sense into you and pull your nose out of your orders and mixtures?”

“Not yet, I don’t think. I love my work, you know I do. The shop is well. Business is as thriving as ever, though I’ve seen a decline in seasonal colds I’m grateful for. I want my people healthy and happy.”

“Good, that’s good. I’d be worried for the opposite, if I took the state of the sky nowadays as an omen.”

Taehyung frowns, head tilted and brown hair falling into his eyes. “The state of the sky?”

“I don’t go outside too much anymore, but I’ve been hearing that nobody has seen the Red Dragon overhead in a while. Have you noticed anything of the like?”

The Red Dragon. There certainly are people who would take any perceived absence of it as a bad omen, he’s sure. Now that he thinks of it, he hasn’t seen it in the sky for a while himself, though he’d assumed that he was simply looking up at the wrong times.

The Red Dragon has dwelled in the mountains North of them for as long as they have existed here, and it’s been with the Dragon that they associate their own safety and prosperity. Quite literally, in some ways.

The political landscape around them is volatile, and wars for territories are almost always raging on one side or the other. Although they are not terribly small, they are still a small settlement compared to most of the ones around them, and would certainly not last if they were set upon by a siege. They fear not, because they’re the Dragon’s people, and its protection keeps them safe.

Taehyung doesn’t know when exactly the deal between them was struck, but it was generations upon generations ago, when they were far smaller than they are now, a feeble village hoping to survive without strife or slaughter. The Dragon made it known that they were under its protection, and any force that would attack them knows that it would come to their defense. It is not a risk anyone is stupid enough to take, so outsiders generally stay well away from their secluded mountain village, aside from the occasional liasons of trade.

Though to the best of Taehyung’s knowledge it was never explicitly asked of them, they fly their shades of red to honor it, to show their affiliation and their loyalty. Anyone who lives here has seen it before in the sky, but it never descends from the heights of the clouds. When it is absent, it is most certainly dwelling in the mountain caves high above. He often wondered about its title in his youth, for the faraway figure of the dragon has always appeared as an inky dark splotch in the sky, depictions of it always dark grey and black, but he has grown used to thinking of it as ‘Red’ just as everyone else has, even if the title seems quite the misnomer.

In return for the benevolence and protection it offered them way back in the beginning, it had asked for Attendants. A few families had volunteered to serve it where it lives in the mountains, had ascended with it. Generations later they still live there, and though when Attendants descend to get food and supplies they are always well and whole, the idea of it still scares Taehyung to a degree.

The beast is their protector, but to live with the massive creature he’s seen in the sky...it is a daunting idea. It is especially so because they do not really know what the Dragon’s Attendants do, what they are used for or what is expected of them. Their service is a mystery to all but they and the Dragon itself. Even the number of people living in the mountains is a mystery now, the original count of who went up long obsolete after countless cycles of birth and death amidst their ranks.

“No,” he replies finally, “I haven’t, actually. Surely people are worrying for nothing, as they always do. Just because I haven’t happened to look up while it is flying does not mean the end of the world to me. Nor do I think it has anything to do with the abundance or lack of seasonal cold cases, frankly. It is a dragon, not a plague-bearer.”

Hanuel smiles. “Sometimes I wonder how you manage to be such an odd one and so logical too. Your mind works in mysterious ways, my sweet boy. Now, get out of here. I can practically feel the neighbor children cursing me for keeping you away from them for so long.”

Taehyung gasps, a hand to his chest. “They wouldn’t dare! They know as well as I do that you’re not too old to chase them down and give them a good beating.”

Haneul’s cackling, raspy laughter escorts him out of her home, the biggest worry he thinks he has being just how badly he’s going to lose whatever game the children have in store for him.

--------

Taehyung gasps for breath, running through back alleys and resisting the urge to look behind - he wants to check for pursuers, but he fears it will slow him down or trip him up. His outer robe has long been discarded somewhere for fear of tripping over the hem or getting caught up on something, leaving him sprinting in casual jeogori and baji.

In turning a corner he almost runs straight into another person, skidding to a stop as they yell and hold their hands out to steady him. It’s Kyung-Sun, the butcher’s son, disposing of some trash behind their shop. He looks alarmed, for good reason, looking Taehyung’s breathless and slightly dirty figure up and down.

“Taehyung? What the - are you okay?”

“You can’t tell them where I am, Sun! They’ll tear me apart, promise me you’ll hide me!”

Kyung-Sun looks like he wants to ask for an explanation, but the urgency in Taehyung’s tone and face tells him to put it off, and he stutters a semi-panicked, “O-of course. Come on, I’ll - I’ll stand in the way, just come in here.”

The young man guides Taehyung urgently into the space between his father’s butcher shop and the building next to it, standing in the opening of the alley and busying himself with...looking busy. It’s not the best hiding place, but it’s the only thing he could think of, and they’re obviously on a time crunch.

He wonders with trepidation who in their village Taehyung could be so desperately avoiding, glancing in as the man squishes himself into the back of the alley. Their most popular physician and apothecary has no enemies, as far as he or anyone he knows is aware of, and the thought that some outsider has come into town and is causing trouble occurs.

The assailants don’t take long to come around the corner, and Taehyung sees Kyung-Sun’s demeanor shift… and then watches him step aside and point right down the alley he just hid Taehyung in.

He’s flabbergasted, betrayed, as a group of children come tearing around the corner and yelling, taking him to the ground quickly. He yells from under them, tiny fingers worming their ways under his arms or in the crook of his neck and making him break into involuntary laughter.

“How could you?! I was going to win if they couldn’t find me! I haven’t won once today, how could you do this to me?! I thought we were friends!”

The butcher’s son watches with disbelief and amusement, shaking his head and wiping his hands on his pants before retreating back into the butcher’s shop, Taehyung’s voice calling after him.

“Where are you going?! Come back here you coward! I’ll have your head, traitor!”

Really, he should have known better than to think Taehyung was in any real trouble. Whenever they see him trudging back to his clinic with dirtied clothes and a rumpled appearance, it’s because he’s been roughing about with his fellow children.

Taehyung pushes the giggling children off of him eventually, reluctant but knowing that he’s played for long enough. He has a place in this community, and it is not being assaulted by children, as much fun as he’s having.

“Alright, alright, guys, let me up. You know how it is, I have to go back to the clinic soon. What if someone needs me?”

The whining and ‘aww’s are par for the course, but there’s not a single child out of this bunch that hasn’t been grateful for Taehyung’s work when they’ve gotten sick and he’s made them feel better, so even they understand his importance.

As he gets up and dusts off his pants he prepares to ask if anyone remembers where he dropped his robe, because he certainly doesn’t. The question is stopped by the sight of one of his little assailants, though. “Yah! Beomgyu! Give me back my robe! Ahhh, the hem is going to be so dirty!”

There’s a gap in the front teeth of the smile the child sends his way, wearing Taehyung’s robe that is far too big for him, most of it trailing along behind him on the ground. Taehyung has no doubt he’s been running around like that, and that this robe is going to have to be washed vigorously before judgment can be made over whether it’s salvageable or not. He should be angry, but he was exactly that kind of kid when he was little - it’s like thinking about scolding himself, nevermind that he’s the one who agreed to play with them in the first place. Dirtied belongings are par for the course.

During his usual walk of shame - during which he feels no shame, and none of the judging looks he gets are without fond amusement - back to his home and practice in one, one of the elders of the village catches him.

“Taehyung-ah! Are you heading back to the clinic?”

“Yes, seonsaeng-nim. Why? Do you not feel well?”

“No, no,” the old man says, shaking his head. “I am as fine as an old man can be. But you have some important people waiting for you, I told them I’d try to seek you out. It still counts as finding you when you’re on your way back already, hm?”

Taehyung smiles at the jest, though he’s more consumed with sudden curiosity. “Important? Who is it?”

“A group of Attendants has come down, to ask for you. Or, they asked for our best healer, and anyone here would name you when asked that question. They weren’t specific - I believe they’d like to keep whatever they need relegated to their business and yours. Perhaps there is a sickness in their population they need help with, or someone has been injured. No matter what it is, of course, I’m sure you will do your best to service them. They are the Dragon’s people, certainly He would be pleased to have the best of us treat his companions.”

Taehyung’s mouth falls open in a little ‘o’, surprised. A group of Attendants, come to look for a healer? He knows they must have some of their own, though the depth of their knowledge and skill is as much a mystery as anything else about them. He hopes nobody is deathly ill, or badly hurt. Perhaps they just need some supplies they’ve become short of?

“Of course. I’ll meet them immediately. Thank you for letting me know.” He bows slightly, the elder smiling and clapping a friendly hand on his shoulder before he ambles his slow way along main street, leaning on his cane. Taehyung has recommended to him before to lessen the amount of walking he does for the sake of his bad back, but the old man has never been the type to listen to such things. He is as determined as Miss Haneul to retain his independence, a fierce spirit that Taehyung would like to believe is inherent in his people. He will be that kind of old man too, he knows it already. He’ll be trying to take care of others long after he should have passed the reins to someone else.

His clinic almost looks mysterious now as he approaches it, because there are mysterious people inside of it. Respected people, people who are part of the deal that keeps their entire settlement safe and sound from attack and invasion. People who have seen the dragon closer than a black shape distant and soaring in the sky, people who live with it, who render it service.

Taehyung wonders what it’s like, to live with the beast that holds their loyalty. He knows it must be intelligent, of course. Something with animal intellect does not make and hold up it’s end of a deal that has persisted through centuries. But is it a demanding creature, fearsome? Does it demand submissiveness and service, or is it the protector figure it’s depicted as? How do they know what it wants, what it needs? How do they keep it satisfied, to keep the people below protected?

It’s been a long time since he thought so much about the Red Dragon. For the adults, it’s just an accepted fact of life day to day, like the air they breathe or that they have to make sure they dress warm for their regions harsh winters.

It feels a little silly to open his own door cautiously and curiously, spotting the figures of the Attendants immediately as they too turn to look at him. Two women, two men, all dressed in reds for the Dragon. They look as healthy and happy as they always do when a few visit to get supplies. Well, perhaps not as happy if they’re here because of health issues. He can feel the hint of worry thrumming under their skins, all of them. It’s something he’s become quite accustomed to sensing, living his life around sick people and concerned loved ones.

“Hello,” he says, smiling as he closes the door behind him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

The four people in his clinic stare at him, odd looks on their faces, as if they’re trying to figure out if this is who they were looking for. After a pause, one woman speaks.

“Are you...alright? Has something happened?”

Taehyung furrows his brow, and then recalls his current state with a flush of embarrassment. Oh. Of course they’d be caught off guard. He’s rumpled and dirty, robe filthy and slung over his arm. He looks like he’s just been in a wrestling match in the dirt, and he basically has. With his face and ears burning he ducks his head, hoping they won’t think too badly of him.

“Ah, I apologize. I have a hard time saying no to children, and it makes me an easy target when they’re looking for someone to play with.” He looks up with a bit of trepidation, anticipating disapproval of some kind.

It surprises him to be met with warm smiles, instead.

“I see,” the same woman says. “We were told that you were a man with a kind heart and ample patience, and I see we were not lied to.”

Taehyung laughs sheepishly, the tension leaving his frame, and scratches the nape of his neck. “‘Ample patience’ depends on the situation, I assure you. Please, come sit in my den, make yourselves comfortable. Would you like some tea?”

Taehyung’s store and clinic doubles, unsurprisingly, as his residence. Through the back curtains they can enter another part of the building, a cozy den, a small kitchen, and a bedroom mostly stuffed into the same space. That space is sizable enough not to be claustrophobic, though, and he loves it as much as he loves the rest of this place.

The Attendants watch him mostly silently as he makes them all a pot of tea, but their gazes are less nerve-wracking than he had thought they would be. They don’t seem to be judging him in any way, wondering if he’s really a good enough physician for whatever they need. They’re just being...polite guests, waiting to get down to talking about business.

Each one of them thanks him when he sets the tea down, and he takes a seat at the table as well. They are clustered on one side, and he the other. It’s a little intimidating, but not nearly as bad as it could be. If anything, living with the Red Dragon hasn’t seemed to make them harsh or unkind.

“So...what can I do for you? You came all the way down here, it must be important.”

“It is,” one of the men says, “It’s very important. Someone on the mountain - someone very important, is sick. We’ve been trying to treat him as we would whenever someone falls ill, but either we’ve not seen something quite like this before, or we noticed and responded to symptoms too late, and nothing we do has been having lasting effects. It’s been a while and he’s not recovered with our efforts or on his own, so we fear that if we don’t seek out help, his condition will only decline.”

Taehyung sighs, feeling mournful despite himself. It hurts him deeply every time someone is gravely ill - this time like all the others, he wants nothing more than to help. If they are seeking him out, they need the help.

“I see. I’m sorry to hear that. What kind of symptoms are we talking about, and what have you done so far?”

He’s pleased with how quickly and willingly they give him the information, seeming knowledgeable and caring of whatever poor Attendant has fallen ill. He learns that they have given him arnica for muscle aches, horehound and mullein for cough, bryonia alba for some severe chest congestion, and simple chamomile tea to try and help him sleep despite his symptoms. Taehyung advises them that these are all things he would do too, and that they’re at least doing a good job in lessening the pains and discomforts their patient is suffering. He can’t help but smile at the relieved and pleased reactions he gets from them.

“There are quite a few ailments I know of that could cause those symptoms. Obviously once I see him I’ll be able to narrow it down, and hopefully we can come up with a treatment plan that will help him recover. I’m glad you’ve come. You’re smart to seek help before it gets any worse.”

Setting his tea down, he inquires, “So, where is he? Have you booked rooms at a local inn? Seungjae-nim is particularly good about taking care of guests who may be indisposed, I’d recommend him if you don’t have a permanent solution set yet while you’re here - “

“He’s on the mountain.”

Taehyung stops, blinking slowly. “He’s...you didn’t bring him with you…?”

They exchange looks, looking equal parts like they feel bad and like they’re trying to puzzle out what exactly to say to him. He doesn’t know what about the situation could require that much thought, but he waits and tries not to prove himself impatient after all.

“We did not. He...does not want to leave the mountain, and we can not force him. Our intention was to bring you back up with us as soon as possible. Please. There are other physicians here, surely? The village has become far too large for one person to treat everyone who needs treating, or for one physician to feasibly trek from one end to another every time someone needs him. We were hoping that perhaps you could take a leave of absence, pack a trunk of anything and everything you think you might need to help? I promise you we wouldn’t ask if there was another option, but we truly need someone who can help us, who can help him.”

Go...with them. Up the mountain, to where they live. Where they live with the Red Dragon, miles above the village. Go with them and leave the people down here without his services, god forbid they need him and no one else? With no idea of how long he might be gone, either.

“I…”

“Everyone has told us you’re kind, that you’d go to the ends of the Earth to heal someone who needed you. In comparison, this is not that far away, is it?”

“No, you’re...you’re right, of course. I would go anywhere if someone needed me, I just - I wasn’t expecting to be asked to leave my clinic here, or my patients - “

“We’ve notified the leaders here and we’ve been given the go ahead to take you if you’ll come, if that’s what you’re worried about. You have no idea how important this is, Taehyung. He has to get better. We have nobody who can help more than what we’ve done - the people down here do. Surely you can’t just leave him at the mercy of fate?”

Taehyung sighs, rubbing his hand over his face. He’s not reluctant to help anyone, of course not. He’s just a little shocked. This is not what he was prepared for, but they’re right of course. Whoever is on the mountain needs him more than the people down here do at the moment, and there are others those people can go to if they fall ill.

“Of course. Of course. I’m sorry, please don’t think me reluctant, I just wasn’t expecting this. Okay. Well god, if he’s on the mountain there’s no time to waste - I’ll - I’ll pack as much as I can think to take and we’ll leave as soon as I’m done, I don’t want to leave someone in that condition any longer than I have to. It bothers me already that he’s going to have to wait the time it takes for us to get back up there.”

Business down here will have to be deferred after all.

---

Taehyung is a bit of a basket case as they get ready to go, trying to make sure all of his regular patients know where else to get what they need, trying to make sure that his medicine trunk is packed with everything he could possibly need, fretting over whether he’s missing anything that could be detrimental to his new patient’s health. He feels a little exasperated that the person refused to come down from the mountain, but there are plenty of people here who would have been the same if they needed care outside of the village. Mostly older people, and so Taehyung can’t help but imagine his new patient as someone of advanced age. They’re more delicate and susceptible to sickness, it wouldn’t be surprising.

The Attendants have watched him pacing back and forth and making hairpin turns when one thought intersects another and interrupts his whole plan of action. They’ve watched him patiently and with some amusement, thankfully not seeming as if his erratic behavior is making them doubt his medical skill. If anything, he seems to desperately be trying to make sure he’s prepared to do everything he can, and they like that.

They desperately need him to help them, so it seems a good sign that he’s so determined to be thorough.

There’s no denying that Taehyung feels a pervasive nervousness once he’s finally deemed himself ready and packed a warmer winter coat for conditions that are no doubt colder the higher up they go. He’s nervous as they take a carriage out to the foot of the mountain path that the Attendants use, and he’s nervous thinking about being amongst the Dragon’s people. About being near the Dragon itself. It is a protector, he knows that, but it’s still a massive beast, and one nobody but the Attendants truly know much about. He fears offending it somehow, getting himself hurt or killed, getting his people’s protection revoked. As much as he knows he’s fretting far more than is good for him, he can’t help the circles his thoughts run in his head.

The cart rolls shakily along dirt roads, getting closer and closer to the very edge of the village and eventually starting to leave it behind. Taehyung stares at it the whole time they get farther away, the situation feeling kind of surreal. This is his first time leaving his home. He has never been outside the borders of the village, not for anything. There are few medicinal herbs that they do not, at this point, grow in their own gardens, and those that don’t come in from outside merchants for sale on a rather regular schedule.

He wouldn’t deny a patient in need for anything, but right now it really does seem unreal. There is a difference, apparently, between knowing a world outside his home exists and being in that world outside his home. It feels exactly the same and vastly different at the same time.

A soft voice enters the air. “Are you okay, Taehyung-ssi?”

Taehyung looks back at the Attendants in the cart with him, unsure who said it. “Yeah. I’m okay. It’s my first time outside the village is all. It’s...odd. It’s going to take a little getting used to, but I’m fine.”

The path isn’t that far from town, as a matter of fact, though that’s not so surprising considering the Red Dragon lives in the mountains above them. It’s a ride of several miles, but it seems to be over in a flash, and that’s perhaps just due to the mood Taehyung is in. He wonders how they live, up on the mountain. What they’ve created for themselves, and what the Red Dragon has created for them.

Taehyung climbs out of the cart alongside the Attendants, and a few of them kindly help him unload his medicine trunk as well. It’s designed to be worn on the back, but it’s still a big heavy box when it comes down to it, and lugging it around is never pleasant. Still, Taehyung insists that he can carry it when one of the male Attendants offers to do so for him. Upon his refusal, he’s promptly informed that as soon as it starts becoming too much for him the man will take it for a while. Carry it in shifts, he says. The offer really is appreciated, and Taehyung feels a rush of gratitude for how kind the Attendants have turned out to be. Hopefully, the rest of them are like these four.

The base of the mountain is sparsely populated by evergreen trees, more gray than green in color and tough just like the people who live in this climate with them. The path into the trees and up is indiscernible to Taehyung at first, but the Attendants seem to have no problem. They lead him with confidence and a lack of worry, and it’s only several minutes into the hike that Taehyung starts to notice an actual route worn into the ground and rock. The earth underfoot is perpetually hard and cold, dirt a gray brown and hard packed and rock showing through in plenty of places.

The path becomes steep quickly.

Taehyung is a doctor. Taehyung is healthy. Taehyung is not, how does he say it...athletic. Yes, athletic is the word.

The man who offered in the first place laughingly takes his medicine chest from him less than half an hour in, a kind hearted smile on his face despite the hint of teasing he gives. Obviously, they are a lot more accustomed to this kind of trek than the soft lanky doctor they’re now bringing with them. His flush of exertion and dragging feet give all of them a little bit of a laugh, though he doesn’t feel mocked at all. The atmosphere is friendly enough that he finds himself chuckling breathlessly at himself too. Maybe he really needs to start exercising. More than letting children beat him up. He has more than enough energy for it, he just values his time so much more in the clinic.

The climb is shorter than expected. At first Taehyung isn’t sure what he’s looking at, all rigged up among the trees along the mountainside, but when it sinks in he murmurs a low sound of awe. Ingenious. The Attendants have built and rigged sturdy wooden gondolas onto some kind of pulley and winch system, to get them up and down the mountain as they need without exhausting themselves. Judging by the rocky terrain he sees ahead, it certainly saves them time and potential injury as well. The worn path they’ve been taking ends where the gondola waits to be boarded.

Despite the Attendants confidence in their construction and how long this has likely been used, Taehyung is a little hesitant if only for lack of experience. The Attendants enter the gondola with ease, and look back at him as he teeters from foot to foot with hesitance outside. One of the women smiles.

“It’s perfectly safe, doctor. We have taken it many times, and I assure we maintain it perfectly.”

“Yes,” Taehyung mumbles, staying where he is. “It’s um...it’s okay to have an extra person on it, though? And my medicine chest? That won’t be too heavy?”

“It’s perfectly capable of carrying both you and your medicine chest, doctor. Please, step in. You have a patient waiting up the mountain.”

Right. A patient. No matter how he might be frightened of the heights the gondola will carry him - and more importantly how far they could fall if it fails - he can’t deny a patient. He wouldn’t deny a patient who needed him for anything. He steps inside, and stands nervously in a corner as if it’s any safer there than in the middle.

There’s a lever inside that the larger of the men puts significant muscle into pulling. The lift jolts into action, and Taehyung tries not to look like the sudden movement gives him the scare of his life.

The higher they get without falling to their deaths, the more secure Taehyung becomes in the integrity of the lift, and more determined he gets not to look over the edge. He’s definitely the only one in the gondola who’s so stiff backed, hands clasped in front of him. They keep up small talk with him presumably to keep him from thinking too much, which is appreciated.

Once the air around starts becoming clouded with mist and blocks his view of the scenery and height, Taehyung comes around to asking a question that’s been picking at him from the moment he was asked to come up the mountain for this patient.

“The Dragon,” he begins, glancing at the others in the lift. “I understand that you live with it, that it...knows you, presumably, and obviously does not pose you a threat. However...you’re certain that it will not respond negatively to an unknown presence? It knows someone is coming, someone to help?”

The Attendants look at each other, not seeming offended or bothered by his obvious ignorance of life on the mountain, but as if considering what to say and how to word it.

“The Dragon is very intelligent, you needn’t worry about him mistaking you as a threat. He does not know we’ve gone to seek out a physician so to speak, but even if he is upset he would do nothing to you. He can do nothing to you.”

Taehyung is unsure how a beast such as a dragon could be ‘unable’ to maim or kill anything it wished.

“What do you mean he can do nothing?”

They’re silent for a while, considering. He doesn’t understand what there is to think about before answering such a question, feeling apprehensive for reasons he can’t quite name. One of the women sighs, and looks at him in an oddly gentle way. Like she’s trying to avoid spooking a wild animal.

“The dragon is very sick, doctor.”

Sick? Taehyung doesn’t understand for a long while, blinking slowly at the four faces staring back at him. Somehow, a dragon has always seemed an infallible force to him - the idea that one could fall to sickness is one he never thought to consider. Perhaps the newness of that concept is what causes realization to take so long.

A cold nervousness and perhaps some fear washes over him, disbelief pervading it all. He shakes his head minutely, struggling to find words - even thoughts.

“I...I think there’s been some kind of mistake. I’m a doctor - a physician. A human physician. I can’t treat a - a -”

The same woman interrupts him, wavy brown hair falling over her shoulder as she steps forward to take his hands imploringly. “You can! I assure you that you can. We have nobody with knowledge like yours. We have those who know things about medicine and treating sickness, but our knowledge is incomplete, and we do not have access to all of the supplies you do. Those doctors we may have had once who would have known exactly how to react are generations past now, and much of what they knew we no longer remember. We have tried what we can and what we know how to do, but he’s not improved. We are at a loss - you are the only one who can treat him. If you do not at least try, we don’t know what we’ll do.”

Taehyung shakes his head, overwhelmed and confused, at a loss for how any knowledge of human medicine could help them. “I know nothing of dragons! I know nothing of any creature but humans, I - it is not that I would not want to help, but I don’t know how. I couldn’t fathom how or where to begin fixing some kind of...dragons illness. What can I be expected to do with a biology that is a mystery to me?”

“It will not be as strange as you think, I promise you. If you’re not unwilling to try as you say, then you must. Certainly you can do that - just take a look at him, please. We’ll take anything, and we’ve exhausted our options.”

Feeling oddly breathless with the way his heart pounds in his chest, Taehyung turns his eyes to the others. Every face is looking at him with the same earnest hope, desperate and seemingly under some misguided notion that a human physician could do anything for their beast.

“I…”

The fight starts to fade out of him, unsure of everything. Everything but that there is something - someone? - sick and in need of help in the mountain caverns. He has no faith that he can help the creature, but...can he really turn his back without, as they say, at least taking a look? Giving some kind of try, even if an inability to or lack of knowledge makes it shallow? They must nearly be to the caverns by now, he and his medicine chest both basically in the doorway of the Dragons sickbed. Frankly it wouldn’t make sense to demand being returned to the village without giving them what little they ask for, nor could his conscience bear it if he turned his back without a second glance.

This creature is the symbol and instrument of his safety, and the safety of everyone he loves. The safety of his community. He owes this to it, does he not? To turn his back on his own protector when they are the one in need of help is something he finds he cannot do, even if the idea of being so close to that protector instills in him as much trepidation as it does awe and respect.

“Okay…” he breathes, weakly holding the woman’s hands in turn and giving them an affirming shake. “Okay. If you believe he will do me no harm, I’ll...do what I can. The safety and prosperity of our community is his doing...he deserves as much.”

The relieved smile he receives is familiar - it’s like the smile he gets when he promises to heal someone’s sibling, lover, their closest friend.

“Thank you.”

They break through misty cloud cover, and the caverns near the peak of the mountain become visible. Taehyung's breath catches in his throat. Truly they must not worry about safety, about anyone coming to hunt the Dragon and succeeding, for they are far from trying to hide where they dwell.

The openings into the side of the mountain are adorned with flags and fabrics in the same red shades as what his village bears below, blowing furiously in the wind. Gold poles with chimes, bells, charms and tassels are rooted deep into the stone at the sides of each opening, so that even as they bend with the stress of the wind, they are secure in their places. He can see orange light coming from inside, the source not yet apparent but haunting and beautiful in such an otherwise cold and hard environment.

The way the gondola sways and creaks in the whipping wind is more than a little unnerving, but Taehyung is the only one who seems to mind it. He can’t imagine ever getting used to this, but the Attendants seem to have total confidence in the integrity of their construction. Taehyung tries to hide how his knees are shaking at the height and the wind. The way they treat him as they pull up to the place they’ll disembark tells him he’s not doing a good job.

There’s a small gap between the swaying gondola and the large stone outcropping the Attendants step onto in front of a cave entrance. It’s so small a toddler could easily hop over it, but it seems insurmountable to Taehyung. He may have a negligible, very slight, totally casual fear of heights. No big deal.

From the moment the gondola stops the Attendants try to cater to him to make the dismount as easy as possible. It’s sweet, but also embarrassing. One man carries his medicine chest off and across immediately, and one of the women guides him and his stiff legs gently to the edge of the gondola, telling him not to worry. It’s just a little step, he can do it. The others reach their arms out from their place on the rock in a silent assurance that they’re there and they’ll catch him as soon as he makes the transfer.

He looks down and sees the endless, foggy drop in the tiny space between the gondola and the outcropping right before he’s about to make his attempt and stops dead, making a breathless sound of fear.

All of the Attendants immediately start telling him not to look down and encouraging him. He feels ridiculous. It’s just a single step forward.

There are clouds below him. Clouds and peaks of rock.

He closes his eyes and steps across quickly, a far longer stride than necessary. He sags in relief when multiple sets of arms encircle him and hands hold his arms in a comforting gesture that he sinks into. His heart races as if he just faced death and won, and the Attendants cheer and congratulate him and pat him on the back as if that wasn’t a ridiculous, pathetic display on his part. He appreciates their kindness in not making fun of him.

Taehyung thinks he’d take facing a dragon over doing that again. He elects not to think about the trip back.

The cavernous hall they lead him into is startlingly warm after the cold, whipping wind and frost of the outside. The glow he’d seen is clearly coming from the lit torches mounted on the walls, but he still can’t help but feel it shouldn’t be this warm. This comfortable.

One of the Attendants escorting him notices him staring at the torches and the furrow in his brow and clarifies.

“That’s his fire,” she says. “It burns very hot and very long. The torches usually only have to be relit a few times a year. You won’t have to worry about being cold during your time here.”

“His fire,” Taehyung repeats. “The Dragon?”

She nods, smiling. “I hope you don’t mind sleeping with a light on while you’re up here. You’ll have a brazier in your room like all the rest. It gets far too cold without them, so we keep his fires going. There’s no reason to make him light them more often than he needs to.”

“Especially not right now,” Taehyung murmurs.

She nods. “Especially not right now. We don’t want to stress him.”

The man carrying his chest interjects amiably. “If you’d like we can show you to your room and get you settled, perhaps get you something to eat -”

“I’d like to see my patient,” Taehyung interrupts. “Before anything else, I mean. After that, I would be more than willing to see my room or eat a meal, but it wouldn’t feel right to do it before seeing him.”

It feels odd to say ‘him’, to refer to the Dragon as if referring to another human being suffering from a cold. They speak of him like he’s a man, though, and he doesn’t want to disrespect them or the Dragon that has kept them all safe for so many generations.

Despite the unintentional rudeness of his interruption, Taehyung’s answer seems to please the Attendants. It’s comforting to have brought a doctor to the mountain who would prioritize his patient over his own comforts. Taehyung truly does care for his job.

“We can do that,” one of them says. “Right this way.”

They turn and take a different direction after that, and the Attendants lead him through winding cave passages and tunnels until they come out into a massive cavern.

There are several attendants in the chamber, mostly gathered around a large, ornate four poster bed. It’s draped with the same reds they wear and the town flies, the wood dark and carved beautifully. Taehyung imagines it must have been made up here, as opposed to transported. The craftsmanship is impressive.

The entire chamber is furnished and draped in beautiful deep red fabrics, large rugs splayed across the floor to make the space more comfortable and warm.

In the bed there’s a figure, all swaddled up and nearly swallowed in blankets. The Attendants around it look up upon their entry, and the faces that turn to him brighten with the realization and hope of now having a doctor in their midst.

Taehyung suspects they’re relieved their friends managed to get him to come at all.

He can’t help the hesitance in his gait as he approaches the bed. Is there really a dragon in there? Could one fit?

The answer is yes, but not how he expected. Bundled up like a child in blankets and flushed with fever there is a man. At first Taehyung can’t absorb anything but how breathtakingly beautiful he is, even clearly ill. He’s the most beautiful thing Taehyung has ever seen - he feels the inexplicable desire to sweep the hair gently away from that heavenly face.

Is this normal? To feel so hypnotized?

Incredibly long tresses of silky black hair are splayed around his head, on the pillow, the blankets. He wonders if it’s as soft as it looks.

Horns protrude from the dragon’s forehead, curved up and backwards over the contour of his skull, shape somewhat reminiscent of those of a gazelle. They’re thin, but clearly strong. They’re charcoal black in color.

His face is soft, lips plump, nose delicate. It’s the most perfect face he’s ever seen in his life.

“Doctor?”

One of the Attendants addresses him and startles him out of his staring. Taehyung clears his throat, feeling heat in his face and electing not to say anything. He just presses the back of his hand to the dragon’s forehead and quickly draws it back with a shocked and pained hiss.

“ Jesus,” he says, eyes wide. He inspects his hand to see if it’s actually been burnt. It sure felt like it. “Is he usually like that?”

One woman shakes her head. “No. He usually runs quite hot, but that’s extreme even for him.”

“Got it…”

The touch seems to have roused his patient, and he catches his breath as dazed, honey-warm deep brown eyes peer blearily up at him. Those plump lips part slowly, sluggishly.

“Oh,” the dragon murmurs. “An angel?”

Taehyung balks as the beautiful, confused, sick man peering up at him lifts a sluggish hand tipped with long black claws. Even the fingertips themselves are dark, fading into skin tone.

That hand brushes along his face, tracing the contour of his nose and cheekbone with idle, tired fascination.

Luckily it doesn’t burn as bad as touching his forehead had.

One of the Attendants corrects the Dragon with laughter in their voice. “That’s not an angel, Jimin. That’s a doctor.”

Jimin. His name is Jimin.

“A doctor…” Jimin blinks slowly, obviously not processing things very quickly through his fever and drowsiness. Eventually he frowns, lips pouting out in a slow and devastatingly endearing way.

“I don’t need a doctor. I’m fine, I told you. M’okay.” By the end of his statement he seems mildly out of breath, closing his eyes and sighing tiredly.

“Well,” Taehyung says. “Let me be the judge of that and I’ll be out of your hair, okay?”

Jimin’s eyes pop back open in sluggish surprise, appraising Taehyung anew. “Wow,” he murmurs raspily. “You have a very nice voice, doctor.”

Taehyung laughs, sheepish. “Thank you. Please, call me Taehyung.”

“Taehyung,” Jimin repeats, sighing once again. He looks like all he wants to do is go back to sleep, like it’s a fight to keep his eyes open. “Mmm...m’not that sick, Taehyung. M’okay.”

His stubbornness is endearing, and Taehyung can’t help the fond smile on his face. It’s echoed by the Attendants around them. “Well, okay. Then you just let me take care of you for a little while and you’ll be as good as new. Why don’t you tell me about how you’re feeling? Honestly. Don’t just tell me you’re okay.”

Jimin takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, seeming reticent to answer. Taehyung gets the feeling it’s not because he doesn’t want to talk, but because he’s so tired it’s difficult.

“I know you’re tired, I’m sorry. But try to talk to me for a little while, okay? Tell me what’s going on.”

“Don’t feel good.”

Taehyung huffs his amusement, ducking his head briefly. It’s not fair, how endearingly cute this creature is.

“Alright, that’s a start. How don’t you feel good?”

“Head hurts. Body hurts. Everything hurts. My nose is all stuffed up and - nooooooooo!”

The wail at the end is a direct result of Taehyung pulling the blankets back from him, the figure underneath small and lithe. Clawed hands grab for the covers immediately.

“I’m cold, give them back!”

Taehyung finds himself lacking any fear of those claws and plucks Jimin’s hands gently away. The bratty outburst is actually quite familiar; children get like this when they’re sick sometimes.

“Shhh, I know, I’m sorry. You’ve got a fever, that’s why you’re cold. I know it’s not fun but you can’t be all bundled up and retaining heat like this. Getting your fever down is very important, Jimin.”

Jimin huffs, looking like if he had any energy he’d put up a doozy of a fight. Perhaps he’d even flop around and whine like a kid. Taehyung can tell that he knows his doctor is right, but being miserable and sick like this can make even the most amiable of people crotchety and easily upset. Taehyung is no walk in the park when he gets sick either, so he doesn’t blame Jimin. That pout is cute enough to make up for the trouble anyway.

“Just keep telling me about your symptoms.”

“What do the rest of the symptoms matter when I’m just going to freeze to death?”

Taehyung can’t help but bark out a real laugh at that. Oh, God. Even the kids don’t usually sulk this badly. He’s even being glared at.

“You’re not going to freeze to death and you know it. Are you this much of a brat with your Attendants too?”

Several people chorus a ‘yes’ at him immediately, every single voice fond and smiling. Jimin huffs and lays back to endure his shivering.

“Symptoms, Jimin?”

“Nose is stuffy. Keep choking on my own snot, it’s gross. Coughing and sneezing, throat is raw. I just don’t feel good.”

“Mnn, okay. We’re going to make you feel better, okay? I’ll take care of you.”

----

After Taehyung gives Jimin a couple of different medicines to help with his symptoms for the night, the Attendants take him to get something to eat.

All he can really do for the Dragon is lessen the misery of his symptoms and thus the stress they put on him while his body recovers. He finds that the mind is the most powerful factor in recovery from illnesses, that even people he thought wouldn’t make it pull through when their will is strong enough.

He has no reason to think that the Dragon is in that serious a condition, of course. It does seem to just be a nasty bout of perhaps some kind of flu.

The only thing he can do is help strengthen the body and soothe the symptoms so that Jimin can fight his way through, and he tells the Attendants that much. They don’t seem upset about it, rather glad that he seems to be willing and better equipped at tackling that job than they are. He already has quite a few medicines in his chest that they don’t have on the mountain.

The dining hall they bring him to is large, dozens of long tables lined up in rows and hundreds of people clad in the dragon’s reds milling about.

One man takes his chest, assuring him that it’ll be brought to his room.

The Attendants usher him into a seat and absolutely drown him in food. They seem intent on showing him their gratitude in everything they do, no matter how much he assures them that it’s his job and that he would have come for anyone who needed him.

The food is delicious, hot and hearty and filling. They clearly aren’t struggling for food, and a woman tells him when he inquires that they’ve long found ways to cultivate their own plants and even some livestock up here. She says that the caverns are more than expansive enough for it to be done, and that there are several open air plateaus lower down the mountains where the dirt is suitable for growing.

Taehyung shudders at the idea of riding another gondola every day to tend to the gardens.

By the time they’re trying to shovel desserts into him Taehyung is begging for mercy. He can’t take care of Jimin if he explodes his first night here. Thankfully, that particular plea gets them to let him up and lead him to his room, chuckling and apologizing and not sounding sorry at all.

Just like they promised his chest is there, a brazier lit and keeping the room warm and the bed surprisingly comfortable. He passes out cold almost before his head hits the pillow.

----

Taehyung spends the next morning before anyone comes to check on him mixing remedies and setting out doses. He had intended to do it the night before, but that obviously hadn’t happened. He’s setting out Jimin’s whole regimen right here, and he’ll adjust it as needed according to how his recovery goes.

He can tell that the Attendant who comes to check in on him - and possibly wake him - is pleasantly surprised at the sight of it all set out on the table in his room. There’s no mistaking the comfort and relief that it brings to their face, seeing him so obviously taking his job here seriously.

They care deeply for Jimin, it’s obvious in everything they do. Taehyung would wager a guess that it’s more than gratitude for protection. Even from their short interaction yesterday Taehyung had taken a liking to the Dragon and been endeared by him. He thinks that the relationship up here is far warmer and more familial than he’d anticipated. It’s nice. It’s comfortable. He’d very much like to see it when Jimin is healthy and whole.

Jimin is awake when he arrives back in the Dragon’s bedchamber, the sight of him making a chuckle rumble in Taehyung’s chest at the same time that he feels exasperation.

He’s all bundled up again, and this time the blankets are pulled all the way up his face, eyes peeking out from the top at him in a sulking glare. There’s no real heat or venom to it; he just doesn’t want to get out from under the blankets like he knows he should and knows that Taehyung is the harbinger of shivers.

“Jimin-ah,” Taehyung calls gently as he approaches the bed. “I thought we talked about this? We need to get your fever down.”

Jimin grumbles, but lets him pull the blankets down.

“I went easy on you yesterday because you were obviously so tired,” Taehyung says, smile on his lips. “But since you’re already up and have enough energy to be grumpy this time, why don’t we have you sit up and let me examine you a little better?”

For all that Jimin groans and whines, he’s actually quite cooperative. He’s willing to let Taehyung help him, he’s just complaining for the sake of it. Taehyung does that too when he’s sick. He and Jimin are peas in a pod in that way.

Jimin is wearing a long inner robe, deep burgundy in color and rumpled from restless sleep. He allows Taehyung to slip it respectfully off of his shoulders and sits in a miserable slump, sniffling and being rattled by a nasty, phlegmy coughing fit as sitting up shifts all the congestion around.

Taehyung murmurs little comforts to him and pats his back gently to help him get through the wracking coughs. He finds himself tracing his fingers down Jimin’s spine with fascination soon enough, before the dragon peers miserably over his shoulder at him and he catches himself.

“Ah. Sorry. I was just - your spine caught me off guard. You’re very interesting from a physician’s standpoint, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

The line of Jimin’s spine is dark when the curtain of his hair is swept over his shoulder, pigmented much like his fingers and fading to lighter grey and then skin tone to the sides of the bone. Taehyung finds when he touches it that the flesh there is firmer and more leathery, reptilian. It’s protection, he realizes. Thicker hide to protect the spine from damage. How incredible.

“S’okay,” Jimin rasps. “You’re not used to me like they are. Interesting is better than scary - especially when you’re supposed to be taking care of me.”

“Well,” Taehyung says, fingers rubbing soothing circles into the tense muscles of Jimin’s shoulders that makes him sigh and unwind a little. “Admittedly I was a little scared when I realized I was coming to treat our dragon. Kind of hard to be scared of you , though. You’re just a big sniffly lizard it turns out.”

Jimin pouts at him, and Taehyung swears he’s trying to hold back a smile to appear offended. “I’m scary! I’m just too sick is all. You just wait.”

“You were very scary glaring at me over the blankets you weren’t supposed to be under just now, yes.”

Jimin huffs, and then groans pitifully as it exacerbates his body and chest aches. The way Taehyung rubs his back is appreciated.

“Alright,” the doctor murmurs. “Let me listen to your lungs and heart, you fearsome beast.”

As he presses the stethoscope to Jimin’s back - he jumps, the cold no doubt even worse against his burning skin than an average human with a fever - a thought occurs to him.

“You, ah...you must...change, musn’t you? Your form, I mean. Are you...consistent inside with a human, like this? There’s nothing I won’t be expecting?”

It’s hard to ignore the bubbling desire to ask anything and everything about how such a thing is possible and how his biology does it, to change forms, but it’s not priority right now. If he wants to do that he can do it when the dragon is healthy. He doesn’t need to be quizzed incessantly all pitiful and sick like this.

“As far as I know.”

Well. Taehyung supposes that’s the best they’re going to get, isn’t it?

Unsurprisingly, Jimin’s lungs are a congested, phlegmy mess. It sounds awful, but it’s not any worse than Taehyung has heard before and that’s a good thing. It’s miserable, but it’s not alarming. It’s about what he expected. His heart, on the other hand, is beating strong and healthy. It’s a relief to hear it doing what it needs to and doing it well.

By the time Taehyung is done with his short examination Jimin is flagging fast, eyelids drooping and back curving forward like he’s struggling to hold his own weight up. Taehyung pats his head gently and guides him back into laying down, propped up slightly on his pillows.

“Well, you sound good,” he starts. “Well. Not good, your lungs sound awful, but it’s the kind of awful I’d expect and not anything I’m worried about. Did what I gave you last night help your symptoms?”

Jimin nods, eyes barely open. “Yeah. I actually slept, I couldn’t believe it. I felt awful but I wasn’t choking on snot and hurting so bad I wanted to cry. It was nice.”

“Good. I’ll give you some more of that, and some new stuff to try and bolster your immune system and tackle that congestion, hopefully work on reducing the fever too. Your only job is to rest, okay? Get as much sleep as you can. If you start feeling bad again after the medicine or have any new symptoms you get someone to come get me, okay? Don’t hesitate, it’s what I’m here for.”

Jimin just hums, eyes closed and barely conscious. Taehyung rouses him enough to get him to take his medicine and then leaves him to rest.

He’s met by a gaggle of incredibly pitiful looking children almost before he’s out of the chamber. One tiny girl with the saddest eyes he’s ever seen leads the charge, addressing him before he can say anything.

“Is Jimin gonna be okay?” she asks, the other children echoing her look and waiting for his response.

“Of course. Jimin is going to be fine, don’t worry. He’ll be okay.”

He can’t guarantee that of course. So far Taehyung hasn’t seen anything that worries him that badly, but there’s never a definite when it comes down to sickness. There is the chance that the body won’t be able to fight the bug off, but he isn’t going to say that to children. The chances of Jimin’s condition going downhill are very small, so there’s no reason to worry anyone. Especially not kids.

The faces turned to him start to brighten immediately.

“Really? He’s gonna get better and play again?”

“Yeah. I’m sure as soon as he feels well enough he’ll play with you. You guys really like him, huh?”

“Jimin’s the best!” one boy bursts out, as if he’s never had anything more important to convey to a person in his life. “He plays with us and he talks to us and he lets us hang off of his horns!”

“When I do things I’m not supposed to he hides me and tells mom he hasn’t seen me!” another tells him with pride and a smile that’s missing baby teeth. Taehyung laughs. Perhaps he and Jimin are similar in more ways than just being brats when sick.

“Well then,” Taehyung says. “Since Jimin has to rest to get better faster...how about I play with you guys today instead?”

The children seem momentarily surprised, and then consider his proposal with adorably serious deliberation on their faces. Taehyung waits with an expression just as goofily serious, as if a crucial decision is being made about his very life.

However the consensus is reached, the child at the front lunges forward, lands a stinging smack on Taehyung’s thigh, and screams, “He’s it!”

They all flee in a screeching mass of flailing arms and high pitched giggles, and though he definitely doesn’t know his way around like they do Taehyung takes off after them with zero hesitation.

As he roars at the fleeing children and follows, the fearsome Red Dragon smiles in his bed and feels warm with fondness.

----

When he next comes to check on the Dragon’s condition, he’s startled to find that the bed is empty and there are Attendants changing the sheets and covers. They work quickly and efficiently, smiling at him with their usual friendliness as he approaches with confusion on his face.

“Jimin…?” he starts.

“Don’t worry, Doctor. Some of us just took him for a bath is all, and we’re taking the opportunity to make sure he has clean, fresh bedding when he comes back. Nobody wants to sleep in a sick bed for long, it’s the least he deserves.”

“Ah,” Taehyung nods, any worries soothed by the explanation. “Is that a usual chore, then? Bathing him and taking care of his bedding?”

“Oh, no,” a woman replies. “No, he doesn’t demand things like that from us, though none of us would mind doing it for him. For the duration of his sickness, however, we’ve been demanding that he let us. It’s the least we can do, and the least he deserves. The last thing he needs while battling this illness is the added stress of mundane chores like this. We’re taking care of him because we want to.”

“I see,” he says. “You all really love him, huh?”

She nods and smiles, the same warm and genuine expression he sees all the Attendants wear when they speak of Jimin.

“He’s family, Doctor. And friend. You won’t find a kinder soul out there, I can guarantee you that.”

Taehyung smiles. “I haven’t known him for very long, but I can’t say I disbelieve you. For all that he’s a moody patient, he seems like a gentle creature. The children certainly love him.”

The Attendant snorts. “That’s because he is one. He’s made teaching them how to make mischief and then helping them get out of the consequences a hobby. He’s an unholy terror.”

Jimin returns with Attendants not long after Taehyung is done laughing at that account, doing a slow miserable shuffle back to bed with a person on either side. They’re clearly ready to give him support whenever he needs it, and though he looks like walking alone is an achy and exhausting ordeal he’s clearly determined to ambulate without assistance.

He sighs when he sees Taehyung, though it’s clearly for show. Taehyung can tell Jimin doesn’t actually dislike him - quite the opposite, he’d say. He thinks that the two of them mesh well. He likes Jimin, and he’s pretty sure Jimin likes him too.

“I thought I’d get to bundle under the covers for a while before you showed up and yelled at me for it,” Jimin laments, climbing into the bed and sighing as he lets his weight sink into the pillows.

“The sooner you listen to me and expedite getting rid of this fever the sooner you’ll be able to do that. Not that I expect you to comply so easily. Dragons have thick skulls, it seems.”

Jimin’s eyes twinkle at the playful banter, opening his mouth to retort something when his eyes focus lower and his expression changes to one of surprise and concern.

“What happened?”

“Huh?”

He follows Jimin’s gaze and voices a hum of understanding, raising his hand and showing the back of it. The skin where he’d pressed his hand to Jimin’s forehead the day before had actually reddened and blistered slightly, but it’s nothing severe. It’ll heal on its own pretty easily.

“I got a surprise when I checked your forehead for your fever yesterday, that’s all. You’re very hot.”

Jimin scoffs, his comment absentminded and brow still slightly furrowed. “Well you’re pretty attractive yourself, but I appreciate the compliment.”

Taehyung laughs, moving forward to try and conduct what will be a routine examination of Jimin’s condition, particularly his lungs. He’s surprised when the dragon leans away.

“Don’t - if it’s going to hurt you, don’t touch me. I’m so sorry I burned you. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Taehyung softens, fondness curling in his chest.

“Oh, Jimin. Don’t worry about me. The rest of you is hot, but not quite hot enough to burn like your forehead. Even if you were, I know to be a little more careful now. It’s a very minor burn, it’s not your fault - it’ll be cleared up in no time, especially with a little salve.”

“Are you sure…?” Jimin murmurs, lips pursed and expression conflicted.

“I’m sure. I’m here to take care of you, remember? I don’t want you worrying about me.”

Jimin lets him examine him after that, a little reluctant at first but growing comfortable when he’s sure that Taehyung really isn’t hurting himself touching him. Taehyung squeezes his shoulder gently as he listens to Jimin’s lungs, smiling and murmuring a sincere, “Thank you.”

He doesn’t want him worrying, but it’s appreciated that he did.

----

Taehyung eats his meals with the Attendants after that first night. They don’t stop trying to drown him in food, but they do get better at taking his word for it when he says he can’t eat anymore. They don’t have to worry about him not having enough to eat - all the food they make and serve is delicious, he stuffs himself despite knowing he shouldn’t.

They laugh at him often, because he half-heartedly refuses dessert after a full meal while looking at it with eager eyes. He can’t hide how he wants it, so they always give it to him anyway. He expresses his concerns about this one night.

“You guys can’t keep feeding me all this stuff,” he whines, already digging into the pastry in front of him. “Sweets go right to my ass.”

He’s made fast friends with a large number of the Attendants up here, and they laugh at him as he complains.

“Your ass will be just fine even if it gains a little extra cake weight, Taehyung-ssi. Though Jimin may not survive. We know he’s getting better because he’s started enjoying watching you leave, if you know what I mean.”

Taehyung chokes on his glazed cinnamon bun, which only sets off another chorus of laughter.

“Jesus,” he chokes out. “He’s not really, is he? I mean - he flirts, but I thought that was just...how he is.”

“It is,” someone says. “Jimin is very flirtatious by nature, but he also doesn’t hide it when he genuinely likes what he sees. He’s incredibly sincere, even in things like attraction. It makes it so easy to be around him, that sincerity.”

Taehyung looks around slowly like a deer in headlights, almost forgetting to chew what’s in his mouth. “Is anyone...I mean, is he - does he have any -”

With amused smiles on all the faces around him, one woman finishes his question for him. “Has he made wives or husbands out of any of us, you mean?”

“No!” Taehyung flounders. “No, no, I - yes. Yes.”

“No, Taehyung-ssi,” she laughs, eyes crinkling with mirth. “He never has and doesn’t intend to. He values his relationships with everyone here far too much to do that, nevermind that he’s watched everyone here grow up. He watched the oldest of us grow up, watched their parents grow up. Even if having known us as kids wouldn’t bother him, endangering a relationship with the potential rigors of love would.”

Taehyung deflates with the whoosh of relief that’s expelled from between his lips. He doesn’t know why that screwed him up so badly, but perhaps the reasons they just named have something to do with it. It’s a stark reminder of how old Jimin must be, too. It’s easy to be taken in by the youthful appearance of such a creature, even knowing there has only ever been one Red Dragon guarding their people.

“He’s not what you expected, huh?”

It’s the same woman, and she breaks him out of his reverie with the question. “Ah. No, he’s not. Not at all.”

“You were anticipating a beast.”

Taehyung flushes, feeling almost ashamed despite the expectation being only reasonable. “Well, I - ”

“It’s alright. He is a beast, I suppose. But he’s also a man, and a good one.”

“Yeah...yeah, that became apparent pretty quickly. He’s...kind. And funny. Captivatingly beautiful. I’ve never seen anyone so stunning.”

The Attendants nod and agree with him so readily that he hardly feels shy at all about voicing how enamoured he is with Jimin’s beauty. It’s obvious to him that everybody feels that way, that that stunning face has the same effect on all who see it.

“I’ll admit, though,” Taehyung says, having been mulling the question over for a while now. “I don’t understand why he has you all here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well...it’s just that every feasible reason one might have a legion of attendants, I’ve been told you do not do. You say he doesn’t ask you to do things like take care of his bedding, that he takes no partners, that he’s a friend and not a ruler. If he wanted none of these things, why did he take his first Attendants at all? What purpose does he have for making the deal he did and bringing those original families up the mountain?”

The woman makes a noise of understanding and nods slowly, smiling. “We brought you up here because, if we’re all honest, we feared he might be dying for our failure to ease his sickness.”

“Yes,” Taehyung nods, waiting for more.

“He was suffering, Doctor. He suffered for a long time from something he finds more painful, fears more than any disease. When he finally asked for his first Attendants in return for protection, it was because he felt he finally might be dying of it.”

Taehyung is on the edge of his seat, chest painful at the idea of sweet Jimin in such pain. “What?” he whispers, face rapt.

“Loneliness, Taehyung-ssi,” she smiles. “Loneliness.”

----

Days after that conversation, Taehyung finds one of the women he’s grown close to roaming the caverns with a hint of urgency in her step. It’s late enough that most have retired to their rooms, so he’s surprised by the sight of her - he’d been on his way to retire himself.

“Oh, Taehyung-ssi!” she calls, and he can’t help but feel a low, warm joy at having become someone the people up here greet with such unguarded amiability. “Have you seen my daughter?”

He knows the little girl she speaks of. He’s made a habit out of indulging the children in play because Jimin isn’t able to, and he’s gotten to know them all quite well. His affinity for children is no different here than it was down in the village.

“No. Shouldn’t she be in bed?”

“She should be, but when I went to say good night she wasn’t.”

He can hear the nerves starting to surface in her voice, though she’s been doing a good job of keeping up a calm face so far. Taehyung adopts a soothing tone immediately.

“Hey now, she couldn’t have gone far. We’ll find her. Where have you looked so far?”

Needless to say, finding the lost child becomes priority over going to bed. Taehyung stays a calming presence and searches the caverns with her for her missing daughter, speaking reason every time the woman starts to panic. He’s rather nervous himself, but the least he can do is try to keep her from falling too deep into her own head. The chances are the girl is fine, especially in a community like this. They just have to figure out where she’s hiding.

He helps her search the dining hall, the kitchens, follows her back to the sleeping quarters and checks under her bed in her room. She’s in none of those places. All throughout he keeps up his consistent soothing efforts, and he can tell by the grateful look she shoots him at one point that she knows what he’s doing and appreciates it. He’s keeping her on an even keel.

They spend quite a while searching fruitlessly, until an unexpected sound hits their ears while they make their way down one hall. It’s singing.

The mother deflates in relief and puts her head in her hands, blowing out a sigh. “I’m so dumb. She must have had a nightmare. I should have known.”

Taehyung can’t find it in himself to respond. He’s far too enchanted by the silken voice drifting through caverns of stone. It’s like nothing he’s ever heard before, soothing and angelic. Were he on the sea he’d be certain it was a siren, beckoning him towards a watery death. He knows with absolute certainty that he would step willingly into the icy embrace of the waves for that voice.

He follows the woman in something of a daze as she strides, now relaxed, down the cavernous stone halls. The route is familiar, and yet for some reason he doesn’t quite realize where they’re going until it opens up into the familiar landscape of Jimin’s chambers.

Oh. It’s him.

The child they’ve been looking for is curled up on Jimin’s chest where he lays in his bed, looking well on her way to falling fast asleep and boneless with trust and comfort. Jimin holds her with a soft gentility in his face, that incredible siren call coming from between his parted lips. He sings to her with warmth and care, claws running ever so carefully through her hair.

“I’m such a fool,” the child’s mother says. “She always goes to him and asks for a song when she’s had a nightmare. I should have come here first.”

Taehyung gets the feeling it’s been more than one song by now, but Jimin hardly seems to mind. He spots them quickly, lips curling into a gentle smile around his song as his eyes fall on them. The girl is out like a light where she lays on his chest.

Taehyung follows when the mother walks further into the room in something of a daze, still reeling and almost mourning the loss of the sound when Jimin stops singing at their approach. The worst part is that he doesn’t think this is any supernatural power, any magical charm. It’s just Jimin. Just Jimin with his stunning face and enchanting voice, all organic without a hint of trickery. Jimin captivates him with nothing but his own natural self.

“I’m so sorry, Jimin,” the woman says, reaching down to take the sleeping girl from him. “Thank you for taking care of her.”

Jimin’s gentle, deft hands help make the transfer smooth. The girl doesn’t even wake up as she’s hefted into her mother’s arms. “Don’t apologize. You know I love her. I love all of them. You used to do the same thing, you know. Come to me when you had nightmares and ask me to sing, I mean.”

Taehyung’s turns his gaze to her just in time to see her light up with a blush, scowling at Jimin with no real enmity and scolding, “Your memory is too good.”

“And you humans grow up too fast. You were so cute, and now look at you. All you do is scold me.”

How strange it is, to hear them talk of Jimin’s age so casually. It’s hard to comprehend looking at him, even with the evidence of his inhumanity manifested in his hands and horns.

“Thank you again,” the woman is saying. “I can’t believe this isn’t the first place I thought of when I couldn’t find her. I won’t make that mistake again.”

Jimin smiles. “On the contrary, feel free. I don’t mind feeling important for a little while. Especially when I’ve been so useless lately.”

“You’re not useless,” Taehyung blurts, flushing when Jimin’s eyes turn to him. “You, uh...you keep a lot of people safe, you know? We all live safe and comfortable down there because of you.”

Jimin hums, smiling. “You’re right. And you have the nerve to say I’m not scary?”

“A nightmare patient, maybe.”

“I’ll show you a nightmare patient.”

“Boys,” they’re both scolded, and they both smile like imps. She seems as exasperated as she would be with real children. “I’m going to leave with the little one. Do me a favor and don’t start any wrestling matches until Jimin is well again, would you?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good boy. Maybe Jimin can learn something from you.”

Jimin snorts. “As if. He’s just telling you what you want to hear, you know.”

She tells them she knows but figured it was worth a shot, and carries her daughter off to bed. Taehyung sits on the edge of Jimin’s.

“How are you feeling tonight?”

“Tired. A little achy. A lot better than I did before you arrived on the mountain, I’ll admit.”

“Good. Do you need anything before I go to bed?”

“No...I’m okay.” Jimin sighs and settles down into his bed, looking at Taehyung softly. “Hey, Taehyung? Thank you.”

Taehyung grins, and Jimin laughs. He knows exactly where it’s going from the look on the doctor’s face.

“Oh yeah? For what?”

“You know what.”

“I don’t know, enlighten me.”

“For taking care of me. For making me feel better. You’re a good doctor.”

“And?”

Jimin rolls his eyes, unable to keep the grin off his face. “And I’m glad you came up here.”

“Why, bestill my beating heart. You are very welcome.”

Jimin sinks back into that soft look, a smile that makes Taehyung’s heart do funny things. “I mean it, though. You’re a good doctor. You’ve done everything you can for me without a hint of hesitation. Touched me and sat with me and treated me like you’re not even afraid I might be catching.”

“Well, none of the Attendants have gotten sick, so I doubt you’re contagious. Besides, I’m not afraid of your overgrown lizard germs.”

Jimin laughs, kicking him from under the blankets.

“But really, that’s my job. You can’t treat sick people if you’re afraid of catching things. It’s an occupational hazard. If someone needs me I don’t care what they have, I just care about making them better. You’re no different, you know? You needed me. Seeing you start feeling better is worth everything - even the nightmarish gondola trip up.”

Jimin chuckles. “They told me about that.”

“I don’t even want to think about going back down.”

“You better not. At this time of night you’ll dream of it if you do.”

Taehyung groans to the tune of Jimin’s laughter.

“Go to bed, Taehyung. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Yeah. Don’t bundle up.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to pretend I wasn’t as soon as I hear you coming.”

That lovely little giggle follows Taehyung out of the room, and he hopes nobody can tell how it makes his heart flutter.

----

Taehyung continues to do his work, to treat Jimin and adjust his medications as needed. Jimin, in turn, continues to improve, looking better and getting more vibrant and alive each day. As his symptoms lessen, he becomes more playful, full of more smiles and laughs and teasing.

Taehyung falls further for him with every passing day. He can’t help but wonder at how lucky these people are as he gets to see more and more of the real Jimin. They get to be around this vibrancy, beauty, and kindness every day? How blessed they are.

Finally the day comes when Taehyung has barely roused himself from his sleep before an Attendant comes to his room, an odd smile on her face.

“What’s going on?” he asks her, immediately alerted by that unfamiliar expression. He can’t quite pin why she would be smiling at him that way, as if waiting to present a child with a gift they’ll love.

“Jimin has decided he feels well enough for a flight,” she says, smile growing. “Would you like to come see?”

Taehyung’s breath catches in his throat, eyes going wide. “A flight? You mean…?”

She nods and laughs a bright, joyous laugh as he starts scrambling to get his shoes on and flee the room. He’d be running away if he didn’t need her to guide him to the right place.

Not so long ago the idea of being near the Red Dragon he’s seen in the skies was a daunting, terrifying idea. Now, as he follows the Attendant to a cavern that opens to the outside, he can find in himself none of that apprehension or fear. No matter how large, no matter how strange, the creature that awaits is Jimin. He harbors no fear in his heart of Jimin. Sweet, beautiful Jimin.

Nothing could prepare him for the magnificent beast they walk in on. He’s massive , sleek and graceful, power in every shift of muscle, every breath. When he looks up, there are children hanging from familiarly shaped horns. They giggle and grapple, dangle above the broad curve of the dragon’s neck. The creature moves his head back and forth, enough to sway them and set them to shrieking and giggling, but not nearly enough to fling them and always keeping them in a place where a fallen child would not have far to go before plopping onto his scaled hide.

At first glance those scales appear as black as he’s depicted in paintings. What the paintings did not capture is how each large scale is like a plate of pure obsidian, shining glassy surfaces that reflect the light. It’s reflecting the light that they reveal their true colors.

With every shift of his body, Jimin’s scales refract light. In the depths of those obsidian shards, the light hits and bounces off of every shade of red imaginable. He glints the deepest burgundies and the brightest rubies, a visual cacophony of brilliant jewel tones. It takes Taehyung’s breath away.

A slow rumble sounds in the beast’s throat, not threatening but reverberating so strongly out of his massive chest that it rattles Taehyung’s own bones. The children let go of his horns and descend like they’ve heard it a million times before, they and Taehyung being guided back to the outskirts of the cavern.

The beast’s head turns, and Taehyung knows that eye that settles on him for just a moment. It’s a beautiful warm brown, a soul he’s familiar with and fond of shining through it. He revels in the pleased huff that comes from the Dragon when he grins a dazzled, boxy smile at it.

It’s pleased to see him awed by it. Yes, that’s definitely Jimin.

The takeoff is so powerful it almost blows him off his feet. He’s simply not expecting the way the ground shakes under him at the powerful footfalls and push off the edge, nor the incredibly powerful gust of wind that hits them with the first flap of broad, leathery wings. He’s grateful for whoever it is who was ready to steady him, their hands on his shoulders until he has his feet back under him.

He can’t help but run to the edge of the cavern to watch the incredible, hulking form of the Red Dragon fly, already growing smaller with distance at a staggering, impossible rate. His heart has never pounded like this before, so invigorated.

“What do you think?” someone asks him. Their tone says they already know.

There’s scantly any breath left in his lungs, but Taehyung pushes out what he can.

“He’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

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