Migration (Open Challenge: Die the Heroes)
Title: Migration
Author: twhitesakura
Genre: Romance
Word-count: 395
Rating: PG
Concrit? Yes
Summary: Fantasy AU. Jaejoong and Yunho's last night by the Wall of Tears.
When the last of the Viscathi were driven beyond the River Senoic, Jaejoong and Yunho called upon the clans to erect a barrier all along the northern border. Wise mages attended, slipping incantation papers between the cracks of stones, each hewn so they fit like puzzle pieces. The endeavor of building the wall took three long years, but at last it was finished. The warriors who had fought so long and hard for their freedom and safety wept, baptizing the fortification so it became known as the Wall of Tears.
Stupefied, exhausted, Yunho and Jaejoong gathered their closest friends around the campfire and drank to the stars. Men were already dismantling their log cabins and mud huts, temporary abodes, eager to return to their homelands.
Yunho tilted his amber beer into the firelight, dreaming of the great harvest his hamlet must be gathering. He thought of his little sister and her brown arms, scything the golden wheat and how he would come home and present his ailing father with the gems and spoils he had acquired during his rise from common soldier to leader. They’d never need to work the land again.
Jaejoong tapped rough fingers against the scabbard of his sword, thinking of wet rope and fishing nets, of their yielding, fraying fibers beneath his hands. He would have to learn them over again, grow new callouses and find a merchant to buy a ship from. He’d no longer need to hug the sparse shore with his flimsy rowboat; he could have one with proper rigs, hire a cohort of men, and even sail to different trade ports.
When the fire sputtered, dimming low to embers, Yunho and Jaejoong bid farewell to their comrades, clasping forearms in long and meaningful grasps. They were the last to enter their shared quarters, a makeshift lean-to couched beneath a curving cliff that shielded it from extreme rain and snow. The two warriors lay on their mattress of straw and instead of sleeping back to back, as they usually did, they curled into each other, careful to avoid each others’ gazes. Jaejoong pressed a kiss behind the tender skin of Yunho’s ear and they held onto each other tightly. Through the night, they pretended to sleep, waiting for dawn to break and knowing like the migrating birds, against feeling or thought, they could only go away from here.
Author: twhitesakura
Genre: Romance
Word-count: 395
Rating: PG
Concrit? Yes
Summary: Fantasy AU. Jaejoong and Yunho's last night by the Wall of Tears.
When the last of the Viscathi were driven beyond the River Senoic, Jaejoong and Yunho called upon the clans to erect a barrier all along the northern border. Wise mages attended, slipping incantation papers between the cracks of stones, each hewn so they fit like puzzle pieces. The endeavor of building the wall took three long years, but at last it was finished. The warriors who had fought so long and hard for their freedom and safety wept, baptizing the fortification so it became known as the Wall of Tears.
Stupefied, exhausted, Yunho and Jaejoong gathered their closest friends around the campfire and drank to the stars. Men were already dismantling their log cabins and mud huts, temporary abodes, eager to return to their homelands.
Yunho tilted his amber beer into the firelight, dreaming of the great harvest his hamlet must be gathering. He thought of his little sister and her brown arms, scything the golden wheat and how he would come home and present his ailing father with the gems and spoils he had acquired during his rise from common soldier to leader. They’d never need to work the land again.
Jaejoong tapped rough fingers against the scabbard of his sword, thinking of wet rope and fishing nets, of their yielding, fraying fibers beneath his hands. He would have to learn them over again, grow new callouses and find a merchant to buy a ship from. He’d no longer need to hug the sparse shore with his flimsy rowboat; he could have one with proper rigs, hire a cohort of men, and even sail to different trade ports.
When the fire sputtered, dimming low to embers, Yunho and Jaejoong bid farewell to their comrades, clasping forearms in long and meaningful grasps. They were the last to enter their shared quarters, a makeshift lean-to couched beneath a curving cliff that shielded it from extreme rain and snow. The two warriors lay on their mattress of straw and instead of sleeping back to back, as they usually did, they curled into each other, careful to avoid each others’ gazes. Jaejoong pressed a kiss behind the tender skin of Yunho’s ear and they held onto each other tightly. Through the night, they pretended to sleep, waiting for dawn to break and knowing like the migrating birds, against feeling or thought, they could only go away from here.