Ignis Fatuus (Foolish Fire) (1/3)
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol
Length: 23084
Rating: PG
Summary: When Baekhyun falls through a wishing well and plunges headfirst into an unknown world, he finds himself walking through an incredible dream of magical civilisations, myths come to reality, a life on the road, maybe even love. And though all dreams must come to an end, surely all he has to do is trust in his guiding light - and believe it'll give him his happy ending.
Notes: Written for the 2017 round of Baeconandeggs. Originally posted here.
Disclaimer:The celebrities' names/images are merely borrowed and do not represent who the celebrities are in real life. No offense is intended towards them, their families or friends. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this fictional work. No copyright infringement is intended.
I.
Along the deserted coast, black sand stretched out to an endless sea, water swept up into waves by a fierce, cold wind.
At the edge of sand and tundra, Baekhyun scrambled over a rocky outcrop towards the open sea, sending gravel sliding and crunching in his wake. Daylight was almost completely gone, a slight sliver of amber at the edge of the horizon providing him with the light he needed to find his way. Coming to the coast at dusk was almost a daily routine for Baekhyun. He’d lived near the sea all his life. He loved losing himself to the unrestrained power of the ocean, loved immersing himself in the roar of the waves and the cold rush of wind.
Today, though, he’d been held up in the shop before closing, and he’d almost missed the sunset. He’d managed to make his way to the shore several miles north of where he usually went, and perched himself several metres away from the water’s edge, watching as deep violet waves barrelled against the jagged boulders of ice that had drifted ashore, growing higher and more forceful with each successive current.
Further up and down the coast, there wasn’t a soul to be seen. The people in Baekhyun’s town were superstitious, and they’d passed down stories for generations - tales of elves, trolls, and countless other creatures they believed lived concealed in their midst. One of the most popular myths was the tale of the whitewater men - mysterious humanoid apparitions, Grim Reapers of a kind, that came from the sea at the close of day and took innocents with them, never to be seen again. The villagers of the valley all feared the whitewater men, and consequently kept well away from the sea from sunset till sunrise.
Baekhyun, however, had never believed the stories. He’d sat by the ocean himself, day after day, and he’d never once seen any whitewater men. The myths were all made-up, fanciful ideas the people created to distract themselves from the monotony of life in the valley. In his twenty odd years of life, nobody had ever left or arrived at the island. According to the village chiefs, it had been this way for as long as anyone could remember - the valley was all the villagers knew, and whether there was a world beyond the island was doubtful. Baekhyun personally believed that there was more out there, but none of them could leave - the seas were too rough, and the village had yet to build a boat sturdy enough to withstand the waters.
The last of the sun sank below the horizon, and the distant lights of the village came on one by one. Baekhyun knew that he should be heading on back to the amphitheatre for the nightly sacrifice, but as he turned to leave, he spotted something in the space behind the natural arch. Someone had built a structure out of rocks, and it was just out of his line of sight.
Baekhyun stood up and skirted around the base of the inland cliff, heading towards the arch. As he approached the structure, he realised that it was a well - the old-fashioned kind of wishing well, with a cylindrical base and stone roof. Strange, he thought, that a well would be able to draw freshwater from a place so close to the sea.
It was only when he got much nearer that he heard it. The voice.
Baekhyun stood in front of the well, and the familiarity of the voice had his mind reeling in shock. Because the voice coming from the depths of the well, where no voice should be able to come from, was the soft, velvety voice of the boy who had wandered lost on this shore all those years ago.
He could still remember his face, every detail of it. He hadn’t given a name, and he’d only been around for a few weeks, but Baekhyun could never forget that memory.
Baekhyun leaned over and peered cautiously into the well. There was nothing but dark water, its surface too far down for Baekhyun to see clearly. Yet the voice continued to speak.
“We shouldn’t have come into the wood. Not this way.”
What wood? Baekhyun looked around in all directions, but there was nothing - no one - in sight.
Another voice took over. “Like we had a choice. We’re lucky if we don’t get vaporised, showing up to court this late.”
“We could’ve gone by the marshlands if we’d left earlier.” The familiar voice answered, but it was trailing off, getting softer as it spoke.
Baekhyun leaned over the well, straining to hear. The sky was dark now, the moon hanging on the horizon.
“Oh my god. It’s that well.” This voice was different from the previous two, sharper and higher-pitched.
What happened next would always remain crystal-clear in Baekhyun’s memory.
He hadn’t leaned far, but somehow his cheek touched cold water. Suddenly an invisible force was seizing hold of his entire body, sucking him into the well like a vacuum. Instinctively, Baekhyun grabbed hold of the basin’s edges, but it was fruitless. The power of the force lifted his feet clean off the ground and dragged him head-first into freezing dark water.
Baekhyun’s entire body tensed, muscles seizing up from the cold. Desperately, he kicked out and flailed his arms, hitting the rough sides of the column. This wasn’t normal water - it was ice cold, unnaturally cold, and seemed to be purging him of his strength. He clutched at the sides of the well, but couldn’t grip onto anything - the edges of the basin were so high up, the circle of sky a mile away. How could he possibly have touched the water from way up there? The voices from before were louder now, all talking over each other, crowding up into his ears as though a hundred people were shouting at once.
As he struggled, strength sapped away from his limbs. I’m going to die here, he thought in despair. There was no way he could scale the walls. A cloud of panic was slowly descending over his mind, blocking out all coherent thought. He screamed for help, but the sound seemed to fade before it could even escape the mouth of the well, and there wouldn’t be anyone around for miles anyway.
He thought he might’ve died even before he suffocated, because there was no pressure, no weight pressing on his lungs. There was just the oddest lurch of gravity, the feeling of his life energy being ripped from its foundations. This is where my life ends, he thought. Near the sea, but yet so far, and in the most painfully cruel way possible.
Then his thoughts tapered off, and he sank under the surface to drown.
II.
The side of his face slammed against hard earth. Baekhyun flinched, wincing slightly in pain, and realised the ground beneath him was rough and damp, sort of like a mossy carpet. He was… alive?
Baekhyun’s eyes flew open, and he drew in a deep breath, body still trembling from the remnants of shock and cold. The first thing he saw was open sky - lingering traces of purple fading to the deep blue of night. He was lying on a bed of grass, and next to him, rising out of the ground, was a wishing well. Greying brick overgrown with vines, a peaked roof - the very same one he’d drowned in only moments ago.
He hadn’t been anywhere near grass. It wasn’t cold anymore; the air was temperate, almost balmy. And he’d just drowned, but his clothes and hair were inexplicably dry.
Was this the afterlife?
Slowly, Baekhyun sat up, propping himself against the base of the well. He was in some sort of forest clearing, and belatedly, he realised that he had company. Several figures, all wearing dark travelling cloaks, stood at the edge of the clearing. They were talking to one another, speaking with the same voices he’d heard coming from the well.
One of them approached, and Baekhyun instinctively crouched into an upright position, trying to assume a defensive stance. As though sensing his unease, the guy stopped in his tracks, keeping a safe distance between them. “H-hello.”
From where he stood, Baekhyun could just about make out the guy’s face. It was him. Much older, but definitely the same guy. Baekhyun stared, stunned and disbelieving, into a pair of wide, strangely familiar eyes.
“Uh, Kyungsoo,” someone said. “We kind of have to get out of here.” There were three of them: all guys, as far as Baekhyun could tell - at the edge of the forest, shifting restlessly under bulky cloaks. Their eyes constantly darted around, as though scanning for danger. “We can’t help him.”
“No, wait,” the familiar guy - Kyungsoo - cut in, still staring at Baekhyun as though he was a ghostly apparition. “We have to take this guy with us.”
Baekhyun finally found his voice. “It’s you, isn’t it?” he managed, voice cracking slightly.
“We have to what?” one of the other guys asked, like he hadn’t even heard Baekhyun.
“I know him.” Kyungsoo stepped forward out of the shadows, and Baekhyun was too taken aback to react. “You’re from that village, where I got lost. You helped me.”
Baekhyun nodded haltingly. “I remember.”
“Baekhyun,” he said, the corners of his mouth lifting into a slight smile.
The guy who’d spoken earlier stalked towards them, crossing the clearing in a few large strides. He stared pointedly at Baekhyun, gaze unfriendly and almost aggressive. “We. Need. To. Leave,” he said, his expression a mix of incredulous and annoyed. “If you want to keep him, bring him. Now.”
Kyungsoo nodded without taking his eyes off Baekhyun. “Come on. We have to get out of the woods before it gets dark.” Angry-guy just looked at Kyungsoo in exasperation, then turned around and headed off into the forest with the two others.
Baekhyun felt hopelessly lost. “Uh, no? I need to go back.”
“No chance of that,” Kyungsoo said, even as Baekhyun took a few steps towards the well and looked into its depths. It was bone dry. Even in the dim light, he could see a thin layer of mud crusting up at the bottom. “That’s not how things work in this wood. The magic here is always temporary.”
“Get moving, Kyungsoo,” the guy from earlier bellowed, already a good twenty metres away.
Kyungsoo grabbed hold of Baekhyun’s arm and started pulling him away from the well, towards the forest. “It’s dangerous in here. We have to get out before night falls completely. Follow us.”
Against his better judgement, Baekhyun gave a last, helpless look at the dried-out well, then turned and let Kyungsoo pull him into the forest. Where was he and what was happening?
Kyungsoo broke into a run almost immediately, hurrying to catch up with the three guys who’d pulled ahead. He was pushing through thick webs of tree branches, and they snapped back to hit Baekhyun in the face as he followed blindly, barely seeing in the semi-darkness. The path was uneven, and Baekhyun reached out to feel ahead of him with his hands as he moved, struggling not to stumble over the roots or to fall into the crevices. There was an odd sense of sensory deprivation, like he was isolated with only the sounds of heavy breathing, the rustling of leaves as they pushed through the brambly vegetation, and the balmy inhale of humid evening air.
The journey seemed to last forever, the sky gradually darkening as they went. Baekhyun had to sprint flat-out just to keep up, every muscle in his body screaming desperately for help, and in the physical pain his mind seemed to grow numb. His initial, paralysing shock began to fade, and slowly the unbelievable reality of his situation began to take hold.
He gathered his thoughts enough to speak. “Where are we going?” He was panting hard, almost tripping in his exhaustion.
Kyungsoo was perfectly unfazed, moving with ease through the forest as though he’d been doing it all his life. “The Seelie Court. We’re almost there.”
“What’s the Seelie Court?”
“It’s just up ahead.”
They broke through a final row of trees, and Kyungsoo finally slowed to a stop. They’d arrived before a narrow path paved in white pebble, lined on both sides with manicured lavender bushes. Ahead in the distance, a towering hornbeam hedge stretched endlessly in either direction, and at the end of the path was a hedge archway, strongly backlit by a warm golden glow. For some reason, just looking at the doorway made the hair on Baekhyun’s arms stand on end.
Kyungsoo’s three companions were waiting for them on the path. “We made it after all,” one of them said. “Hurry, we’re probably almost late.”
They followed the path, Baekhyun trailing slightly behind the group. When he reached the end of the path and stood before the glowing archway, Baekhyun could hear music, singing, and clear laughter like bells, drifting from just behind the door.
He still couldn’t see anything of what lay beyond other than that blinding light, and was almost afraid to enter, but Kyungsoo walked ahead and pulled him along, grip firm on his arm. Baekhyun cringed, bracing himself as he stepped into the light, but it was just like passing through a mist - the faintest coolness on his skin, and then he emerged on the other side of the door, in the heart of the Seelie Court.
***
Baekhyun’s senses were immediately assaulted by the brightness of their surroundings. They were standing in a large meadow, and even though night had fallen, everything was washed out in blinding golden light. He blinked, trying to adjust, trying to take everything in.
The first thing Baekhyun realised was that they weren’t out in the open anymore. He couldn’t see the sky - it was completely blocked from view by the canopy of the most mind-bogglingly enormous tree he had ever seen. It stood at the far end of the meadow, the width of its colossal trunk stretching the entire length of the field, obscured in patches by the foliage of smaller trees growing around its base. There were doorways carved into its roots, light emanating from windows further up the trunk, staircases complete with railings carved into the exterior of the bark. On some of the low-hanging branches, people were sitting out in small gardens, . The tree was an entire living, breathing community in its own right.
He couldn’t tell where the light was coming from. It seemed to be just present, filling the meadow without any particular source, a multitude of microscopic particles drifting and spinning in the air.
The meadow itself was buzzing with energy, filled with the strangest and most diverse collection of guests, seemingly people of all shapes and sizes. Baekhyun’s eyes came to rest on one of the girls standing near their group, and his brain froze.
Were those wings?
“Irene is in the throne room,” one of Kyungsoo’s friends said casually, unfastening his cloak to reveal a satiny maroon suit. “We’ll be wanted in court.”
“Um, Baekhyun?”
Baekhyun spun around, realising that Kyungsoo was trying to get his attention. He’d pulled off his own cloak too, and was wearing a matching suit in a slightly deeper bordeaux. “I’m - we’re - going up to the Queen’s chambers now.”
Baekhyun cleared his throat. “Where?”
Kyungsoo gestured up at the tree, and Baekhyun craned his neck to see. He was pointing to a large open hallway with an equilateral arched roof, carved into the uppermost section of trunk before the thick canopy of leaves took over. It was so high up, all that was visible from the ground was a row of shining gold columns. “Okay,” he said faintly.
“You can’t come in with us,” Kyungsoo continued. “Would you wait over at the faerie circle?”
The faerie circle. Baekhyun followed his gaze to a glade cordoned off at the far left of the meadow. Its entrance, a doorway within a mass of twisting vines, was marked by a pair of flaming torches, and Baekhyun could see more fire flickering within its depths.
Reflexively, he nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Sure.”
“Baekhyun.” Suddenly Kyungsoo reached out and took hold of his hands, holding them together within warm palms. “I know this must seem bewildering. You must feel like you’re going crazy. But you helped me out. I promise, I swear, I’ll get you home too.” He looked straight at him, then, with those wide innocent eyes and that soft smile, and Baekhyun had to trust him.
He nodded subtly, and Kyungsoo’s smile widened in relief. “There’s a party on tonight, so you won’t be asked who you are. Just wait in there for us and we’ll be out in a while.” Kyungsoo gave him a last reassuring pat on the arm, and then he turned to head towards the tree, leaving Baekhyun standing alone at the entrance of the meadow.
***
As Baekhyun crossed the meadow towards the arch, soft leather shoes sinking into a carpet of plush grass, he felt like he was walking through a sunlit dream.
In his dream, he floated past crowds and crowds of people. Women in gauzy skirts, their diaphanous dragonfly-like wings glimmering with dew. Stern-looking men with skin of rich nut-browns and olive greens, their catlike eyes glowing, leaves and vines entwined in long silver hair. Short humanoid creatures dressed in silk jewel tones, clustered around little tables, sharing spoils and dancing to lively flute music. And there were large creatures, too - supersized humanoids, their booming laughter audible from halfway across the green.
As he walked, nobody stopped him to ask why he was here. Nobody stared like he was out of place. Everyone was celebrating, lost in a cloud of joyful feasting, dancing and music.
Nobody questioned him as he walked through the archway and into the faeries’ circle. As the name implied, the glade was circular - ringed by benches arranged in a concentric pattern, a stage occupying the centre spot. Most of the seats were taken by the time Baekhyun arrived, and he climbed to the uppermost circle and settled in a vacant spot.
It was dim in the glade compared to the meadow, but the central arena was illuminated by a ring of flaming torches, and the dark greenery framing the walls was spotted with a million glowing fireflies. The roof of foliage was absent within the walls of the glade, and Baekhyun could see stars overhead. In the front row of seats, a group of women - or faeries - were getting ready to go onstage, chattering excitedly with each other, their skirts and wings shifting opalescent as they moved.
Then one of the faeries floated down to the center of the arena and the chatter of the audience quietened, fading into scattered applause.
“For the next dance, our guest Prince Chanyeol of the royal court of Aurum will be playing for us.” She gestured with both hands at someone in the front row, and inclined her head in respect.
The prince stood up, a lone figure against a backdrop of greenery and fireflies. He was tall and thin, with hair a flame-brushed orange, swept back away from his face. Even from where Baekhyun sat in the back rows, he could make out bold, yet pretty features - he was aggressively handsome, beautiful in a way that knew no subtlety. His ears, slightly pointed, peeked out from beneath silk-smooth hair. If it wasn’t for his conspicuously human colouring, Baekhyun would’ve wondered if he was a faerie himself.
The prince crossed the stage and picked up a wooden instrument shaped roughly like a guitar, seating himself in front of the rest of the ensemble. In the stands, the faeries filed out towards the centre of the stage and assumed their starting positions.
Then the music started, a low haunting motif that kept repeating itself, weaving through the sound in different textures and different pitches. The faeries’ dance mimicked the rousing energy of the instrumentals, building towards a climax where they burst into a rich harmony of song. As the faeries sang, the prince was looking towards the skies. There was a distant expression in his eyes, like he wasn't really there at all, though his fingers kept strumming and his slight smile told of joy of the purest kind.
Baekhyun had always loved music. He’d used to linger behind after mandatory meetings in the valley’s enclave, to secretly play on the old piano in the backroom. He’d used to sit out on the coastal cliffs, singing songs he’d improvised himself, where nobody else could hear him. But they hadn’t had much of a music culture in the valley, and this was the first time he’d felt the full extent of its rapture. Along with the captivation, there was a keen sense of chrysalism, like he’d been cocooned in a web of magic the faeries weaved with their song. Their fingertips painted pictures in the air, their motion carved images on his soul.
And through the magic, the hum of guitar strings cut crystal clear, a hypnotic rhythmic progression that had Baekhyun steadily slipping out of focus. He blinked, attempting to refocus on the mesmerising visuals, but the prince’s playing was like a current, gently and relentlessly drawing him back in. The refrain persisted, getting bolder and clearer with each repetition. As the song drew to its close, Baekhyun finally snapped out of his trance to realise he’d been staring straight at the prince, and the prince was looking straight back at him.
The hair on the back of Baekhyun’s neck was standing straight up.
He caught the faint impression of a slight smile and amused glint in the prince’s eyes before managing to tear his eyes away.
***
“So, Kyungsoo got lost in your world, and you helped him out.”
Baekhyun nodded. He’d explained himself at least thrice over the course of the last hour, and was getting pretty tired, but figured he’d better play along while he was still trapped here. “I didn’t help him get out, but I did help him. I’m sure Kyungsoo can give you a better idea of what happened.”
He was sitting on a hard wooden floor, surrounded by bunk beds and stacked crates filled with assorted possessions. After the group had finished whatever business they had with the Seelie Queen, they’d picked Baekhyun up and brought him back through the wood, out to a large caravan parked by the side of a country road - where they were now gathered.
He’d learned the names of Kyungsoo’s companions. The guy who’d been impatient and skeptical earlier was Yixing. Jongin was the owner of the second voice he’d heard coming from the well. Sehun was the tall one with the incredibly angular face.
Now, Yixing hurried from storage crate to dressing cabinet, pulling out a spare bed and setting up fresh bedding and pillows with Kyungsoo’s help. Sehun and Jongin were sprawled out on one of the bunk beds, looking down at where Baekhyun sat on the floor.
“So, Baekhyun, do you dance? Sing? Acrobatics, or any other showy skills?”
Baekhyun shook his head. “No. Well, I sing sometimes, but I’m not any good.”
“Let us be the judge of that.” Sehun flipped over and sat up on the bed, crossing his legs. “Sing us something.”
Baekhyun glanced over to Kyungsoo for help, but the latter was still busy shifting furniture around. “Uh, okay.” Baekhyun closed his eyes and tried to remember one of the songs he’d composed. He began singing, starting with a few hesitant notes and increasing his volume as his confidence grew.
When he finished and opened his eyes, Jongin shook his head and clapped loudly. “Well, that’s that,” Sehun said with a shrug. “He can join Kyungsoo.”
“Since we’re doing this, we should probably try to pick up a better bed somewhere tomorrow,” Jongin added, turning to face Yixing. “We’re going to be on the road for a while, it can get quite bumpy.”
“Aren’t we passing by a mill tomorrow?” Yixing asked.
“It won’t be necessary,” Baekhyun cut in. Everyone fell silent, staring at him. “I’m leaving. Tonight.”
At that, Sehun burst out laughing.
“You’re going back into the Forest?” Jongin asked, looking Baekhyun up and down skeptically. “Can someone explain to him, please?”
“You can’t go back in there now.” Kyungsoo’s tone was firm. “Obviously we can’t actually stop you, but I said I would help you. These woods are never safe after dark. Especially for someone travelling alone.”
“There didn’t seem to be anything in there when we passed through earlier.” They’d seen lots of trees, but not a single animal. He supposed there might be a chance of crazies loitering in there at night, but he’d take his chances.
“We were travelling as a group. It was before nightfall when we went to the court, and on the way out the faeries granted us safe passage from Thesor. We can’t guarantee anything if you go back in there now.”
“And if I don’t go tonight, then what?” Baekhyun turned to face Kyungsoo. “When am I going to go back in there?”
Kyungsoo paused. “We… need to consult with a magician before going back in there. If you want to live.”
A… magician. “And where can we find one?”
“We know one in Argentum.” Yixing dumped a heap of bedding and spare clothes onto the bed they’d set up. “We’re heading there, starting tomorrow. We’ll probably arrive in two weeks’ time.”
Two weeks, and that was just to reach the magician. It seemed they’d already decided, as they all got changed, climbed into bed and turned the lights out. Baekhyun put on the spare clothes Yixing lent him, lying obediently under the covers of the spare bed while he waited for the others to fall asleep.
Inside, he was restless. Kyungsoo seemed trustworthy enough, and he’d said he would help Baekhyun, but wanted him to live with a group of strangers on the road for a month. The idea filled him with intense discomfort - he was essentially being taken as prisoner. He couldn’t be sure what these people would do to him once he was locked in a caravan with them crossing the land, putting miles between himself and the well. Between entrusting his life to a bunch of random guys and risking the forest, he’d have to choose the latter.
He stayed as still as he could under the covers and waited for maybe an hour, until he was sure they were all out. Then he climbed out as quietly as he could, putting his clothes on over Yixing’s and slipping out of the caravan.
The first thing that hit him was the temperature. It had been warm and temperate earlier, but the night air was strangely cold. Baekhyun thought he could remember the approximate direction; on the way back from the court, they’d passed through the clearing with the well again. They’d gone over a stream, followed it until it crossed a rocky vista, then wound their way through a path overgrown with vines till they’d hit the road he was now standing on.
Still, everything seemed so much more eerie after dark. The trees seemed much taller, their foliage denser, and though Baekhyun couldn’t see anyone else around, moving shadows were passing between the thin trunks. He quickly found the rocky vista and followed it, getting his shoes sopping wet by the thin stream of water that was running over the rocks. But when he reached the end, instead of meeting with the stream, the water just glazed over the last of the boulders and disappeared into a crevice.
The magic here is always temporary, Kyungsoo had said. But he’d been talking about the wishing well. The stream was just part of the forest. Maybe he’d followed the vista in the wrong direction.
Baekhyun retraced his steps, keeping closely to the path. It extended further in this direction, and he felt like he’d walked several miles by the time he arrived at the end. He was met with a steep drop-off, where the rocks crumbled into sand. He couldn’t see into the pit below, but it most definitely wasn’t the stream he was looking for.
Where could it be?
He tried to turn and head back along the path, but this time the ground seemed strangely tilted, like he was walking up a steep incline. The pebbles slid and crunched underfoot as he tried to climb upwards, almost as though trying to hinder his progress on purpose. Baekhyun was forced to cling to the larger boulders lining the sides of the path, and he pressed on, struggling to put one foot in front of the other. With each step he took, his feet kept sinking deeper into the rocky gravel, until he decided to abandon the impossible task and try to climb the boulders instead.
Shaking with effort, he managed to pull himself up the side of the path, and lay on the ground, shivering. The woods were completely dark now, his surroundings illuminated only by the light of the full moon. To his right lay the drop into the rocky path, and to his left was a vast grove of seemingly endless conifers, spaced evenly in uniform rows. The stream was nowhere to be seen.
He’d been in denial till that moment, but as he slowly lost grip on his resolve, the panic began to settle in. In his chest, his heartbeat seemed to be getting harder and slower. Baekhyun struggled to stand up, but when he did he realised he couldn’t even see the path of vines he’d taken to get here. It had disappeared clean off the landscape, like it never existed.
A wave of nausea rose up in Baekhyun’s throat, and hopelessness threatened to swallow him whole.
And then at that moment, in the distance, he heard the sound of hooves hitting the earth, getting louder as it approached.
Baekhyun’s first instinct was to run. But it definitely sounded like horses - murderers or robbers didn’t usually operate on horseback. And where could he run to? He couldn’t go back into the rocks. The climb had drained every last drop of energy out of him, his legs were buckling even as he stood - he wouldn’t last another minute in the accursed place. As for the level ground he stood on now, there was nothing but sparsely-growing conifers as far as his eyes could see. There wasn’t a single place to hide.
He could only hope it was a friendly party. In a split second, he made his decision, opening his mouth to call out. “HELP!” He yelled as loudly as he could, hoping and praying with every fibre of his being.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the riders seemed to hear him, because they changed their direction, and now he could see the vague outline of a group of people heading towards him on horseback.
“STOP!” The rider at the front of the group shouted at the others, and all the horses came abruptly rearing to a stop, just a few yards away. Somebody turned on a lantern, and Baekhyun blinked out the glare, the riders slowly coming into focus. They were all men, and the one at the front was dismounting his horse, a black cloak shrouding his tall figure. He took the lamp from one of the others, and approached Baekhyun slowly. “Traveller, are you lost?” He spoke in a low, clear voice.
It was the prince from the glade. Prince… Chanyeol?
Baekhyun nodded, almost crying in relief. “Yes.” He sounded less shaken than he felt.
The prince held out the lantern to get a better look at Baekhyun’s face, and though his eyes widened with what might have been recognition, he didn’t voice it out. “How did you get here?”
What a question. Baekhyun briefly considered, then decided to keep it short. “I came from the Seelie Court.” That the prince already knew.
“Were you looking for something?” The prince asked. Baekhyun couldn’t see the expression in his eyes, but his voice was calm, tone perfectly even.
“No,” he said. “I got lost trying to find my way back to the road. My caravan is parked there.”
The prince nodded. “That’s not far from here. We’ll take you back. You shouldn’t be in the woods alone at this time.” He extended a hand, and Baekhyun took hold of his outstretched palm. The skin was warm and rough, the strength in his arms reassuring as he reached out to support Baekhyun. His own legs felt strange, and he realised that his knees were shaking, threatening to give way once again. What exactly had the stone path done to him?
One of the men behind the prince had dismounted, and approached Baekhyun, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take him, your highness.”
The prince nodded, and Baekhyun let the man steer him to his horse and help him up into the saddle. He’d often ridden, back home, but the horses had never been this big. The ground seemed awfully far away.
The light from the lantern was extinguished, and the horses began to canter, racing through the straight lines of the grove.
The journey back was over in a matter of minutes. Baekhyun was filled with relief, faint embarrassment at imposing himself, and regret that he hadn’t been able to find his way back. But for some reason, the crippling fear and dread had completely disappeared.
When their horses came through the last of the trees to meet clear air and country road, the prince dismounted and walked over to Baekhyun’s horse to help him down. The other riders stayed mounted, waiting a short distance behind.
The prince took hold of Baekhyun’s hand, encasing it within his own warm, broad palm, and the action filled Baekhyun with the strangest sense of security. He’d pushed back his hood and his face was now visible, shadowy in the dim light.
Up close, there was something intimidating about him, something intense and almost unsettling about his gaze. Still, Baekhyun trusted him. “Is this your destination?” He spoke quietly, but his voice was deep and resonant, like restless currents under a calm sea.
Baekhyun looked at the caravan parked on the road, and turned back to face him. “Yes… your highness,” he added.
“Then I wish you good luck and safe travels.”
Baekhyun’s eyes flickered downwards. “I’m sorry for any trouble I’ve caused. Thank you for helping me.”
“I hope you don’t enter the woods alone at night again.”
“I won’t,” Baekhyun said, and a faint half-smile flashed across the prince’s face. Then, just as abruptly, he let go, turning to walked back to his party. Baekhyun kept his head bowed - he wasn’t sure why, it felt respectful - as the prince mounted his ride and the entire group turned to head back into the dark forest.
Once Baekhyun was alone, he headed back into the caravan, managing to slip into bed without waking any of the other sleeping guys. In spite of the exhaustion, he lay awake for a long time after, wondering - what in the world he was going to do now?
>>
Length: 23084
Rating: PG
Summary: When Baekhyun falls through a wishing well and plunges headfirst into an unknown world, he finds himself walking through an incredible dream of magical civilisations, myths come to reality, a life on the road, maybe even love. And though all dreams must come to an end, surely all he has to do is trust in his guiding light - and believe it'll give him his happy ending.
Notes: Written for the 2017 round of Baeconandeggs. Originally posted here.
Disclaimer:The celebrities' names/images are merely borrowed and do not represent who the celebrities are in real life. No offense is intended towards them, their families or friends. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this fictional work. No copyright infringement is intended.
I.
Along the deserted coast, black sand stretched out to an endless sea, water swept up into waves by a fierce, cold wind.
At the edge of sand and tundra, Baekhyun scrambled over a rocky outcrop towards the open sea, sending gravel sliding and crunching in his wake. Daylight was almost completely gone, a slight sliver of amber at the edge of the horizon providing him with the light he needed to find his way. Coming to the coast at dusk was almost a daily routine for Baekhyun. He’d lived near the sea all his life. He loved losing himself to the unrestrained power of the ocean, loved immersing himself in the roar of the waves and the cold rush of wind.
Today, though, he’d been held up in the shop before closing, and he’d almost missed the sunset. He’d managed to make his way to the shore several miles north of where he usually went, and perched himself several metres away from the water’s edge, watching as deep violet waves barrelled against the jagged boulders of ice that had drifted ashore, growing higher and more forceful with each successive current.
Further up and down the coast, there wasn’t a soul to be seen. The people in Baekhyun’s town were superstitious, and they’d passed down stories for generations - tales of elves, trolls, and countless other creatures they believed lived concealed in their midst. One of the most popular myths was the tale of the whitewater men - mysterious humanoid apparitions, Grim Reapers of a kind, that came from the sea at the close of day and took innocents with them, never to be seen again. The villagers of the valley all feared the whitewater men, and consequently kept well away from the sea from sunset till sunrise.
Baekhyun, however, had never believed the stories. He’d sat by the ocean himself, day after day, and he’d never once seen any whitewater men. The myths were all made-up, fanciful ideas the people created to distract themselves from the monotony of life in the valley. In his twenty odd years of life, nobody had ever left or arrived at the island. According to the village chiefs, it had been this way for as long as anyone could remember - the valley was all the villagers knew, and whether there was a world beyond the island was doubtful. Baekhyun personally believed that there was more out there, but none of them could leave - the seas were too rough, and the village had yet to build a boat sturdy enough to withstand the waters.
The last of the sun sank below the horizon, and the distant lights of the village came on one by one. Baekhyun knew that he should be heading on back to the amphitheatre for the nightly sacrifice, but as he turned to leave, he spotted something in the space behind the natural arch. Someone had built a structure out of rocks, and it was just out of his line of sight.
Baekhyun stood up and skirted around the base of the inland cliff, heading towards the arch. As he approached the structure, he realised that it was a well - the old-fashioned kind of wishing well, with a cylindrical base and stone roof. Strange, he thought, that a well would be able to draw freshwater from a place so close to the sea.
It was only when he got much nearer that he heard it. The voice.
Baekhyun stood in front of the well, and the familiarity of the voice had his mind reeling in shock. Because the voice coming from the depths of the well, where no voice should be able to come from, was the soft, velvety voice of the boy who had wandered lost on this shore all those years ago.
He could still remember his face, every detail of it. He hadn’t given a name, and he’d only been around for a few weeks, but Baekhyun could never forget that memory.
Baekhyun leaned over and peered cautiously into the well. There was nothing but dark water, its surface too far down for Baekhyun to see clearly. Yet the voice continued to speak.
“We shouldn’t have come into the wood. Not this way.”
What wood? Baekhyun looked around in all directions, but there was nothing - no one - in sight.
Another voice took over. “Like we had a choice. We’re lucky if we don’t get vaporised, showing up to court this late.”
“We could’ve gone by the marshlands if we’d left earlier.” The familiar voice answered, but it was trailing off, getting softer as it spoke.
Baekhyun leaned over the well, straining to hear. The sky was dark now, the moon hanging on the horizon.
“Oh my god. It’s that well.” This voice was different from the previous two, sharper and higher-pitched.
What happened next would always remain crystal-clear in Baekhyun’s memory.
He hadn’t leaned far, but somehow his cheek touched cold water. Suddenly an invisible force was seizing hold of his entire body, sucking him into the well like a vacuum. Instinctively, Baekhyun grabbed hold of the basin’s edges, but it was fruitless. The power of the force lifted his feet clean off the ground and dragged him head-first into freezing dark water.
Baekhyun’s entire body tensed, muscles seizing up from the cold. Desperately, he kicked out and flailed his arms, hitting the rough sides of the column. This wasn’t normal water - it was ice cold, unnaturally cold, and seemed to be purging him of his strength. He clutched at the sides of the well, but couldn’t grip onto anything - the edges of the basin were so high up, the circle of sky a mile away. How could he possibly have touched the water from way up there? The voices from before were louder now, all talking over each other, crowding up into his ears as though a hundred people were shouting at once.
As he struggled, strength sapped away from his limbs. I’m going to die here, he thought in despair. There was no way he could scale the walls. A cloud of panic was slowly descending over his mind, blocking out all coherent thought. He screamed for help, but the sound seemed to fade before it could even escape the mouth of the well, and there wouldn’t be anyone around for miles anyway.
He thought he might’ve died even before he suffocated, because there was no pressure, no weight pressing on his lungs. There was just the oddest lurch of gravity, the feeling of his life energy being ripped from its foundations. This is where my life ends, he thought. Near the sea, but yet so far, and in the most painfully cruel way possible.
Then his thoughts tapered off, and he sank under the surface to drown.
II.
The side of his face slammed against hard earth. Baekhyun flinched, wincing slightly in pain, and realised the ground beneath him was rough and damp, sort of like a mossy carpet. He was… alive?
Baekhyun’s eyes flew open, and he drew in a deep breath, body still trembling from the remnants of shock and cold. The first thing he saw was open sky - lingering traces of purple fading to the deep blue of night. He was lying on a bed of grass, and next to him, rising out of the ground, was a wishing well. Greying brick overgrown with vines, a peaked roof - the very same one he’d drowned in only moments ago.
He hadn’t been anywhere near grass. It wasn’t cold anymore; the air was temperate, almost balmy. And he’d just drowned, but his clothes and hair were inexplicably dry.
Was this the afterlife?
Slowly, Baekhyun sat up, propping himself against the base of the well. He was in some sort of forest clearing, and belatedly, he realised that he had company. Several figures, all wearing dark travelling cloaks, stood at the edge of the clearing. They were talking to one another, speaking with the same voices he’d heard coming from the well.
One of them approached, and Baekhyun instinctively crouched into an upright position, trying to assume a defensive stance. As though sensing his unease, the guy stopped in his tracks, keeping a safe distance between them. “H-hello.”
From where he stood, Baekhyun could just about make out the guy’s face. It was him. Much older, but definitely the same guy. Baekhyun stared, stunned and disbelieving, into a pair of wide, strangely familiar eyes.
“Uh, Kyungsoo,” someone said. “We kind of have to get out of here.” There were three of them: all guys, as far as Baekhyun could tell - at the edge of the forest, shifting restlessly under bulky cloaks. Their eyes constantly darted around, as though scanning for danger. “We can’t help him.”
“No, wait,” the familiar guy - Kyungsoo - cut in, still staring at Baekhyun as though he was a ghostly apparition. “We have to take this guy with us.”
Baekhyun finally found his voice. “It’s you, isn’t it?” he managed, voice cracking slightly.
“We have to what?” one of the other guys asked, like he hadn’t even heard Baekhyun.
“I know him.” Kyungsoo stepped forward out of the shadows, and Baekhyun was too taken aback to react. “You’re from that village, where I got lost. You helped me.”
Baekhyun nodded haltingly. “I remember.”
“Baekhyun,” he said, the corners of his mouth lifting into a slight smile.
The guy who’d spoken earlier stalked towards them, crossing the clearing in a few large strides. He stared pointedly at Baekhyun, gaze unfriendly and almost aggressive. “We. Need. To. Leave,” he said, his expression a mix of incredulous and annoyed. “If you want to keep him, bring him. Now.”
Kyungsoo nodded without taking his eyes off Baekhyun. “Come on. We have to get out of the woods before it gets dark.” Angry-guy just looked at Kyungsoo in exasperation, then turned around and headed off into the forest with the two others.
Baekhyun felt hopelessly lost. “Uh, no? I need to go back.”
“No chance of that,” Kyungsoo said, even as Baekhyun took a few steps towards the well and looked into its depths. It was bone dry. Even in the dim light, he could see a thin layer of mud crusting up at the bottom. “That’s not how things work in this wood. The magic here is always temporary.”
“Get moving, Kyungsoo,” the guy from earlier bellowed, already a good twenty metres away.
Kyungsoo grabbed hold of Baekhyun’s arm and started pulling him away from the well, towards the forest. “It’s dangerous in here. We have to get out before night falls completely. Follow us.”
Against his better judgement, Baekhyun gave a last, helpless look at the dried-out well, then turned and let Kyungsoo pull him into the forest. Where was he and what was happening?
Kyungsoo broke into a run almost immediately, hurrying to catch up with the three guys who’d pulled ahead. He was pushing through thick webs of tree branches, and they snapped back to hit Baekhyun in the face as he followed blindly, barely seeing in the semi-darkness. The path was uneven, and Baekhyun reached out to feel ahead of him with his hands as he moved, struggling not to stumble over the roots or to fall into the crevices. There was an odd sense of sensory deprivation, like he was isolated with only the sounds of heavy breathing, the rustling of leaves as they pushed through the brambly vegetation, and the balmy inhale of humid evening air.
The journey seemed to last forever, the sky gradually darkening as they went. Baekhyun had to sprint flat-out just to keep up, every muscle in his body screaming desperately for help, and in the physical pain his mind seemed to grow numb. His initial, paralysing shock began to fade, and slowly the unbelievable reality of his situation began to take hold.
He gathered his thoughts enough to speak. “Where are we going?” He was panting hard, almost tripping in his exhaustion.
Kyungsoo was perfectly unfazed, moving with ease through the forest as though he’d been doing it all his life. “The Seelie Court. We’re almost there.”
“What’s the Seelie Court?”
“It’s just up ahead.”
They broke through a final row of trees, and Kyungsoo finally slowed to a stop. They’d arrived before a narrow path paved in white pebble, lined on both sides with manicured lavender bushes. Ahead in the distance, a towering hornbeam hedge stretched endlessly in either direction, and at the end of the path was a hedge archway, strongly backlit by a warm golden glow. For some reason, just looking at the doorway made the hair on Baekhyun’s arms stand on end.
Kyungsoo’s three companions were waiting for them on the path. “We made it after all,” one of them said. “Hurry, we’re probably almost late.”
They followed the path, Baekhyun trailing slightly behind the group. When he reached the end of the path and stood before the glowing archway, Baekhyun could hear music, singing, and clear laughter like bells, drifting from just behind the door.
He still couldn’t see anything of what lay beyond other than that blinding light, and was almost afraid to enter, but Kyungsoo walked ahead and pulled him along, grip firm on his arm. Baekhyun cringed, bracing himself as he stepped into the light, but it was just like passing through a mist - the faintest coolness on his skin, and then he emerged on the other side of the door, in the heart of the Seelie Court.
***
Baekhyun’s senses were immediately assaulted by the brightness of their surroundings. They were standing in a large meadow, and even though night had fallen, everything was washed out in blinding golden light. He blinked, trying to adjust, trying to take everything in.
The first thing Baekhyun realised was that they weren’t out in the open anymore. He couldn’t see the sky - it was completely blocked from view by the canopy of the most mind-bogglingly enormous tree he had ever seen. It stood at the far end of the meadow, the width of its colossal trunk stretching the entire length of the field, obscured in patches by the foliage of smaller trees growing around its base. There were doorways carved into its roots, light emanating from windows further up the trunk, staircases complete with railings carved into the exterior of the bark. On some of the low-hanging branches, people were sitting out in small gardens, . The tree was an entire living, breathing community in its own right.
He couldn’t tell where the light was coming from. It seemed to be just present, filling the meadow without any particular source, a multitude of microscopic particles drifting and spinning in the air.
The meadow itself was buzzing with energy, filled with the strangest and most diverse collection of guests, seemingly people of all shapes and sizes. Baekhyun’s eyes came to rest on one of the girls standing near their group, and his brain froze.
Were those wings?
“Irene is in the throne room,” one of Kyungsoo’s friends said casually, unfastening his cloak to reveal a satiny maroon suit. “We’ll be wanted in court.”
“Um, Baekhyun?”
Baekhyun spun around, realising that Kyungsoo was trying to get his attention. He’d pulled off his own cloak too, and was wearing a matching suit in a slightly deeper bordeaux. “I’m - we’re - going up to the Queen’s chambers now.”
Baekhyun cleared his throat. “Where?”
Kyungsoo gestured up at the tree, and Baekhyun craned his neck to see. He was pointing to a large open hallway with an equilateral arched roof, carved into the uppermost section of trunk before the thick canopy of leaves took over. It was so high up, all that was visible from the ground was a row of shining gold columns. “Okay,” he said faintly.
“You can’t come in with us,” Kyungsoo continued. “Would you wait over at the faerie circle?”
The faerie circle. Baekhyun followed his gaze to a glade cordoned off at the far left of the meadow. Its entrance, a doorway within a mass of twisting vines, was marked by a pair of flaming torches, and Baekhyun could see more fire flickering within its depths.
Reflexively, he nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Sure.”
“Baekhyun.” Suddenly Kyungsoo reached out and took hold of his hands, holding them together within warm palms. “I know this must seem bewildering. You must feel like you’re going crazy. But you helped me out. I promise, I swear, I’ll get you home too.” He looked straight at him, then, with those wide innocent eyes and that soft smile, and Baekhyun had to trust him.
He nodded subtly, and Kyungsoo’s smile widened in relief. “There’s a party on tonight, so you won’t be asked who you are. Just wait in there for us and we’ll be out in a while.” Kyungsoo gave him a last reassuring pat on the arm, and then he turned to head towards the tree, leaving Baekhyun standing alone at the entrance of the meadow.
***
As Baekhyun crossed the meadow towards the arch, soft leather shoes sinking into a carpet of plush grass, he felt like he was walking through a sunlit dream.
In his dream, he floated past crowds and crowds of people. Women in gauzy skirts, their diaphanous dragonfly-like wings glimmering with dew. Stern-looking men with skin of rich nut-browns and olive greens, their catlike eyes glowing, leaves and vines entwined in long silver hair. Short humanoid creatures dressed in silk jewel tones, clustered around little tables, sharing spoils and dancing to lively flute music. And there were large creatures, too - supersized humanoids, their booming laughter audible from halfway across the green.
As he walked, nobody stopped him to ask why he was here. Nobody stared like he was out of place. Everyone was celebrating, lost in a cloud of joyful feasting, dancing and music.
Nobody questioned him as he walked through the archway and into the faeries’ circle. As the name implied, the glade was circular - ringed by benches arranged in a concentric pattern, a stage occupying the centre spot. Most of the seats were taken by the time Baekhyun arrived, and he climbed to the uppermost circle and settled in a vacant spot.
It was dim in the glade compared to the meadow, but the central arena was illuminated by a ring of flaming torches, and the dark greenery framing the walls was spotted with a million glowing fireflies. The roof of foliage was absent within the walls of the glade, and Baekhyun could see stars overhead. In the front row of seats, a group of women - or faeries - were getting ready to go onstage, chattering excitedly with each other, their skirts and wings shifting opalescent as they moved.
Then one of the faeries floated down to the center of the arena and the chatter of the audience quietened, fading into scattered applause.
“For the next dance, our guest Prince Chanyeol of the royal court of Aurum will be playing for us.” She gestured with both hands at someone in the front row, and inclined her head in respect.
The prince stood up, a lone figure against a backdrop of greenery and fireflies. He was tall and thin, with hair a flame-brushed orange, swept back away from his face. Even from where Baekhyun sat in the back rows, he could make out bold, yet pretty features - he was aggressively handsome, beautiful in a way that knew no subtlety. His ears, slightly pointed, peeked out from beneath silk-smooth hair. If it wasn’t for his conspicuously human colouring, Baekhyun would’ve wondered if he was a faerie himself.
The prince crossed the stage and picked up a wooden instrument shaped roughly like a guitar, seating himself in front of the rest of the ensemble. In the stands, the faeries filed out towards the centre of the stage and assumed their starting positions.
Then the music started, a low haunting motif that kept repeating itself, weaving through the sound in different textures and different pitches. The faeries’ dance mimicked the rousing energy of the instrumentals, building towards a climax where they burst into a rich harmony of song. As the faeries sang, the prince was looking towards the skies. There was a distant expression in his eyes, like he wasn't really there at all, though his fingers kept strumming and his slight smile told of joy of the purest kind.
Baekhyun had always loved music. He’d used to linger behind after mandatory meetings in the valley’s enclave, to secretly play on the old piano in the backroom. He’d used to sit out on the coastal cliffs, singing songs he’d improvised himself, where nobody else could hear him. But they hadn’t had much of a music culture in the valley, and this was the first time he’d felt the full extent of its rapture. Along with the captivation, there was a keen sense of chrysalism, like he’d been cocooned in a web of magic the faeries weaved with their song. Their fingertips painted pictures in the air, their motion carved images on his soul.
And through the magic, the hum of guitar strings cut crystal clear, a hypnotic rhythmic progression that had Baekhyun steadily slipping out of focus. He blinked, attempting to refocus on the mesmerising visuals, but the prince’s playing was like a current, gently and relentlessly drawing him back in. The refrain persisted, getting bolder and clearer with each repetition. As the song drew to its close, Baekhyun finally snapped out of his trance to realise he’d been staring straight at the prince, and the prince was looking straight back at him.
The hair on the back of Baekhyun’s neck was standing straight up.
He caught the faint impression of a slight smile and amused glint in the prince’s eyes before managing to tear his eyes away.
***
“So, Kyungsoo got lost in your world, and you helped him out.”
Baekhyun nodded. He’d explained himself at least thrice over the course of the last hour, and was getting pretty tired, but figured he’d better play along while he was still trapped here. “I didn’t help him get out, but I did help him. I’m sure Kyungsoo can give you a better idea of what happened.”
He was sitting on a hard wooden floor, surrounded by bunk beds and stacked crates filled with assorted possessions. After the group had finished whatever business they had with the Seelie Queen, they’d picked Baekhyun up and brought him back through the wood, out to a large caravan parked by the side of a country road - where they were now gathered.
He’d learned the names of Kyungsoo’s companions. The guy who’d been impatient and skeptical earlier was Yixing. Jongin was the owner of the second voice he’d heard coming from the well. Sehun was the tall one with the incredibly angular face.
Now, Yixing hurried from storage crate to dressing cabinet, pulling out a spare bed and setting up fresh bedding and pillows with Kyungsoo’s help. Sehun and Jongin were sprawled out on one of the bunk beds, looking down at where Baekhyun sat on the floor.
“So, Baekhyun, do you dance? Sing? Acrobatics, or any other showy skills?”
Baekhyun shook his head. “No. Well, I sing sometimes, but I’m not any good.”
“Let us be the judge of that.” Sehun flipped over and sat up on the bed, crossing his legs. “Sing us something.”
Baekhyun glanced over to Kyungsoo for help, but the latter was still busy shifting furniture around. “Uh, okay.” Baekhyun closed his eyes and tried to remember one of the songs he’d composed. He began singing, starting with a few hesitant notes and increasing his volume as his confidence grew.
When he finished and opened his eyes, Jongin shook his head and clapped loudly. “Well, that’s that,” Sehun said with a shrug. “He can join Kyungsoo.”
“Since we’re doing this, we should probably try to pick up a better bed somewhere tomorrow,” Jongin added, turning to face Yixing. “We’re going to be on the road for a while, it can get quite bumpy.”
“Aren’t we passing by a mill tomorrow?” Yixing asked.
“It won’t be necessary,” Baekhyun cut in. Everyone fell silent, staring at him. “I’m leaving. Tonight.”
At that, Sehun burst out laughing.
“You’re going back into the Forest?” Jongin asked, looking Baekhyun up and down skeptically. “Can someone explain to him, please?”
“You can’t go back in there now.” Kyungsoo’s tone was firm. “Obviously we can’t actually stop you, but I said I would help you. These woods are never safe after dark. Especially for someone travelling alone.”
“There didn’t seem to be anything in there when we passed through earlier.” They’d seen lots of trees, but not a single animal. He supposed there might be a chance of crazies loitering in there at night, but he’d take his chances.
“We were travelling as a group. It was before nightfall when we went to the court, and on the way out the faeries granted us safe passage from Thesor. We can’t guarantee anything if you go back in there now.”
“And if I don’t go tonight, then what?” Baekhyun turned to face Kyungsoo. “When am I going to go back in there?”
Kyungsoo paused. “We… need to consult with a magician before going back in there. If you want to live.”
A… magician. “And where can we find one?”
“We know one in Argentum.” Yixing dumped a heap of bedding and spare clothes onto the bed they’d set up. “We’re heading there, starting tomorrow. We’ll probably arrive in two weeks’ time.”
Two weeks, and that was just to reach the magician. It seemed they’d already decided, as they all got changed, climbed into bed and turned the lights out. Baekhyun put on the spare clothes Yixing lent him, lying obediently under the covers of the spare bed while he waited for the others to fall asleep.
Inside, he was restless. Kyungsoo seemed trustworthy enough, and he’d said he would help Baekhyun, but wanted him to live with a group of strangers on the road for a month. The idea filled him with intense discomfort - he was essentially being taken as prisoner. He couldn’t be sure what these people would do to him once he was locked in a caravan with them crossing the land, putting miles between himself and the well. Between entrusting his life to a bunch of random guys and risking the forest, he’d have to choose the latter.
He stayed as still as he could under the covers and waited for maybe an hour, until he was sure they were all out. Then he climbed out as quietly as he could, putting his clothes on over Yixing’s and slipping out of the caravan.
The first thing that hit him was the temperature. It had been warm and temperate earlier, but the night air was strangely cold. Baekhyun thought he could remember the approximate direction; on the way back from the court, they’d passed through the clearing with the well again. They’d gone over a stream, followed it until it crossed a rocky vista, then wound their way through a path overgrown with vines till they’d hit the road he was now standing on.
Still, everything seemed so much more eerie after dark. The trees seemed much taller, their foliage denser, and though Baekhyun couldn’t see anyone else around, moving shadows were passing between the thin trunks. He quickly found the rocky vista and followed it, getting his shoes sopping wet by the thin stream of water that was running over the rocks. But when he reached the end, instead of meeting with the stream, the water just glazed over the last of the boulders and disappeared into a crevice.
The magic here is always temporary, Kyungsoo had said. But he’d been talking about the wishing well. The stream was just part of the forest. Maybe he’d followed the vista in the wrong direction.
Baekhyun retraced his steps, keeping closely to the path. It extended further in this direction, and he felt like he’d walked several miles by the time he arrived at the end. He was met with a steep drop-off, where the rocks crumbled into sand. He couldn’t see into the pit below, but it most definitely wasn’t the stream he was looking for.
Where could it be?
He tried to turn and head back along the path, but this time the ground seemed strangely tilted, like he was walking up a steep incline. The pebbles slid and crunched underfoot as he tried to climb upwards, almost as though trying to hinder his progress on purpose. Baekhyun was forced to cling to the larger boulders lining the sides of the path, and he pressed on, struggling to put one foot in front of the other. With each step he took, his feet kept sinking deeper into the rocky gravel, until he decided to abandon the impossible task and try to climb the boulders instead.
Shaking with effort, he managed to pull himself up the side of the path, and lay on the ground, shivering. The woods were completely dark now, his surroundings illuminated only by the light of the full moon. To his right lay the drop into the rocky path, and to his left was a vast grove of seemingly endless conifers, spaced evenly in uniform rows. The stream was nowhere to be seen.
He’d been in denial till that moment, but as he slowly lost grip on his resolve, the panic began to settle in. In his chest, his heartbeat seemed to be getting harder and slower. Baekhyun struggled to stand up, but when he did he realised he couldn’t even see the path of vines he’d taken to get here. It had disappeared clean off the landscape, like it never existed.
A wave of nausea rose up in Baekhyun’s throat, and hopelessness threatened to swallow him whole.
And then at that moment, in the distance, he heard the sound of hooves hitting the earth, getting louder as it approached.
Baekhyun’s first instinct was to run. But it definitely sounded like horses - murderers or robbers didn’t usually operate on horseback. And where could he run to? He couldn’t go back into the rocks. The climb had drained every last drop of energy out of him, his legs were buckling even as he stood - he wouldn’t last another minute in the accursed place. As for the level ground he stood on now, there was nothing but sparsely-growing conifers as far as his eyes could see. There wasn’t a single place to hide.
He could only hope it was a friendly party. In a split second, he made his decision, opening his mouth to call out. “HELP!” He yelled as loudly as he could, hoping and praying with every fibre of his being.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the riders seemed to hear him, because they changed their direction, and now he could see the vague outline of a group of people heading towards him on horseback.
“STOP!” The rider at the front of the group shouted at the others, and all the horses came abruptly rearing to a stop, just a few yards away. Somebody turned on a lantern, and Baekhyun blinked out the glare, the riders slowly coming into focus. They were all men, and the one at the front was dismounting his horse, a black cloak shrouding his tall figure. He took the lamp from one of the others, and approached Baekhyun slowly. “Traveller, are you lost?” He spoke in a low, clear voice.
It was the prince from the glade. Prince… Chanyeol?
Baekhyun nodded, almost crying in relief. “Yes.” He sounded less shaken than he felt.
The prince held out the lantern to get a better look at Baekhyun’s face, and though his eyes widened with what might have been recognition, he didn’t voice it out. “How did you get here?”
What a question. Baekhyun briefly considered, then decided to keep it short. “I came from the Seelie Court.” That the prince already knew.
“Were you looking for something?” The prince asked. Baekhyun couldn’t see the expression in his eyes, but his voice was calm, tone perfectly even.
“No,” he said. “I got lost trying to find my way back to the road. My caravan is parked there.”
The prince nodded. “That’s not far from here. We’ll take you back. You shouldn’t be in the woods alone at this time.” He extended a hand, and Baekhyun took hold of his outstretched palm. The skin was warm and rough, the strength in his arms reassuring as he reached out to support Baekhyun. His own legs felt strange, and he realised that his knees were shaking, threatening to give way once again. What exactly had the stone path done to him?
One of the men behind the prince had dismounted, and approached Baekhyun, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take him, your highness.”
The prince nodded, and Baekhyun let the man steer him to his horse and help him up into the saddle. He’d often ridden, back home, but the horses had never been this big. The ground seemed awfully far away.
The light from the lantern was extinguished, and the horses began to canter, racing through the straight lines of the grove.
The journey back was over in a matter of minutes. Baekhyun was filled with relief, faint embarrassment at imposing himself, and regret that he hadn’t been able to find his way back. But for some reason, the crippling fear and dread had completely disappeared.
When their horses came through the last of the trees to meet clear air and country road, the prince dismounted and walked over to Baekhyun’s horse to help him down. The other riders stayed mounted, waiting a short distance behind.
The prince took hold of Baekhyun’s hand, encasing it within his own warm, broad palm, and the action filled Baekhyun with the strangest sense of security. He’d pushed back his hood and his face was now visible, shadowy in the dim light.
Up close, there was something intimidating about him, something intense and almost unsettling about his gaze. Still, Baekhyun trusted him. “Is this your destination?” He spoke quietly, but his voice was deep and resonant, like restless currents under a calm sea.
Baekhyun looked at the caravan parked on the road, and turned back to face him. “Yes… your highness,” he added.
“Then I wish you good luck and safe travels.”
Baekhyun’s eyes flickered downwards. “I’m sorry for any trouble I’ve caused. Thank you for helping me.”
“I hope you don’t enter the woods alone at night again.”
“I won’t,” Baekhyun said, and a faint half-smile flashed across the prince’s face. Then, just as abruptly, he let go, turning to walked back to his party. Baekhyun kept his head bowed - he wasn’t sure why, it felt respectful - as the prince mounted his ride and the entire group turned to head back into the dark forest.
Once Baekhyun was alone, he headed back into the caravan, managing to slip into bed without waking any of the other sleeping guys. In spite of the exhaustion, he lay awake for a long time after, wondering - what in the world he was going to do now?
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