#anyways here have a bundle of sunshine with a flower crown and some rose petals

[hearteyesnh-archived]

☀🍃 the summertime, the butterflies.. 🌷🌻

[retroateez]

Prophecy - Chapter Nine

hello!! updating this quicker than I expected but i’m excited for this again so here we go,,, i’m gonna try scheduling this one too so that’s fun. hope u enjoy xx

wc;3282 Prophecy Masterlist

Needless to say, passing your alchemy exam proved a far more difficult task than you had initially anticipated.

No wonder why Yeosang had failed it five times.

You're sat in Yeosang's garden, perched on one of the benches placed against the wall of the house. The winding path through the woods is around a hundred metres ahead of you, and you often find yourself staring amoungst the tree trunks, wondering what could be lurking there.

You knew nothing could attack you on Yeosang's land; he had cast a protective charm over the entire area, so even if he wasn't here, you remained safe.

Although, grumbling at the exam paper in your lap, you half wished a griffin would come barrelling through the forest and tear you into shreds with it's deadly claws.

You're convinced it would be less painful than the questions on this exam.

What is the purpose of bloodmoss?  you read Yeosang's scruffy print, having been forced to get accustomed with his unintelligable handwriting.

"Oh, this is easy," you murmur to yourself, picking up your quill and scribbling your answer down quickly.

'Bloodmoss is used to create Vitriol.' you scrawl. 'Vitriol is used to dissolve certain substances.' You nod to yourself, proud that you seem to be doing fairly well, despite how challenging Yeosang made your test. You're convinced he did it on purpose.

With a sigh, you turn the page and gratefully, you lay your eyes on the final question. That is, until you read it.

It doesn't even seem to be a question, nor is it written in Yeosang's usual hand. In fact, it appears to be from a book, the ink faded at the edge of the pages from people thumbing through the whole volume.

But why was there a single page mixed in with your alchemy exam?

'Beserkers' is written at the top of the page in a large, bold print.

'Originating from the North, Beserkers are believed to have roots in powerful bear cults. Members of these cults are typically warriors, of whom are thought to manifest the strength of the bears themselves and enter a fit of frenzy. These frenzies are wild in nature, often leaving the individual considerabley weaker once the effect has worn off. It is debated whether or not these Beserkers metamorphose into bea-'

"Have you finished your exam yet, Iris?" Yeosang voice plummets you back down to earth, causing you to jump in your seat and almost send your papers flying out of your grip.

"Yeah!" you gasp, holding them out to him and he takes them with a smile.

As he goes back inside to mark your test, you decide not to ask him about the loose page hiding in your exam. It clearly wasn't supposed to be there, so you come to the conclusion that Yeosang doesn't want you knowing about it. Truth be told, whatever those things were, they seemed dangerous anyway.

Yeosang finds you at the end of the garden a short while later, plucking daisies from the grass and knotting their stems together. He stands behind you, observing your creation of what he assumes will be a crown. You haven't noticed him yet, and he takes the moment to think.

He couldn't explain why he took you under his wing and trusted you immediately. There was just something about the way your two lonely souls happened to find one another that tugged at Yeosang's heart strings. He always was a sucker for sappy things like that.

He was glad to have a human friend, for a change. Somebody that he could talk to, and they would offer him actual conversation back. He enjoyed his role as your teacher too; they had told him being an advisor of the arts was a position he was destined for, they just hadn't factored in the fact he despised them and everything they stood for. Besides, he knew your knowledge of magic was minimal, if not almost non-existent. Meaning there were little to no dangers here, and he refused to have a repeat of last time.

"Hey, you." Yeosang calls out, cautious not to make you jump again. "Want your exam results?"

You spin around on the grass instantaneously, probably staining the seat of your (Yeosang's) borrowed breeches in the process. You leap up, jumping towards him.

"I did awfully, didn't I?" you chew on your bottom lip nervously, playing with the ends of the sleeves on your (Yeosang's) shirt.

"Congrats, my tiny student," he smiles. "On being the only person I know to have passed their alchemy exam on their very first try."

He hands you the papers and you gawk at the mark score that reads fifty out of fifty points at the top. You stand there, frozen, staring at the numbers.

"Well?" Yeosang asks. "Aren't you going to thank me for being the best alchemy teacher ever?"

You look up at him to see the fond expression he seems to have gotten comfortable wearing.

Deciding to play along, and maybe embarrass him a little, you sweep down into a full bow.

"Thank you!" you cry. "O' great master of alchemy! How ever would I have gained such knowledge without your guidance? May the gods bless your so-"

"Okay, okay! That's overkill." Yeosang laughs at your exaggerated performance, then he notices your daisy crown, abandoned on the ground where you were sitting.

He paces over to it and leans down to pick it up, and you watch him silently.

He crumples the flowers up into his palm, and closes his eyes.

A couple of seconds pass, and Yeosang's eyes flutter open, his irises burning a dandelion yellow. He turns to you, then opens his palms, leaving you in awe.

The daises you had picked, were tiny and snowy white, wrinkled and bearing few petals. But the daises Yeosang was presenting were gorgeous; each flower had grown to the size of roses, blooming proudly in the mage's hands.

Yeosang places the daisy crown on your head, and steps back to admire his work.

"Well done," he smiles softly. "I'm proud of you."

You can only give him back a wide grin, loving the sunshine yellow glow Yeosang's flowers leave against your hair.

-----

"So, where does this astrolomer guy live?" you ask Yeosang a few days later during lunch.

"Astrologer." he corrects you, handing you a sandwich and a bowl of sliced apples.

"Yeah, that one."

Now that you had officially earned a beginner's alchemy qualification, Yeosang was content on making progress with the messy situation you had gotten him into.

"He lives just outside of Yirelia," he answers. "It'll take us a day or two to get there, so we'll have to rest at a village inn or something."

You nod and chew your food slowly, nerves already beginning to set in. You'd never travelled anywhere before, and you knew that with Yeosang by your side, you would be safe; he'd never let anything happen to you. But still, you couldn't help but feel a little nauseous.

"So, how come this astrolomer owes you a favour?" you ask, ignoring Yeosang rolling his eyes at you getting the stranger's profession wrong once again.

"Astrologer," he corrects you one more time, and you don't know why he bothers. "And I saved his life once. Us outcasts stick together."

"Outcast? Is he a mage too?"

"Not quite." Yeosang doesn't elaborate, so you take it as an unspoken hint to stop asking questions, and eat.

The blonde mage bustles about the house for the rest of the day, gathering ingredients and bundling them into pouches, collecting bottles of brewed potions and lining them inside his satchel and packing clothes and food into a smaller, leather bag for you to carry.

"Do we really need all this?" you question him, surveying the small vial of yet another restoration potion he was clutching in his palm.

"Probably not," he tells you honestly. "But you never know when one of these little beauties could come in handy!"

You just nod, deciding to go along with his plan. You do that a lot with Yeosang, you noticed; just taking his words and concluding that he knows best in every situation. Perhaps for your own character it would be better to question him at times, but deep down you knew that without Yeosang's guidance you'd probably be buried six feet under in the Ateez graveyard.

No, they wouldn't have even buried you, they probably would have just thrown your body into the sea. Yeosang's ideas were (probably) better than that, so you opt to keep your mouth shut and assist him with the packing.

The next morning, you set off, you clad in a seaweed green shirt and tight, black breeches. Yeosang had once again altered some of his old clothing for you to wear. If his mage work fell through, you think he'd make a spectacular tailor.

Yeosang looks great (as usual), dressed in his typical white shirt and brown trousers, paired with a sweeping, wine red coat which has sleeves hiding most of his hands.

"That coat makes you look like a pirate." you muse aloud to him. You see a hint of offense strike his face, but he recovers quickly, grabbing his satchel and slinging it over his shoulder.

"Maybe I want to look like a pirate." he sniffs and turns away from you, marching off and starting your journey.

You hurry to catch up with him, having to increase your pace to keep in time with his brisk pacing.

"So... we're just walking?" you question.

"Yes." Yeosang replies shortly.

"Right."

You wrinkle your nose; you'd hoped that he'd be a little more talkative but it seemed that when the mage had a goal, he was very determined to get it done. Or perhaps he had finally concluded he was in fact pissed off with you for getting him into a situation that required him to walk for two days straight?

"Do you wanna play a game?" you suddenly blurt.

-----

"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with... T!"

"Tree?" you guess Yeosang's attempt at playing your game immediately.

"How are you so good at this?" Yeosang pouts; you've deciphered his hint on every single one of his turns so far, and you can't even tell how long it's been since you started. Time is an illusion when you're walking.

"Because there's nothing around us except for trees!" you yell. "What else could 'T' possibly be?!"

Yeosang falls silent at your outburst and carries on walking.

A while passes with the two of you in silence, and the guilt begins to creep in. You shouldn't have gotten mad at Yeosang, but he'd spied trees at least six times already and it really was getting frustrating.

After deliberating for a few moments, to plan your apology to Yeosang. The game was your suggestion, after all, and it wasn't fair for you to snap at him.

"I'm sor-"

"There's a small town nearby," Yeosang cuts you off. "We can rest there for a bit and get something to eat."

The moment for you to apologise passes, and you can tell by how Yeosang refuses to meet your eye that you've upset him. You mutter a quiet agreement and you both carry on your way.

You silently pray that the town wasn't too far away, the tense atmosphere becoming too much for you to handle and the guilt weighs heavy on your shoulders. Yeosang was good to you. more than good, in fact. He had literally saved your life, fixed you up and tapped into your hidden potential to be more than just some common thief, of course, he wasn't aware of your past, or indeed anything about your life from before you washed up just outside his back garden. But he still hadn't asked for any information regarding your former identity. Maybe it simply wasn't important to him? After all, the past was the past and what was most important was the present. Yeosang didn't seem the type to dwell on the 'before', instead focusing on the 'now'. In a way, you were grateful for it; you didn't want to think about his reaction if he discovered you were in fact a minor criminal.

Luckily, Yeosang brings you to the doors of what you assume to be a tavern, the hanging sign outside the door reading 'The Golden Treasure' in bold, professional lettering. However, the small crowd of drunks hanging around the entrance suggested this was a far from professional establishment.

You look up at Yeosang questioningly, and he responds with a shrug of his shoulders and a quick signal for you to stick close to him.

As usual, you cling to the mage's side like a lost child, gripping the side of his red coat so tightly you're concerned your knuckles will rip through your skin.

The two of you keep your sights fixed on the doors, avoiding all possible eye-contact with the drunks whose intoxicated yelling was quickly escalating into a fist fight.

Yeosang rapidly whisks you up the steps and towards the door of the tavern to get you as far away from the men as quickly as he can.

"Jongho!" one of the men slurs. "Leave it man! It's not worth wasting your time on!" you witness a stocky, well-built young man with an oddly round, grizzly brown haircut be hauled back by another man much smaller than himself. It's a wonder how he can even tug the obviously stronger man away from his rival, but something tells you this isn't the first time he's had to do it.

Already through the threshold of the inn, you aren't able to watch the angry young man's response, but a shrill yelp of pain and the sound of a body colliding harshly with the ground tells you all you need to know.

Yeosang steers you by the shoulders up to the barkeeper to inquire about rooms, and you take the chance to study the inn.

You'd never been inside a tavern before, the swarms of drunk folk loitering outside the building at night a clear reason for you to stay clear, but on the interior, you found it to be strangely comfortable.

It was a large, dim room with minimal light coming from the roaring fire situated opposite the door. Sturdy tables and less sturdy benches fill up the center of the room, empty goblets and playing cards strewn across the tabletops in an untidy fashion; perhaps the ruckus outside was the result of a card game gone awry.

On the far right was a staircase leading up, to where you presumed the rooms for travellers and the like were.

The whole room was highlighted by the familiar warm glow from the hearth, and your worries started to settle again, laying themselves to sleep like the exhausted people meters above your head. You feel the comfortable heat from the warm seep through your body, beginning at your fingertips and sliding underneath your skin. Even surrounded by dangerous strangers, you've oddly never felt more at home. There was something about being around Yeosang that just made you feel like you belonged. Like you and him were two pieces of a puzzle you'd spent years trying to figure out how to piece together. But now that you'd finally managed to get them to fit, you realised there was something missing. There were other pieces to the puzzle, but they were scattered around the box, and they were all painted pitch black; you had no idea which piece was which, or which piece you needed next. 

Still, you were content being at Yeosang's side. You were learning quickly, but he had noticed your appetite for knowledge growing rapidly, and truthfully, he feared it. He could sense an untapped potential in you, he'd seen similar before and it had never ended well.

He was adamant that he wouldn't let the same happen to you, even if it killed him.

"Come on Iris," Yeosang snaps you out of your thoughts, motioning to the stairs. "up you go."

Fatigue suddenly setting in, you gladly shuffle yourself up the stairs and collapse onto the bed face first.

"Move over, you lump." Yeosang whines, pushing you to the end of the bed, to which you respond with a pained groan. 

"You're so cruel!" you cry, sitting up and frowning at him. "You could've hurt me doing that!"

"If I wanted to hurt you," he raises an eyebrow at you. "you'd know about it."

You ignore his threat and turn your head around the room, surveying the simple, wooden decor; a tattered book shelf, a plain desk and accompanying chair, a few, worn and rusty storage chests and the bed Yeosang was currently lounging on

."Yeosang," you pipe up, only just realising. "There's only one bed."

He pulls himself up, peering up at you through sleepy eyes

."I don't care." he murmurs, flinging himself back down with a thump.

"Well, I do!" He brings himself back up slowly, like a vampire rising from his coffin after being awaken from a century long sleep. His eyes are half-closed and you think he might actually be asleep already.

"Then sleep on the floor."

"Why do you get the bed? That's not fair!"

"I'm older, I have more joint pain than you." he deadpans. "Also, I saved your life."

"You can't keep using that against me..." you grumble, but collect a few blankets from the bed and snatch them up, creating a make-shift bed on the floor. The wooden floor isn't exactly the height of comfort, but with a roof over your head and a crackling fire just downstairs, you can't really complain. 

Cuccooning yourself in the blankets, you try and fall asleep. But you find yourself staring at the ceiling, thinking of everything and nothing to the soundtrack of Yeosang's snoring. Your mind wanders to the stranger who owes Yeosang a favour, you wonder what his name is, what they look like. Yeosang had called them an 'outcast', like him, but also said he wasn't exactly a mage either. So you didn't know what to expect. Life kept throwing these things at you, probably to keep you on your toes. It was overwhelming, if you were being honest; having spent all of your life up until this point mainly fending for yourself and never venturing outside of the city you grew up in, to suddenly travelling across the country with a random, magic man who's beach you almost died on.

Your eyes grow heavier as you lose yourself in your thoughts, and you're almost grasped by the clutches of sleep, until an abrupt growling from outside whips your eyes open, and you bolt upright.

"Did you hear that?" you whisper to Yeosang.

"It's just a bear." He mumbles in response, making you jump slightly because you thought he was still asleep

."A bear?"  you hiss."I know," he says sarcastically. "Un-bear-lieveable."

You retrieve one of your pillows and launch it at his figure, smirking triumphantly when he grunts in surprise.

"That was a terrible joke." you complain and bury yourself back into your improvised bed.

"Whatever," Yeosang yawns. "just go to sleep, we'll be meeting the astrologer tomorrow so you need to rest."

Finally deciding to listen to the mage, you squeeze your eyes shut tightly in hopes you'll fall asleep quickly. Luckily, you do just that, sleeping peacefully and dreaming about the bear in the forest outside. He's wounded, bleeding heavily from a nasty gash on his neck and panting in pain. You reach out to help him, but of course it's just a dream; he'll be okay. You hope.

Chapter Ten

(as always, if u enjoyed pls leave some love! it rlly helps me out)