A Tiger Called Rapunzel ✓ || TaeGyu || HYBEPride 2021

The End Of The World

"Cholong? ...Cholong, wake up, it's me, Kai."

Kai rubbed his flippers together and pressed them to Cholong's hand, but to no avail. Cholong was still knocked out cold. He pouted, then waddled in circles trying to come up with a plan.

The tower had been destroyed. Everything was a mess, stones and belongings everywhere. Kai had used the bare minimum of his remaining power to protect Cholong from the fall; they had crashed with the tower on top of them, but Kai had gotten him and Cholong to relative safety under the undestroyed roof before Heulin could find them.

He poked his head out from under the tower roof again. Heulin, unscathed, was on Mae's back, flying around the airspace above the clearing. They were looking for him, looking for Cholong. It was only a matter of time before they were found, and Kai needed to conserve magic power until that happened, hold Mae off as long as he could. Things were looking bleak.

"...Kai?"

Kai gasped and waddled back over to where Cholong was laying, not hurt badly but still knocked out from the blast. "You're okay!" he whispered, trying his best to keep quiet so Mae would not hear them.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Cholong sat up and gave Kai a hug, wrapping him up in his arms. "You're okay, too!"

"They're looking for us," Kai whispered. "Mae's flying overhead, so we can't move."

Cholong couldn't stand up because the tower roof was right over his head, but he could sit comfortably. "Okay. We'll think of something." And as he started to think, he realized that he wasn't wearing a dress; he was still in the uniform he had changed into. And when he reached up, the crown was still on his head.

Something about the crown on his head also felt right. As right as wearing pants instead of dresses. As right as being a man instead of a woman.

"Kai," he whispered, "am I really the lost prince? Did Mama kidnap me a long time ago? I know you can't remember, but..."

Kai tilted his head, getting a closer look at Cholong. He put his flippers in his lap and thought long and hard. If Cholong was the Prince, wouldn't Kai remember that as his daemon? Daemons remembered everything about their humans, from the day of their birth onward. Kai had always thought that him not remembering was because Mae had erased his memory one too many times. But what if there was a bigger reason?

He quieted his little penguin mind.

Flashes of gold speckled through his mind. There was an image of two happy people. But Kai's magic made him hone in on the daemons behind them...a lion and a tiger. Just like the King and his consort.

"I think you're right." He opened his small eyes and tilted his head at Cholong again. "It just makes sense. What would Taehyun say?"

"Taehyun's dead," Cholong said, "but...I think he would want me to be the Prince. So maybe I'll be the Prince, until someone tells me otherwise. Then, I'll find out the truth, one way or another. We'll go to the castle, Kai, and we'll talk to the King. See what he says. And then, we'll find a life on our own, as a man in the castle. We'll go on adventures, but later, okay? And we've gotta get out of here first."

"Of course." Kai hugged Cholong tight. "I love you, Prince Beomgyu."

Beomgyu grinned. He liked the name Cholong, because Taehyun had picked it out, but Beomgyu made more sense. "I love you, too."

"And we're gonna find Taehyun, because he's still alive, and you're gonna tell him that you love him, too."

"I --" Beomgyu paused. Love. Was that what he felt? "Is Taehyun alive?"

"I don't know for sure, but I feel it! He has to be! Because he loves you too, Prince Beomgyu. He really does."

The tower roof suddenly exploded behind them, before Beomgyu could really think about what Kai had just said. He quickly whispered enough of a spell to protect them from the rubble as it rained down on them. He held tight to Kai for dear life, knowing this spell was the only thing between him and certain death. It was just enough to give a flicker of a barrier around them, and then Beomgyu rose to his feet, dodging bricks as he ran away from the tower's rubble with Kai in his arms.

When he turned, Mae was in the air above him, wings spread. And Heulin, his mother -- or was she? -- was on Mae's back. Her long hair was a mess, and her eyes were almost glowing red, she was so mad. "There you are, you little traitor. Who do you think you are?"

"I am the lost prince," Beomgyu managed to say.

"Oh, please, sweetheart, you always stutter when you talk --"

"I am the lost prince Beomgyu!" he suddenly yelled, finding his voice. And he glared at her. "Did I fucking stutter that time?"

And for the first time, Kim Heulin looked completely stunned. But she regained her composure. "You think you're all high and mighty now that you've figured that out? What are you gonna do, go run home to daddy? That crown you wear was supposed to be mine, you whore of a child! And you are the only thing that has ever been in my way! I should have killed you years ago when I had the chance!"

He had no time to wrap his mind around what his mother had said. That he had been the lost prince all along.

"I hope you enjoy your new name, Beomgyu, because it's yours for about ten seconds," Heulin yelled, and then, she called down the same words that she had yelled earlier, the black death spell that would steal the air from her child's lungs. Mae accepted the power, and they dove from the sky toward the prince and his penguin on the ground.

Beomgyu tried to utter the spell in time, but he couldn't connect with Kai. Kai was out of magic. This was it. He closed his eyes and braced for the end.

There was a flash of light as the spell took hold. But Beomgyu didn't feel any different. He didn't feel like he was suddenly dead. He was still bracing for impact, holding onto Kai. And when the light flickered, he opened his eyes, just a crack, to see if it was safe.

There was someone standing in front of him. The man turned, saw Beomgyu, then smiled, just a bit.

Beomgyu recognized him immediately, the smile on his face, the light in his eyes. It was the same man who had brought him this far, who had made Beomgyu realize who he truly was. The man he loved. He was here, in front of him.

And then Kang Taehyun fell to the ground.