The Cry of My Heart (Taoris)

Chapter 1

"Zitao, get up," gentle hands shake the, now 17 years of age, boy.

Zitao groans and groggily stands from his fur-made bed, his eyes still fogged closed. "Has the sun went down?", he asks groggily.

The woman giggles under her breath, "It's almost there, silly. It's dinner time. I can't believe you slept the whole day."

A smile tugs on Zitao's lips, "Thank you for waking me, Ms. Wu."

She frowns and lightly slaps the young boy on the back of his head, "What have I been telling you to call me since you were young?"

Zitao scratches the back of his head sheepishly, "I'm sorry, Dara."

Dara smiles and ruffles the mop on Zitao's head. "It's okay. Let's go, brother is getting impatient."

Zitao nods and follows Dara out to the pit, a fire already running to start the meal of recently caught buffalo.

-X-

Turns out the woman that carried Zitao when he was young was the leader's sister, a woman that bared a child for the leader so he could live happily with his life-long partner, Baekhyun. She had no-hard feelings to it and happily gifted them a child for them to pass down their blood to, not minded that Chanyeol was, indeed, her blood brother. (Dara had a lover herself, baring the same parts of her same gender, anyway.)

Wu Chanyeol, a man of power that lead a tribe of 17. He was highly respected, and even if you knew didn't what you were getting into, no one would dare defy his ways. He could carry a full-grown grizzly down to the river and back, in which it was only around three miles along the way. He taught Zitao and the rest of the members (especially, his son, Yifan) the ways of the forest and how to live respectively, never one to use violence unless it was the last resort.

Wu Yifan, Wu Chanyeol's son. He was a prideful one, that boy. He was only three years older than Zitao himself, but he towered over him with a few inches to spare. Yifan was as strong as his father, no doubt, always one to aim to please his parents.

Zitao, himself, admired the boy. Yifan was a looker (if the fawning girls around him was evident enough). After all, he had a strong build, a jaw long and sharp, his piercing eyes burning into his own when they made eye contact from across the burning wood at the dead of night. Yifan had large hands, thick thighs, long limbs and... other parts... (Zitao hadn't meant to see it, but when he went down to the river to wash up, he had seen the taller cleaning himself in peace and scurried away as fast as possible with a burning face. Zitao had also blamed the stirring of his lower stomach of seeing the other like that on embarrassment.). Another words, Yifan was a walking male-god.

Despite Zitao's admiring, Yifan had always been (and still is) cold to him. And Zitao has no idea why.

He hadn't thought much about it at a young age, but as they got older, he started to notice how the older purposely sat away from him and only spoke to him to correct him if he was doing something wrong. He especially noticed the burning stare on his bare back when he cleaned up at the river with the others, even if Yifan didn't know Zitao knew of his trained gaze.

-X-

The thought brought Zitao's mood down as he sunk his teeth into the cooked leg of the buffalo with a sigh.

A finger taps his shoulder, pulling him from his thoughts, "Are you alright?"

Zitao forces a smile, "Yeah. Thank you for asking, Luhan."

The deer-like-male smiles and sits down next to him on the tree log. "No problem."

-X-

Luhan, a rather quiet yet physically active boy. He looked frail and too feminine to be man, but he was one of the strongest of the members and could easily take down a bear without a weapon. Zitao had always liked the boy; his voice was soft and comforting, and it made Zitao at peace to talk at the older, his own voice soft so he didn't have to speak louder than he had to.