Save Your Blessings

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July 29, Tuesday

Yoongi crawled on his stomach in his wolf form through the undergrowth. The larger black wolf to the right of him was Jungkook, and the smaller brown one on the left was Hobi. The three of them were checking a lead that Yoongi had discovered weeks ago. The last time Yoongi and Jungkook had checked this side of the forest, in the place where Yoongi felt someone was watching them before that idiot came on his motorcycle, Yoongi had found evidence that a person really had been standing there that day.

Broken branches, scuffs in the dirt, and rocks kicked over all showed a path that the person had taken to stand to spy on where the trucks had been and right next to the tree Jimin and his crew sat for lunch that day. Anyone standing there could have easily heard whatever conversation they had discussed. Yoongi realized that the kidnapper or kidnappers had been watching Jimin for quite some time. He felt like a fool. It's been over a month that Jimin had been missing, and Yoongi was finally making some progress.

He had a few good leads to follow up on. At first, they had suspected Suho since he was obsessed with Jimin. The Pine Forest pack leader even put him in jail while they questioned him. But the boy had no injuries and was more concerned for Jimin's safety than the fact that he was in trouble, so they released him and had guardians watching his every move. Up till now, the boy seemed innocent, not doing anything out of the ordinary. Suho participated in the forest searches and was actively involved in the discussions.

The forest searches gave them a little information. They knew the kidnappers did not leave by the main road. Witnesses had come up saying they had seen a white van parked in the visitor parking center during the feast, but the sentries had not seen it leave the village by the main road either. That meant the kidnappers had driven the van using one of the 3 forest roads. Yoongi and Jungkook had thoroughly checked each one personally, along with Hunter Pilwoo, Leader Jeon, and Guardian KeonHo. All of them came up empty-handed. No vehicle or tire print has shown up on the dirt roads, they still checked it for a few miles just to be through.

Just last week Suho came into the command center, where the two packs had set up all the search information with some interesting information. He told Yoongi that he went to visit the friend that had continued to encourage his infatuation with Jimin, and he saw that one of her hands was wrapped with bandages. He had asked her what happened, but she shrugged it off as she got burned while cooking. Suho remembered Yoongi telling the Leader that he injured one of the attacker's hands with the smoke canister. The SMALLER attacker, to be precise. Plus, his friend rarely cooks, it is usually the halmeoni (grandma) that does the cooking. KeonHo immediately put his friend under surveillance. Ironically, she lives with her halmeoni (grandma) outside the village, in the forest, a little North of where Yoongi remembered and searched previously.

This time they were going to find her house further in the forest. Yoongi had a feeling there was something about this place. For weeks, he kept going back to it, searching for a trail or a road or anything that he didn't see the first time. Today, he brought his brother and his friend to help. Without telling the elders what they were doing, the three of them started at the motorcycle place and walked further into the forest, following the clues that whoever was watching them that day left behind.

They crawled skillfully and quietly on their bellies, not making any noise, not even disturbing the wildlife in the area. The birds were singing and flittering above them without a care as the trio tracked the broken branches a person would make walking through the area and the overturned rocks made from a foot that wasn't raised high enough while taking a step. It was hard to see, but there was some kind of trail between the trees.

It led them to a rough path that looked like it had not been maintained for years. Yoongi could tell it used to be beautifully built at one time, but now the stacked rock fence on either side was crumbled by the overgrown trees and neglect, it was hardly noticeable. It looked like it had been wide enough for a pony cart, the ruts of such still showing bare through the wild grass. Now it was barely wide enough for a single person to walk through, or a wolf. The tree branches were overgrown to the point they were almost touching.