Destiny's Children

41. The Ring

Taehyung walks over the area where Jungkook's findings were lying. He picks up a dry bunch and examines it closely before sitting down on the ground.

"This will do..", Taehyung nods as he pulls out a knife from a secret zip inside his vest and starts to scar the brunch from the middle vertically on the half way, but not too deep, leaving enough space in the middle for another brunch to create maximum friction. The he choses another brunch, a thinner one and then sharpens it's edge with his knife.

It's true when he said that he has never had to light a fire.. but as a royal prince, he was trained into every survival skills possible at a very early age, lighting fire in an emergency is one of them.

He takes the now edgy stick to the U shaped curve he has carved on the other brush before and starts to rub as fast as he can.. he repeats the friction until he notices traces of some smoke originating from the middle, he quickly takes some dry grass from Jungkook's collection and places them on the smoke. He guards the smoke carefully with his big palms and then blows into it slowly to help the heat spread through the dry twigs. Soon a small fire a created in between his palms.

Taehyung smiles at his very own creation before putting more dry grass, twigs and woods into it, making the fire more bright. He then quickly gathers some stones to make a circle nest for the fire to settle in and then adds more brunches to it.

Taehyung sighs as he looks up in the sky. The sun has already set and there is no time left for him to set for a shading for them.

"Looks like we have to manage with whatever we get...", Taehyung looks back at the lying figure, observes his chest move with his every breath.

He then walks over to satchel and finds some apples and chickpeas inside it. He then goes over to the horses to feed them.

"I wish I could water you both as well... but please manage it tonight ? I'll manage something special for you both once we reach Ielan.... What do you say about that?", He cherishes the horses for some time before going back to the satchel.

He brings out the rest of the food for the roads, that was packed by his suga hyung especially. He smiles when he notices the sweets in the middle of the other dry foods.

"Thank you hyungie.. you really are the best", he murmurs.

He walks back close to the fire and puts the foods down. Then he walks over the collecting of Jungkook for the shades and finds a huge leaf. He slowly pulls the leaf over the fire area and sits on it with the food before him.

He was about to eat when a slight movement from the side gets his attention.

"Are you finally awake?", Taehyung asks but then he gets no response in return.

"If you are up... come close to the fire..", he says.. and again receives no response.

"If you lie there all night.. you'll dead in the morning..", he tries again and this time luckily there is finally a response.

"You said you don't know how to make a fire..", the voice itself is very low, but it's loud enough for Taehyung to snorts.

"But trust me when I say that I didn't lie about the forest being dangerous at night.. Come Close to the Fire!!", Taehyung says the last part with a sense of authority in it.

And it works too. Jungkook moves slowly before finally standing up on his wobbling legs. He walks over the fire with unsteady legs. The king observes him, but doesn't bother to help. Jungkook sits with a thud on the dry dirty ground, a bit away from the king.

Taehyung takes a bite on his apple, eyes still glued on the boy who is not looking aimlessly at the fire.

"Want something to eat?", Taehyung asks and Jungkook simply shakes his head as a "no".

"Great then... more for me!!", Taehyung takes another bite.

Jungkook says nothing and keeps looking at the fire motionlessly.

"Are you going to tell the truth now?", Taehyung asks casually munching his apple.

"What's the point..", Jungkook says with a hoarse voice, "If you can't believe a believable lie.. there is no way you can believe an unbelievable truth..".

"Try me..", Taehyung takes the last bite and throws away the left over.