Behind The Hourglass

Rustling Trees

Xiumin walked past the same tree yet again. Although that's what he thought it was. All of them looked the same anyways.
 
Sehun huffed in annoyance, probably having the same thought as him. "Where are we going anyways?"
 
"We're not going anywhere in particular," Xiumin said half-heartedly, thinking as to which way they should turn next.
 
"Sehun-ah, we're looking for food," Luhan said, patting the boy on his shoulder in encouragement. Sehun looked down tired, however, decided not to complain anymore.
 
They walked and walked and Xiumin's feet were slowly starting to hurt, the pain nearly becoming unbearable. But they needed water, if not food. The layers of leaves cushioned the soil which made it ludicrously more difficult to walk on. Xiumin strained his eyes, hoping to at least catch a glimpse of something they could consume, but all his efforts came to no avail.
 
He noticed the hard breathing of both Luhan and Sehun beside him. He gritted his teeth and concluded that as the oldest between them, he must take responsibility of food and shelter.
 
"Urgh! I swear we've seen this same tree for the hundredth time alre-" Sehun's outburst was short lived as Xiumin grabbed him and covered his mouth with his hand.
 
He had heard a quiet rustle of leaves from the ground as if some creature were scuttling through them.
 
"What is it?" Luhan asked, eyes wide.
 
"Shh," Xiumin said, bringing a finger to his mouth, gesturing him to quiet down. "I think I heard something running that way." He pointed to the area in front of him and slowly made his way forward, trying his hardest to be silent, even though it was nearly impossible due to all the dead leaves on the ground.
 
There were a few following crunches behind him as Luhan and Sehun followed. The abundance of trees covered the view, merging together to make it harder to see.
 
"Look, there's a bunny!" Luhan whispered, excitedly, pointing towards a brown fluffy animal with white spots.
 
"How're we going to catch it?" Sehun whispered.
 
Xiumin pressed his index finger to his lips, ushering them to keep silent. He tip-toed forward, getting ready to jump at it when he realised it wasn't moving at all.
 
He furrowed his eye brows in confusion and cocked his head to the side. "It's not moving," he stated redundantly.
 
When he got closer, he saw the rabbit was just sitting there, its face smashed in. Massacred. Its eyes poured blood. Fresh blood. And that's when Xiumin realised that it was dead. And had been killed recently.
 
"Oh my god, it's dead!" Luhan exclaimed.
 
"Can we still eat it though?" Sehun asked.
 
Xiumin glanced at the hungry maknae and looked back at the rabbit. "I think so," Xiumin said, slightly amused at Sehun's enthusiasm to eat it. "But what killed it?" he almost whispered to himself.
 
Luhan used his telekinesis to move a log large enough for the three of them to seat upon, in front of them.
 
Sehun crouched and created a fire with some help from Xiumin.
 
Luhan provided them with more sticks to keep the flames fuelled.
 
Xiumin sat by the fire holding his hands up, trying to get some warmth into his fingers.
 
Luhan was bent over the flaming sticks, holding the skewered rabbit over the fire. Xiumin had been the one to skin it.
 
"Something killed this rabbit," Xiumin stated again, "We shouldn't make so much noise or we might attract the creature."
 
"What kind of creature?" Luhan asked.
 
"A deer?" Sehun suggested humorously.
 
"Deer don't even eat bunnies." Luhan stated blankly.
 
"Apparently this one does," Sehun laughed.
 
Luhan rolled his eyes.
 
“Guys…” Xiumin urged, “There is a lethal creature out there. It could be big enough to attack us.”
 
“Like what?” Luhan repeated.
 
“A wolf… Or a bear…” Xiumin volunteered.
 
“Or something not big enough to hurt us. Like a fox,” Sehun stated.
 
“We don’t want to take that risk. You saw how brutally it killed the bunny. What if it could do the same to us?” Xiumin explained.
 
“Can we please stop talking about this now?” Luhan asked, evidently scared.
 
“Sure,” Xiumin replied.
 
Luhan sighed, "I wonder where the others are. I hope they're fine."
 
"And that they have food," Xiumin added.
 
Luhan chuckled.
 
"When will it be ready?" Sehun asked impatiently.
 
"Ah, I think it's ready now," Xiumin reached out and took the rabbit away from the fire and held it up, blowing it slightly to get rid of its rising temperature.
 
"It's just sad we have to eat that cute little bunny," Luhan said.
 
Xiumin chuckled this time, as he watched his Youngers snatch the bunny out of his hand and tear it apart to eat. He noticed his own stomach rumbling and reached out to rip a piece for himself.
 
 
 
The ground had been too hard for them to sleep on. So the three collected leaves and piled them up into three separate piles around the still burning fire, creating makeshift mattresses.  Xiumin lay down to sleep, thinking of the others and what they were doing right now at this very moment. Was it night for them as well? Were they just waking up? Was anyone being attacked?
 
His eyes grew heavy and his lids almost shut. But then it happened.
 
The fire flickered, the flames missing a beat in their dance. Someone or something had caused the wind to blow differently. Xiumin sat up abruptly, causing Luhan to follow suite in alarm. Sehun, however, lay fast asleep.
 
“Are you okay?” Luhan whispered, worriedly.
 
“There’s something in the trees…” Xiumin whispered back.
 
The two stood up slowly, using their every effort to not make a sound. They edged towards the trees, trying to not be seen.
 
They heard another rustle coming from their right. Xiumin snapped his head around trying to follow the sound. He silently pointed to the tree behind where it originated from. Together the two moved towards it, their hands raised in front of them, ready to strike if trouble came.
 
“What is it?” Luhan whispered into Xiumin’s ear.
 
Xiumin shrugged in response, as the two continued to go closer.
 
All of a sudden the creature jumped out from behind the tree and ran straight for the fire. It howled as it pounced onto Sehun startling him awake.
 
“SEHUN-AH!” the older two screamed in unison, eyes wide in fear, as they rushed forward to attack the wolf. The younger lay beneath it, his face frozen in horror at the heavy creature standing upon him.
 
Unexpectedly, the creature licked the boy’s face.
 
The three froze in shock.
 
“What just happened…?” Luhan asked just as confused as the others.
 
Xiumin stared on as the wolf jumped off the maknaes and walked towards him, uncomprehending of what was happening. It came beside his leg and brushed its head against him. Cautiously, Xiumin reached out his hand and stroked the fluffy creatures grey head, and smiled as he got a positive response. The wolf leaned in to his hand and let himself get stroked.
 
“Turns out the lethal creature is a little softie,” Sehun laughed. Luhan joined in and stepped forward to pat the wolf’s body, stroking it.
 
“Let’s feed it something,” Luhan suggested.
 
“Do we have any rabbit leftovers? Or bones or something?” Xiumin asked.
 
Sehun scavenged through piles of leaves for bones they may have thrown and buried under. “Found some!” he said tossing it over to the duo.
 
Xiumin pushed it forward, not sure whether to pick it up with his hands and risking being bit or not. He watched the wolf bend down and chew in the bones and the few strings of meat still stuck on.
 
“Can we name it?” the maknae inquired childishly.
 
“I don’t see why not,” Luhan chuckled.
 
“I want to name it,” Sehun said.
 
“Go ahead. Do you have any ideas?” Xiumin asked.
 
Sehun walked forward and reached his hand out to the wolf. It moved its head towards the hand, its nose coming into contact with it.
 
Sehun smiled, “I think I will name you… Growl”