𝗝𝗲𝘂 𝗱𝘂 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗴 (𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 )

❛ 0 6 ❜

They already knew what they had to do for the next day, even if they were not happy about it.

Although it was still early in the morning, the shadow men were already on their way. Their synchronous steps didn't echo, at least it seemed that way, as there was a surprising amount of activity. Everywhere people were already getting down to work, not paying attention to the shadow men, even though they contrasted with the bright, warm colours of the sunrise.

"Get your daily paper now for just one coin," a voice announced. "Shadow men in obsidian, the king's wedding and much more! Get the daily paper for just one coin," he repeated, but stopped abruptly when he saw the shadow men. The tall blond man did not know how to react when they looked over at him. He couldn't move at all, even though every instinct he had shouted at him to run away as fast as possible. As if glued to the spot, he stopped even when the tallest of them moved towards him. The shadow man was not quite as tall as him, but like the others, his dark figure frightened him. Who would forget the horror stories about the shadow men? How they never ran and appeared everywhere where there were shadows. They come out of the shadows, and if you make eye contact with them, you can be sure that you have lived your last days already - the words of his mother echoed in his mind.

He felt so small and weak as he stood opposite the Shadow Man, though he was known for his strength and size throughout Obsidian. The Shadow Man looked at him once before he held out a coin to him. Yunho was visibly confused until he finally understood what the shadow man wanted and tried his best to look friendly. He smiled at him and took the coin. For a moment he felt his skin while taking the coin from him, surprisingly his hands were not covered with gloves, and he swore it was so cold it almost burned, but also so warm he was afraid he would lose his fingers. Still trembling, he handed him one of the pages, which then Seonghwa took almost agonisingly slowly.

"Have a good day sir, may the gods protect you today," he stuttered in front of him, whereupon Seonghwa raised only one eyebrow. "Do you really think they will protect you?" Yunho was shocked to hear him speak at all, a cold wind of making its way up and down his body "Of course, sir! They are the ones who make life possible for us in the first place." he tried to remain friendly and smile but his eyes spoke fear. "There are no heroes, neither are there any villains" was the last thing he said to him before turning around and going back to the others, leaving a confused Yunho behind.

"You seriously bought a paper like that written with lies and speculation?" Wooyoung asked, whereupon Seonghwa nodded and opened the double page. "Just look at this! Do I look like that?! They made our drawings totally inappropriate." San sighed as Seonghwa complained, steam coming out of his nose. "Don't pretend that this doesn't annoy you! Look at that, it's not you, or is it? I don't now, because I can't identify those as us!" he continued to get upset. "I should give them a portrait of me, maybe they can make me look reasonable for once." he complained disappointed and looked up again, only to find that the others were no longer there. "Did they seriously leave me behind?" he asked himself, now also annoyed. He folded the paper back together and laid it on the floor before he turned into black smoke and raced after their tracks.

Yunho, who still looked at the whole scene in shock, blinked twice, just to see if he was hallucinating. He slapped himself on the cheek once and pinched it before he started selling the newspapers again. What had just happened here?

The shadow men, however, were not so far away. Walking over the not-yet-full marketplace, where they looked around. San pulled Seonghwa over to him by his shoulders and pointed to the stand of a butcher. "Do you see the cattle there?" he asked him, whereupon Seonghwa also looked over. How long had it been since they had last eaten meat. He was sure it had been at least half a year. His mouth watered as he imagined how they would grill the meat of the young beef. "If you hadn't gotten that stupid paper, we could still have afforded it", San said, shattering Seonghwas daydream. Seonghwa hissed poisonously and kept hitting San in the neck. "That was important! What can I do if you can't set your priorities?" the bitching of the two of them gathered the attention of many. Suddenly they both started to scream. Yeosang, who had enough of them, turned around to see Jongho grab them by the neck and hold them above the ground as he caught up with Wooyung and Yeosang.

"You are worse than children," he commented. "Says the child," San whispered to Seonghwa as they both now looked at him sulking. "Okay, get out of childish ways, we are being watched." they stood up from the floor again and looked around for a moment. The tips of their ears turned pink in shame, when they noticed how many eyes were fixed on them.

"Now that you are thinking rationally again, would you please take care of food? Me and Jongho wanted to look together for ingredients for some elixirs that we ran out of" Yeosang asked them, but it was more of a command. The children grinned at him and grabbed the bag of coins. "We'll do it!" they said together and then pulled Wooyoung over to them. "Come with us puppy, we're going for food." Wooyoung tried to cling to Yeosang, but he couldn't even reach him, as the two shadow men were already pulling him by his ears.

Yeosang and Jongho watched for a moment as the three disappeared deeper into the crowd before they changed into their shadow form and rushed to the border separating forest and city. The day before they saw the small stone hut, and also the night when they looked over to it, they saw steam coming out of the chimney. Of course they noticed the alarming field around the hut, on the contrary, it was what aroused the interest in Yeosang. As they made their way through the field, apparently unnoticed, and stood in front of the door, they nodded at each other once, just to make sure that both were ready to face what was waiting for them. Yeosang knocked once, but he received no answer. He shifted his balance slightly to look through the window where he could clearly see a silhouette. He knocked again, but instead of someone opening the door, it opened by itself. He and Jongho looked at each other in surprise before entering carefully.

The small hut seemed surprisingly large from the inside. It was furnished with wooden furnishings and plants covered every inch that was not covered with glass bottles, bowls or anything else. They quickly noticed the tropical heat and the unpleasant smell that the hut was taking on. Slowly they moved through the hut, looking around, but stopped when they heard slow footsteps.

"I wonder what brings the shadow men to me?"