A Warrior's Heart

Chapter 44; Finally found

After his talk with Namjoon and after having another round of tea, Taehyun had stood up and went outside. Just to get some fresh air and think over the words the older had spoken. He had been right, reminding him that he didn't lose hope back then either. He was grateful to have such a smart and wise Hyung, and he made a mental note to get him something amazing for his next birthday.

He pulled the jacket around his shoulders further around him and walked towards what seemed like a path through the bushes of the small forest. He wasn't planning on going really far, he just wanted to walk for a bit. Just wanted to think things over.

His thoughts had been a mess lately, a whirlwind of all sorts of thoughts with no calm end to it in sight. With everything going on at school - pfft, like he made homework, so that might not be totally relevant - and with everything going on inside of him, it was just a big mess. His head did things his heart didn't agree with, and the other way around.

He got so frustrated when he thought about not finding any answers to their questions, about not finding a way to build another basket to go back to the other world, and his heart actually started hurting. He knew the blonde meant a lot to him, but he hadn't realised that it was this bad already.

He was falling.

And fast.

Taehyun sighed to himself, looking down at his feet and kicking a way a small pebble. Some birds flew up and the sound of leaves rustling filled the air. He was surrounded by high trees, bushes and flowers, and even though he thought it was magical, he still turned on his heels, eager to get back to the shed.

He brushed past the low hanging branches and hurried back down the path. When the shed was back in sight he smiled to himself, walking up to it and pushing the door open.

The inside was warm, and he exhaled in relief, the cold wind blowing outside not bugging him any longer. When he saw the inside he sighed at the piles of books, waiting for him to read through. However, it wasn't an annoyed sigh. This time it was a sigh with underlying determination. He would find that book, even if he would be here for hours more, he would find it.

He walked towards one of the many bookcases against the wall and slid his fingers over the covers facing him. He could hear the faint sounds of something being written down, and he looked up. Namjoon was sitting at a desk standing somewhere in a corner, pen in hand, books and paper in front of him. Taehyun assumed he was copying whatever the book contained, knowing the latter had a weak spot for interesting stuff like this.

"I know what you're thinking,"  The older suddenly said, having noticed the .  "I should probably help you and look through the books and all, but I saw this and I couldn't help myself."  He said without looking up from his work. Taehyun chuckled and shook his head.  "It's fine, Hyung. I'll find this book by myself."

Those words made Namjoon look up, brows furrowed and his lips parted.  "Where's the 'this will take hours and there's only two of us' Taehyun at? Did that little walk change you that much?"

Taehyun shook his head once more.  "I thought about it. About what you told me. And you're right, I shouldn't lose hope even if there's no light at the end of the tunnel."  He said, immediately cringing at his choice of words.  "That was so cheesy oh my- but yeah like you said I didn't give up or lose hope on the battlefield, so why would I do so now?"

The older smiled at him and straightened his back.  "Good. I'll try to finish this quickly so I can go back to helping you."  He said and looked back down at the paperworks in front of him, gripping his pen again and scribbling down the words in the book on a new sheet of paper. Taehyun nodded and turned back to the bookcase.

He wanted to try a new tactic. Going through the books one by one in the order they were placed on the planks.. it just took way too much time. He knew that changing the tactic could make him lose sight of which books he had already read, but he was willing to take the risk. After all, he had taken many risks back in the other world, so it was nothing new for him.

He scanned the bookcases, eyes gliding over every single one of them until he found something interesting. Like the wizard had told them when they were almost hanged, 'just jump'. Although it wasn't really jumping at this moment, but that was besides the point. The point was that he just had to do it. No hesitation, no million thoughts about it to sort out all the possibilities of the outcome, no whole speech to himself about it.. just doing it.

So he did, his eyes landing on a book, high in the bookcase. It was small, and looked like it didn't have a lot of pages. The sides were raffled and the papers were a bit yellow, old and worn out. Taehyun felt like he should get that one, didn't matter to him if it was the right one or not. Of course he hoped for the best.

He looked to his side and saw the rolling ladder attached to the big wall of books, and he reached for it, pulling it towards him. He placed it right under the book, and set foot on the first one of the planks. The ladder creaked a bit, but it was sure to hold his weight. After all, it held Namjoon too when the man fetched a somewhat thicker book from the third plank, not being tall enough by an inch or two to reach it from the ground.

He climbed the ladder slowly, not wanting to make it roll to the side with his movements. Unfortunately, that didn't work, and with no one on the ground to steady the rolling ladder, it moved to the sides. Taehyun tried to get it to roll back, swinging to the side a bit, but to no avail. When he was at the top he looked at the book, finding it a bit father away from him than he had hoped it would be.

A sigh left his lips, and he tried reaching for it, but his arm was a couple inches too short. He needed that book, so he had to get it. He thought about it, trying to come up with a plan to reach it. It wasn't like there were many options though, so he just shrugged and moved to the very side of the ladder.

It creaked under his weight, but he didn't pay attention to that. Just pulled one foot back and placed it on a plank of the bookcase, hoping that once he set off it wouldn't break and send all the books falling to the floor. With that sparkle of hope, he put his full weight on that single plank, moving away from the ladder and jumping towards the book he had his mind set on.

Namjoon looked up from his writing as soon as he heard the noise. His eyes widened and he dropped his pen to the papers, standing up quickly.  "Tae what are you-"

The ladder rolled away of the force of the jump, the plank creaking in protest as he put his full weight on it for a split second before he was in the air. He outstretched his arm and his hand quickly found the book, fingers wrapping around it and pulling it from between the many other books. Noticing he was still close to the bookcase and his landing wouldn't be that pleasant this way, he set his free hand on the bookcase and pushed himself away.

He tried to not land on any of the old books, not wanting to damage them, and the front of his feet touched the ground first. He ducked forwards and rolled over to eases the impact, before stopping himself with his foot planted firmly on the ground.

Namjoon gaped at him as he stood up, quickly opening the book and turning the pages to the half of the book. His eyes scanned over the words, and a smile broke out on his face once he read what was writing down. He had looked at this book, had chosen is from all the others in the bookcase, like it was faith. He read the big, bold, fancy handwriting on top of the page, over and over again. Then he looked up at the man standing behind the desk, finding him already looking his way.

"Hyung,"  He said.  "I found it."