Chapter Text
Taehyung had always known he was different. He lived with his single mother, Hyeri, on the edge of Seoul in an old two storied house that has a big backyard and a garden that has a variety of plants and trees. The garden was where his mother cultured the plants she needed to create the medicines and other products she sold in her 'Herbal Remedies' shop further towards the town. The shop always had good sales. People came back for more, always praising his mother for the wonderful benefits and actual effect of her products. They lived pretty away from rest of the people and did not have any close neighbors. His mother always preferred it that way, never forgetting to warn him about showing his true self or telling who he is to other people.
"Do not trust other people. Do not show other people who you are and what you can do. If you do, they will take you away!"
As a child, he never understood what she meant by it. But as years passed by and he grew up, he realized that he did not fall under the category of normal. He does not remember a whole lot about his childhood, but as a child, he loved to explore his mother's garden, talk with the plants and trees, run around with his pet dog Yeontan, make flower crowns with his mother, listen to her read stories before sleep, and catch butterflies to marvel the little beauties of nature. The garden in the backyard had tall fences that gave him absolutely no view of what lay beyond it. But he had heard stories of how people who ventured into the forest was found at its foot days later, shredded into a pile of meat by viscous creatures that resided in the forest. When he grew older he learned that he indeed lived at the border of the biggest wildlife and vegetation that was untouched by man. It was thousands and thousands of acres of trees and mountains and valleys and hidden secrets. No one dared go in.
He was homeschooled until high school. He always fought with his mother to be sent to school like the kids in the TV, but as he grew older, he realized why his mother never agreed.
The first thing he realized was different about him were his eyes. Light blue-green eyes that seemed to have the ocean and forest blended and washed. His mother on the other hand, had pure green eyes at home and black eyes when she went out, which he understood was because she wore contact lens to cover her real eyes color. Anywhere he went with his mother, people would often stare at his eyes. Some older ladies have even asked if his father was a foreigner. At the question of who his father was, his mother would reply with the story of a great warrior who went on to fight for the country. As a child he believed it, but as years passed, he understood that the fantasy story his mother repeatedly told him despite him growing old only meant that she did not want to talk about the man.
At the age of seven, he found out that his mother could do magic like those fairies in his bedtime stories. He had sneaked up on her to surprise her with the small hedgehog he found in the gardens, but instead found himself surprised as he watched bright green light emerge from his mothers hands as she held a bottle that contained the medicine to cure inability to sleep. A few weeks later, he heard a young customer in their shop whisper to her friend while his mother was collecting supplies from the back room.
"I heard that she is a witch" The red haired girl whispered harshly to her friend who seemed to be the buyer and clearly not interested in her friend's ramblings.
"Seriously? You believe in all those crap?" her friend replied, huffing "I seriously don't care even if she is. But if this is what it would take for ChanHyo to fall in love with me, then love potion it is!"
"But what if she curses you or something?"
That had stayed on his mind the whole day, until he mustered his courage to ask his mother about it before bed.
"ma, are witches actually good?" He had asked, innocently peering up at his mother.
The said woman tensed for a few seconds, the fingers carding through his hair coming to a stop "Why do you ask, baby?"
"cuz the la'y at the shop to'ay said that you were a witch. But a witch cursed sleepin' beauty. But you are not bad. ma is goo'. right?" He asked anxiously, his little heart pounding. But his mother slowly smiled and continued to card her fingers through his hair.
"Do you know what humans fear the most?" his mother asked and the little boy shook his head, waiting for his mother to tell him.
"It is something that which they don't understand" She continued "When they see or hear something which does not fit into what they believe is not normal, they find ways to either conquer it and keep it in control or simply destroy it."
The little boy soaked in his mother's words of wisdom, though it would take years for him to fully grasp its meaning.
"But just because we are different, it does not mean we are bad. People who judge without properly understanding who we are, are not worth it. But to survive, sometimes we have to try and fit in."
At the age of nine, he made his first friend. A boy named Bogum, his same age, who lived about two miles away down the road. His family had a huge farm house with lots of horses and rabbits. Taehyung often met the boy when he went out with his mother and sometimes with his mother's permission spent time playing with him. Bogum was a very bubbly boy, with lots of energy that matched his own. Bogum often came by to Taehyung's house to play and It was one of those days, when they were playing tag. Even though they were restricted to go far away from his home, little kids don't always follow through. As they ran down the road, Bogum slipped on the wet mud and fell, rolling into the bushes on the side.
"Gumie!" Taehyung screamed rushing towards him and Bogum burst into tears.
A sharp stump had pierced into his calf and blood was flowing from his skin. Taehyung burst into tears watching his friend hurt, crying, and bleeding, not knowing what to do. The initial shock subsided and Taehyung watched his only friend cry with tears in his own eyes. He wanted to make the pain of his friend go away. Taehyung could only call it as an instinct as he grabbed the stump that was still pierced into Bogum's calf and pulled. Bogum screamed even louder, fat tears rolling down his chubby cheeks. As blood gushed out, Taehyung pressed his palm into the wound to stop it. Bright green light seemed to emerge out of his palm. Bogum gasped. By the second, Taehyung began to feel weaker and weaker, the energy in his body seemed to seep out of him through his palm, until he began to feel dizzy.
"Y-your eyes" Bogum croaked out, blinking out tears and cheeks red. But all Taehyung focused up on, was the wound in his friend's leg that had begun to rapidly heal until only smooth skin was left underneath his bloody fingers. That was the last thing he remembered before he lost his consciousness.
At the age of nine, Taehyung realized that he too could do magic. When he woke up, it was to his mother worriedly looming over him, peppering kisses on his forehead. At the age of nine, Taehyung was told that he was a witch. His mother scolded him for not listening to her and running farther away from home. For the next few days his mother explained to him that he had powers. Powers like his mother. Power to heal.
"Taehyung-ah, baby, you should never do what you did to bogum, okay?" His mother spoke in her soft voice, but her bright green eyes staring fiercely at him.
"B-but he was h-hurt" The boy replied, not understanding why his mother would say something like that.
"You felt very tired, didn't you?" His mother asked "after you healed your friend?" Taehyung nodded in reply to his mother's question.
"That is because, you used your core strength to heal him, and you should never do that. There should always be a medium or you should harness your power from something else. That is why you use medicines, potions and pastes. The energy and elements in those materials can be easily used to heal. If you rely solely on your core strength, It will weaken you and it will take quite some time for you to recover from it. If you use your core strength and essence excessively, it can even kill you."
Then next time he saw Bogum, the boy seemed to have completely forgotten about that incident and their budding friendship. The boy did not seem to want to play with Taehyung anymore.
"Other people must not know about what you can do. Do not trust others. Do not show other people who you are and what you can do, unless your instincts and gut strongly believe it. If you do, they will take you away!" His mother said with a cold voice. It was sure that she did something for Bogum to forget about Taehyung.
"But Bogum is my friend friend" The boy cried.
"You may be right about Bogum, but you don't know what his parents will do once they find out."
At the age of nine, he lost the only friend he made until then.
At the age of nine, Taehyung had to rapidly grow emotionally and mentally to understand his mother and follow her instructions. From the age of nine, his mother taught him about being a witch, about blending in. In some ways, him having the powers to heal did make sense. He could never remember being sick or having a wound on his own body that lasted more that a couple of hours or a day, before it vanished without trace. Another thing that made sense was his love for nature, and incredibly, he realized that him talking to plants was not just the wild imagination of a boy. He could feel the nature around him. He could understand the trees and plants and flowers around him, though not by words like a human, he understood and they actively responded to his touch.
He was taught to heal efficiently without raising suspicion and to caste spells to do magic that did not come naturally to him. To create potions and medicines that would do magic not instantly, but not too slow as well. It was all about having a balance and blending in. Every time he used his witch powers, his eyes turned pure green and glowed. When he did not, it returned to the beautiful and strange mixture of blue and green.
At the age of twelve, he realized that him drawing the life essence to heal can be dangerous. For his power was a double edged sword. He could heal and kill with his hands. Yeontan had been hurt and he was drawing strength from a small tomato plant in his mother's garden to heal him. He was feeling too lazy to create a paste and wanted his dog healed immediately so that they could continue playing. It was not until the plant under his fingers had wilted and dried that he realized with horror that he killed it. He ran into his house, crying to his mother, asking her to help him make the plant alive again. But his mother shook her head.
"Once a living being crosses from life to death, we cannot use our powers to bring them back, we must not. Because nature has its rule. Once dead, it should remain dead. Because bringing back something or someone from the dead will require a sacrifice, it will require the death of another equal being. To bring a plant back to life, we will have to kill another plant. To bring back a person from the dead, we will have to kill another person. Because that is the law of the nature. The death count must remain the same."
"B-but...the tomat-tos"
"It died because it didn't have enough life essence to heal Yeontan's wound instantly like you wanted" The woman explained to her crying son "what did i tell you about balance, Tae baby?"
"N-never take t-too much, never g-give t-t-too much"
"Yes. we can try and save a being until the brink of it's death, but once dead, we must not try." She explained gravely "Because if we do that, then our magic turns black. It looses the goodness in it."
At the age of fifteen, he realized that his body was different. He did not fit into the anatomy of neither a man nor a woman. He had a penis as it was expected of a male, albeit very small. But he did not have the testes as he read in his biology text book. Instead right beneath his penis, instead of a sack of balls, he had the body part of a woman. A vagina. The inexplainable discovery had him fall into a huge anxiety attack. He thrashed around in his room, until his mother calmed him down.
"W-why? Why am i a freak, Eomma?" The teenage boy asked through tears "Am I a man? Or a woman?"
"You are someone special" His mother had replied.
At the age of sixteen, he fell sick for the first time. His body submerged in high temperature and he kept sweating. There was a throbbing ache between his legs and an excruciating pain in his abdomen. He thought he was dying. His mother was there, wiping him down and feeding him regularly. Some kind of inhuman voice seemed to always emit from his throat and everything was a blur for him. That lasted for three days. On the fourth day, he woke up to a very strong world. Strong smell and bright colors. He could even smell the mint tree in his garden strongly from his room as the wind blew through the window. The magic in his veins pulsed wildly. He ran, to his mothers arms, afraid of the suddenly strange and loud world.
"Eomma!" He cried out, a strange pitch to his voice that he did not understand.
At the age of sixteen he realized that he was beyond strange. There was something deeply wrong with him and his body. Yet, his mother repeated the same thing she always did. "You are special. You are one of a kind."
When he asked her what was happening to him, she replied "It is just a side effect of your powers"
Somehow, he could not believe that, despite believing everything his mother told him until then. But then she had the solution to his crisis as well.
"Always wear this." His mother told him, an indescribable look in her eyes. The necklace had two coin-like pendants, one a dull grey and the other maroon in color. As soon as the necklace was secure around his neck, the world faded and returned back to normal. The brightness went away, the smells went away, and his voice turned back to his deep baritone. He cried in relief, still confused and emotions running high in his body. His mother warned him that if he ever took it off, he would loose the magical bind the necklace had and his fever would return every three to six months creating a cycle on its own. It took him more than a month to accept it and pretend that he was normal. As normal as he could pretend to be. The fever never returned and he continued to be a witch. But every month, he would stare at the full moon, something deep in him tugging and begging to be let out. A suffocation. Every night he would watch the moon change it's phase with some kind of unknown longing in him.
When he passed the college entrance exam, for the first time he moved away from his mothers shelter. His mother had firmly opposed to him going to college, staying away from her, but had to agree ultimately when Taehyung kept being stubborn. He wanted to be on his own. Now a mature nineteen year old, he understood why she wanted to keep him safe and hidden. He would probably end up in some crazy research lab if people found out. But he wanted to experience the world. He wanted to step out of the safety net his mother created for him. He could run and come see his mother whenever he wanted though, he was only about forty five minutes away from home.
He loved it. He loved everything about college, making a few friends very awkwardly, having his first crush on the boy who sat next to him in his biochemistry class, and enjoying little things like everyone his age should. The first few months of college was everything he wanted all his life. He felt normal.
But Taehyung had always known he was not normal, and all that took for everything to crumble down was a single moment. It had been a normal day. Attending classes and drinking his favorite pumpkin spice latte. But right as he stepped out of the café with his latte in his hand, a loud screeching of tires followed by a bang was heard.
He ran towards the source of sound to see a young girl, only a couple of years younger than him, lying in a pool of blood and gasping for breath. He shouted at a passerby to call an ambulance and he dropped to his knees beside the girl. He placed his hand on her neck, feeling her erratic pulse and very lightly using his powers to assess her body. She had a broken leg and fractured ribs. Various degrees of scratches and wounds all over her skin. But what worried him the most was the rib that had broken and pierced into her lungs. Her lungs were rapidly filling with blood and the girl coughed out red, struggling to breathe.
He shouted again in panic when he still could not hear the sirens of an approaching emergency vehicle "Please call the ambulance!"
"It's on it's way!" A bystander replied.
He could feel her rapidly deteriorating and failing lungs. She only needed a little help to survive. Otherwise, he wasn't sure if the girl would survive until she reached hospital. He waited, hoping that the ambulance would show up anytime soon, but only found himself panicking even more. The girl was on the verge of death and she was fighting to live. She was full of youth and happiness and dreams that she wouldn't be able to fulfil if he did not help now. He could feel the powers in him thrumming to heal her, to save her. And save he did.
Before he was even fully aware of what he was doing, he could feel the ribs pull out of her lungs, though he did not heals her fractures, he could feel the wound in lungs heal and the blood seep out to give her a steady breathing passage. Gasps and shouts filled around him and he looked up in alarm, only to realize that his hands were emitting green aura steadily. His heart was beating wildly and he stumbled up, the people surrounding him scrambled apart as if he was some alien. He had done the one thing his mother always warned him not to.
He stared around him, tears brimming his eyes. The people seemed terrified and in awe of him. Phones were pointed at him, recording the scene. He turned around and ran, right into the first bus he could catch, hoping to get home as soon as possible.
His mother had not responded like he expected her to. He had expected her to scold him, shout at him, but he could not find even a hint of anger in her face. Instead, what he found was a fierce determination. The video of him saving the girl had gone viral on the internet. He stayed cooped in his room for two days. He wouldn't be able to go to college after this. His face was visible enough for anyone who met him before to be able to recognize him. For two days, his mother did not disturb him, other than for the daily meals. Two days later, when he came down, it was to half of the things in their house missing.
"Eomma" Taehyung croaked "what are you doing?" he asked as his mother muttered something and her jars of potions disappeared.
"Packing"
"packing? Where are we going? This- This is our home!"
His mother turned to glare at him "We need to survive Taehyung. And every second more that we stay here, our chances are decreasing."
Taehyung scoffed, shaking his head "Why? Because they will take me to some lab?"
His mother stared back at him blankly. Taehyung's face twisted in grimace at his mother's lack of response "That was not the real reason, was it?"
Silence rang heavily in the air. He stalked forward grabbing his mother's shoulder, shaking her desperately "Why? Why? Why do i have to hide all my life? Why did I have to be such a freak?! I never asked about anything. I always believed and did what you told me! I just made one mistake!"
"A mistake that will cost you your life!" His mother shouted back. His mother was strict with her rules, but this was the first time she out right shouted at him. And in the outburst, he could see fear in her green eyes. Then she whispered "You were not supposed to be born, Taehyung-ah."
"What?"
"It should have been impossible to conceive you. But I had you, and I had to keep you safe!"
"I-I don't understand" Taehyung felt like his world was falling apart. What was happening? All his life, his mother told him he was special. Now she tells him he was not supposed to be born. Before he could question her further, his mother's body tensed, eyes shining bright in its green color.
"No!" She gasped, shocked and then frantically turned to him "You have to leave, now!"
"W-what?! Eomma..what are you-"
The front door burst open with a bang that he knew was from magic. He stared in horror as two men in dark robes came in. His mother launched forward with a shout of spell, a jet of purple bursting from her fingers to knock the men off their feet. She too had fallen to the ground, hit by one of their spells.
She struggled, but stood up clutching her side. She grabbed him, thrusting a bag into his hands, and dragged him towards their back door, bursting into their garden in the backyard and running until they reached the far end of their fence. A door he had never in his life seen before appeared at his mother's touch. She yanked it open to reveal thick dense forest that seemed to extend infinitely. Surely, his mother was not asking him to go into the dark forest.
"Taehyung" His mother grabbed him desperately "I always told you you were special. It is true. If you ever take off this" she touched the necklace hanging on his neck "You will become someone else that i had hoped you would never need to be, and when you do, never show that you have powers of a witch. But if you survive without taking this off, then live as a witch. But either way, my son" She cradled his cheeks with tears in her eyes
"I love you. Survive."
With that his mother pushed him into the forest and slammed the door shut. Seconds after the door was shut, he heard a thundering explosion on the inside. He gasped in horror and raised his hands to bang the door, but suddenly, the door vanished, the fence vanished and his entire house vanished. He looked around, tears streaming down his face and heart thundering in his chest. Miles and miles around him, there was nothing but forest. Forest as if he was simply dropped into the middle of it. He could not see the road in front of his house or any traces that a place like that ever existed. As if, it was all an illusion. He gasped, whimpering and clutching the bag close to his chest.
Taehyung could feel the heavy layer of magic humming in the air. There seemed to be a fog that engulfed the whole area, making it unable to see more than fifteen to twenty feet. But what actually grabbed his heart and twisted his nerves was the eerie silence surrounding him. It was as if the forest was dead. He shuddered as goosebumps burst all over his body. He was still in his thin night gown made of silk, and it left him feeling naked.
He touched a nearest tree "Talk to me" He begged and received no reply. He always loved being in between trees and plants. But now, he feared them, the silence drowning him in fear. His gut was heavy and he was frayed and exposed like a wire. He stopped breathing for a moment, but heard the sound of panting breath around him. Like there was some beast looming over his shoulder. But he was alone. Was he imagining things now?
Survive.
His fingers glowed green and he willed his magic to show the best way to survive. He took in a shuddering breath and ran. Ran where his instincts lead him to. Ran without having any sense of time or place. He ran and ran and ran.
He ran even when he was out of breath and ran even when his legs screamed in protest. He ran until he burst through the fog, into bright green lushes that were sizzling with life and all the sounds that trees must have. But it was night, and the moon was bright in the sky. He collapsed onto the feat of a tree and breathed hard. His body aching all over and the adrenaline rushing through his body disorienting him.
Am i safe here?
The tree on which he was leaning on whispered comfort. The air was warm and he could finally breathe. he turned to glance at the way he came and saw the terrifying dead forest standing as still as he had experienced it. He had to get away from it. He clambered shakily up on his feet and took small steps away from the dead forest. He walked, his muscles cramping and his feet aching with all the wounds and blisters of running barefoot. The trees and plants greeted him as he walked by. He was too tired and the magic in him was weak. The glow in his fingered dimmed until it died out due to his exhaustion and inability to concentrate.
So he walked under the moonlight. Listening to the comfort and greeting radiated by the trees and plants, which gave him a solace of not being alone. He kept walking until he could see the beginnings of dawn break into the night sky. The forest seemed to wake up even more, with every step he took. But still, it was considerably dark. The adrenaline had slowly seeped out of his body and now he was walking on sheer will.
That was until he heard the snapping of twigs and leaves. The sound heavy enough to be the footstep of a large animal. A low growl echoed through the forest. Taehyung froze, his heart rocketing again and adrenaline once again rushing through his body.
Men were found days later at the foot of the forest, shredded into a pile of meat. Monsters lived here.
And so he ran with the last burst of energy that came from his sheer will to survive. But it didn't take long. The creature was fast and its snarl was all that Taehyung could hear. Teeth nagged his night gown and the cloth tore. He tripped on a branch, pain shooting up his ankle and he slammed onto the forest floor. He turned around scrabbling backwards until he back hit a tree, clutching the remains of his gown and his bag to his chest. He couldn't see the animal, but two glowing orbs of red was enough for him to shake in fear, tears once again filling his sore eyes.
He was going to die.
The creature kept snarling in warning and Taehyung's body locked, unable to move himself and a high pitched inhuman whine rose from the back of his throat. The snarling stopped for a few seconds, before low growls filled the air. The creature stepped closer and he could finally make out what it was. A huge wolf.
He clutched the bag hard to his chest and squeezed his eyes shut, awaiting his death. He hoped he would die at the first bite and not live through being shredded apart. The hairs at the back of his neck stood high as he felt the animal's breath on his cheeks. He flinched violently when something wet touched his cheek, jerking back and hitting his head on the tree. The wolf growled loudly in his ears, predatory eyes narrowing in warning. Sharp teeth promising death if he made the wrong move. So this was how he was going to die, by the claws and teeth of a wild animal.
Suddenly he could hear more rustling and paw steps around him. Multiple growls filled the air around. He choked out a sob in distress, giving up. He fought to survive. He fought to live. But he failed.
Survive.
I am sorry, Eomma.
The wolf above him growled louder and the rest of the growls died away, but he could feel more than one predatory eyes watching his every move. The animal snapped his teeth around his neck and he flinched, his head hitting the tree again. In his fear, he failed to notice his necklace hanging from the wolf's teeth.
Deep rich leather and musk.
The gleaming red orbs of the animal that stood over him was the last thing in his vision, before he welcomed the darkness and lost consciousness.