The wolves near the border [SKZ fanfiction] | HanJisung

chapter 1

"I hate insects!" Hyunjin exhales after swatting away the fifth flying animal zooming around his head.
They're filling their baskets with plums from the small plum orchard consisting of twelve big, firm plumtrees. The trees must be centuries old with their broad trunks and lavish branches filled with the juice fruits. It's one of the perks of their territory. Jisung remembers how excited Minho was when he first discovered the fruit trees when they were exploring around the newly found caves. The omega had laughed like a maniac and begged Chan to stop their search for a better place to stay.
"Fruit trees! Chan! That means the ground here is fertile enough for us to plant other vegetables. You know I've always wanted to grow our own food instead of foraging forever! Come on!"
Our big alpha had sighed deeply and told them they first had to make sure this land wasn't claimed already. It seemed too good to be true for a lap of ground to have this many benefits for a newly formed and growing pack.
Chan's first argument was that they were still too close to the beach, but the others immediately talked back saying that three weeks of endless traveling was far enough. So, in the end with the pack voting for this place, they started marking the territory.

That was seven years ago.Jisung smiles thinking back to that moment and drops his basket on the ground.
"If there's insects, that means it's the right time for harvesting. Most plumes should be ready."
He nods over to Seungmin and Felix who both stayed in their wolf forms and waited for the omega to give orders.
"Hyunjin -as the tallest- try to fill a basket with unripe ones. Seungmin, help him. Lix, you and I will gather ripe plums." He looks over to the dark brown wolf who has his head lowered to the ground and his jaw slack. "And don't try to eat them off the ground, Seungmin!" he reprimands him. "You don't want another event happening, right?"
The brown wolf whimpers and snorts while retracting his head to help his mate. For being one of the smarter wolves in the pack, Seungmin has a history of food related misfortune. Like how he unknowingly ate a plum with a wasp in it last year and got stung in his mouth, causing his tongue to swell and almost made him pass out because he couldn't breath in his wolf form.
Jisung gives him a last warning glare before Seungmin nudges his head against his mate to walk over one of the plum trees.

"There's a lot more bees than last year," Felix remarks, waving his paw gently in front of his face to make the bees go away. "Is it because of the soft winter?"
Jisung shrugs his shoulders whilst picking another juicy plum off the tree.
"Yah, look how big this one is!" he smiles, showing Felix the plum he just plucked.
"Should we get another bag and fill it with overripe ones? I think Minho would be ecstatic to make some plum wine with them."
Felix lowers his back for Jisung to grab a satchel out of the spare basket they've taken with them. First rule of foraging, always take an extra bag with you!
"If there's enough sugar, I could try making syrup," Felix says, helping Jisung to reach even higher when he points out another big plum amongst the smaller ones.
"Oh! We could make lemonade like last spring!" Jisung happily suggests, thinking back to the months Felix made syrup out of lemons and mixed it with water for a refreshing treat after their work. It was the exact right beverage they needed after a long morning of work and gave them the energy boost to keep going.
"Or we could try to roast them with chestnuts!" Hyunjin yells at them.
"You and your obsession for nuts!" Jisung laughs at him, but his laugh falters seeing Seungmins ears fall flat against his head.
"Seung?" he asks.
"I heard some weird noises," the dark brown wolf says, making Felix's ears turn towards the way Seungmin is looking.
"I don't hear anything out of the ordinary?" he replies. "Maybe a bee crawled into your ear?"
Hyunjin snickers at Felix's joke and Seungmin abruptly shakes his head to make sure there's no insect infiltrating his ear canals.
"Not funny!" he whines while Hyunjin pats his head and coos at him.
They go back to their tasks and keep picking fruits till their baskets fill up. When Jisung is climbing up a tree to grab another juicy plum he stills and looks to the west. "You guys hear that?" he asks and before he can point out the direction, they hear a long howl coming from their pack leader.
"Intruders?" Hyunjin says with a worrying glance at the others.
They hear how their pack leader tells them he found traces of trespassers around the north part of their territory and immediately Felix and Seungmin growl lightly.
Seungmin nudges against his mate to stay close to him while Felix warns Jisung to get down so they can go back to their base.
Jisung stills a moment when his ears hear the weird noise again coming from the west. A lot closer now.
"Ji!" Felix warns him to come down, but something isn't right.
Jisung squints his eyes towards the west and tries to look through the lush forest for abnormal movements.
"Hurry up, Sung!" Hyunjin is already strapping his filled bag onto Seungmin and can't help but sound a bit panicky when the omega doesn't respond. "What are you doing! Come down!"
There's a slight rumble Jisung can feel. Something heavy running around and he can't place the sound accompanied with it. It's getting worryingly close and he knows he has to get down like his pack mate asks, but he's curious.
Right when Felix growls deeply at him there's another growling sound, ear deafening and way closer than they thought. Within a few moments several things happen all at once.
First, Jisung's nose catches two unfamiliar scents filled with rancid and sour hints. Second, there's a whimper coming from one of the two wolves rushing over and thirdly, the growl of the biggest creature seen in his life slamming his claw against the plum tree Jisung is in.
"What the -," Jisung clamps himself for dear life on the branches of the tree while witnessing the enormous cave bear going berserk around them. One of the two unknown wolves has a bleeding flank and Felix has to jump out of the range of the slamming claw of the bear.
"Holy shit!" he hears Seungmin exclaim. "Where did he come from!"
The bear growls again, his saliva flying in strings around his jaw and his eyes flared with madness looking around for his targets. Felix and Seungmin both growl back to get the bear to back up whilst to protect their pack members, but the bear doesn't seem intimidated at all. No, the wild animal seems to not care at all for these wolves, blinded by some rage. He slams his side against the tree and Jisung shrieks when he almost loses his grip on the branch.
"Ji!" Felix barks, which focuses the bear's attention on him.
The bear rises on his two hind legs and pushes with all his strength against the tree trunk to make the small omega fall out of it. Although the tree is centuries old, Jisung knows it won't hold if the bear keeps using all his force. Shit, his fears are taking over with the snapping, big teeth beneath him and the rustling sounds of falling plums and breaking branches around him. He's doomed! Why on earth is that colossal here? And why does it seem out of its mind and set on killing any living thing disturbing him.

The two unknown wolves bark at the others to be careful and Felix tries to get the attention of the bear back. He sprints forward to claw at the colossal and manages to scratch it over his snout. He evades the first swing of the bear's claws, but the second throws him back a few meters. Felix lands on his feet and ducks to set in another attack. The bear lifts itself on his hind legs again and Seungmin tackles Felix out of the way before the weight of the bear can crush him.
"Seung!" Hyunjin yells when his mate slams against the ground, freshly plucked plums rolling out of the baskets on his waist. Seungmin whines, but scrambles himself up to take on his fighting stance again. Felix is clawing and biting at the bear who's still not giving up on attacking them. Felix pushes the bear back and the big back of the bear slams against the tree trunk, which cracks with an unsettling sound.
"Waah!" Jisung yells, clasping desperately on the small branch he's holding.
Although slow, he hears how the wood crunches and wines under him, giving up under the many damaging forces being released on it in the short amount of time.
"Oh god! Jisung!" Hyunjin now screams, wanting to run over.
But before he can, he gets pulled back by the wounded unknown wolf while the other sprints forward to the tree. Felix tries to get away from the bear to get over to him, but the other wolf is faster.
The ground seems to get closer with speed and although all Jisung's muscles scream at him to keep clamping on the tree branch he knows he has to let go to prevent himself from being crushed.
An unfamiliar voice barks at him from where Hyunjin is held back and with that Jisung closes his eyes and pushes himself off as if it told him to jump. It doesn't even take a second before he gets slammed out of the air and teeth softly clasp around his waist. Pure angst bubbles up in his stomach, but before he can comprehend what's happening he tumbles onto the ground with soft fur protecting him from crushing his skull open on the ground. The whole world tumbles around a few times before he lays still and witnesses how Seungmin howls in the air for help.
"Get up! Get up!" Rushed voices call him out of his dizzy state.
His side gets nudged by a snout and without thinking he grabs the scruff to pull himself onto the back of the unfamiliar wolf. Hyunjin is behind him already clasping onto Seungmin while the wounded wolf beside them looks over the shoulder to Felix who is still fending off the bear.
"Follow me!" Seungmin ushers them and Jisung holds his breath when he sees how Felix takes another slam against his chest.
"Lix!" he yells for his pack member, but the alpha shakes his head and scowls at them to move. He'll try to hold the wild animal off.
Jisung clasps himself into the neck of the wolf and all of them run away as fast as they can. Seungmin leads them and after a hot moment they hear Felix's paws pells behind them.
"Are you alright?!" Hyunjin tries to yell at Felix.
"Keep running! He's following!" is all the alpha answers while breathing heavily.
"Where are the others!" Seungmin screams while jumping over broken trees and tumbled rocks, showing the clear path of destruction the bear made while following the two unknown wolves. "I can't go to base!"
They all know that's the safest option with the other alpha's being there, but at the same time they know they can't risk bringing the unknown wolves right into their base.
"Just go! We can't outrun that thing forever!" Jisung scowls at them and Seungmin listens for once to his relief.
Jisung dares to let one hand go from the neck of the wolf beneath him to howl into the sky. Further up south they hear Changbin howl back and Seungmin leads them towards the howling sound.
Jisung glances over his shoulder and clasps his arms tighter when he sees the red glinting eyes of the berserk bear behind them.
"How in the world has that thing such speed," he mumbles fearfully.
They near the open field not far from their base and see Changbin and Chan already in their wolf form waiting for them.
"Idiot!" Hyunjin yells from the back of Seungmin. "Why are you here! Go get Jeongin!"
The short omega wolf lifts up his lip and ignores the pleas of his mate and simply lowers his body like Chan in a fighting stance. Their eyes are surprised for a second, not recognizing the two unfamiliar ones with them, but Chan immediately goes back to focus and barks out instructions.
"Hyunjin, transform and take Bin's flank. Seung, Lix, take the back! Minho will be here in a blink with Jeongin! Keep Jisung safe!"
The bear enters their vision and within a blink of an eye hell breaks loose with their whole pack tackling and fighting the colossal. He hears how Minho and Jeongin arrive and how Minho barks at Changbin to switch with him to protect Jisung.
Jisung lowers himself off the unknown wolf who nudges the other toward him and swiftly turns around to attack the bear as well to help their pack conquer the bear. Changbin isn't listening to Minho and with that Jisung feels how the wounded wolf beside him pulls him back with teeth grasping at his collar.
"No! I can help!" he says, but the wolf ignores his struggles to break free and drags them away from the fighting scene.
"The other omega's are helping too! Let me go!"
The unmight is there once again and Jisung curses himself for feeling too weak to help. He knows he can help and he doesn't want to let his pack do all the work. But when he hears the soft whimper of the wolf beside him he looks the creature in the eye and all desperate feelings disappear. It's not holding him back to protect him, it's asking to stay to protect themselves. It's an omega as well, Jisung finds out with the big, begging eyes the wolf gives him. A wounded omega who doesn't want to be left alone in the same position he hates himself.
Jisung softly nods to show he understands and both turn around to look at how their companions fight.
Pieces of fur fly around and angry snaps from teeth can be heard. The other wolf is defending and distracting the bear while Chan and Felix try to win the upperhand. Jisung hisses when Hyunjin gets thrown away, but the beta only wimpers once before running back to latch his jaws onto the flank of the bear again. Changbin and Minho are attacking from the other side and Seungmin manages to latch onto the throat of the bear who makes a gurgling sound when roaring out loud. Chan manages to bite down on the muzzle of the bear who lifts himself on his hind legs again to slam the wolves off him, bringing the two alpha's with him in the air.
Before the bear can slam down, the unknown wolf lunges forward and claws the belly of the bear with a good precision. Blood and guts splatter out and with that the colossal staggers before falling down on his side. It's last life bleeding out.

First there's silence. Then, Jisung hears his pack pants and huff and he blinks to process what just happened. They've managed to take down a bear. A bear trice as big as them. With great effort and luck on their side.
But the danger isn't over and Jisung gets aware of that when their pack leader growls low at the unknown wolf who tried to sneak off to Jisung and the wounded wolf beside him. The wolf halts its movements and quickly lowers its head to the ground. The wounded wolf next to Jisung does the same and even bares its neck to the leader.
"Ji, come here!" Minho whispers and Jisung ponders for a moment before running to his pack luna. Minho puffs up his chest and takes a protective stance over him, seizing the two wolves up.
Both don't make any disposition to form a threat and stay low to the ground with their necks shown and their ears flat to their heads.
"Hyung, it's okay," Jisung says when his pack leader takes a step forward. "They weren't attacking us."
His pack leader growls again, but this time a little softer.
"But they were leading that thing into our territory," Seungmin says, not sure what the intentions of the wolves are.
"Why don't we ask them to explain why a bear this size followed them?" Jeongin reasons with the others. The youngest seems more curious than suspicious of them and Jisung can't help but agree.
"He's right," he says to his pack. "One of them protected me even though they could've escaped to save their own. Maybe they're willing to talk?"
As the only one with an audible voice as the others talked to him with their bond he sees how the two wolves tilt their heads to him and how the wounded one softly nods to tell them they're willing to talk, to the demise of the other one.
"Tell them to change first," Chan orders Jisung who looks over the flank of Minho to make eye contact with the biggest of the two.
"My pack leader wants to talk, but only if you change," he interprets for them.
The wounded one nudges her muzzle against the neck of the other one who huffs, but agrees.
They close their eyes for a second and within a few seconds they transform into their human forms.

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Starting off with the immediate deepdive!
Normally I like some slow worldbuilding and a little background to immerse the reader, but for this story I wanted to simply throw you guys in there:)

Have fun!