˗ˏˋ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 ᵛᵐⁱⁿᵏᵒᵒᵏ

11 • 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘹

"Is there anywhere else you can go?" He asked the mother, scanning the landscape for any sign of survivors.
He didn't want to look at the children in her arms.

"No, I'm afraid not."

Still dark and sooty black from the fire, everything around him fallen into ashes and smoke, he'd scanned his eyes over the area again and again just to be thorough. Huts and villagers that were located here now all gone, either unrecognisable slumping shapes and lumps of burnt material and wood or dead bodies, the matter was that they were scattered everywhere, not in a good way.

Why did a peaceful, homed place like this have to burn to the ground? This wasn't what the chief of the village would've wanted- no, it definitely wasn't, and yet there hadn't been a sign of him or an emergency plan ever since this incident unravelled all so suddenly.

Strange. How can you be a leader of so many lives gathered in one community if you can't protect them from major things such as this? Where is the elderly chief? Where's everyone else? This woman and her two children can't be the only two survivors, there's no way, it was such a busy community since they'd step foot into this place.

Sure, his small group of 'allies' had settled into a provided hut after being directed to a vacant one, white coloured with strange yet unique blue marks and patterns decorating all over the front and flaps.

He'd gotten a good glimpse of the villagers when they were passing by too; all adorning identical brown leather clothing and blue marks that seemed to be painted on and smeared by the smudging of fruits on their skin and cloaks.

Faces filled with curiosity of their arrival, most murmuring, a small fraction quietly watching them enter their village, and there was even a little girl that said 'hello' when Jungkook accidentally made eye contact with her.

Altogether he'd gotten a neutral, much so a friendly vibe from this place where Taehyung had claimed to be their next stop, the aforementioned male that knew more than most right now just having to be the one that couldn't instruct them on what to do when they most needed it.

In this situation Jungkook's now pretty much directionless. Other than having Hoseok part ways with him and Taehyung missing, the twins with Hoseok (which relieves him just a little, he never wants that boy to be alone- not in a crisis like this), he's by himself and exposed to more than what he never wanted of the outside world.

He thought his bloody mentor was the devil with all that power and threat he possessed over Jungkook's strength and very existence, now he's just being thrown into bigger flames of the actual demon. Literally, most at heart, through flesh and bone. Just get this prank over and done with, let him wake up to the smell of blood and ale again.

From the sound of regularly clinking glass at the mini bar to the murmuring and yelling of big hulking filthy men spilling into the fighting inn brimming with irritated energy nightly. Let him wake up- even frustrated, if that's what it takes, from being disturbed by his rare chance at a fulfilling nap before the clock struck 12 am- this time he swears he won't ever curse God for making him live a life of a blackmailed fist fighter again because this dream seems all the more cruel and cold.

But he set the inn on fire and everything exploded, destroying the place he grew up in pinned by his controlling mentor and many other people hoping to earn money by brawling. Took Hoseok along to follow the other strangers to God knows where next without losing the (almost adulterated) teen in the midst of that chaos and now look where they are.