"You are a werewolf."
Tilting your head to the side, you say nothing to respond to him. All you do is return his sharp gaze with your curious one, while taking a moment to study the look he is giving you before you finally ask him,
"I take it you are not too keen of our kind, are you?"
You could feel the deep spite in his words when he first voiced out his conviction. The emotion and hatred were enough to make the wolf inside you start bristling and growling, and you can feel her pushing forward to take over. But you manage to control her and push her back, all while steadying your voice so he would not be able to sense her anger.
Stay down, it's not like we can do anything to him anyway, you remind her, holding back her powers until she slowly calms down. You truly understand her reaction, however, because the dawning revelation of his own identity is making you restless too.
Out of all the creatures that managed to slip through the trap and find themselves being bound in the cursed trench, you got yourself a freaking Vampire.
Your streak of bad luck truly precedes you.
"Same goes to you," the Vampire scoffs. You can sense his anger toning down, but his eyes are still cautious as he takes you in, no doubt feeling the uneasiness that is building up inside you. Lifting his chin with a newfound cockiness, he continues to sneer at you, "Or at least, your wolf seems to not like me that much."
This time, you let the deep growl slip out of your mouth, allowing your wolf to announce her distaste for his presence. Which certainly is not missed, obviously, when the Vampire responds to it with a chuckle.
"You cannot really blame us, Vampire. We were not raised to recognise your kind as anything that is trustworthy," you let your wolf take over you, finally, and let her speak on your behalf.
The Vampire lets out another scoff and shrugs. "Funny. My—kind has also been warned not to trust you so easily, wolf."
You let another growl slip out from within before you close your eyes, pushing your wolf back and regaining control. "That's enough," you calmly state as you open your eyes, directing the words to both the Vampire and your own beast. "Now that we have proclaimed our fondness towards each other, I suggest we try to be civilised for the time being. We are, in fact, sharing the same predicament," you continue to speak, addressing both of them still and stopping briefly before adding, "Well—Sort of."
The Vampire nods his head politely. "Fair enough. If we are going to be stuck in this place together, might as well be friends, am I right?"
The growl that comes from your beast answers his question for you, making him raise his hands to surrender.
"Okay, fine. Not friends, then. Colleagues? Partners in misery? Or casualties of forgotten ancient black wizardry? Cave mates?"
Narrowing your eyes, you merely snap. "Call it whatever you want. I don't exactly care."
He only smirks. "Okay then, not friend. May I know your name, at least? Calling you as 'wolf' the whole time while we are here might turn out to be a bit provocative in my point of view, and I know that your wolf might be feeling a bit disrespected if I do."
You only give him a tight smile. "Yours first."
"So demanding," he tutted. "No problem, though. Since I am, after all, your guest and you are technically my predecessors in all things trap wise. My name is Park Jimin," he says, bowing down ninety degrees at you, briefly, then straightens up with a smile. "At your service."
"My name is ______." He looks a bit hopeful, perhaps waiting for you to announce the name of your pack, or your family name, or perhaps your wolf's given name, if he knows anything about the ways and traditions of Werewolves. But you hold everything else in, preferring to keep them to yourself for various reasons.
You still have no idea who he is or where he came from, after all. And he has yet to earn your trust.
After a moment of exchanging gazes without words, the Vampire seems to understand that he is not getting anything else from you. Clasping his hands together, he straightens up and suddenly acts a bit cheerful. The smile on his face is fake, you know that from the way his jaw tightens briefly before it is soon replaced by it, but you could care less about it.
All you ever want is perhaps to listen to his story and make sure that he is completely harmless before you can decide to stay away.
"So, what's your story?" he asks you, sending a curious look your way as he closes the distance. Well, as much as he could with the different levels you are both separated in and the cursed trench wall now imprisoning him.
"Excuse me?" you return his question with raised eyebrows.
The Vampire's smile tightens as he shrugs. "I've shared my uneventful fate of how I had shamefully got myself stuck inside this—hole," he says, while waving his hands around him so dramatically to point out at the trench's walls. "What happened to you? How did you get here?"
The question has caught you off guard, not ready to be the one telling your story, but you bite the insides of your cheeks to hide it from him. "Why do you want to know?"
The Vampire walks over onto a reasonable sized boulder and claims it as his seat. He stretches out his hands and whisks his slightly torn coat on his back before getting comfortable and looking up. "Because it seems like I am going to be stuck here for a while, so might as well make some good of our time while we can. Perhaps you could entertain me for a moment with your story," he says with a smile, showing his fangs that are glowing under the moonlight, while you merely scoff at him.
"I would never have expected a Bloodsucker to find sob, bad luck stories entertaining," you tell him while shaking your head. But as your eyes fall on him again, the grim look that he is giving you makes you stop. Did I say something wrong?
'Does it really matter to think about such a thing now?'
You choose to ignore the sneering remark your other half is giving you when the Vampire speaks, already losing the lighter mood he was showing you before as his voice sounds tight. "I don't think either of us has a choice now, do we?"
Sighing in defeat, you lower yourself to sit right at the edge of the trench, trying to get comfortable as you sit down on the dirt as a way to get a bit closer to him to continue the talk. You can feel the confusion your wolf is having about his change of moods, but you disregard it as you start to share your own experience with this place.
"What happened to me was not completely different than yours, honestly. I was injured and I got lost in the forest before I fell through the same trap you got yourself in," you tell him while pointing above your head, right at the cavern's ceiling. As if taunting the both of you, the moon comes into sight and looks so beautifully bright through the trap hole, shining its light down into the cave to make its divine appearance. "I might have been slightly luckier than you did to have my wolf pushing through just as I was losing my consciousness and took over. She made us leap away from the trench at the very last second."
Jimin scoffs. "Lucky for you indeed," he bitterly says. He looks down for a moment, staring solemnly at his own hands as he slowly begins to repeatedly clench tightly and loosen them absentmindedly. You are just starting to question his odd behaviour but have no chance to speak about it when he suddenly looks up. "You said you were injured too?"
Too? You wonder while your eyes search for any visible injuries on his body only to find none.
"Um—yes, I was," you tell him while nodding.
"What happened?" he asks as he leans down, resting his forearms on his knees as he waits for you to continue with your story. Despite sounding curious, his intense gaze on you is void of any concern. Instead, he seems rather suspicious.
Do we want to tell him? You ask your wolf. And you receive no answer. Which only means that she wants you to take this matter into your own hands and wants nothing to do with the chat. Typical.
"It's—quite complicated. I'd rather not tell a stranger about it. We barely knew each other until a few minutes ago," you finally tell him, deciding that it would be best to dodge the question when you still have no idea what his intentions are. Trapped or not, he is still a Vampire, a being that you know nothing about. After what you have gone through which had led you to this place, you remind yourself to take cautious at anything, and anyone, especially a complete stranger that you had just met. "All I can say is that it happened around two moons back. I've been here since then, recovering on my own and surviving, while getting to know this land as much as I could to try and figure out how to escape the place."
His eyes are narrowed as he takes everything in. You cannot hear his soft mumbling, but you can read it on his lips how he is repeating your words, 'two moons', as if he is thinking hard, calculating it silently.
"But you don't happen to have anything to do with the ruckus happening outside, do you?" he suddenly asks you while looking guarded.
"You mean that fight happening on the forest's borders?" you respond with a frown which earns a nod of his head. "Absolutely not!" you instantly snap. Flinching at his widened eyes, you carefully clear your throat to regain composure and continue to explain, more calmly this time. "I am not with them, I mean. That battle you heard seemed to happen between a group of rogue wolves with some Hunters. The land surrounding this forest seems to be a part of the No Man's Land, where rogues and halflings usually reside in. I have absolutely nothing to do with them and their battle, nor do I even care about any of them."
Indeed, you are speaking the truth. You know nothing of those rogue wolves you have scented briefly upon entering this forest and absolutely no knowledge of the battle except for when you were outside to scout their presence, and it would truly be best to not get yourself involved with the Hunters. At least, not these ones, and not now.
Jimin seems pleased with your answer when he makes an obvious sigh of relief. "I was hoping that you wouldn't. Since you seem so—calm, instead of showing any feral traits on you. And I kind of figured they would be rogues when the air reeked of their foul scents coming from where the battle was. Definitely a scent that you don't seem to be carrying."
At the mention of the rogues' scents, you instinctively scrunch your nose and sneer. "Dear Goddess, I sure hope I don't smell like them."
The air seems to grow lighter as he chuckles at your response. His eyes are now showing a glint of a different kind of mood, replacing the previous intense one he kept sporting on since you shared your brief introductions, making you laugh along with him.
"So you are definitely not a rogue? Or an ally of the Hunters?" he asks again with a cautious tone once the laughter dies down. His eyes leave your face for a flicker of a moment to glance at your forearm. There is no mistaking the curiosity that appears in his gaze to let you know that he has had quite a glimpse of the pack mark you still have displayed on your skin.
The fact that you still have it engraved on your arm to further prove your words allows you to breathe easier. Not only because he can see that you are not trying to deceive him, but also the fact that you still carry the bond to your pack. Although for how much longer, you certainly have no clue.
"I—" you start speaking, pulling his attention away from it as you pull down the long sleeve of your top to cover the mark. "No, I am not a rogue."
At least, not until—
"Good." The Vampire gives you a warm smile as he murmurs the word, coaxing your brows to rise in question. Thankfully, he seems to be more than glad to explain, "As much as I would prefer not to spend my imprisonment in this place and sharing this shelter of a cave with a Werewolf, I would certainly find it even harder to accept being alone with rogues."
"Yet another thing we seem to agree about," you speak with a nod. You have had enough experience dealing with rogues in the past and none of those uneventful moments had ever turned out to be a pleasure to rekindle.
"How much do you know about this place?" Jimin pulls you out of your reverie as a glimpse of your past returns for a moment, which you are mostly glad for because you are no longer the focus of the conversation. "Not just the cavern, but the land. The whole forest."
His question and statement only further confirm that he is a complete stranger to this place. Which is not a surprise, especially for someone of his kind, when the land is much closer to the Werewolves' territories instead of their homeland.
Ever since the Peace Treaty was signed at the end of The Blood War which happened centuries ago, each Supernatural beings have made a pact to stay as far away from one another. The only encounters that had ever happened between Vampires and Werewolves in the post-war era have mostly been in the form of business dealings and were mostly done personally between individuals, and each of them had always been done only when necessary.
"So you really have never been around, huh? You've never heard of this place either?"
Jimin shakes his head lightly. "I've heard a few things about abandoned lands that used to be battlegrounds for the Blood War, but I've never truly looked into them more unless I really do need to step foot on those lands. I've been travelling to lots of places and unless I am needed to be on those kinds of lands, I'd rather choose not to challenge my way through them," he simply explains with a shrug. "This place, however, I know nothing about because I've never travelled to this region before. Perhaps I've come to past it once or twice but I've never noticed its presence. And I must be honest that I do not have any memory of knowing a place such as this one."
You only respond to him with a short nod. "That's understandable. I don't think that are a lot of others who live far from around here who have knowledge of this place. The forest is so well hidden by its magic and had been considered a wild realm to those who know about it. Even us, Werewolves, had long thought that a place like this one only exists in legends or folk tales," you start to explain. "I've only heard tales about these Forbidden Forests since I was little. How magic still exists in the territory, hiding it from plain sight. And how those traitors, the Ancient Hunters and Warlocks who sided with them had left not only their curses behind, but also the traps they created during the Blood War when they escaped from here."
At the mention of the Blood War, the Vampire visibly turns solemn. Once again reminding you of the scent of Old Blood which he carries with him, one that you had scented as you entered this place before you knew who or what he was.
'Definitely a Pure Blood. There is no mistaking it now, yet that further explains it,' you hear your wolf wondering on her own and you choose to not respond.
If he is indeed a Pure Blood Vampire, then it means he is much stronger than any regular ones or the Turned Vampires that you have come to know or have encountered in your recent past. But that also means that the curses this place holds will work just as stronger on him. That is just one of the wonders that this place has — you had figured out after studying the cavern during the beginning of your stay in this place — that the magic within the cavern has the ability to recognise the power and strength of its victims so it would be able to subdue them with the kind of power that is equal to them.
As your mind slightly wanders on its own, you continue further, "Perhaps my weakened state allowed me to enter the realm without anything obstructing my way. Then again, I wasn't completely in the right mind to notice where I was heading to until I had fallen in here. But I didn't find out about the secrets that this part of the cave held and the walls around you are hiding until I—" you stop just as you remember that night. The night you wandered off during your recovery, when you realised far too late that you had accidentally lost something that was important for you when you nearly fell into the trench. Something that had you hastily tried to jump down until the curse kicked you away from the trap, refusing to let you in.
And you have not been able to go back and retrieve it since then.
Your family emblem.
Realising that you nearly let it slip out to mention it, you clear your throat and try to continue with your story. "Well, I lost something on the day I fell in and I was trying to find it. I tried going down there to see if it had fallen in and ended up getting hurt by the wolfsbane that had been spread on the opening of the trench," you tell him while pointing at the edge, where wolfsbane seems to be splattered on. "I started to scout through the other tunnels and pathways and had found many other spots that have similar traits as this room, until I found the one place that would be safe enough for me to claim as my sleeping chamber."
If the Vampire had caught on to what you were trying to hide from him, he simply is not showing it to you. He merely sighs loudly and asks, "And there is really no other way for me to escape this hole? And no way for you to pull me out?"
Relieved that he is not demanding any further explanation of what you have lost that night, or any further detail of your shameful defeat, you give him an answer with a gentle shake of your head. That only earns another exasperated sigh coming from him. Jimin looks terribly beat as he lowers his head and runs his fingers through his already messy hair. He seems even further annoyed as he looks up at you again. "I don't suppose that food will come on their own either, hmm?"
You tilt your head to the side. Right, his 'meal'. "How long has it been since your last meal?"
"I don't know. I lost track of time—" he shrugs, frowning as he looks up to the visible part of the night sky. "How long since you got lost in this place?"
"Me?" you point at yourself before he even moves his gaze away from the sky. His gaze finds you as he nods.
"I already told you, I found my way here around two moons ago. Although I can't really recall the exact time. I was wounded and it took me a while before I could regain my sense of time." This time, you make the move to look up, gazing at the bright moon that had been helping you keep up with time.
"Then why are you still staying? Why haven't you escaped yet?" the Vampire pulls your attention away from the sky. The suspicion in his eyes had grown more intense, as if he could read through your lies and see what you are hiding from him.
However, you only keep brushing his attitude off as a form of his animosity against you and your kind and try to ignore it.
"All the binding magic and curses that had been left behind were created to stop every single Supernatural being that had been lost to this forest, and they are all spread in multiple places across the land. They don't just exist inside and all over this cavern alone, but also across the whole forest and its borders," you solemnly tell him, as you recall how you had first found out about the secrets that this land hold. "The whole forest itself is a giant trap. This land and the entire land around the forest may serve as a neutral territory between packs, Hunters and other Supernaturals today, but that's only because of the history behind the land and because nobody really knows what is hidden in this place. It will be too risky to leave the territory without help. Besides—"
I can't leave behind something that may trace back to us. And this place also makes the perfect place to hide as I prepare to deal with what is coming.
You bite your lips to hold back from giving up too much information which you have no further need to explain, and rather choose to continue with, "It's just too complicated to leave this place on my own without any knowledge of what is waiting for me out there, right outside the borders. I can't really see what's on the other side since everything between this place and the world around it is blocked by magic, so I can't really risk entering another pack's territory and risk my own safety while I am trying to leave a similarly dangerous one."
Jimin falls silent. Surely not liking the new information you had just given him.
"So you are saying that even if you are not the one who had gotten stuck inside this trench down here, you are also trapped?"
"That's—probably a good way to sum it up, I guess," you answer carefully, although you are starting to feel irritated by his ongoing questions and the way he is looking at you at the moment. "But at least I am free to hunt."
There was no intention of taunting him at first, but the growl of dislike and his annoyed scoff somehow make you feel better. But only for a moment.
As if luck still decides to not be on your side, your empty stomach starts to rumble. The sound may sound faint, but nothing could escape a Supernatural's heightened sense. Especially a Vampire. Wounded or not, his senses are still out of this world. And he lets you know that he had caught the betrayal your body is making by smirking at you.
"And how is that going for you so far?" he taunts. He even has the audacity of smirking at your misfortune even before you manage to say anything about it.
But alas, you are still humiliated. You are supposed to be powerful and agile enough to hunt in the wild. The only thing you seem to be lacking of at the moment is luck.
"It has been going just fine so far, if you must know," you snap at him. You can feel your wolf pushing forward, unwelcoming the humiliation that is being thrown at you. Taking a deep breath, you force your wolf and your rage to back down simultaneously, until your voice is calm enough to respond. "You are not the only one who is having such a terrible night. I only choose to hunt little animals, waiting for the right moment to find myself a bigger game. I had the chance earlier today but unfortunate events happened during the hunt for dinner."
The memory of your misfortune has you gritting your teeth and clenching your hands tight. You have made it a mission to find out what that conspicuous wind was about, and you are ready to search for its source first thing in the morning. This forest may be filled with various magic, but you have come upon most of them to know that whatever that wind was, it certainly was not a part of this forest.
Something must have entered the forest. A new force in the form of the wind, perhaps? Since it was different from how it normally would when something trespasses the borders. But what could it be?
Wait—Something new? You stop to wonder, while your wolf sounds more than glad to share her trail of thoughts.
'What an interesting coincidence—a new being entering the land right at the same time as this new possible force did. Or perhaps it is not a coincidence after all?'
You choose not to answer her, but you cannot help but let your eyes fall on the Vampire as you wonder to yourself, Could it be?
"Where did you come from? How did you get yourself into the forest?" you carefully ask him when your curiosity gets to you. "If you were only strolling and travelling around the area, you would probably have been diverted away from this place. It is how the forest protects itself from intruders. Its magic hides its presence and diverts any possible threats that come near it."
Jimin looks away for a moment before answering, "Judging from your story, perhaps my condition was the reason why I got myself somehow lured into this land."
He falls silent for a moment, then leans down to scratch his forehead and stares down at his hands. You cannot see his eyes from this angle, but you can see that he is pushing down his pain and anger as his body becomes tense. You can even feel it, the wave of emotions coming out of him even if they are not as strong as they did before.
"Back in my homeland, I encountered some trouble and I was—ambushed," he continues, looking up to you and shaking his head as he recalls everything that happened. "I'm still trying to figure out how it all happened and what exactly happened to me after the attack. I was caught off guard and poisoned, and whatever they had given me had sent my mind into a frenzied state that I just could not process anything except for the pain that I was feeling inside my body, and it had somehow made me lose control of my powers as they tried to fight it. They came out of me full force, sending me in a full-speed racing away from my homeland while my body was recovering, and it had led me to here. I didn't notice where I was heading to, where my powers were leading me towards, until I just—fell."
You can tell that he is still keeping a few things away from you, but the distress and anger that you are seeing and sensing from him have you wondering what kind of trouble he had run into. He must have gone into such a deep shit to have his emotions roaring out of control the way they did when you first came in.
"That was—" you are about to voice your concern, or perhaps inquire him to explain what actually happened to him back in his homeland, before something in the back of your mind ticks. It was something he said before that is bothering you. "Wait, did you say that you came racing into the forest? As in running at full speed?"
Jimin nods. But his face is completely emotionless. "That's probably not how I would describe it, since I really had no idea what kind of speed I was running on—"
"How long ago was this?" you cut him off before he could finish speaking.
Jimin seems taken aback for a moment, but he only frowns and says nothing about it. He looks around as if trying to figure out how much time had passed since then, before he finally, calculatedly says, "It seemed that the sun had just fallen down on the horizon when I finally stopped."
As you try to remember the awful memory of your failure of a hunt, you remember looking over the horizon in the middle of following your trail, admiring the tangerine shades in the sky as the dusk was slowly coming. You remember finding the herd of your hunt as they stroll between the trees to find a good spot for their mealtime before they could rest for the night. You remember waiting until the sky had turned a bit darker, until the sun had just fallen into the horizon before making your move, after hours of waiting for the perfect moment to claim your hunt. And then the strange wind came to ruin it all.
"It was you!" you nearly jump off from the ground as the realisation dawns on you. When your tired and emotional brain is finally able to put two and two together, and your eyes find the cursed Vampire as the answer to your agony. "The wind that intervened my hunt and scared off my game away. You were my misfortune!"
Jimin's eyes grow wide as he watches you fuming. Then he suddenly laughs, further igniting your anger to rise. "What are you talking about, wolf? Stop talking nonsense."
"Nonsense?" you growl at him.
'Oh, I'll give you nonsense alright,' you hear your wolf sneer with a growl. 'I told you that it's no use making friends with a Bloodsucker.'
Clenching your fists on your sides, you blow a deep breath. "What had gotten in the way of my hunt earlier was a strong wind that came out of nowhere, blasting me off right when I was just about to make the kill. I lost the hunt after hours of tracking them down and following their trails, watching them, making sure to not make my presence known, only to have my cover blown in a second. And not only that, every single creature in the forest hid away right after it happened that I couldn't find anything to hunt on."
The damn Vampire seems terribly entertained somehow instead of showing any remorse. When instead of apologising and trying to make you feel any better, he has the audacity of continuing his laughter. "A wind? Really? So you're blaming the lack of dinner you have tonight on the bad weather? Because nature got in your way?" he keeps mocking you with a wide grin and a while stifling a chuckle. "Oh, please. I can't believe that a beast such as yourself would whine over something like a little misfortune getting in the way of your meal. Perhaps this forest is refusing to let an intruder like you feed on their creatures so you can starve to death."
You can feel your claws extending as your anger keeps rising. If only there are no curses blocking our way to jump into the damn trench—
"Laugh all you want. I have been in this forest for two moons and nothing like this had ever happened before. There have been periods of bad weather happening before, strong winds and thunderstorms, but never this specific kind of wind, and it happened the same night or perhaps the same time you came into the land. What other explanation should it be than the fact that you were the one who caused it?"
Jimin scoffs and throws his hands. "Oh, come on. So what if it did happen? It's just a string of coincidences happening at the same time. Maybe you just had some bad luck tonight."
"Yeah, and that bad luck is you," you growl at him, which he snarls back in return.
"Or perhaps you need to practice your hunting game more, wolf," he says. The mocking laughter and his taunting stare all fade away as his deep growl comes with his words. "Living out here on a strange land had probably turned you a bit soft for a wildling. You should know better to learn how to survive before you decided to run off from your pack on your own."
The spite he threw at you bit hard, and it stings deeply in your heart that even your wolf could only whine and whimper in pain for the loss of your pack. You cannot even find it in your heart to forgive him when you cannot find any bit of guilt in his eyes after he said those words out loud. All you feel is anger, despise, and simply more pain. All you can feel is your healing heart breaking apart the same way it did the day you left.
"You know what? I'm done trying to be civilised. Good luck trying to survive with hunger in that hole, Bloodsucker," you finally bit back before quickly turning on your heels and walking away from the cave. You can feel his anger erupting just as you turn your back on him, this time making it clear that he certainly is not fond of the nickname you have given him.
'So the Bloodsucker doesn't like to be reminded of what kind of monster he truly is,' your wolf wonders, making you snap at her as you make your way straight towards your sleeping chamber.
I don't want to talk about him. I don't even want to remember that he even exists in the same cave as we do.
'Now, that, I will gladly do.'