Thread by @ShweezyLiz

Joongdok AU where yjh is a hunter who encounters a malignant mythical creature, kdj who is a gumiho.

Their fated meeting begins with a deadly game of chase.

"A hunter should take care not to be hunted,"

Those were the words yjh's master uttered to him countless moons ago. No hunters begin their routine without muttering this mantra before entering the whims of the wilderness, for malignant beings lurk behind unseen shadows.

Living in a remote area between the mountains and an unending forest, yjh had long been accustomed to his village's simple way of life. Cook, trade, negotiate, hunt, then survive. An essential cycle in order for one to live in this world.

In this world, hunters are trained to deal with matters beyond the mundane and were essential for the survival of a population. But in yjh's village there are only 3 hunters. Him, ljh and nmy. Nmy is retired, ljh is still in training which leaves yjh as the only active hunter.

Trained by the late master of the sky, nmy, he had been adept at hunting within the village's territories. Whether it is hunting for food, supplies or enemies, yjh became infamous for his deadly but trained skills and determination despite being fairly new as a hunter.

But despite the village's peacefulness and yjh's skill, yjh had been forbidden by nmy from venturing beyond the marked territories in the endless forest that rested south of his village. Back then, yjh wouldn't question why, until the cold hands of winter begins to creep in.

Animals would dwell further within the lands beyond the forest, and woodland necessities that could be harvested within the marked territories would not be enough to supply the village for the whole winter.

New action must be devised, yjh says. But nmy stands firm.

"Do not venture beyond the territories, do I make myself clear?"

Yjh agrees reluctantly, and goes to make do with what he can within the marked terene. It was not easy, gathering what he could, but he did what was necessary either way.

He did his routine. setting up traps within certain enclaves, hunting for deer, scavenged for fur, blessed the trees, scouted for outsiders, cared for his weapons, looked for groundwater, so on and so forth.

Until one chilly evening, someone had set off his traps. Grabbing his weapons he went towards the area affected. Yjh readies himself for a fight, he had many encounters with bandits, thieves or territorial enemies before. He knew what to do.

He hid behind the trees as he approached the area, the string of his bow pulled back with an arrow on hand, and he surveys the area.

There's no one there. Not a sound and not a breath in earshot. It's deathly silent.He looksto his trap, and sees a severed leg caught in its teeth

Its a clean cut, no debris no hasty bitemarks, nothing. Not to mention he hadn't heard a scream whatsoever when he came to. The only clue he has are the set of footprints that lead off further into the forest.

He examines it closer, it's a person's. It's fresh.

Which means an enemy is still nearby. He readies his bow and follows the trail, bobbing between trees and shrubs. He listened for any sound as well. Still nothing.

He stops following when he recognizes the mark on a tree. The line that marks the end of his territories.

Yjh stares into the distance where the trail led to. The blood still fresh, melting the snow. He looks at the mark on the tree, and with a beat decides to turn back. There is no purpose hunting for something outside his territory. He decides to walk along the territory marks

He walked for hours, idling by but still vigilant. He's seen everything within his territory anyways, and there's nothing else to scavenge.

Then he spots the largest moose he's ever seen since the winter set foot. A moose that large could feed a family of 6 for weeks.

He hides behind a tree, and takes aim. He takes a breath, ready to fire the arrow when the snap of a branch startles the moose, and it darts off. Yjh curses and quickly follows after it, but stops when it passes through the marked trees.

That moose was the biggest animal miles all around. Its antlers could replenish the materials which his weapons are made from. He looks at the markings once more.

Yjh makes a decision, and bolts after the animal. He'll just quickly take it down then take it back quickly

He won't go far. And he doesn't. Not even 20 ft away and he manages to take it down, an arrow straight to the back of his head. Yjh checks for a clean hit, smiles to himself and goes to drag the animal back to the village.

Until a whisper stops him in his tracks.

He turns back. There's no one there, he could've sworn there was though. He checks the surrounding once more, still deathly silent. But when he turns back towards the directions to his village, he finds that a streak of blood, not there a second earlier, melting the snow.

Yjh drops the animal, grabs his bow and surveys the trail. A thick miasma settles in the area that was never there before. His breath is unusually cold. He follows the trail, restless.

And at the end he finds a mangled corpse and a man standing before it.

The man is donned in nothing but a simple light blue kimono. But what's immediately apparent is the long ears pointed up from his head, and nine white tails swishing about from his back.

Yjh nearly gawks. Its a gumiho.

Yjh goes to fire at him, but the second the creature's eyes met his he was struck with a sensation akin to lightning surging through his veins, rendering him still.

Long lashes, pale smooth skin, sultry eyes, a wicked smile.

He looked as deadly as he is beautiful.

"Look who decided to join the party," a voice as smooth as silk caresses yjh's ear, and a sense of dread ignites his entire body.

Yjh snaps out of his reverie and runs back. He grabs a handful of crushed leaves from his pouch and douses his arrow in its powder.

He watches the blade of his arrow begin to glow a warm, gold color. Courtesy of an apothecary in his village. He turns to see if the creature gave chase, but was stopped when a force grabbed him from the front.

And thus, he was faced with the creature's mesmerizing face.

Yjh found himself entranced by the creature's beauty. But the smile that bore a malicious intent pulled him from his awestricken state.

"You look a lot more delectable than those bandits, you don't mind if I steal a bite now do you?" The gumiho cackles as it reaches for him.

Before it could claw out yjh's face, yjh brought up his arm, the gumiho's deadly nails clawing out the skin from his forearm. He hisses but used the opening to stab the creature with the magic induced arrow.

But before he could land a blow, yjh suddenly found the world to be upside down, a crackle of wood and suddenly pain erupted throughout his body. He had been thrown across the field and made impact with a tree.

His head was spinning, something warm drips from his nose

Fuck, did he get a concussion? He groaned as he tried to stand back up. The gumiho chuckled as it broke the arrow with a single clench of its fist.

"Oops, did I play a bit too rough? Don't worry, I can dial it down a notch so we can play all day."

Shit, this gumiho is particularly strong, yjh curses. He clutches his side as he watched with laboured breaths the gumiho approaching him with leisurely steps. Yjh then grabs the small can in his side pocket, and throws it at the ground just before the creature.

A plume of smoke erupts from the ground which he threw the can on, so he covers his mouth and makes a run for it.

"You think a bit of smoke is going to—"

The smoke reacts with the air, and a cascade of explosions go off throughout the affected area.

Yjh huffs as he continues to run, blood seeped into his gloves, mind in complete overdrive as he rummages through his memories every bit of info he learned of gumihos from his master's teachings. The smell of burnt metal contaminating the air, but the miasma ever present.

'A gumiho is a fickle creature cursed with a specific pursuit. They are not inherently benevolent, nor malicious things, but they can be either. You'll know they're a malicious one if they have an appetite for flesh and blood.'

Yjh subconsciously covers up his bleeding wound.

'The strength of a gumiho depends on how long they've lived and how much life essence they consumed. A gumiho who lived so long and devoured many souls can invoke the supernatural and bend the arcane to their will.

Pray you never meet an archaic one with a taste for souls.'

As yjh runs he hears a laughter echoing from the distance.

"Now that was stellar!! Who knew you had such interesting toys on hand? So you did come to play!"

Yjh hears the wisps of the wind deafening his ears.

Yjh could sense a presence following not too far behind him, dread fills him.

"I wonder what other tricks you have up your sleeve... I can't wait to find out,"

The creature's impish cackle rang across the woods, all around, everywhere and nowhere.

Yjh steels himself, and takes a deep breath.

'Regardless of their moral orientation, gumihos are creatures brought to existence by deities of mischief and trickery, so one can protect themselves from them by invoking the blessings from deities of truth and good.'

So yjh grabs another pinch of the crushed leaves and began chanting a prayer of protection from evil under the deity, Uriel. A faint glow buzzed intermittently from the leaves.

"What's this? I didn't peg you for the religious type!" He hears it giggle. His frustration flares.

He takes a sharp turn, recognizing the path ahead.

'Gumihos also retain characteristics of their fox counterparts. They are dawn/dusk and nocturnal creatures. They are at their peak in the night, so sunlight won't stop them but it will slow them down.'

Yjh looked up, the sun is nearing the end of its journey across the sky, but dusk is still an hour away. So he bolts off from the shadows and takes to branches of the trees, hills and high terrain where the sun proudly lay the last of its light.

The chasing presence does indeed slow down, giving him time to set up certain obstructions in their chase. He activates bear traps, snares, tree springs and deadfall traps whenever he could, and ran through the clove of trees he had blessed earlier that day.

He hears the snap of ropes, the crackle of falling logs and the whip of snaring metals. Yjh chances a huff of a relief, but then the voice echoes again.

"You make an exhilarating chase, I'll give you that. Your toys are quite interesting, but so predictable."

Yjh cursed as the creatures cackles once again, and the cacophony of a sea of trees parting and snapping from its roots sends a feeling of trepidation through his body. But he shakes it off and takes a deep breath to calm himself.

'Gumihos can sniff you out. No amount of invisibility potions, thaumaturgy invocations or appearance-changing spells could cut you off from them. But a change if cologne would.'

Yjh finds the three skinned rabbits he left out in the sun earlier and looks at his bandaged arm.

"Now where have you gone, cheshire?" The mischievous gumiho trots along the path, following the scent of his toy.

He stops, "Are we playing hide and seek now?" Then he makes a sharp turn and reaches for the bush. But when he parts the leaves, all he finds is a bloody bandage.

The gumiho picks it up gingerly. His ears pick up the slight snap of a rope, and nonchalantly steps aside before a large log with sharpened edges swings down on the spot where he had just been.

"Awww, cheshire gave me a souvenir." He giggles as his eyes glow a menacing red.

Yjh weaves between the terrain, hoping that the smothered remains of his earlier hunt would throw off the gumiho for a good while. But yjh gawks as he comes upon the destruction that gumiho caused in its wake. He sees now the sea if trees split as if a tidal wave went through.

It was incredibly strong and agile. Seeing that it had feasted upon a man not long ago either, yjh could deduce that this one was the kind his master hoped he would never encounter. He reaches for his pouch, there's only a bit of the blessed leaves left.

Yjh has to end it now. So he uses up the last bit of the powder before a terrifying atmosphere blanketed the entire area, effectively trapping him in place. He gritted his teeth as he hears the leisurely steps grinding into the earth approaching him from behind.

He hears a slow clap before a force suddenly twists him around, and he's face to face once more with that alluring creature. This time, its eyes had a deadly glow of red.

"Looks like you're out of options cheshire, what do you plan to do now?"

Before yjh could act, he was suddenly forced down onto the ground, the gumiho leering above him with a predatory glint in its gorgeous eyes.

"End of the line ten. I'd say I had some good fun, probably the best fun I've had in a long while~"

Yjh watches as it drags its sharp nails down his chest. The touch felt hot even through his many layers of clothing, sending sparks to run throughout his entire system. Then, a finger taps on the area just where his heart was, and yjh suddenly couldn't find his breath.

Then, with a flick of a wrist yjh was brought back up to eye level with the gumiho, who licked its lips enticingly and began to stroke his hair.

"I wouldn't want to ruin you however... I actually want to keep you, so I'll devour you some other way."

Thus yjh gaped as he felt something, quintessential, begins to slowly drain itself from his chest. He watched in horror as his soul was being dragged out of him and into the palm of the gumiho. It watched in glee as his soul accumulated into his fingers.

"Hah, god your soul has so much fables in it." It says with glee.

Yjh instinctively grabbed the creature's wrist to try and wring back his draining soul. He tries to push him off, but to no avail. A hand gripped so deliciously at his hair, pulling his scalp.

He couldn't help the trembling in his body, the jolts, the sparks, the odd sensations and especially as the gumiho looks down at him so deliciously as if he's the best meal to ever be eaten.

But he had to finish it now. To end it now.

With the last of his strength, he grabs the knife imbued with Uriel's blessing and stabbed it straight into the heart of the gumiho. Its eyes widened, its mouth fell open in shock.

Why did yjh think that was a pretty sight.

But his soul began to return to his body, and he could feel it rejuvenating him once more. The gumiho looked down to where its heart had been stabbed. Yjh could only stay still, huffing.

Then unexpectedly, the creature grabbed his hand with the knife wedged into its heart.

It was warm, still so warm, yjh noted. But then it gripped the handle, and pushed it deeper into his heart. Yjh gawked in bewilderment, what was it doing? A stab to the heart with a weapon imbued with a good deity's blessing would kill a gumiho.

Then it looked to him, a smile on its face, and he realized he was a breath away from its lips, so tantalizing soft and delectable.

The last thing yjh expected was those lips to merge with his own. They melded so perfectly against his, so incredibly sweet. The hand on the back if his head gripped his hair, and he found himself kissing back.

A gasp erupts involuntarily as it tugged his hair, and then a tongue darts out to dance with his own. Yjh was completely entranced, and had gotten so deep into the kiss that he had nearly forgotten everything around them. The sensation was heavenly.

He feels something else in his tongue however. Something radiating warmth like no other.

Then he hears something, a faint echo in his head.

"It's Kim Dokja,"

And suddenly... Yjh wakes up. He was sitting up against a tree, leaning slightly against a bow with both hands. Shock, confusion then recognition flitted through him all at once. He looked to his surroundings. A beat later.

Then he slumps back onto the tree trunk.

It was a dream. He feels empty somehow.

The sky is fading into a purple. How long had he been asleep? He sighs as he gets up, gathered up the supplies he managed to scrounge up and went back to the village.

It was an eventful night, that evening.

The next morning, yjh sets back out to the woods to start his routine once again. Its the usual. Scout, hunt, scavenge, set the trap—

All the traps that he had used in his dream had been set off. Just like he remembered.

He suddenly finds himself running. Running somewhere until he finds the same clearing where he thought he witnessed the gumiho's final moments.

Its the same scene, the trees that were parted and broken as if a tsunami had blown through it.

The only difference was in the middle of the clearing was the moose he had taken down but arbitrarily left laying there.

Next to it was a writing written in blood into the snow.

"Better luck next time,"

[end]