Free // BTS AU //

Chapter Four

Hye had been sat in a tavern for a short while, stomach growling with hunger as people sat eating bread and drinking ale. Her mouth salvated. Earlier in the day she had managed to buy a canteen which was strapped to her side and some plain clothes off a merchant with the torn silk from her dress and she bundled the dress into the waist of her trousers. She found someone with an ironblade and got her hair cut roughly and boyishly. Now she looked like the common peasant man and now she knew the likelihood of her being spotted was very slim.

She heard an old man start up a tale and she walked over to where he was sat and sat among the people who had gathered to listen. She instantly knew the story, her parents hadn't shut up about it in the few weeks before she had left.

A story about seven men who ran the lands - a banished and runaway Prince, a pacifist knight, a runaway, a prisoner, an elder witch, a fae and a wandering merchant. They were believed to terrorize towns for the resources to live. She knew that was lies, why would a pacifist ransack a town for some silver coins and maybe an apple or two?

"The fae is also known as a man in black, they're evil beings who will steal the dreams from your children as they sleep, who will poison your ale and food, who will steal your livestock and trample your farms." The old man spoke. "They'll steal your first born-"

"Oh don't forget the part where we will eat your heart right from your chest." The same voice echoed in her ears, she turned and looked and saw the man in mostly all black who crouched beside her. "Please continue, I want to hear the story."

"Y-You're one of them!" The old man cried out, and people avoided him, running out the tavern until it was just Hye and the man in mostly black left.

"Why haven't you ran like the rest of them?"

"I doubt your as bad as everyone seems." Hye looked up at the man who stretched and shook himself off.

"Then why did you leave in the middle of the night?"

"Because you just stole me from the tavern whilst I was unconscious." Hye retorted standing up and making herself seem larger than she was as a way to intimidate the fae in front of her. The man simply chuckled and ruffled her shorter hair.

"You're not scaring me at all." He hummed. "I can also guarantee you that the silk left over is not enough to keep you alive without help, and no that isn't me cursing you. It's a simple fact. After all a girl like you isn't meant to be out of those walls, right?" Her eyes widened at the mans statement.  "Your secret is safe with me and my friends." He looked about the tavern and grabbed some bread off the table and threw it to her, she caught it easily and her stomach growled.

"Why are you being kind to me?"

"You're just like the rest of us, a defect, a reject... You can be whatever you want to be." He hummed and grabbed a loaf of bread from the bar and put it into his pouch. "Do you want to join us or not?"

Hye stood there watching the man in mostly black just picking up the scraps of food from the tavern and filling the two canteens around his waist with ale from behind the bar. "I'll let you make that decision in your own time. When the time is right you'll cross paths with us once more." With that he walked out the tavern and by time Hye had decided, he was already gone - door swinging behind him. She looked about the empty tavern and saw a pouch on a stool nearby and she walked over gingerly and picked it up, the leather rough beneath her fingers. She shook it gently and heard the jingle of a few coins in it. She put the loaf of bread in the bag and left the tavern.

"I have money, food, and some water left in the canteen." She whispered to herself looking around the empty street. "I should be fine for a few days. May our paths cross again, Fae."

*edited slightly*