Chapter 5: Parting

“You’re what? Human? How? Since when?” Jungkook stammers over his questions, too shell-shocked to even know which is most important or which to ask first.

“I am still a dragon,” human Taehyung responds. He seems a bit apprehensive of Jungkook’s reaction; Jungkook doesn’t really know what expression he’s making right now, but he struggles to school his expression before he stresses Taehyung out. “But I have always been able to shift between human and dragon form. All of the high dragons can.”

Wait.

“So there are dragons that can’t shift? And you can just do it whenever? Your Thunder mates can shift too then?”

“You ask a lot of questions.” It’s a statement.

“Sorry. I’m just… really really shocked.” An understatement. “I’ve read a few old myths about dragons who walked among humans; but never in my wildest dreams did I dream there was any truth to them.”

Taehyung nods. “The knowledge was lost with time, and we allowed it to be so. It is forbidden knowledge for a human. I told you because I trust you; and I showed you because you said you missed human contact. I can help with that.” He opens his arms and looks at Jungkook expectantly, pointedly.

Jungkook is dumbfounded. “That’s why you told me your secret? You want to hug me?”

Taehyung shifts on his feet. “Well. I don’t mind. But that’s not the only reason I told you. I trust you and I wanted you to know... Do humans not hug?” Taehyung’s gorgeous frown is puzzled.

“We hug,” Jungkook says. “Sometimes. Usually just among family or close friends though.”

Taehyung tilts his head to one side. It’s cute. How is Taehyung the human both cute and gorgeous at the same time?? It’s not fair. “Are we not friends?” he asks tentatively.

Jungkook is pulled out of his musings. “Of course we are! Sorry. I’d like that, Taehyung.”

Still, there is something kind of awkward about a planned hug with a gorgeous man, and so Jungkook finds himself blushing a bit as he steps into Taehyung’s embrace.

Taehyung wraps his arms around him. They are the same height, Jungkook now realizes, but Taehyung’s frame is a bit more lean and wiry than his own. They shouldn’t have fit together well, but somehow they do. Taehyung is warm, too, and Jungkook enjoys the shared body heat after riding on dragon back all day. The air is much color at 500 meters, even in late summer.

The hug lingers, but then something catches Jungkook’s eye and he pulls back to look more closely. Right next to his bag is a little pile of what looks like every single jewel Jungkook had ever given Taehyung, twinkling in the afternoon sun and looking for all the world as if they’d never seen the inside of a dragon’s mouth at all. He makes a half amused, half curious noise and Taehyung cocks his head again.

“The jewels!” Jungkook explains. ”I thought they were gone for good. I saw you eat them!”

Taehyung looks briefly puzzled but then understanding dawns and he laughs. It’s not nearly as literally earth-shattering as it is when he’s a dragon, but still, it’s… nice. Very nice. Jungkook waits for his explanation.

“I wasn’t eating them, I was storing them.” Taehyung says, his lips are still twitching as if Jungkook’s conclusion was utterly absurd.

“You definitely swallowed them,” Jungkook argues.

“But they didn’t go to my stomach. Well, not my usual stomach that digests food. They went to my second stomach.”

“Your what?”

“My second stomach. It’s how we store small trinkets in dragon form. Makes them easier to carry until we make it back to the hoard with them. We can regurgitate them whenever we want. And it’s definitely better to do before switching to human form.”

Jungkook is fascinated. “That’s kind of gross... Can I write it in my treatise?”

Taehyung shrugs. “Sure, why not.”

Jungkook immediately settles on the ground to do just that, pulling quill and ink from his bag along with a notebook, careful to not disturb Taehyung’s jewel pile right beside it. He glances up to see Taehyung hovering awkwardly. He pats the ground beside him. “Thank you for trusting me with your secret, Taehyung" he says sincerely. "I promise I won’t tell a soul.”

“Thank you,” Taehyung says seriously. “I know you won’t.”

 Jungkook smiles at him and Taehyung blinks. It's similar to what he does as a dragon. "Anyway," Jungkook says, "now that you’re down on my level, so to speak, do you want to learn the human alphabet?”

Taehyung brightens and immediately scurries to Jungkook’s side, nodding eagerly and sitting so close to Jungkook that their thighs press together. Jungkook tries not to hyper fixate on the contact, and hurriedly points out the first letter from among his notes. “This is A.”

Nothing and yet everything changes after Taehyung reveals his secret. They still wander the forest, finding a new adventure every day. They still teach each other their languages. Jungkook continues to teach Taehyung to read, and learns that dragons do not have a written language. They have no need of words on paper to learn their history. Being practically immortal, there oral history and eyewitness accounts more than suffice. But Taehyung is fascinated by the idea of words, of stories written down for younger generations. He explains to Jungkook that dragons have songs that they pass along, but not always linearly, from Thunder to Thunder just as often as from parent to hatchling. Namjoon had offered to teach Taehyung to read once, but at the time Taehyung had been far too young and full of energy to really dedicate himself to it. Seokjin, Yoongi, and Hoseok could read though.

“They’ll be so impressed when I come back literate,” Taehyung had crowed gleefully after he’d successfully recited the entire alphabet and their phonetics for the first time as they flew for a few hours under the morning sun. It had taken him only two days to master them; he was a quick study.

But when Taehyung was in human form, there was a heightened awareness in Jungkook that made him fumble his words and blush twice as much as usual. Taehyung was just so pretty. And kind, and fun, and Jungkook is man enough to admit he’s attracted to him. But he can’t act on the attraction, of course. He won’t. Taehyung has talked more than enough about his Thunder for Jungkook to ascertain that they are far from just palatonic mates and something much closer to soulmates. Taehyung wasn’t looking for a new mate when he had five waiting at home. And they sounded wonderful so Jungkook couldn’t blame him. And why would the dragon ever be interested in a human in that way anyway?

So Jungkook ignores the attraction as best he can, but that doesn’t mean the nervous giggling, blushing and awkward glance aways when caught staring went totally unnoticed by Taehyung.

“Do you prefer me as a dragon?” Taehyung asked him solemnly one day.

“Huh? Why… why do you ask?” Jungkook replied hesitantly.

“You seem uncomfortable sometimes, when I am in human form. If you prefer, I can stay as a dragon.”

Jungkook shook his head quickly. “I’m sorry Taehyung. I didn’t mean to give that impression. I like you in either form. Really.”

Taehyung had shuffled his wings in seeming satisfaction.

One day Jungkook finally asks Taehyung the question he has been aching to ask since they first met. They are crouched around the campfire (easily made now that Jungkook is friends with a dragon) and Jungkook is roasting two wood ducks for dinner. “Are the legends about a ‘Council of Dragons’ true?”

Taehyung, in dragon form, lifts his head from where it had been resting on the ground. He seems slightly hesitant with his answer. “It depends on what the legends say,” Taehyung says guardedly.

“So there is a Council?” Jungkook asks.

Taehyung sighs. “Yes. It happens every fall equinox. The next one is only weeks away.”

Jungkook almost wriggles with excitement. “When is it exactly? Where is it? Will you go? Will you take me with you?”

Taehyung huffs and a stream of smoke sprouts from both nostrils. “You have so many questions, always.”

Jungkook’s face falls a little. He’d been called a know-it-all and a bore at the Academy by more of his fellow students than he cares to name because of his questions, asking them until he had exhausted his professor’s knowledge on any topic he found interesting. He wonders if Taehyung thinks the same about him.

A ring of smoke is suddenly blown into his face, making him almost drop the rabbits, setting off a sneezing fit, and causing his eyes to water. “Hey!” He glares at Taehyung.

“I did not say I minded your questions,” Taehyung says primly, crossing his front paws. “You are smart and eager to learn. Like a dragon. It’s not a bad thing. As for your answers: it’s three weeks from tomorrow, all dragons go and so I will as well, it’s in a large canyon south of here called the Red Canyon, and… no, I can’t take you with me.”

The one thing Jungkook absolutely must do in order to complete his Treatise Voyage is witness this Council, so Taehyung’s answer to his last question leaves him bitterly disappointed and a touch panicked.  He tries not to let his feelings be heard in his voice. Taehyung has no obligation to take him to the Council. Still, he can’t help but ask, “Why can’t you?”

“It’s forbidden for non-dragons. Any dragon that saw you there would kill you, and I wouldn’t be able to protect you,” Taehyung says seriously. “And to take you would be seen as a betrayal of my species. Even though I trust you, the others will not. Especially not lately.”

Jungkook ducks his head, both to hide the extent of his disappointment and to gather his racing thoughts. He doesn’t want to go against Taehyung’s wishes; but what’s the alternative? Never go home again? He’d made a vow. If he went back without fulfilling it, he’d be booted from Knight Scholarship, embarrass the professor, and ruin any chance of a livelihood within the boundaries of his own city. No one would hire a disgraced ex-Knight Scholar.

He might have been a little hasty when choosing his treatise topic. There were other avenues he could have chosen to still get close to dragons; why on earth had he picked this one? It maybe had had a little bit to do with pride, a small, unwelcome voice inside his head whispered. He’d gotten overconfident in his title as top student and the most promising Knight Scholar candidate, and it had lead him to choose the most challenging topic he could find that would also allow him to go off and chase dragons. Stupid, Jungkook thinks to himself. You were an arrogant fool, Jeon Jungkook.

He has no one to blame but himself for his current predicament, and with that acknowledgement of his mistake Jungkook makes a decision. Even if it leads to his death, he has to go to the Council of Dragons. And he must do it without Taehyung’s help or knowledge. He can’t make Taehyung a traitor to his species, even if he would be willing (a big if), by involving him in his scheme.

Taehyung speaks up again, and the hesitant tone of his voice pulls Jungkook from his thoughts. “And Jungkook, after the Council… my 100 year pilgrimage is up. I will return to my Thunder.” 

The words hit hims all at once and Jungkook’s mood plummets even further. He concentrates on keeping his voice even, in keeping eye contact with Taehyung, whose slitted amethyst eyes are trained on his. “So… that’s it then? We won’t see each again after the Council?”

Taehyung shuffles his wings quickly, stirring up a small wind that causes the campfire to sputter and flare higher. Jungkook quickly removes the two rabbits before they can burn. It gives him an excuse to stop looking at Taehyung, and he can use the blown smoke and ash as an excuse for the tears gathering in his eyes. “I do not want to never see you again,” Taehyung says, his voice mournful and aching. “But… some of my Thunder do not trust humans, and not for no good reason. I do not know if Yoongi or Seokjin would allow—”  

“So that’s it then,” Jungkook interrupts. His voice shakes a little and he clears his throat. “In three weeks we split up.”

He can’t blame Taehyung’s Thunder. He’s seen first-hand what some humans have done to dragons, and of course if they knew any of that, it only makes sense that they would be wary. Taehyung loves his Thunder above everything and Jungkook would never ask or expect Taehyung to choose him over them. And he wouldn’t want him to either. Just from the stories Taehyung has told him, he knows if anything is meant to be, it’s their Thunder's bond.

Taehyung looks at him and his eyes are sad. Conflicted. “I will speak to my Thunder,” he says finally. “They love me. I will make them understand.”

Jungkook smiles at Taehyung weakly. He doesn’t have much hope, but it means a lot that Taehyung wants to try. It’s not just Jungkook, then, that must feel something like inevitability, like destiny, with the start of their friendship. He, too, wants to hold on for as long as they can.

As the days are wont to do when you wish they would go by slowly, the days and weeks before the Council speed by in what seems a fraction of the allotted time.

Soon after their conversation, Taehyung sets a course that leads them south and east, presumably in the direction of the Red Canyon, though Jungkook doesn't ask. It’s become an unspoken rule between them not to bring up the Council or their eminent parting of ways. That doesn’t mean Jungkook doesn’t think about it constantly, though. Taehyung, too, seems both eager to arrive at the Red Canyon and also prone to linger idly by Jungkook’s side as if they had all the time in the world. Or, as if to savor the time before they had to part.

Jungkook considers, too, how he will find the Council without Taehyung’s guidance. All he can hope for is to part ways with Taehyung close enough to the canyon that he can spot multiple dragons in the air making their way to the Council and follow them. He will have to be very cautious not to be seen, and he can only hope that there will be enough cover near the Council meeting place to conceal him. It drives him a little crazy, how little planning and preparation he is able to do with so many unknown variables and Taehyung always watching or nearby to boot. He’ll have to wing it and hope for the best.

Finally, the day before the fall equinox and the Council of Dragons arrives. Taehyung lands in a forest clearing not far from the canyon; Jungkook had seen it from the air. Jungkook slides off Taehyung’s back after he crouches, and Taehyung turns to him. He doesn’t say anything, eyes looking a little lost. Jungkook makes a brave attempt at a smile. “This is it, then, huh?”

Taehyung starts to shift before his eyes and Jungkook turns around quickly before he gets an eyeful of a ***** Taehyung. It’s happened before, and Jungkook has had a few dreams about it, much to his own mortification. Jungkook keeps his back turned, waiting for Taehyung’s confirmation that he’s decent. It never comes; instead, Taehyung’s lean arms wrap around him from behind, squeezing tightly.

“This is not good-bye, Jungkook. I will see you again, and my Thunder will come to accept you. They just need to meet you and they’ll know. You’re not like other humans. We’ll make them see. I will find you again, after the Council.” He says this all quickly, desperately, like he’s trying to convince himself just as much as Jungkook.

Jungkook turns in his arms to face him, reaching up to ruffle his fluffy purple curls before smoothing them back down. Taehyung closes his eyes. Jungkook finds himself studying his lips, but quickly pulls himself from that train of thought. Taehyung’s lips are not for him. “I believe you,” he says finally to Taehyung. Taehyung’s eyes open again to look at him. His pupils are round and human and close, and the emotion in them can be clearly seen. Jungkook swallows. “I believe you,” he says again. “And I’ll wait for you to find me.”

Jungkook watches Taehyung fly off and it feels like a part of him still flies with him. His heart is in his throat, hammering to break free and follow Taehyung. He swallows it back down and sets off at a brisk jog in the direction of the canyon, keeping an eye on the sky. Jungkook’s plan, such as it is, is to get in the canyon tonight try and figure out a spot to hide and observe before the Council has even started. But to do that he has to hurry. Who knows when the dragons will start to arrive?

He makes it to the Canyon right before nightfall. The setting sun paints the western sky in purples and pinks, and the orange sun bounces off the red clay of the canyon walls, casting them in stark relief. The Red Canyon is both wide and steep, but overall perfect for a Council of Dragons, with plenty of ledges to roost on, and a large river flowing through the bottom, wide enough for ten large dragons to spread their massive wingspans side by side without touching the canyon walls.

It takes Jungkook the better part of the night to find a suitable hiding spot: a small cave with a ledge partially covered in shrubbery halfway down the canyon wall, a space barely big enough for Jungkook and much too small for any dragon. Jungkook tosses his bag in the cave and settles down half in and half out of the small opening, using the shrubbery on the ledge to conceal the part of him that can’t fit in the cave with his bag.

It turns out he had found the spot not a moment too soon, as the first dragons swoop down over the canyon lips not even an hour after Jungkook had settled in to wait. There are four of them in this first group: two silver dragons, an orange, and a dark blue. They settle across the canyon from Jungkook so that he can hear the rumble of their voices but can’t make out the words they are saying. Jungkook can’t take his eyes off them. None of them are as beautiful as Taehyung (though it’s possible he’s a little biased), but they are fascinating all the same, their mannerisms somewhat reminiscent of Taehyung, and yet also completely different.

More and more dragons start to appear over the night and throughout the next day. Jungkook loses count of how many there are after 126, because a wave of at least 20 more comes, and then another 10, until almost every ledge houses multiple dragons and many more are dotted across the canyon floor, scales shimmering in every hue imaginable. Some of the dragons are perched dangerously closed to Jungkook’s hiding spot now, and he’s forced to remain as still as possible to avoid detection.

It’s almost nightfall again when Jungkook finally spots Taehyung, eyes homing in on him immediately on his arrival, almost by instinct. He watches as Taehyung lets out a joyful bugle before landing in the midst of a group of five other dragons. The other dragons echo his joyful noise and press their sides against him, intertwining necks and tails, pressing foreheads together. Jungkook watches them hungrily. He is happy for Taehyung; happy to have it confirmed that he is so very loved, just as he deserves. But another part of him is envious beyond belief. Of Taehyung or the others, even he doesn’t know.

He studies Taehyung’s mates more closely. There is a golden dragon; that must be Namjoon, a massive black one, Yoongi, an even more massive pink one, Seokjin, Hoseok the emerald green, and the smaller silver blue must be Jimin. Jimin looks vaguely familiar to Jungkook.

Jungkook doesn’t get time to ponder over the familiarity as a massive jade green dragon on an upper ledge suddenly lets out an earth-shattering roar that silences the rumbles and rustlings of the hundreds upon hundreds of gathered dragons. Having gained the crowd’s attention, the jade dragon spreads his massive wings, lifts his head, and begins to sing. Jungkook feels a thrill unlike anything he’s ever felt before as one by one or Thunder by Thunder other dragons open their mouths and add their own voices, their own songs and countermelodies, to the growing somehow still harmonious cacophony of rumbles and hums, roars and bugles.

The Council of Dragons has begun.

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