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Escaping reality was something Taehyung found appealing for all of his life, which is probably why he chose to become an author in the first place. Nothing superficial ever interested him, he didn’t want a big apartment in the city and a ton of friends to go clubbing every weekend, he couldn’t think of anything worse than that. He wrote his first best selling novel from the peace and quiet of his parent’s house located within the countryside, sitting in the garden harbouring the calming silence and breeze as he typed away on his laptop of scribbled notes and ideas in his moleskin journal. It’s how he worked best, no distractions and nothing to drag him out of his imaginative headspace. That’s probably why he managed to finish it so quick, achieving his first published novel by the age of nineteen which ultimately became a bestseller, something that was basically unheard of within the writing community.
Taehyung was now twenty years old and the country house he shared with his parents was beginning to not feel as inspiring anymore. He needed to escape, be completely alone with a brand new scenery, new visuals that will spark his imagination. Which is what led him here, a small one bedroom cabin in the middle of nowhere, surrounded with tall trees and a forest that went on for miles. The closet sign of life around him was a farmers market that was a good thirty-minute drive away. Most people would say it was creepy, living alone within which could only be described as a set for a horror movie, but Taehyung already knew it would be completely inspiring to him.
It took a few days for him to settle himself, he didn’t have many personal items to bring along so packing things away and settling himself wasn’t a hefty task which he was thankful for. The lack of WiFi and phone service wasn’t proving to be too much of an issue so far, Taehyung had found a particular area within the forest where he could find enough phone service to talk to his parents or best friend, which is what he found himself doing now. He sat on a tree stump, listening to his best friend Jimin whine about his boring day at the office he worked at and Taehyung could only think how happy he was to not have a life like that.
“How are you settling in any way? Seen any murderers yet? Jason? The strangers, maybe?” Jimin teases through the phone.
“You watch way too many horror movies, my dear friend. It’s perfectly fine, it’s so peaceful and calm here. I managed to write down so many ideas yesterday that I can hardly even begin to choose how to narrow them down!” Taehyung says, excited about writing again for the first time in what must’ve been months.
“Aw, I’m happy for you Tae. But I can’t help but be worried, your place gives me the creeps and I haven’t even visited yet.”
“Well it’s a good thing it’s me living here and not you, isn’t it?” Taehyung laughs slightly, pausing when he thinks he hears a sound coming from the surrounding bushes.
“Can I not be creeped out for you? That’s what best friends are for!”
Taehyung opens his mouth to reply but cuts himself off when he hears the sound again, a high pitched whine that he couldn’t quite make out.
“Tae? Are you there? Oh God, the murderers have got you, haven’t they?! STAY AWAY FROM MY BEST FRIEND YOU-”
“Chim, calm down. I just thought I heard a whine but I think it was just some rabbits or squirrels, nothing scary.” Taehyung sighs at his best friend’s paranoia, what was so bad about the forest anyway?
Then Taehyung hears it again, a small whine of distress coming from a mass of bushes in front of where he was sitting. He quickly says goodbye to Jimin, telling him he’d call him back tomorrow and promising to keep an eye out for any horror movie characters trying to kill him before he rises to his feet. He walks forward slowly, trying not to scare whatever was attempting to hide within the shrubbery, stepping carefully over branches and fallen twigs before squeezing through a clearing in the bushes. Then he sees it, a black wolf licking at a wound on its back leg, whining in pain as he attempts to soothe it. The wolf immediately senses his presence and snaps it’s head up, bearing its teeth and growling deeply at the sight of a human.
“Easy there, I’m not going to hurt you.” Taehyung tries to ensure. Of course, the wolf doesn’t give in that easily, it was a wild animal after all and he was vulnerable and hurt already.
The wolf continues to growl causing Taehyung to stay at a comfortable distance away from it. “You’re bleeding,” he states the obvious, mentally slapping himself once he realises. “I could help you if you’d let me.”
Taehyung felt stupid, here he was trying to communicate with a vicious wild animal who could definitely not understand a single word he was saying. He sighed deeply to himself in realisation, trying to come up with a way to get the animal to trust him. He settles with holding out his hand, much like you would do when you first meet a dog. Wolves and dogs are from the same family, right?
The wolf sniffs the air as Taehyung slowly approaches him with his outstretched hand, letting up his growling in curiosity. It seemed to not be deterred by the scent if anything it was a lot calmer how it had familiarised himself with the strange man trying to come near. “See? I just want to help... friends?” Taehyung asks.
The animal whines again and goes back to licking the dripping wound now it sensed no danger coming from the man. Taehyung wondered how in the world he was going to manage to get the wolf back to his cabin, they weren’t particularly far away but the wolf looked slightly too heavy to carry the distance. Besides, he wasn’t exactly a bodybuilder. He approaches the wolf and slightly scratches behind one of its ears, testing out his limits and smiling when it doesn’t seem to react to the touch in a negative way.
“Okay wolfie, I’m going to try and carry you to my house, but don’t you dare mock me if I struggle.” At this point Taehyung had given up on thinking speaking to animals was weird. Besides, he always used to talk to the family dog back at home and this wasn’t a big difference from that. He pets the wolf of the head once again, just to make sure he was actually okay with being touched, before attempting to lift him from the ground without further hurting its bleeding leg.
It was granted that the wolf would be heavy, he wasn’t exactly small after all, but in no way did Taehyung ever think it would be as heavy as it was. He doesn’t complain, however, instead he makes a beeline straight for his house as fast as he possibly could. His muscles were definitely going to hate him in the morning but he decides he doesn’t really care about that in favour of helping an animal in need, he always was an animal lover after all. Thankfully he makes it to his cabin without passing out from exhaustion, shouldering the door that he luckily left open thinking he was only going to be on the phone with Jimin for a short while before returning.
“Right- you stay-” Taehyung tries to voice out as he places the wolf in the middle of the living area, but the rate he was panting at was making it very difficult to speak. “You stay there, I’m- I’m going to get some supplies,” he finally manages before disappearing into the bathroom to fill up a bowl with warm water and grab his medical kit.
“I’m not a vet so this is all new to me, I’m just gonna need you to work with me, yeah? Be a good boy... or girl... be a good wolfie.” Taehyung says in the most calming voice he can manage, knowing that animals pick up on tones of voice rather than the words you’re actually speaking. “And please don’t bite me, I need my arms in order to write my novels.”
Taehyung takes a deep breath before dipping the cloth in the warm water and ringing it out slightly, he then carefully pulls the wolfs leg out and dabs the cloth around the wound. The wolf huffs lightly but it doesn’t show signs of discomfort which is good, but then again this is the easiest part of it all. He cleans the wound until the fur around it is less matter and the gash is visible enough to work with, lucking it wasn’t deep enough to require stitches since that would’ve been a nightmare.
“This might hurt more- okay, it’ll definitely hurt more. But, please know I’m only doing this to help you, the wound will get infected otherwise... again, please don’t bite me, you’re teeth look very, very sharp.” Now Taehyung swears he just saw the wolf roll his eyes at him, but that’s impossible surely. He brushes it off and grabs a cotton ball which he pours some antiseptic onto in order to properly disinfect the cut.
The wolf pulls it’s leg away quickly and slightly growls as soon as the cotton ball is first dabbed onto his wound, earning a displeased glare from Taehyung. “We have to disinfect it, you don’t want your leg to get infected now, do you?” He scolds as if he’s scolding a stubborn child. The animal amazingly understands and stops growling, hesitantly bringing his leg back out so the man could continue to treat it. “Thank you,” Taehyung smiles sweetly, brushing off how the act seemed weirdly responsive with his words.
Luckily the rest of the cleaning process continues without any more mishaps and Taehyung finishes it off by wrapping the leg carefully in some bandages, hoping it will be enough to keep it clean and safe from any further harm. “There we go, all done.” Taehyung sighs in relief, and he swears he hears the wolf do the same.
“So, I’ll guess you’ll be staying here a while whilst that heals, you’re not able to walk anyway... would you like some water? Of course, you want some water, you must be so thirsty.” Talking to himself might seem strange to an outsider, but somehow Taehyung feels as if the wolf could understand him. He retreats to the kitchen area to fill up a small bowl of water, grabbing another bottle from the fridge for himself, he needs it after carrying an animal nearly the size of him all the way through the forest after all.
The animal laps up the water as soon as it’s placed down on the floor making Taehyung sigh sympathetically, who knows how long the poor thing was out there on its own. “It would really help if I knew what gender you are. I think I’ll be more cautious if you’re a male, I’ve heard they’re always more vicious.” The wolf makes a slight noise at the statement causing Taehyung to raise an eyebrow, “So you are a male?” Another noise comes after that. “Well great, please don’t attack me as soon as you get your strength back, that’s all I ask.”
Jimin will definitely have more than a few things to say about this, maybe he’ll finally send Taehyung to speak to his uncle who is a therapist, something he’s been lowkey threatening to do for years. But all the best authors are a little crazy, right? Even if that crazy meant inviting a wild wolf into your secluded home and speaking to him as if he were human.
“Do you want some food, Wolfie? You were really thirsty so I’m guessing you’re hungry as well... what the hell do wolves even eat?” Taehyung really wishes he had WiFi right now, being able to google about wolves would really benefit his situation. Instead, he just walks to his fridge and sees what he has inside. He had enough for his next two dinners, a steak and a fillet of salmon which he supposes is now his and the wolf’s dinner now. “Okay, I know stereotypically you’ll want to steak... but who knows, maybe you’re a sophisticated wolf who wants some salmon?” He holds both of the food items in front of the animal’s nose, not surprised when he turns his nose up at the salmon and instantly nudges the steak.
“Well okay then, stereotypical wolf it is then.” Taehyung mumbles as he walks back over to the kitchen, debating whether or not to cook the steak but realising that it was probably a stupid debate, of course, he wants to eat it raw. He cuts the packet open before placing it on a plate and putting it on the floor in front of the wolf’s nose to which he instantly gets stuck in. Taehyung scrunches his nose up at the sight, it was definitely like something he had seen in one of those wildlife documentaries they always used to show in biology class. “I know you’re hungry and all, but maybe trying chewing? In this household we like to chew our food.” And to his surprise the wolf does so, slowing down and chewing before he swallows bites of meat.
“Good boy,” Taehyung says satisfied before returning to the kitchen area to prepare his own dinner. It’s no surprise that the wolf had finished eating before Taehyung had even started, even if a steak like that would’ve taken him at least half an hour to get through it took the wolf only ten minutes. Taehyung shakes his head, continuing to grill his salmon and boil some vegetables very aware of the eyes watching his every move. It’s a little scary of course, but he takes comfort in knowing the animal doesn’t want to move with his injured leg so he’s quite confident he won’t be killed when his back is turned to him.
“Are you not going to sleep? You must be tired after all you’ve been through.” Taehyung asks as he sits down at the small dining table with his dinner finally prepared. The wolf only glares back at him, something within his eyes that resembles caution, as if he’s not quite sure the stranger won’t try anything whilst he’s sleeping. “I won’t hurt you. If I was looking to hurt you I would’ve done it back in the forest when you were venerable. I can’t believe I lugged you all the way here, treated your wounds, water and fed you my expensive cut of steak and you still don’t trust me.” The words don’t seem to register with the wolf as he continues to stare at him, although the expression in his eyes seems different now.
Taehyung finishes his food without paying any more attention to the wild animal sitting in the middle of his living area, it’s not like he could have a good dinner conversation with him anyway. He places his plate in the sink to clean later before heading to the bedroom to retrieve some warm blankets in the hopes of making a sleeping area for his new house guest. He heads back into the room, the wolf’s eyes still following his every move as he bundles the blankets up close to the fire, hoping that the warmth would bring more comfort to the animal. “Do you think you can walk to your bed? I’d carry you but I’m still tired from carrying you earlier.”
The wolf shakily stands and limps the few steps onto the blankets before throwing himself back down, nuzzling into the softness of the blankets underneath his body. “See? Much comfier, hopefully, you’ll be able to get a good night sleep.” Taehyung yawns. “Clearly I need one too, please don’t find a burst of energy and destroy the place whilst I sleep, I’m trusting you.” He warns, chancing a small scratch behind the wolf’s ear which he luckily seems to enjoy before he heads off to bed.
Changing into his pyjamas as quickly as he could, Taehyung then throws himself into bed and falls asleep almost as soon as his head hits the pillow, hoping that his visitor really wouldn’t destroy his new home overnight.
