When a gumiho fell in love- Mystical Week Day 1
So I had wanted to do the last @onceuponapaladin event but the prompt, guard, was not working out for me and at that time I didn’t like doing only parts of the week, not realising that VLD Bi Week would be when I do that. Anyway, this ends kinda dark for me, who’s known for doing fluff but hoping I can make a lighthearted sequal later. Until then, enjoy Stories of the Past
If a gumiho does not eat human flesh for thousand days, they turn into human
That’s what he was told by Ulaz. And he wanted it, badly. Keith never thought that he’d ever be interested in being human. They were so easy to trick and so delicious to eat when he got them in his grasp. But it changed when he met him, Lance.
It was such a strange name but it fit for the foreign merchant. Part of his father’s circle, Lance came to the small but knowledgeable village of Arus to look up the different styles of art that were created here. He got separated from his group one day and somehow ended up in the forest near the edge of the village. Geyong’s domain. But not everyone was smart enough to stay away. Hunters had been trying their hardest to kill him, failing and usually becoming his dinner but they got smart and set out new contraptions he had never seen before. They were like teeth that clamped around his leg, keeping him still and unable to move even as he flitted between both human and fox form. That’s how Lance found him.
He growled at him, hoping to get him away but Lance just continued forward, speaking in such calm and low words. He didn’t recognise the language but it didn’t matter. He slowed his growling as Lance patted at his fur, calming him, before he went to where his leg was trapped in the trap. He let out a hiss but Lance shushed him, trying to calm him again. He let Lance open the trap until he could pull his leg out and then took off ignoring the rise of calls from the merchant.
Geyong’s ankle was swollen and no amount of dipping it in the river was helping. He thought that being a gumiho would protect him from anything but seeing his ankle swell more and more, he was scared he might be wrong.
Then he came again, but with healing medicines. And when he spoke, it was in the tongue he understood, but it was choppy, like he didn’t fully understand how to speak it. But he tried. While in fox form, he let Lance – he introduced himself then, in a way to calm him down when the medicine stung – clean and bandage the wound, letting him relax before promising he’d find him again the next day. So it continued, Lance helping him heal, his ability to speak the tongue he understood slowly getting better. Geyong admitted the rubs behind his ear were becoming addicting.
Lance was interesting. He never met anyone with eyes as bright as his, blue as the river he lived near. His skin was so much darker than everyone in the village but it added to his beauty. He was different but Geyong liked him.
“Looks like your legs all better. Make sure to avoid those traps ok? I hope I don’t you see you strapped down at the village. That beautiful coat of yours shouldn’t be sold. Stay safe.”
He watched him walk away and in a split second, Geyong chased after him.
Lance reacted like anyone would when the same black fox he had been healing only moments ago turned into a human with 9 tails. He screamed loudly and cursed but in that tongue he didn’t understand.
“You’re not going to eat me are you?”
“Why would I eat the person who healed me?” he asked, tilting his head in confusion
“Aren’t you the monster the locals warned me about? The one that haunts the forest?”
“It’s my forest. They don’t get to complain about it when they try attacking me in my domain!”
Lance blinked at him. “Ok, calm down. Sorry. I thought you’d eat me or something.”
“You were…kind to me. You didn’t have to be. Like you said, my fur would make me valuable and everyone in the village wants me gone so…”
Lance looked upset. “You don’t deserve that. I mean spirits are a natural thing here and you only attack those who come into the forest right?”
“Mostly. I eat raw flesh.”
Lance blinked at him, looking slightly disgusted. “Ok…um. Anyway, you’re a regular spirit so they can’t be too annoyed. But I guess you can stay here to stay safe. Just don’t eat me.”
So that’s how it started, how he started visiting the human. It also how he gained a new name.
“Geyong is really hard to pronounce for me. Can I call you something else?”
“As long as it’s not stupid.”
“Well, in English I would say your name like Keith.”
“Keef?”
Lance laughed at Keith’s attempt, “We’ll work on it.”
It continued, Keith scaring Lance when he’d come back from eating another unfortunate villager, Lance introducing him to eating raw animal meat and Lance teaching him the different languages of English and Spanish, the language Lance would speak at random times. He became more loving on the head pats to the point that it didn’t matter what form he was in.
Keith never felt love. The spirits he interacted with he respected but never fell in love with. With Lance, it was different, like everything about their relationship. Lance had been reading him a story about an emperor and his lover when Keith asked what Lance thought love was.
“Love? It’s when you’re with a person and are perfectly content. That even in the worst things, you can trust that they’ll be by your side no matter what.”
“What if you fell in love with someone you weren’t supposed to?”
“Well, half the reason I came here is because my father found me with a man. It wasn’t serious but my father didn’t want me to ruin myself. But if I meet a man I fall in love with, I won’t stop myself. And I think there might be someone.” Lance said, scratching at Keith’s head near his ears.
“Really?” Keith asked, trying to focus on what Lance was saying but was melting at the attention he was getting.
“Yeah, he’s a really foxy guy.”
Keith almost missed what Lance was saying because he was so deep in bliss but he opened his eyes and looked up at Lance, who brushed Keith’s bangs from his eyes and gave him that same smile that always brought Keith under his spell. That’s when it became clear. He wanted to grow old with Lance.
“There is a way.” Ulaz said, the imugi floating around Keith in the realm of spirits. The serpent like dragon was surprised Keith was even asking this. As far as he knew, Keith didn’t want anything to do with humans. “But do you truly want it?”
“I’ve never cared about humans, let alone love but being with Lance changes everything. When hr told me he was in love with me, I didn’t pity him. I wanted to grow old with him and be with him forever. Since he can’t become a gumiho, I’ll become human for him.”
“And if it doesn’t last long? If he decides you becoming human after the deed is done is something he doesn’t want?”
That was something he had to think about. It would hurt like hell if Lance rejected him but Keith never felt anything like the way he felt for Lance.
“It’ll be worth it.”
“If a gumiho does not eat human flesh for thousand days, they turn into human. Every 111 days, you’ll lose a tail and your powers will start to diminish. Your strength, your ability to change your appearance, your magic, your ability to transfer and take energy. You’ll lose it all. I hope you’re ready for this.”
When he told Lance, he was asked if it was something Keith really wanted.
“Love is something I’ve never experienced or wanted but when it comes to you, it’s completely different. I want this. I know it’ll be hard but I will be able to do it.”
It was hard, so very hard. Not eating human flesh meant he ate more of the meat Lance would give him. He already heard the butcher in the village gossiping about how Lance seemed to have parties with the amount meat Lance had ordered.
Lance got sick when it was 50 days in. it wasn’t bad, Lance just laid on his futon listening to Keith complain about how he was starting to get sick of all the extra meat he had to eat.
“Eat vegetables.” Lance said, only for Keith to gag.
200 days in, Lance got sick again but it was worse. He was coughing and burning with a fever. Keith didn’t think twice about kissing him to give him some of his energy. It hurt after he did it but he’d rather be weak and in need of help than Lance sick.
As he lost his tails, he would fall sick and Lance would always take care of him, even as he seemed to get sick more often.
“Why are you getting sick so often?” Keith asked on one of his better days
“It’s probably all the changes going in and out of the forges. I’m fine.”
As he got closer and closer to becoming human, Lance kept getting sicker and sicker. Keith was getting worried. Lance was having fevered dreams and sure he was close to death but Keith wasn’t going to let him. But eventually his kisses only gave comfort, not energy.
The day he lost him, he was laying on him trying not to think about how weak the grip of Lance’s hand was going through his hair.
“Don’t leave please.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Lance said, but Keith could tell he was losing him. He didn’t understand how. Lance had been fine and then he would get sick for no reason. “Hey do you believe in the idea of reincarnation?”
“Huh?” what was Lance trying to say?
“When you come back to life in another form. I fell in love with a gumiho. That has to count for something. Maybe I’ll come back at some point in another form. Maybe you can still love me then.”
He hadn’t told Lance, but they were up to 998 days. He was sure he only had once chance and he didn’t want to take the chance if Lance was ok.
“I’ll always love you, no matter what.”
Lance hummed and that’s when Keith knew. He could hear Lance’s heartbeat slow and feel his hand trying to grip his hair one last time.
His scream of anguish was heard all throughout the village.
He almost stayed human, until he heard whispers of a plot.
“I heard that foreign merchant was housing that damned fox.”
“All the meat he ordered made the butcher suspicious. He snuck on the property and saw that tails of the fox.”
“I heard that the merchant had tamed the fox.”
“Apparently the butcher’s son put poison in the meat deliveries. That fox killed his wife so he took revenge.”
That night terrified screams echoed as the gumiho regained his tails in revenge of his lost lover.
