Chapter Text
Jungkook adjusted his mask as he made his way through the town. The mask was one he had taken from a doctor in the last town he had been in, one that had been dying, and he knew he had to get out of there. This town was quiet, and he didn’t see any dead in the street either. That was a good sign, things weren’t out of control here.
He could hear a window close as he continued on down the cobblestone street. People had possibly heard him as he made his way through the town on his horse. It was understandable why they would hide away. He was a stranger, a possible carrier of the illness. While he was an alpha, and thus close to immune to the illness, he could still carry it.
The illness had come out of nowhere. It had started with an unusual amount of omegas dying in childbirth… then the young, followed by those who had presented as omegas. Children, those who had not presented yet, and omegas were the main targets. Betas were also dying, but not to the same degree. The alphas who died were usually ones who were already ill or injured, or old.
It had been three years now, and the illness was still present, but not to the same degree as it had been, at least from what Jungkook had seen. Each village was keeping to themselves, avoiding outsiders, and refusing new people to settle down inside the villages. He knew several people had gone out of the villages to settle on the empty lands that were everywhere now. People were abandoning their properties in search of a mate, or to get away from the plague.
At this point omegas were a rarity, there were few of them, and the ones who existed were hidden away by their families or mated to the highest bidder, which was usually a noble or a king. Alphas everywhere were travelling all over the place in search of an omega to mate. If there were any free omegas walking around out there, they were in danger. Alphas were desperate and competitive. Jungkook had once come across a dead omega who had been killed while six alphas were fighting over them. The alphas that had been fighting were also dead, killed by one another.
Jungkook hadn’t seen a live omega in almost two years now, and while his inner wolf was agitated by this, fearing that they would be alone forever, Jungkook was trying to not give that much thought. He would much rather focus on survival right now. There would be no point in getting a mate when he had no place to live. He had left home two years ago, and been traveling since. His home village was all dead. It had been hit heavily by the pest, and he had needed to get away. He had packed up his things, taken his horse, and left. The lands around his village were good, but he couldn’t stay.
This area however. There were people here, living people, and the lands were good and judging by the nature here, perfect to grow fruits and vegetables, and the forests full of game. He could settle down here… he just needed to find a good place. If he found a good home, then maybe he could keep an eye out for an omega, but he wasn’t being too hopeful in terms of finding a mate. It seemed like an impossibility at this point.
He was almost out of the village, and now that the gates were in sight, he could see a group of doctors standing by it. It looked like they were in a heated discussion, until they noticed him. Then they all stopped and turned towards him. Jungkook clenched his jaw. Doctors were always a very creepy sight. Those beaked masks and waxed robes. Once they had been a relief to see, but now they pretty much just meant death. They were the bringers of death. If someone was sick or dying, they came, but they could never do anything to help those who had caught this new illness.
Jungkook wasn’t sure what to call the illness. Wherever he went it had a new name. Loveless was one thing it had been called a lot, since it was killing one half of a mating, leaving one mate alone to raise the family, and sometimes killing children. Another name was Sweet Death, or the Beautiful death.
The way they died… it was odd. They never looked sick. They just got weaker and weaker, more and more tired, and then one day they didn’t wake up. It was a strangely beautiful way to die. They simply fell asleep… they looked like they slept, at least at first. Jungkook had seen two people die from this illness. His parents, both of them, and he had had to bury their bodies before he left. Jungkook had never seen his siblings when they had died, in fear that he might catch the illness.
He pulled the reins, telling his horse to stop when he was within talking distance of the doctors.
“You’re new,” one of them said.
“I’m just passing through,” Jungkook said. “I’m not going to stay in town, don’t worry about that.”
“Oh, we’re not worried about that. We are simply surprised to see someone from the outside,” another one of them said.
“I’m not shocked. There are very few travelers in this area. Last time I crossed paths with anyone was about two weeks ago, and they did not come from this direction,” Jungkook said. “I assumed it was because this place was diseased, but judging from the windows I’ve been hearing, there is still a bit of life here.”
“Yes, there is. This area has not been hit very hard. We can’t explain why, but there’s quite a few people who have managed to survive… we… even had some recover from the sleeping death earlier this week.”
Jungkook’s eyes widened. “Recovered?” he had never heard of anyone recovering from the illness. Was it possible? Was the sickness getting weaker, or were they getting stronger? Did this mean that they were getting closer to the end of this hell?
“Yes. We had an omega recover from the sleeping illness,” one of the doctors confirmed.
“That’s amazing,” Jungkook smiled. Maybe this place was a lot safer than he had thought. His wolf was now very interested, and really wondering if there were any unmated omegas in the area since apparently the omegas here weren’t dropping like flies.
“It is,” one of the doctor’s said.
“May I ask for your name?”
“Jungkook,” Jungkook replied.
“Clan name?”
“Jeon.”
“Never heard of. You must be from far away then?”
“Yes… I have been travelling for a few years.”
“Ah. Understandable. It must be difficult for an alpha to find a place to settle down these days. I assume you’re unmated.”
“Yes… I am,” Jungkook confirmed. It did make him cringe a bit, since he knew they might have some assumptions about him. Sure, he was looking for a mate, but it wasn’t his first priority. That and he was most certainly not going to chase down and force an omega to mate with him, he wanted his possible future mate to come to him, to want to be with him.
“There’s sadly no unmated omegas here in the town,” one of the doctors said.
Though the four of them were wearing those heavy robes, Jungkook could distinguish their scents. All of them were alphas. One smelled of dark chocolate, then one of steel, one of whiskey, and the last of really strong mint. Mint was an incredibly rare scent for an alpha to smell of, so it had Jungkook’s wolf confused for a moment.
Jungkook himself smelled of sandalwood, a scent a lot of omegas found very attractive, so from the day he had presented he had been rather popular with the omegas, but Jungkook had been far too shy to try to court any of them, even when his parents had tried to urge him to. Even now, he still was a bit shyer than what was expected of an alpha, but in this case that might work to his advantage. With him being of the less aggressive type, an omega might feel more comfortable with him than other alphas. The thought did make him feel a little bit dirty, like he was trying to trick someone into staying with him.
“That’s fine, I’m focusing on finding a place to settle down,” Jungkook said.
The doctors looked at one another for a moment, as if they were surprised.
“There is plenty of land around the village, I’m sure you’ll find an abandoned farm or empty land you can settle down on, if you’re interested. The lord of the village has sadly passed away, so no one really bothers keeping track of who is living where, and who is owning what land.”
That was good news for Jungkook. The lords had been an issue previously when he had thought about settling down. Usually they didn’t want to just give away land to someone who came from the outside. Some had offered for him to work on their lands, but he had not accepted that. He knew exactly what sort of life that would be. No freedom for him, and if he wished to mate then whoever he was serving was the one to decide who he was to mate, or if he was allowed to mate at all.
“So, what do you suggest?” Jungkook asked.
“Have a look around, and take the best land that is available. More people might come to lay claim.”
Jungkook nodded. It looked like the doctors were giving his blessing then. He watched as they stepped aside, letting him move past them. The landscape on the other side was breathtaking. He could see farmlands, and a large forest. This is a place he would like to live. Immediately his wolf wanted to settle down here, and raise his future pups here. This place felt oddly like home already… and he hadn’t found a home yet.
He firmly pressed his heels into the sides of his horse, urging it forward. The first few farms were clearly still operating, so there was no point in going there. He needed one that was abandoned.
There was an orchard. He could see all sorts of fruit trees near a large beautiful house, and this place really caught his attention. The trees didn’t look like they were properly attended to, as fruits had dropped from the trees and were just laying on the ground. Was this place abandoned? He steered his horse up the road leading to the house to investigate it. There was no sign of life anywhere near the house, and none on the inside either, from what he could see.
He dismounted his horse and tied up the reins in case something spooked the horse and it attempted to run away. There was a forest nearby, so he sent it a short look. He was sure there would be animals in there, but hopefully there were no predators, so his horse was safe here.
With his horse secure, he walked up to the door and knocked on it. No answer. He knocked again. No answer. Looks like it might be as empty as he had suspected. He tried to open the door, and it opened with ease.
“Hello?” he called out as he stepped inside. Empty. He could smell spoiled food. Another sign of abandonment.
He started to move around. He could see a food cellar, and that’s where the smell of rot was coming from, so there was spoiled food down there. There was a washroom, which was impressive. Not every place had a separate washroom like this to take baths. Then there was a set of stairs.. He slowly walked up, and that was when the smell of rot really hit him. Oh… that was not spoiled food, that was the scent of dead bodies.
There were four bedrooms up here. Two of them were completely empty, and when he pushed open the third one he had to step back as the worst smell he had ever smelled hit him. Looking inside he could see what had once been a person. There was no way for him to tell if they had been young or old, male of female, alpha or omega. There wasn’t all that much left of them, and the sight was ghastly.
He managed to get the dead body wrapped up in some sheets and dragged outside and behind the house. Looks like he would have to dig a grave. When he returned inside the house, the smell of rot was not gone, and that made him worry for the last room. As he opened it, he realized that there were dead people in here too. Two of them, there were a couple dead in their bed here. It was a depressing sight.
Three graves. He had to dig three graves, but he was going to do that tomorrow. For the rest of the day he had to clean up the house. Clean the bedrooms, then the food cellar, and then get the horse into the stable. As he got into the stable he sighed. There were two dead horses there. More cleaning.
It really took up the rest of the day, and the next day, he let his horse walk around the fruit trees and eat the fruits that were on the ground, to help with some of the clean up, while Jungkook worked on the graves.
“Hello!”
Jungkook looked up. He was behind the house, tunic off, and only wearing pants since this was warm as hell. Guess he could use this as an excuse to take a much needed break. He walked around the house and saw a doctor walking towards the house.
“Yeah?” Jungkook said.
“Ah. So this is where you’ve decided to settle down… I didn’t know the Chang’s had moved,” the doctor said.
“They didn’t exactly move… it looks like they passed away. I don’t know if it was from the illness or something else, but I’m working on their graves right now,” Jungkook explained.
“Such a pity,” the doctor said with a sigh and removed his mask. “My name is Namjoon.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” Jungkook said and gave the other a smile.
“Do you plan to keep the fruit trees?” Namjoon asked.
“Yes… that’s what drew me to this place. That and the forest behind. Do you know how good the game is here?”
“It’s very good. There’s deer and rabbits within the forest, so if you’re a good hunter then you should have no trouble catching some meat.” Namjoon was the one of the doctors who had smelled like dark chocolate. It was a very deep and pleasant scent. “The nearby farms were commenting that a stranger was seen here, so I decided that I needed to have a look. I’ll leave you to your business then,” Namjoon said and placed the mask back on before he left. “You can find us in the village if you need us. We reside within Persona.”
“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind,” Jungkook said and watched as the other left. Then he went back to digging graves.
It was late by the time he was done with the graves, and went to check on the fruit trees. They all looked to be in good shape, some were just a little bit too heavy with fruits, so he removed some from the trees just to make sure the branches wouldn’t be damaged. He then made sure to get the horse back into the stable before checking out more of the area nearby.
Behind the house was a large garden, which was overgrown now, and past that was a forest. As he stood by the treeline and looked inside, his wolf suddenly perked up, and a moment later he noticed the scent of lemon. It was incredibly faint, and while lemons were usually a bit tart and sour, this had a sweetness to it.
Omega.
It was the scent of an omega. He looked around, scanning the trees, and then he froze. Between the trees his eyes landed on a person. An omega, and was it a gorgeous omega too. Silver hair, and light colored eyes. From what he could see, the omega was very thin, and his clothes were dirty. For how long had they been out here?
Then they suddenly ran away, disappearing deeper into the forest, and all Jungkook could do was watch them disappear. There was an omega living in the forest. A gorgeous male omega that smelled of lemons, and his wolf was urging him to follow, to get to the omega. He wanted to, he really did, but that was not the way to go. Jungkook would much rather have the omega come to him. Was there anything he could do to make the omega feel safe with him? Feel like he could trust Jungkook, since judging by how skittish he was, the other was either afraid of everyone, or alphas specifically.
This omega… even if they had only seen each other for a second, Jungkook had already decided that he wanted to keep him safe. No one was going to be allowed to do anything to the omega. Even if this omega decided to never get close to Jungkook, he was going to make sure that he was safe.
This was now Jungkook’s new mission.