Chapter Text
"Wolves,” Ulrich says, his laughter immediately dissolving into the air. Georg stiffens at the revelation, noticing the wolves slowly moving closer (almost mockingly) with each agonizing second that ticks by. Ulrich curses under his breath, the storm still sending a slight drizzle of rain over both of their heads. Georg looks to Ulrich and mutters lowly:
“I suppose our men must have gone on a joy walk and forgotten all about us”
Ulrich lets out a chuckle before swallowing harshly at the reminder that they are inching closer to death. As the rain steadily pours, most of the blood that has caked around Georg’s eye (nearly blinding him) has washed away. Georg hurriedly loosens his arm from the branch and scoots closer to Ulrich, taking his shaking hand into his grasp. Ulrich sends him a questioning look, about to say something, but Georg cuts him off.
“If we’re going to get mauled by wolves, then we may as well head into death together, correct?”
Ulrich looks Georg in the eye and leaves a faint smile on his face before nodding hesitantly.
As the wolves approach the two men, they hold each other's hand tight, not daring to let go of one another. One of the wolves stops when they get close enough and lets out a grim growl that makes sure to bare all of its teeth. The wolf moves right into Georg’s face, staring him right into the eye with a malicious glare. Georg freezes instantly, making sure not to make a sound.The animal suddenly pounces onto Georg, biting into the flesh of the man’s stomach and tearing a few layers of the skin. Georg lets out a wail while Ulrich wraps a hand around his mouth to cover his own viscous sobs that steadily come out. The man’s screams fill the air until the wolf instantaneously falls limp against Georg’s chest. Ulrich and George share a shocked glance before looking towards the rest of the pack and noticing that, one by one, they go down.
Ulrich looks over to the dead wolf that is laying upon Georg’s stomach and notices an arrow going straight through its chest. He looks around and notes that the rest of the pack has perished from the same fate with arrows skillfully planted into the wolves necks. In the distance, a twig snaps and both of their heads look up and see a man approaching them:
“Are you guys alright,” the man asks with worry while rushing up to observe them. He then notices the tree that had fallen onto them and the blood that has begun to trickle down into the snow.
“August,” the man yells. Just then, another man comes running from the forest. August hurries to the other man’s side and begins to move the tree off of the two injured men. Once they lift the tree up and move it, a sharp pain takes over Ulrich’s right leg, causing him to let out a loud yelp. Meanwhile, August takes off one of his many jackets and places it onto Georg’s wound while applying pressure to stop the bleeding.
“Wilhelm, hurry and get the sled,” August exclaims. Wilhelm nods and runs the opposite direction back into the forest. A few torturing seconds later, a pack of dogs tugging a sled appears out of the forest. August and Wilhelm help pull up Georg and load him onto the sled, but quickly come back to help Ulrich as he limps through the snow. Ulrich’s eyes grow heavy and his vision goes a bit blurry as he tries to speak, the word strangling out just above a whisper.
“Georg…”
Everything around him fades to black.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Once Ulrich wakes up, everything seems to be hazy. He doesn’t completely remember much of anything really and he is sure that he’s in a sort of dream state. He feels a sting in his leg and winces, and his hand is quite sore as well. He suddenly hears rustling nearby then sees the outline of two figures standing on each side of where he is laying, yet he can’t quite make out their appearance due to his vision being immensely blurry. He squints his eyes, trying to see him (which works to no avail), when the figure on his right starts to speak.
“You’re awake,” the person begins, “are you in pain?”
Ulrich blinks a few times, and his vision begins to emmetrope. He starts to observe the two men standing, and takes note that the one on his left, who he remembers to be Wilhelm, has light brown hair with brown eyes, whilst the man on his right, August, has curly, dark brown hair with blue eyes. He then responds to the question with a low-toned “no” since his voice still seems to be scratchy for some reason that he can’t quite put his finger on.
He looks down from where he is laying and notices that his right leg has been wrapped up in some kind of home-made cast.
That’s when the memories come flooding in and reminds him of the storm, the tree that fell upon him, August and Wilhelm rushing to his aid, which also reminds him of Zna-
Shit.
Ulrich hurriedly leans up and looks around frantically for any sign of Georg. “Where is he,” he asks desperately. Wilhelm walks closer to the panicked man and gently claps his hands onto his shoulders, forcing him to lie flat on the bed before replying:
“Providentially, the wolf did not bite too deep into the flesh. Although Georg has lost a significant amount of blood, we managed to stitch him up in time before he bled out completely, but it will still take an extensive amount of time to heal. Georg is sleeping at the moment, but when he does wake and eventually return to his residence, he must be watched carefully at all hours just in case something causes him to aberrate from his healing. You also have an injured leg, it is broken and will take a bit to heal. We thought your hand might’ve been broken as well but it was just a couple harsh scratches from the tree.”
Ulrich lets out a sigh and nods to them, but it’s actually an endeavor to convince himself that all will be well. August sends him a reassuring smile, then tells him to get some more rest and they will wake him for supper. Ulrich thanks them for saving him and Georg before falling back into a deep sleep soon after.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Ulrich wakes up to the pungent smell of food coming from somewhere in the house. He gets off of the bed but falls right back down, as the discomfort in his leg reminds him that he still in fact cannot walk. He huffs out a sigh in annoyance and tilts his head back to lean against the pillow. Not soon after, Wilhelm walks in and begins to say, “I was just coming to wake you for dinner. How are you feeling?”
Terrible.
“Great,” he says instead. After they finish the conversation, Wilhelm leaves the room only to come back a few moments later with hand crafted crutches. He quickly teaches Ulrich how to walk with them, then they leave the room to join the others. The room that Wilhelm leads him to is quite elephanting, adorned with a couch that has an old-style pattern and a fireplace that is steadily cackling from the flames that have engulfed wood. A few lamps are scattered about on different sized tables, and a sumptuous red, Persian rug is what really pulls the whole room together.
Ulrich’s eyes go wide with something that is bordering on excitement when he sees Georg; he is draped over the couch with a cup of tea in his hand. The blonde looks up, meeting the others gaze, with a playful grin plastered across his face.
“He lives.”
“He does”
Ulrich joins Georg on the couch while Wilhelm hands over a steaming cup of tea to hold him over whilst August finishes cooking. They both sit in a comfortable silence and they get called to join the table shortly after. Once they get properly seated, August and Wilhelm bring assorted meats, bread, vegetables, and a bottle of red wine. August explains how he met Wilhelm one day at a special dinner event, and they immediately hit it off. As he continues to talk about Wilhelm, Ulrich notices that he has this doted glint in his eyes that makes it seem as though he had struck gold. After he finishes, Ulrich decides to ask him a question that has been sitting in his mind all day:
“So, what were you doing in the forest so late at night?”
Wilhelm quickly takes a sip of wine and reply’s,
“We don’t live far from the Karpathians. We were hunting for roebuck, and when had finally almost gotten ahold of one, Znaeym scared them off with his execrable shooting skills.”
George rolled his eyes and let out a scoff, but quickly ushered them to continue.
“We were on a higher point of the woods, and we happened to be able to get a good look at the dispute you both had going on between each other when the tree fell. We ran down to help, then we saw the wolves moving towards your direction, and, since some of us here actually have remarkable aiming skills, me and August took them out.” He sends a wink towards August, and his ears light up red in the matter of two seconds. “He went to get more arrows; I thought we were out (I found two more in my quiver),” Wilhelm continues, “and that is when I noticed that you two seem to have been mutilated, badly might I add.”
They both nod and finish their dinner with a few glasses of wine. When it gets late enough, they say their ‘good nights’ and head off to their respective rooms. Ulrich is walking towards his room and, just as he goes to turn the doorknob, an idea sparks in his half-drunken mind. He turns around and soon finds himself in front of Georg’s door. He sucks in a deep breath, then knocks four times. No answer. Ulrich lets out a defeated sigh and turns around when the door abruptly opens. He turns back around to see Georg, whose messy, blonde hair falls around his face in faint waves. Ulrich’s eyes travel down the others frame- observing the outfit that, he must’ve just changed into, fits immaculately on Georg’s body- then back up to his dazzlili-
What on earth is he thinking?
He shakes himself out of his chaotic thoughts and clears his throat.
“Well, I was thinking”
“Huh, that’s a new one”
“Shut up”
“Make me”
“Anyway, I was going to ask- you don’t have to provide an answer at this moment- but, since you have to be watched over at all times and my leg is greatly injured, you could, uhm… stay at my estate until we both heal. I mean- my residence is quite large, and we could surely be a good help to one another. You do not have to really, I was just propos-“
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. Uh, thanks. Goodnight”
Ulrich hurries back to the room, almost tripping over his crutches; he looks in a nearby mirror and notices his neck flushing a bright red. He’s not sure why he got so flustered during one simple conversation, but it was a relief to get the answer he wanted. Ulrich lays his head onto his pillow and sleeps with his chest feeling just a bit lighter than usual.