After walking a few paces into the cave, Wylen found himself frowning.

Unnaturally the air was much warmer inside the grotto than it was outside—and not just by a degree or so. The deeper they went, the hotter it became. Soon Wylen needed to remove his fur pelt and even Jaelan had to relieve himself of his fox skins.

“This tunnel is unusually long.” Wylen muttered as he walked beside the smaller man. His eyes tried to get accustomed to the dark environment.

Jaelan nodded his agreement.

After a few more steps it was impossible to continue without a light source. So, the two men halted their exploration of the cave to start a fire and light a small torch.

Thankfully, Wylen had thought ahead and acquired one upon their last stop in a village. Once the amber glow from the flame was flickering like a snake, the two continued ahead.

Deeper and deeper they went. The air became denser and more humid with each step they took. The two warriors had to stop again at one point to remove a few more layers of clothing.

Finally, after a good long trek, they entered into the cavern.

It was Jaelan who made the first step inside.

His eyes grew wide as they took in the interior of the cave.

The floor beneath their feet was covered in a thick layer of emerald moss. And maybe a hundred or so paces ahead lay the mentioned pool the priestess spoke of. Entranced, Jaelan carefully walked over and peered into the steaming water, marveling at the clear quality. His lips parted as he stared into the serene waters, amazed at the way the bottom of the lagoon seemed to give off its own light.

“Wylen…” He quietly called as he stared at the pool. “Come look…”

Silently Wylen came to stand by his side and looked into the depth. His eyes flashed with surprise. “Hey…is the water glowing?”

“I don’t know...but it sure looks like it.”

Curious, Wylen crouched down and slowly let his hand skim the surface. His brows furrowed as he thought and rubbed his fingers together. “Hmm…it’s oily.”

Finding that odd, Jaelan too bent down and tested the water. He withdrew his hand and frowned, noting how the water and oil separated within the steaming pool.

“Strange…” He murmured.

“Well regardless,” Wylen sighed and stood back up. “I need to find my fallen sun with three thorns.”

Pulling his shirt over his head, Wylen hurriedly began to undress knowing he had to enter the water in order to find the relic. His mind was in a whirl as he stripped, thoughts rushed in his head like a rampaging river in a storm.

This was it…the final stage to his quest.

Eager to find his own prophesized relic, Jaelan too began to disrobe. He let his clothes scatter on the moss-covered ground. Excitement bubbled in his chest like a boiling pot atop a roaring fire. This was his destiny.

Wylen was first to enter the lagoon. His nose scrunched a little as the water was pretty hot. After a few minutes however, his body grew used to the temperature. Slowly he waded in after hearing Jaelan enter in behind him. He swam deep until his feet could no longer feel the ground beneath him. Once he was wadding in the middle of the pool, Wylen turned around and watched Jaelan swim to him.

When the other reached him, Wylen grinned. “Feels good, no?”

“Mhm.” Jaelan nodded in agreement. His chin caressed the surface of the pool. “See anything?”

Wylen shook his head. 

With a sigh, the smaller man decided to dive beneath the surface and try his luck underwater.

For the next half hour, the two warriors scoured the pool in search of their mysterious objects. As the minutes passed, both men grew more and more incensed. There was nothing below the surface or on the sides of the lagoon. Jaelan had swum around the area of the pool five times without having any luck. The heat of the mountain’s water wasn’t helping matters either. Drowsiness crept over them like a shadow in the night until both were forced to step out of the lagoon and take a break.

Jaelan was first to remove himself from the water. His body glistened from the pool’s oily kiss as he sighed and collapsed onto his back. Sinking onto the moss, he threw his arms over his head, vexed. His pout come about naturally as his chest rose and fell with each breath he took. With his head resting atop the green vegetation, his long black hair curled around his neck like a second skin.

Just stepping out of the water, Wylen tried to keep his gaze from resting on Jaelan’s bare groin. Instead, he fixed his eyes on the man’s half covered face. Naked feet traversed the carpet of green moss as Wylen walked over to Jaelan and bent down to sit next to the slender warrior.

Eyes affixed to the ivory skin, Wylen couldn’t help but notice a tattoo inked onto the inner side of Jaelan’s left arm. Curious, he moved closer and inspected the interesting marking. It was not surprising that he’d never noticed it before.

In order for him to have done so, Jaelan would have needed to at one point show him.

Back in the cave when he had gotten sick, Wylen’s mind was completely elsewhere. It had not even registered the marking on the young warrior at all.

 “I didn’t know you had a tattoo.” Wylen voiced and poked at the ink.

Jaelan grunted. He moved his arms away from his face and looked at his companion.

Wylen, who had been staring at the tattoo up until now looked to Jaelan’s face, interested to know the story behind the ink. And also curious because Jaelan had never mentioned it in all the time they travelled together.

Smiling fondly, Jaelan sat up and turned his arm so the tattoo was exposed again. “It’s a clan marking, but mine is a little different.” He started. “These fangs on the sides symbolize our human blood and this here,” he pointed to the circlet. “It’s the sun of the heavens. It shows that the blood of the gods run through our veins. Every man and woman in my clan gets this mark once they reach thirteen years of age.”

“Hmm…” Wylen stared, fascinated. “And what about that mark in the middle of the rest?”

“Oh that?” Jaelan looked at it. “That’s me actually. Haha...my parents called me a miracle. The son born after eight sisters…they wanted to add it to my marking. So now I have three fangs.”

“Did your father do it for you?” Wylen asked curiously.

Jaelan shook his head. “No, the village elder did. When I first got it, my friend Soral said they looked like thorns growing out of someone’s head.”

...Thorns…

Wylen suddenly stilled.

“I like to think of them as wings though,” Jaelan mumbled and traced the marking with the pads of his fingers.

Before he knew what he was doing, Wylen grabbed Jaelan’s arm and pulled it towards him. His eyes glued to the tattoo. His lips began to tremble as his thoughts raced inside his head. Breath left him as he stared slack jawed. He was envisioning what he had been searching for all this time. 

“The fallen sun with three thorns…” He choked out and jerked his eyes to Jaelan’s confused face. “It’s you!”

“What?”

“Jaelan,” Wylen dropped his arm to instead grab the smaller man’s bare shoulders. “You’re my fallen sun!”

“What do you mean?” Jaelan murmured back and blinked in confusion. 

“It’s you! Look at your tattoo!”

Jaelan looked down at it.

“Your heavens and fangs!” Wylen blurted, “My fallen sun and thorns!”

The longer her stared at his tattoo, Jaelan slowly began to see. He felt his stomach churn as the adrenaline in his body surged through his blood stream. He looked up at Wylen, eyes the size of the moon itself. “But…but if I am your relic…then…then…where is mine?”

Wylen paused but his heart continued to beat erratically in his chest. His brows creased as a thought came to mind. Turning his head, he looked to his own tattoo. He wondered if it too could be the thing Jaelan was looking for.

Following Wylen's gaze, Jaelan caught sight of the other’s mark. He had seen it before, but now, as he looked at it from a different light, his heart began to race as well.

“The jade sphere at the center represents me,” Wylen started to say, his words dragged as he spoke. “The other rings are the chiefs that led my clan before…my father, grandfather and his father before that. I…I will be the sixth chief after my father…”

Jaelan stilled and his breath caught. “…the jade moon trapped in five shadows…”

Wylen nodded. “We must have been following after the same prophecy all this time…”

“But what does this mean?” Jaelan looked to Wylen, completely confused and rightfully so. “How are you supposed to give me a son? How will this save my clan?”

Wylen had no idea.

Truthfully, he couldn’t think about that right now. All he could process at the moment was that it was Jaelan all along. It was him he needed to find.

The shock made his whole body shudder and break out in a litter of fine shivers. A familiar ache began in his groin. One he had tried to will away and ignore to the best of his ability.

The thought of loving Jaelan…the denial…the excuses he made up…the speeches he gave himself about family and duty. How relieved he was to find out that at the end of it all…his heart had been in the right place…his gut wasn’t wrong.

They were meant to find each other…and he realized that now, here, in this very grotto, where the priestess assured him, he’d find his fallen sun. 

Emotions ran rampant and relief and hope flooded his soul. Wylen gave in without thinking and leaned forward to claim Jaelan’s lips with his own.

Shocked by the sudden bold action, Jaelan roughly pushed the young warrior away from himself and scuttled back. His eyes widened in alarm and fingers jumped to touch his tingling lips.

“W-What are you d-doing?” He stammered nervously.

There was no way he could let this go any further.

He couldn’t allow Wylen to do that again.

Even though he’d imagined it happening in the depths of his fantasies. This was wrong.

He could not give himself over to another man…he couldn’t…not even if it was what he desperately wanted. He had a mission to carry out.

His clan’s existence was one the line!

His own feelings and desires had no right meddling with the safety and wellbeing of his family. No matter how much it hurt him…he couldn’t allow his own yearning to cloud his judgment.

“Jaelan,” Wylen murmured quietly, eyes locked with the frazzled warrior. “…I…I…” He gulped, seeing the turmoil expressed blatantly on the smaller man’s paled face. He faltered slightly. His mouth went dry and words were seemingly lodged in his throat.

What if he was wrong?

Nonetheless he shook his head to clear it of all doubt. He needed to get an answer. He desperately needed to know.

There was only one course of action his anxious mind could come up with. Like a flash he was standing by Jaelan’s side and grabbed his shoulders. His fingers dug into the naked ivory skin as he pressed the other to his body. “I’m not going to think anymore…”

“Wylen!” Jaelan jerked his head up. He tried to catch Wylen's eye instead of having his face pressed to the other’s heated chest. “Stop! You’re not thinking right!”

“I tried not to let my thoughts linger on it,” Wylen mumbled aloud, one hand keeping the young warrior still as he went to cup Jaelan’s face with a damp palm. He stared into round ebony irises. He was highly aware of the gathering moisture and the heels of Jaelan’s palms digging sharply into his stomach. However, he did not let go and instead spoke as calmly and clearly as he could. “But…but what if this is what was supposed to happen?”

“Wylen, I’m not following you.” Jaelan replied back in confusion. His brow furrowed as further evidence to his bewilderment. Still, he continued to try and free himself from the other without inflicting any injury.

He needed to take a step back immediately.

Disentangle from Wylen's body as soon as possible.

He couldn’t think with him so close.

It was a distraction.

To top if all off, Wylen wasn’t making any sense either.

How in the world was this supposed to happen? How could it be?

It was one thing to lose his heart to this warrior…Jaelan had known it was a mistake to do so but he couldn’t help it. God, how he had tried to put an end to his unnatural feelings…the inner lectures, the reminder of the son of prophecy…how was he supposed to do all that if he gave in to his love for a man?

No…this couldn’t be it. Something was not right. 

“I think I was meant to fall in love with you.” Wylen breathed. His eyes never left Jaelan’s for even a second while the other continued to try and fight him. “Every day I kept saying to myself that I can’t…I have a prophecy to fulfill…a child to bring into this word that would save us all and unify the scattered territories…I can’t give in…I can’t let myself love you...but now…now…Jaelan…it was you all along…”

Jaelan stilled in Wylen's hold as his heart latched onto what his ears just heard. The prophecy…a son…to save his clan…

Was it really all the same? Could it be that what Wylen said was true?

Had this all really been destined to happen this way?

His body gave a slight shudder as another revelation pushed through the sea of torrential thoughts. Jaelan’s eyes grew wider than ever before and his mouth opened in silent surprise. He had been unaware Wylen was going through the same inner turmoil he had been.

Loved him?

Wylen loved him?

Could this really be happening?

“Wylen…”

“God…I think it was even back then…” Wylen slowly shook his head from side to side while gently rubbing his thumb against the soft skin of Jaelan’s cheek. “…Back by the water…when you drew your sword to my throat…I think…I think I loved you from the very start.”

 “You love me?” Jaelan whispered as a trail of goosebumps erupted over his bare arms. He couldn’t believe it. This just couldn’t be possible. But then again…here it was…prophecy or not…here it was…

“Mhm.” Wylen murmured confidently. “I love you, Jaelan of Ellos.”

“B-But I’m a m-man.” Jaelan gulped all the while remaining as still as a statue in Wylen's gentle hold.

Did Wylen forget? It couldn’t be that…that they both…could it?

Almond eyes creased at the sides as Wylen smiled, chest full of flutters. “So?”

“I—I can’t give you a family. Or a son…the prophecy…son…I—you need a son…” Jaelan mumbled and for the first time in his life wished desperately to have been born a woman. All he wanted was to be with this man. Wylen. If god could just grant him this one hope…oh how he greatly wished he was able to give the man he loved a son…to have a son…but he was a man…it was not possible…

“I don’t need one if I have you.” Wylen supplied tenderly and leaned forward to rest his forehead against Jaelan’s slickened brow.

“But,” Jaelan swallowed. His eyes darted down to stare at Wylen's full lips. “The prophecy…”

“What about it?” Wylen breathed and slowly crept closer until his mouth was just but a finger’s width away. “I am your moon and you are my sun…and if the prophecy brought us together…I’ll let it worry about the rest itself…”

I had to cut some to make it fit >(

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