The wolves near the border [SKZ fanfiction] | HanJisung

Chapter 3

Jisung is up to his elbows in work with the enormous task of using as much as possible from their prey. Although they don't usually hunt for bears as they are most often pretty strong opponents, Chan decided it would be a waste to not use the fallen bear at all, even though the alpha female had given the fatal blow and technically had the rights to claim her prey. But with them retreating the right to claim dispersed and Minho had whined it would be a real waste leaving it to rot.
Taking it back to their base proved difficult as with the many wounds their prey sustained they had to find a way to preserve as much of the innards without spilling the guts over the meat. Jisung came up with the idea of wrapping the belly up with a big piece of cloth and using a few small but sturdy trees to make a contraption to drag the bear with.
After that they had to work quickly to clean up the carcass before the stiffness would settle in. Hence the work.

"How's the lard boiling?" he asks Jeongin who walks past him with a piece of cloth in front of his nose and mouth. The youngest one grimasses at him, making it clear he absolutely hates the job, before rushing to the boiling pot above the fire outside of their cave. Minho assists him with scooping up the drifting lard in shallow bowls to cool off so they can scrape it and store it in solid form.
Changbin huffs behind him, struggling to separate a big chunk of meat from what seems like a part of the ribs, but it is hard to tell with the pile of bones beside him.
Chan and Seungmin took up the task to prepare the pieces of meat to either be salted or dried in the smoke of a second smaller fire they made.
Felix is somewhere behind their cave chopping up extra wood for the two fires. Seungmin and Hyunjin are bickering whilst scraping the pelt of the bear to get rid of all the tiny blood vessels. The pelt wasn't intact, but there should be enough big pieces to use for different projects.
They are all working together for the rest of the day and Jisung finds it sort of meditative to be focussed on one big task. He has time to let his mind wander and produce new ideas.
"I'll go wash these clean," he tells his pack members while holding up a bucket with guts.
"Should I go with you?" Seungmin asks, but Jisung huffs and shakes his head.
"It's only a little walk to the river. I'll be in watch distance. No need to be overprotective."
Seungmin growls at him and Chan barks at them to stop.
Jisung takes the opportunity to run off and chuckles to himself when he can hear Seungmin get scolded by the pack leader.
He knows he's wrong too. Seungmin only tried to be protective. Not that long ago there were those weird mangled up animal carcasses found and they're still a bit apprehensive to let their pack members walk alone. Even though it is most obvious the cause had probably been the big bear.
Jisung places the bowl with guts next to him and starts washing out the remnants of gunk out into the river. When he's almost finished he hears a twig snap near him and with alerted ears he looks up to see the two female wolves stare at him from the other side of the river. The larger wolf lowers her head at him to ask for permission to come closer. Jisung stiffens and looks behind him with big eyes. The two females stay still and wait what he will do, not making any suspicious moves. Jisung swallows before howling in the air, asking for his pack leader who directly responds.
Within a few seconds he hears how his pack leader arrives with Seungmin close behind him. When they see the two female wolves Chan relaxes his shoulders and transforms into his human form behind a low bush to quickly throw on some pants. Seungmin stays in his wolf form next to them and the smaller wolf does the same so the other can transform and hide behind her sister to put on some improvised clothes made out of some leather straps. Not leaving much to the imagination, but it is at least something, Jisung must give them.
The older female bows her head towards the pack leader and waits for his permission to speak.
"What brings you back to our territory?" Chan asks.
The female looks at the ground and searches for words while her sister huffs and presses her nose against her sister's chin.
"Ah, I'm sorry we entered without your permission again, but we wanted to speak to you to thank you again for helping fight off that bear a-and-," she stutters again and her sister whines softly to give the other a nudge to ask the apparently hard question.
"Well, you see. M-my sister got hurt in the fight a-and now were not able to travel that swiftly again." She rubs the nape of her neck and Jisung can't help being infatuated with the way her short hair fluffs up with the movements.
"We don't want to pose a threat at all, but she needs time to heal a-and I'm afraid we won't be able to reach our destination before the winter starts."
Seungmin grunts softly, having a hunch where the conversation is leading to.
"Hyung, we don't take in strangers," he huffs to their pack leader who places his hand on the scruff of him to wait for the next question.
They all stand still and wait for the obvious question, but get surprised when the female asks; "So we wanted to ask for your permission to camp out next to the border of your territory."
She bites her lower lip and looks at the water next to her feet. They don't want their help? Jisung is thrown off with their request and shifts his gaze to their leader who stares back at the two females and shares a short moment with Seungmin.
"Only until the winter passes," the female follows up quickly. "Until the ground is not covered in snow anymore and we can regain our journey. We won't hunt inside of your territory and will only claim a small part outside which we can give to you when we leave. That's all we ask."
She sounds sincere and Jisung sees how Chan sends Minho and Jeongin a small message through their mated bond for approval. After a small moment he opens his eyes.
"My mates and I approve. But only if you tell us where you plan to camp up and give us your word we can check up on you whenever we want. Safety measure."
The female exhales like a weight is lifted off her shoulders and she places a comforting hand on her sister's wither height.
"Of course," she answers. "You have my word. We won't burden you in any way. As for the place we had in mind, we thought of the border near those plum trees. If you give us permission, we would like to keep up that area and fix the damage caused with the fallen tree. We won't keep any of the produce."
They haven't checked up on the tree out of which Jisung fell as they still have their hands full with the bear carcass, but Jisung knows there must be quite some damage done to the area.
"We don't mind if you use some for the two of you. Even with one fallen tree, there's still enough for both of us to use."
The females deeply bow to their leader and can't help hiding their small smiles with the generosity shown.
"We thank you. We promise to not cause any problems for you and your pack."
Chan simply nods and they watch how the two retreat back to the borders up to the west.
"That... was unexpected?" Seungmin says and Jisung can't help but agree.
They are a peculiar set.