Yes, hello, sorry for the long delay but I am back!

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The hermit lived at the literal end of the canyon. The way to his housing was so far that the group of four brave hikers even had to spend a night wrapped up like caterpillars hanging from the walls on their way to spread their wings. Yeosang felt more than unsafe in his hammock he shared with San, but no other option was available. He entrusted himself to San's arms and let the other man hold him close throughout the entire cold night. In the embrace of the other man, Yeosang finally found peace and even slept a few hours.

The night in the open chasm was chilling, and when Yeosang awoke, his limbs were stiff. He barely gulped down a few bites of their provisions before he already set out to hang from the wall again. By now, he felt far more comfortable with all sorts of climbing and even appreciated the risky task for the warmth in his muscles it brought. At least his body stayed in form, and he didn't have to worry about freezing as long as he kept moving.

Bricky was on a mission to Wooyoung today, and his missing hums majorly failed to lift Yeosang's mood.

He worried a lot. Too many insecure futures laid ahead of the group, and the cold and the little space they were stuck in down in the depths of the gorge made him anxious.

San had tried to comfort him earlier that day, but even his gentle words hadn't aided Yeosang.

They had parted with pressure gnawing at Yeosang's heart all the same.

Today, Yeosang avoided any glances at Jongho. The betrayal of his own heart the day prior regarding kisses from different men had disappointed him enough that he didn't dare look at his friend. Despite all the questions he had for Jongho and the enjoyment he experienced from their conversations, he couldn't bear to do either of these things. It further dampened his mood.

Thus, Yeosang climbed mostly on his own. He and San were stuck to one wall while Jongho and Mingi used the other. Like this, they could cover more ground and hopefully find whatever they were searching for faster. From how deep they were in the canyon, Yeosang wondered if by now another city had appeared above them, or if they would maybe find the mysterious object first before the hermit crossed their paths.

When he had opted to tell the idea to his friends, he had met disbelief. San had taken the patience to explain the matter to Yeosang.

"If he travels through here sometimes, then chances are he already picked it up. I suspect it might be a rather small object since it wouldn't fit so far in the back if it weren't. And if he passed it, he probably took it with him. We can just hope he didn't sell it to anyone or no one else had the same idea before Seonghwa. But he might know more about that."

That sent Yeosang into another long while of thinking and climbing. Today, he met a lizard that clearly had lost its way from the warm and food-rich rocks further up the canyon. It blinked at him with its double-lidded stark green eyes, and even if this specimen was the first lizard Yeosang ever met, he decided to like it. Its face was calm and showed no signs of fear and distractions. Only the four little feet had it scurry across the wall and away from him whenever he moved.

It travelled alongside the group for a while before it disappeared further upwards. Yeosang hoped for it to find back to its home and lizard family and that it didn't have to suffer hunger.

Their hike commenced in relative silence. Harsh breaths and the occasional grumble about the cold was all that accompanied them. Their group wasn't particularly sociable, and even Mingi who often tried too hard to keep a conversation going seemed weighed down by worries today.

They had climbed for hours with occasional breaks in between to re-energise their weary bodies. By now, their water resources were getting sparse since they couldn't pack too much so they wouldn't get weighed down. They had left their third break of the day not too long ago when the one thing they all dreaded happened.

Misfortune came upon them like a fog that settled over a peaceful city in the morning hours when even the cock had yet to rise. It came sneakily and without any of them knowing. By the time it was noticed, everybody had already walked amongst it and had it clinging to them like a curse.

The sudden scratch and scarfing sound on the wall behind Yeosang echoed through the gorge like a particularly nasty wake-up call. It had Yeosang whip around to search for the source of the loud disruption immediately.

Metal slid over stone with a jarring shriek. Then, for the first time, a little helpless noise escaped the person.

Cold dread washed over Yeosang when he turned to see Mingi safely over the wall. His widened eyes were focused on Jongho.

Before Yeosang had the time to turn and get hold of the current happenings, Jongho abruptly dropped from his position.

A warning yell slipped over Yeosang's lips, and he twisted his body when his instincts told him to reach out for his friend. Before he could get to the westsider; however, a hand wrapped around his wrist and roughly pushed it back against the stone wall. Scrambling, Yeosang held back on but still twisted his head back in a panic.

Jongho tumbled down from the wall at an alarming speed. His arms and legs flailed uselessly as he searched for hold and they collied with the stone wall cruelly. Phantom pain flared in Yeosang's leg at a particularly gruesome drag over the jagged stones.

The shock had Yeosang's heart freeze in his chest as if encased by the coldest ice. His mind, on the contrary, didn't stop screaming at him. It urged him to move, to call out, to do anything, but he was rendered useless. Nobody in the world could stop Jongho's fall, not even San who scrambled after him, albeit far slower.

The only person able to rescue him was Jongho himself. And by the time the westsider seemed to catch up with that fact, Yeosang's jaws hurt from how hard he ground his teeth. His fingers dug into the stone painfully.

Then, at once, Jongho reacted. Without further ado or any sense of direction in his fall straight into the dark depths, he activated his arm that carried the grappling hook. With a hiss, it fired.

The hard hook didn't move to any wall near him, instead flying rather diagonally beneath the group members' feet. It met the wall several meters away from him but at least further up instead of beneath. Hungrily, it dug into the wall, and the steel rope pulled taut.

The drop was horrible to watch. Jongho's full weight stopped mid-air with a violent jerk that travelled from the rope right into his one shoulder. A hoarse yell of pain escaped him when his arm twisted into a weird angle. It had tears spring into Yeosang's eyes at the sheer terror that seized him at the situation. Roughly, Jongho connected with the wall below Mingi.

Then, everything stopped.

Jongho dangled from his rope beneath them, his arm strained and body limp. He barely had the strength to lift his head, even when San called out for him. With a frozen expression, Yeosang stared down at him as he hung a few dozen metres below them like a slap of meat on a hook. Gone was all the security and safety that Jongho usually carried.

"Yeosang... Keep your daddles on the wall."

Mingi's strained voice sounded rough in his throat as if his human body restricted it from escaping. Without looking at him, Yeosang leaned more towards the cool rock. He nearly lost sight of the other two. With a bit of a strain, he could watch how San utilised his long legs to cross from one canyon wall to the other. While Mingi began his descend, too, Yeosang stayed rooted on the spot. He was too afraid to move even if they had needed him. The tremors of his arms and hands were bad enough that he would have fallen right down, too, if he even lifted a finger at this moment.

In the distance, San finally reached Jongho and pulled him in carefully. Similar to when Yeosang had slipped once, he urged Jongho to ram his feet into the wall and did the same next to him. Then, he checked on his condition while Mingi began to pry the hook from the wall. His eyes were mostly on the worrisome pair, too.

"Need a hand?"

San quickly shook his head as he reached for Jongho's arm. It hung in an odd angle from his body, even when the hook released. While San worked the machines to roll it back up on its coil, Jongho hissed lowly in pain. Yeosang frowned.

"He probably broke his shoulder, but I can try to fix it. Set up a hammock for him to rest, and we will aid him in climbing from now on." Even San sounded worried, but Mingi scrambled to oblige. Again, Yeosang felt entirely useless as everybody around him worked. His mind stayed blank for a few more minutes until urgency crashed down on him.

Hastily, he glanced at where San still pondered how to help Jongho.

"Wait! I learned about medicine; I can try to help!"

San eyed him while Jongho just rested weakly against his torso. Then, he gave a slow nod.

"Please be careful when you come down."

With an eager agreement, Yeosang moved. He took extra care not to overtask his body and move especially slowly. San even gave him a hand when he crossed the canyon and rushed over the walls to Jongho's other side. From up close, the laboured breaths that Jongho exhaled against San's shoulder sounded pitiful and yanked on Yeosang's heart painfully. Hesitation spread in him when he reached out to touch the other man.

By the looks of the hanging shoulder, it wasn't broken as San had expected. Yeosang assumed it to be dislocated only, which was a relief. Still, Jongho would be in pain and greatly impaired.

"Jongho..." he began gently "I need to stretch out your arm and feel over it. Will you be okay with that?"

From this angle, Yeosang saw the shift in the man's jaw when he gritted his teeth. Then he breathed out a faint 'do it.'

With as much patience and care that Yeosang's own nervous self could muster, he laid his palm on the other man's body. The gadgets were in the way, but he could feel around a bit with nimble fingers. His fingers brushed a piece of bone that he normally shouldn't be able to feel and Jongho's body tensed.

Sure that it was dislocated, Yeosang moved further back from Jongho. He needed to stretch the bones out whether they were broken or not, and the heavy gadgets made for a perfect splint.

With Jongho's limb and twitching fingers in his, Yeosang carefully moved until the arm was stretched out at a square angle. The blades of his feet sunk into the wall as he balanced his stance. Then, he pulled.

An agonised moan tumbled over Jongho's lips before he buried his head against San once more. Yeosang apologised for causing him pain in his mind as he tugged harder with a slow increase of pressure. Despite having studied the theory of this, he had never practised relocation himself.

The dread that he could fail at his task and hurt Jongho even worse gnawed on his mind.

"San, please... at the same angle, pull him towards you."

Sweat collected on the clammy skin of Yeosang's forehead. He shivered from the cold more than before as fear took him over.

Then, when he pulled some more, and San resisted the movement, a snap travelled through Jongho's body. The unexpected change had him curse loudly, but he disguised his pain well. Immediately, Yeosang stopped to pull and gently patted the man's gloved fingers.

"Are you alright? Can you feel your fingers?"

Jongho weakly curled and uncurled the digits.

"They are numb and feel as if they fell asleep... But the pain certainly got better." He pressed the words out with relief. Yeosang squeezed his hand comfortingly with the same alleviation that filled him. Jongho's fingers weakly copied the pressure.

Yeosang and San glanced at each other over Jongho's back. The pink-haired man's eyes showed respect and thankful appreciation.

"Let's get him into the hammock and try and cool it. Once we all calmed down, we can continue."

With Mingi's help, they did exactly that. Their tall friend never ceased the never-ending flow of worried questions and random talks he dumped onto Jongho while he rested. San reminded him to keep it down, but the little curl around Jongho's lips told Yeosang that he didn't mind at all. For now, all was fine.