The sun was yellow, and the skies were blue.

In summer, the trees grew green leaves and in winter; they were buried under a layer of white snow.

The species wandering the surface of this world were plentiful and enjoyed themselves with their laughter and love for each other and their quirky little interests. 

And tears were sorrowful. Beautiful in the way they fell, but full of agony.

Jongho learned a lot in his years wandering the surface. He enjoyed listening to his elders, and he enjoyed dreaming his own visions of their tales. 

But it had been even more fascinating to explore that world himself. To study the many birds flying through the skies and to realise just how many colours flowers could assume. He liked learning languages by listening to them, and he was awed to see the difference between people and their way of life.

When Jongho married Seonghwa, he regarded it as an opportunity. Though he couldn't sleep with the other golems anymore, he had never travelled to another kingdom, and he never met another race in person.

Though the golems weren't great at all matters political and diplomatic, Jongho found his way to the shining castle of the elves and he was already awed by their beauty. By their delicately woven garments that fluttered behind them like the wind. By their communication with nature and their buildings and their kindness in showing him the way when he wandered lost.

When he first met the crown prince of the Crystal Empire, he didn't think much of him. He regarded him as yet another elf. Beauty didn't matter to him, nor status. He didn't care what Seonghwa was lauded as until he got to know him.

But when Seonghwa's personality unravelled before him bit by bit, Jongho was more and more fascinated with him. There was mercy in his beauty, power in his status. Seonghwa was wise and loved the world and its people like Jongho did. He never grew tired of sharing his vision with Jongho, offered him amenities, though he was no more than a rock.

Jongho watched him weave his spell like magic. He saw how all these different people in the harem warmed up to Seonghwa and dedicated themselves to his charm. They changed around him. Grew more mellow and kinder, perceptive in their understanding of the world.

Jongho couldn't feel love or warmth or any other feeling, but he understood what it was as he watched Seonghwa and his husbands find to each other. He realised that love was in that devotion, in sacrifice. He also realised that Seonghwa loved too much and that he suffered from trying to love everyone at once.

But Yeosang was there for that. Knew the prince like no other and offered him a reprieve when his stress took overhand.

Each of them played their special role in Seonghwa's growth and development. Even Jongho got to play a role as his advisor and friend. Jongho watched him find his purpose, show his leadership and become emperor. He experienced Seonghwa's skill in charming allies and shared the joy when his love bore fruit and he welcomed his children. 

Jongho was sure joining the royal court was the best thing that ever happened to him. That he wanted to watch Seonghwa rule and love his lands and see his children grow big like him.

Jongho thought that despite all the sorrow and stress he learned of, joy would always return to soothe their hearts, like night turned into day.

Until he saw Seonghwa fall.

It all happened in the split of a second. One moment, they were fighting for their lives. Jongho by their side, since he understood how fragile their flesh was and how he needed to defend them.

He knew the rumbling of the earth didn't come from any moving golems and he was fascinated to see the dragon emerge. Wanted to learn everything about their old kind.

But that vision reaped a terrible price. 

Seonghwa loved too much. Suffered too much for everyone else.

And once more, he sacrificed himself for the well-being of others.

Jongho always respected his decisions, and he also thought it wise to protect the lives of many through Seonghwa's. However, something went wrong. The building collapsed. The dragon intended to keep Seonghwa and carried the harem away into safety.

All of that never happened. 

Seonghwa fell how he wasn't meant to fall. Wasn't cradled securely by the dragon.

Jongho had to make his choice and in that split second, he followed the call of his reason. The husbands were bleeding, half of them near dead and the other half crying in confusion and fear. Jongho could have helped them, but he knew they were strong and they had each other.

But Seonghwa was about to have no one.

When Jongho burrowed through the rubble, he thought for a ridiculous moment if he should just go home. If this war meant his bond to the crown was broken and he could go back to his dreams and his sleep.

But what joy was there? No people to watch, no books to study. No music to play and no interesting conversations with the elf he had grown to like so much.

No, Jongho wouldn't leave him alone.

He was there at the right moment. His fingers caught onto the delicate body of their dear lover. He had been through a lot, already so battered and fragile. If he had met the sharp corners of the rocks or the treasury in the dragon's lair, he would have shattered apart like bursting glass.

Jongho wrapped around him, holding him securely. He heard Seonghwa sob into his ear, telling him to leave and that the dragon would have him now, but Jongho didn't let up.

Though Jongho was thankful for the dragon's help, he didn't get to possess Seonghwa when Seonghwa didn't want that.

The golems had an ability, potentially the only one aside from their daily business. In moments of great need, especially when the magic giving them life felt threatened with being extinguished, it could harden the body of a golem into a solid diamond. It was irreversible unless more magic was at play, and Jongho wouldn't be able to move or communicate, but he would be alive.

This kind of material was the hardest in their world. The material titans used to slay dragons. Unbreakable and able to get forged only with the willingness of a golem sacrificing itself to become a weapon with a soul.

Jongho had never been taught about this ability, but he knew he was inherently born with it. And that no dragon in this world could break his body if he committed.

So he tugged Seonghwa into his embrace, soothing him so he knew he wouldn't be alone. He grew and grew, enveloping him entirely until Seonghwa was trapped in a dark prison.

And just when they were about to hit the ground, Jongho allowed the magic in his soul free rein. It sprung free from its long winter, coursing over his body like an icy breeze. His colour changed, becoming clear and translucent and Jongho felt so heavy, his body so hard that he couldn't lift a finger anymore.

Seonghwa didn't suffer a scratch when they rolled over mountains of gold to end up in a corner of the dragon's lair. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, was frozen under the eternity of the golem's spell. 

But he was safe. He wouldn't age and he wouldn't grow mad with his thoughts. 

He slumbered, just how Jongho slumbered when he was encased by the earth. 

Jongho was proud to have protected him and he wanted to share that delight with his friends, but they were far away now. And Jongho couldn't reverse this appearance.

By the time the world stopped trembling above, Jongho got used to the thought. He carried someone very precious, protecting him against harm. In a way, he was like Seonghwa, while he carried his children in his insides. Keeping them sheltered and safe until the day they were ready to part.

The dragon returned to the cave with thunder. The ground trembled when it mended itself over its body, leaving the massive lizard to crawl around in search of its treasure. It quickly spotted the unusual gem among its collection and crawled over to pick it up in a claw. Jongho didn't feel its touch.

A massive black snout sniffed at the solid surface. Jongho wasn't scared of the dragon, but he would have enjoyed a more amicable meeting than this. Unfortunately, he had something to protect. He learned the importance of protection from Seonghwa's family.

The glint in the dragon's eye told him it didn't share the thought.

"What is this trickery?"

Sharp claws scratched over Jongho's surface, but they couldn't penetrate the diamond he had become. 

"You are a golem, aren't you? Release your hold on him. He promised himself," the dragon demanded of him, but Jongho stubbornly held on.

He couldn't change his state now. Such was the price for becoming an undying object. If he wanted eternity while being unable to get harmed, he needed to give up his ability to have an influence on the world.

Infuriated, the dragon opened its massive maw and chomped its jaws down on the diamond, just careful enough that it wouldn't bite Seonghwa apart if Jongho gave in, but nothing happened.

Jongho would have explained to the dragon if he could. Would have told it of Seonghwa's worth and how his family needed him. How he shouldn't suffer. 

But the dragon reeled back when its teeth painfully skidded off the hard material.

Maybe Jongho was a little smug about its fury. Such a gigantic creature couldn't harm them.

"Let go!"

Jongho stayed as he was, and Seonghwa remained in his position as well. The dragon tried for several more weeks. Raked its claws along the surface and dug its teeth in. Tried to smash the diamond with its horns between the walls and caused deep cracks in the ceiling. It breathed black fire over Jongho's surface and it jabbed the weapons around the treasury at him, but nothing could even scratch him.

Seonghwa was safe in his embrace. No longer restless. 

Soon, the dragon lost its interest. It treated the diamond as its treasure instead and fell back into its slumber among its treasures. Never waking in many years passing by.

Jongho was usually good at counting the days, but no light penetrated the earth so deep. He lost sight of everything, sleeping and dreaming and wishing that they could wake to a world that was back in order. He hoped the other husbands were fine, and he mourned the tears and pain on Seonghwa's face that were frozen into a permanent agony even when he was at rest.

It was a lonely existence, but Jongho regarded his sacrifice as the right decision. Seonghwa was with him, alive and lovely as ever. For long, he cradled the sorrowful song of Seonghwa's soul, yearning with his subconscious that dreamt about the loves he missed. About his empire and his family and the stars that created him and were so far from them now.

It wasn't always peaceful. The orcs dug their tunnels, stirring up the ground with their noise and the sound of their weapons. They infiltrated the treasury, found the heart of the empire.

And the dragon's eyes would bat open to protect the one it still regarded as its ruler, even when it had been betrayed before.

They were peaceful aside from that. Jongho didn't think more would come, that the orcs wouldn't be so foolish to try again. None of them ever resurfaced after the dragon's hunt.

The only other being that visited them was Pebble. Jongho thought his daughter lost in the rubble of the castle, but she dug herself out stubbornly and wandered among the caves for ages. She peered around the treasury, understanding what happened to Jongho and why he was so still. 

Jongho couldn't tell her to find the others and to free Seonghwa. He needed Hongjoong if the mage was still alive after everything he went through.

So Pebble left as the only being the dragon didn't bother with. And again, they were lonely. Soon, Jongho knew the placement of every treasure, had studied all the coins near them in excruciating detail. The dragon hadn't moved in months once more, only stirring when its peace was disrupted.

Until more steps and voices trickled on his senses from a distance. And the wait finally had an end.

Because just how the sun was yellow and the skies were blue, these people loved Seonghwa. And they would always come back for him, as long as they breathed.