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“Breathe.” Jimin told his patient.And so the boy did, taking big lungfuls of air, his struggle noticeable in the quiet of the night. Jimin observed as the child’s heart rate went down, and soon his eyes had flickered close, sending him into a peaceful state of slumber. Jimin turned to the onlookers crowding the hut, “He should be ok, give him time to rest and heal and he will regain his strength.” The group visibly relaxed, and the eldest bowed to him.He ushered them out of the house, taking care to not create too much noise, and only once they were well and truly gone did he stop to calm his own breath. Jimin hummed to himself as he set about cleaning the hut after his last visit of the night, and brewed a large pot of tea. There was a soft hum of rain outside, and over the sound of boiling water it created a cozy atmosphere.Soon he had a hot cup of tea safely tucked in his hands, creating a barrier against the crisp night air. Jimin sat down at a table in the corner of his hut, flicking through an all too familiar book. He had to have read it front to back at least 10 times, it being the only thing in his possession given to him by his parents. The book was old and tattered, a reminder of the age of the book and the years of constant use. The title, ‘A guide to witchcraft through the ages.’ It’s contents were of no use to Jimin anymore, having learnt almost all there was to know about witchcraft already, he had his friend and guardian, Aradia, to thank for that.As soon as her name entered his mind, Jimin’s thoughts drifted to her. She had been a beautiful lady, fair skinned and red haired. When he met her she was frail and old, but happily took him in and raised him for majority of his childhood. Now, as a young adult, she was no longer of the earth, her presence a mere memory, but every now and then Jimin called on his ability to access her in the spirit world. Without fail she would appear to him, and they would have lengthy conversations as if she was still with him.Each time he talked to her, Jimin would thank whoever was listening that he was blessed with such an ability. He had the witches ability of the past, a form of witchcraft that allowed him to summon spirits that lived before, and harness their powers for as long as he had summoned them. And while his witchcraft gave him many benefits, it was also his downfall.They came in the middle of the night, Hundreds of soldiers disturbing the serenity of the village, and destroying everything in powerful flames, with a hunger that killed trapped residents, while those that fled were cut down by soldiers pacing the streets. There was no mercy, anyone who was not killed was taken away to be enslaved.His family resided in a rambled shack on the outskirts of the village. But the sounds of the approaching soldiers carried fast. The second his parents had heard they were quick to rouse Jimin, a young boy of 10 at the time, and ushered him out the back door of their shack. With a sense of urgency in their tone, they told him to run to the forest, to not turn back, and to keep running until he was as far away as possible.And so he did, the sickening screams of murder carried out in the heartless attack could be heard from miles around. Jimin spent many days travelling through the seemingly unending forest, becoming weaker the deeper he ventured, until he was stumbling with the effort to keep himself upright and moving, the result of dehydration and hunger. On what would have been his last day, a spirit in the form of a wolf came to him beckoning the young boy to follow the spirit, leading him to a hut in which he found Aradia, who took one look at his state and offered to take care of him. Jimin was not in the condition to refuse help from a stranger, and so he willingly followed her inside.She healed him, and upon his retelling of the spirit that led Jimin to her, Aradia’s pupils blew wide in wonder, and she informed him of his possible tie to witchcraft. The earth chose a witch at birth, but a witch would only learn of their powers after going through a significant event. And so Aradia trained Jimin, taught him how to harness his powers and ways to control them. She cared for him as a mother would, and Jimin soon learned to forget the traumas of his past.But what did haunt him still was the reason for the soldiers attack. For Jimin was informed by Aradia, right before her passing, that the soldiers had known there was a witch in the villages midst, and was told a brief description of Jimin’s appearance, the attack a cause of their searching. Witches were despised by the rulers of the land, who put in laws ensuring witches were not allowed to conduct their witchcraft. Their soldiers killed as many witches as they could find, destroying hundreds of villages and killing thousands of innocent people in their attempts. Jimin lived with much guilt, blaming himself for the injustice of his village.So Jimin hid and rebelled against the law, setting up a healing practise after Aradia died and tending to the many visitors everyday whose illnesses or injuries needed treatment. Jimin knew he was bound to be found out one day, but for now was contempt to carry out his practise for as long as he could.Thinking back on his past every so often made him feel sick, and while he was proud of his current achievements, he longed for justice for those killed in the ruthless attacks.But Jimin led his life, and only every so often, when he finished his work and closed off his hut to the outside, would he let his mind wonder to the painful memories of his past. And tonight was one of those nights.Jimin sighed, flipping through the pages of his book and skimming over the words, but not allowing their meanings to register in his mind. He was tired, the result of working his witchcraft since the early hours of the morning, and so he chanced a quick last glance at the page he was on, closed the book and promptly laid his head on his desk, too tired to bother walking to his bed, and passed out upon the cover of his book. ♞ It felt as though he had been asleep for barely five minutes before a large crashing sound startled him into consciousness, and he let out a loud shriek of protest as he fell from his chair, and landed with a thud on the floor. Jimin let himself take a second to register the ache in his head, and the sounds of company coming from his doorway, before he jumped up, glaring at the source of the noise. Jimin was not a tall man, he considered himself average height, but he still thought of his height as an inconvenience, therefore what he lacked in length he made up for in build. So as he stared at the door, he puffed his chest out and made himself look as intimidating as possible. For Jimin was fairly used to unwanted company, being a witch and belonging to a minority group, but what he didn’t expect to find was six young men, looking to be around the same age as him, crowding the entrance to his hut.They were breathing heavily, and had knocked the door off its hinges in their attempt to invade his home. He observed them carefully, one hand tucked behind his back started to tingle, readying himself to summon his witchcraft should he need to fight. The first thing he noticed was they were dirty, they also carried threatening looking weapons, and some of them wore smug grins. They had cuts and grazes covering parts of their bodies, and their clothes were that of rogues, the name for people on the run from the law. Suddenly the shortest of the group muttered a single word, and Jimin froze, a shiver running down his spine. “Jimin.”His voice was gruff, and his face donned a serious expression. “What are you doing here?” Jimin snarled, his tone adding another layer to the intimidating aura he tried to give off.“Woah woah woah, the old man here doesn’t mean to come off so serious, we ain’t a threat.” The short man who had spoken first growled at the comment, and Jimin turned his head to the owner of the voice, a boy with blonde hair and a shit eating smirk made his way to the front of the group. “We just want to chat!” He inclined the top half of his body down in a mock bow, “We hear great things about you.”“Who the heck are you?” Jimin replied, his tone leaving no choice for the men but to answer truthfully. Another one spoke this time, he was of the taller, and his face wore a softer expression than the others, “We are rogues. We come to ask for your help, and for you to join us on our quest.”That made Jimin laugh, a dry almost hack that lacked any joy “Rogues.” He muttered, “You ask for me to follow you, after you bust my door in? You must be bullshitting”“Nope!” The blonde one spoke again, “ We offer nothing but truth. Please don’t let our dear Yoongi here fool you into thinking we’ve come to hurt you, he loses control of his temper too easily.” The blonde almost giggled, and his comment earned him knock to the head, by none other than the short grumpy one, who Jimin figured must have been Yoongi.“I need to sleep, you waste my time, but you may as well explain to me what it is you need me for, seeing as though you made such an effort to come here.” Jimin eyed his door again, sighing as he thought of the hassle he would have to go through to put it back up.So Jimin let the men in, and watched as they crowded the small living space, taking up all the seats. He placed his back to the wall, and kept the still tingling hand at his back, ready to use witchcraft the second he felt the men posed a threat.Their faces all fell serious the second they sat down, and one of the men sighed, a serious tone to his voice when he spoke, “We have been looking for you for at least three years now, this group was formed on the thought that our end goal would be getting the justice we deserve. All of us have faced the cruelty of the rulers and their soldiers, but only when we heard of you did we think we could stand a chance against them. I know this must sound crazy to you, it still does to us, but we want to fight against the injustice. We need your help in doing so.”“Cut the crap Namjoon, spiritual words ain’t going to persuade him into joining us” Yoongi spoke up, a bite to his words. “Look, kid. You know as well as we do that rogues don’t leave until we get what we want. What we want is your assistance in aiding us in our fight.”Jimin's hand curled into a fist, and his face took on an expression of anger.“Hahaha and once again Yoongi really has to stop speaking out of his ass.” Another one of the men spoke up, slapping the palm of his hand onto Yoongi’s mouth in a feeble attempt to shut him up, “We recently visited a witch, who claims of terrible circumstances should you not cooperate and join us.”“Well this all sounds like a failed attempt at blackmail. So do tell me dear rogues, what could possibly be these terrible circumstances you speak of?” Jimin smirked, his tone dripping with sarcasm.“The witch predicts you will be discovered by the soldiers with in the next couple of days.” The same man explained, “And your death will be inevitable.”