Chapter 10

Neither Kyungsoo nor Baekhyun woke her up during the night, so when Hwayoung woke up, sunlight was filtering through the treetops and both of them were up.

A bit offended, she sat up, though the sudden movement sent black spots flashing across her vision and Hwayoung had to wait (extremely impatiently) for it to fade to normal again. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were sitting at the edge of the clearing, talking in hushed voices. It was a surprisingly huge contrast when they were sitting together — Baekhyun’s hair was whiter, the color reflecting light, while Kyungsoo’s was the opposite. Even the color of the cloaks were different.

She tried to put weight on her ankle when she stood up, though the only thing that greeted her was the familiar flare of pain that she’d put up with for the past two days. The swelling seemed to have gone down, though Hwayoung was pretty sure she’d just injure it again if they attempted to cover distance during the day.

Kyungsoo was the first to notice her, and it was very possible that the only reason he heard her was because she stumbled inelegantly on a twig, barely catching herself before she fell. She would’ve tumbled over onto either Kyungsoo or Baekhyun if she didn’t stop her fall with the injured foot, and that just made it worse.

Both of them turned to look at her as Hwayoung cursed and tried to ease the throbbing in her ankle.

Baekhyun was the first to speak. “Are you alright?”

She glared at her injured ankle. “Wonderful. Completely fine. Why didn’t anyone wake me up last night?”

“You were awake for a little while,” Kyungsoo pointed out unhelpfully.

Hwayoung fought the urge to whack him. If he were in arm’s reach, she might’ve done it, though he wasn’t and she didn’t want to re-strain her ankle by actually standing up again.

“You needed the rest.” Baekhyun stood up. “I was going to ask if your ankle was better, but I don’t think we’re going to be going anywhere today. We might as well stay here because it’s quite nice.” He raised an eyebrow at Kyungsoo. “I think our prince needs to sleep a bit more later because he insisted on playing heroics and keeping watch the whole night.”

To her surprise, Kyungsoo didn’t even say anything to the fact that Baekhyun called him a prince. “Both of you looked exhausted and I wasn’t really sleepy.”

Hwayoung narrowed her eyes at him. “You looked tired enough when I saw you in the middle of the night.”

He shrugged. “The moonlight plays tricks.”

She was almost certain that it wasn’t the moonlight that had smudged the shadows under his eyes and it certainly wasn’t moonlight now, but then she remembered what Kyungsoo had said to her the last time she talked to him and decided to shut . “Get some rest, then,” she suggested, not meeting his eyes. “At least have a couple hours of shut-eye.”

To her surprise, Kyungsoo didn’t protest but got up and shuffled towards the clearing without another word at the two of them. He rolled himself up in his cloak, curled to the side so his back was facing them, and didn’t say anything more.

“Well then,” Baekhyun noted under his breath. “I can’t quite figure him out.”

Hwayoung flexed her injured ankle as carefully as she could and then pulled herself upwards, leaning mainly on the tree closest to her. “I don’t think any of us can figure him out. Why didn’t he wake you up before?”

Baekhyun shrugged, running a hand through his white hair. “I’d give you the answer to that if I had one.”

They remained in awkward silence for a while before Baekhyun nodded at the direction where their belongings were. “I’ll go refill the flasks,” he said. “And look around to see if there’s any sort of fruit, though there’s still a couple days worth of bread.”

Hwayoung took a wobbly step forward. “I can go too.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “You don’t look like you’re going to go anywhere like that. We’re staying here today to let your ankle rest, not for you to strain it again even though we’re not going anywhere. Watch the prince. I don’t think anything will happen, but just in case. I’ll be back in a while.”

Watch the prince wasn’t phrased very prettily and Hwayoung felt more or less self conscious when she constantly glanced in his direction, but sometime along the way, she stopped caring and passed time by sorting through the stuff she had in her bag. There were the two vials of poison that she had stolen from the last royalty member she’d assassinated, but they had never come to use. A couple coins that she supposed would remain at the bottom of the pack for a long time (she was pretty sure the currency was different in different towns), and then her hand closed around the smooth stone at the bottom of her backpack.

Slowly, she pulled her arm out and glanced down at the rock.

It fit in the palm of her hand and Hwayoung could close her fist easily around it. The color flickered, mostly white, but it caught the light prettily. Moonstone. She’d found it with Sehun when she was six years old on the banks of the river. She wasn’t quite sure how it had washed ashore because it definitely wasn’t just a simple stone that the river had created through time, but whatever it was…

The bushes rustled again and Hwayoung immediately tucked the stone back into the front pouch of her bag, reaching for her dagger on reflex. She released the hilt as Baekhyun stepped through the trees, shaking leaves off of his head and holding three flasks in his hands. He was also holding two purplish fruits.

“He’s completely out,” Baekhyun muttered as he sat down next to her, dropping the flasks onto the ground. He glanced in Kyungsoo’s direction again. “I can’t let him take first watch in the future if he refuses to sleep.”

Hwayoung eyed the fruit he had. “I can spare a couple hours of sleep too. My ankle’s not going to stop healing because I stayed up late.”

Baekhyun shrugged, not seeming to have a response (or not caring to answer) before handing her one of the fruits he had picked. “I found a couple more in that direction,” he said. “I already ate one back there and they’re pretty sweet. The rest were too high in the tree to reach, though. It didn’t exactly look like it would support my weight either.”

She mumbled a thanks at him before biting into the fruit.

It was sweet, and she almost choked in surprise. The insides were a bit watery, and a couple bites later she hit the core. In less than a minute, Hwayoung had finished the fruit. She hadn’t even realized how hungry she was until then.

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