***Please make sure you've read chapter 18 before reading this as I updated that earlier today as well!***

For some reason, Seoyeon’s feet were much more painful the next day than they usually were.  She didn’t dare complain, because she knew that Captain Park wouldn’t be remotely sympathetic, but around the time her stomach considered to be noon, it was genuinely difficult for her to keep up with him and she was hobbling badly.

Thankfully, before she keeled over and curled up into a ball unable to go any further, he called a halt, looking around into the dark forest on either side of them.  Seoyeon sat down before he could declare it safe enough — by that point, she frankly didn’t care so long as she had a chance to get the pressure off her feet — and he took the time to shoot her a disapproving frown before sitting down himself a couple of feet away with his back against a tree.  He immediately started rummaging around for food, and Seoyeon got a shock when something suddenly landed in her lap while she was trying to ease one of her shoes off her foot.  Heart in , she looked down to see a packet of leaves, already beginning to come undone to reveal the half-fish inside.  Seoyeon was too tired to bother telling him to give her a heads up next time and set the fish aside to tend to her foot first.

Captain Park didn’t comment on it.  Seoyeon was in two minds as to whether she expected him to say something about her foot or walking.  It was just like him to ignore it, but he had commented on it before a couple of times and her wellbeing did seem to concern him on some mild level, for whatever reasons.  She was pleased to see that the swelling on her ankle was going down, which meant it was healing even though it still felt incredibly weak.  The skin from her popped blisters was still a little loose, but she didn’t find any new ones until she checked her other foot.  With a sigh, she got out a needle to pop them and carefully washed her foot so that it wouldn’t get infected.  Then she stretched out her legs so her feet could dry and turned to the food.

The fish tasted better than the night before, though that was probably because she’d been walking for several hours.  They were still up in the mountains and walking along ridges, but it had not been as flat as the previous day and every so often they’d gone horizontally across a slope, rough shingle escaping down the steep incline as she scrambled to keep her balance.  The shingle had been painful to cross, not least because the moving stones rolled her ankle in a manner that could have severely injured her if she’d slipped.  Naturally, Captain Park hadn’t had any problems with it at all.

Seoyeon nearly leapt out of her skin when more food landed in her lap.  This time it was fruit, and she looked up, half a mind to snap at Captain Park even though she knew the correct thing to say was thank you.

He was busy polishing an apple against his cloak, though when he finally raised it to his mouth to bite into it, he looked around at Seoyeon.  She scowled at him and he turned away with a shrug, gazing absently into the middle distance as he tucked in.  Annoyed by his nonchalance, Seoyeon glared at him in the hopes that he’d realise everything she was thinking without her having to say anything.

When he abruptly stopped mid-bite, she thought it might actually have worked, but he didn’t turn back to her.  Instead, he went still, his gaze sharpening, before he slowly lowered his apple and reached down with his free hand.  His head moved minutely, as though he was tracking something with his eyes.

Instinctively, Seoyeon looked in the same direction as him and held still herself.  At first, she saw nothing.  It was still dark enough for it to be difficult to make out much beyond a range of about ten feet, and she had to squint as her eyes acclimatised to the distance.  In an instant, the darkness was full of shadowy figures.

She blinked and they were gone again.  Or were they at her periphery?  She tried turning slowly to see.  Were her eyes playing tricks on her?

“Captain—” she began in a whisper, because he’d obviously sensed something, when there was a flicker of movement just off to the side.

The creature appeared out of absolutely nowhere, landing with a hiss directly between her and Captain Park.  Seoyeon just had time to see it looked like a shrivelled, half-rotted human before it lunged at her.  With a shriek, Seoyeon threw herself out of its way.  There was a sharp thud and it ploughed into the ground beside her, twitching.  Seoyeon saw an arrow sticking out of its back and had to swallow back bile, hastily looking away.

She wished she hadn’t, because she came face to face with ano