Chapter 7 – Lady of Arrows

Tournament Day – Warrior’s Goblet

The day finally came and Yongsun has never felt so much dread before. Handling Equator was such a handful. She’s too busy at the company or travelling to meet clients that she wasn’t able to be present at most of Wheein’s practice sessions. But according to Sandeul and her mother, Wheein showed tremendous progress. Progress is good but can a beginner defeat a seasoned player? Will the 4 months of training be enough to beat a former champion of 4 years’ experience? Yongsun sighed.

Moonbyul pats Yongsun shoulder gaining the attention of the troubled lover. “You alright?”

“Not really.” Yongsun replied.

“Don’t worry, unnie. Wheein’s a genius and super talented. Believe me.” Hyejin said. Moonbyul nods at her girlfriend’s remark.

The event started with Don Junho’s speech. Her grandfather adorned the traditional attire similar to kings of the old days. Traditions are strong in the Kim Household. Yongsun herself wore a black velvet warrior’s uniform. The golden dragon crest on the left of her warrior’s coat. Moonbyul’s wearing hers too. A white warrior’s uniform with streaks of baby blue at the helms of hers and a silhouette of a bird as her crest. Signifying Moon Byulyi’s clan of the white sparrows. Hyejin’s wearing a regular hanbok. Baby blue in colour with golden flowers. Yongsun thought Byul and Hyejin looks like a newlywed couple. Thinking of that, she remembered her soon to be wife.

While thinking about tradition, a revelation came on to her. She had never thought or wanted any prior lovers before as the Lady of Dragon’s House. She can’t see any of them worthy of such honourable title. Until now.

Yongsun feels this deep and burning desire for Wheein to win this. The feeling so monumental her chest feels so constricted and yet she feels so alive. Her breathing momentarily halted for she had spotted her Lady.

Wearing a beautiful red silk warrior’s outfit with golden trims, Wheein enters the arena with her horse given by her mother, Draco the Third. Her black hair tied up neatly in a ponytail with her bangs to the side. The light reflected the winding gold dragon – the Kim’s family crest adorning the warrior’s suit. Yongsun’s now convinced that meeting Wheein was not a mere coincidence and her ancestors had set them up from the heavenly realm.

Contenders take their place at the centre of the field. The spectators were excited and at awe because this only happened once in every generation. There were whispers and talks about Wheein wearing the royal Kim’s suit. For the most part, Yongsun agrees with most of the passing remarks that Wheein looked like she actually belongs to Dragon clan.

The arena was packed with similar and new faces. Attendance to the arena were only through invitation. Everyone’s looking beautiful and handsome in their hanboks and warrior’s outfits. Wheein starting to feel overwhelmed. Before she could lose all grips of her composure, she searches through the stands and found her alpha. Wheein and Yongsun locked eyes and they share a loving smile. Wheein huffs out her anxiety and decided to focus only on Yongsun. The older woman will be her anchor.

These courses aren’t an ordinary course. It’s meant to be a test for warriors. Contenders need to pass through 3 checkpoints and ultimately the warrior that’s able to shoot their last arrow to the Tower of Light will win the Goblet.

Wheein prepares herself at the starting line. Stretching and warming herself up. The first checkpoint will be a 100 metres obstacle course. She trained her strength and stamina with Moon Minhyuk, Moon Byul’s brother. He’s a lieutenant in the army. She feels confident she can pass this first one easily.

Or so she thought.

Rose was a beast. Literally. She outran and outclimb Wheein. Rose jumps through logs and climbed the ladder ropes quite skilfully. But Wheein’s not a quitter. She got tangled up for a moment at the ladder ropes but she’s not far behind. Not long after she’s side by side with Rose at the top of the platform looking at 5 red pots. With her bow and arrow she takes aim.

Rose was breaking her 2^nd last blue pot when she got distracted by the crowd’s loud cheering. She glances to her right and saw Wheein’s red pots breaking in perfect sequence. She finds herself neck and neck with Wheein when they both breaks their last pot.

Descending down the platform using the flying fox attachment, Wheein gracefully landed and roll to the ground. A skill she picked up from her training camp days with Lt. Minhyuk.

“I taught her that.” Lt. Minhyuk said and both Moonbyul and Hyejin gave him thumbs up.

Wheein and Rose arrived at the second checkpoint together. There’s a reason why the first course was rather physical. It was meant to tire their arms. The moving porcelain plates were of different sizes and at different intervals. They were put up in 3 different rows. The smallest plate is at the end of the row and the only way to get to it is by knocking both the large and medium sizes plates.

Each row has one porcelain plate at the centre with 4 other random metal plates side by side. Of course these plates will not break like the porcelain and so it tests the archers timing and focus. All of them moved side to side. Left to right. Right to left.

Rose was able to break her first plate with ease. Wheein however were struggling to pull her bow. She had to take a breather and rests her left arm. Not a good time for an injury to occur, Wheein realised if she doesn’t think of something, Rose is going to pass her to the third checkpoint and it will be too far to catch up.

What she lacks in brawn, she makes it up with brain. Wheein stares at the moving plates and figured out the rhythm of its movements. She lifts up her bow and her arrow. She smiled because she had seen the perfect timing to shoot her arrow. She focused on the moving plates until it moves in slow motion and when the 3 plates perfectly lined up, she released her arrow.

The arena booms with loud cheering as soon as the last plate exploded. The timing was absolutely perfect. Even Rose admired Wheein’s skill although only for a second because she found herself neck and neck again with Wheein.

It was the last checkpoint. It’s the hardest one among the three courses. The last course would need them to shoot their target from their horses in high speed. It’s a true test to gauge their riding and marksmanship.

Wheein knows in order to win this final round, she would need to rely on her marksmanship. Once they reached the main track, Wheein leans over almost parallel to the horse. Similarly to a jockey’s position. They would need to go round the track once so the horse can pick up speed. Rose’s horse, Thunder was known to be of race horse breed. Wheein knows this fact. She purposely compete with the speed of Thunder so Rose will be too distracted to win on speed.

As they made their way to the last corner, Wheein slowly positioned herself a little upright that slows down Draco which enables Rose and her horse to break away. That did not bother Wheein for it’s no longer speed that matters now. She tightens her legs to maintain her grip and control on Draco. Her upper body in a steady position. Readying herself to shoot at the targets that will appear in random intervals.

It pays off because the moment the first target spring up, Wheein takes the first point. It frustrates Rose because now she must score the next one. She speeds up around the track so she can be the next one to get to the target. And score she did.

Wheein purposely slows down a little so she does not need to play chase around the track. They would just need to start over the next round. As they reached the corner again, they realised it’s a moving target circling the track in quite a fast pace. Wheein takes aim and shoot.

A miss!

Wheein groans and leans on Draco. She had to rest her arm again. She’s not sure if it’s due to her riding the horse or tiredness that’s causing tremors in her left arm. Rose realising her opportunity looks triumphant. Cockily she waves her arrow in the air before taking aim. Wheein looks back at the stand and saw Yongsun with a worried face. She knows if Yongsun could, the older woman would gladly take her place.

With a newfound determination, she positioned herself and takes another aim at the moving target. Wheein controls her breathing. In and out. Steadying her erratic breathing. She inhales a big breath while slowly she back her arrow. Her eyes focusing on the little red dot. The dot gets bigger and bigger until it becomes as big as a watermelon. That’s when she released her breath with her arrow.

A hit!

Wheein pumped her fist and cheered. But quickly regain her senses when she heard the crowd screaming for her to race to the Tower of Light. Giving Draco a little kick, the horse speeds up towards the tower. Rose was about to light up her arrow with fire when she heard the sound of galloping from behind. She frowned as she could not believe that she had to race Wheein again.

At this point, Rose had grown very frustrated. In an attempt to slow down Wheein, she knocks the bowl of oil to the ground and set it on fire. Successfully blocking Wheein’s path straight to the Tower.

Wheein saw Rose sabotaging her way to the Tower. Undeterred, she lights up her arrow and made her way around the path away from the burning track. She knows it’s a long way round to the Tower so she took a shortcut by going through a couple of wooden fences.

Wheein has a decision to make. To go around the hedges and back on race track or jump so she can get a nearer shot to the target. To decide, Wheein takes a glance at Rose and saw she was about to take aim at the top of the tower.

This is it. It’s all or nothing. Wheein makes a hard grip on Draco’s rope and kick the horse to speed up. Draco jumps up the hedge and with great timing, Wheein released her grip, takes her bow and her arrow. The moment the tip of her arrow meets the centre of the bowl on the tower, she released the tension.

The arena cheered with great sound. Party ribbons flying around. Littering on the stands and the track. The experience they had this afternoon was unbelievable. People were jumping up and down. Moonbyul and Hyejin were talking but Yongsun can’t hear a thing. Not even the cheering or music. She’s fixated on Wheein.

Yongsun cannot wait a second longer. Wheein was taking too long to get up from the ground. The younger woman fell from her horse. More than anything, Yongsun do not wish for harm to come to her beloved.

“Medic!” Yongsun yelled as she jumps from her seat down to the tracks.

A few medics followed behind Yongsun. The cheering eventually faded when they realised something was wrong. They were also concerned.

Yongsun saw Wheein faced down on the ground. Fearing that she may not be able to breathe, Yongsun quickly grab a hold of Wheein’s shoulder and was about to turn her over when one of the medic stopped her.

“We need to check her situation first.” The Medic named Dr. Park said. Another one goes over Wheein’s head of what Yongsun perceived as checking Wheein’s airways.

“Just turn her over!” Yongsun said angrily.

“And risked paralysing your fiancée?”

Yongsun finds herself grabbing a handful of her hair. She understood the medic’s concern. Falling from a horse is not like getting a scratch on the knee at the playground. Yongsun never felt so much fear before that she started tearing. She notices the doctor was trying to call on Wheein a few times.

Desperate for some feedback Yongsun brushed some grass off Wheein’s cheek. “Baby, can you hear me?”

Somehow Wheein flutters her eyes open.

“Ms. Jung, can you hear me?” The doctor asked once Wheein’s gained consciousness.

Wheein nods. “Yeah.”

“Do you know where you are?” The doctor asked again.

Another nod. “Yeah, I think so.” Wheen was about to push herself up when the doctor stopped her.

“Don’t move, baby.” Yongsun’s voice kept Wheein calm.

A fellow medic that was checking Wheein’s airways takes out a neck brace and put it on Wheein. The doctor continues to check Wheein for injuries and only when Dr. Park’s certain Wheein did not have any injury to her spine, he gave a thumbs up to turn Wheein over. The moment Wheein saw Yongsun she smiled and said, “So did I win?”

END of CHAPTER 7

What do you guys think? Did she win? Hehe. Leave a comment below.