“Ae Ri!” the rider called in the darkness of the night. “Where are you, Ae Ri?”

“Thunder?” she stepped forward to meet him halfway. “What’s wrong? Why is your face so pale?”

He threw me a scared look. I could see that he was that kind of man that forgot the meaning of being scared after joining the army. But right then and there, he was afraid. Something bad must have happened in the camp… …

“The Chinese soldiers have attacked the camp while our soldiers were sleeping. Most of them were killed on the spot. The survivors ran on the mountain. They are waiting for you General Yesung,” he told me while his hand rested on Ae Ri shoulder.

His news hit me so hard that it took me few seconds to have it all understood. But then, the cold and calculated general stood out once again, acting quickly.

“Donghae and Kyuhyun are in the mountain too?” I asked as I stepped towards my black horse who was moving his ears as if he was listening to what I was saying.

“Yes. They sent me here to find the two of you.”

“That’s good then,” I muttered as I saddled. “Thunder, I trust you will take Ae Ri to the palace in safety.”

He just nodded.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” she broke from his grasp and came towards me, her fingers clenching around the bridle.

“That means that you’ll return to the palace in no time,” I sighed, as my horse nervously moved under me, hitting the ground with his hooves. “Look, I have not time to lose here. You’re going back to the palace and that’s final!”

“No! I’m not going anywhere!” she fought stubbornly. “I’m not leaving you to return there when you’re going to fight with half of your men! There’s no way I’m doing that! I’m staying and I’m going with you! I’ll fight alongside you!”

“NO! THAT WON’T HAPPEN AS LONG AS I LIVE!”I yelled, jumping from the saddle. “Ae Ri, I can’t concentrate with you there! I can’t concentrate on what I should do next, on how to protect my scared men with you being there! Understand please that I can not fulfill my duty if I don’t know that you’re safe at the palace. I can’t afford losing you, Ae Ri!”

“I can’t afford losing you either! That’s why I’m coming with you! To make sure that you’ll get through in one piece. Thunder!” she called out and stretched her hand while the named one threw her something. “Now we can go!” she turned to me after tying the broad belt around her waist.

I sighed as her smile shone in front of me. “Let’s go then! But you’d better not do anything stupid out there, heard that?” I helped her saddle on my horse. “Lead the way, Thunder!”

My fingers clenched around the bridle while we followed Thunder in the darkness. Somehow, I felt like I was going to regret the fact that I let her join me… but then again, I don’t think I could have stand the thought of her being away from me.

♃~✵~♃

“Yesung!” Kyuhyun and Donghae came running to us as soon as we arrived in the forest that was growing on the high part of the mountain.

“What’s the situation?” I jumped off from the horse, pulling Ae Ri after me. “How many are dead? How many are wounded? How many can fight?”

“Almost 4,000 are dead and half of the remaining onces are wounded,” Donghae walked by my side as I started walking towards out men. “Yesung, there’s no chance for us to win this,” he stopped me by putting his pal on my shoulder.

“We have to,” I clenched my fists into tight balls. “There’s no way for us to leave this place if we don’t fight! Gather them all here! I want to straight things up before thinking of tactics!”

He nodded and disappeared towards the places where the groups formed. Kyuhyun patiently remained behind, staring at me strangely.

“And what do you want?”

“Why haven’t you sent her back?” he tilted his head towards the place where Ae Ri was waiting with Thunder, checking her swords and ninja daggers.

“Because she didn’t want to leave. Anything else you’d like to know?”

He frowned. For the first time he was worried about the result of a battle. “This is not going to end like we plan.”

I just stared at the ground. Yes, it was not going to end like we thought it would… …

“First of all, I know that you are all scared because of the numerous soldiers that are waiting for us. But no more. We will win this even if it means that we will die. Death is not something we should be scared about, especially when it brings out glorious victory with her. Secondly, I know that there are wounded among you. Those with severe wounds, please step aside,” I spoke in front of the soldiers that gathered in front of me. “Now, those who are over 45 years old, those who are under 20, those who are fathers and those who have a young wife and small child waiting for them back home, please step aside!” I continued.

I looked at all those that remained in front of me. A bunch of men… less than 2,000. And those were the soldiers I had to lead in battle. But it was alright. I was going to win. I was going to lead them to victory and save them all. No one was dying on my watch!

“You will all follow me as soon as we start the attack! The rest of you will remain here and will come down later on after we’ll win over the Chinese soldiers. Understood?”

“YES, SIR!”

“Good! Then Kyuhyun, Donghae, Thunder, Ae Ri! Follow me! We need to plan everything out…”

It took us all night to have everything straight out. First of all we were going to start with the traps that would kill some of our enemies. Secondly, we were going to attack them from two sides. It was the only way were going to win that battle… …

“Ae Ri.”

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