12 // KangRang

 

 

"I can help you get your friend out more easily," Jongup offered as he watched AeMi send Youngjae down the ditch with a rope attached to the horse.

 

AeMi halted Night from lowering it any further once her brother had reached the bottom. "That's alright," she declined. "We can do it ourselves."

 

Down in the ditch, Youngjae frowned worriedly as he examined his unconscious friend. *What exactly happened for him to lose consciousness for so long? It can't have been from the fall.* He noticed Daehyun's katana by his head and quickly picked it up to re-sheathe it. *He must have come up against someone formidable.*

 

Once Youngjae had a hold around him, Night heaved them up from the dark enclosure. AeMi placed a blanket on the snowy ground and helped lay Daehyun on it. She wrapped a woollen cloak around him to keep him warm.

 

"Daehyun. Hey, are you okay?" She started shaking him lightly. "Wake up."

 

After a few more moments of disturbing his sleep, the demon-slayer finally showed signs of waking up. A low groan of pain came from him as he pinched his eyes tightly closed before slowly forcing them open.

 

"Yumi," was the first thing he coughed. "Where's Yumi?"

 

The siblings shook their heads.

 

"She's not here," Youngjae replied. "Did you find her?"

 

Daehyun sat up and grabbed his aching head in frustration. "Damn it! He took her again!" Ignoring his obviously unwell self, having spent the entire night outside in the freezing conditions, he jumped up and mounted his horse to go after them. Youngjae quickly stopped him from leaving.

 

"Daehyun, be reasonable. You're too unwell right now."

 

The demon-slayer took no heed to his words. "Those KangRang soldiers know that Yumi's a Guardian and have kidnapped her because of that reason. We have to save her."

 

"We will definitely go after her, but first you must regain your strength," Youngjae reasoned. "By the time we're able to catch up to them, they would already be in KangRang."

 

AeMi nodded. "Brother's right. We'll have to enter enemy territory, that is, if we can even find a way to get through their guards."

 

"About that..." Jongup suddenly piped in, "I might be able to help you." He had been so quiet during the entire ordeal that Daehyun hadn't even noticed him in his currently lightheaded state.

 

"Who are you?"

 

"I'm Moon Jongup from YuNan," he repeated with another bright smile."If you're planning to get into KangRang undetected, then I should be able to help you."

 

Youngjae took a few moments to study him. He, a complete stranger, was offering to sneak the three of them into a country that neither of them belonged to. It only left him to wonder what ulterior motive he had.

 

"And under what condition?"

 

The brown-haired male stared at him with the slightest bit of confusion before looking around at his snow-covered surroundings. "It'll be cold and snowy for awhile until we reach the border, but once we're there, KangRang should be in the middle of their warm dry season."

 

The scholarly young man resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow at him. *Is this guy playing dumb, or does he really not know what I was referring to?*

 

Both AeMi and Daehyun had the same thought on hearing his clueless response, but didn't voice their opinions - the former choosing not to do so because she was feeling rather overwhelmed by the level of his eccentricity, and the latter because he just simply lacked the energy.

 

"Why are you so willing to help us?" Youngjae asked instead.

 

"Because it was because of me that your friend here is injured," Jongup answered guiltily. "I wouldn't feel comfortable if I didn't do something to help you in return."

 

Youngjae had always been a rather observant young man who made reliable judgements. Even someone as hard-headed as Daehyun willingly followed his suggestions. And right now, he couldn't detect a single trace of malice or bad intent coming from the person standing before him. So he decided to follow his gut feeling.

 

Letting out a deep breath, he looked at him with all signs of seriousness. "Then we'll be counting on you to get us through."

 

 

~~~

 

 

Being slung over the back of a horse on her front and then being tied to it was most definitely not the most comfortable way to travel. And Yumi could be more sure of that than anybody else -- because that was exactly the condition she found herself in when she woke up from her unconscious state. Only, both her hands and feet were bound as well.

 

Chanyeol, who was sitting just behind her on the horse, noticed that she had woken up. "Had a good sleep, Miss Yumi?"

 

She twisted her head up to the left to glare at him. "Stop this horse and let me go."

 

"You should know by now that requests like those are useless."

 

Yumi huffed out in frustration and took a quick scan of her surroundings. She immediately noticed the difference of the terrains and the much warmer climate that was very much similar to the season of summer back at home. She was even starting to sweat in her clothing that had been tailored for the harsh, cold weather of YoungNan. "Where am I?"

 

"KangRang," came the quick, short answer. "And just to discourage you from trying to escape, we crossed the border a long time ago, so we're far from where your friends are."

 

Yumi's heart started racing in panic as she felt dread settle in her stomach. She was in enemy territory now, and she had neither her weapons nor any resources to assist her even if she managed to break free from Chanyeol. Combat back at YoungNan was advantageous for her in that she had a never-ending supply of snow that she could manipulate into water. But being here in the dry season of KangRang made things a lot more difficult. The only good thing to come out of this was the fact that she didn't have to worry about encountering any demons in this land. But she would choose that over being captured any day.

 

"Could you at least let me travel in a more comfortable fashion?" she complained after her head bumped into the horse's side for the countless time. "I can't stand this!"

 

Chanyeol stared at her with a blank expression. "And risk giving you a better chance to escape? No."

 

*Damn…* she thought to herself. That was exactly what she had in mind. *Better put on the weak act then.*

 

"Please?" she pleaded in a forlorn voice. "I really can't keep going on like this. It's much too difficult for me."

 

This was met with a pair of raised eyebrows. "Did you really think I was going to fall for that?"

 

Yumi sighed in defeat. "Look, I won't escape. Even if I were to do so, I wouldn't be able to get anywhere by myself, right?"

 

"Good to know that you've acknowledged that."

 

"Then are you going to help me or not!" she snapped. She was feeling far beyond irritated. The ride was extremely uncomfortable, her clothes were too warm for her, and she hadn't had a drop of water to drink since she was first kidnapped. On top of all that, it wasn't a great feeling to have been kidnapped twice.

 

The horse slowly came to a stop as she felt herself being lifted upright to a sitting position. Her bound feet required her to sit with both of her legs swung over to the right while her bound hands rested on her lap. Chanyeol pulled her body to lean on his torso as he wrapped an arm around her waist to secure her. With his other hand, he held onto the reins and got the horse moving again.

 

Yumi squirmed in her seat. She was uncomfortable with their proximity, and the arm around her waist definitely bothered her.

 

"Stop moving around and sit still," Chanyeol ordered.

 

She stopped the squirming but frowned up at him. "Remove your arm."

 

"And let you fall?"

 

"I don't care, just take it away."

 

Chanyeol cracked a smile. "You know Yumi, you should be grateful that I'm the one who captured you. Any of my other colleagues wouldn't be anywhere near as courteous towards you."

 

"What's the point of capturing me anyway?" she shot back. "I won't be of any use to you. I don't even know why I'm caught up in all of this."

 

"You're the long lost Guardian of Water who has finally appeared again after more than a century," he began with an amused look in his eyes. "It would be strange for anyone not to take an interest in you." He shifted his eyes to look at what was ahead of them. "But you'll be enlightened with the reasons soon enough."

 

Yumi creased her brow in confusion and turned her head to look at what he was looking at. Her eyes widened indefinitely as they remained glued to the looming image of the oncoming city.

 

There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that this bustling civilisation of unimaginable size was the capital city of KangRang. The closer they got to their destination, the slimmer were her chances of escaping. She had to come up with something quickly if she didn't want to remain a prisoner forever.

 

Chanyeol steered the horse off to the outskirts of the city in order to reduce the number of questioning eyes on them. Yumi's eyes flickered around anxiously as she tried to find something, anything, that could aid her in her escape right now. And as if God had answered her prayers, she caught sight of a wooden barrel filled with the holy liquid.

 

Water.

 

Without another thought, she headbutted the KangRang soldier and threw herself off the horse, all the while bringing the water towards her to cut the bindings on her limbs. Her arms broke away just in time to avoid herself crashing into the ground by skilfully propelling her body forward into a somersault. Yumi winced when she landed on her sprained ankle from when she had fallen into the ditch. She had totally forgotten all about it. Ignoring the pain, she immediately focused her energy on using the limited supply of water to create a barrier of ice around Chanyeol in order to buy herself some time.

 

With her injured ankle, she didn't manage to get very far when she heard the ice crashing to the ground.

 

"Yumi!" came his irritated voice.

 

Adrenaline pulsed through her veins as she ran as fast as she could to wherever her feet took her. Yumi could still hear Chanyeol in close pursuit behind her when she broke into a crowded marketplace. Ignoring the confusion of the townspeople around her, she pushed her way past them and continued on her way. She needed to find a horse or something that she could get away in.

 

Just as she found a stall of horses for sale, a small number of red-uniformed guards suddenly appeared before her and blocked off her path. They held out their curved swords as they closed in on her.

 

"Intruder, stop right there!"

 

Without faltering, Yumi ignored their words and continued running towards them. Combat within a populated area of the town was a viable option for her in that there was bound to be a supply of water somewhere. She easily located a few more barrels of water and used it to throw the guards off their feet.

 

Gasps of shock and fear filled her ears as people witnessed the mysterious power she possessed.

 

"W-What is she?!" a guard spluttered. He hastily reached for his sword on the ground only to find that it was encrusted in ice so that he couldn't use it. The same applied for all the guards.

 

Yumi was just a metre away from the closest horse when something flew past her face and stabbed into the wooden post of the stall. A bright yellow light shone from the katana she recognised to be Chanyeol's, and was taken by surprise when she suddenly thrown backwards into the ground. She groaned in pain as she picked herself up. It must've been a barrier he put up around the stall to prevent her from getting away on horseback.

 

"You can't escape, Yumi. Give it up."

 

She spun around and shot Chanyeol a look of disdain. She had a considerable amount of water at her disposal, and used it to swirl around her body as a defensive guard. "I refuse."

 

Yumi swung her arms out rigorously as she attacked him simultaneously with numerous streams of water. Chanyeol drew a second katana he had with him and chanted a spell as he dodged and sliced through the powerful liquid. He held his sword horizontally in front of him as he let the spell work its magic, producing invisible sound waves that effectively repelled her streams of water, sending it coursing down to the ground.

 

"You should be thankful that there are too many other people around," Chanyeol said as he lunged towards her. "Otherwise I would've taken you out the same way I did back at the ditch."

 

Yumi hurriedly put up a wall of ice to block his path, and watched as he destroyed it a few seconds later.

 

"I'm impressed with your fighting spirit, Miss Yumi, but I strongly suggest that you give up now."

 

She glared at him as she formed spears of ice and raised them into the air before her. With the water that lay around Chanyeol's feet, she quickly used it to encase half of his legs to the ground with ice, before doing the same to the arm wielding the katana. She sent the spears of ice soaring through the air towards him and stopped them when they were just millimetres away from his body.

 

"I am not going with you," she coldly replied.

 

"Then you're coming with me."

 

Warning signs went off in her head as soon as she heard the voice. But it was too late for her to do anything about the person behind her. Before she could even react, her body had crumpled into the ground after being delivered a blow to the back of her head.

 

She turned to look at her attacker as she clutched her bleeding head. It was Baekhyun.

 

"Yeol!" he called out to the spellcaster. "Aren't you going a little too easy on her? Now look at the mess she's created."

 

The ice covering Chanyeol's limbs reverted back to the state of water and splashed to the ground, allowing him to move. He sheathed his sword and went over to Yumi in concern. "You went too far Baekhyun. Her head's bleeding, she needs medical help immediately."

 

Baekhyun scoffed. "She tried to kill you!"

 

The spellcaster dismissed his claims wordlessly and carefully carried her over to a cart, laying her down on thick sheets of material for her comfort. He knew that she had stopped her attack before it hit him. She was not the type of person to seriously hurt anybody, even in times of desperation. And that was the reason why she was no match for the higher-league soldiers of KangRang. She was too soft-hearted.

 

Even in her light-headed state, she was still glaring at him with her half-lidded eyes. "Don't think you've won yet," she muttered hatefully. "I will take you down."

 

A soft chuckle emanated from his throat. Even in her seemingly hopeless state, she was still as determined as ever.

 

"Alright then, Miss Yumi. Let's see what you've got."

 

 

 

---

 

It's been awhile since I've updated because I've been really busy D': I'm really sorry, but hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter!

Thank you all for reading and subscribing :D

 

--- Mistlea