17 // Feeling

 

 

Daehyun walked on in silence as the group neared the border towards YoungNan. He held his sleeve tight against his wrist as if he was afraid that someone else would see it. He would have to ask Youngjae about the mark later when the others were not around to hear.

 

"We're almost there," Jongup announced from the front. Both he and Yongguk had reverted back to their everyday appearances sometime along the way. Not even a moment later, his feet suddenly stopped in their tracks as he stared curiously at a small commotion going on up ahead.

 

AeMi came up right next to him and peered over his shoulder. "What's wrong?" Her eyes suddenly caught sight of two men bothering a young woman in a hooded cape.

 

"Let go of me!" the young woman snapped as she tried tugging her arm away from the man's grip. "You filthy vermin!"

 

The man cackled unpleasantly. "You've got quite the mouth on you, don't you girlie?"

 

Yongguk frowned at the scene in disgust and fearlessly approached the men. "Let her go."

 

They turned their heads to the side and glared at the person interrupting them. One of the men kept their grip on the young woman, while the other went up to Yongguk with a sneer.

 

"And who do you think you are?"

 

The Guardian of Fire firmly stood his ground and glanced down at the shorter man. "Stop bothering the young lady and then no one gets hurt."

 

The man gave him a crooked grin before clumsily swinging out a punch that was easily deflected by Yongguk, who retaliated by twisting his arm behind his back. The man was calling out in pain.

 

"Stop! You'll break my arm!" he wailed.

 

"If you really want to keep it then tell your friend over there to get his hands off of her."

 

He sent his companion a desperate look of pain. "Just let the damn woman go! It's not worth it."

 

The other man hesitantly let go of the young woman, who quickly moved over to where the others were standing.

 

Yongguk released his grip on the man and watched as he scrambled away pathetically with his friend.

 

The young woman looked up at the group and finally revealed her face for them to see. She was a beautiful young woman with clear, pale skin and wavy black hair. She smiled at them roguishly then, and they could see from that simple expression of hers that she wasn't one of those weak, helpless women who couldn't defend themselves. She held about herself an air of assurance and self-confidence, and both Daehyun and Yongguk knew immediately that she would have been able to take care of those goons without their help.

 

"Thank you for helping me," she bowed politely. She straightened up and glanced at them with eyes glimmering with hints of mischief. "It's always nicer to be able to deal with someone without having to poison them."

 

Yumi blinked at the woman. Her demeanour was entirely different to what she had expected.

 

"P… Poison?" AeMi stammered before laughing a little nervously. "Isn't that a bit much for just a couple of thugs…?"

 

The woman let out an amused laugh. "I don't mean a lethal poison! Just a little something to paralyse them temporarily." She held up a slim hand to cover and regained her composure. "May I ask where you're headed?"

 

Daehyun frowned at her sceptically. "Why do you want to know?"

 

She raised an eyebrow. "Well if you're all heading back to the Land of the Mystical Snow Mountain, then I figured that I might as well go along with you since I'm heading over there too."

 

The young woman smiled sweetly at Yumi. "And it's nice to meet you, Guardian of Water…" She looked over at Jongup. "….Guardian of Earth, and…" Her eyes finally landed on Yongguk. "… Guardian of Fire."

 

Their eyes bugged open in surprise, and the sight of that brought out yet another laugh from the woman. "Why are you all so shocked? It's not like you've all been keeping your identities a complete secret."

 

She brought out a small palm-sized crystal ball from her clothing and held it up in front of her. The group peered suspiciously into the crystal ball and saw the images of the three Guardians using their elements in the battle against the demons from earlier on. They stepped backwards in alarm.

 

"Who are you?" Youngjae asked. He fixed his eyes on the crystal ball. "And is that… Is that dark magic?"

 

She didn't answer him as remained slightly upturned.

 

"Then you must be a sorceress!" he declared.

 

Her smile dropped and her brow furrowed in annoyance. "Oh please! I'm a spellcaster!" she insisted adamantly.

 

Yumi stared at her curiously. Of all the spellcasters she'd met, not one of them were female.

 

"I am Han Sunhwa, a female spellcaster," she introduced. "…or otherwise known by my infamous title as the Queen of Poisons."

 

Yongguk scowled at that. "You're the Queen of Poisons? Then don't tell me that you were the one who concocted those damned poisons that the capital used to force those other weaponsmiths and spellcasters into working for them. You're working for that scum of a capital!"

 

"Don't you dare accuse me of doing something so lowly!" she snapped. "I might have made those poisons, but that doesn't mean that I gave them to the capital. They stole them from me, those lowlifes!"

 

Realisation spread across the weaponsmith's face before his expression slowly turned to that of guilt. "Sorry."

 

Sunhwa flipped her hair. "Well, I guess I forgive you." She turned to look at the others. "So, can we go now? I don't want any more KangRang soldiers coming after me, and that's what we're going to get if we keep hanging around here."

 

The group exchanged looks silently before slowly nodding back at the woman.

 

 

~~~

 

 

"WHAT?!"

 

The Emperor's face was red with fury.

 

"YOU SAY SHE'S DEAD?!" he bellowed.

 

Both Lay and Chanyeol were bowing before him on one knee with an outstretched arm resting on the floor in front of them. They kept their heads facing downwards towards the floor as a sign of respect.

 

"Yes, Your Excellency. Unfortunately that is true," Chanyeol replied.

 

The Emperor slammed his hands on table to his side. "HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!"

 

Chanyeol stood up and pulled out the image-capturing crystal. "We have managed to capture the image of her death at the claws of a demon."

 

"Activate it!" he demanded impatiently.

 

The spellcaster readied himself to do so and sent Lay a discreet look. He nodded ever so slightly in response and kept his head down from where he was still bowing on the ground. This worked to their advantage in that the other people in the room would not be able to notice how his mouth was moving as he quietly chanted the spell for the hallucination to work.

 

Just as the crystal started glowing in what was apparently supposed to be an "activation", a moving image of Yumi fighting a colossal level-4 demon suddenly projected from the rock into the middle of the room.  Lay's expression constricted from the effort of creating the false image, but the other people in the room were much too engrossed into the scene unfolding before them to pay any attention to him.

 

The eyes of the Emperor and his highly ranked aristocrats were glued to the projected image as it showed Yumi being overpowered by the demon before eventually meeting her demise at the sharp claws that impaled her. The moving image finally came to an end with the demon carrying her lifeless body away in its mouth, before quickly slinking away into the dark.

 

The Emperor remained silent for a few seconds after it was over, as if contemplating what he thought about it. Chanyeol unknowingly clenched his hands as he silently prayed for the leaders of the country to be as easily fooled as he had hoped.

 

The ruler of KangRang shifted his eyes over to where Lay was. "Lay, get up!"

 

The soldier did his best to remain calm and slowly stood up to face the leaders. "Yes, Your Excellency?"

 

"You! You're the one responsible for everything that has happened today!" he roared. "Your good friend Baekhyun may have tried to protect you by keeping his mouth shut, but did you really think that you could hide it from the other spellcasters? Did you really think you could hide from them that you were the one helped the Guardian of Water to escape?!"

 

Lay kept his eyes averted as the livid Emperor continued to yell at him.

 

"Do you even realise what you have just done? We had the Guardian in our grasps, and you let her go! And not only that, now she's dead and we can't extract her powers! Her powers were a valuable asset to this nation and the key to our guaranteed victory over that wretched YuNan! And you, as my only son and the crown prince of this nation, should be the first person to recognise your responsibilities as the future leader of KangRang!"

 

Lay gritted his teeth in an attempt to prevent his feelings of anger and disgust from showing on his face.

 

"And if you weren't my son, I would have had you sentenced to death for your treacherous actions long ago! Now you will atone for your reckless actions by going after that Guardian of Fire and bringing him back here to me! Do you understand!"

 

The crown prince clenched his hands as he glared at the floor.

 

"I said do you understand?!" his father growled.

 

After taking a long, deep breath, he finally replied through gritted teeth with a "Yes".

 

He and Chanyeol were dismissed then, and Lay didn't waste even a second before he his heels and stormed out of the room. His comrade caught up with him and put a hand on his shoulder.

 

"Relax, you won't have to do as he says," he reassured. "Just play along for long enough for us to work it out so that he doesn't disown you."

 

"I'd rather he did," Lay replied rather spitefully. "I don't want a Father like him, nor a ruler like him and his followers."

 

Chanyeol sighed. "You need to be the crown prince, otherwise some other pathetic useless fool will end up being the next Emperor," he reasoned.

 

After a few moments, the crown prince finally nodded reluctantly. If he didn't become the next emperor and stop things soon, then this hungry strive for power will probably never come to an end.

 

 

~~~

 

 

"This is a nice home you have here," Sunhwa commented as she entered the Yoo estate.

 

The journey back had been long and tiring, but they were lucky to not have encountered any demons along the way.

 

"Where is your bathing room?" she asked as she ran her hands through her now unpleasant hair. "I definitely need to bathe."

 

"Follow me," AeMi answered as she led the way down the hallway. As soon as they had disappeared, a tall lanky boy suddenly appeared from behind a sliding door. It was Zelo looking as lively as ever and just as relieved to see that everyone was back unharmed.

 

"Hyungnim, everyone, you're back!"

 

Yongguk nodded with a gentle smile. He just couldn't feel reassured that Zelo and his father would be safe unless they were being taken care of like they were here at the Yoo estate. The weaponsmith excused himself before going to check on his father with his young apprentice.

 

Jongup also left with Youngjae, who went to take him to the other bathing room in the building. The only people left were Yumi and Daehyun, and he looked as if he was still grimacing a little from the pain in his arm.

 

Yumi went over to him worriedly. "Are you okay Daehyun? You look like you're still in pain."

 

The demon-slayer snapped out of his daze and unconsciously moved his left arm behind his back. "I'm fine. I'm just thinking about a few things."

 

She stared at him for a few seconds before slowly nodding. Somehow, she just wasn't totally convinced with his answer. She'd noticed that he was acting a little strange for the entire way back from KangRang. He just wasn't like his usual self. It was like something grave was bothering him, but he didn't want to tell anyone about it.

 

"Well, if there's anything bothering you, then don't feel as if you need to keep it to yourself." She smiled at him. "You can tell me."

 

Daehyun smiled back a little sheepishly. "Yeah, thanks. We should probably take our rest now." He turned to leave for his room, but unexpectedly stopped to look at her at the last second. "Goodnight Yumi."

 

"G-Goodnight," Yumi replied, feeling a little embarrassed at this action of his. She watched as he disappeared down the hallway before letting out a breath that she didn't know she was holding.

 

*W-What was that?* she thought to herself as she patted her slightly flushed cheeks. The way he had peered into her eyes as he said 'goodnight' was just….

 

Yumi shook her head and headed off to her room. It wasn't like her to over-think things like this. She should just ignore everything and call it a night.

 

 

~~~

 

 

Shock was evident across Youngjae's face as he stared at the mark on Daehyun's wrist. "Where did that come from?!"

 

The demon-slayer hushed him down. He didn't want anyone else knowing of this matter. "It appeared after that crazy woman of a Guardian slashed me with that blade of hers. Do you know what it is?"

 

Youngjae shook his head. "It looks like poison, but seeing how it's from someone working with the demons, I wouldn't put it past being a curse of sorts."

 

The were interrupted by a small laugh cutting through the air. The two men whipped their heads around to see Sunhwa emerge from behind a bookshelf.

 

"There are no such things as curses," she said as she approached them.

 

Daehyun covered his arm with his sleeve. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you in your room?"

 

"I was just taking a look around the estate before I saw you two snooping around like a suspicious couple," she replied. "So I decided to follow you here to see what you were up to." She stopped and glanced over at his covered arm before moving her gaze back up to his tensed face. "But it seems that I'm unwelcome here, so I'll take my leave now."

 

They heard the door close behind her as the sounds of her footsteps slowly padded away from the room.

 

"I know you don't want anyone else to know about this," Youngjae started, "but she seems to know something about whatever it is that's causing that mark on your wrist."

 

Daehyun frowned. She had obviously already heard everything, so he might as well just ask her what she knew about it.

 

 

~~~

 

 

Yumi rolled around in her bed. For some reason, she just couldn't get to sleep.

 

She sat up and sighed. Maybe she just needed some water.

 

She draped an outer gown over her shoulders before slowly shuffling out of her room towards the kitchen. She dipped a wooden scoop into the water holder and hastily gulped a mouthful. The cool water soothed and made her feel a lot better.

 

As she was placing the scoop back onto its holder, her ears picked up the soft sound of someone talking in a hushed voice. She paused for a few seconds to see where the sound was coming from, and followed it out of the kitchen towards a room only a few metres away.

 

Yumi lay her back flat against the wall as listened closely to the two voices. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she could tell that it was a male and a female. What could they be talking about at a time like this when everyone else was asleep?

 

Slowly and carefully, she pushed open the sliding door just the tiniest bit to let herself peer into the room. She didn't feel right creeping around and spying on someone else in Youngjae and AeMi's house, but her curiosity got the better of her.

 

She put her eye to the gap in the door and squinted a little to see more clearly. But when she could see who the two figures were, she had to clamp a hand to to stop the gasp that threatened to come out.

 

It was Sunhwa, and…

 

 

Daehyun.

 

Yumi stared, frozen in her spot, as the two continued to talk to each other. Just the two of them. And for some reason, she felt her heart drop when she realised it was Daehyun.

 

There was something a little more than just surprise that she felt. It was something that was uncomfortable, something that slightly constricted at her chest.

 

 

And she had no idea what to think of that feeling.

 

 

 

---

 

:P

--- Mistlea