I love that it only took me a month to update this one but I am now into month three of no update for my other story... I am a slacker. Pray my weekend is productive enough for me to update that one. 

Byul had messed up. Really messed up. Not only did she let her guard down almost get YongSun killed, but she got herself stabbed. On top of all of that, the princess was not taking no for an answer about treating the wound. So now she sat in front of her with her shirt off, everything exposed. Byul was just glad that for once she put a band on over her s before she bound them, so when she was forced to unravel the cloth around her chest, YongSun wasn’t getting more of a picture than she needed. YongSun’s eyes held so much emotion, shock, anger, confusion, and a little sadness. “You’re a girl?” She sounded more angry than anything and Byul couldn’t blame her.

Byul looked off to the trees, not wanting to meet her disappointed gaze. “Are you going to examine the wound or not?” She said a bit too harsh, feeling the embarrassment in her face. 

YongSun didn’t say anything. She started rummaging through her bag, taking out the small medical kit she had. She pulled out a bottle of whisky and poured some on a cloth, the only sanitizer she had. “Are you ready?” She asked.

Byul knew this was going to hurt, in more ways than one. She reached for the bottle of alcohol and took a large swig from it. The dark liquid burned on the way down. “Well if I am going to expose all of myself.” She said taking one more drink. She reached up to her wig, glad she could finally take it off, she threw it to the ground. Her medium length blonde hair tumbling from underneath. Now that was liberating. “Now I am ready.” She said making eye contact with a very shocked princess. 

YongSun stared at her wide eyed, mouth hanging open, Byul couldn’t read the expression on her face. She must have realized she was staring because she quickly shut and redirected her gaze to Byul’s wound. “This is going to hurt.” She said sounding more angry than before. She pressed the alcohol soaked cloth to Byul’s wound, a little too hard in her opinion, she back a hiss of pain. YongSun wiped all the blood away, only for more to pour out. “I am going to need to stitch this.” Byul wasn’t sure if she was informing Byul or talking to herself so she didn’t answer, instead she took another drink, it was easing the pain. YongSun fished out a needle and thread, hand tentatively resting on Byul’s stomach, Byul couldn’t help but memorize the feel of her hand there. The stitches weren’t that painful, she was use to worse. When she was done YongSun cleaned the wound again and started bandaging her up. “All done.” She said looking up, making eye contact with Byul, who hadn’t stopped watching her the entire time. YongSun blinked a few times than looked away, pink creeping up in her cheeks. 

Byul reached for her discarded shirt and slipped it back on. She slid from the rock as YongSun cleaned up her medical supplies. She picked up her wig and shoved it in her bag along with the cloth she used to bind her chest. She quickly shouldered her bag and turned back to the princess. “We should get going. TaeOh will be waiting for us.” And when he sees Byul like this, there was going to be hell to pay. She just hoped he didn’t take it out on YongSun. She was now standing beside Byul, bag on her shoulder. “My name is Byul by the way.” She didn’t wait for a response she just started walking again, feeling a lot more pain than just in her side. 

Yul was a girl. YongSun’s head had been spinning for the last hour as they walked. Cycle of emotions constantly running through her. From anger when she first found out, to sadness at the realization, then to confusion, which is where she currently stayed while she tried to figure everything out. Her name was Byul. And YongSun still had feelings for her. That was the most confusing part. When Byul pulled off her wig YongSun’s only thought was how beautiful she was, and how much faster her heart raced. Even now as they walked, she kept looking over at her. Her muscles seemed even more impressive, long blonde hair suited her well, as for her chest… YongSun swallowed. She expected that with time the feelings were going to evaporate, when her brain finally settled on the facts. Yul, Byul, was much more impressive as a girl, it suited her. YongSun gave her head a shake, she shouldn’t be thinking these things. And yet her eyes kept going back. “We’re almost there.” The first words Byul had spoken since they left. She had barely even made eye contact with YongSun since they started walking, she was walking with a sense of shame and defeat, YongSun couldn’t help but feel like she was to blame.

There were so many questions on the tip of YongSun’s tongue that she was burning to ask  but she said nothing. She knew Yul… Byul was trying to reach TaeOh and get them out of harm's way as fast as possible. YongSun could see the faint outline of TaeOh leaning against the tree. YongSun felt her heart rate speed up at the sight of him, she was starting to get afraid. She risked a look at the warrior next to her, she could see that Byul has significantly paled, she wasn’t sure if it was from the blood loss or seeing TaeOh. 

As they got closer to TaeOh he stiffened, YongSun could see his eyes turn dark and he marched over toward them. “What in the hell…”

Byul put up a hand. “Not now, I’ll explain later, we need to leave.” She kept walking, her speed picked up a bit. 

TaeOh turned to YongSun and gave her a look that made her wish she could shrink to the size of an ant, but he his heels and followed Byul in the direction she was going. YongSun just kept up behind them, waiting for the fight to break out. 

They paced did not slow down for about another hour. YongSun felt like she was tripping over her own feet to keep pace with the tension filled warriors having a silent fight in front of her. To her surprise TaeOh said nothing more since Byul kept walking but YongSun could feel the building anger flow off of him as he waited for her to give him answers. Finally it seemed he could not take it any longer and he jogged forward a few feet and grasped Byul by the arm, stopping her. “We’ve gone far enough Byul. Explain. Now.” 

YongSun could tell there was something wrong with Byul. The strong warrior looked extremely pale and she didn’t even try to push TaeOh away when he grabbed her, her eyes looked glassy and distant, TaeOh didn’t seem to notice, or maybe he didn’t care. “We ran into some trouble.” She finally said. TaeOh gave her a look. Byul sighed and told TaeOh everything that had happened in the time they were away from him.

YongSun could do nothing but watch as Byul explained and TaeOh got visibly more angry. Though to his credit he, YongSun did see a bit of concern cross his face when she mentioned getting stabbed. When she finally finished he exploded. “That was incredably stupid Byul.” Byul flinched at the words. “You know what this means! You know what could happen! How could you reveal who you were to her!”

Now it was Byul’s turn to explode. “You don’t think I know that? I don’t understand why you believe I am so stupid that I’d do such a thing without thinking.” She was breathing heavily, she ripped her arm from TaeOh’s grasp. “I am sorry TaeOh, I am sorry I did something stupid again.” She her heels and stalked off into the woods.

TaeOh let her go. YongSun took a step forward to follow her, she was very concerned for the warrior’s health, but TaeOh blocked her path. “Don’t think I am not going to talk to you about this princess.” He spit that last word. “You have no idea what mess you just got us into…”

YoungSun cut him off with a look. “Say what you want to me TaeOh, but Byul got really hurt. She lost a lot of blood and we’ve been marching through the woods for hours. I need to check her wound. Then you can yell at me all you want.” She marched past him. She didn’t make it far before she was stopped again, but not by TaeOh this time. Byul sat just beyond the area they were standing in, slumped against a large tree. YongSun raced over. She dropped to her knees in front of Byul and tried to shake her awake. YongSun put her hand to Byul’s now translucent skin, it burned under her touch. “TaeOh!” She hollered to the angry man still pacing in the clearing she left him in. 

YongSun heard his footsteps turn from annoyed to rushed as he dashed over to her, basically pushing her out of the way to get to Byul. “Byul!” His voice cracked over the site if her. “Byul wake up!” Byul’s eyelids lifted slightly but only long enough for them to see her eyes roll back up into her head. YongSun could see TaeOh’s face set into a hard look as he began examining Byul, even lifting her shirt to see the long gash on her abdomen, the bandages YongSun had placed there were soaked through, her stomach was covered in sweat and blood. “There is a river over there.” TaeOh said ing his finger in the direction without looking away from Byul. “Fill the skins with water as fast as you can.” YongSun didn’t move, fear had set into her bones. “Now YongSun!” He yelled sounding more scared than angry.

She scrambled to her feet, almost falling back down as she did. She gave one more quick look at Byul before she ran off to get the water TaeOh had asked for, afraid of what was to come. 

TaeOh had messed up, really messed up. Protect Byul, keep Byul safe, that was his one job since they were kids, even if he never really understood that, he knew it was his job. His heart raced as he placed his sister on the ground before him, clearing her sweat covered hair out of her face. This was his fault. He left them alone in the woods, he knew they were taking too long, he knew there was something wrong with her when he saw her but he was so focused on the fact she had revealed her identity to YongSun that he didn’t bother to ask how severe it was. The wound was not that deep despite it length, it didn’t hit anything major. It was the poison dipped blade that did this to her. TaeOh could see the effects of the poison, the slight discoloration of the skin around the wound, the fever. Luckily for TaeOh it was a common one, and one they carried a cure for. However, they got to it very late and she had lost a lot of blood in the process, meaning there was a good chance she might not make it. There was no way TaeOh could lose Byul, he couldn’t lose the only member of his family he had left.

An hour had past. TaeOh was sitting on a log by the fire he build to boil the water YongSun brought back. He watched as YongSun dabbed the water soaked fabric strip along Byul’s brown to clean off the sweat. That was another problem, the princess. He knew Byul liked her. Ever since they were kids Byul never batted an eye at a boy, yet another thing he had to protect her from. What he never thought he would have to do is protect Byul from his own feelings. At first he was determined to hate the pampered princess, yes she was beautiful but he had met many beautiful women, and this was just another spoiled royal he had to watch out for. Then her father died and he hated that the event had put his and Byul’s life on