CHAPTER TWO

Winter is Naeun's least favorite season because aside from the harsh cold breeze, it made hunting to be much more difficult than regular days.

During her childhood, food is not her utmost priority since being wealthy means being able to eat savoury food whenever she wanted but everything has changed since her beloved mother was diagnosed with a severe illness.

They have consulted physicians and tried everything that they could to save their mother from the illness but failed. The Elric almost consume all their riches to save her but she only passed away.

Since the family almost lost their fortune, her father wants to seek more trades and was forced to sail the harsh seas. Naeun and her siblings did not have any news about their father not until three months after their father's departure, a neighbour told them that their father's ship was destroyed by the waves and all passengers drown.

Both their parents have died and they were left with nothing but the mansion. Eventually, they were left with no choice but to sold the mansion for the sake of their living.

They bought a small house in the southern most part of the country and their brother Dongwoon took all the responsibilities. He worked as an apprentice for a blacksmith in the town proper and hunts for the wild animals for their food.

All things were running smoothly but one day, another heart breaking news arrived. It's like fate is making fun of her because this time, Dongwoon, her brave and loving brother, was killed by a wild fae. She did not believed at first because faeries were only myth; it was far from reality but the townsmen showed her the decaying body of her brother's killer. It has long pointed ears, it was undeniably not a human. 

Never did she imagined that life would be so cruel to her; first her sweet mother, then her caring father, and now...her loving brother was gone. She did not know what to do. She's too young to be an apprentice and her sister, Chorong, is too clumsy to be one.

Luckily, Dongwoon taught her how to use an arrow and to hunt; he even gave her an arrow made out from pure iron as a birthday gift. She wiped her tears and fetch her quiver. She is going to hunt, and perhaps she thought, she might be able to see another faerie and make them pay for what they did to her beloved brother.

The winter wind is howling and Naeun is hiding behind a frozen bush, fixing her aim towards a rabbit. Her prey is quite small but it may last them for another two or three days. The rabbit stops near a log so Naeun took the opportunity to slowly draw her bow.

She's about to withdraw the arrow when she caught a slight movement near her prey. It's a man and he is advancing to her rabbit. She withdraw the arrow quickly towards her prey but the man lunges towards it at the same time so it was the man who received the shot. Naeun was shocked and she quickly run towards the man to somehow mend his wound but what she found there drained the blood from her face. 

​​​​​​"You.. You are not human.. You're a.. Faerie," Naeun said while staring at the pointed ears of her victim. "One of your kind killed my brother.. How lucky of me that I met one of you.." 

​​​​​​Naeun draw another arrow from her quiver, this time it's the pure iron one, and aimed towards the heart of the faerie. "You know, I always asked my late