“Good morning.” Wendy greets again, she greets every single person of the Castle, she is on her way to her designated room in the chancery, as the right hand of the now absent Queen, she has more work than ever, she pasts through the last hall, when she spots the door of her room she walks to the door, until one of her feet makes her slip, she feels her back going down to the floor.

“Oh, careful petite muse.” The voice of a woman makes her look up, the back of her head is currently on the woman's chest who has her careful hands on her shoulders.

The strange woman smiles gently making the petite woman back to the reality, she coughs and stands up correctly, separating herself from the woman who she now knows who she is “Thank you, um, do you need something Summer muse?”

“Yes, I was searching for you, I heard you were going to search some stuff in the books for the Queen, so I was wondering if I could help too?” The red rust-haired muse smiles while she looks at Wendy with expecting eyes.

Wendy can help but ask herself if she is looking a muse or a tall and kind of cute puppy, looking at the sincerity in the big and deep brown eyes she smiles lightly not having the heart to say no to the muse, besides, people of Summer are constantly praised not only for their amazing battle skills they are also praised for their smart head.

“I think I should get all the help I can get.” Wendy smiles and tilts her head looking up at the tall warrior. “May I know your name?”

“Sooyoung, my name is Sooyoung, a pleasure to meet you.” Sooyoung smiles while she winks and extends her hand.

Wendy lifts her eyebrows for a little before shaking the hand of the tall muse. “The pleasure is mine, Sooyoung-sshi, I’m Seungwan, but almost everyone knows me as Wendy.”

“Oh, feel free to talk to me without honorifics, please.” Sooyoung grips gently the Winter muse's hand, smiling coquettishly and gently at the same time.

Wendy thinks how can someone look somewhat cute and slightly flirty at the same time, it’s been a while since she saw someone interesting, Summer people are indeed interesting.

“Then…Sooyoung?” Seungwan raises an expecting and unsure eyebrow.

“Yes? Seungwan?” Sooyoung smiles even wider now showing her a refreshing smile that even makes Wendy forget about the coldness of Winter for a moment.

Someone bumping Wendy's shoulder with some books makes her get back to the reality for the second time in the day.

Both muses turn to look at the person who is carrying the books but the books cover the person's face, Sooyoung lets go Wendy’s hand to take some of the books from the distracted person.

Seungwan gasps when she finds an almost walk sleeping Dahyun, who has big bags under her eyes prove of an obvious lack of sleep, the poor ash blue-haired girl barely sees the persons who she just bumped and jumps a little awake.

“I’m so sorry Wendy-unnie, I didn’t see you with all these books, I’m really sorry.” Dahyun bows a little embarrassed.

“There’s no need to be sorry Dahyun, look at you, oh snows, you are even paler now!” Wendy takes the pale muse's soft face. “And those big bags under your eyes, how long has it been since you slept well?”

“I can’t even remember how much time has passed since the last time I could sleep.” The pale girl looks at her exhausted, her face still between Wendy’s hands.

“You are going to sleep right now, and I’m not asking you Dahyun.” Wendy's voice is firm.

“B-but I need to find more information, Chewy is still lost and-“

“Shh. Shh. We are going to be searching in your place dear tofu, now go to your room, if you can’t sleep feel free to grab some Lavender scent from the glasshouse.”

Dahyun nods slowly but her vision starts getting blurry until she cannot see anymore, it was by the fast reflects from the tall woman who was able to catch her, without much effort she takes the tiny girl in her arms in a bridal style.

“Guess she doesn’t need lavender anymore.” Smiling slightly the Summer muse looks at Seungwan “Well, can you tell me where her room is?”

“So charming…” Seungwan whispers.

“Hmm?” Sooyoung tilts her head still smiling at her.

“N-nothing, follow me please, are you okay carrying her?” Wendy coughs trying to mask her little blush.

“Ah, yes, she is actually really light, maybe she is not even eating well.” Sooyoung points out while she and Wendy start to walk.

“I’m pretty sure she hasn’t been eating, I was so absorbed with other tasks that I completely forgot about searching with her and take care of her extremist habits.” Wendy sighs feeling irresponsible when she looks at the poor exhausted tofu.

Sooyoung notices the gloomy state of the muse, wanting to somehow rub Seungwan's head, she pouts when she notices she can’t because of the girl she is carrying, instead she decides to change the current mood.

“But you can do it now, look, I suggest you this, we take care of her and then we go to the library to search information” the rust red-haired woman gives Wendy her most refreshing smile causing the winter muse to blush at the sight of such bubbly smile.

“Y-you have a…” Wendy feels like she starts to sweat. “A…bubbly smile” she states in an almost whisper before she turns and starts walking before giving Sooyoung time to answer, the summer muse is not so sure about Wendy words since she barely heard her but she chuckles.

“She is really shy, but she doesn’t let all her shyness dominate her from what I saw, she is adorable.” Sooyoung thinks as she starts walking after the blushing muse.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Opening her eyes slowly, Irene blinks a few times, still dizzy she feels a little pain on her ribs when she tries to get up and a pair of hands on her shoulders stopping her from getting up.

Looking up she finds the pair of hazel eyes looking at her with a frown.

“Don’t even think about getting up, you should rest now, the wound is still fresh, move and I will need to sew it.” Seulgi warns in a serious tone making the warrior sigh and lie down again.

Now that she thinks about where she is laying down, she feels the familiar fur that stopped her from falling on the snow, she looks beside her to find one of the alphas curling her in a protective manner, then she links eyes with the big grey wolf and chuckles a little even if her ribs hurt, hesitantly she slowly reaches a hand to pet the big wolf, until she starts rubbing his head making the wolf close his eyes.

“Looks like grey fang likes you, that’s a little unusual” The hazel eyes owner comments while she pets the big wolf too.

“Why?” the dancing warrior asks curiously.

“He can be wary to people since he is the alpha, he has to be cautious but still he doesn’t attack unless the situation requires it.” Seulgi answers while she looks at the warrior again approaching to her to look at the wound that is now bandaged. “Excuse me.” She says before removing the bandage softly.

Irene lets the skinny hands of Seulgi remove the bandage, noticing her bare stomach. “She just rolled up my blouse and my corset a little, she didn’t undress me fully, how polite and considerate.”

“It looks like the wound stopped bleeding, it’s not going to take so long when it starts to close, hopefully, the bear didn’t have the chance to hit you with all his force because we probably wouldn’t be talking right now.” Seulgi starts to rub some yarrow ointment on the wound again before she starts bandaging the warrior up. “Also, you have an unfamiliar fast healing ability, normally it would take more time to start closing but the wound is starting to close slowly.” Seulgi points out.

“That’s because I’m awesome.” The warrior winks and Seulgi looks at her with a serious not serious face. “Well, aside from that, how can you know about wounds and sewing? I know Winter people are amazing healers but-“

“But you thought I wouldn’t know because I’m the Queen and servants can do it?” Seulgi raises one of her eyebrows

The warrior shrugs. “Honestly, yes, very few noble people take the time to learn and do things servants would normally do.”

“A useless Queen cannot be a Queen.” The hazel eyes owner finishes bandaging the warrior and looks at her again, before getting up to check some of the hurt wolves.

Irene feels surprised by the Queen's answer feeling getting shut and decides to follow the queen's movements before looking around to find out that they are in a large cave, even the horses are inside, she keeps looking around finding most of the wolves sleeping, aside from the female alpha Seulgi is treating, outside the cave they hear the heavy raining that now the warrior notices.

“I didn’t know it rains here.” Irene looks at Seulgi again.

“We’re almost outside of the Snow Forest, that’s why.” Seulgi finishes treating the female alpha before looking at the heavy rain. “The wolves showed me a short-cut, if it was not for that we would be still in the middle of the Snow forest, it seems that we’re going to stay here for a while before moving on.” Seulgi saves her medical utensils into one of their bags, then notices the female alpha curled up against her mate now peacefully sleeping after getting some of her wounds treated, smiling she sits beside Irene petting both wolves.

Irene notices the wolves moving their tails even though they’re sleeping, seeming happy to feel the Queen's kind hands that they easily recognize.

“I’ve never seen someone been so…close to this pals, how can you pet them and treat them like innocent puppies?”

Seulgi keeps petting the alphas chuckling softly at the way the warrior talks. “I actually know them since they were pups, all of them, they were a bigger pack but, not everyone lives forever…” Seulgi voice sounding like a whisper. “Tzuyu was the one finding them, that kid, really, now that I’m remembering how she found them, makes me think she is going to be a better Queen than me.”

The caramel brown-haired woman tilts her head in curiosity, she knows Seulgi is sharing some personal things even though she can , she decides to not to

“Why do you think that?” light brown eyes look at the hazel owner with interest.

“Well, physically speaking she is taller, almost a head taller than me, with long arms and legs, I believe she is a mix between my mother beauty and her great body line, and my father height.” Seulgi smiles fondly remembering her little sister.

“I fierily believe she is one of the most beautiful women in the entire kingdom, a classy and innocent beauty, but, she is also very beautiful on the inside, for some time I thought she wasn’t human, there’s no human in this kingdom as kind and humble as her, when we went to look around in the Winter village she played around with homeless kids, always worried about animals without owners, singing with the people, helping the baker, the florist.” Seulgi reveals a proud smile and she continues.

“About her personality, she has always been a timid and very reserved child, always showing the manners our parents taught us, most of the people feel intimidated by her sharp chocolate eyes, however, she can be really sweet and tender, if you know her well, you will know she is not very good at expressing her emotions but she can show them really well” The hazel eyes Queen looks at the rain softly. “I learned how to handle my emotions better with her unconscious help and even understand people are sometimes like books.” Returning her gaze to the attentive light brown eyes. “Sometimes you have to read people to understand them.”

The warrior keeps her gaze in the Queen feeling utterly surprised by the Queen's mentality and the precious love for her sister. “You really love your sister, don’t you? That’s why you are risking your own life to find her.”

“She is almost like my daughter, I love her immensely, I could talk for days about her, however, I don’t think a reckless warrior would like to hear me talk from day to night about my sister.” Seulgi chuckles.

“Well, if that reckless warrior is a beautiful and wounded woman who is resting on a big grey wolf, I can guarantee you she would even hear you for weeks because she knows how sister love works.” Irene winks and grins.

The hazel eyes girl feels a little blush in her cheeks, even though Irene is teasing, part of her tells her the warrior is being sincere with her, she coughs trying to distract the warrior and then she thinks about the last sentence the woman told her.

“Do you have a sister?” Seulgi raises her eyebrows and opens surprised.

“Yes.” The warrior smiles and looks at her playfully. “It’s not my turn to answer questions, Ice Queen, tell me how the princess found the pups.”

Seulgi laughs softly. “So if I tell you about the story of the pups you will answer one of my questions?”

“Mmm, maybe yes maybe not.” The warrior grins at her looking at the Queen who sighs still laughing. “Well, I think I will have to risk me and find out.”

Seulgi sits in an even more comfortable position. “Years ago, when Tzuyu was eight years old, after finishing her dancing lesson, she took a little secret path from the glasshouse to the Snow forest, only she and I knew about it, then that kid, went to the forest, alone, even though the animals here in Winter are the most pacific that didn’t mean she was totally safe, she found this cave, with the two former alphas injured and the puppies, were almost skeletal because the alphas couldn’t go to find more food due to their injuries, Tzuyu ran back to the castle and I surprised her taking raw meat and bread in a big bag that was almost her size along with her little bag that had her healing supplies that she was using in the healing classes I can still remember her scared to death face.” Seulgi laughs.

-Flashback-

Taking the last bread she found, the little princess, Tzuyu sighs tired but freezes like an ice cube when she hears her older sister's voice.

“Can I know why do you need raw meat, bread, and your healing supplies?” A ten years old Seulgi asks looking at her little sister with her eyes narrowed.

“U-Um,” Tzuyu who is still smaller than her in terms of height and age plays with the rope of her bag, sometimes she feels intimidated by her sister, just like now, nevertheless that doesn’t stop her from telling the truth to her sister. “I was in the Snow Forest but I found some skinny puppies and wolfies injured, really injured, please sister, let me give them food and treat their wounds! I will not eat cookies at night but let me help them!”

Seulgi opens her eyes wide at the answer from her sister and sighs leaning to meet her little sister's face. “You know it’s dangerous to go, treat them and give them food.” Seulgi knows even if she is really young, she can’t let her sister go, wolves injured and hungry are not a good combination, however, she finds curious how the wolves didn’t do anything to her sister.

Tzuyu looks down, sad and defeated, she knows her sister is right but she stills want to help the wolves, they are not going to hurt her, she believes it.

“Please sister, I beg you.” Tzuyu looks up at her with her glassy puppy eyes making Seulgi have a really difficult time rejecting the petition she sighs and rubs her temple. ”How many adult wolves are there?”

“Just two! And they’re the ones injured so badly, they just looked at me and curled again, I swear!”

Seulgi sighs again and thinks. “I can’t believe I’m going to do this, father and mother are going to kill me if they find out but anything for my sister.”

“I will go with you, but. Not a word of this to father and mother, or I will tell the baker to stop making cookies until you are twenty” Seulgi shows her pinky to her little sister. “Promise?”

Tzuyu smiles widely and intertwines their pinkies “Promise!”

After their little promise Tzuyu leads her sister to where the wolves were, Seulgi gasps surprised and concerned at the alphas' wounds while she and the princess approach, the male alpha opens his eyes looking at them flattening his ears in a warning manner.

“It’s all right, we are here to help you and your puppies, we are not going to hurt you and your family.” The hazel eyes girl approaches carefully never leaving the wolves eyes until the wolf seems to trust them and curls again but this time leaving his exposed wounds to the hazel eyes girl.

Seulgi looks at Tzuyu and points at the pups “You go and feed them, I will take care of the alphas, all right?”

Tzuyu nods and goes with the puppies, Seulgi breaths deeply and starts treating both wolves, sometimes their roar painfully but she stills treat their wounds.

The little princess looks at her sister with admiration, sure she is excellent at her healing, dancing, and all her classes, but her sister is an ability blessed girl who has shown a fast and perfect development in all her classes, she approaches her sister when she finishes feeding the puppies who curl against their mother.

Seulgi ends treating the wolves, removing the sweat from her forehead she gets up. “I treated them but we will have to treat them in a few days again.”

Tzuyu nods “We will come again then?”

“Of course cookie princess.” Seulgi rubs her sister’s head and takes her hand, Tzuyu approaches to pet the sleeping wolves softly before they go. “Get well soon! We will come again!”

Seulgi laughs softly and pulls her sister hand gently, leaving the big and cozy cave.

-End of the Flashback-

“Then the wolves healed and their pups grew stronger thanks to the food we gave them.” Seulgi resumes, smiling at the warrior, she grips her dress softly, she knows she is not telling all the story to Irene, but she is still not comfortable telling the whole story.

Irene hums noticing Seulgi gripping her dress but decides to change the subject and smiles. “You’re at the mercy of the wishes of the princess, huh.”

Laughing softly the hazel eyes girl nods “You can say so, but I…” Seulgi stops and thinks maybe she has said too much about her, not used to sharing this type of information about her, she starts to question herself why she told something personal to the warrior.

Looking at the light brown eyes again, the playful and fierce eyes, the owner of those eyes makes her feel like she can trust her so she decides to share a little more.

“I couldn’t bear to see Tzuyu looking so down, and I was honestly touched by how she was so desperate to help the wolves, after all, we live in the same place, animals, humans, insects, so why I shouldn’t help them, the same way I help humans? If they are beings who I’m sure that have feelings, like you and me.”

Irene blinks, she asks herself how many times has The young Queen has surprised her this day, she almost feels tempted to tell her, her real name and who is her sister, almost.

“I believe you have a point, when my father showed Apollo I confirmed the animals can suffer and feel pain, get angry, feel happy and just feel.” Irene reaches a hand up, her horse approaches with firm steps and leans to receive the soft touches of his owner.

Seulgi looks at the interaction feeling interested in the story of the warrior and her horse. “How did you confirmed that, did Apollo do something?”

Irene looks at her horse, she felt, Seulgi restraining herself from speaking too much about her but at least she thinks Seulgi trusts the persons even better than her, and she can tell if Seulgi has some ice walls protecting her heart

Nevertheless, the warrior has her heart in a box that can’t open unless you are Sooyoung, Tiffany, Jennie, Nayeon, and of course her older sister, Taeyeon. So sharing a little about her it’s…difficult but she thinks it’s fair since the young Queen shared something personal too, and also because it’s rare in her, but she actually wants to share the story with the hazel eyes girl.

“Apollo was a horse that called my father's attention, then he showed it to me, and the horse was, as you can see, majestic, however, he told me the horse was extremely rude and rebel, nobody could mount him, the horse was like a mad animal jumping and kicking every time someone tried to mount him, even feeding him was difficult, until I asked him to let me tame him, at first he didn’t want to because I was twelve, but in Summer there’s no age to limit someone to learn to fight, use swords or tame horses. We are quite…wild.”

-Flashback-

The young Bae remembers her father almost begging her to be careful with the imposing black horse, she breathes deeply before entering the barn, she notices the horse neigh when he notices her presence.

“Calm down, pal, I’m just going to give you some carrots.” The caramel haired little girl approaches to the horse until she is face to face with him and the horse snorts kicking the door before giving her his back.

“Come on, don’t you like carrots? Carrots are good and delicious, look.” She takes a bite from one of the carrots and notices the horse looking at her. “Do you want some?” reaching the carrot to the horse, he snorts and looks away again.

“Well, then I’m going to eat them all.” Taking another bite from the carrot she looks at the horse again who slowly approaches her after watching her eating two carrots.

The young Bae smiles and gives the horse one carrot, the horse sniffs her hand before he starts eating making the girl smile widely.

After feeding the horse, she opens the door of his stable and the horse runs until he is at the manege, the horse neighs upset when he notices the wood fences stop him from even jumping.

“I like freedom too, I understand you but sometimes you need a partner to explore don’t you think?” walking to the horse the girl with caramel hair looks at the horse, who snorts and just walks in circles still searching for an exit.

“I’m not going to mount you or tide you unless you trust me if that’s what you’re worried about.” The girl keeps looking at the horse's movements until he stops when the girl shows him another carrot smiling. ”Come here.”

The black horse snorts but slowly starts walking until he is in front of her, the girl looks up because the horse is even taller now that he is so close to her.

Since they measure horses from their withers, using hands as the method for measuring horses, she is almost sure the horse in front of her is sixteen hands tall, however, he seems young so there is a possibility of him growing more.

“You are so tall, no wonder why everybody fears you, but don’t worry I’m not scared.” The caramel hair girl smiles giving the carrot to the horse who looks at her straight to the eyes before he starts eating.

Finishing the carrot, the horse keeps looking at her like he is evaluating her, the caramel haired girl keeps looking at him too, raising slowly a hand that, she stops in front of him as she is asking permission to touch him, the horse just snorts softly, taking that as a yes from the horse the girl gently puts her hand on his muzzle, then she starts caressing the horse.

“I know why you were so wary with everyone, just putting on you a saddle and a lead rope, when the way to have a ‘civil conversation’ with you was only with giving you some good carrots.” Laughing, the caramel-haired girl pats the horse's neck.

The wild horse neighs like he is agreeing with the girl, making her laugh again, somehow the horse feels he can trust the thin girl in front of her, the girl feels the horse, less tense and at some point relaxed.

Looking at the dark black eyes of the big horse she breathes in feeling almost nervous. “Can you let me mount you?” feeling extremely strange with herself when she asks the horse, only she asks a horse for permission to mount him.

Separating from her the wild horse snorts, making the young bae sigh defeated but the neigh of the horse calls her attention, the black horse positions itself showing his free loin to the girl.

Widening her eyes, the caramel-haired girl smiles shocked but happy, putting her hands on the shoulder of the horse, with all the force of her legs she manages to mount the horse, caressing his neck laughing cheerfully.

-End of the flashback-

“Then why you called him Apollo?” After Irene finishes telling her Apollo's story she chuckles. “Because it means strength, and for me he is strong, not only because of his physical appearance but his personality it’s strong too, he is not even scared of his predators, instead he is ready to fight them, he once broke the ribs of a coyote and believe me you don’t want to hear that story.”

“Maybe I want to.” The young Queen smiles to the warrior who chuckles lightly. ”Are you teasing me? Ice Queen?”

“Probably.” Seulgi chuckles and looks Irene, thinking, how impressive the warrior can be, taming a horse at such young age, but is not the only thing that has her pleasantly surprised, the way Irene tamed the horse is the thing that surprises her the most, being gentle and polite to an animal to gain their confidence speaks much of her character.

“All right, then tell me why you called her” Irene points Seulgi’s white mare. “Snow Angel”

Seulgi looks at her white mare with care and then looks at the warrior. “When I was nine, my mother took me to the manege, telling me she found a ‘white surprise’ for me, she showed me a glorious and elegant white mare, since the moment I saw her I felt this…connection with her, when I approached her she lowered her muzzle to smell and caress me, my mother told me she was the kindest horse she has ever seen and she wanted to give it to me, however, when I tried to mount her, I couldn’t.” Seulgi laughs a little embarrassed. “But then, she did something that I have never seen another horse doing.”

Looking at the white mare she keeps telling their story. “She kneeled and waited until I climbed onto her loin, she got up and walked carefully, I was shocked, she was so kind to me, treating me like I’m made of glass, always checking if I have my feet correctly on the stirrups.” A nostalgic smile shows on the Queen’s lips. “I felt like she was an angel in the body of a horse, because she is tremendously kind and sweet, she has never shown bad manners or hit someone, that’s why I called her Snow Angel, her color is the purest white, like the Snow and she is like an angel sent from the Gods.”

Seulgi links eyes with the mellow light brown of Irene before looking away noticing the night has come. “It’s night already”

“Yeah, we should probably go to sleep now.”

Nodding with her head, Seulgi rolls, and snuggles against the fur of the female alpha who curls against her giving her warm. “Good night, Irene.”

“Good night, Queen.” Irene snuggles into the male alpha but she coughs. “Um, Queen?”

“Yes?” Seulgi turns around to find the warrior's back.

“Thanks…for curing me and…for trusting me a little to tell me some of your past experiences.” Irene’s voice sounds grateful and sincere, making Seulgi open her eyes wide by the warrior's unexpected words, she smiles softly.

“Thanks for trusting me a little too and for protecting me.” Feeling the tiredness control her body she feels her eyes closing, entering to a quiet sleep

Irene chuckles lowly when she hears the Queen sleeping. “Anytime Queen, that’s why I’m here.”

-----------------------------------------

Hello again! In case you are wondering, I searched how you can measure a horse and they measure them with hands, so, sixteen hands are approximately 5" 4' feet or one hundred and sixty-four centimeters. 

Feel free to ask me if you have questions, I'll gladly answer them! c;

Hope you enjoyed this update, stream Zimzalabim and eat well! See u later!