Chapter fifteen. The princess must’ve spent the rest of the day walking and sometimes running through the forest, she was alone, exhausted and hungry but she didn’t care. She wouldn’t rest until she had reached home. She was halfway across the clearing and towards the thin path that would lead her out of the jungle, when a loud metallic sound cracked in the air, a bolt of sharp agony shot up her leg, and she collapsed. She quickly wrestled the shock of pain under control and looked down. It was a rusted hunter's trap, set for some type of large animal and then abandoned. The teeth had clamped shut around her ankle and sank deep into her muscle and flesh. She tried to move her foot, and was immediately rewarded with a slight movement and fresh wave of pain. Sooyeon collapsed back with a sigh to the leaf-covered floor. The day had stretched almost to completion and she realized she was in deep trouble. Today is the last day Taeyeon's grandpa had given her to bring the cure and she'd done everything she could, gone through a lot to find it and now that the flower is safe in her possession, she's trapped? Fate got to be kidding with her. Her hands were slick with blood as she tried to work the trap open to no avail; she’d only succeeded in working the teeth deeper into her flesh. She couldn’t walk, and even if she could she wouldn’t get far. A few paces, to be exact. The trap was anchored to an oak in the center of the glade with a rusted iron chain. Had she not been in such a hurry she would have seen it and possibly avoided it. The sun was a couple marks from setting, and she tried to figure out her next move. Sooyeon knew if she was going to break free it would have to be before sunset, because her wife's life depended on her getting home as soon as possible. Her eyes settled on a nondescript flat rock mostly hidden by leaves. Her eyes narrowed and she craned her neck, looking for another. There, and another. She braced herself and crawled slowly, collecting the two large rocks and arriving at the flat one. After seating herself and laying the chain carefully across the wide stone, she raised the larger rock above her head and struck down as hard as she could. Nothing. She inspected the chain, and could only see white marks where stone had collided with metal. She struck again, and again. The fourth time her wrist hit the chain as the rock in her hand broke into pieces. It was no match for iron, rusted though it was. She set her jaw and inspected the second rock. It was covered in dirt, but maybe it was hard enough. Sooyeon raised it and struck the chain with a shout. The rock split in two and sliced her palm, and she hurled the pieces into the forest, so far she couldn’t hear them land. What else she could she do? She thought, maybe if that dagger was with her, it may help free her as it seems to have hold a great power. But the dagger isn't here and Sooyeon wanted to give up, there was no one around to help her out of this chains, no one to send back home with the cure for her wife, her aunt and only travelling companion that could help was also trapped at the blood mountains with sustained injuries, now she regretted leaving those guards behind, at least one of them could have reached home in time with the cure. 'I should give up.' She thought closing her eyes, maybe this is really her fate, Taeyeon's fate and her aunt's fate as well. Maybe they're all fated to die this way, miserably at that as she is separated from her wife and family. Then suddenly the memory of Taeyeon's face, her cute baby eyes and her smug but y smirk swirls in her mind, she snapped her eyes open, the memory igniting her will to live, to try, to fight and to reach home to her even if she is going to have to lose a limp. With that, purpose shot through her, filling her veins with fire and heat, and her muscles coiled and tightened. "Fate be damned, I'm not going let Taeyeon die, I'm not going to let aunt Soojung suffer and die for nothing, and I refuse to be separated from my wife and family also." Sooyeon murmured to herself and trudged forward along with the chains, taking step after step, clenching her teeth in pain, but the sudden rustle of leaves stopped her from moving any further as she squinted through her foggy vision and saw some men pacing rapidly towards her. "Your highness," Min woo ran and kneeled in front of her, "forgive me princess, I have no idea what happened the last two days, but we've been walking around searching for you, I'm so glad you are alive, we all thought something bad happened to you." He said bowing so deep in shame. Tears pooled her eyes, she wanted to cry and laugh at the same time, fate surely has a sly and strange way of doing things, but she didn't cry, instead she smiled in gratitude towards the man kneeling in front of her. "It's not your fault Min woo-ya, I decided to go on without you, and I'm so very glad you stayed behind. Help me out of this thing, I need to get home as soon as possible." She said looking around to the sun setting, and the stars were starting to shimmer from up above. It took three of them and their swords to finally break the chains, and as soon as she was free, Sooyeon didn't care about her wound as she limped and tried mounting on one of their horses, she couldn't though and Min woo set to help her, the sun had finally settled and darkness had grown around them, she cursed the darkness under her breath as she tightened her hold around the reins, "You can either stay here and wait for my return or you can follow behind me, either way I'm not waiting for your reply." She said and coaxed her horse out of the forest, redoubling her pace. Her lungs burned as she speed blindly through the bush and branches, pushing her way through the thin path untill she stumbled into the small open field with a cross road, she smiled through her pain at finally being able to get out of the jungle alive and together with the cure. Facing the path back to her home, Sooyeon urged the steed forward, and as if he could read her thoughts he surged towards the way taking off with energetic speed. ~~~ Taeyeon had been sitting in one place all these days, with no where to go and no one to talk to, she could see all of her family suffering and crying because of her, and she'd tried desperately to communicate with them but to no avail. She was aware of her grand father's arrival, she heard everything he's told her wife and she'd tried to stop her but no matter what she did Sooyeon didn't listen, or more like she didn't hear her screaming at the top of her voice, telling her not to risk her life for her. Now she can hear them clearly as her mother, the Empress and hal-abeoji talks about Sooyeon and the rest. "They didn't make it." The Empress said slipping to the floors her lifeless eyes stared at the door