UNMASKED [Arthdal Chronicles FF | Tancha | ENG]

04 | What the hell...?

"Why do i feel like this? A while ago I was in perfect condition..." thought Tanya trying to walk by her own. She didn't understand why she felt that way, her whole body hurts. She felt sick and had chills.

"Are you... okay?" asked Yangcha hoping she could hear him.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," she answered with difficulty.

The soldier began to worry; they had to get to the camp quickly so he carried her in his arms and started to walk.

Meanwhile, she was getting worse, she was sweating and breathing with difficulty.

"Was it something I ingested? No... I don't think so, I just ate that piece of meat he gave me," thought Tanya.

"It hurts!" Tanya shouted, squeezing Yangcha's arm tightly.

He stopped and put her on the ground. He touched her forehead and it was burning.

"Where does it hurt?" he asked.

"My whole body," she mumbled wallowing trying to reduce the pain. Finally she curled up.  "My whole body hurts... please... help me..." she began to tremble.

Yangcha didn't know what to do; he scratched his head trying to decide. The camp wasn't far away but she looked so fragile and weak that he felt if he took her in his arms he would break her bones.

Leaving her there alone was not an option. He didn't know if she was lying so she could escape easily.

But then, he saw that she started to bleed from the nose. Well, she wasn't lying.

"Hey, wait here, okay? I'll be right back... please don't die."

The girl nodded a little more relieved. "It's not as if I could move too much," she thought. The pain seemed to decreased, but it immediately came back stronger. Tanya started to scream.

The warrior ran to the camp and entered to Tagon's tent, ignoring all the Daekan soldiers who looked at him confused. The young man made a gesture to tell him to follow him. Tagon immediately understood and they both went to the place where Tanya was.

When they arrived they saw that she was almost unconscious, her blinks were very slow and his breathing was calm, but she was still bleeding. The Union Leader approached to her and took her chin to see her face better. She looked lost, didn't react. The man took her in his arms and put her on his shoulder.

At that moment Tanya started screaming again, trying to get away from Tagon's grip.

"It hurts a lot! Don't touch me!" she pleaded hysterically.

But he ignored her, just kept walking a little faster. He couldn't let his chance to become The King go that easy.

Upon arriving at the camp everyone looked at the scene surprised. The Wahan tribe tried to see what happened to Tanya, raising her heads, but the Daekan warriors beat them to keep them still.

When they entered to Tagon's tend, Taealha received them with his mouth wide open.

"What's wrong with her?" she asked without receiving an answer.

The man laid Tanya on the bed, while she kept moving desperately, as if the pain was something that could be touched and tried to get that off her.

"What do we do? We didn't have a doctor here," said Taealha looking worriedly at the girl. Even if she despised her and felt disgusted just by seeing her, she could see how much she suffered and that certainly distressed anyone.

"The necklace... the necklace..." Tanya whispered, squeezing the blankets tightly.

"What does she say?" asked Tagon, approaching to her so he could hear what was she saying.

Yangcha approached to a small table where the jewel had been taken from the girl and handed it to her. She took it and pressed it hard against her chest. His face immediately began to take on color again and the pain she felt was disappearing. Her nose stopped bleeding and his breathing was controlled. She sighed relieved.

"What the hell...?" Tagon couldn't belive his eyes. Would that necklace have something special? No... it was impossible.

Tanya sat on the bed and put on the necklace. The Union Leader looked at her for an explication.

"I don't know what happened..." she mumbled. "But someone told me to take the necklace."

Taealha gave a little laugh and looked at her with an incredulous expression. The compassion she felt quickly faded away.

"Seriously? All this scandal was to take back your trinket?"

"It wasn't a scandal!" she replied.

"How not? I don't think your disgusting necklace has saved you magically."

Tanya didn't know how to answer that because it was true, how could a simple object suddenly heal her?

"Well, it's over. We'd better all go to sleep because tomorrow we'll leave early," said Tagon preventing the little discussion from getting longer. "Yangcha."

With a single movement of his boss's hand, the warrior understood that he had to take the girl outside. So they went back to where they were before. And there both stayed silent.

Tanya wanted to say something because she was very bored and not sleepy either, but she decided not to anything to avoid more awkward moments.

❦❦❦

The next day The Daekan soldiers raised quickly the camp to go back to Arthdal.

Tanya was as if nothing happened, she even felt much healthier and more vigorous, like the rainbow that comes after the storm, it sounded crazy but it seemed that the necklace gave her strength to follow her main objective: Save her tribe.

Unlike her, the rest of the slaves were weaker and tired, because of this the trip became much longer than it was because of their slow walk. This irritated the warriors and beat them to force them to walk faster.

For a few moments Yangcha looked at Tanya to check if she was fine, after what happened in the night he was affected enough not to wish that pain on anyone. The screams that she emitted were so heartbreaking that he was chilling.

When they arrived, many people received Tagon and his troops with enthusiasm, cheering his name with admiration and respect. The slaves couldn't understand how such a cruel person could be so loved.

Whatever. The people of Iark were impressed with the huge and rare buildings, everything was very new to them and they felt strange. They didn't belong to that place, although for some it was "exciting" to discover that new world –except for the part where they were tied and mistreated- they just wanted to return to their homes where everything was quiet and safe.

"What is this place...?" Tanya whispered to herself. Mubaek, a warrior a little older than the rest, was beside her and heard her.

"This, dear Tanya, isArthdal," answered with a smile. "Welcome."