[Arthdal Chronicles] Fight for freedom

FLASHBACK CHAPTER 7: Getting closer. (EDITED 06/22)

- Yangcha's point of view -              

  - Weeks later -

During our training my sword accidentally hurt her. It happened more often now that I was training her the same way I practiced with the other Daekans. And everytime she got injured, I hated that.

She knew that and every time, she reminded me she had to be strong and I shouldn't worry for nothing.

She hadn't been wrong when she had said she had to learn how to resist pain. She wanted to be a warrior and warriors get hurt often and I wanted her to be strong so that no one could hurt her.

As always, after seeing her hurt, I stopped right away, sheathed my sword and approached her to check the cut.

"That's nothing, I am fine. Do you think my opponents will all stop in the middle of the fight to check if I am okay?" she asked me.

I ignored her words, ripped a part of my clothes and wrapped the cut. I saw her rolling her eyes, heard her sigh but she let me do the improvised bandage anyway. I found that cute, if me reacting that way was really bothering her, she pushed me away but she never did. Somehow, she must have liked me taking care of her.

Since that day, she had opened up more. She seemed more accepting of our proximity. She talked more, wasn't as hesitant as before to give me her hand for me to communicate with her and she didn't seem bothered anymore when I had to touch her to show her a movement.

"Yangcha," she started, pulling me out of my thoughts as I was just finishing her bandage, "how fast can you run?"

I frowned, not understanding why she was asking such a random thing so suddenly.

"I mean, if there was something like a quite big and angry bear behind you, how fast could you run away from it?"

I turned quickly. In front of us, a big bear got out of a bush. I pulled out my sword and put her behind me, instinctively. The bear was keeping its distance, probably waiting for the perfect moment to charge. She put her hand on my sword, lowering it. 

"It just wants to protect its cubs. There's no need to kill it, slowly sheathe your sword, please," she told me in a low voice.

Her eyes were on the bear, maintaining the visual contact as if they were exchanging words I couldn't hear. Slowly, I sheathed my sword just like she had asked me to do.

"Now, it's time to show me how fast you can run," she said before she took my hand in hers and made me follow her.

As expected, the bear was chasing us. I thought it would have been easier to just kill it but I just followed her lead. The fact we were running hand in hand was a sufficient reason to let her guide me.

She was laughing, and even though I heard her laugh often now, it still took me by surprise because it always made me feel warm inside.

Before we even realized it, we were on the ground, rolling down a small hill. Maybe it was because I was too focused on her and not enough on the path we were taking that I had let something like that happen.

The bear had stopped at the top and was growling at us.

She laughed, stood up then addressed the bear, telling it we wouldn't come again in its territory and it could leave without worries. The bear growled one last time but actually left, as if it had understood her.

"That was fun!" she said as she turned and actually bumped into me. "You surprised me!" she complained as she took a step back.

I smiled, she was cute when she was being shy. I approached my hand from her hair, slowly enough to let her time to push me away if she wanted to, but she didn't move and she let me remove the small leaves she had in her hair. When I was done, I just looked her in the eyes, she seemed to blush and she looked away.