THE START OF A NEW NIGHTMARE
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Never did (y/n) (l/n) think she'd have to wake up to the smell of fire.
Her bedside was empty and her tent was a mess inside. Strange how just last night she had a scolding conversation with Feitan about how he shouldn't make a mess in their tent when he knew that tomorrow morning they'd have to go through the trouble of packing everything up again.
Their destination was so close yet so far away. They'd have to suffer in the cold for at least another month.
The smell of smoke only grew stronger. Usually this was normal. Feitan would wake up hours before she did and would go hunting on his own to bring warm breakfast to her side when she'd finally wake up. Except today was different. When she finally snapped out of her daze she scrambled out of their tent. The cold breeze hit her delicate face and she had to pull her coat tighter to protect herself. Thankfully Leorio had given her an antidote shot last night otherwise she'd be struggling to even walk. But that didn't matter right now.
What mattered was why rows of tents were all burned to the ground and her people were running away. The fire was already too big and it was eating everything it touched.
Her eyes widen in fear and she nearly fell out of shock. She grabbed onto one of her ladies and pulled her to the side.
"What happened!?"
"We're being under attack!"
"By who?" She asked but the lady kept sputtering out nonsense that didn't make any sense. "Calm down! Tell me who is attacking!"
"Hunters, my lady!"
The word slowly processed in her head and as the servant ran off to warn the rest (y/n) continued to walk closer towards the chaos. Somehow she wasn't afraid of these hunters. She used to be a hunter herself.
The black smoke grew bigger and if she looked hard enough she could see a man on his horse, blabbering an inspiring speech. In front of him were her soldiers, Leorio and Feitan forced to kneel with a gun resting right behind their heads.
When the sound of bullets cut through the air she froze in her place.
She gasped and then she screamed, "No!" before bolting in their direction but a man managed to grab her arm and shove her to the ground. She watched as the gun grew inches away from her face.
"Don't shoot her! Tell him not to shoot!" Feitan tried to interfere but the man shot her straight in the head. Her body slumped and her blood splattered against the snow. Silence filled the air and after a few long seconds the bullet hole closed itself and she coughed back to life.
"Good morning sleeping beauty, we were just talking about you." The old man chuckled. "You know just a finger of yours is worth a million? Your head though...that's enough to feed my family, my kids and their kids without having to work a single day in their lives. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll make this easy for the both of us. Are you going to remove those gloves or am I going to have to do it myself?" He asked.
"That'd be a waste of time." She managed to cough her words out. Her own blood tasted sour in her mouth, not a good way to start the morning. "You already know what I am."
"But you're not attacking me. Why?" He continued to throw more questions at her. "You're in the cold and you haven't turned. Your teeth aren't sharp, your eyes aren't white and your hair looks fine. You haven't attacked us. You look normal but I can shoot you in the head again and you'll come back to life. Witch."
He sounded desperate. Someone he loved wasn't strong enough to handle the poison.
Her eyes dart back to his gun.
"What's taking so long?" His friend shouted from afar. "Kill her already!"
"No! No- don't shoot!" Feitan continued to shout as he struggled to escape out of their grip but the man holding him down had enough of him. He knocked him out with a hit to the head and then it went silent again. (Y/n) stiffened when she noticed he wasn't getting up. She could survive a few blows to the head, an arm getting cut off or even a stab to the heart, in a few seconds she'd be back on her feet but Feitan- he was human. He was fragile. A stab or a hit in the wrong place could end up with him six feet under ground.
She could see his blood puddling underneath him. Panic grew inside her and she could feel her chest tighten. Still, she tried not to show it knowing that any signs of fear would make things worse for them all.
"I should kill you. You're a murderer and a monster. Your wealth can't save you anymore, you know that?" With his gun he pushed back the strands that covered her face and inspected her well. "You're nothing without that controlling mother of yours."
"Did you come here to insult me?" She snarled. "Because I promise you there's girls younger than you who could do better."
"You speak with no fear. They're finally eating the rich thanks to Tserriednich." He scoffed and then his gun lowered to her neck and pulled down to unbutton her shirt. "I wonder if I'll be eating you too. You're pretty even without that crown over your head."
She snatched his gun and shoved it right back up his face. The hit knocked him off his feet and he fell to the ground with a broken nose.
"Tell them to let my people go or I'll blow your brains out." She threatened as she took over his spot and aimed the gun to his face instead. "And now that I have a reason to shoot you I'll actually do it."
His silence angered her more. Just a minute ago he was spitting in her face and now that she had the upper hand the man stayed quiet.
"I said let them go!"
He flinched upon her shouts and with a wave of his hand his friends released hers.
They were hesitant and they kept their guns pointed towards them, though they didn't attack. (Y/n) backed away slowly but kept the gun pointed towards him too. She glanced over to Feitan to see him still on the ground. She had to force herself to not run to his side. Instead she looked over to Leorio and he already knew what she was trying to say. He ran to his side without another thought and checked on his head.
"They're coming for you, (y/n)." The man continued to blabber on. "Everyone is coming for you."
"I'll be waiting for them." She scoffed and then with all her strength she snapped his gun into two and threw them, barely missing his head. "But for you, if you get anywhere close to my husband again I'll be happy to have a pig for dinner."
The man had nothing to say this time. He got back on his horse and ordered his soldiers to back off. All of them disappeared into the forest and when they were out of sight (y/n) bolted to Feitan's side.
"Please tell me he's going to be okay!"
"He will."
"Are you sure?"
Leorio grabbed her hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sure. It'll bruise though and he'll have a major headache when he wakes up. Be prepared to be in hell for a few days considering this is Feitan we're talking about." He laughed awkwardly though it truly wasn't that funny. He cleared his throat and then threw him over his shoulder.
"We should get going now. It's going to get dark soon and there's a chance it'll be freezing tonight again."
"At least we'll have ice for his head."
"Haha, you're so funny can we get going? He's heavy!"
Night took over the sky and (y/n) hadn't spoken a word to anyone. She stayed by Feitan's side the entire day and she'd only leave to get water from the river close by. The fire wasn't helping at all to keep them warm and every time he seemed to be fighting for his life in his sleep she'd only hug him tighter.
"Who were they?"
"I don't know." Leorio munched on the last piece of chicken they managed to find. "They called themselves hunters, I'm guessing they're going after your kind."
"So now we have to worry about them too?"
"If you want to make it to the walls then yeah." Leorio frowned. "They killed a hundred of our men, only two hundred are left and so far most of them are calling it quits."
"No! They can't do that!"
"Some of them have families to return to. Not all of them are planning on going over the wall, the only reason they're with us is because they promised an oath to you when you were younger." He scoffed. "We'll take you as far as we can go and then you and Feitan are on you're own."
"You don't want to come with me?"
"Kurapika's waiting for me back home. I'd like to spend the rest of my life in peace with him."
"Cute." She smiled softly.
"After you get through the walls we won't be able to help. You'll be alone. Completely. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Would you rather have to deal with man- eating children inside the walls?" Feitan interrupted their moment. "Or let us take care of it ourselves outside the walls?"
"How charming," Leorio frowned. "I would have never imagined you two planning to have kids."
"It's not for right now!"
"Sure whatever," he pushed her to the side to get to Feitan. "On a scale of 1-10 how bad does it hurt?"
"10..." he said at first. "11."
"Well we can't do much about it right now. Hopefully you don't end up bleeding to death."
"How awful." He muttered.
"I say we lay low for a few days while he recovers...while all of us recover." He corrected himself. "Then we get back on the trail afterwards."
"I don't think that's a good idea." Feitan pulled himself up. "I give it two days before they start coming after us again. If we don't move by tomorrow morning we'll get caught again and this time we won't recover at all because we'll be dead."
"You'll be dead by tomorrow morning if you don't get some rest."
"What are you? A doctor?"
"I am! And a licensed one too!" he snapped and this time Feitan didn't have anything to spit back. Instead he laid back down on his bed and mumbled a string of curses under his breath. "What do you think (y/n)? You're the one who's supposed to be in charge here!"
"Fine, since you two can't stop acting like children we'll leave tomorrow afternoon." She ended their fight. "Leorio, I want you to ask our soldiers once again who stays and who leaves." She hesitated for a moment but knew she was doing the right thing. "Anyone who leaves are allowed to, tell them thank you and good luck on their way back home. Then count how many weapons, food, and horses there's left for us."
"Now?" He scoffed.
"Yes, now!"
Leorio left without arguing this time. When his footsteps were no longer heard she finally looked down at Feitan.
"If you die tomorrow afternoon because of a blow to the head and of your stubbornness to not listen to what Leorio says then I promise I'll bring you back to life just to kill you again."
"How sweet of you to bring me back to life." He cupped her face. "I'd rather die by your own hands."
She smacked his forehead and he flinched when he felt a pain spread across his head.
"I'm not joking."
"I know you're not." He kissed her hand. "I'll gladly live with a woman who threatens me everyday."
"I was worried. How did this even happen!?"
"You were worried? You think I wasn't when I saw you get shot in the head?" He snapped back. "These hunters were going to take you away, I don't think I can handle that again."
"They won't."
She turned the lantern off and pulled the covers closer to their bodies before carefully laying her head on his chest. His body was cold and he looked too pale for him to be considered okay. She could feel his heart beating but still she feared that he wouldn't be alive when she woke up tomorrow morning.