Never did Hoseok pretend to not understand what she said, or was trying to indicate. He simply turned back to watching the window as Aaya wordlessly went on to apply the medicine. His eyes were unfocused as he thought of the things he was feeling, evaluating a slew of actions and thinking on the course he wanted to act on for the future.

The beautiful girl remained unaware of what brewed in the warrior's mind.

He felt the careful and gentle probing of the slender fingers as they went about treating all his wounds. And there had been many.

Stabs and slashes, ruptured muscles to the extent of him being a walking body bag containing leaking blood. He was perhaps on the last vestiges of his strength to hold on for his life when she had found him.

His little Gazelle.

Even as she persisted in helping him selflessly, she had no clue that her actions had triggered a dormant side of him. A side, he himself had been unaware of.

As more days passed and she tirelessly came for him, talking to him in her soft lilting voice, cajoling him while tending to his wounds with a dedication and care which went beyond a healer but still having a steel of uncompromising principle adherent, the more he was becoming entangled. No matter how he reacted, or the reputation that shrouded him, this beautiful gazelle boldly clasped him in her heart.

For beautiful she was. Even though all Hoseok had seen was her hand, to him, there was no other being who could compare.

He did not need to see the skin, nor did he have to rely on his eyes. The beauty he perceived in her soul was overwhelming in his sphere of existence. It was of no importance of how she looked, she was someone he cherished.

Someone he wanted forever by his side.

Someone, who was quickly becoming his religion.

Who was rapidly becoming his obsession.

"That may have come to pass before I knew you." He whispered over the wind that carried away his soft words, preventing them from reaching the ears of Aaya.

Aaya had not only helped him to recuperate with caring attention, she had been worried about him enough to have her little helper come to stay with him from the evening till the dawn when she would come back.

Even knowing him, his reputation, she trusted him for the safety of the boy she clearly cared for.

Not for a second did Hoseok feel it was a blind, Naïve trust. No. he was well aware of the fact that her trust was carefully placed after observing him, understanding him. And it was a trust, which was not misplaced.

She never asked anything in return. The more he got to know her, he remained stunned at the root she had, which he discovered. Her selfless help was not a weak nature to give endlessly to the point of foolishness.

Rather, she gave, while guarding her integrity. She was soft, with a core of steel. She was delicate, with the intelligence of a celestial.

She gave, because she could. She healed because she wanted to.

She cared, because she felt him to be worthy of it.

Hoseok was not a person who could be swayed by gullible fools who were blind to the real world and thought purity meant sacrifice. Nor was he interested in some insipid white angel, too idiotic as to dream that gentle love and understanding could reform him.

No.

His attention was captured by Aaya because she expected him to retaliate, she expected him to sneer at her efforts. She never pretended to be blind to his faults, nor did she entertain lofty dreams of having him humbled by her.

She knew who she was investing her time in, knew the danger she put herself constantly in. Knew the devil she was dancing with, but still smiled at him as she twirled around.

And now with just a few simple sentences, showed the depth of his nature that she had successfully perceived, not wanting him to change but asking him to reflect on the possibility of taking a direction at par with his identity, though imbibed in an essence different from the one he had always thought he was.

Dark, not Evil.

The distinction was slight, but its meaning held the difference spanning the vitality of destruction to the stench of rot.

Both ended existence. Both events, feared. Unwanted.

But.

Destruction would still give way to life, was even considered necessary in aspects of starting anew even though its hateful curse shattered the determination, strength, of many. But Rot was a diseased decay from which no life could ever rise. It crushed the soul, not just the strength. It completely extinguished survival leaving behind the foul stench of withering, putrefaction of a potential bright future.

Dark and Evil.

Shadow and Abyss.

Destruction and Decay.

The fine line between them all was almost invisible, but its existence was paramount.

And somehow, somewhere, Hoseok found a deep part of him resonating loudly, calling him to remember something important that he perhaps forgot. Something that was lost.

Something, that his Gazelle was making him recall.

"Lord General, might I ask your opinion on the skill of my preparing meals?"

Her question broke his revere. Hoseok glanced at the veiled girl coaxing him back from his thoughts. With a slight curve of his lips, he replied, "Any better and perhaps I wont let you leave." His voice was serious, although his expression light.

A melodious laugh rang out as the girl straightened after tending to his last wound, "My food can capture the General who is the embodiment of Death? Who would have known all it required was a simple skill."

"Your existence is all that is needed to capture this General. No other skills are required." He replied in a straightforward manner, no teasing or humor present in his inflection.

Aaya's smile slowly eroded as she turned back after wrapping up the last piece, "It would be a crime to cage the Lord. His vitality is best to remain unfettered by any shackles. This Humble one would never dare."

The rejection was softly given.

Aaya moved away.

"Why?"

Turning around at the slight tone of panic in the one word question, Aaya questioningly looked at Hoseok.

"Why do you not dare?" his expressionless eyes were framed on his handsome aristocratic face with his hair unbound in a layer of black silk falling over the bronzed chest sleekly packed with muscles.

"Because I am promised to another." The answer surprisingly caused a burn in her throat.

His brows creased at her response but he remained quiet. That was something Aaya took advantage of as she slipped outside with her basket, to collect her daily quota of herbs.

It allowed her to have some space from the man inside the hut.

As soon as she reached deeper in the forest behind the hut, she abruptly sat down on the ground, her heart clenched in pain, her mind in turmoil.

These 7 days, had become the epitome of her life. Even though she had never complained, she knew the way she had been living, the way she had been mentally suffering under her family. But given her status as someone without parents, she had always accepted her fate to be better than the others in the circumstances.

She had been satisfied in her life, because she had never known what happiness tasted like.

She had never had any objections to have promised her life to be the companion of another man, because she had never tasted what love was.

Yes, love.

You are a foolish woman to have fallen in love in just a week.

She ridiculed herself as she let out a mocking laugh, surrounded by the dense greenery and the noise of cicadas. She pitied herself as the laugh slowly trailed out to a self-deprecating sound.

I want to dare. I want to dare to shackle him to me. To dare to reach and capture the sun that he was.

For a long time she remained lost in what was happening to her, the roiling bittersweet emotions clashing in her.

Her fists clenched as her eyes shut against the beauty surrounding her as she immersed herself in herself.

The dark eyes following her as she tended to the wounds.

The softened expression as he allowed her near him, helplessly smiling as she talked on about nothing in particular.

Yet, remembering every small tidbit she had expressed.

The silent but shinning concern over her safety each time she departed even while lying injured on his bed.

The absence of greed or inquisitiveness when it became apparent that she was spectacular in the art of medicine.

The small smiles.

The yearning indulgence.

The quiet afternoons spent watching the rain.

The furtive way he carefully covered her in a slipping blanket when cold.

This was the living legend bathed in blood of danger and death feared by all. This was the man who was the gentlest that anyone had ever been with her.

Love . . .

Was it so hard to believe that she was falling in love? Added to it, since the time she saw him in the river clearing, a sense of belonging, an ease of worry from deep inside her had bloomed.

Why did she feel that meeting him, was meant to be?

If that were the case, then why had her life been bound in a promise to someone else?

Snapping back to the reality in front of her, Aaya miserably smiled. It would seem she did not have the freedom, the carefree luxury to challenge the Warrior to a life of laughter, teasing and love.

This was the only time, that she would be granted with him.

Although Hoseok had just now expressed his fondness for her, she knew that a man that powerful would forget her as easily as one would forget being caressed by a soothing cool gust of wind on a sweltering hot day.

Just like the wind would be loved by any who experienced it during that time, even if they would be reluctant to leave, that feeling would only remain in their life as a pleasant memory. One that could be forgotten the second they stepped away.

Aaya suddenly frowned.

Weaving poetic comparisons about the wind alerted her to something which she had overlooked. Ever since yesterday, when she stepped in the area behind the hut, she had experienced an unpleasant sensation.

Opening her eyes, she looked around as she got up, trying to concentrate on what it was.

As she took a few more steps, clarity stuck her.

It was a disgusting smell wafting around in the air. Wrinkling her nose, it didn't take her long to recognize the smell of rotting body. She had been around the physicians and had on occasions even gone to the battlefield to aid the Head Physician. It was impossible for her to not be aware of the smell.

Aaya unconsciously started walking deeper, going over the rocks and roots, parting the plants, leaves and ferns, going in the direction of the decaying odour.

Birds chirped occasionally while the sun dimmed a little, unable to break through the dense foliage the more she travelled deeper. She used the sleeve to cover her nose when the smell steadily became stronger. Surrounding her was the thick green forest with its silence seemingly hiding an ominous secret.

What animal is big enough to cause such widespread stench on its death?

This forest was the home of only a few deers, squirrels and harmless small herbivores, which is what made it safe for her to venture in. Aaya could not fathom any large sized creatures eligible enough to pollute the splendor and purity of the woods, permeating the air to travel such a distance.

But with that slight irritated curiosity, a feeling of dread was bubbling in her veins. A feeling, that she would not like the result of her discovery, was gaining momentum.

Aaya walked cautiously and reached a point where her way was blocked by vines and a blanket of leaves, spilling over a large boulder. There were low branches making a sort of arch from where the vines hung. The smell was extremely strong. Standing there looking at the thin curtain of nature, she could listen to the buzzing of flies and insects beyond where she stood.

If it was an animal carcass, she knew it was behind the leaves.

Aaya swallowed heavily as she saw a small gap between the vines. That gap, was easily the of the size of a person who might have trampled over the fragile twigs to come through.

Her eyes falling on the ground, she saw small saplings at the bottom, dead from being broken when something had trodden on it.

It was obvious, something or someone had walked carelessly on it.

The realization was becoming stronger. With her hands trembling slightly, Aaya raised her hands to part the vines.

Hoseok had been heavily injured, stabbed in a way that he could have walked only a small distance.

His gentle smile flashing in her memories, Aaya decisively yanked the vines to a side as she stepped over the boulder.

The sight that greeted her made her unable to move as she froze where she stood. Her legs felt leaden as blocks of wood that had no sensation to it. A faint ringing blocked the noise of the buzzing flies, in her ears.

Her eyes, reflexively wanted to close while at the same time wanted to absorb the scene before her to just verify the authenticity of reality.

The smell then hit her hard, which broke the icy sensation travelling down her veins, making Aaya retch strongly.

Finding herself a little dizzy from the horrific sight, Aaya grabbed the side boulder to stabilize herself as she continued to stare at the utter carnage.

There were perhaps 25 decomposing human bodies, some with their heads severed, some having their intestines and stomach spilled to the side, some without theirs limbs, while some with their faces split in the middle with the skull bone showing as their eyeballs lay somewhere on the grass.

Flies were buzzing around the putrid bodies, scavenger birds eating the innards.

Every eye of those bodies were open. The ones with an intact face, had a gruesome expression of utter terror. Few had their chest broken open, the ribcage shattered, the decaying lungs and heart clearly seen.

They had been brutally butchered.

By General Jung Hoseok.

Her senses were so filled with the impact of the scene in front of her, that Aaya never felt the shadow of a man following her at a distance. As she stumbled and took a step forward, the dark eyes that followed her narrowed, the warrior watching her every move.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

A/N : Afraid of Hobi yet?

Don't be.

Because this . . . .

This is Nothing . . .

So much more to come . . .

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