I Will Always Protect You

Escape

"Please stop! I can't take it anymore! Please!" Yubin pleaded with the people she had thought were safe., tears streaming down her face.

Yoohyeon tried in vain to get out of her restraints, as she watched the second-hand scientists hook Yubin up to a machine that only resulted in pain no one could imagine. She watched as the girl she had known since childhood, usually stoic, pleaded and begged even as the torturous shocks were administered. She watched as Yubin gradually grew limp, until the machine was turned off and Yubin was dumped on a floor mat, still shaking from aftershocks. Only then was Yoohyeon released. Immediately she rushed to and knelt next to Yubin carefully taking her into her arms, trying to calm her shaking limbs.

"Y-yoo...yoohyeon...."Yubin stuttered, trying to lift her arms and open her eyes.

"Ssh-sh-sh...don't speak...just rest...I'm gonna get us out of here." Yoohyeon calmed her, hugging her to her chest and stroking her hair.

"We'll be back later." One of the scientists said, and without another word, tossed some food at the two scrawny girls.

~~~

"Come on Yubin, let's go." Yoohyeon gently shook her awake, "We're gonna get out of here."

~~~

Yoohyeon watched as a huge wave came rushing towards them. She braced herself as it crashed over them, splitting the boat in half, and a stray piece of wood struck Yubin in the head, knocking her unconscious. She rushed to swim towards Yubin, took hold of her, and swam towards the island ahead.

~~~

"Yubin...come on...wake up...please..." Yoohyeon continuously shook her, continuing to call out her name. Yubin sat up quickly, immediately leaning over to cough up water, gasping for air after the water left her lungs.

She immediately pulled Yubin into her arms, rubbing her back as Yubin continued to cough and sputter. She made sure to emanate heat from her hands to help warm up Yubin and speed up the drying process.

Yubin leaned into Yoohyeon's hold, "What happened Yooh...?"

"You don't remember?" Yoohyeon asked, confused. "We just escaped from that excuse of a school." Did that piece of wood really hit her that hard? Yoohyeon was glad she wouldn't remember anything about the torture, but was slightly disappointed that she wouldn't remember how close they had gotten. She would have to be careful not to be too clingy.

Yubin looked up at her, confused, "School? What school? What were we there for? I don't remember a thing." She reached up to hold her head. It had begun to ache with all the thinking.

"...That doesn't matter now, we're safe." Yoohyeon helped Yubin stand up, bringing a hand up to caress her head, "But we'll have to leave soon. They've definitely noticed that one of their boats is missing by now."

Yubin looked around at the deserted island, completely surrounded by water. She didn't see a boat though.

"Where's the boat?" She asked, looking back at Yoohyeon.

"Yeah about that... a huge wave split it in half a little ways from the island, splitting it in half, and knocking you out in the process." Yoohyeon sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck looking away from Yubin.

Yubin looked back at the island, seemingly unphased at learning that information, "...Well, there's plenty of trees around, so maybe we can build a raft?"

"I saw a sack over there in that bush," Yoohyeon walked over to pick it up, "Oh! It has some rope and a map, we can use that to tie the wood together." She opened the map and studied it. Yubin walked over to look at it as well. "So...it seems there's a village to the North." Yoohyeon pointed at the location.

"Guess we'll head there then. I'll knock down some trees then, I wonder who left that sack behind." Yubin questioned as she headed to a nearby tree.

Yubin closed her eyes in concentration as she felt the magic within her flow throughout her body. She opened her eyes, held out a hand, and immediately a blinding light shot out towards the tree, a loud explosion sound followed. As the light dissipated, the tree slowly creaked and fell to the ground, landing with a loud thud. Yubin turned around to find another tree, but stopped in her tracks noticing that Yoohyeon was staring at her with something like awe in her eyes.

"What?" She asked, looking away nervously.

Yoohyeon quickly walked over, wrapped her hands around her waist, and lifted her in the air, "You're just so amazing!" She started giggling as she felt Yubin start to struggle.

"Ugh! Put me down!" Yubin struggled, but she had a smile on her face.

"When will you stop pretending you don't like my affection?" Yoohyeon asked, gently setting her down, smiling.

"Never," was her immediate answer. "Wait- I'm not pretending!"

"Uh-huh..." Yoohyeon gave her an unimpressed look.

Yubin quickly walked away, missing the affectionate look on her best friend's face.

After blasting some more trees down and tying the wood together, they dragged the makeshift raft to what they calculated was the North side of the island based on the rock pillars in the distance. To the East, appearing on the line where the sea meets the sky, Yoohyeon could faintly see the front of a large ship, recognizing the flag with a green symbol flying high.

"I was right, they're already on their way, but we'll be long gone before they get here. They'll definitely be able to tell we were here, but not where we went, so let's not waste any more time and get going." Yoohyeon said as Yubin got onto the raft.

"One problem..." Yubin said, "we don't have a sail."

"I can just use my magic as an engine." Yoohyeon nonchalantly suggested, balancing herself on the raft.

"But that will tire you out Yooh..." Yubin argued with a frown on her face. "Let me just make us one real quick. We can use my shirt as the sail." She started to lift the ends of her shirt, and Yoohyeon started panicking.

"No! Haha...that won't be necessary..." Yoohyeon frantically shook her hands as Yubin started lifting her shirt, a panicked smile on her face.

Yubin looked at her, confused by her reaction, but let go of her shirt.

"Besides magic will be faster," Yoohyeon reasoned, "that way we will for sure be out of sight."
Yoohyeon noticed the apprehensive look on her cru-, no, best friend's face and slowly walked over and put her hands on her shoulders. "I'll be okay," She whispered, "if that school was good for anything, it helped build my stamina."

"Alright..." She whispered, "if you're sure..." She gently took hold of Yoohyeon's wrists, looking into her eyes.

Yoohyeon studied Yubin's eyes. Were they always that deep chocolate brown? She quickly shook her head, turning away quickly and carefully positioned herself at the back of the raft. Yubin watched her and then carefully sat down, pulling out the map.

"So, it looks like we just head straight North and we should find a village nestled in those rock pillars we can see." Yubin confirmed their course, carefully studying the map.

"Yes ma'am." Yoohyeon turned around and saluted.

Yubin rolled her eyes, smiling.

With a burst of fire from Yoohyeon's raft, they started forward.

Far off in the distance, the ship started to take more shape, but Yoohyeon was still certain they would make it to whatever this village was long before that ship would arrive. She only hoped that whoever lived in this village was not an enemy.