Chapter 4 – The Blue Dragon
"Do we really need to ride horses to go there?" I asked them. "We could go there by foot, you know?"
"But it's far," Jae-ha whined. "And Yona said so. She had already prepared three horses for each one of us and food and medicine to bring to that village,"
"You guys could take the horses, I'll go there by foot," I insisted.
"Hmm..." Jae-ha grinned. "Could the priestess be scared of horses?"
"That's not it," I glared at him. Before I could get a hold of my senses, I felt my waist being grabbed and lifted to sit on top of the horse. "S—Shin-ah?!"
"You can go ride with me," Shin-ah stated flatly. "You don't know how to ride a horse, do you?"
"How did you know?" I whispered.
"You love animals so you're not scared," he explained, probably talking about how I liked his squirrel. "But not knowing how to ride it is a different matter,"
It didn't occur to me that Shin-ah would be so observant. With that mask of his, I wouldn't know if he was observing people or not.
"That was so smooth of you, Shin-ah," Jae-ha sighed. "And here I was hoping to make the lady ride with me. You're a bigger competition than I thought,"
"What are you talking about?" Shin-ah asked, completely clueless.
"Don't mind him," I rolled my eyes at Jae-ha. "Let's go, Shin-ah,"
Shin-ah got behind me and I was not that oblivious to not notice his front pressed against my back. Despite living all alone, he managed to get stronger and the result was obvious in his thin but muscular build.
"Are you not feeling well?" Shin-ah asked. "Your face is all red,"
"I'm fine," I chuckled nervously. I didn't even notice that I was blushing. "It's just the heat. You don't need to worry about it,"
I saw Jae-ha from the corner of my eye face-palming himself. "Typical Shin-ah, not even aware of the lady's feelings,"
"Huh?" Shin-ah wondered.
"Nothing," Jae-ha shook his head. One thing was for sure, Jae-ha was pretty observant of his surroundings too.
***
We arrived at the Water Tribe's poorest village. It was still suffering from poverty but not as bad as the last time. If the bandits were thinking of conquering a village from a tribe, they would of course go for the poorest one.
Shin-ah helped me hopped off of the horse by placing both of his hands on my waist and gently placed me down on the ground. Despite his appearance, he was quite gentle. Ao jumped on my shoulder and placed herself comfortably on it.
"Seems like I'll be taking care of Ao for now," I told Shin-ah.
"Onee-chan!" I felt someone tugging my skirt. I saw a boy who was about five years old when I looked down. "Are you a doctor?"
I bent down and patted his head. "Why? Is there something wrong?"
The boy started to cry, "Mother is sick and bad looking people stole our medicine and food. She's coughing up blood!"
"Can you lead me the way to where she is?" I asked him and he slowly nodded. He started walking while still holding onto my skirt. Jae-ha and Shin-ah were just behind me, following silently. We reached into a wrecked house, no...everyone's houses were wrecked. We walked inside the boy's house and I saw a woman—who I assumed was his mother—coughing up blood. I hurriedly went beside her and gave orders to the Green Dragon. "Jae-ha, spread the word to everyone that a priestess who heals has arrived. Make them fall in line according to the severity of sickness and injury,"
"As you wish, mi'lady," Jae-ha ran outside of the house.
"Shi—"
"I'll stay here with you," Shin-ah interrupted before I could even give him my orders of making sure that no bandits would go to the village. "You might get attacked,"
"Alright," I breathed out. I was no doctor so sometimes the illness was unknown to me. But there was nothing my divine power could escape. I raised both of my hands on her chest and blue light shone on it. After a minute, her eyes widened with shock.
"I—I'm feeling alright," she turned to look at me. "Are you a goddess?"
"No," I chuckled. "I'm just a priestess who was given healing powers from heaven,"
She got on her knees and bowed to me. "I don't know how to repay you for your kindness, priestess, but please allow me to say thank you for what you have done,"
"Onee-chan," the boy called. "Is my mother going to be okay now?"
"Of course," I gave him a big smile. "I need to heal the other villagers, so, if you'll excuse me..."
"Please do so," the woman still never got up from bowing. "And please allow me to say this again. Thank you, priestess."
***
After Shin-ah and Jae-ha gave the food that we brought to the villagers, I also finished healing each and every one who suffered from the illnesses and injuries. "Hey, mi'lady," Jae-ha called. "Aren't you pushing yourself too hard?"
"I'm okay," I gave him a smile.
I was not wrong when I said that Jae-ha was pretty observant of his surroundings.
"Bandits," Shin-ah informed. "They're coming this way,"
I stood up and kept my exhaustion to myself. Healing the villagers took up almost all of my spiritual energy. My limit was reached when I healed almost a hundred villagers all by myself. I could almost hear Ik-su praying to the gods once again to have my power so he wouldn't see me suffer. He always thought about other people rather than himself. I could imagine his brotherly figure beside me that was looking at me with saddened eyes.
"We should just have the battle outside the village," I ordered. "I don't want to bring any more damage to this village,"
The three of us left the village to face the bandits onward.
"How many are they, Shin-ah?" Jae-ha asked.
"About sixty,"
"For a bandit group, they sure gathered a lot of people," I commented. "So each of us should defeat twenty each, right?"
"You don't sound like a priestess right now, mi'lady," Jae-ha said. "But you were like a goddess earlier so that attitude makes up for it somehow,"
"Are you sure you're okay?" Shin-ah focused his attention on me.
"Of course I am," I smiled at him.
"Even that smile of yours can't hide your heavy breathing and pale complexion," Shin-ah pointed out. "You should just stay here. I'll protect you."
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