Umma, why must I wear a dress?
"You'll understand when you're older, Noo-ri," his mother would always tell him, and he would pout, knowing that this was a dismissive, non-committal answer.
He never received one.
Umma, why can't I play with the other boys?
Her son wanted a friend, because all the girls in the village were boring to him. But his mother would rub his head soothingly and insist, "because they're training to be soldiers, Noo-ri. You shouldn't disturb them."
Then, umma, why am I not a soldier too? I'm a boy.
"If you become a soldier, Noo-ri..." his mother wrapped her thin, body arms around his small figure, pulling him closer to her chest. She spoke her next words so sadly, "...they'll never give you back. Mommy's really lonely, dear. Would you take care of me?"
ー
The child brings his hands up to touch the statue, wondering what it was made of. It was smooth like marble, and he knew how expensive that was.
This was probably the most expensive thing in their calm village.
There wasn't a soul that wanted to steal it, though. Not a guard to protect this treasure. Everyone respected the statue and children were taught to see it as a hero.
"Are you interested in the statue, little girl?"
And there was the Uncle from the Fountain, who always had an erhu in his hands. Noo-ri remembered him-- he would always draw a crowd of children, boys and girls, and he would begin to tell them stories of the Red Dragon and his cowardly servant.
Noo-ri didn't bother to correct him-- enough people have mistaken him as a girl, especially since he wore a short hanbok.
His hair was long too, hateful darkwaves stretching far too long against the middle of his back. His mother didn't allow him to cut it, even when he told her all the other boys were cutting theirs.
"You see that golden crack, little girl?" the man spoke, and Noo-ri listened intently.
His eyes were drawn to the statue's shoulder, where, through the thick stone, a fissure through his left was mended in sheer gold.
Noo-ri remembered the last time the man had told them the story-- didn't this cowardly servant die from a wound to his shoulder?
"Nearly ten years ago, one night..." the man spoke reverently, and Noo-ri realized he was in for another story time. "It had been a terrible, terrible storm. And the thunders roared, lightning struck-- it hit the statue and split it apart at the crack of midnight."
(On the night of Noo-ri's birthday, his mother had whispered to him.)
"Struck by a prophetic visual, Lord Yeon-ga told us that the soldier had spun through the cycle of rebirth, and will be reincarnated among us," now the storyteller reached up to the statue, not touching it for it was so treasured he couldn't dare to, "he declared the statue holy, and welded it in gold to retain this knowledge as a mission for our village."
YOU ARE READING
WARRiOR (Akatsuki no Yona Fanfic)
FanfictionOnce upon a time, there was a weak and cowardly knight that served under a king. But this knight shielded his king from an assault-- he died. In glory of him, his statue was erected in the center of his hometown, exalted from generations to generati...
