Journey Into the Knight

Chapter Eight

Byul felt like she had been thrown off a waterfall into the cascading waters. Her whole body ached. She had a headache forming just above her left eyebrow, most likely the result of dreaming of her past, memories she kept hidden deep inside her mind, they had surfaced in her sleep. She could feel the sun beating down on her eyelids, making her eyes burn. She knew it was time to try and wake herself up, she could hear the other two bickering about something but she wasn’t sure what, though she was pretty sure she heard her name a few times. 

She tried to lift her hand up to shield her eyes so she would be able to open them but her arm felt like lead and dropped back down to the ground with a thud. “Byul?” She wasn’t sure which one had said it. Hands grabbed her one hand, soft and warm, must be YongSun. “Are you awake?”

Byul’s mind struggled for words. Instead she just emitted a grunt. The soft hand squeezed her a bit tighter. Slowly, painfully she was able to pry her weighted eyes open. A blur of green consumed her vision, she quickly closed her eyes again, the headache only getting worse. “Give her some water, she is dehydrated.” TaeOh’s stern voice reached her ears, making her body automatically relax, if he was here then she was safe. 

Byul felt the water skin touch her lips, YongSun’s soft hand came up to her neck to hold her up so she could drink from it. Once it hit her lips she wanted to eagerly gulp it but YongSun was making sure to pour it slowly. 

Finally, she was able to open her eyes once again. Her eyes focused on YongSun. The princess’s smooth face was wrinkled with worry, Byul could see it in her deep brown eyes. Byul thought she looked beautiful. So much so she wished she could reach up and touch her lips to YongSun’s, but she shoved that feeling away. YongSun smiled at her when she noticed her eyes open, it was as bright as the sun, making Byul’s heart do tricks in her chest. She felt this radiating feeling of warmth coming from YongSun that made Byul want to close her eyes again and sleep but she fought them open. 

She slowly sat herself up, with YongSun’s help. Her head spun as she did but she managed to stay sitting. Her eyes found TaeOh, who was trying to lounge like he didn’t care but Byul could see the tension all over his body, she must have been in bad shape for him to look like that. “How bad?” She asked him as firmly as she could. 

His eyes softened a bit, they’d both been in this situation before. “Poison, a common one but the delay of treatment made it worse, you’ve been out for two days.” 

Two days? It must have been pretty bad then, worse black out she had ever had was a week after she took a club to the head in battle. It dawned on Byul how much she had put the journey behind, they would be reaching Velcorn today if not for her, that was days they could not afford to waste. “I am sorry,” Byul said averting her eyes. “For everything.” She cleared her throat. “For revealing who I am, for delaying the trip.”

“Byul.” TaeOh said firmly, making her look back at him. “You have nothing to be sorry for, we survive together, like always, we will make it through.” She watched him for a moment, reading his eyes, then she nodded. “But if you are feeling up to it, we really should get moving, you know the issues of sitting ducks.” Byul pulled herself to her feet, as hard as it was, they needed to move. 

********

YongSun felt worried. As they walked on, she could tell Byul was still way too weak to be moving around, even TaeOh was keeping a slow pace. However, she was mostly worried about what happened the other day with Byul while she slept. She’d run through it a thousand times since it happened and still no answers have come to her. Was it Byul, was it her? There were still so many secrets hidden behind the two warriors she travelled with, could this be one of them? She had been trying to get the courage up for the last two days to ask TaeOh about it, but every time she looked into his deep brown eyes, she couldn’t form the words.