𝐓ђ𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝛈𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐖ﺃ𝐭ђﺃ𝛈

A poisonous plant.

Heesung stood before Cheonsa's sleeping figure. Or should he say- unconscious figure, courtesy of the sleeping potion?

She looked weaker than before. She had heavy dark circles around her eyes. Her chapped lips were parted to draw in soft breaths. Her body was only skin and bones. Heesung wondered if she would just snap in if he were to move her around. Heesung lowered himself in order to inspect her wound once again.

The part of her skin through which the thorn had pierced had turned a sickly shade of purple. The venom from the spike was quickly spreading out through her blood vessels creating dark wispy designs all over her feet. She must've been through quite a lot of pain.

Heesung stopped wondering as soon as he caught himself pitying the poor girl. He quickly shook away the thoughts from his mind. Cheonsa didn't deserve any pity, not from him at least. Showing her forgiveness was the last thing he wanted to do.

He had to act fast though. The venom might be affecting her motor nerves. Heesung needed to somehow extract it before her whole nervous system would shut down.

He took out a piece of cloth and tied it around her ankle firmly. That would slow the venom from travelling through her bloodstream. He could only hope that Cheonsa won't be paralysed for the rest of her life.

He took out his dagger and twirled it around his fingers. The sharp edge left light scratches on his palm but not deep enough to draw out blood. He kept his eyes on the wound, wondering how he should approach it.

He had two options, faster but a painful approach or a slow but comparatively less painful process. The choice was clear though. Considering how weak and fragile Cheonsa was, he would have to go with the first choice.

Heesung gripped the hilt of his dagger tightly and placed it on top of the wound where the thorn had pierced her skin. He pressed the sharp edge of the knife against the skin until he drew out blood.

His eyes flicked to his wristwatch for a mere second. He still had some time before the demon would take over Cheonsa. He really needed to hurry.

He placed his hands on her foot and squeezed hard in order to draw out the blood that had the venom. He scrunched his nose at the horrendous sight but didn't stop.

The blood that came out of her wound was pitch black in colour. He had underestimated the effect of the thorn. Cheonsa could have died in a few minutes if the venom were to spread all over her body. First, she would have lost her eyesight, her lungs would have slowly shut and eventually stopped her heartbeat.

Only a person with the worst luck would come across such a disaster.

He looked around once again. None of the trees that surrounded them had thorns or spikes. The possibility of encountering such venomous plants was close to zero.

A thought popped up in his mind which made him stare at Cheonsa's sleeping figure in wonder. There was a slight dread behind Heesung's unexpressive eyes.

It was almost as if it was planned before. Such poisonous plants were not supposed to appear in this world. It had to be someone from their world.

He instinctively looked around once again. If his deductions were indeed true, it would be quite accurate to say that they were already being watched. Heesung and Cheonsa were not welcomed in their own world and he could think of quite a few names of the people who would not be happy to see them.

Cheonsa slightly whimpered in her sleep. Heesung snapped out of his thoughts and fumbled around to fetch some clean gauge and antiseptics. He started cleaning the cut to the best of his abilities. To his surprise, the cut he had made with his dagger had not stopped bleeding.

Cheonsa's body had the ability to heal itself courtesy of her demon. The sight of her nonstop bleeding irked the boy to no end.

This phenomenon could be explained in only one way.

He had to talk to the demon himself.

Despite the risks, Heesung started a fire and threw away the bloody cotton swabs and bandages. He made to burn the poisonous thorn. He couldn't help but stare at the soft flames in a daze. His dark eyes followed the thin wisp of smoke that travelled up to a height and disappeared in the air. He had to be even more precise about his plans now that he knew that they were under watch.

As the fire died down, he scattered the ashes all around and glanced at the stupid sloth laying under the tree and drooling. The realisation hit him like Apollo's chariot. He had to carry that girl all the way to the entrance of their world. Not that he was weak or something but the idea of carrying her was not pleasant at all. He would rather catapult her like an angry bird than give her the privilege of being carried.

His eyes fell on the bag that lay just beside her. He sighed in frustration. There was no way he would carry two bags and a sleeping demon at the same time. Again, to clarify that he was not weak. He was strong enough to carry five bags at the same time. It was merely an inconvenience.

An idea popped up in his mind.

He had only known two girls in his entire life, Cheonsa and someone whom he cherished but ended up losing.

With his limited knowledge, he did not know what a girl needed. He hardly remembered reading something about a girl and their tendency to carry too many things. Therefore, he decided to take it upon himself to take the few necessary things Cheonsa had and discard the rest.

He picked up her bag and started searching through her items one by one, deciding which to take and what to discard. He found two pairs of trousers and some t-shirts and decided to toss them inside his bag. Then he found a few triangle-shaped fabrics that were very small. A confused look came across his face. What were those? With a shrug he tossed them in the bag, those were small stuff. They won't take up much space.

He then found some colourful packets. He unwrapped one of them and was quite taken aback. Those were huge bandaids, almost the size of his hands. He nodded to himself, he had to keep them. Those would come in handy.

There were a few more regular bandaids, antiseptic cream, four toy cars (which he threw away), a comb, a few rubber bands and a bar of soap. He tossed them inside his bag and was about to throw away the empty one.

Suddenly something dropped from her bag. It was the oddest thing ever. It was red in colour. The material looked as if someone had cut a ball in half and glued them on a piece of cloth.

He picked it up with a dry twig and brought it closer to his face. There were thin strips of elastic clothing stitched on top of the hemispheres. The parts of clothing coming out from the sides had small hooks on them. Curiously, he did the hooks of the strange thing and held it up in front of his face.

He frowned deep in thought, it looked like something...

As soon as he realised what it looked like, his face flushed red. He dropped the ' thing ' like it was some otherworldly alien and mentally cursed himself for not realising it sooner. He quickly looked around to spot any witnesses of the incident although they were in the middle of a deserted forest. He quickly lifted it up and shoved it under the depths of his backpack. 

Heesung patted his cheeks repeatedly to get rid of the redness. This was a secret that he was willing to take to his grave and leave the forest as the sole witness.

He slightly scowled at the sleeping Cheonsa for putting him through such an embarrassing situation. He then slung his bag on his shoulder and approached the girl.

 Never in his life will he ever open a girl's bag again. 

He huffed in anger and scooped her up in his arms. He felt weird how she only weighed like a five-year-old child. He scrunched up his nose glancing at her drooling face. How disgusting...