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Spells and Elixir
Part One : Spells
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To escape from Soo Won and his countryman because their presence known by the Sky Tribe Army, after their meeting with Kou Ren and Tao, Lily and Tae Woo get work together to hide Yona and co. back to Kouka, blending them with their Wind Tribe and Water Tribe Army. As they're going back to Kouka Kingdom together, Tae Woo and Lily asking their army to back at their territory while both Wind Tribe General and The Daughter of Water Tribe General (with Han Dae, Ayura and Tetora, of course) will make sure Yona and co. back to Ik-Su's residence safe and sound. Yun suspected that dragon shadow as the shield, and they need to confirm about it to The Priest but they never expected if they would meet with this incident, at all.
When they are about to come inside the forest which the quickest way from Xing to going back to Kouka on Wind Tribe territory, they are stopped by a bearded elderly man with staff to help him stand and walk.
"stop?! don't come inside that forest?!".
By that Elder's word, that forest has known as 'The Dark Woods', not only because that forest only has high black tree, black from the leaf, the bark till the core, but also because no one dare to come inside that cursed forest or settle there even for a night because the forest; which only fulfilled by thick trees that make even the ray of the sun or the glint of the moon can't through that wood; has a tutelary. They're afraid of the tutelary that controlled by evil silver-haired Witch within this cursed forest whose stay on the houseboat.
"grandpa, not houseboat, but the house above one of the black tree. The one who stay at the houseboat is the kind blonde-haired Witch on 'The White Fog Forest', isn't she?" says the little girl who tugs his pants, his granddaughter it seems. The little girl looks up to them before pointing to Lily, Hak and Tae Woo "big sister and big brother, watch out when you're inside the forest because that Witch hates the black-haired people. If she met the black-haired people, she would curse that person but as long as you're not meet with her, it would be alright".
"father?! There you are?!".
"Yui?! There you are?!".
The little girl turns her head with sparkling eyes, dropping her fairy tale book on the ground and running to her parents "daddy!? mommy?!".
A man, that elder's son says apologize to what his father's rambling about while his wife carries their daughter on her arms. Yun cleans the dust off of the fairy tale book before he giving back the book to the little girl.
When his wife takes their daughter and pushes the elder man to going back home, that man whispering to them all "my father has had become a senile, just forget whatever he said to you guys, travelers".
Yona only smiles, nodding her head "no problem at all".
"big sister, big brother. If you met the Witch, just ran away from her or you would be cursed by her. If you caught the curse, just follow her clue to break the spell or looking for the kind blonde-haired Witch on 'The White Fog Forest', understand?".
Yui's mother snaps her finger to her daughter's forehead "hey, don't speaking that way to those older than you, it's not well-mannered at all. Besides, it's only grandpa's fairy tale, right?".
Yui keeps protesting to her mother when they're going back to home, leaving the stunned group who still standing on the edge of the forest.
Han Dae sniggers, putting his elbow on Tae Woo's shoulder "so… should we keep going into this forest, young master? You'll catch the curse, right?".
"heh, very funny… you're listening his son, right? are you seriously believe the senile man and the dreamer little girl?", Tae Woo snorts, shrugging his shoulder before elbowing his friend in the gut "and I said, stop calling me like that, it's creepy".
Lily huffs and crosses her hand before her chest, tugging her bangs behind her ear "still… why only the black-haired people, I wonder?".
Hak waves his hand absentmindedly "nothing to worry about, it's just fairy tale".
"right, we should go quickly before the sunset. If we're going now, we can stay on the edge of the other side of this forest", Yun opens the map, pointing to where the edge of this forest that across of their position right now "after that, we set the tent for the night here, understood?".
All of them say in unison "yes, mom~".
"to correct you guys, I'm not your mother?! I'm the youngest member yet you're calling me as a mother? Jeez…".
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No wonder this forest named as 'The Dark Forest', like that Elder man said before, they are understood when they're coming into this forest. This forest only able to be called as 'The Dark Forest'. Not only the trees that unusually has black color from its leaf till inside the bark, they are barely able to see anything without the torch in the middle of this misty forest despite it's still afternoon outside this forest.
"stop, looks like we must stay here for the night", Yun orders them when the torch starting to fade out "the fog has gotten thicker than before, it's rather harder to see anything. We can't keep going on like this, we can't see anything and we'll be ended lost the way out of here if the torch is going out".
When Yona is going to to collect the firewood for the torch and the camp, Lily is going with her "then I'll go with Yona".
Hak takes his Tsu Quan Dao, gesturing to Tae Woo to give the torch to him "Tae Woo, let's take the water and go hunting with Han Dae. We should try to looking for something to eat as well".
Tae Woo takes the torch, nodding his chin to Han Dae to come with them and following Hak who approaching Yona and Lily "aye aye sir".
Since Lily and Yona are going with three strong warriors from Wind Tribe, there's nothing to worry about. That's why Tetora and Ayura help Yun and the dragon to set the camp while Han Dae and Tae Woo are going along with Hak, Yona and Lily.
"what's wrong, Kija? you've become rather quiet".
Kija snaps out of his mind as Jae Ha calls his attention, he rolling his eyes and shaking his head "ah… nothing important, just… I've tried to remembering about something important. If I'm not wrong, once Granny ever told me about similar fairy tale with that little girl mentioned before when I'm still a child".
"what about that similar fairy tale have to do with you've tried to remembering about something important?".
"that's?! I have a feeling that fairy tale isn't usual fairy tale, it's just like… something bad will be happened if you're ignoring…".
Yun cut off the conversation between Green Dragon and White Dragon "enough… we're in the middle of The Dark Forest, it's creepy enough. Don't say somehthing outrageous that will be inviting the danger itself".
Jae Ha smirks and covers his mouth, giggling "oh? Are you scared, Yun? How cute~".
Yun blushes "it's not that?! Just… listening to your story, it makes me have a bad feeling!?".
Suddenly, Zeno stands up and turns his head, looking to where Yona etc have gone "…I have a bad feeling, as well".
Yun, Kija, Shina and Jae Ha turn their head to Yellow Dragon who the expression has became the serious one. If it's Zeno who has the bad feeling, they know they can't only ignore it.
"stop, your bad feeling usually become true and it's only worsen the situation here".
"sorry, kids. It's not Zeno's intention to scaring you guys but…", Zeno waves his hand with his usual smile before turning his gaze to Shina, back to his serious expression again "this make me feels like back then when we're on that forest, when the ghost fulfilled by grudge and hatred of Seiryuu's predecessors. Where are they, Seiryuu? The miss and other".
Shina turns his head, looking over further with his Dragon eyes and searching for the shadow of their friend. His eyes widened slightly by what he finds, pointing forward "…on their way back here, but two of them passed out".
Not giving others the chance to ask something, Yona arrives at the camp first, followed by Hak who carrying unconscious Lily bridal style while Han Dae carrying unconscious Tae Woo on his back. Tetora and Ayura quickly approach them for checking on Lily who technically fall asleep but strange enough, she doesn't wake up no matter how hard they've tried to waking her up. Unlike Lily, Tae Woo groans in pain as he clutching his chest, his breath turns shallow and laboured in each exhale and inhale, thin sheets of perspiration dampening his pale face.
After Hak and Han Dae put Lily and Tae Woo on the tent, Yun asks them about what happened back then. Yona, hands clutches to her side, flinches at Yun's shout but Hak put one hand on her shoulder, shaking his head before ruffling her head to calm her down. Han Dae become the first who explaining what happened because Hak himself still looked pale, shocked by what has happened like Yona.
"inside the forest after we were about to going back here, Lady Lily found the strange house above the black tree, near the riverbank, princess Yona and Lady Lily went to check that house, then…".
Hak caught Yona's wrist "wait, the fogs starting to deeper. Remember what Yun said, don't separate way and keep close together".
Tae Woo nodded his head "agreed, better we're going back to the camp now".
Han Dae giggled "oh, are you afraid, young Lord?".
Ignoring their bodyguard, Lily and Yona kept going forward. When Lily and Yona turned their head because Hak and Tae Woo were calling for them, silver-haired woman appeared behind them, she's wore the black cloak covering her body with huge sickle on her hand.
"Lady Lily?!".
"princess!?".
Hak who pulled Yona into his embrace and landed on his back while wrapping her on his arm securely was able to dodging the attack from that woman's sickle but different case with Tae Woo. Lily screamed his name when she saw Tae Woo slashed by that sickle on his chest in order to shielding Lily. Ignoring Yona's voice to run away, Lily approached him when Tae Woo fell unconscious and dropped to the ground while clutching his chest.
"Tae Woo?! Get yourself together?!", with tears brimmed on her eyes, Lily lay him on her lap but weirdly, none gash or scratch on his body, instead he kept clutching where the mark of black full moon carved on his chest now "what… what is this?".
"one of black-haired people down~", that silver-haired woman got her hood off of her head, revealed her long straight silver hair that reaching her waist, her skin so pale and her eyes has red color as red as the blood "I am the Witch on this Dark Forest, and whoever set his foot on this forest would get my curse, in case that people has the black hair".
So that fairy tale was true?! That was what four of them thought.
"right, that's only fairy tale for other people outside this forest since a long time ago but for I as the Witch, I can disguise myself like now, I can change my appearance become teenagers no matter how old I am truly".
Hak mocked her "on other word, from outside you're a beautiful teenager but the inside is only rotten apple".
"shut up, bastard!?".
Seriously, Han Dae clutched his stomach and laughed so hard. How can you still spat out the joke at the time like this? you're really amazing, Lord Hak. He'd rolled on the ground as well if he wasn't this worried about his unconscious friend.
"what are you doing to Tae Woo? Why are you attacking us? We aren't disturbing you at all!".
Like she had heard something ridiculous, the Witch laughed hard.
"oh? Honestly, I don't think so, little girl… since you guys set your foot in this forest, all of you has disturbed me and my little fellas. Look", after rolling her eyes incredulous, the Witch lifted her chin up to where the transparent figure like human, you can say that as ghost or like the Elder said, tutelary. Witch cupped Lily's face and smirked "all of them are the spirit who lost their way to the Heaven because they still have the knot or regret on this world. They are not able to going to the Heaven as long as they aren't fulfilling their unfinished business. I'm always stay here to accompany them but with you guys come here, there's a chance for one of them to finish their unfinished business. However, every time I saw black-haired people like this boy or you, I can't help but want to kill you slowly, so I'll only put the curse on you".
"Lily!? Run?!".
It's too late. Lily lost unconscious, collapsed to the ground as the Witch released her grip from Lily's head. Before the Witch's sickle reaching Yona who approached unconscious Lily and Tae Woo, Hak dodged it and sent the sickle fly away from her hand.
Hak pointed his Tsu Quan Dao to her neck "actually, what's your problem with black-haired people? We have no intention to hurt you or disturb you, so can you only let us go?".
The Witch laughed hard before her body vanished in the thin air and appeared behind Hak, she was floating on the air, both her hand grabbed Hak's head "let's play the game, then~ who will win? Me or you guys? If you guys were win, your friend would able to break my spells, safe and sound. But if I were win, your friend would lose their life because of my curse".
"that Witch whispered about how we could break her spells to Lord Hak. After that, Lord Hak ordered us to run while carrying Lady Lily and dragging princess Yona", Han Dae closes his explanation which technically make them all turning their attention to Thunder Beast.
"she said inside the forest with the white fog that called 'The White Fog Forest', the kind blonde-haired Witch within that forest is the only one who able to tell us about how to break her spells if we don't want to use her clue to break the spells. The problem is, we don't know where that forest. Even if we know, we don't know we can reach to that forest in time or not, since we only have a week to get rid of her spells or Tae Woo and Lily will lose their life because that b*tch's curse", Hak opens his eyes, crossing his arm before his chest. Hak smirks and raises his eyebrow, head leaning above his palm "but one funny thing, they have the same method to broken the spells and I thought they wouldn't be pleased at all with this method".
Yun narrows his eyes "with what method?".
Tetora adds "what should we do to help Lady Lily, Lord Hak?".
Classic method.
Kiss.
Tae Woo must kiss the girl his eyes fixated on to break the spells and Lily will wake up after she kissed by someone who love her sincerely.
"Han Dae, does he has someone he fixated on already? He never talked about it to us before".
"err, not quite sure about it, Lord Hak… but I thought he has interested on…".
STOMP!?
Tae Woo who manages to wake up and stands with his sheer willpower, somehow, towering over Han Dae from behind before grinding his head with his tip toes "just because I've caught this suck spells… don't you think that… I can't kick your… ass…".
"don't push yourself, kid", Hak catches Tae Woo who collapsed forward, stroking his back with hope to ease his brother's pain before looking down to Tae Woo's face that leans on his shoulder "so, can I assume that you have someone you've fixated on?".
After Tae Woo nods his head in defeat, Hak asks him if they can meet with that girl to asking her help him.
Tae Woo shakes his head "we can't…".
Hak furrows his eyebrow "because?".
Tae Woo sighs heavily, he leans his back on the tree before closing his eyes "because she has fixated her eyes… on someone already… moreover I don't want to push her… or ask her to do something… that she don't want or like…".
Hak sighs, massaging the bridge of his eyebrow before grasping Tae Woo's shoulder "good grief, Tae Woo… I understand if you're thinking and trying to keep her feeling but look at your condition right now? You're going to die very soon".
Han Dae sniffs, he has teared up a little "poor young Lord, his love totally unrequited… just tell me as your best friend, I'll make sure that your feeling would be known and reminded by her".
Jae Ha gives the dry fabric to Han Dae while he wipes his own tears "what a good kid of you, Tae Woo… you're really remind me of someone I know that truly similar with you… a good man who experiencing unrequited love as well".
"Lord Hak… can you do me a favor to make me feel better?", Tae Woo clutches his side as he tightening his jaw, he rolls his eyes to the corner "strangle that Greeny Dragon and Han Dae, please".
Hak strecthes his knuckles, turning to Jae Ha and Han Dae with impish grin plastering his face "oh? If that can make you feel better, with pleasure, li'l brother".
Ignoring the squeals from Han Dae and Jae Ha, Yun gives the pain-killer to Tae Woo when Yona tries to persuading him to tell them who the fortunate girl that he has fixated on so they can, at least, try to asking her to help as the last resort.
Yona puts her hand on his knee, looking at Tae Woo like this make her thinking of what Hak or herself would do if Hak is the one who caught the curse "we understand, we will use that Witch's method as the last resort but first, tell us who is this girl in case we need her help at the last time, just if we can't find that kind blonde-haired Witch on 'The White Fog Forest', or this kind blonde-haired Witch can't help us to break the curse".
Tae Woo leans his head on the tree, huffs in defeat "just like when you're asking Lord Hak to give himself to you, princess… that look on your eyes showing that you won't step back no matter what will happen, eh?".
Hak turns his head back to Tae Woo, both his hand busied to lock Jae Ha's and Han Dae's head "let's not talking about the past, kid?!".
Tae Woo chuckles despite his pain. He is about to tell Yona about the girl he has fixated on but his pain takes him over. His head and shoulder slumping to the side as he closes his eyes. Both Yona and Yun gasps, alarmed by his gesture which make Yona calling him over to wake him up but Yun soothes her, telling her that he's only unconscious.
Hak puts his knuckles above Tae Woo's damp forehead to checking his temperature, his frown only deepens like his worry, he never sees his condition become like this before "his body starts turning cold".
Shina turns his head and rises from his seat, pointing his sword to the woods "who are you?".
The Witch appears in front of them. She tells them the path to go to 'The White Fog Forest' and how to finds kind blonde-haired Witch within the forest after she explains about the curse on their body.
The mark has the shape of black full moon on Tae Woo's chest called as 'Dark Moon', that moon will be drained someone's lifespan slowly till the wielder of this curse lost all of his strength and die. At first, it's only the mark has the shape of black full moon that appears on his chest but slowly it would be spreading. The spreading mark around the black full moon has black and blue color like the bruises after beaten black and blue, that spreading mark called as 'Scar of Darkness'. When 'Scar of Darkness' has been spreading from his torso to his extremities, Tae Woo will die.
For Lily, they have found the mark has the shape of crescent moon hiding behind the cloud and in Lily's case, she has fallen asleep and couldn't be woken up by whoever, this curse called as 'Sleeping Beauty'. From outside, she's just looked like fell asleep but from inside, her body would be freezing slowly from her extremities. When her heart and her brain has been freezing, Lily won't be able to woken up anymore, fallen asleep forever.
"like I mentioned before, this is a game. I'll give the clue to break my spells but you can break the spells or not, it's up to your choice", Witch smiles when she looks to Hak, smirking before swinging her black cloak forward, blowing the wind as her figure disappears in the thin air "I hope you guys lucky enough to able to meet her, since she's not too welcoming the intruder".
That Witch nowhere to be found, only her laughing sound that could be heard.
After they put Tae Woo and Lily inside the smallest tent with Yun to keep an eye on them and Jae Ha to guard the camp tonight (actually Yona, Ayura and Tetora insist to switch with Yun but Jae Ha persuades them to rest for their journey tomorrow), it's decided that Yona sleep with Ayura and Tetora inside Lily's tent while Han Dae sleep on the biggest tent with other four big guy (Hak, Kija, Shina and Zeno).
Looking to scowled Hak, Kija puts his hand on his shoulder "don't worry, Hak. We'll definitely save them".
Hak sighs, his friend realizes about his tense mood it seems "is it that clear?".
Shina nods his head "you've became rather quiet".
When Hak scratches the back of his head, Yona tugs his sleeve "Hak, are you okay? Your face looks a rather pale".
"nothing serious, my head is only pounding a little… maybe because that shitty Witch hit my head a bit too hard before", Hak releases her grip, turning his back to her "just screaming if something happens".
Yona halts him halfway as she grabs his robe "wait, where do you want to go? Yun said don't go anywhere alone, right?".
Hak looks back to her over his shoulder, sly smirk on his face "only want to relieve myself… wanna watching it?".
Yona smacks the back of his head before Hak chuckles as he's going to the riverbank. When Yona feels something damp on her palm and looking down to her palms, what she earns after that shocking her. She finds the trails of the blood that starting dry on her palms.
Yona realizes one thing, must be Hak's blood?! She quickly turns her head "Kija, call Yun?! Jae Ha?!".
Meanwhile on the riverbank, after wash his head, Hak looks down to blood-stained rag that he used to wipe his hair before. So his head really injured, huh? Maybe he should ask Yun to patch his head after he's going back to the camp.
"my head hurts".
That's what he thinks about when his body disobey his command to stand and go back to the camp, instead he collapses to the ground because his knee buckles beneath his weight. It starts from throbbing pain resulting the light-headed, pounding his head when he leaves the camp and now, the dizzyness takes him over to the darkness. Before he's lost his consciousness, he feels like he hears the princess's voice from far distance but he's not that sure as he's unable to keep his eyes opened.
Yona approaches Hak who collapsed on the riverbank, unconscious "Hak?!".
Jae Ha helps Yona lay him on her lap to give the first aid. When he checks on his head, he finds the strange mark on Hak's back of head. The mark has the shape of snake that bitten by wolf. Jae Ha doesn't tell Yona about this, instead he wraps the rag on the ground to hold the bleeding on his head for a while before they ask Yun to patch his head. Knowing Hak, Jae Ha suspects that, if Hak caught the curse no matter whether he knew about this or not, mostly he would try to hide this from Yona because didn't want to make his princess worrying him that much. Jae Ha carries him on his back, he will keep silent for a while till he gets the answer, about Hak know that he caught the curse or not, and the Witch told him about how to break the spells on him or not.
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A/N Yoan :
This is only the first part from three, and don't worry, I won't make this too long since it's only three-shoot, so this fanfic story only has three chapter. See you later and hope you enjoy this.