| Metamorphosis (Part 1)

"Lady Soo-Ah! Stop!" A newly recognizable voice reached her ears out of the many soldiers gathering around her. 

Soo-Ah turn around sword in hand, almost encircled and trapped. There was no way to advance or trace her steps back.

Do-Yun ran towards her as if he had finally found the precious thing he had lost. "What're you doing? Put the sword down! There is nowhere to go, My Lady," he advised her, his tone as mediatory as he could muster.

With his troops already gathering at the entrance of the encampment, general Sung-Ho rushed over and rode up next to the young woman. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked with a booming voice

Seeing the general close, Soo-Ah turned the sword towards him in the gasps of everyone present. "I need to go back to my camp," she commanded in a steely tone. Scanning the sea of men in front of her and recognizing a couple of faces from her old encampment, she realised it might have been too late for that. "Where is Old General Min-Jun?"

The Great General took in her strange appearance for some moments, moving his gaze between her womanly clothes mixed with the armour and hairstyle of a soldier. He leaned slightly over his horse and sneered at her, ignoring her sword and question for now. "What a strange vision I see in front of me. Now do tell me, are you a boy dressed as a girl or a girl masquerading as a soldier?" the general grinned while his men took on his relaxed approach and laughed all around them.

"The soldier you sent me after turned out to be a young woman, General Sung-Ho," came Do-Yun's soldierly answer as he took a couple of steps forward. "I brought her back, safe and sound, as you ordered me. She must be confused and worried about her grandfather, General." Do-Yun stood chest wide and shoulders squared between his commanding officer's horse and Soo-Ah, instinctively protecting her.

"That is no excuse for any girl to menace my men and steal my horse," came back the general's answer, while his eyes remained locked on Soo-Ah's. "What are you planning to do?" he asked mockingly, addressing her. "Slice through me and an entire army to get past us? If I would have known you were capable of such deeds, I would have kept you with us, fighting. You would have been of great help to fend off the enemy." The general's witty words started another round of laughter that was heard throughout.

"How dare you mock me?" Soo-Ah pushed past Do-Yun to face the arrogant man and show how little she valued his words or his status. "What happened to my grandfather? Did you abandon his camp? You coward! You did not know how to flee faster, didn't you? Come down and face me if you are so brave." Soo-Ah lost her mind with anger and taunted him with her sword defyingly, not caring what the consequences of her actions would be. Do-Yun tried to pull her back, but she shrugged him off.

The general's face turned serious and aggravated, as he slid from his horse in one swift motion. He stopped when the tip of her sword touched his chest armour plate. Soo-Ah could see him better, as he was no longer wearing a face cover and the moon and torches around illuminated his face.

She begrudgingly realised she found him to have elegant masculine features, despite the tiredness, the grime of the long journey and his disordered hair. His eyes were glistening with a hue of red like a ferocious beast, his menacing look making her heart quiver. There was something primal and feral about him that lured her closer instead of sending her for the hills.

Not that she had anywhere to go. Not that she cared anymore about much else. At the moment she was too desperate to think clearly anyway.

"Where is my grandfather!?" she asked through greeted teeth and launched a sword attack meant more as a threat, to make him dodge out of her way than to maim him. Her lunge was rash, and her angle of attack was poor, making her strike weak. Weak enough for the general to catch it with his gloved hand and pull the sword away from her among the gasps of those around.

"Stealing and an attack on His Majesty's General. Not to add to your disrespect for my rank and office," his menacing voice came like thunder from his mouth, turned into a lopsided smile. "My men know the punishment for such actions…" Leaning closer, he said in a calmer and almost hushed voice. "Young and foolish girl, maybe it is time you remember it too." He then commanded his soldier guards, "Take her to the brig. I will give my sentence in the morning." Having given his orders he turned to leave, taking the bridles of his horse.

"What about my grandfather, you coward? What happened to him?" Soo-Ah yelled at General Sung-Ho, although the lowered gazes of those who had been her comrades told her everything she needed to know. But she wanted to hear the words from the bastard's mouth. "Coward," she yelled at him again, igniting a couple of disapproving nods among the soldiers for her continued lack of deference.

General Sung-Ho stopped and turned to face the girl straightforwardly, as a general should when facing his men and telling them something solemn. "Great General Min-Jun is dead. His tent was burned down."

Soo-Ah felt her world catch fire. Her skin turned to ash. There was ash in her mouth as well. She could not breathe, nor scream, but the muscles on her face were twitching. All she could do was blink mechanically, searching for an anchor to hold on to so she would not plummet into madness.

"There was no way to rescue him," Sung-Ho added, no emotion in his voice, only respect and resignation. Then he reached for his saddle and pulled out an object enveloped in leather. "I waited for the fire to die out to give him a proper burial. I also kept this, thinking you would want something of his," and he handed her what turned out to be a scorched hwandudaedo. Only now did he show a glimpse of sorrow.

Though the hilt was badly damaged, Soo-Ah recognized the rooster-shaped crest embedded in the ring pommel of the sword, as it jutted out of its wrapping, now blackened and deformed from the heat. That was her anchor. She clutched it to her chest and started to sob, louder and louder. Two soldiers came to take her to the brig. No one was laughing at her now. Instead, they all lowered their heads as she passed them, but nothing mattered anymore.

The brig was a barred cage in a filthy tent, that lay directly on the ground. Soo-Ah was left there to cry her heart out, accompanied by the last remnant of her grandfather's time in this world, which had been turned into an unusable piece of scorched metal from a mighty sword. Sometime later, Do-Yun came to visit, bringing her water and some rice wine for himself. He offered her some, praising the taste, but Soo-Ah silently refused.

"I… I am… I hope General Min-Jun will find his peace in the afterlife." He added in a sincere, pained tone before trying to turn the mood. "And look what you got yourself into. You are one gutsy Lady. Why would you go and do something stupid like that? I have never seen anyone menace the general and live to tell the tale. Who knows how he will punish you?"

"I don't care..." replied a mellow Soo-Ah, looking up through the tent opening, grateful she could see some parts of the starry sky. She knew what she faced. If this was her end, so be it. What had she left to live for, anyway?

"Punishment for stealing is death. The punishment for attacking the general is death. If he won't kill you, he would have to at least cut off your hand," continued Do-Yun offering gruesome details to a still uninterested Soo-Ah. "A young lady such as yourself? What would you do without your hand? No one would want to marry you," he added, staring at her and desperately trying to get a reaction.

But no reaction was coming. Soo-Ah knew very well what awaited her. Her face was dirty and still held tracks from her tears. Her abode for the night was a cage fit for animals. Her heart was shattered. But she remained as still and as cold as a stone. Crying and lamenting helped her no more.

"I know, having no one to marry you is a grim, grim fate indeed," Do-Yun joked. "Well, if you do survive the general's wrath and you end up with your hand cut off, do not worry. I might be willing to marry you, My Lady," he persevered, hoping to put a smile on her face.

But all he did was to make her turn her steely gaze towards him at last. "I will never marry anyone. I hope I get the death sentence."

With a heavy sigh, Do-Yun spoke, "Now, now, Lady, don't be so overdramatic." He was looking at her with a sweet smile on his face and eyes searching for a reaction, a response from her, anything. But none came. "I see I cannot take you out of your dreary mood. So, if you don't mind, I would just stay here and finish my drink. In silence..."

Soo-Ah did not comment, instead, she again turned her gaze towards the sky. But she knew Do-Yun was still there so she would not feel so lonely and abandoned in this world. And if it were only for that she would be eternally grateful to him.

When morning came Do-Yun was the first face she saw as she opened her eyes. She slept in a bad position and her neck was throbbing. The hefty young soldier was waiting patiently for her to wake up.

"You must be someone really  important for the general. It is either that or he wants you to have a clean neck when he chops it off. Come on, My Lady, let's get out of here!" He opened the cage and motioned for her to come out. "He made me run around earlier in the morning to find the brothel's matrons so they would take care of you and make you look presentable."

"What?" asked Soo-Ah, having too many words coming her way after such a terrible night's rest.

"We need to go. You get a tent all to yourself and a nice bath. Enough for anyone to chase their death wish away," he added, lending her a hand to help her out.