UNMASKED [Arthdal Chronicles FF | Tancha | ENG]

02 | Memories

Tanya couldn't believe it. How dare that beast claim the necklace as his? It was the last straw. She started laughing despite the tears that threatened to get out from is eyes.

"You are pathetic. You're all pathetic. That necklace belongs to me, the Great Mother of our tribe gave it to me and passed from generation to generation. So don't you dare to put your dirty hands on it!" it was started to change again so she tried to calm down a little.

Tagon looked at her without being able to believe that this silly slave dared to speak to he that way. He raised an eyebrow and slapped her. And she should be grateful it was just that, because if she had been a man, he would not have hesitated to slaughter her.

The Wahan tribe was already beginning to worry, if the girl continued to behave that way she would end up dead.

"You better not raise your voice aga-" before the end of the sentence, Tanta kicked him in the crotch without hesitation, and she didn't regret it either. The warriors ran to help him while one of them hit Tanya in the head with a stick, leaving her unconscious.

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When the girl woke up she felt a terrible headache. "How long was i like this?" she wondered. Surely not much, because it was still night. Although she was a little scared to notice that she was no longer with her people, but was in a more remote and dark place, alone. Or that was what she believed until she heard the sound of chains and realized the presence of the masked young man.

When he felt Tanya's gaze on him, he turned to see her too. The girl's heart began to beat faster.

"Do you remember me?" she whispered, waiting for an affirmative answer. The boy nodded and that somehow relieved her. "What's your name?" This time she got no answer.

Tanya sighed loudly. She wondered why he wore that black mask all the time, that is, the first time she saw him was at age 14 and at that time he was already wearing it. "Will it be some kind of punishment?" "Or maybe he has some malformation on his face and that's why he cover it?" She had several doubts hovering in her head they were interrumped by the roar of her stomach.

The boy heard it perfectly, while she cringed in her place because of the embarrassment. He stood up to take her a piece of meat and Tanya could only mumble a "thank you".

But why was he still kind to her? The girl didn't understand it, she doubted that he would have been ordered to feed her after she had hurt the person who appeared to be the "boss". And Tanya didn't forget that she was still indebted to him since that time he saved her life...

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"I can't believe that my father allowed us to go out," Tanya said excitedly, admiring the landscape in front of her, although it was quite similar to their forest, it had his own charm, the wind, the little animals running around, the unmistakable smell of Pine, among many other details that despite being simple, for her were valuable.

Tanya was with Eunseom, it was their birthday and as gift she asked her dad if he could spend 3 days exploring with his best friend. Of course, they didn't tell him where they were going: The Great Black Cliff.

No one from Iark had ever climbed the cliff and the girl was very curious what was up, so her best friend promised to go with her one day. Luckily he already knew the road so it didn't take long to get there and they put on a pair of shoes so as not to burn their feet so much on the trip.

Today was the second day they had been outside, yesterday when they reached the top, they slept in the old shelter that Eunseom and his mother used.

Right now they were picking some berries for snack, but Tanya got distracted by something in the sky.

It was a bird, but not just any one, because she had never seen an equal one, she decided to follow it, and without realizing it she had gone too far from Eunseom. To top it off, she didn't now how to get back. Tanya was lost.

"Eunseom!" she shouted, hoping he was close. A few meters away something was coming.

But it was nothing her best friend. Instead, a big, fat and very hungry bear came out of the bushes, approaching the young woman with clear intentions to devour her, while she slowly backed away so as not to make the situation worse, although after a few seconds she hit a tree and had no choice to run as fast as her legs allowed.

She ran and ran, her lungs were already burning, her heartbeat had become very uncontrolled and although she shouted Eunseom's name he didn't appear. Tanya was about panic, she didn't know what to do. She could throw a stone in his eye with a sling but her hands were shaking so much that she doubt to hit the shot. She also consider climbing a tree but in the area where she was the logs were very thin and the bear would knock them down easily.

She was going to give up, the animal was almost in her heels. In that, Tanya stumbles and rolls down a hill, earning multiple scratches, but nothing as serious as the cut that was made on the arm with a sharp stone, looked deep and bleeding a lot.

While it's true that Tanya was already scared, she was even more so now. The bear slowed down when he saw that the girl was unable to move. She lay between very big rocks. She was very sweaty and pale, if she didn't die for the bear, then she would bleed to death.

When the animal was about to bite her, she closed her eyes tightly, waiting for her death. Several seconds passed and it didn't arrive, instead, he heard the bear's agonizing roar and opened her eyes. A boy -not much bigger than her- had shot down the beast and then cut off his head with a sword.

Tanya watched the scene, stunned. The young man approached to her without even looking into her eyes and examined the cut on her arm. Then, he slit a part of his clothes and then tied around the wound, so that it didn't continue bleeding and also no more dirt entered. Then he got up and left there so fast that the poor girl couldn't say "Thank you".

She stood there confused, watching the animal that was still on the ground in a large pool of blood. If it wasn't for Eunseom who arrived a short time later, she would have sat there all day processing what happened.

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Oh yes, no doubt that was an unforgettable day for Tanya.