Free // BTS AU //

Chapter One

Hye's heart beat fast as she sprinted out the castle gates as the bell rang and the gates began to shut, her bare feet taking her as quick as they could down the cobbled streets and into the heart of the village where the poorest of people lay on the sides of the roads after everything was taken from them, she wished she could help as much as she could but even if she tried when the group came back they would just take whatever she had given them again. So she didn't stop, she just kept running as quick as she could for as far as she could.

She slipped through a hole in a wooden fence the carpenter had at the back of his building, the dress she wore tearing mid-leg and she still kept running. She refused to stop. Hye didn't want this life, and the only way to leave it was to run.

In the madness of Hye setting off a security breach to cause a distraction, she managed to slip out the bedroom window, scaling down the wall her toes fitting into the cracks between the stone and she escaped.

Her body was pushed to it's very limits, she stopped when she reached a river over a mile from the fence she had slipped through. She fell to her knees and panted heavily, her legs shook with the pressure she had put on them to run so far and she looked at her cut and muddy soles of her feet as she rested. She lent down and cupped the water in her hands from the running river and brought it to her lips and she enjoyed the blissful coldness and freshness of the water.

Thankfully she had read enough in the library to survive a night by herself, but she would need to continue travelling first once she had regained enough strength in her legs to continue moving. She hummed softly to herself as she eased herself into the river, the dress becoming heavy with the water against it and she reached under the water to grab the fabric and tore it off, separating the bottom of the dress from the main body of the dress - the long flowing material now short and messy around her legs and she sighed softly at the freedom her legs felt. She quickly put the fabric on the bank to dry out in the sun as she waded further into the river.

A man broke the clearing opposite her and her eyes widened and she quickly started backing towards the bank of the river again - scared in case this man recognised her and ran in the direction she came from to report her.

She quickly scrambled out the bank, grabbing the fabric and she ran back behind a shrub and crouched below it. She heard the man sing and the water flow as if he was lifting it from the main body. She tried to mask her breathing and remained crouched behind the shrub for a while longer.

Once his singing had stopped and the extra water flow had dispersed, she peeked from around the bush and saw he was gone. She grabbed the fabric which was drying off and stood up and entered the river once more and headed across it to where the man had originally come from. If someone was coming from that direction, then it must mean that there was civilization, right?

She exited the river from the other side and walked into the woods which were thicker and denser on this side than they were the other. Her heart still pounded in her chest, but this time not from adrenaline and from the running. This time it ran faster with excitement.

"You can do it Hye." She whispered to herself. "This is what you wanted."