Chapter 1 : First Dream

Pitch black.

A vast and endless land of darkness void of sound layed before her when she opened her eyes.

Then, a "Snap!" broke the pin-drop silence.

Another "Scrunch!" followed by vague pantings filled her ears. A little while after, she noticed a silhouette of someone running behind knee-length grasses and shrubs. The friction it made as the plants grazed against that person's robes was getting clearer.

This series occured to her every now and then as the unknown person threaded through the dim terrain, occasionally stepping on dead twigs and dried leaves.

Han Yi Shin felt the growing nervousness in her chest. She was confused but she couldn't point out what was going wrong. Why can't she remember what she was doing earlier?

In a split second, she felt that something has changed. She's now holding her knees for support as she gasped for air, cold sweat covering her body. She noticed herself wearing the same black robes as the person earlier.

Was that person her all along?

One powerful pound caused her to blank out for a moment and she fell on her knees. Yi Shin clutched against her pounding chest. Her heart harshly smashed against her ribcage that it rendered her breathless and throat dry from the lack of air.

Slowly, she guided herself to breathe in and out.

As she was doing this, the darkness surrounding her slowly subsided. Shadows of tall trees emerged from the murky abyss one after another. She took notice of it a little later, to which she immediately questioned herself. Were these trees here before? Or is it just her eyes slowly adapting due to the absence of light?

She could barely see anything yet a gut feeling that she's being chased sent tingles to her feet, urging her to run again.

But who is she running from?

In a blink, she felt her back leaning against a cold and rough trunk of a tree. She gasped for more air with difficulty while her legs began to tremble from exhaustion.

Yi Shin looked around, scanning her surroundings to get a snip of where she was. Looking up, a few stars twinkled in the midnight blue skies beyond the tip of these giant trees.

What she was doing in the middle of the woods and in this pitch-black night, that, she wasn't certain.

Suddenly, a distant snapping of twigs snatched her attention away from her flood of thoughts. She carefully shifted to take a peek and squinted her eyes only to make out a cluster of fireflies flitting in line at a distance. Being exhausted, her vision was blurry and hard to focus so she decided to lean back and sank to the ground.

She closed her eyes and controlled her rhythm once again, breathing from the mouth substantially.

"Find her!"

On reflex, her gaze shot up the cliff adjacent to her hideout. There was an obvious glow of orange light atop! A little later, a shadow of a bulky man with a torch in hand stood at the tip of the cliff.

Torches? So those fireflies earlier were torches?! She tried peeking again out of curiosity but—

"Over there! Shoot!"

Instantly, numerous arrows came swooshing her direction after that command! Most of it darted to the trunk where she hid and scared the living hell out of her. Without second thought, she fled for her life.

What's happening?! Her heart raced in panic.

She continued sprinting until an abrupt thought cross her mind. This scene. It's awfully familiar! Looking back, she saw that one of her pursuers is holding a long stick with a flowy banner on attatched to its tip.

'Isn't that an imperial flag? I-Imperial soldiers?! But why?'

Right then and there, a fizz of electricity shot up her spine and Yi Shin froze. Color drain down her face from a shocking realization.

'I... I clearly turned around... w-why is my body still running straight?! What on earth?!'

Out of no where, a huge silhouette of a rock appeared up front! Due to the fact that it was very dark like there was no moon up in the night sky, she wasn't able to dodge it. She crashed and toppled over, sending her body rolling to the ground.

She screamed and agonized in excrutiating pain upon impact, yet, her physical lips only hissed. Yi Shin was beyond terrified! Her eyes enlarged as she screamed again in horror.

"This is a nightmare! Oh my God! Wake up, Han Yi Shin!" She frantically convinced herself. She couldn't even cry from the amount of shock and goosebumps claimed her whole.

Meanwhile, the sound of galloping horses intensified.

As she's on an internal struggle from keeping herself sane through this, her body moved on its own again brought herself on all fours. It resumed running and Yi Shin couldn't do anything but and quickly returned to her pace.

Clambering uphill and skidding down some slopes, the soldiers were hell bent on pursuing this black-robed thief!

Occassionally, they'd be shooting arrows her way. Too bad the small body was quite skilled and nimble, not to mention, too lucky to evade all of that! Han Yi Shin also felt that whoever was in control was pretty well-versed in threading around this mountain after that hard crash. Like the rock was its mark for it to know where to go to afterwards.

For what felt like hours of escaping, she finally reached the edge of the forest. However, instead of relief, she was gravely alarmed for wasn't the foot of the mountain, it's another cliff! And judging from the inky darkness of its bottom, she doubted that the ground was close.

But who would have thought this night couldn't get even crazier? Out of nowhere, she found herself blowing a little piece of whistle tube. She then involuntarily backed away, counting ten steps, before unprecedentedly running towards the cliff and jumping over like it was the most normal thing to do!

Good heavens! How many curses had she recited yet not a single one was heard.

Shutting her eyes tightly closed, she mentally braced herself for a hard fall at the same time praying and hoping that a river was down there.

Miraculously, a swift stallion from the other side of a lower cliff rushed in and lept. With a copious thud, it caught her on its back and both rider and stead landed safely on the opposite, lower cliff.

Her slender figure then soullessly mounted this muscly ride as the horse galloped further, gradually gaining speed while she tried to settle down. Han Yi Shin heaved out a very very deep sigh of relief as the looming dark mountains faded from her view.

Finally, she escaped!

The mount's graceful sprinting felt like it was lulling her to sleep. Undeniably, the strenouos engagement earlier made her lids heavy and her consciousness was slowly slipping away. She needed some fresh air, she thought, unconsciously pulling down her black mask. Relief brought by the fresh air instantly eased the stuffiness she felt.

It was at this moment when she realised that she had reclaimed her ability to move her body according to her will.

But what will she do after this? That, again, she had no clue.

She slouched her heavy shoulders however by doing so she was immediately taken aback by that thing slanting inside her black robe. Its length and weight was irritating so she pulled it out and was even more shook at the discovery.

It's a dagger!

And not just any dagger... this one actually has a gold scabbard carved with an intricate design and is adorned with gems of different sizes. Its handle is gold-plated too!

"Wait." She mused. "I-Isn't this what they called an heirloom?" Why on earth did she have it?

Then she recalled something that made her breath hitch.

"Was I chased because of this?!"