WC: 575
The day was already late. Today, Salvia had not requested anything unusual of her. The prey-beasts that had given birth had already made her master work hard for them. But the young prey-beasts had grown to an age where such strenuous work was no longer needed, although it seemed to the slave girl that her master cared much for them. The fighter was of a sour mood that day. She had slowly realized that her worth was equated to be equal to the equine beasts. And this did not sit well with her. However, there was little the slave could do. That, too, she understood. The shattered mind felt conflicted once more. It remembered a time before when it did not belong to another. It remembered a time when it had fought truly free—freer, somehow, than it did now.... The black female shook her head as if to brush away an annoying insect. The mind could not grasp how it had been caught. Nor could it grasp how to become free—or how to be more free than it was now. Did not TaeKyung have all that was needed? Food and shelter. Hunting and fighting. Was that not all the taekwondo wolf required? The shattered mind could not imagine more. The memories had slowly sifted through the cracked class like water though fingers. What once was slowly grew fainter in time...until it was no more.
Earlier, when the sky was cool with the colours of slate and pale gold, the Slave of the Flame had trained. Since she had fought the archer when the enemy had invaded Salsola, and since Salvia had allowed her to accompany her on the raid upon the mountain pack, the fighter had learned much that she could improve. After waking in the dark hours before dawn and hunting for Salvia who labored over the prey-beasts, and saving a morsel for herself, the slave had returned to the Tree. The Jindo-wolf had wrapped the massive trunk with several layers of deer pelts that she had both scavenged and hunted, and she had tied them with sinew left upon the carcasses. Having created a make-shift punching bag, she was able to practice high-powered kicks that ossified bone and strengthened muscle. With each day, she grew stronger. With Salvia and with the returned Pandemic, TaeKyung chose to train harder. Like a guard dog ready to attack, she wished to please her master. She wished only to be the strongest and fastest, to be the best fighter so that when Salvia commanded her to attack, she would do so and do it well. The sole purpose of the young Korean woman seemed to be the fight.
Taekwondo. Taewkondo. It was repeated in her mind like a blessing and a poison that drove her heart until she would die. Taekwondo. Taewkondo. It was the only thing that the shattered mind could grasp without effort.
With the warm afternoon sun, and with the heat rising from her pelt, the sinewed woman allowed her body to fall within the grasses. She lay there lunar orbs closed to the world. Dark, horn-like auricles listened to the air and the ground for vibrations of approach. Unless Salvia had need of her services, the tenebrous woman wished for no one to intrude. The sanguine mind fell briefly upon Khirote, the male slave. She had told him that he belonged to her now. A small sneer moved across her maw.
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