THE FATE OF THE BANISHED
Seungman and Damhyeong stood at the hill top and they looked into the valley where a narrow path meandered its way up to the a massive stone castle that stood on the Northern frontier.
A large mass of soldiers carrying with themselves very many colored banners were led through the narrow path as they continued further and further ahead in the North.
" Shilla soldiers." Seungman said admiringly.
"It's been a while since we last went to war with Gorguryeo." Damhyeong said.
"It seems that there is going to be another war with it." Seungman said.
"Perhaps they are only reinforcing the security of the Northern border.
"Impossible." Seungman said, "They wouldn't need all these Soldiers to certainly do that." She added.
"Nothing is predictable." Damhyeong said.
"There's quite a number of horsemen and look how far the soldiers parade stretches to." Seungman said.
"Alright, you've proven your point." Damhyeong said.
"I always think that going there is just as beautiful." Seungman said.
"Huh." Damhyeong sighed. "Don't waste your time here admiring them." He added.
"Why?" Seungman asked.
"They are going to die." Damhyeong replied.
"At least they have that honour of dying for their country." Seungman said. "Imagine if you were just travelling and bandits killed you, that'd be the end of you, no one would live to tell your story and there'd be no one left to remember you." She added.
"No." Damhyeong said. "You are only eager to test the skills that you have learnt all these years." He added.
"Perhaps." Seungman said.
"Don't waste your time, because it's a pity." Damhyeong replied.
"Why is it a pity?" Seungman asked.
"You are only a girl." Damhyeong replied.
"Even if I am a girl." Seungman said confidently.
"It doesn't really matter." Damhyeong replied. "They would not allow you to join the army." he added.
"I am just any person that is very passionate towards my country, I am any person that has great dreams and aspirations for Shilla, can I not simply show them?" Seungman asked.
"If that was the case then they'd be recruiting women in the army but they can not." Damhyeong said.
"I'll be the first." Seungman replied.
"You are so stubborn." Damhyeong said.
"It's not that bad." She defended herself.
"If Shilla were to send women to the war Frontline she'd be a laughing stock, for all that we know even the great Tang could forbid it, Paekche and Gorguryeo would be motivated to attack." Damhyeong said.
"I do not know why they are all bent on the idea of women being weak." Seungman said. "I had a dream and in it I saw a warrior dressed in a white suit of armor and riding a white horse, he held in one hand a white flag with a golden phoenix and in the other, a sword of the same colour with a silver blade." She added.
"You are dreaming too much." Damhyeong said.
"I just think that I can prove that women can be just as strong as men." Seungman said.
"You have never beaten me in climbing up the hill with the water buckets in your hands." Damhyeong said.
"I have beaten you in a fight more than twenty times." Seungman said.
"I won nearly hundreds of them all." Damhyeong said.
"Nevertheless if you were to go into the army then I'd follow you." Seungman said.
"I've never had that dream." Damhyeong said as his mind wandered away. "You might have forgotten but I still remember that time when we were both young and we stood along that very same road." He added.
"There were people, sons and father's." Seungman said.
"With missing limbs and others being pulled in a cart like vegetables having deserted the human world and gone to with the spirits to live in the next." Damhyeong added.
"One day everyone will die." Seungman said.
"Yet I do not wish to die painfully or even very early leaving behind my mother and father all alone in this world, it'd be the gravest punishment I'd ever given them for giving birth to me." Damhyeong said.
"On the other hand I'd do anything." Seungman replied. "I heard villagers talking about the greatest joy of every parent." She added and she won Damhyeong's curiosity that he turned around and looked at him.
"Wait, what is it?" He asked.
"Every man wants a son for themselves to carry on their legacy, someone that they can entirely boast about and be proud of." Seungman replied sadly.
"What are you thinking?" Damhyeong asked.
"Mother passed away while I was still young and father never remarried, in his skills that he has taught us I can tell that he was quite a remarkable warrior but sadly he never had a son to carry on his legacy only his daughter." Seungman said.
"He loves you just as you are." Damhyeong said.
"And I love him so much that I want to bring glory to his name." Seungman replied her eyes getting teary.
"And you think that the only way that you can do that is by risking your life and sending yourself to the battlefield?" Damhyeong asked.
"A soldier brings pride to the family and if I were to become a soldier in deed then everywhere I would go I would be proud to tell them that I am the daughter of Kim Moo Mak." Seungman replied.
"Is that really what your heart wants?" Damhyeong asked. "I'm afraid that you might think that your father has always wanted a warrior child and you might end up breaking two hearts at once that's both your father's and yours." He added.
"If I could ride AMMAL into battle then nothing more would give me joy, slaying the Northern Invaders of Gorguryeo and the Southern invaders of Paekche and bringing glory to this our Heavenly kingdom of Shilla." Seungman replied.
"Seungman?" Someone called in a very furious tone they could feel the rage radiating in the air around and they both turned around to see who it was.
Moo Mak stood with his fists clenched and Damhyeong knew that he wasn't in a very good mood.
"Father?" Seungman called.
"Silence." Moo Mak shouted and Seungman and Damhyeong were both afraid.
"Uncle Moo." Damhyeong said.
"You stay out of this." He said as he moved closer and looked at his daughter in the eye.
He ceased her by her right hand and then pulled her closer and Seungman was frightened.
"Father." She called in a softer tone.
"You wish to join the army?" Moo Mak asked.
"No." Seungman was very quick to deny herself.
"I'll leave Uncle Moo." Damhyeong said.
"No You Stay." Moo Mak said and Damhyeong complied.
"You think that the battlefield is a bed of roses or you think that when people go to war they only go to play?" Moo Mak asked.
"No Father." Seungman replied.
"Just like you are frightened here in front of me you will be frightened when your in the eyes of the enemy, a man so tall you don't know how much he eats but he is strong enough to lift an entire horse and then throw it down onto the ground." Moo Mak added.
"You freeze and looking at all your comrades making an attack on him and falling down headless while you are watching you are forced to lose the courage to fight anymore.
You can not even find the strength and every one of your senses and body parts especially both your legs and arms become numb and the air only filled with the disgusting smell of blood belonging to all your compeers with whom you swore to fight with all your life.
Forgetting everyone at home with no place to run, your general is defeated and you have entirely been forsaken by reinforcements, you are caught in the middle of fire surrounding you from all sides, there is nothing more for you to defend even surrender itself is out of the question." He added as he was sweating profusely and his tone an endless flow of words.
"All you are left with is death to suit your eternal embrace." Damhyeong said.
"Yes." Moo Mak confirmed as he let go of his daughter and then he stepped a few feet backwards.
"Sadly, no one is there to even give you a proper burial, the Shilla on which you fight is there to drain all your blood, ten thousand and twenty thousand you march to war, while the Generals are remembered none of your names go down to the pages of history because them being too little they can not accommodate the names of the underdogs who died probably in the first or second fight of their lives." He added.
"I'm sorry father." Seungman said.
"I only trained you to protect You my child and so that when I am gone you can protect yourself, sadly, I never trained you to even once in your life devote your all and try to protect Shilla." Moo Mak said.
"I understand father." Seungman said.
"I don't think you do." Moo Mak replied.
"You are only protecting me." Seungman replied.
"No." Moo Mak said. "Even if I tried and one time the Paekcheans attacked you and your husband's home then I wouldn't be there." Moo Mak said.
"Then what are you trying to say Father?" Seungman asked.
"I don't have the power to command your life and stop you from doing whatever you want and if you are determined that you are going to go and become a warrior then if you are not confident about your return into my arms you can tell me and I'll be prepared for the worst." Moo Mak replied.
"Father, is your faith so thin in me?" Seungman asked.
"No, that word is too sweet." Moo Mak said. "How can I have faith in your return if you can not learn to have it in yourself?" He asked.
Seungman looked down.
"If you can not be courageous like those people walking to your death then please help me and relieve me of the burden of losing you when seeing you grow to live a happy life is what I devoted myself to do." Moo Mak replied as he walked away.
The atmosphere was quite sombre even Damhyeong was moved by Moo Mak's speech.
"Your Father has a point." He said as he turned to Seungman. "He's seen what war is but he is kind enough to accept it if it's your heart's true calling." He added.
"I never knew that these were the things waiting for all those men that are marching in the valley." Seungman said.
"To go and slay the neck of another man knowing that another is also anxiously waiting to slay yours is the biggest bet in a Soldier's life." Damhyeong replied as he walked away.
In the valley below, there rode two hwarangs both so tall and handsome they looked powerful enough.
"Are you ready to defeat Gorguryeo?" Alcheon Rang asked.
"I was born to slay Gorguryeo." Kim Yushin replied.
"It's been ages since we last encountered them." Alcheon Rang said.
"And just like we sent flying the heads of the Paekcheans I will grace the Shillan sky with the heads of Gorguryeo and baptise the earth beneath it with it's blood." Yushin replied.
Alcheon shifted his gaze to the top of the hill nearby and there he saw someone seated and looking at them in a distance.
He tapped Yushin and showed him.
"I never thought that people would still herald us as we are walking to our death." Alcheon said.
"It's an honour." Yushin replied. "Probably the last of your entire life because that moment makes you feel important." He added.
"But it's not better than to return victorious." Alcheon said.
"Only the strong and the most powerful live to see that." Yushin replied as they continued for a while and a couple of miles later they had arrived at the massive stone castle that stood in the North.
It was extensive and very tall with thick gray bricks and the Shilla flags flying high in the sky above.
The troops of Shilla made their entry into the fortress and Alcheon looking around he studied how all the other foot soldiers were already busy sharpening their swords and their spears.
He rode on further with Yushin Rang until they eventually halted and with the Generals Kim Seohyeon and Kim Yongsu stepping down from their horses, the two Hwarangs followed.
"I never thought that in such a short while the battlefield shall have heralded us again." Kim Seohyeon said.
"That's an uncertainty." Kim Yongsu replied.
"Any uncertainty is a possibility." Kim Seohyeon said as they walked up into the Generals Chambers where they were followed by Yushin, Alcheon and other lesser Generals.
Upon entering inside, they gathered around the table and there they studied the topography of the area.
"This is the current position of the Gorguryeo troops." The General said as he pointed at a particular spot that was between the valleys.
"How have they been recently?" Kim Seohyeon asked.
"They have only been moving back and forth." General Nangilyu replied.
"Just as Galmunwang Gukban had said they have no intention of attacking at all." Kim Yongsu said.
"So what shall we do?" Yushin asked.
"Gorguryeo is in deed cunning the best that we can do is to send our scouts to run along the border, we must be prepared for any attack and that means that it is important that we stand our ground when we possibly can." Kim Seohyeon said.
"We need people who are very fast." Kim Yongsu said.
"I'll go." Alcheon Rang replied. "Being a Hwarang it's only fair that I take charge." He added.
"I agree with Alcheon." Kim Yushin said.
"I think that is plausible but in case of an outbreak of the war we still need very strong and quick people that could alert the other nearby fortresses." Kim Yongsu said.
"Gorguryeo could be using this as a decoy trying to get our attention and misleading us when in actual sense, they are going after another target." Kim Seohyeon said.
"Yes." Kim Yongsu confirmed.
"What shall we do then?" General Nangilyu asked.
"If we can deploy more scouts then we can possibly be in the know of any move that the Gorguryeo troops are planning, if none of our scouts report back alive then it shall be a very clear indicator that they are intending to push forward a war and we shall retaliate by looking into the places where the most scouts disappeared to." Alcheon said.
"Yes." Yushin Rang supported the thought.
"Very well then." Kim Seohyeon said. "Alcheon Rang, you shall be responsible for the scouts that are going East of the Northern border." Kim Seohyeon said.
"It's mountainous and the chances of Gorguryeo attacking there are very slim because we as Shilla have the Geographical advantage to lure them into the valleys and vanquish them.
Their likely target would be the massive flatland because this is not only where they can fight properly but it is also where our food reserves are extensive and if they wish to annihilate us then they'd need to exhaust our food reserves first." Kim Yongsu said.
"To retaliate we must look at their primary stronghold at the moment along the Northern frontier." Yushin said.
"That's Nangbi Fortress." Alcheon Rang said.
"Yes." Kim Yongsu said.
"Nangbi is not only strategically located but if we conquered it then we'd easily isolate it from Gorguryeo and her primary foothold in her South would be lost.
To keep the war a short and a brief one, we would have forced Gorguryeo to retreat because if she decides to push for a longer while put of haste with Nangbi in our possession we would easily suffocate Gorguryeo's Southern troops and win over her other fortresses." Yushin Rang said.
"Withdrawal would be their last best option as they would be the need to fortify other fortresses if they wish to rise up against us." Kim Seohyeon said.
"Yes." The Generals all agreed in unison.
"Alcheon Rang, go and gather the Scouts right away and split them into two, take the East and Yushin you take the West.
Report before dusk today." Kim Seohyeon said.
"Aye." The two replied while bowing their heads as they made their exit.
Alcheon reached outside and along with six other scouts they mounted their horses and were led out of the Fortress along with Kim Yushin and six others.
Upon reaching outside, the two bid each other farewell as they split and took two different directions eventually they were able to vanish out of each other's sight.
Seungman walked out of the house in low spirits as she found Damhyeong waiting outside.
He raised his right hand and waved at her that she was totally surprised and forced to walk up and come closer to him.
"Damhyeong." She called.
"Seungman." He said.
"You waited?" She asked a little bit surprised.
"I noticed that you weren't very happy when you walked back into your house so I wanted to at least make you feel better." Damhyeong replied.
"Don't you think that we are all very old to go and play to feel better?" Seungman asked.
"Who said that we were going to play?" Damhyeong asked that Seungman looked at him curiously.
"What are we going to do?" Seungman asked.
"It's a surprise." Damhyeong replied.
"If you don't tell me then I am not going." Seungman insisted.
"If I tell you then it won't be a surprise and if won't be exciting at all."Damhyeong replied.
"I don't want to get into trouble as you can at least be spared by your parents but I don't know if I can be spared by my father." Seungman said.
"Don't worry, we have been there before." Damhyeong replied.
Seungman looked reluctant.
"Please." Damhyeong replied.
"Alright." Seungman eventually gave in and the two of them walked away as they descended the hill.
Damhyeong led the way as Seungman followed them they had eventually entered a series of small forests and we're walking along a path of white rocks that had appeared to have weathered from a whole giant one.
Right next to them was a very small river that rushed by and there was some relative silence that prevailed before the melodies of the birds filled the air.
"Is this it?" Seungman asked.
"No." Damhyeong replied, "could you at least try to be patient?" he added.
"Fine." Seungman replied but her feet were quite tired as they had walked for a distance and she also stopped shortly afterwards when she noticed that they weren't stopping.
"Are you sure you know where we are going?" Seungman asked.
"Of course." Damhyeong assured.
"It doesn't seem so." Seungman said. "We have walked for so long I fear you might end up leading us to Gorguryeo." She added.
"Don't worry, I know very well." Damhyeong persisted and Seungman reluctantly continued to follow him.
After a while the two of them mounted a couple of rocks and eventually stood on top of a Cliff.
Down in the valley there was a forest and the mountains and hills on the other side stretched and touched the horizon of the sky.
"This is it." Damhyeong said as he turned around and looked at Seungman who was awed that she walked closer to the edge of the cliff and then looked around.
"It's beautiful." Seungman said as she smiled closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them.
"Are you feeling better?" Damhyeong asked and Seungman turned around to look at him.
"Yes." She replied with a smile and Damhyeong smiled as well.
"I knew that it would lighten up your mood, you looked so lowly and the only thing that I would think of to give you some peace of mind is this view.
"Of course." Seungman replied.
"When I stand here I can see it all." Seungman muttered under her breath.
"What was that Seungman?" Damhyeong asked.
"When I open my eyes a d behold such a view, O can't help but appreciate the Beauty of this our Shilla." Seungman replied.
"At the other side there is Gorguryeo and the forests that lie beneath us have been an abode of the ghosts of warriors that died without a noble burial.
Haunted is the earth under it, yet even on the land where chaos between the enemy in the North and us Shilla has come to flourish." Damhyeong said.
"Why did you bring me here?" Seungman asked.
"You have known me well enough." Damhyeong said.
"As you speak I can tell that there is more than just expecting the scene to calm my troubled mind." Seungman said.
"I must admit that it is indeed true." Damhyeong said.
"Go ahead and say it." Seungman said.
"You are loyal, you are brave, you are true, you know better than anyone else that which your heart wants, you have grown up in a simple life and lived as a common girl, ok top of that you have known not the world beyond.
You have not known the people that stretch as far as the South and yet all I have heard you say with sincerity is how much you love Shilla and you fervently cherish it." Damhyeong said.
"I never thought there'd be someone to see beyond." Seungman said.
"It's because I understand your heart." Damhyeong said. "And in it there is Shilla." He added.
"Even I do not know why." Seungman said.
"But you are a warrior." Damhyeong added.
"I'm afraid that I might hurt father." Seungman said.
"I am afraid that you might hurt yourself more." Damhyeong said.
"Perhaps he is right, perhaps I do not really understand him." Seungman said.
"Because you are trying so hard with your brain you are forgetting to understand him with your heart." Damhyeong said.
"What is his heart?" Seungman asked as he turned to Damhyeong.
"That's it, Your Father's heart is of you really love Shilla then go the distance for it, but please before you can be hasty while making your decision, do not forget about the people around you." Seungman replied.
"He's trying to make me choose." Seungman said.
"Yes." Damhyeong said.
"And I do not wish to do that." Seungman said.
"But you have to." Damhyeong asked. "If you can not choose you are selfish and sometimes if you try very hard to keep everything you might end up losing the little that you love." He added.
Seungman was silenced and she turned around and looked at the cliff again.
"I still remember when I was young." Seungman said as she moved closer and closer to the edge. "I told my father that the reason I wanted to learn how to fight was so that I would protect him even when he gets old." She added.
"Growing up as the years passed on and on, at first I learnt that it's not just my father that I wanted to protect but also yours, I wanted to protect your mother, I wanted to protect the village, I wanted to protect the province, to protect Shilla and protect you." Seungman said.
"We didn't need your protection." Damhyeong said.
"But nevertheless I was willing to grow up and protect Shilla because it was Shilla which haboured the people that I loved." Seungman said.
"You put the weight on your shoulders when no one asked you, we don't just want you to protect us but we want to have you around because even if you protected us it's natural, we'd still end up dying and you can not prevent that." Damhyeong said.
"You have your conscience and I have my own, we can all be too prudent in our own sight and each one of us believes that we are right.
I do not intend to burden my father but I also do not intend on giving up on what I want, I'll have all the time in the world and perhaps if not today, it's tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
I need time to think but please don't make it hard for me because Everytime that you do, I only feel that I am being forced to live the life that I am living." Seungman replied.
She turned around and decided to run away.
"Seungman." Damhyeong shouted after her as he chased her while she departed from the place.
Alcheon and six other scouts were still travelling and they arrived in the hills which were quiet and lifeless.
Riding his horse on the cliff he looked in a distance and there was nothing out of the ordinary that he started to look around but he was unable to find anything.
"Alcheon Rang." One of the scouts called.
"Yes Gopheung?" Alcheon replied.
"It seems that there is nothing here." Gopheung said.
"Don't be hasty to come to conclusions." Alcheon replied as his eyes persisted to look around.
All of a sudden, two of the Scouts were shot and from the nearby woods a group of assassins that were dressed in plain black attires emerged and attacked Alcheon and his remaining four men.
"Return to the Fortress at once." Alcheon shouted and he and his men retreated and they rode away as they were pursued by a couple of horsemen.
Alcheon rode and led his men and while going he halted along the way that Gopheung and the others halted as well.
"Alcheon Rang." Gopheung called.
"Return to the Fortress and tell them what you have seen." Alcheon said.
"What about you Alcheon Rang?" Gopheung asked.
"It doesn't matter but at this rate if we go all five of us then we shall be caught and no one will pass on the news to the others.
I must distract them and let you flee that you may reach the Fortress in one piece." Alcheon replied.
"We can not leave you Alcheon Rang." Gopheung said.
"I'm not asking you." Alcheon said. "This is an order." He added.
"I'm not leaving you." Gopheung said and Alcheon unsheathed his sword and then he laid it next to Gopheung's neck.
"You are not my man but you are a warrior of Shilla, if you disobey my order and you jeopardize this operation then much as I take you to be like a brother of mine I won't hesitate to sever from your body that head of yours with this sword of mine." Alcheon said.
"Go." He shouted and Gopheung departed at once while Alcheon Rang waiting a while seeing that the Gorguryeo horsemen had come into his view and there and then he rode away in the opposite direction luring them from the other four.
Reaching the junction, they went straight ahead and rode after Alcheon who took a very narrow path around the mountain as he went deeper and deeper into the huge rocks he was set on a path that was headed to a cliff on the other side.
Alcheon halted his horse when he realized that the path that he had taken had come to an end and turning his horse around he was already trapped as the Gorguryeo horsemen surrounded him.
One held out a crossbow at once and shot an arrow which struck him on his right side of the chest.
The horse neighed and standing in hits hind legs it threw him off as it stood and remained there by his side.
Alcheon willing every last bit of strength in his possession, he wielded his sword and pulled it from it's scabbard.
"Come on you Gorguryeo scum, fight me." Alcheon shouted as he raised his sword and two of the horsemen got off and they unsheathed their swords as well as they faced Alcheon Rang.
He made his attack and was caught in the middle with barely any strength as he swung his sword it was very difficult for him to land his blade on any of the men.
The other two horsemen that remained seated on their horses laughed as they mocked Alcheon.
"I can tell that from the way that you are dressed you are a Hwarang, are these the fearless warriors that your great King Jinheung left for his country?" The men said but Alcheon continued to fight until his strength was exhausted.
He was bleeding and the last thing that he had for a support was his sword and his one knee.
Alcheon smiled as he strained himself to stand upright.
"I have done my country a great service and probably by the end of tomorrow Shilla shall have vanquished you all, I have no regrets dying here as long as History shall remember me as one of the greatest warriors of Shilla." Alcheon said.
He stood on his two legs and the Gorguryeo soldiers were surprised.
"Very well then." One of them said.
"We shall carry with us your body and adorn the Southern gate of Nangbi Fortress with it." The other added.
Before they would even lay an attack on him, from behind a couple of teenagers not so much younger than he was leaped from behind and ceasing the swords of the Gorguryeo horsemen they landed in between them and Alcheon.
Alcheon could tell that of the two one was a girl and her hair was very long, her hands looked weak but her feet firm on the ground made her strong.
He could sense a very turbulent aura around her and then stretching out the sword to the two horsemen while her male companion was watching she spoke up in the softest voice that he had ever heard.
"Should any of you choose to slay this man." She said so loudly." Then you must be willing to go through me first." She added.
Alcheon's feet were failing him and as he was falling the boy hurried over and held him.
"Seungman." He called but the girl looked unwavered.
"It's a pity that such a very beautiful and good looking girl has to die on your behalf." One of the Gorguryeo horsemen said and as Alcheon was left to watch as his sight was slowly failing him.
Seungman launched herself towards one of the horsemen and as he swung his sword to cut her neck off, she moved to the side so lightly with her feet and turning around she swung her sword and severed the man's head from his body that it landed down on the ground eventually his body fell off.
The other three attacked her as Damhyeong also watched in awe as Seungman used the sword of the fallen warrior and while being surround she pierced one of the soldiers that he withdrew and hitting his horse, it threw him off as he was near a cliff and he descended from the great height landing on the sharp rocks beneath.
The other two joining forces jumped off their horses and they charged towards her.
Seungman confidently ran up to them and when she had arrived right where they were she bent backwards as their swords went above her head and spinning around she cut them both at their lower abdomens that they ceased at once and turning around they looked at her.
She raised her head and looked at them who bleeding excessively fell to the ground to suffer a very slow and painful death.
Alcheon eventually seeing her face was moved at her very delicate and dark features, her eyes were bright and fairly small, her long pitch black hair and round face that ended in a small straight and flat chin.
She had a small nose that looked so familiar to his eyes and generally, she was exceedingly beautiful that Alcheon had never seen anyone fairer in the land.
She hurriedly rushed over to him.
"Seungman." Damhyeong called.
"We need to save him." She said as she came close all he could see was her face that was glowing before his eyes as though a Halo had been positioned right above her head.
"He's lost so much blood." Damhyeong said.
"Let's use the horses and take him back with us." Seungman said as Alcheon staring expressionless and dizzy, his eyelids became heavier and before he could notice he himself, beholding Seungman's beautiful face as his last everything went black