Deep North
Fan Lin was sleeping.
Huo Yun was looking at him.
She was not able to understand the reason why she was attracted towards him.
Why did she felt pain in her heart whenever he spoke of his wife?
She sort of knew but she didn't want to accept that.
She wanted to look at him everyday. To live with him. To see the sights he had seen and to suffer the pains he had suffered. She wanted to do it with him.
Why? She didn't know.
She was looking at him.
He looked no different to any other man. He was not that handsome, he also didn't feel majestic or awe-inspiring to her.
He just felt normal. There was nothing great about him. He didn't talk to her with respect or admiration like others. He also doesn't talk in adoration towards her.
His voice was a little weird. Like it was a little harsh. His tone was apathetic as if he didn't care about anything or anyone. The only times his tone changed was when he talked about his past or his wife.
She wanted him to use it for her too. She wanted to hear the warm voice of his, call her name.
He never cared for anything. He slept on the ground. He ignored her most of the time too. He really was an apathetic man.
He doesn't deserve her attention yet she was not able to take her eyes off him There was nothing likable about this man as a...
She was still unsure whether she really felt that for him or was it something else.
She was a little unsure of it until he told her about his wife. About their stories.
He didn't tell her what happened after they were reunited. He just chose to sleep.
She wanted to know. She wanted to have those feelings of his for herself. She wanted him to be hers but she knew that that was not possible.
He didn't see her like that. To be precise, he saw her as nothing but a colleague or acquaintance.
He was like that. He didn't want to accept the world but he was doing it for them. Weird man.
"And yet I fell for him."
She looked at him once again.
He was sleeping again. It had been around three weeks since he had been doing that.
They had also restored the seven times during that time.
The Millennium Ice shards were becoming stronger with each restoration. They were going to be recovered soon.
Soon he would not need to do it. Soon he would leave.
She didn't want that. She still wanted to hear more of his stories. To hear more of adventures. To spend more time with him. She was in love with him. She didn't know how or why.
'maybe that is how she felt too.'
She also began to recall the stories of his wife. How she abducted him and made him hers.
'I can't do it even in the next hundred thousand years. This beast of a man is far stronger than that time.'
She thought while looking at him. She felt awed by his strength. That was the only thing she actually felt that was weird about this man.
He was not liked by the world. All the soul beasts could feel it too. At first they thought it was because of his strength but now they knew that it wasn't.
She remembered the stories that he told her. Stories where the Prince came to take away the their lovers. He was the like the princes in the stories.
[ So she consider herself as the princess then]
She didn't know why fell in love with Fan Lin but she liked him. A lot at that.
Enough to leave the Deep North with him if he wanted her too.
The Millennium Ice shards were already more than 70 percent restored. He was going to restore is completely and then leave.
The fully restored Millennium Ice shards would be enough to counter the humans for thousands of years, maybe tens of thousands of years.
She felt there was no need for her to stay here anymore if he wanted her to go with him.
She believed in him when he said that he would become a God to save the soul beasts. She believed it more than him.
Her love for him was really weird. She knew that she can never feel the same for someone else and she also knew that he must feel the same about his wife.
But her selfish self still wanted to have him for her. It was a selfish reason and she didn't want to change it.
"Love is hard."
She muttered.
She was looking at his sleeping face. She had been looking at his face for the past three weeks and yet she was still not bored of him.
She thought that she might have just feeling admiration or anger towards him when she first felt hints of feelings for him. That's why she started to stare at him while he was sleeping.
He was the one who actually got weirded out instead. And then they talked and then he went to take some food for her and then she ate and they talked and after some disturbance. He talked about his wife.
That's when she realised that she loved this beast of a man who had no joking sense.
They talked a lot after that. Many times it was her telling about the things of the Extreme North and other soul beasts found in it.
Other times it was him talking about the food and various other weird and exciting things he encountered.
He also made various foods for her to try.
She really like those treats from him. They were tasty and fun to eat.
She wanted those times to never end. She wanted to live with him. Yet she knew that it was impossible for her to do so.
He had already been someone else's and she already his. Both were destined to not be together.
She hated that feeling. She wanted to love him. She wanted to make him smile and she wanted to give her everything for his happiness.
She didn't know when she fell in love with him so much, she didn't care. She wanted to be with him and she was going to chose the step that once was taken by someone.
"Don't do anything stupid."
Fan Lin said to her.
His voice stopped her thoughts from functioning properly. She blanked out.
"Y,you, you, w-weren't you sleeping? H-how are you awake?"
She asked in a flustered tone.
"Energy signature malfunctioning."
Fan Lin said while getting up. He was moving towards Huo Yun and then touched her cheeks.
"W, what are you doing?"
She said to him in embarrassment. She got her answers with his actions.
He was pouring his energy in her to stop the rampant energy vortex in her.
"I don't use spirit bones. See, there are none in my body. Nor do I need a spirit ring. Don't do something stupid."
Fan Lin said while looking in her eyes.
She was entranced by him.
"Wanna hear what I was doing before meeting her and what happened after we reunited?"
Fan Lin asked her.
"Uhm."
That was all she can reply with.
"My father was a forest guard, we protect the forest and it's inhabitants from the greedy humans. I was a normal kid at that time, I got the job after my father died due to a poacher. After that the forest was wholly sealed by us and poachers didn't come after that."
"It was in that forest area where I met her and also where I later fell in love with her too."
"After we united, we both started to happily live our lives. She taught me of the things of the forest and I thought her things that I knew. We both were happy. Around a year later, she was pregnant with my child and in an accident, I lost both of them. My wife and my unborn daughter."
"Life was not good after that, I was broken down both mentally and physically but I was able to get out of those times..."
"After a few years the forest become a place where foreigners or outlander were allowed to enter. Things went towards downhill after that...."