Chapter Text
The war had ended.
The Dragon Warrior had won. The explosion boomed loud. The gongs resonated throughout the bay, as same as when the fireworks flew high. The crackled is blasting, as if it wanted to show their beauty and glorious victory of war.
Everyone believed that Lord Shen had died during the fight. The cannon might fell over him, crushed him to death.
But no one knows, the tyrant was luckier than they thought…
—————
Shen work up in the dark, dampen room.
The smell of wet dirt, rotten grass, and muddy puddle welcomed and suffocated his nose as he frowned. Each movement made the plank underneath him creaked.
It was too smelly and too loud to fell asleep again. Shen sprang himself up slowly. Dim light of nearly burnt-out bonfire flickered at the corner of his eyes, quite distracting. So he grabbed the metal rod to poke at it, flipped the hot ashes, ignited the flame once again.
And as usual, he slowly drifted into his thought.
He survived.
The cannon was so heavy that the broken planks could bore. So when Lord Shen cut the rope that held it up straight off, he likely cut off his chance to survive.
But maybe it was a pure luck that the planks are so broken, they split into pieces before the cannon fell. Gravity pulled him down, barely missing the hard wood that fell to crush his skull.
Cold water softened his fall. It absorbed some of the explosion so he wasn’t torn apart, but it was enough to make a whirlpool that sucked the Lord into the coldness below.
It was… cold. Lord Shen gulped so much water until his lungs had no space to fill air.
He felt burns crept up from chest to throat. His limbs felt numb. He tried to swim back up, but his energy ran out too fast.
He tried to survive… but he couldn’t move
Then everything went dark.
He woke up again when he felt his face hit with something hard.
A similar back that used to carry him around when he was a child.
That fucking bastard…
In front of his sight was an abandoned village that being turned into a to the bandits’ den.
Similar faces passed him by, some friendly greeted his carrier, some looked at him with fear or disgusted.
Lord Shen — no… Shen looked away, made no eye contact to anyone. He could remember them all, as same as the way he could remember his friendly fire order.
Shame and guilt ate his heart slowly. He squirmed on his soldier’s back a little bit, try not to make any sudden move to notice the guard, and closed his eyes shut.
When he reached the hut, he found out that this den has no doctor.
Well… to be honest, it has, but not a very good one. Just enough to heal his wounds and save him from horrible fate.
After he was put down on the bed, he then got flipped back and forth for a while. Wounds, cuts, scratches, and splinters punctured deep in him then cleaned off completely.
But his legs are on another level. The explosion had made his limbs burnt. Splinters from broken planks went through his leg and made it swollen with pus. The impact crushed his back, paralyzed the half-down of his body.
And to make it worse, his hamstrings were cut cleanly from his silver blades that sent by the blown up cannon.
There’s nothing he could do but to accept the fate, even if in the first day he knew the truth was almost driven him mad.
He remembered that he was screaming so loud that his throat hurts. Throwing stuff around, destroying everything in sight, even trying so hard to rush himself to stand, just to fell down over and over again.
All he has left now are his tore off nails, and a broken wrist.
Seeing something broken makes him feel calm. He looked at the broken jar at the corner of the room and sighed.
He couldn’t remember how long had he been living here. It was hard to tell time since he hadn’t left the hut once. Moreover, the Sun was barely reached his place, left the hut in almost completely dark.
But it won’t be long… he will—
“My Lord, breakfast is ready.”
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. A familiar voice subtly spoke behind the wooden plank, before it swung open when the person behind it with his foot.
The Wolf general held a tray in his hands. He halted a bit as he was waiting for Shen to throw something — anything — as he used to do before.
”I’m not hungry”, Shen replied, his eyes still kept on the half-burnt out bonfire and stirred the ashes around aimlessly.
“But you must eat something,” said the Wolf, while he slowly put the tray down on the table and bent his knees beside Shen.
”So your wounds be healed, and to get stronger.”
”Nonsense,” Shen gritted his teeth, “If you are here to humiliate me, do it. I dare you.”
The heated rod in his hand then moved to the Wolf’s neck. Shen held his head high, kept his composure and dignity, as if he still among the royals.
”I’m not her to humiliate you or anything, my lord.” He said quiet, slowly glancing his only eye to the fierce, hellfire eyes above him.
”I’m here to offer a hand— agh!” But before the general could finish his sentence, a sharp, burning pain pierced through his shoulder.
”YOU STUPID DOG!! MY PLANS WERE RUINED BECAUSE OF THAT!!”
Shen screamed angrily, his fists clenched tight, eyes reddened and widened wrathfully. His mouth cursed uncontrollably like it was trying to pour everything out of his chest.
“SUCH A DECEPTIVE BULLSHIT! ADMIT THAT YOU AREN’T SORRY! ADMIT THAT YOU AREN’T HERE TO PITY ME, YOU ARE HERE TO MOCK ME!” Shen threw his half-paralyzed self to the edge of the bed as he poured his anger out. His gaunt hands flung around, tried to reach the Wolf’s neck.
“ARE YOU SATISFIED?? DOES SEEING ME LIKE THIS MAKE YOU FEEL—” And before he could finish his sentence, he felt himself fell off the edge.
He closed his eyes, ready to feel pain and chock on muddy floor beneath him. However, he didn’t, as the Wolf grabbed him on time, yanked him up by his worn out collar and chocked him accidentally. The general calmly put his back in his place, gently rubbing his back as he coughed and gasped for air.
That sudden movement made his worn out blanket slipped onto the ground, showing the wounds Shen begged to forget. His legs that once were slender and strong are now crooked out of shape. The fair skin is now filled with the purple and green of bruises, lines of scratches, and deep cuts that were sloppy stitched.
But the most horrific truth of his injury are his ankles that are limping, and his flesh slowly turning black, as it is starting to rot away.
He could barely feel anything from his hip down, could barely move, or could barely stay sane from the scene in front of him
He hated it. He hated himself. He wish to be crushed to death that night instead of staying alive. Maybe it would be better that way than living with shame and disgust.
Still, he is alive, and stayed silent as the Wolf shook the blanket and put it back on him.
”If this already satisfied you, leave.” He ordered shamefully, gritted his teeth as he would suppressed his anger
However, the general stayed.
Shen didn’t say anything after that. He didn’t pay attention to anything the wolf might be doing or done. But when he realized, he heard a blow and something nice smelled under his nose.
It was a porridge the Wolf brought from the very beginning. He blew it till it warmed, before sending it to Shen. The used-to-be prince accepted the offering. Shen swallowed the warm porridge down his throat, lost in thought for a while, until he emptied the bowl without knowing.
After finishing the meal, the soldier cleared the table and took out the medicine. Shen didn’t know where this idiot found them, and he didn’t care either.
”May I, my lord?”
Shen nodded carelessly, trying so hard to not looking at that horrible things under the blanket, and let the Wolf handle the rest.
While waiting for the nursing to be done, Shen looked out far, far away, lost in thought again.
He felt so tired, so pity, humiliated and disgusted of himself that he wanted to be disappear. He wanted to snap his finger and vanished without a trace to be followed, so he wouldn’t have to bear the feeling of ignominious and shame eaten him alive. Suddenly, he flinched.
He looked down immediately to find the Wolf put his feet up to its lips, gently kissing them admiringly.
His eyes widened. He tried to scoot away from the hands that held him tight, but it looked too desperate as his mobility was limited. Even if he would want to slap the soldier’s face, the range between them was too far to reach, so Shen shouted.
”W-What the hell are you doing?! STOP!”
He didn’t flinch even a bit. In contrary, his nose pressed into the flesh that hadn’t got rotten deeper. The flaming eye of the Wolf looked up at him.
”I’m just admiring you, my lord.” His rough hand clenched his feet slowly as it was trying to pamper him.
”To reassure you that you are still beautiful,”
”As beautiful… as you were.”
”Does both of your eyes already blinded, or does you head knocked your sanity to the lowest?” Shen asked ridiculously, he scoffed as the Wolf laughed softly and kissed his feet once again before moving up close to him.
“Sadly, I’m still sane, and what I’ve told you is all truth.”
“For me, you are always the most beautiful—”
The wolf’s face turned to its side as Shen’s hand smacked it violently. It was fortunate for him that Shen’s favorite finger guard were already lost in the battle, the wolf’s face had only the print of his palm.
“Out. Now.”, said Shen, who immediately turned his head away, lifted up the blanket, and hid under it in silence. The wolf slightly adjusted its jaw, smirking as he saw a glance of live and shyness of its lord.
“Yes, sir. I’ll be back when it’s lunch time.”
The old general bowed, ready to leave as the order was placed, but it stopped as it heard a call.
“A-Lang”
“Next time, bring me a dish of radish as a side.”