The Hunter

It’d been about six months since Minju had begun dating Taehyun, their relationship was oddly normal for a human-angel couple.

Minju liked it that way, she could just be his girlfriend without thinking about her immortal lifespan. 

Taehyun was sweet and made her heart flutter, they’d even gotten intimate a handful of times. 

But she tried to limit it (much to her boyfriend's disappointment), as if she got too carried away she could drain the life force out of his body. 

She’d seen it happen before, not by  her but one of her siblings. Back when they were still 17 and before the schism that led to them fighting, when she went by her original name. 

She missed those days,  when life was simpler. When humanity was simpler, but she also loved the life she’d built and wanted to keep living it. 

Her days started with her waking up in her apartment  she shared with Moka and another roommate, Taehyun still lived in the dorms and he was a self proclaimed good boy who didn’t sleep over often as he “didn’t want to mooch off you” his own words not Minju’s. 

Today was just another Thursday, Minju woke to the quiet hustle and bustle of her roommates  moving around the apartment.  She slipped out of bed and stepped out into the hallway, where she saw Moka across the hall walking into the kitchen while their roommate Liz  was carrying a hamper full of dirty laundry to their laundry room. 

She made her way to the kitchen, still wearing her pajamas. She didn’t have any classes until the afternoon and Taehyun was away at some hockey tournament;he'd gotten on the school's hockey team after the coach saw him playing a recreational game with some friends. 

Now enough of self monologue, she has a day to begin.

“What are you making?” Minju spoke softly, stopping next to Moka as she was pouring something onto a skillet.

Moka spoke without turning her head. “I’m making French toast.” 

Minju smiled. “Sounds delicious, call me when its ready.”  She requested, turning on her heel to exit the kitchen right as Liz walked in. 

“Oh hey.” Liz said softly, a tired look in her eyes.

Moka grinned at Liz. “Rough night with your boyfriend?~” she teased.

Liz’s face turned the color of a tomato as she froze in place, stuttering. “H-hey!” 

Minju snickered. “Be nice to her Moka, can’t you see the girls tired?” She nudged Liz before walking back to her room to grab some clean clothes before heading to the bathroom to shower. 

She closed the bathroom door, locking it before she began undressing.  In the mirror you could see the scars along her back where her one injured wing  was, a space she usually hit with ancient magic.

She turned on the shower, letting the water warm up as the silent bathroom became an echo chamber of water hitting the tiles. Checking the temperature every once in a while before stepping in. 

She let the warm water envelope her, closing her eyes and letting her shoulder drops. That’s when the feeling hit her.

Minju froze. It was a feeling she hadn’t felt in years.

The first time she’d felt it was when she’d been forced to slay her corrupted sisters, this feeling was similar to that but there was something calling to her. 

She snapped herself out of it and began to wash herself.  She assumed it was just another trick caused by her body after using  her powers too often.

It happened when she used her magic to cover her wings a lot. 

“It’s fine.” She told herself.

She turned off the water, dried off and got dressed. 

She then took off out of the apartment without telling Moka or Liz and began walking across campus, she was letting the feeling guide her.

Eventually when  she got to the edge of  campus, she continued walking. 

She reached the edge of the small city they lived in, and she kept walking.

Eventually she made her way into a forest along the outskirts of the city………….guess what?

She kept on walking.

She walked until she got into the deepest depth of the forest,  as she got closer the power resurgence she’d felt earlier became stronger and the forest began showing signs of a battle. 

Trees with gashes in them, the size of fists.  Small shallow trenches from something being dragged through the earth. 

All of it leaving a trail deeper into the woods that she continues to follow, but not before channeling some energy into her fists for defense if necessary. 

She found a sword stuck in a tree trunk. It was an old broadsword, a type of weapon she knew well from the days of old. 

She wrapped a hand around the pommel and pulled it from the tree trunk without much effort. 

She examined the blade, it had no blood on it so it means that either the fight was knocked out of the losers hand or the winner had put it there after killing its user.

She twirled the sword in her hand, surprising herself as it’d been about 120 years since she had used one back in 1906.

She continued down the path of the fight, finding that it ended along a cliff with a narrow  canyon   forest and river running through.