When the two boys finally reached their destination, they quickly hid their presence. The young man pulled up his scarf to hide his lower face and made a signal to his brother to keep silent. He was going to go ahead to scout the area.

With their backs facing the trunk of a tree, they slowly turned their heads towards the direction of a large cave. It was seemingly serene on the outside. They've even spotted a deer standing at the entrance, who soon skipped away when they poked their heads out. Seeing as no figures were wandering about outside, the young man crept a little closer while skilfully making as little noise as possible.

As he stood directly at the entrance, he checked the floor to see if footsteps were going in and out of the cave. Once he had cleared the area, he waved to his brother, who was still standing at the same spot he had left him, that it was safe.

The young boy was halfway to his older brother, but then suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Brother! I can see someone in the cave. It’s a girl and I think she’s heavily injured!”

“Wait no! Don’t get any clos-“

It was too late for him to finish his sentence- the boy was already rushing towards the girl in the cave without as much as a glance back.

‘Damnit this idiot!’

As he tried to quickly catch up to his idiotic younger brother, he took out the dagger under his cloak. He was ready to fight off this girl if she suddenly started attacking them. It didn't matter to him whether his opponent was female or male, his brother was the most important person in his life and he would be damned if someone were to hurt him.

However, as he approached closer, he realized he did not need to take out his dagger. Slowly lowering his weapon, it was clear that the girl had already passed out and from the looks of it, she was barely hanging on to her life. His face, along with his brother who was crouching down beside the girl, was painted with shock.

The unconscious girl in front of them was lying down in a massive pool of blood. How could such a small girl bleed so much?

A sword lying to her side, the blood tainting it had almost dried off, leaving a brown-red outer layer. From the looks of it, she dragged herself into the cave to seek shelter from whatever was chasing after her. There was so much blood that the cave stream nearby was entirely stain red and looked somewhat ominous.

Who on earth wanted this fragile-looking girl dead? Was she running from slave traders?

She seemed to be around the same age as the young man, if not a few years younger. Her jet black hair was soaked with blood as it clung to her cheeks.

Her face was far too beautiful to belong to a commoner, the young man noted as he looked at her delicate facial features and snow-white skin. As he finished inspecting her face, his eyes slowly trailed downwards. His face immediately stiffened.

“Sh- sh- she’s naked! How shameful!” he blushed, quickly covering his eyes and his brother’s with his hands. His brother should not be subjected to such a shameful image.

Having none of this nonsense, his younger brother impatiently pushed his hands out of the way.

“Brother! Now is not the time for that! She’s losing blood rapidly. Unless I treat her right now, she’ll die in a matter of minutes”

“But-“

“Brother please!”

“Ok! Ok!” he held his hands up in surrender with his eyes still closed. When he turned his face around, his face was still really hot. The image of her figure was seared in his mind.

“Wait!”

The young man was about to go outside to be the lookout. He almost carelessly looked back but managed to stop himself upon remembering the naked girl behind him.

“What is it?” he blushed with his back still towards them.

“Your cloak”

“What about my cloak?”

“She’ll freeze to death without any clothes on”

“But what if people see me!“

“You can always run so please hand it over!”

The young man was annoyed that he had to give up his cloak for this stranger but still took it off anyway since his brother had asked him for it. He undid the strings quickly and threw it over to his brother without turning around.

"Brother"

"What is it now?!" He was getting testy. He just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Could you help me collect some clean water? And collect some branches to make a fire! Her temperature is falling too fast"

"What am I? Your servant?"

"No, but you are my kind older brother. You wouldn't say no to me, right?" the boy said sweetly. He knew his brother was weak to his requests so he often used it to sweeten him up. The young man stomped his foot childishly and grunted.

"Stupid. You're lucky to have someone as nice as me as your older brother"

"Yes, yes. Thank you so much, my beloved, nice brother" the boy chuckled. The young man hmph-ed and walked outside.

‘Still, I’m kinda cold now’

The young man sneezed into his hands and rubbed his arms as tiny snowflakes drifted down slowly on top of his head.