Yona was six and appreciating life to the fullest even if her Best friend and Cousin were out of sight. They'd convinced her to go out in the city to explore and even if she knew her father would be terrified if he knew, the smile of her cousin had lured her into accepting and she was rather curious. They had set off laughing happily as the sun shone and then, while turning a corner, she had lost them. That didn't bother her though, she was a little lost and scared but the feeling was quickly overcome by others. She scrambled around the town with childish excitement. While she wondered the long street busy with people and was filled with awe at how many citizens crowded in the city.
While marching down a wide street she spotted a pretty lilac kimono with a mint green bow around the middle in a shops front. She smiled at it enviously before deciding she could send for it later then continued to bounce down the street exited once more. That's when she heard the muffled scream and drifted toward where it came from: a dark hidden side ally .This is a terrible idea for a young child to put into action. A normal child would know this but to this child the world had seemed to be made for her to play with and she was sure nothing bad could possibly happen.
She edged to it and finally entered the side ally. Her eyes widened, she tried to move but was frozen in shock. A group of men were surrounding a female, who lay on the ground blood pouring from her multiple wounds and her cheeks swollen with bruises, they kicked her and jeered making crude jokes and sniggering. One especially scruffy looking man, with a lopsided smirk and broken, blackened teeth, turned towards Yona. He looked at her dimly and yelled loudly for her to beat it which attracted the attention of the other members of the group and they turned towards her in what could only be described as the way a swarm of piranhas react upon seeing a small fish.
Yona had never felt more petrified in her life. She couldn't move as this was her first out of thousands of glimpses of the sick and monstrously brutal world around her, everything she thought to have known shrivelled and died inside of her and left nothing but dismay and despair. She felt beyond useless in that long trailing second and swore to herself if she made it out she would find a way to never be so unable to do anything as she was at the moment. She felt a strong pang of will to improve but it dawned onto her that she never would if she was taken.
The men still grinning in their twisted way circled Yona. The woman behind took her chance and made a run for it after struggling up. "she's kinda cute and with that red hair we could make ourselves a fortune." came the hollow voice of someone who was behind her, the voice continued almost teasingly "shall we grab her?" this seemed to be something easily agreed on with no debate among the group and they lurched toward her with their hands extended.
Yona finally moved and curled in on herself and began to wail, as the first hand was about to yank her away a flurry of pale ginger filled the vision of all the members of the group and Yona. All the men suddenly blurred and milliseconds later where scattered against each other groaning and with their libs at alien angles. Yona looked around in shock and then to the only person still on their feet. She had a soft face and gentle hazel eyes which resembled gooey, molten caramel. Her hair was a pale orange colour and even though it was straight it curled in at the end and looked soft and silky, her face was youthful and pretty. She wore loose, creamy brown men's trousers which sagged baggily. On her top half she wore something like a poncho (in earthy colours to match her other items of clothing) but with billowy sleeves and a fashionably placed, petite leather belt. Last but not least hung an old looking bag of seemingly poor quality, across her back and the strap wrapped across one of her shoulders and chest.
She mumbled something softly to herself in a light voice and then turned to Yona, and walked toward her with her broken in, large boots barely making any sound for such heavy things. Yona finally comprehended what happened and according to her it had went a bit like this: the young pretty lady had somehow beaten up a ton of guys by flinging herself at them… Yona wanted to be able to do that. The Girl reached her and knelled down extending a hand. "Watch out next time, kay?" Yona took her hand and in a polite but irritated tone answered "I'm not kiddo. I'm Yona. Y.O.N.A" she pronounced each letter loudly and slowly. it gave her a rather bratty and arrogant air. The youthful girl raised an eyebrow "I'm Ennis and you need to calm down." the smile she had been wearing tweaked up at the left corner.
They studied each other and Ennis seemed to realise something. "Are you that one princess?" she muttered seeming all of a sudden frustrated, because it had all become clear to Ennis: the expensive kimono, red hair and general acting as if she ruled the world. Yona nodded. Ennis sigh, this she thought was going to be a problem. "Ennis!" Came the demanding voice "teach me how to protect myself and others."
"Why should I" she mused playfully.
"Because I want to be able to defend myself like you did and I never want to be as useless as that ever again"
Ennis rolled her eyes but smirked "Nah, look I have a life you know… I mean-…" Ennis rambled on unintelligibly as the fact was she was rich, didn't need to work, knew nobody, had no duties, lived alone and was bored so in all technicity didn't have a life and it was difficult to convince the child that she did.
"Okay, fine whatever kid. I don't have anything to do and I have all the time in the world. Plus this is a direct order from our princess so I'll do it. Just come here-" She scribbled down an address on a piece of crumpled paper from her bag and handed it to Yona. "Whenever you can," the house was close to the palace and Yona nodded remembering the large mansion which could be seen from one of the balconies, it was a large faded place and rather mysterious. She could do that easily "I'll come every night" she promised. Ennis smiled, she was beginning to like the kid standing before her.
"Again." Came Ennis's once soft but steadily harshening voice. She was enjoying the sense of freedom from being a teacher. Ennis usually did what others told her and this was very liberating for her, Yona on the other hand felt caged up being told what to do. Ennis smiled to herself this is actually pretty fun she thought as Yona raced around her inner courtyard. No one would ever see Yona train apart from Ennis as no one ever came to the large mansion much less entered it so it was pretty much ideal for the princess to grow in strength here secretly but that didn't mean she actually enjoyed running long laps ,doing push ups and other strengthening exercises.
Yona raced another lap and swore to herself that she was dying, it felt like it after all. she had never felt the burn of not being able to breathe fully and had also never been forced to run this much, she had snuck in to Ennis's for several evenings now finding ways to escape the castle and enter the mansion through a backdoor Ennis had pointed her towards. Ennis was currently curled on the stairs leading from one of the hallways in the mansion to the large open space dotted with trees which were in a state of bloom. the grass was a soft green and in the light of the moon reflected the large pond gleamed with almost phosphorescent light. Ennis was happy and content, that was until a certain someone appeared in her line of sight. "I'm going home now it's getting late" only a hint of a bratty tone remained as the girl spoke. The past week she had tried being more humble and to build on the realisation that the world was unfair and cruel to many, but, as many things do, habits die hard and also she was too out of breath to perhaps convey words in the usual way. She had found her way back to Hak and Suwon with Ennis's help after being saved, but Ennis had left upon seeing them. Her father knew nothing of the incident as the trio covered their tracks well and returned swiftly afterwards.
Ennis, who was half asleep and in deep thought started blurting out her inner turmoil aloud and in between all the nonsensical yawns and half formed words this is Yona's generally understanding of what Ennis said: "when she's done with basic fitness maybe we'll do weapons-" she paused in deep thought "a knife for her build, then a sword, like mine… then I can teach her to cook and do other basic tasks… it'll help her but me too as she can do some of my housework…which is more the reason to keep training her…". The rest was impossible to make out but Yona knew it was something about hunting and she heard 'Damn red head'. Yona took this as a good time to leave.