Light slowly faded as they walked away from the campsite, further into the forest. Though it appeared to be lightly trafficked, there were still many ancient footpaths that somehow were not overgrown. Almost as if it was frequented by other, unseen inhabitants.

Hak felt a shiver go down his spine, but he quickly focused back on the matter at hand. "A bear, was it, hime-san?" he asked the princess who followed closely behind him.

"Yes, I hope we'll find one."

"Given the size and location of this forest… I'd say we should be able to find deer, bears, wolves, a mountain lion or two…" Loud voices drifted towards them from the direction of the campsite. Hak felt the corner of his mouth twitch a little. "…and noisy dragons."

"They're quite lively today," Yona laughed. "That's always reassuring."

"I'm quite reassured that they're scaring off all of hime-san's bears."

"We'll just have to go further into the forest then. Don't worry," she said, gripping her bow tightly. "I'll protect you from the mountain lions and wolves!"

"Ahh, that's quite reassuring too." Hak smiled at her. "I'm sure you will work up quite the appetite."

"Is that so bad?" Yona seemed to pout a little as she followed him along a curving footpath that wound around a grove of apple trees.

"Of course not. With everything that you have to worry about, I'm glad hime-san has such a healthy appetite."

"Well, training is hungry work."

"Ah yes, I was never quite as hungry as when I was training and building up muscle. I bet you're building up quite a lot of muscle now too, eh?"

"I think so, or at least I hope so."

"That's also reassuring."

"You think so?"

"It's my fondest dream that hime-san will one day become a muscle-bound wonder capable of knocking out traitors with a single punch."

Yona stopped in her tracks. "You're making fun of me."

Hak stopped too and blurted out before he had a chance to think about what he was saying, "No, I'm flirting with you."

She instantly narrowed her eyes and raised her bow at him, fitting an arrow to it. Hak was rather taken aback at her reaction to his light teasing and was almost about to apologize when she adjusted her aim a little and let the arrow fly. It whizzed past his side and into the trees behind him, where something fell with a howl and a thud.

"There was a bear," she said, matter-of-factly.

"Ahh, yes, there was."