"Princess Yona! Princess Yona please! You cannot just leave your instructor in the middle of your lesson!"
"I don't care about that stuffy old windbag and his boring history lessons! Besides, Soo-Won and Hak just arrived! Lesson time is over! Play time is now!"
Servant Ji-Sung sighs, crouches on the flour and tries not to cry. The little 6-year-old princess is a bit too willful! Ever since she gained enough awareness to begin lessons, she would always argue that her instructors were wrong, missing crucial events, or just plain idiotic—especially in history! In the span of only two years, Princess Yona reduced over 50 royal instructors to tears using sharp, biting criticisms about their mental facilities and competence as scholars. If this continues for much longer, the palace won't have any more suitable instructors for the princess!
"Servant. Where is the princess?"
"Eep!" Ji-Sung shoots up to a more presentable position. "U-um, she went looking for Soo-Won and Hak, Prince Yu-Hon." He tries not to cower under the prince's intimidating scowl.
"I see." The prince strides past in a flourish of armor. "And servant."
"Uh y-yes?"
"Don't let me see you blocking the pathway with such a disgraceful figure again."
"Eep! Y-y-yes sir! Right away sir!"
Long ago, the crimson dragon takes on human form, descends from the heavens, and founds a kingdom. That was the first king of Kouka kingdom, Hiryuu. But not long after the crimson dragon becomes king, he had to fight with the humans. The people's hearts filled with evil, they forgot the gods, and the kingdom fell. King Hiryuu, too, was seized by power-hungry people. Just before he was about to get killed, four dragons came down from heaven. They offered to bring Hiryuu back to heaven and kill all the humans who had lost their faith. However, Hiryuu refused. He was human, and even if the humans hated him and betrayed him, he could not stop his love for them. The dragons also loved Hiryuu and wished not to lose him. To protect Hiryuu, the four dragons gave their blood to human warriors to give them power. One was given sharp claws that could slash through anything. One was given eyes that could see far ahead. One was given the ability to jump sky high. One was given a strong, invulnerable body. Warriors with the dragon gods' power led clans to protect King Hiryuu, bringing order to the chaotic kingdom. In time, Hiryuu, tired of battle, went to his eternal sleep, and the Four Dragon Warriors fulfilled their roles.
"Soo-Won! Hak!" Yona gleefully flings herself at her two best friends, knocking both of them over.
"Yo-na! I thought I told you to stop jumping at us every time we visit! It's annoying! And why do I always end up on the bottom?! I can't breathe!"
"Hehe but Hak, how else would I show how much I've missed you~?" A vein pulses.
The Wind Clan heir grinds out, "We. Just. Visited. You. Yesterday." The vein is throbbing quite prominently now.
"Ahahaha Yona-hime, we should probably get off of Hak now, he looks to be quite—"
"But I'm so comfortable right now! Hak can wait a bit longer." Yona cuts her cousin off.
Soo-Won vaguely feels like he's lying on top of a volcano on the edge of eruption. Why does this always happen? Yona, even though I agree that Hak makes funny faces when you do this, poking the dragon never ends well! And, I'd better prepare to run now—and make sure that Hak doesn't actually kill Yona.
"Hime." And there it is. Hak's bangs shadow his face ominously and his calm tone does more to terrify his friends than any yell could've. "You have 5 seconds." He finally looks up just as a malicious grin carves its way across his face.
"Ehehe, Hak, let's not be hasty" Soo-Won tries.
"Three seconds" They bolt.
As they crash through servants and priceless antiques alike, Yona and Soo-Won look back and have to rub their eyes because for a second it looks like a dark dragon is soaring through the air, roaring its irritation to the world. Looking at each other again, the cousins simultaneously agree that discretion is the better part of valor because Hak is scary so they'd better hide and let him cool down a bit.
An hour later, Yona and Soo-Won are in the cellars giggling softly together.
"Did you see his face I thought he was gonna explode!"
"I think he did explode in a way, or I just imagined that dragon~"
"So it wasn't just me? Hak really is a dark dragon…"
"But he's our dark dragon…just one better left alone when teased too much!"
"Haha that's right!"
They lapse into a comfortable silence for a while. The cellar is dark and musty, with vague outlines of various barrels just noticeable in the darkness. Soo-Won is a safe and warm presence by Yona's side, and she might've drifted off if it weren't for— "Yona."
"Hm? Yeah, Soo-Won?"
"Why do you always argue with the palace instructors so much? They're all recognized scholars you know, brilliant in their fields."
"I can't really tell you why, Soo-Won."
"Why is that, Yona?"
"I made a promise."
What Yona doesn't say is that she knows the instructors are wrong. They leave out important details and events and never discuss different sides to history. It frustrates her because she knows better but no one ever believes her. No one knows the truth.
Ever since she was born, Yona's dreams have always included a man with hair as red and untamable as her own. He tells tales of dragons, gods, and warriors, of betrayal, loyalty, and loss. He gives her the entire, unbiased truth and makes sure Yona understands that while history may be written by the victors, nothing is ever black and white.
He calls himself Hiryuu.
And there it is! My first story! Ah, my sister has been nagging me to start writing for a while now, but I finally realized that once I actually just sit down, it's fun to write something of my own. I'm still working on characterization and dialogue, but helpful comments are welcome!
I just got kind of frustrated with the lack of Yona of the Dawn fics so that was my primary motivation for writing one of my own. About Soo-Won, I didn't include Yona having a crush on him because she's 6, and even though canon has her developing a crush on him then, I think I'll wait and see before adding it. I loved writing the trio as kids though, especially Hak—he's such a brat. I'll probably include actual dialogue and interaction between Yona and Hiryuu sometime to give more of an idea of how the dreams will change Yona. I wrote Yu-Hon to be a bit of an arrogant jerk, but actually I don't really know much about him. I've only seen the anime, so there might be canon plot events that I'm missing about him.
All characters belong to Yona of the Dawn and Mizuho Kusanagi except for the few original characters! Thank you and let me know what you think!