SPOILERS for the pasts of both Zeno and Jae-ha.
WARNINGS for non-graphic minor character death.
I do not own "Yona of the Dawn". This fic is crossposted to AO3 and Tumblr.
when Zeno first finds a Green Dragon chained in a hut, he breaks her free. he doesn't even bother looking for a key, just stabs his own arm and rips the chains off with the dragon strength that surges through him. they wander together after that, him and this Green Dragon. and maybe it's hard, maybe it's not the kind of life style a five year old should have—but he knows it's better than chains, and it's what Shuten would have wanted.
he names her Kaya, and tells her stories about the woman who would have gladly become her mother. and he's proud of the woman he raises, out there in the wilderness, and maybe he stumbles sometimes, but a thousand years have taught him a lot.
that only makes it worse when Kaya dies. she hid it from him, in the end—how she grew weaker, and lost the power in her leg. he had never told her what that meant, never thought she needed to know—thought she would be burdened by knowledge of her inevitable short life.
Zeno buries her in the woods, next to the first Kaya, and goes back to the village for the new Green Dragon.
this one is three years old, and he didn't think much could hurt worse than what he's already gone through, but seeing a three year old in chains does it. he does the same as last time, impatient to be gone. to leave this place, that has tainted all that Shuten preserved. but this time he makes a mistake. he encounters a villager, and they raise the alarm, and when he finally gets away he doesn't think there's a single spot of skin not turned to scale left on him. his only consolation is that the baby is unharmed.
Zeno doesn't name this one. he doesn't even keep him. instead, he finds a new village far away from the old one and watches it for a month. when he's certain with his choice, he leaves the Green Dragon on the doorstep of the village elder. he watches for another month, and then leaves for good.
Zeno keeps a close eye on the Green Dragon village now, and when the new one is born ten years later, he is there to snatch him from his mother's arms. there will be no small chains fit to this one—not if he can help it.
of course this is where it goes wrong.
with three Green Dragons disappearing under their watch, the villagers are on guard this time around, and Zeno isn't so lucky. this time, when he escapes into the surrounding forest, it is with a dead child in his arms.
he refuses to take chances the next time. he waits until the Green Dragon is a teenager—old enough to run on his own, to listen to instructions. to not bleed out when an arrow pierces through his thigh.
that doesn't mean Zeno doesn't leave him at the first village he deems far enough away. that doesn't mean Zeno has to listen to his name.
he keeps less of a close watch on the Green Dragon village now, and the years pass in a blur of protecting Kouka Kingdom. by the time he returns to find a new Green Dragon, there are two. one of them is old enough to help escape, but the other is a mere babe, and Zeno… Zeno cannot take the baby's only comfort away. the elder of the two will pass away in only a couple of years, anyway. Zeno is sure that leaving them to live those years together, instead of apart, must be the right choice.
he is sure.
when he returns again, it is to find, once more, two Green Dragons. he looks in disbelief to the elder, who should have passed away by now, but ultimately shakes his head and continues inside the hut. what made his decision when the younger was born holds true even now, when the newest Green Dragon has only grown into a young boy, curled up in a ball with familiar chains on his ankles.
Zeno leaves his cloak as a blanket. he will return when the boy reaches thirteen.
he doesn't know the boy won't wait for him.
I promise a happy fic is coming, guys. But in the meantime, I hope you all enjoyed, and please review!