Too late? - The green dragon sent a quiet prayer to the gods, desperately hoping he had not been too late.


It was funny really; at first Yona's only focus was the hole in the ice in which Hak had disappeared. She wasn't aware of the snow that slowly soaked her clothes and progressively chilled her bones, or even large circle of enemies that had gathered around her. Even the tall soldier who apparently tried to communicate with her scarcely mattered.

All she could see, all that mattered, was that Hak had gone under the ice. The same scenario replayed in her head over and over again, from being picked up and tossed like a glove, to seeing him vanish into the darkness in which she could not follow.

Then she gradually became more aware of her environment. It started with the little things, like noting that her legs were getting cold from kneeling in the snow and that a drop of sweat tickled her eyelid. Then it grew to incorporate more of her surroundings. Like noting the man who had apparently tired of trying to talk to the mute and unresponsive girl and now prepared himself to simply pick her up and walk away with her. If she did not follow them by her own machine he would carry her, if so his life depended on it.

She lifted her gaze to meet the man she held responsible for Hak's fate. A fire burned in the violet orbs that spoke of hatred and a rage just contained.

He involuntarily jerked back when his eyes met hers. He had not expected such fury in the eyes of the captured princess, and even though he would never admit, it startled him and stirred an illogical, irrelevant fear in his chest which he couldn't seem to shake. Though his attention was soon called elsewhere, letting him forget the terrifying eyes of the furious princess for the moment: someone, or rather something, was approaching, fast!

Yona's fury faded and was replaced with an overwhelming joy when she realised what was happening, she recognised the screaming voices telling her that they had arrived to protect her and to get rid of the cretins that dared to bother their princess. When they stormed into sight Kija, Shin-Ah and Jae-Ha dived into the battle head first to clear a path to Yona, with Yoon and Zeno close behind focusing on getting closer to their beloved master.

"Yona, are you all right? What happened? Where's Hak? Why isn't he with you?" Yoon asked when he reached her, eager to get a better grip of the situation. He dropped to his knees to get eye contact with the young girl in the snow, though his efforts and questions only proved to bring Yona back from the excitement of being reunited with her friends. She diverted her gaze away from his stern sky blue and turned around to once again focus on the hole in the ice.

"He… fell in," she mumbled, still staring down into the darkness, as if her gaze could magically summon him from his cold water grave. Then she turned around to face the youngest member of the group and pure despair radiated from her eyes and vibrated in her now hysterical voice as she continued: "Hak fell in! Yoon, the ice cracked under him when he helped me to safety, he fell in and he didn't came up again!"

Yoon paled when he heard her hysterical explanation and the panic in her voice but quickly gathered himself. He called out to the blue dragon, hoping his heightened vision could give them a clue as to where the thunder beast could be.

Shin-Ah simply nodded towards the teenaged boy, only a few years younger than himself, and he stopped the fighting for a second to focus his eyesight towards the river, letting it sink below the ice and scanning the area quickly. When he could not find what he was searching for, he let his gaze follow the river downstream, across debris and natural rock formations until his sight reached a shallower passing. His eyes widened when he found what he was searching for.

"Hak's stuck in between two rocks at the bottom of a shallow passing further down the river."

Yona's face expressed pure horror when she heard the grim words; tears rose and flowed freely and without the princess making even the slightest attempt to stop them, she stumblingly got up on her feet with the obvious intention of running to find her bodyguard.

Having observed Yona and her reactions, Zeno anticipated her intentions well in advance and he quickly realised what needed to be done. He grabbed the young princess arm to stop her from leaving and turned to the green dragon.

"Jae-Ha, hurry!" He shouted.

"Already on it!" Jae-Ha shouted back in confirmation that he heard the call and the urgency in the yellow dragon's voice, and after taking a quick look around, noting that Kija, in his monstrous powerful dragon force, together with Shin-Ah seemed to have everything under control. The soldiers were focusing on the two magnificent warriors and Zeno, now with help from Yoon, held the frantic princess back so that she would stay out of harm's way. She might have forgotten but they were, after all, in the middle of a battle field.

Jae-Ha noted all this and quickly took his leave, jumping high in the air in search for their missing friend. It did not take him long to find the place Shin-Ah had spoken about: in summer commonly utilized as a perfect place to cross the river with waist-high water and big rocks protruding the surface which almost created a walkable pathway across. He landed on one of the rocks and it did not take him long to locate Hak underneath the ice. With help from his powerful dragon leg, he easily crushed the ice separating the two males, though when his leg came in contact with the cold water and it splashed up on him he could not help but yelp in shock. Every fibre in his body protested against voluntarily getting close to the terribly cold, dark liquid but it could not be helped, he just had to suffer through it. Balancing on two different rocks, he bent down to reach Hak's cold, limp body and pull him out of the natural trap the rocks created.

He struggled for a few seconds until he got the taller man's body up out of the water, Hak was not exactly a lightweight. The green dragon felt himself getting soaked in the process and shivered in response. Heavens it was cold!

He frowned deeply when he saw his friend's blue lips, pale, still face and felt the unimaginable cold, wet skin against his own. He got up with haste and dragged Hak over to the shore of the river, proceeding to quickly checking the pulse.

Jae-Ha sighed in relief when he felt a faint thump against his fingers. It was incredible weak and it took far too long for his liking before he felt the next one, but it was there. Hak's heart was still beating and his chest still rose and sunk slightly in a definite sign of life.

But it was not enough, Jae-Ha's heart sunk when the blue cladded warrior showed no sign of waking up, despite being rescued from the cold water, and in a more or less conscious attempt to get some sort of reaction from him, Jae-Ha started shaking his friend's shoulders. At first very carefully but soon with more frenzy as nothing happened. Then a small cough slipped through Hak's blue hued lips, soon followed by a stronger one, a wet whacking sound that filled Jae-Ha's heart with dread and soon developed into a full-fledged coughing fit. Hak rolled over on his side as he began vomiting up half the river. He wheezed, spat and coughed up most of the cold water while cradling his ribs with one arm and supporting his weight with the other. He struggled to force air into his abused lungs but it seemed every gasping breath was a strain. Jae-Ha threw his arm around the other man to help holding himself upright while the coughs tormented Hak mercilessly. When the fit finally subsided and he had gotten rid of most of the water, Hak took a few wheezing, shallow breaths, and looked up at the green haired man with confusion clearly painted all over his pale, tired face. Small ice crystals already beginning to form in his hair made a clinking, rustling sound as he started to shiver uncontrollably. He formed his lips to say something but exhaustion took over and his eyes rolled back into their sockets while his body grew limp in Jae-Ha's grip.

The green dragon sighed and shook his head, clearly the involuntary midwinter swim had taken a greater toll on the strong warrior than Jae-Ha would have hoped but now was not the time to sit around wishing things would be different. He knew he had to get back to the others as quickly as possible so he wasted no time but hoisted Hak up on his back and jumped into the air, not as high this time as the extra weight made it harder to reach the highs he was used to.

"Umph, you really need to cut back a bit on Yoon's cooking my friend, you're getting fat," he muttered out loud, more to elevate his own uneasiness with a joke than in a serious expectation of receiving an answer.

He rushed back to where the rest of his friends waited and dropped Hak on the ground in front of Yoon, Yona and Zeno with what he hoped came out as a casual remark noting that Hak was breathing and that he had coughed up the water he had swallowed. Though he suspected he failed to completely conceal the worry in his voice he could not help but feel. He cursed himself when he saw how the princess paled even more than before when she heard his comment as he headed back into the fight to help the blue and white dragon clean up the last of the soldiers and finish the fight.

The green dragon sent a quiet prayer to the gods, desperately hoping he had not been too late.