Chapter 3: First Meeting

Hak turned and watched the sun disappear behind the horizon. It wasn't like this was the first time he'd been separated from his princess, but it would be the first time she been left alone without anybody with her. She's gotten stronger. He reassured himself. She can fend for herself for one night. His mind conjured up an image of her trying to make herself dinner and frowned at the thought of her having to cook a meal for herself that might now even be edible.

Turning to look behind him, he saw both Kija and Jae-ha leaning against each other, Jae-ha's dragon leg was injured and Kija had a head injury. Yun on the other hand was still unconscious, which really worried Hak. To make matters worse Shin-ah had stated that Ao was missing and had wondered off to go find her. He wasn't too worried about the Seiryuu, but he did want to keep their group close so that when they found Princess Yona, she wouldn't be worried about any of them.

Hak suddenly winced as he felt the sting in his leg that he'd felt since the incident had occurred. What the hell was that any way? He wondered as the image of the black hole once again filled his mind. The screams from Yona and the look of utter terror on her face as they began to be pulled towards the hole. He'd never heard her sound so scared, not since the night of King Il's death.

He was suddenly brought out of his thoughts when he heard noise up ahead. Very carefully he placed Yun down upon the ground. Signalling for the other two to hide, he pulled the cloth off of his staff weapon and ran on ahead. Pressing himself against a large rock boulder he peered around it to find Zeno looking around confused. His hair was a mess, his clothes ripped and he looked as if he'd been in a fight, but otherwise okay.

"Zeno?" he spoke the Ouryuu's name causing him to look towards Hak, the dragon amulet swinging from his headgear as he turned towards Hak.

"Mister?" Zeno questioned his eyes filling with tears. "Zeno can't feel the Miss or the others." his chest began to heave as his emotions began to become to much for him to hold back. Rivers of tears fell down his cheeks. "Zeno...Zeno is...happy you found him." he sniffed.

Hak hobbled over to Zeno and pulled him into his arms for a hug. Pulling back he looked at Zeno and saw the seventeen year old young man and not the couple of thousand year old warrior that he really was. "It's okay." he nodded off towards where he'd come from. "Kija and Jae-ha are over that way." he paused as he looked around for Shin-ah but realized he must still be too far away to be seen. "Shin-ah went to find Ao and the Princess in another direction." he looked at Zeno seriously. "Yun was hurt, badly. He got knocked out and hasn't awaken yet."

Zeno's eyes widened as he stood shakily. "Zeno is fine." he said as he dusted off his coat. "I'll look at Yun, perhaps Zeno will know what's wrong." he began to walk off towards where Hak had come from.

"If not, we will have to find a village quickly." Hak stated as they reached the group.

Hak saw that Jae-ha had taken his jacket off and had it under Yun's head. His leg was wrapped with one of the sleeves from Kija's kimono. Zeno sat down next to them, but couldn't see very good because the light was vanishing. "We need a fire and food." he saw looking at Hak. "I can do the fire if Mister goes off to find food for us."

"There was a stream we passed not too long ago." Hak stated as he began to walk off, leaving the four behind.

Yona took another step backwards away from the unknown men. One man she could've handled had she really needed to, but three? She wasn't that good yet. Ao squeaked into her hair. "Ah," the first man said, his voice gentle with his surprise as he held up his hands. "we mean no harm." he said as the other two looked towards her. He took a step forward. The fire lighting up his features. His gentle eyes looked at her. "I swear we mean you no harm. We took a wrong turn and ended up in this forest." he sighed. "I must admit, we're a bit lost."

Yona pulled her string back so that it was slack. "So am I." she admitted but didn't take any steps to get near the man. He has gentle eyes. she thought However, I can't tell what he looks like. She watched as the next man walked into the light, his bright white hair catching the light easily.

"Geesh, it's just a girl." he said shaking his head. "I thought you were a bandit or something."

Yona's eyes widened before suddenly she laughed. Well, he's not too far off on that assumption. she thought as she pulled the hood of her cloak closer in order to hide her features.

"Goodness, does this mean we must keep moving." came a soft voice behind the group.

Yona shook her head. "No. You're welcome in sharing my fire." she then looked at the fish she was cooking. "Unfortunately I don't have enough food." she looked off towards the gentle stream. "But you can always grab some fish."

"Tch." the soft voiced one snorted.

"Sounds like fun!" the white haired one said with some joyful glee as he went off to begin fishing for their dinner.

"Hey! Wait up!" yelled another the fire dancing across his features as he ran after the first.

Green hair? she wondered before shaking her head. No, the darkness is playing with my mind.

"You'll have to excuse them, my warriors are very excitable." the first man stated as he held out his hand. "I'm Hiryuu."

Yona blinked at the name. Odd. she thought. I've never met someone named after the first king. She smiled as she shook his hand. "I'm Yona." she said. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise." he said before he turned back towards the fire. Yona walked around Hiryuu back to the stump she'd been sitting on before she'd gotten startled when he spoke up again. "This is Abi." he pointed towards the man next to him and that was when she noticed that he had the same markings on his face as Shin-ah. In fact his eyes were golden, just like Shin-ah's! Her eyes widened as she took in his eyes.

"Hasn't anybody told you that starring is rude." Abi asked sounding annoyed.

"Ah, sorry." she said her cheeks flushing. "Its just you kinda look like a precious friend of mine."

His eyes widened slightly as he realized he had judged her in thinking she was starring at him for some other reason. "I suppose I don't mind if that's the reason." he said looking away, a flush appearing on his face.

When the others returned the white haired man now had a huge fish in his hands. Yona noticed the scaled arm and taloned hand, causing her eyes to widen. His hand is like Kija's. she thought as he laughed at his company's smaller fish. But that's impossible!

The darker haired man growled. "Oh shut up. You cheated Guen!" he accused.

"Cheated?" Guen asked as he scratched his head with his human hand. "How's using my claw cheating?"

"Because he couldn't kick the fish out of the water?" Abi asked, sounding bored with this conversation. Obviously having heard this particular argument before.

"Exactly!" he yelled as he placed his fish onto the spit. He then grinned. "Plus, your fish is too big for this fire." he announced with a big grin.

"I can wait." Guen stated as he sat down, placing the fish down.

"Uh," Yona began as she looked at the other man's fish on the fire. "did you remember to clean the scales off?"

"Eh?" he questioned.

Yona sighed. "If you don't clean the scales off your fish won't be very good." she stated. "My friend Yun taught me to always clean the scales off, otherwise the fish doesn't taste very good."

"Yeah, Shuten; didn't you know that?" Guen teased.

"Maybe I want to eat the scales!" he defended his cheeks turning pink from embarrassment.

"Really?" she asked. "I suppose so." she scratched her cheek before she reached forward and pulled off her her hawk. She hand some to Hiryuu. "You want this some? I don't want to waste it."

He smiled at her. "Thank-you." he said happily before he began to eat the meat.

"Pikuyuu!" Ao made noise as she jumped out from her hiding place just as Shuten took one of his fish off the fire to look at it only to have it snatched from his hand by Ao.

"Ah!" he yelled before getting mad. "That squirrel took my fish!"

"Don't lie Shuten." Abi stated. "Squirrels don't eat fish."

"Really?" Yona asked causing him to look at her and spot said squirrel, his eyes widening as he saw the fish in its mouth. "Ao loves fish. She also loves to eat deer meat too." she said before pulling the fish out of Ao's mouth. "Its not nice to steal other people's food." she stated handing the fish back before ripping piece off of her meal and giving it to Ao. "No more stealing Ao."

The squirrels ears twitched on top of her head after she'd eaten the meat before she turn and took off. "Pikuyuu!"

Yona shook her head. "Sorry about that." she apologized before eating her dinner.

"Strange animal." Abu muttered as he opened a small sack and began to eat whatever was in it.

"Has anybody seen the kid?" Shuten inquired as he looked around.

Hiryuu smiled. "He's probably listening to the sounds of the forest." he said as he finished his meal.

"You mean goofing off." Shuten mumbled with annoyance.

Hiryuu shook his head. "Just let him be." he said softly.

Suddenly the twigs snapped behind them causing everybody to look up from their meals to find a masked man with a very long sword in his hand. The tiny squirrel from before poked out from the fur on the young man's head. Abi stood quickly unable to take his eyes off of the young man. His sack fell to the ground as his eyes widened in surprise. Who are you? he whispered in his mind. His eyes seeing passed the mask and saw a face that mirrored his own.

M-Angel: So I've got the first 11 chapters of this story already done, but I won't be posting them all at once because I want see how well this story will do first. I hope everybody enjoyed this chapter.