Chapter 12: Dragon Brother


The warm afternoon sun beat down upon two opponents as they circled each other in the round training arena. One had aqua blue colored hair and golden eyes, as the second had dark raven haired hair, both boys were ten years old and the closest of friends. Shin-ah had thrown himself into his training after the assassination attempt on Yona's life as soon as he had turned six and Ju-doh would take him serious. The aw factor quickly vanished when he threatened to use his dragon eyes upon the older man. For Hak it had taken Yona getting lost in a crowd a year ago for him him to take his training seriously. The Two friends would push each other to become better.

Up on the balcony overlooking the training arena, Yona sat on a swing seat as she did her studies and watched her friends. Next to her sat a bored looking Jae-ha. The young man usually was off on a mission with her cousin, but for once both were in the palace and Ryokuryuu was bored babysitting his mistress. Upon hearing his sixth exasperated sigh, Yona looked up from the political book she had stolen from her father's study and looked over towards her guardian.

The eight year old girl looked over at him, her red hair pulled back into a long braid as she sat their. "If you're bored, go train with Hak and Shin-ah." she told him sincerely. Turning her head she saw her mother walking up the stairs with the help of Su-won, her cousin's hair was held back by a golden clip that had once belonged to his father. "Mother and Su-won are here now." she shooed him away.

Jae-ha chuckled lightly as he vacated his seat next to her and helped the sickly Queen into the seat. After Joo-nam's death when Yona was five, Prince Il took the thrown; something nobody was happy about. Assassination attempts had occurred twice afterwards, but were foiled by the young Ryokuryuu who had been placed in charge of Yona's safety. After Yona's seventh year, Queen Vala began to feel weak. She would fall short of breath and weak of body until it was like she couldn't move from her rooms. Then a week after Yona's eighth birthday, her strength mysteriously returned. Some days were better then others though. Today was one of those good days.

It saddened Jae-ha to watch the kind and gentle woman that had been so full of strength waste away. She seemed thinner to him and pale, even though she spent a lot of time in the sun. He saw Yona look at him and wave at him to go. The tiny red haired girl was nothing he had imagined; instead of being the bossy, arrogant rich girl that she was, she was kind to him, to others around her and even looked after servants who were having a hard time in their daily lives. Nobody knew of this of course, but it was nice to know he could be wrong.

"Okay, okay..." he raised his hands up in defeat. "I'll go see if I can teach those two how fight beautifully." Yona's giggling made him smile before he jumped high Into the air, only to land in the center of the training arena between Hak and Shin-ah.

"That boy..." Queen Vala muttered as she shook her head softly at his antics. "He's a bit of a show off, isn't he darling?"

"Yes Mother." Yona answered in agreement. "But Jae-ha does fight beautifully." she stated before reopening the book she was trying to study. She'd been having weird dreams lately of a red haired man telling her to watch over her country's policies and in order to do that she needed to understand the politics and those really made her head hurt. "Su-won," she called over cousin and patted the seat next to her. Once he was seated next to her, she sat the book into his hands. "Explain this to me." she told him.

Su-won read over the passages that Yona had been reading before looking at her with amazement. "You're reading the policies of the country trade agreements with the neighboring countries." he told her, gaining a nod from her. "Uh...this could take awhile." he told her. "I'm still learning this myself and I'm three years older than yourself."

"Do you not understand them?" she asked him curiously. Her bright violet eyes looking into his blues.

"How about we read and see if we both can understand them." he said sounding unsure of himself. At her nod, Su-won began at the beginning.

Vala listened to her daughter and nephew, a smile in place on her lips as she heard them talking. So grown up. she thought as she brought a paper fan up to her face and waved it to cool herself off. Turning her eyes back to the training field she watched as both Hak and Shin-ah ganged upon Jae-ha. A flash of green from him using his leg and Hak went flying through the air and hit the padded wall before the youth stood up quickly to avoid the torrent of four daggers coming towards his head. Grasping his practice staff, Hak flung himself towards Jae-ah. At this point Shin-ah took Jae-ha's attention off of Hak.

Jae-ha dodged Shin-ah's attempts to hit him, but using his eyes Shin-ah was able to predict how Jae-ha was going to move by seeing how his muscles and bones moved. He had discovered this ability a year ago by accident when he had been fighting against Ju-doh. It was also how he had discovered the newly appointed sky general's weakness in his left leg, which he exploited in that fight. Jae-ha had no weak bones or muscles, but he could be predictable if Shin-ah watched him carefully. Seeing it, Shin-ah forced Jae-ha to jump which allowed Hak to come from behind to hit Jae-ha in the lower back with his staff. Jae-ah landed with a oof and a groan as he looked up at both young boys.

Grinning, he was impressed to see that one of them had actually hit him. Grasping his shuriken, he threw the curved star weapons at both boys. Hak jumped back and to the side as Shin-ah, who had seen the attack coming, slid onto his back before rushing towards Jae-ha with a false sword. The green haired man dodged the attack, if only barely. Throwing a kunai dagger at Shin-ah, the youth grasped it in mid-air and threw it back at Jae-ha who gave a gasp as the dagger scrapped his shoulder and tore his tunic.

"Well damn..." Jae-ha muttered as he pulled the shirt off, revealing a strap over his shoulders that held his weapons. "I guess you're better than I thought." He stated as he looked between the two boys.


Up on the balcony Yona suddenly heard the footsteps of somebody approaching them. Turning her head she saw the crown that her father wore coming the steps. Taking the book from Su-won, who looked shocked at her, she placed it in a knitting bags before placing a ball of yarn into Su-won's hands and went to work on the partially finished knitted scarf that she was making.

"Don't say anything." Yona whispered to him.

Turning his head, Su-won saw his uncle coming towards them. Nodding, he carefully held the ball of yarn as King Il approached them. "How are you doing?" his voice sounded next to Vala with some worry.

The Queen chuckled as she saw what her daughter done as her husband made his approach. "I'm fine." she assured him as he turned his attention to their daughter.

Yona smiled innocently at her father. "Daddy, are you done for the day?" she asked happily, her tone joyful.

King Il smiled at his beloved daughter, she was the joy of his life. His worry for Vala was only overcome by her joy in life. "I'm afraid not." he told her sadly. "Mundok and Soo-jin are once again arguing over the things."

"Soo-jin is threatening in damming up the wind tribe's rivers again?" Yona inquired causing her father to look at her in surprise.

"How did you-" Il began when Yona continued to cover up her mistake.

"Hak told me that Mundok complains about that." she said. "I don't understand. Why would he do that? The wind needs the river."

"Kan Soo-jin is a miserable man, so he likes to make others miserable too." Vala explained.

"Wife..." Il warned. He really didn't want his daughter to worry about these things. Not right now.

"Husband." Vala said as she eyed him, her glare still as deadly as it always had been.

Il chuckled. He knew when not to pick a fight with his wife and the look in her eyes was challenging. So, no. He wasn't going to argue with her. Leaning forward he kissed her lips gently before pulling away.

Yona loved seeing her parents happy. The flame inside her burned lightly with joy at the sight. Lately she had been noticing more and more things around her and about herself. The red haired man was one thing, another was the image of a red dragon that would appear in her mind. The fire around the dragon burned lightly, almost snuffed out. The dragon slept, but every so often the flames would light with joy; yet the dragon remained asleep.

Su-won suddenly stood up as the Queen went to stand. Il waved for the boy to sit back down as he wrapped an arm around his wife and began to help her down the stairs. Once her parents were gone, Su-won spoke. "Why did you hide the book?" he asked.

"Father wouldn't approve." she told him as she began to look for the book before handing it back to him. "Can we continue?"

Su-won smiled. "Sure." he told her as he began looking for the spot they had stopped at.


Later that night Yona sat in her room looking up at the night sky. Millions of stars shone down upon her. She barely remembered her encounter with her grandfather years ago. She knew that the Ouryuu had given her words to speak, but she no longer knew what those words had been. She had passed out afterwards and when she woke up, the experience had vanished like when waking from a dream. She had saved her cousin's life and now he served her, but she had no memory of how that came to be.

Having both Shin-ah and Jae-ha around made her extremely happy, but the night before last she had dreamt of a white dragon, Hakuryuu. He was crying, lonely and waiting oh so patiently for something. She had wrapped her arms around the proud dragon's neck and let him cry. As she had rubbed her hands along his neck and the fringe on his head, the cries had subsided to a low purr of content.

Walking over to a map of the country, she had mapped out where the Hakuryuu was. His village was centered between the earth and fire tribes, in the northern country. She was thinking of sending Jae-ha and Shin-ah to the village to check up on the young Hakuryuu and make sure he was alright. She wasn't stupid, she'd seen the scars on Jae-ha's wrists that he tried to hide from her. She was certain there were twin markings on his human leg too. Shin-ah May not talk about it, but she knew the reason they found each other was because something had occurred with his village too. Maybe they feared him because of his eyes or perhaps like Jae-ha, he had been held like a prisoner. Either way, she needed to know why the Hakuryuu was crying.

Picking the map up, she walked over to the door of her room. The sky above her sparkled like diamonds as she walked down the walkways that led her to the building where Shin-ah and Jae-ha slept. She found them both awake, Shin-ah was in the front room of Jae-ha's room.

"Yona dear." Jae-ha greeted her. "You shouldn't be out this late at night."

"I have a request for you and Shin-ah." she told him with a smile appearing on her face. "You seemed to be bored earlier today and I just remembered something I want you to check out for me." she sat the map down upon the table where the two had been playing a game of GO. "I've been dreaming of Hakuryuu-"

"Should we feel jealous of this?" Jae-ha teased her. The tiny eight year old girl gave him her best glare, which shed learned from her mother. Jae-ha chuckled because the glare seemed way too adorable and was not as menacing as she wanted it to be.

"He's crying." she told him, causing Jae-ha to look more seriously at her.

"He's alone." Shin-ah stated. "I've seen him in dreams too." he looked at Jae-ha. "He needs us brother."

Jae-ha looked between the two younger children. "We don't know his situation." he told them, a bit of fear entering his voice, along with nervousness. He had sworn to himself that he'd never go near another dragon village. "For all we know they'll throw us into a cage with him or a cell or worse!"

Yona knew Jae-ha's claims were true and she knew he was going to try and get out of this. "If you do not want to go, that is fine." she told him before looking at Shin-ah. "Will you go for me?" she asked him, hoping he wasn't afraid.

Jae-ha froze as he looked towards the blue haired boy. "Yes." Shin-ah said with no uncertainty. "I'm not scared."

"Neither am I." Jae-ha countered.

"I'll take somebody with me." he told her before thinking for a moment. "Perhaps Su-won and Hak. Make it into a trip. Mundok will not question that since Hak and I can take care of ourselves." he looked at her. "We won't take any guards, just in case." he looked at Jae-ha. "I can freeze people with my eyes without the paralysis kicking in, but if it comes to a fight, it would be best to have the advantage in the sky."

Jae-ha felt sweat dripping down the back of his neck. He really did not like this idea. "Fine. I'll go with you." he agreed reluctantly. I just hope this doesn't come back to bite us in the ass. He thought mournfully as he watched Shin-ah take Yona's hand and lead her back to her room as he sat down to look over the map and the area that Yona had marked upon it.


M-Angel: I hope everybody enjoyed this chapter. ^_^ If you don't know, I just posted a new Bleach story called Two of A Kind. Hope you enjoy it!