"You will… Die." I leaned on the cell for support. "I will not forgive you…!" I charged in to stab his heart. "YAAAHH!" But I failed to avenge my boy. I was stabbed near the heart, and I fell down.
"Stop, woman. You're weak! You can die lying down next to your son." He spat, turning his back to me.
"You're not dying alone, Hyunki… Mommy's by your side…" I shakily grabbed his cold hand and I closed my eyes to die. Waiting for death to open its door, but it never did.
As I thought I was supposed to die, I was greeted by King Hiryuu by the door opening with a big BAM. "My, my… What do we have here?" I opened one eye to see the King here, looking down at me with a saddened painted on his face. "I feel your strong hatred, young woman. You seek of freedom and happiness, don't you?" The King spoke so softly and kindly that it made me feel like I was already in heaven. "If I could give you another chance to live, would you take it?" I couldn't reply back since I was too heavily injured, nearing death and moving my mouth would be too much for me. And also I was in a state of confusion of why the King would come here and talk to me. Did he pity me because I was about to die? Or his intention for being here. "Ah… I see. You're injured that it's hard for you to talk. Now let me do this." The King placed his hand on the sides of my temple and I closed my eye to feel his warmness emitting from his hands.
I saw the King in my head as he ran through my timeline. 'What are you doing?!' I ran over to the King and he turned around with a small smile.
'Oh I'm just looking around… Gathering information about you and your past.' He simply said like there was no care in the world.
'Why are you here then? Let me die in peace. I'm ready to leave with Hyunki.'
'But to me it seems like you're not ready to let go of this world. You wanted to feel the freedom in your blood and soul, you wanted to actually love someone who'll abuse you, you wanted every taste of freedom that a human being would experience.' The King was right about that. I've been a slave for my whole life.
'But you're not God.' I crossed my arms as I stared at the King. 'You can bring back what's already destined to die. I have a few more breath before I die!' I exclaimed, making my statement clear.
'Do you truly not want to live anymore? Are you wanting to cast your life away just so easily where I am giving you an opportunity to live once more?' The King was pursuing his words of wisdom me no matter what. His tone of voice was still calm, unlike mine, that was already angry in irritation.
I grumbled. 'Why are you doing this to me?' I sharpened my glare at him.
'Because,' he continued to replied. 'I know you can fit the job.'
'What? What job? The job of being a grim reaper? No, thanks I'm good.' I rolled my eyes. The King doesn't cut to the chase, he makes you play a game before telling you the main reason.
'No.' He chuckled lightly, pleased from my dry humor. 'For you to be my Messenger.' I looked at him confused, but seeing my expression, he changed his wordings. "I need a Messenger to travel outside of Kouka when I need information. I can't have my four dragons to do that since they will be weakened when they step foot out of the kingdom. I see fit in that ideal Messenger for you.'
I scoffed. 'You're serious?'
'Yes, I'm serious. It's for you to travel with freedom.' I was uncertain about this. It sounded sketchy to hear coming out from his mouth. 'Please think fastly about this.' He pleaded.
One - I can die with my son, or two - I can become the Messenger, knowing that Hyunki might come with me…
'F-fine! I'll do it!' I thought about Hyunki.
'Good choice.'
After that dream in my head, I had this quick instinct to wake up and I rose up from the dead, eyes opened to see that I was in a different place. "Oh, so you're awake now." I saw four men surrounding me of where I slept.
"Where am I? Where did Hyunki go? Is he dead-" I was cut off by the blonde boy.
"That child… was never a part of the deal to be made." He whispered quietly.
"What…?" My heart died once again as I gulped to keep these tears in. "Where's King Hiryuu?" I demanded, fists clenching until it turned white. I wanted to yell at his face.
"Calm yourself." The silver man growled lowly.
"No!" I refused to remain silent. I kick the bedsheets to the side and I pushed myself off the bed.
"You need to sit down and calm yourself, please. King Hiryuu will come after his meetings." The blue man calmly talked to me.
"Who are you?" The green man asked, getting up into my face.
"I could ask the same for you." I glared at that man, growling under my breath.
"Hey two, don't fight." The blonde yelped, pushing the green man away from me.
I huffed, laying back down on the bed, pulling the sheets over me, and turning my back against the four men.
"Aren't you a stubborn one?"
"She's just having a hard time."
"King Hiryuu told us about her, so don't bring anything up that'll reminder of her past."
BAM! The doors opened and we all turned around to see who it was. "King Hiryuu!" The four men said as I watched the King walked over to me.
"Seina." He called my name.
"What is it?" I brooded, shifting around in the bed to stare up at him.
"You need to know about your own powers and who you are." King Hiryuu sat down beside me to tell me something that I don't know, but on the other hand, I was ready to yell at him...
When it came to battles, I was the eye's hawk as I flew around to informed King Hiryuu. It was usually me and Zeno who wouldn't fight. We would stay behind the behind unless they needed one of us to come and aid them.
"Seinaaaaa!" My name was being called from a different room in the palace.
"Whaaaaaat?!" I screamed back, making my way toward the voice. I stood by the room, peering to see who was there. "Shuten…" I locked eyes with him as he sat around with the dragons, smiling brightly for some reason and I saw him holding out a cup of wine toward me. With no words from him or the other three, I sighed, forcing my heavy legs to walk over to them. I sat down next to Shuten and grabbed the cup of wine and drank it in one go. "What is this all for?" I asked, eyeing everyone in the room.
"Celebration for us. King Hiryuu is busy with his wife, so we might as well party with this family that we have." Shuten wrapped an arm around mine and Zeno's shoulders as he pulled us in, nearing his face, slightly choking us from his strong arm. But if it was Guen, we'd be dead.
"Oh, now you think of us as your family, huh?" I snorted at him, letting out a little laughter.
"I have no one else to call home and family, do I?"
The air was filled with laughter and alcohol. Every night I spent with them was true happiness. No matter what emotions I felt, they were always here to listen. Zeno and I had the firm, strong most bond from the three other guys. But all the happiness came to an end… When we all separated on our own ways… And when their death arrived.
"Seina? Is that you?" I looked around to see who called my name. It was an old familiar voice that I can't seem to recall.
"Who's there?" I called, looking around the woods since I walked myself over there unconsciously, as I was remembering about the past.
There, a puffy blonde haired boy popped up in my vision. I couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't know how to react as tears instantly formed at my waterline. "Is that… you?" My knees crumpled beneath me and my shaky hands moved up to cover my crying mouth.
"Why are you crying, Seina…?!" He grabbed my shoulders. It was actually him! I wasn't seeing things, I was seeing the real Zeno.
The salty water poured out of my eyes as I cried for the first time in forever, when meeting Zeno. "F-freaking Z-Zen-no!" I gripped onto his robe. Astonished from the sight, I was also happy. I wouldn't think he'd come this instantly after leaving the Port.
"Zeno is happy to see you, Seina." Zeno sounded so weird from the sixteen years ago.
I immediately pulled back and took a greater look at him. "What has these years done to you?!" My voice cracked, staring deeply into his face.
"Zeno went through a lot of pain. Zeno fell in love with a sick woman who later died. So Zeno talk in third person so Zeno won't forget his name." My heart clenched at how he was using his name in third person. His went through so much pain… That it hurts to hear.
"My poor boy!" I pulled him into a big tight hug. "I was just thinking about the past right before you called me out. I'm so happy that I'm here with you at last!" I whined like a child, unable to control my fit.
Just a few minutes of crying to him, I brought him back to the camp where Yoon and Princess were cooking food. I tried to wash my red eyes with cold water, but it didn't help since I quickly needed to run back to them, or else they'll think something happened to me again.
"Seina, you're back!" Princess turned around with a smiled, then her eyes shifted onto someone she hasn't met before. "Who's your friend?" She questioned, still keeping her usual happy smile.
"He's my old, old, old, old best friend. And I'm happy to see him again!" I went back to hug Zeno so tightly that I couldn't keep my hands off of hugging Zeno or talking to him. We needed to catch up.
"Oh! That's great. Are you hungry?"
"Unnaturally hungry." Zeno brightly smiled as his stomach demanded for food.
Princess gave us some meat to eat, as me and Zeno sat somewhere far from the group. We were chatting about life and how shitty it was before the next Hiryuu came. I was having a lovely time speaking to Zeno and laughing with him. It brought back good memories that we shared back in the old days.
Then suddenly, the three dragons called out the Ouryuu. "Hm? You called?" Zeno said, breaking our conversation. The three marched closer to us. "Oh! On closer inspection… there's Hakuryuu, Seiryuu, and even Ryokuryuu! This means… everyone is back together." Zeno bowed his head, holding his meat in his hands still.
"Maybe I should've made a better introduce toward Princess and shouted it out to the others to hear." I looked over at Zeno.
"Seina! Did you know that was the Ouryuu?!" Yoon raised his voice at me, looking at me in disbelief.
"Yeah." I plainly said, lacking of emotions as I stared at them all, who were getting all near us. "Did Princess not tell you that he's my old, old, old, old best friend?"
"NO!"
They were all bombarding Zeno with a lot of questions and Zeno answered them all like it was nothing.
"Seina!" Their attention turned back to me. "Why didn't you tell us about the Ouryuu if you were already friends with him?!" I felt their spit getting on me.
"Because," I wiped the spit off of my face. "It wasn't that important at all. You guys had the time to find the other dragons without my help..."
"You're joking?" Yoon sassed at me.
"I don't joke all the time like Hak does, okay? I didn't force you guys to go pick out a random dragon to go first, we went in order from the least hardest to the most hardest. It seems like Ryokuryuu's are always the stubbornness and Hakuryuu's are the easiest from what I'm seeing."
Everyone was dead serious with Zeno since it wasn't very convincing that he was the 'Ouryuu' that people thought he was.
"I can't believe he didn't feel that initiation?!" Kija looked freaked out as he stared at Zeno.
"..." Shinah didn't say a word as always.
"That initiation that even had me thinking, 'boil me, take me, do whatever you want already'...?!" Jaeha looked like he was struck by lightning due to his facial expression looking weirded out.
"What kind of initiation is that?" Hak chewed his meat as he also commented.
"They don't understand." I cracked a smile, leaning on Zeno's shoulder.
"Why do you seem so out of character, Seina?" Hak kept his eyes on me from my weird behavior, biting into his meat again.
"There's nothing wrong with me!" I defended.
"Yes there is. You don't go up on men's shoulders like that, do you?" Hak moved in closer to me.
"I wish she can do that to me~" Sighed Jaeha who looked unhappy at my action toward another man.
"Maybe because I don't see him as a man! I see him as my damn brother, Hak!" I angering retorted. "He's my only best friend I have left!" I hissed, sticking my tongue out at him.
"You're such a kid." Murmured an annoyed Hak who proceeded to get away from me.
"You're such a kid." I mimicked Hak's voice, then walking off to the side… until I heard them talking about Zeno's power. "Oh no…!" I turned back around to stop them from trying to hurt Zeno, but it was too late. BAM. Hak punched Zeno's face.
"HAK!" I marched over to the men who were testing Zeno's power. "Don't do that to him!" I hit the back of Hak's neck harshly. I was feeling pretty sensitive right now because Zeno's here.
"Ow! There was no need to hurt me like that..!" Hak slowly twisted his head to look at me with a displeasing face that wanted me to die.
"Don't you know your own strength, HAK?" I emphasized his name, tilting my head to stare at Hak.
"Geez, you're so overprotective of Zeno. What's up with that?" Hak muttered, catching my ears.
"Because Hak, I lost many of my closest friends to death. I lost contact with Zeno for a long time, until Princess was born. I haven't seen him since then. Aren't you overprotective about Princess, hmm?" I moved in closer to Hak. "You're very protective when Jaeha is near her… Why is that?" I arched a brow up at him.
"Okay, you two! Break it up!" Princess nervously broke us apart from each other, not wanting us to cause a big scene. "Don't fight!" She pushed Hak far away from me.
"She wouldn't win me with those wounds anyways." Hak trying to provoke me with his sour attitude.
"I'll kill you in your sleep, Wild Beast." I sneered with a grand smiled, politely bowing at him.
"Hey! I said no fighting!" Yelled the Princess and I walked off in the woods alone once more.
"Hey! Where are you going?" I looked back to see Jaeha jogging over to me, moving past bushes that lightly brushed his legs.
"I'm going somewhere… alone…? Why do you ask?" He stood arm and arm next to me.
"Just because you looked pissed off at Hak, so I wanted to check up on you."
"I'm irritated, but we're here." I announced, standing in front of a river.
"A river?"
"Yes, a river. What did you expect me to go? A nearby village?" I don't visit villages after that encounter with Jaeha and the kidnapping moment. I could say, I get pretty tensed when I do enter a village because of those two reasons.
He looked at my confused expression then painted a grin on his face. "I hope you don't get mad…" He trailed off, humming a tune in his head.
"Get mad?" I couldn't piece up the puzzle that he wanted me to solve. That meaning, I followed behind him, guessing he wanted me to go after him. Stepping into the river, I called him out, "Jae-" before I could finish even saying his name, he splashed cold water at my face. "GAH!" I wiped the water near my eyes away. "Is that what you meant?" The corner of my lips curled up, and I leaned down to cup the cold water in my hand and threw it at Jaeha was quickly missed.
"Too slow!" His annoying voice encouraged me more to aim at him with more water at hand.
"Oh, am I?"
We were running around the river as I kept cursing him out for jumping places to places with his dragon leg. I didn't want to use my wings until it was fully recovered. My shoes and the bottom part of my skirt were soaking wet. I pouted, stopping myself from grabbing anymore water.
"Are you finished already?" Jaeha snickered, standing on a tree branch. His amused smile was taunting me as it was trying to irk me even more than I am right now. But I needed to be calm like the slow river.
I breathed out slowly, then glanced up at him. "I'm tired because of you. You're childish to make me play with you."
"Said the one who went along with it." Jaeha jumped down, started to bother me with his subtle movements. He would also ask me a lot of nonstop questions that I either ignored or answered.
"You talk so much with me." I sighed, stopping by to squeeze out water from my drenched skirt.
"Hey. I'm just trying to fill the air up instead of making it empty."
Sitting on the grass, I took off my shoes to dump out any water that was in my shoes. Then I knew Jaeha would ask me about the scar I have on my right foot. It was a long cut that I received from getting whipped at the slavery house. I looked at him at the corner of my eyes to see him staring at my foot.
"What happened to your foot?" He crouched down, grabbing the right foot to examine the scar that was left over years. Running his finger over the faded scar and placed it down.
"Disobedient. Got whipped because I didn't listen. Protected my whole body except my feet, my right foot." I briefly explained with little details. "It's nothing much to worry about. That was years ago." I slipped back my shoes on before standing up.
"But your beautiful foot has been scarred." Jaeha passionately said, hastily grabbing my hand to take in his.
"Tch… Beauty is what matters the most for you, doesn't it?" I ripped my hand out from his hand. "Nothing's beautiful about this world. Everything outright veil and disgusting. Beauty do not exist in my dictionary since everything will be ruined at the end." I bluntly said, not aware of my choice of words.
Two hands stopped me from moving. From behind, Jaeha extended his arms out to touch my shoulders. "Why do you say that?" Jaeha's voice changed into seriousness. It was the tone of voice that I can actually take him serious due to his playboy nature.
I sadly smiled, looking at a blooming pink flower near a tree. "Because this beautiful thing reminded me how vile and ill this world actually is, after when the beautiful thing was exterminated from this world. It's hard to see something beautiful bloom then for it die afterward."
"What was the thing, may I ask?" It seemed like my words peeked his interest.
"A child." With that, I brushed off his hands and walked back to the campsite.