Chapter 37: Earth Tribe Festival Pt. 1

Yona dragged the protesting young man behind her as she rushed through walkways until she found who she was looking for, Lady Yun-ho. It was easier than she'd thought in finding the twenty something year old woman. Yona giggled as she came to a stop in front of her, the young man almost found himself smacking into her though, but thankfully he was saved from that embarrassment. "Lady Yun-ho, I think I've found somebody who can help us with some things." She pointed at the boy behind her.

Yun-ho smirked at the annoyed look on the poor boy's face. He probably wanted to be anywhere but here. "And you are?" She inquired from him.

"Yun." He stated, his face flushing slightly under her gaze.

"Yun," she repeated his name before clasping his hands with hers. "Do you know anything about herbs, spices and how to mix them well with foods?"

"Huh?" He asked blinking in confusion before looking over the tables. Upon seeing foods of all kinds waiting to be cooked or taste tested, his eyes turned towards Yona.

"We're having a festival and these foods will be replicated over and over again to bring in sales." She explained. "The festival is help raise money for the city because it needs repaired, people need food and a lot of the homes look like they're about to fall in." She smiled as the cook, a large pudgy looking man with bright happy looking eyes and bright orange hair. "This is the cook and mastermind of all these creations. Think you could help him?"

Yun looked at the large man and found himself feeling nervous under his gaze. "S-Sure." He stuttered.

"Who's this?" The large man asked Yona seeming to be annoyed.

Yona opened her mouth to speak when the boy answered for her. "Yun!" He said calling out his name a bit loudly. "My name is Yun."

"Hm?" The man stated with a hum. Scratching his unshaven chin, he eyes the boy. "You good with herbs?"

"Yes." Yun admitted with pride. "I can tell the difference between medicinal and regular herbs. I know which ones are poisonous and which ones are sweet. I also know what herbs would be good in teas, spread on poultry and what goes great with pork." He smiled as the man seemed to take interest in what he was saying.

"Then follow me boy." The man stated as he turned away from the tables filled with foods.

"Can I help?" Yona asked the man, her cheeks flushing at his stare.

The man smiled at her. "A beauty like you in my kitchen is a welcomed sight." He stated causing her to giggle as she tagged along.

The morning of the festival Yona found herself amongst the spectators in the arena. As she sat next to Yun-ho who was sitting next to a Kai tea merchant. The two were talking about the young earth lady's tea. The look in the balding man's eyes reminded Yona of a child opening a gift for the first time. Excitement was written across his face. On Yona's other side was Yun who was eating some sweet dango dumplings on a stick. They were one of her favorite sweet treats. In his other hand was some of Lady Yun-ho's tea. Over the last few days the young man had calmed down and even apologized for his first impression of her. She had just waved it off and told him that there was a lot more about her than most people knew. She now could see herself becoming friends with him.

Feeling a hand on her shoulder she turned her head and saw Jae-ha and Shin-ah behind her. "Where have you two been?" She asked having had looked for them the day before and that morning.

Shin-ah's cheeks reddened while Jae-ha chuckled. "We were enjoying ourselves." He said with a flirty smile.

Her eyes narrowed. She wasn't as stupid or naive as people that. "You were in the red district, weren't you?" She accused the green haired man.

Jae-ha's eyes widened slightly before he smirked. "Well aren't you full of knowledge." His eyes glimmered with a teasing nature as leaned forward."What else do you know. Anything I should know?"

Yona's cheeks turned bright pink. "You're as bad as Hak when it comes to teasing me." As she said this she felt his hand touch her cheek.

"Forgive me Yona dear." He said softly. "I would never hurt your feelings with my teasing."

She smiled at him. "I know."

Yun watched from the corner of his eye and listened to these two as he stuck another dumpling into his mouth. Is he... He thought as he watched the green haired man flirt with the young crimson haired Princess. Does she even know what he's doing? He wondered as he continued to watch them for a moment until the announcer began to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls!" The young announcer began to speak. "Let me introduce to you, the one and only, the greatest Earth General of all time! General Lee Geun-tae!" As the General walked out in a ceremonial robes and armor he looked anything but happy.

Yona giggled as she spotted the gems sparkle in the jewelry that was made from the rocks from the mines. Bright purples, blues and greens shines brightly against the golden armor.

"And his first opponent the terrible, the frightening thunder beast of the wind tribe!" That got both boo's and cheers. "General Son Hak!"

Hak walked out wearing a deep blue armor that had light blue gems embedded into it. He also wore a necklace of light pink gems and some glittering gem beads in his hair. Like General Geun-tae, Hak looked anything but enthusiastic.

Yona leaned over to Yun-ho. "I can understand how you got your husband to wear the rock jewels, but how did you get Hak to wear them?" The young woman asked the elder.

Yun-ho covered her lips with the sleeve of her yellow kimono and giggled. "A woman has her ways." She said causing Yona to raise an eyebrow. "Besides, he's not as scary as he looks when he's bathing."

Yona's cheeks turned pink. "You-You saw Hak..." She stuttered.

"I'm a married woman." she said. "I had Nanna do it."

That took Yona a minutes as she tried to recall the woman and suddenly the image of a plump grey haired woman appeared in her mind causing her to giggle. If she recalled right, Nanna had also teased Yun about his youth filled body and how if she'd been thirty years younger she'd have been chasing him, which had caused the strawberry blonde to blush and stutter around the older lady. Yona began laughing which was joined by Jae-ha.

"Oh!" Jae-ha laughed. "I'd have paid to see his look when that old lady entered the bathing pools." He slapped his knee and continued to laugh.

Yona turned towards him in time to watch Shin-ah's whole frame shake with his own laughter though his face still remained neutral. With Ao on his shoulder, she watched the squirrel shake on his shoulder with his laughter. Yona smiled at him before turning around.

She watched as the two men drew their weapon and for an instant time froze and she was no longer watching this fight but another one.

Kye-sook looked at the man in front of him with narrowed eyes as he reread the report. Princess Yona was alive and well. She was in the earth tribe, Chi'shin to be exact. She was improving relations with the earth tribe. She already had the wind tribe bowing to her and soon she'd have the earth too. He wanted to snarl. His plans were not going the way he wanted them to. The plan was to put the easily manipulated Su-won on the throne, put into power people he recommended. Allow tensions between the tribes to escalate until they could take out the current leaders in power and put those that could be controlled into power and use them to control the country and then begin an expansion of the country by taking back what Il gave away and then some. But as long as the Princess was alive with her guardians and Son Hak, then what should happen wasn't going to happen.

"I have new orders for you and your mercenary friends." He said causing the raven haired bearded man to look at him. "Kill the crimson haired girl and her companions." He placed a small chest in front of the man on a table. "This will be the first of two chests you'll receive. The second will be given after they are dead."

The man leaned forward and opened the chest to find it filled with gold coins. He smiled at the male before him. His eyes glowing in the late afternoon sun's glow that came through the wood panels on the windows. "The job will be done soon."

"Good." Kye-sook gave a nod. "Ensure your men get the job done well. Oh and if they were to kill Son Hak with the group, I'll give an extra bonus to you."

The man laughed deeply. "Consider it done." The two men shook on it. Beneath the floorboards was a servants passageway and in this passage were two young servant girls. As soon as they heard Hak's name they knew it was Princess Yona they were talking about. Running quickly through the passage they went to find somebody who could go find and warn their beloved Princess and the Thunder Beast.

M-Angel: Sorry for the long wait on this chapter. The reason for the wait is because I went to my friend's this last weekend to help out with her bridal shower; which was both fun and hilarious. Then I got got busy with updating The Dark Raiju. So I've been busy this week. I'm hoping to get another chapter out by Thanksgiving.