To say the Wind tribe was relieved that the princess was safe was an understatement. Hak in particular refused to leave her side, and would hover outside the door when the women went to change her.

Yona slept for a full day straight, before waking up sometime near the afternoon.

The second she saw Hak, she froze.

"Hak..."

"You gave me quite the scare, hime," said Hak. You could tell how exhausted he was for staying up the entire night, but he would never complain. He was just so relieved Yona was safe.

Yona's eyes were shaded by her vibrant red hair. She had always found it quite troublesome to deal with, but right now it was the least of her concerns.

"Hak... you're on my side...right?" she asked in a quiet whisper.

"I'm sorry I left your side, hime. I was told by the king to protect you, and I don't seem to have done a very good job," said Hak.

Seeing the tears in her eyes, Hak went over and hugged her tightly. All of her defenses dropped and Yona started sobbing into his shoulder.

The past five days had been an absolute nightmare.

General Mundok came in once he heard she was awake, after giving her some time to grieve in private.

"Yona-hime, I am relieved you are alive and safe. How did you escape?"

Seeing the interest in Hak's eyes at that question as well, Yona clutched at the blankets.

"You took one of those little escape tunnels, didn't you?" said Hak.

Yona stared at him in shock.

"You knew?"

"I saw you once or twice when I had the night off from patrols. You always came back by morning and you never went anywhere shady, so I kept silent about it from the king," shrugged Hak. "I only recognized you after the third time though."

Yona gaped for a few moments, before she collected herself.

"I... I wanted to thank father properly for the party and to wish him a good night. But there weren't any guards by his room and the door was open a little. I knew something was horribly wrong when I caught a sort of coppery scent from the room, and heard Soo-won's voice inside," said Yona quietly. "I went to the old records building where I kept one of my stashes and took the hidden tunnel out of the castle grounds."

Hak wasn't the only one to blink at that.

"You mean the record building with the jammed door?" he asked, surprised.

"The tunnel there leads to roughly the same direction as the Wind tribe lands and no one ever goes there anyway. The patrols don't bother going near it and it's nowhere near the walls, so no one would be looking for me there," said Yona.

Hak thought back to where that particular building was positioned, before a look of annoyance came across his face.

"Are you telling me I was running literally on top of you that night and didn't know it?!"

Yona let out a small giggle at that, but it was dwarfed by her ever present grief.

Hak managed to school his expression.

"Where did you learn archery?" he asked. "Your form was sloppy, but you were able to aim with far too much accuracy for a complete novice."

"There's a reason I asked father for music lessons involving the lyre and harps," said Yona. "The callouses on my hand concealed the fact I was learning how to use a bow... I didn't want to worry him."

Hak looked a little dumbfounded hearing that comment...though he would admit it was a brilliant way to hide the fact she was discreetly training in weapons on the sly.

Without much warning, Hak laughed.

"I suppose I should have guessed you were hiding something like that, hime," said Hak. "After all, aren't you the same girl who gave the fire tribe's son a black eye because he wouldn't stop harassing you and calling it courtship?"

Yona took her pillow and threw it at Hak.

Kan Tae-jun was an annoying pest who kept suggesting that Yona play with him, despite the fact she made it blatantly clear she wanted nothing to do with him. He only saw her as a way to get the throne, and she had been quite blunt in her refusal of him.

She only lost her temper when he tried to drag her somewhere, and she punched him hard enough that he got a black eye from it.

On the plus side, he never bothered her again. On the downside... her pacifist father saw the entire thing and restricted her to her rooms for three full days as punishment.

Hak, naturally, had seen the entire thing go down and had found the entire situation absolutely hysterical. He honestly never believed Yona had it in her to punch someone like that.

Either way it had convinced him to accept King Il's suggestion to become Yona's permanent bodyguard, if only for the entertainment he was sure to get out of it.

Even if he was the only one who found out about her little trips outside the castle at night.

"Yona-hime!" said Mundok in shock.

"So hime, what other little surprises have you been keeping from us?" asked Hak, absolutely amused.

Yona had to hold back a sly smirk of her own. She pulled out a familiar metal fan, and to the disbelief of Mundok and Hak, pulled off the 'fluff' at the top. A single hair proved how sharp the fan actually was.

"I may not like fighting, but I dislike being helpless even more. It was worth every bit of coaxing that it took for father to have this commissioned since no one would dare suspect the princess of openly carrying a weapon. After all, dancing isn't that much different from actual fighting if you use it right."

Yona could see Hak was looking at her with a new, appreciative light. Mundok was still very much in shock that the princess knew how to use weapons and had been training in secret for years.

She smiled sadly.

"I only did it because I didn't want to be a burden if something happened. It's not like father had no enemies, and considering what Soo-won did, it's a good thing I kept it quiet. I didn't want to upset him," said Yona sadly.

"Are you saying you don't trust me to protect you?" asked Hak, serious.

"I'm saying I would rather not become a liability in a fight. I'm not very good at fighting in all, but I refuse to be completely helpless when it could get you killed," said Yona. "You're the only friend I have left... if you died I would never forgive you."

Hak felt something warm in his chest hearing that. It really didn't help that he rather liked the warm expression on Yona's face at the moment.

This princess who knew almost less than nothing about how the outside world was like, had managed to fool them all and survive against the odds.

He could only wonder what King Il would say if he knew what Yona had gone through. Either way, he was never leaving her side again. He had a promise to keep after all.

"Hime... how did you manage to avoid capture?" asked Mundok.

"She took to the trees," said Hak.

Yona blinked.

"I sensed you before you started shooting, but I couldn't find you. So I went up to get a better view and spotted you watching the soldiers. You were staying so still that I would have missed you entirely if I hadn't gone up as well," said Hak.

"No one ever looks up unless they hear or see something that draws their attention," said Yona quietly. "I was almost too terrified to sleep, so I took brief naps until I gained my strength back and kept heading in this direction."

"You're safe here, Yona-hime," said Mundok.

"For now, but they already suspect that I'm here, even before I managed to reach Hak. I overheard them talking and they assumed Hak had found me three days ago," said Yona. "I have the feeling Soo-won called off the search... we can't really do anything without more allies, and as loyal as the Wind tribe is, going up against whatever forces Soo-won has been gathering in secret would only lead to needless death."

The two were silent, both inwardly wondering when Yona became this smart about tactics of war, much less why she felt the need to learn how to fight in the first place.

King Il doted on her, and the idea of her fighting personally would have been completely abhorrent to him. He barely tolerated the idea of Hak and Su-won knowing how to fight.

Mundok went to step up patrols of the area. If Soo-won suspected her to be here, he might try to reclaim her. Considering she presented a viable threat to his reign, he had zero doubts that the man would have the princess executed.

Hak stayed with Yona. For a while, they were both silent, save for when one of the others brought in some food for her.

"I'm glad," said Hak.

Yona looked at him curiously.

"I'm glad that you didn't take Soo-won's betrayal or King Il's murder so badly that you froze up. I don't know what I would have done if you had and I wasn't able to protect you," said Hak quietly.

Yona stared at her own hands.

"I... I didn't want my last memory of father to be his death, much less see Soo-won there with his blood on his hands. I knew I had to escape, before something worse happened," said Yona softly. "I didn't even have time to grieve... stopping would have meant admitting father was gone, and they could have found me."

Hak quietly hugged her again,though this time the tears were silent. Yona grieved over her father, the fact that her life was utterly changed and the betrayal of Soo-won. She clung to him like a life-line, just letting her pain out.

"I promise you, hime... I will never leave your side or betray you," swore Hak.

Yona felt deep in her soul that he meant every word, which made her cry harder and hold him tighter. In times like these, she needed every ally she could get, especially those who were as loyal and trustworthy as Hak.

Mundok would never truly approve of Soo-won as king. The man was far too ruthless and cold to trust, and he was beyond manipulative.

He had always considered Yona a bright, if slightly flighty princess. He would have been fine serving any husband she chose to marry as the new king.

Instead this entire incident had ripped away the maidenly veil she had always been hiding under to reveal depths he had never believed possible in her.

The mere fact she managed to not only escape the castle, but make it to the tribe completely on her own (despite obvious exhaustion and grief) was nothing short of astounding and beyond what he thought her capable of. Finding out she had been training in how to use weapons of all things, despite the fact her father would never have permitted it if he had known, shocked him to his core.

She was cunning, but unlike Soo-won not manipulative to her core. She knew the value of hiding in plain sight where everyone could see her, but dismiss her as an actual threat until their backs were too the wall.

It made him wonder what would happen if Yona ascended to the throne as the actual ruler of the country, rather than just as the Queen who supported her husband.

Only time would tell if Yona's hidden depths would be enough to deal with that snake Soo-won.

It took a day or two for Yona to recover from the ordeal, however there was a sense of 'steel' behind her eyes that he had never seen before. One tempered with a resolve that surprised him.

"General Mundok... I want you to allow Soo-won to ascend the throne for now."

"Princess Yona," he said in surprise.

Yona looked at her hands, which were clenched into fists.

"As I am now, there is simply no way for me to counter his forces. While giving him the throne will allow him access to the power he's been wanting, it also keeps him busy and in plain sight. I would rather have that traitor where I can see him and his movements easily tracked than have his sword at my back," said Yona. It was clear she was angry, and still in grief over what her cousin had done.

He could see the wisdom in her plan, even if he didn't like it one bit.

"What do you plan to do?"

"I need more allies. I can't stand by and let that traitor do whatever he pleases after he murdered my father, but I'm too weak and it's ridiculous to rely on only Hak for protection. Guarding is far more difficult than attacking, and he can't be everywhere at once," said Yona seriously. "Besides...my being here only brings danger to the Wind Tribe, and I would rather not drag everyone here needlessly into this fight before I'm ready to take back my home."

Mundok was silent. It seemed the "flightly" princess he had always considered a granddaughter had been hiding a core of steel. He wasn't sure how King Il would have reacted to this side of her, and he was saddened that she had to show it under such terrible circumstances.

"That being said, I wouldn't mind it in the least if you started spreading discreet rumors about the new 'king' being a kinslayer. Knowing him, he'll be making it out as if Hak was the murderer, not him," said Yona vindictively.

"It would be difficult to make people believe he killed King Il," said Mundok.

"Who said anything about him being my father's murderer? No one is entirely certain what happened to me, and I don't intend to go parading around under my real name if possible. And very few people outside of those who frequented the castle even know what I really look like. It would be much easier to gather loyal allies in secret if I was 'dead' after all," said Yona slyly.

"And how are we going to prove your death to the nobles?" asked Mundok.

Yona wanted to snort at that.

"I have been meaning to get a hair cut, and combined with the 'present' Soo-won gave me, which could be easily bloodied to make it look convincing, and he would be hard pressed to prove I wasn't dead and my body hidden so Hak wouldn't lead the Wind Tribe into a revolt."

Mundok was speechless...particularly since that sort of sneaky, underhanded plan had a disturbingly high chance of actually succeeding.

Everyone knew Hak was close to the princess, so the idea of his grandson leading his tribe into a revolt over her death was hardly unthinkable. As was the idea of him resigning in anger over her sudden demise at the hands of her cousin, and refusing to serve under Soo-won.

The fact it was undermine the new "king's" position with the other countries only made things even more dire. After all, who would trust a kinslayer to be true to his word, no matter what he did?

"Are you sure about this, hime?"

"Until we can prove Soo-won killed my father, this is the best way to start making things difficult for him. The fact he can't prove he didn't have me killed makes it even harder for him. After all, I'm the only thing standing in his way of ruling this country," said Yona. "And everyone knows how rare my hair color is. Even though it's given me no end of grief I've never had it cut. Having that as 'proof' of my demise will make it nearly impossible for him to prove otherwise so long as I'm free and outside his control. A bloody hair pin only makes the 'evidence' even more convincing."

Mundok sighed. He could admit the plan would cause no end of grief for Soo-won, especially if Yona stayed out of his hands. It didn't mean he had to like it.

"I feel like I'm letting another grandchild go."

"It's only temporary, and this is the best way to keep the Wind Tribe safe. I can rest easy knowing that when the time comes, I will have you all at my side rather than against me. That's why I want to protect it," said Yona smiling softly.

Mundok gently ruffled her hair fondly.

When had Yona grown up? And how had they all missed this side of her for so long?

Seeing her leave the Wind tribe capital with a much shorter hair cut, a bandaged hand and some proper weapons, he felt a strange feeling stir in his chest.

For a brief moment, he would swear he saw a dragon behind her made of red scales. A fierce, protective thing that roared proudly into the sky and was determined to reclaim it's home. However the thing that struck him most was the color of it's eyes.

Yona's eyes were an odd shade of blue...but the dragon...it's eyes were a deep, vibrant green he had only ever seen in gemstones.