Chapter 2: Forever Changed

Cute! That was the first thought that came to Ouryuu Zeno's brain when he saw the newly born red haired baby that laid in the bed across from her parents room. The nurse laid fast asleep in a chair nearby with a blanket over her lap. Suddenly violet eyes opened and looked into side blue eyes. Zeno felt his cheeks flush at the adorable look his King was giving him. Weak limbs moved as the baby tried to reach out towards Zeno. Picking the baby up Zeno whispered to his king. "Zeno waited for you to come back your majesty." Tears pooled in his eyes. "Zeno waited a very long time." It was then that Zeno smelt something and knew the baby needed a changing. Wanting just a few more moments with his king, he went to change the babe. "Zeno swears to protect you. This time I know what I can do." He promised this as he undressed the baby. When he took the diaper off, Zeno blinked in surprise. He wasn't expecting that. A smile broke out across his face as he cleaned the tiny little baby girl up. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" The little one just cooed softly; though happily, at him.

Zeno could see Shuten making jokes about this one. Guen would scold him of course, though trying to hold his own laughter back. Abi would call them both idiots, while smiling the whole time. Zeno's shoulders shook as laughter tried to escape. Clamping it down tightly Zeno laid the baby girl down.

It didn't matter to Zeno what sex his king was. Hiryuu was Hiryuu no matter what form he took upon himself. Though now born as a female, this meant Zeno would have to protect her from unwanted attention. Rapes were so common in this era and without proper protection from those around her, a young girl could become a victim to malicious attacks so easily. So as Zeno placed his baby king back in her crib, he made it his mission to ensure she'd always be safe. Now, who could be trust to do it for him when he couldn't?

Only one name came to mind. Son Mundok. Thinking back, Zeno could recall hearing that her become the Wind Tribe chief sometime ago. If Zeno remembers correctly, he thought as he snuck back out of the room the same way her come. Mundok now has a grandson around the Miss' age, if not a little older. Zeno took the same route out of the palace that her taken before, many eons ago. Secret chambers and tunnels led him to an outside escape route that had been forgotten by time. Once outside the walls of the Kuuto, Zeno made his way to Fuuga to speak with an old friend.

6 years later

Yona's eyes opened. Yesterday had been h orrible! She'd almost gotten herself kid knapped, father had been worried and wor se of all Hak had gone back to Fuuga wit h Mundok. She was so upset right now. A part of her stated that at least Su-won hadn't been sent back home to stay with his mother. Sighing she sat up in bed b ut gasped as she noticed that it wasn't her room. Frightened she pulled her legs up to her chest. The room was massive! Tall columns of gold with red tapestry w ere at each corner of the room. The wal ls were painted with beautiful but frigh tening scenes of men fighting. Blue, gre en, yellow, and white dragons were paint ed on the ceiling. To her right a slid ing door was cracked open.

Getting out of bed, she walked over to t he door and pushed it open a bit more be fore stepping out. Outside was a beautif ul garden filled with blooming sakura tr ees, plums trees full of open buds and a small pond near the walkway. Walking up to the edge of t he walkway out of her room she looked i nto the pond next to the railing of the walkway. In the pond were beautiful shim mering koi.

A sudden noise caused her to look upward s towards the blue sky just in time to s ee a red dragon come down and land in th e garden. Blossom petals fluttered every which way causing a dazzling effect to place around the large beast. The dragon had a yellow/golden chest that puffed out as it breathed. His red mane on his head blew about it as the wind teased it. That was whe n she felt a hand touch her shoulder. St artled she jumped slightly before turnin g to see a red haired man with violet ey es. The same violet as her own and equal ly the same color as the dragon.

What was going on here? Who was this man? Why was there a dragon standing there? Just as the man went to speak everything melted away.

Bleary eyes opened. The ceiling above her was the same one she'd known since she could recall anything in her life. Yona sat up in bed. Her hair standing up in odd angles. Her dream stood out in her mind for the moment. What did it mean? Should she tell her father about it? She wasn't certain. She knew her father was going to be busy today, especially since he'd held off several meeting with the noble clans due to her misadventure yesterday. Sighing, Yona began to feel sad.

The doors to her bedroom opened revealing a chunky older woman who had several servants behind her. The older woman began to order the servants about. Two servants went up to Yona and helped her out of bed, as two others made her bed. She was bathed, dressed and made presentable in minutes. She barely got two words out in all of the commotion. She was then taken to another room where she ate by herself. Su-won wasn't even present. She was so confused. She always had breakfast with her family. After breakfast she was taken to see her new teacher who would begin teaching Yona how to be presentable to those around her.

If she spoke out of turn, Yona was yelled at harshly or worse, not allowed to eat lunch and would have extra lessons pushed on her. The idea was to bring the harsh reality down upon her. That she was expected to do certain things, act a certain way and only speak when spoken to. She was constantly watched. Punished for acting out of place. She almost never saw her father between the ages of six and eight.

During this time Yona began to feel like a small piece of herself was being crushed. She never saw Hak or Su-won any more, even after Uncle Yu-hon's death. She missed her cousin and friend. The fun days they always had together seemed like a distant memory.

On her eighth birthday things suddenly changed.

M-Angel: Sorry for the late update on this story. I was trying to have it updated by the first of the month but that turned out to be impossible. The last month and a half have been so hectic for me, only in the last week or so have things started to return to normal. Hopefully this means regular updates on all of my stories.