Chapter 10: Nest

Zeno felt his pulse quicken as he spun around. He had been gone from the camp for fifteen or twenty minutes gathering up wood for a fire. They had found a nice stream with fish in it. Yona hadn't wanted to eat it raw, so he had gone to get some wood. Upon return he found the Miss waist deep, naked in the stream bathing. Oh and he had seen everything! His face felt like it was burning. He really had not expected that. In his past life, Hiryuu had done something similar, but Hiryuu had been a guy. Zeno had seen everything he had because well Zeno was a guy too. However, Yona was beautiful young woman coming into herself and Zeno...had seen everything!

Wood tumbled out of his arms to the ground as Zeno tried to regain his composure. How long had it been since he had seen a naked lady? He and Kaya had never seen each other naked or had slept together due to her health. However, Zeno was no saint. He had seen prostitutes naked and had of course relieved himself with them, but that had been when Shuten had taken him to that prostitute house. So, a couple thousand years of pent up frustrations and seeing Yona naked was all it took to get him all flustered.

Lifting his head and taking a deep breath, Zeno spotted Hak with a crooked grin looking at him. Ah. So that's where he went. Zeno had been curious where Hak had gone off too. Seemed the younger man had learned to hide away in plain sight.

A yelp caught both of their attention. Forgetting the pile of wood Zeno, and Hak turned towards her and rushed over to her side. Yona was on the bank of the stream. On her thigh was a leech. Zeno wanted to laugh but held it back. Hak chuckled. "That won't hurt you." he stated and without thought pulled the creepy crawly off of her thigh before realizing how close he was to her naked body. Standing quickly, Hak turned his back to her. "Your clothes are over there." He pointed to the piles of clothes she had left on the large rocks nearby.

Yona looked at Zeno to see he was looking up and away from her. His cheeks pink as he scratched one cheek with a finger as he stared at the canopy above them. Yona's own cheeks flushed red as well as she realized she was still naked. Standing, she walked over to her pile of clothes and begun to dress.

Zeno woke up to a strange feeling. Looking at his companions he saw that Hak was sleeping soundly against his spear. However, Yona was gone. Standing quickly, Zeno began looking through the nearby foliage, behind rocks and near the stream. Not finding her, Zeno backtracked their footsteps. He found her very quickly. She was looking for something.

For the second time that day, Zeno felt his heart quicken. Yona had unknowingly stepped into a viper nest. The snakes hung low on branches, looking like vines. They also were in the cracks in between the trees and rocks. Zeno felt his mouth go dry. Slowly and quietly, Zeno inched close to her. Grasping her hand, Yona turned to say something when she noticed he had a finger to his lips. "Miss, stay quiet."

Yona then noticed a snake on a rock nearby. She also saw Hak behind Zeno with wide fearful eyes. She had been so worried about loosing the hair pin that she hadn't paid attention to where she had wondered to. She was now very scared. "Zeno." she whispered his name with a fear filled voice.

Zeno gave her a reassuring smile. "Do you trust Zeno, Miss?" Yona nodded instantly. "When Zeno takes a step backwards, Miss takes a step towards him. " Yona saw a snake coiling up near her. "Miss, look only at Zeno, nowhere else." Yona snapped her head back towards him and nodded. Zeno began with a small step backwards towards the opening he had come from. Yona took her step towards him.

Slowly they came closer to Hak, who was watching the snakes, both in the trees and on the ground. Taking his weapon, he slammed it on the ground, taking the head off of one near him on the ground. Yona, misstepped at that moment in fear, Zeno pulled her with all his might, turned his body so that it shielded hers as a large viper struck at her. It's fangs sank into his left shoulder. Zeno stumbled but pushed Yona towards Hak. Another viper struck his hand as he tried to steady himself by grasping a rock near a tree. Pulling the reptiles off of him, Zeno rushed out of the viper nest.

Zeno and Hak began looking Yona over who was trying desperately to look at Zeno and his wounds. "Zeno is fine." He assured her. "They were young vipers. They're not the dangerous type."

Idiot. Hak thought. Young vipers were the most dangerous because they didn't know how to control how much venom to push into their victims. "See, he's fine." Hak turned her towards him. "So why were you out there?"

Yona looked down. "I lost something."

Hak looked annoyed before pulling something from inside his robe. "This?"

Yona snatched the hairpin from his hand. "Where-"

"You dropped it." He lied as he looked away from her. Something he did when he wasn't being truthful.

Zeno sighed as he sat down next to the fire. He wasn't angry. Just a bit sore. Pushing his shirt to the side he looked at the golden scales as they formed over the dried blood. Wiping the blood away, the scales shown brighter. Lifting his hand he saw the same scales forming there as well. He supposed this was a good thing. He could've just died. He could feel the venom in him. It was making him feel sleepy and sluggish. It would eventually make its way out of his system. He just needed to sleep it off.

M-Angel: I'm sure this won't be the last time our little Ouryuu gets hurt because of Yona. LoL! Sorry I haven't updated since February. I was working hard to finish Double Trouble. Then a co-worker of mine got sick and I had to pick up a few shifts at work. This weekend is the first time I've been able to decompress and write something without feeling exhausted. Hope this chapter was good. Love towards all of you. Also stay safe!