Chapter 3: Heart-Stopping Moment
Ora appeared in a flash of light as lightning cracked around the hole that had been created by the TDD. Behind her was a hole of darkness that no light seemed to penetrate. She sighed as she came out of the hole full intacted and no bod parts seemed to be missing or arranged differently. Looking down at the device in her hand she saw a timer had suddenly begun to tick down. Lifting her eyes up she saw that she was inside the ancient red dragon castle. Making her way through the corridors, she paused suddenly as she realized that if she was caught she would definitely stand out in the clothes she wore.
Turning into a hidden passageway that she recalled from her time at the archaeological dig site that had given her the proof that Hiryuu had existed. She found a young servant sleeping in one of the servant rooms. Creeping silently into the room, she searched for some clothes and was pleasantly surprised to find something that would serve her purpose. Dressing in another room, she quickly stuffed her clothes away and began searching for her father's whereabouts, she found that she couldn't find him in the area that she had appeared in.
By morning, Ora discovered that the Princess Yona had not been abducted. She saw the Lady Vashtif come out of her private chambers with a tiny red haired child hanging on her left hip. The woman wore a green and white kimono dress, spore her sand colored hair up in a bun that was being held by two decorative jade combs that had tiny emeralds and diamonds embedded into the jade. The child herself wore a pink kimono with a white underdress with her red hair coming to her chin in tin ringlets. She clung to her mother as if her life depended upon her. A short dark haired man followed the two wearing royal clothes and the crown of a prince.
That must be Prince Il. She thought as she bowed as the family passed by like the other servants were doing. The Princess Yona gave a light coo/cry as they passed Ora. Her hands were outstretched towards her. "Uh.." she heard the Lady begin. "What is your name dear?"
Ora looked up at her, their eyes meeting. Grey-blue looked into the gentle green eyes of the woman before her. Not wanting to use her first name, she decided to use her middle. "Kiana." she said with respect in her voice.
"It seems our little princess wants you to hold her." she stated. "Will you take her for the day?"
Me? Ora questioned the sanity of the Lady. "Of course I will m'lady." she said with as much respect as she could muster. Vashtif gave a giggle as the words she used and hands Yona over to her. Once the soon-to-be Queen left with her husband, Ora took a moment to look at the beautiful princess who was now tugging at her long raven colored locks. Sighing, Ora decided that this was just luck. Now that I have her, I can protect her from my father. she thought as she made her way to one of the many gardens. At least until the timer runs low and I must return.
Yona held onto her tightly without thought of anything other that that the lady smelled nice and that she wasn't bothering her to talk or had even placed her down to walk because truthfully she loved being carried.
Ora looked at the child in her arms. I never even thought about having children of my own, but considering how quiet this one is, I wouldn't mind it. She chuckled as she sat Yona down on the green grass in front of the large bushes of flowers. The little girl crawled away on her hands and knees until she was sitting in front of several white lilies. She giggled as she pointed at the flowers. "Those are white oriental lilies." she told the little girl. "Sometimes they can be tipped with purple." she looked at the toddler. "It just depends on how much water they receive." she explained.
"Really?" came a voice behind her causing Ora to stand quickly and spin around. An older man with greying hair was looking at her. He stood heavily upon a staff, but the royal crown is what caught her attention. "Your majesty!" she gasped as she quickly bowed. A loud coo caught her attention ad Yona crawled over to the older man. King Joo-nam was well known in the history book as Kouka's toughest king. He and his eldest son Yu-hon had tough many wars together, though Yu-hon was known to be merciless. A chuckled caused her to look up at the King. "Rise." he said. "I was wondering who it was that had wondered into my gardens." he looked at his granddaughter who was pulling at his pants trying to get him to pick her up.
"Her highness seemed to want to come into these gardens." she said. It was a lie. Ora had known these were the King's gardens, but she hadn't known that they were private. That hadn't been discovered in her time.
The king gave a nod. "My late second wife designed these gardens as a safe haven." he looked at the toddler who had gotten bored at him not paying attention to her. "You may bring my granddaughter here whenever it fancies her."
Bowing her head as he left, Ora was thankful she hadn't goofed and made a mistake. Sighing she went after the tiny girl, picked her up and made her way to find the kitchen to get her something to eat.
By nightfall Ora was exhausted, but because she had not found her father nor had seen him all day long, she decided that she needed to stay up and watch the tiny Princess. After eating some dinner, Ora made her way back into the Princess' chambers when she came across somebody in her private room. Grabbing the nearest weapon, a broom no less, she swatted the head of the person she had caught in the dark room.
"Ah!" a cry came from the stranger. She quickly noticed that it was not the voice of Prince Il.
Lighting a small lantern she brought it up to find herself starring at the same blond haired man that she had seen in those photos. She had no doubt now. This was Ouryuu Zeno, the legendary yellow dragon. She had to stay calm and she had to act like she didn't know who he was. "Who are you?" she hissed as she tried to stay quiet and not wake up the Princess. "Why are you in Princess Yona's room?" she held up the stick end of the broom as a threat to hit him again.
Zeno hadn't been thinking he would be caught. He'd snuck into the princess' rooms since she'd been born. Once he had found Hiryuu's reincarnation he hadn't been able to stay away for very long. A month is the longest he could stay away. "Zeno. Zeno's name is Zeno." he stated in his third person speech. "Please..." his eyes gained a desperate look. "Zeno has been seeing the Miss since she was born. He just wanted to make sure she was safe." he said looking at the lantern.
Ora sighed softly. "There are other ways to make sure of such a thing." she mumbled. Zeno raised an eyebrow. "Look, you need to leave. I won't tell anybody, but you must leave." she blew out the lantern before grabbing his wrist and left. Once they were both out of the princess' chambers she released his wrist. "Go. Quickly."
Zeno stood there dumbfounded. "You won't yell for somebody?" he questioned remembering how several servants had done just that. "Why?"
Ora knew she had to lie again. "Let's just say that I have a suspicion of who you are and if I'm right, it wouldn't be good if you got caught just because you wanted to check on her." she pointed towards the servants chambers. "Take the servant's tunnels and leave."
Zeno began chuckling before slapping a hand over his eyes. "Zeno was certain everybody had forgotten by now." he said before lifting his hand a giving her the widest smile she'd ever seen on anybody. "Thank-you."
"Don't thank me." she said ruefully ad she escorted him to the servants chambers. "I think that if you are here than, perhaps my dreams are real." she said, trying to que him in on the danger Princes Yona was in. "I've been dreaming of weird things. A hole filled with lightning sucking a red dragon into in while a yellow one was locked in a fight to protect the red one." Zeno suddenly looked worried. "If you are the man my grandfather spoke of then you might be needed by her." she paused in walking him through the tunnel before turning towards him and chastising him like an older sibling would with a younger. "But there are proper channels that you need to go through!"
Zeno began to laugh, which caused his shoulders to shake. "Okay!" he said loudly before Turning down a second tunnel. "Zeno won't forget your warning. Thank-you." he said over his shoulder before running through the tunnel.
Sighing Ora turned back towards the princess' chambers, she realized that she had been gone too long. Walking back she kept her eyes peeled for anything unusual, but saw nothing. Pulling the handheld TDD she found that only twenty-two hours had passed since her father couldn't appeared her, yet he hadn't showed up. Where is he? she wondered after she checked to make sure the princess was still in her room sleeping soundly. When she walked out of the room, she saw him. Father.
Chuckling he stepped towards her. "I never imagined you would follow me here." he said as he approached her. "I can't let you hurt her."
"I don't plan to-" he began before she spoke up.
"You plan to leave her in some god forsaken time and see what happens when she doesn't have the dragons to protect her." she stated as a frown appeared on her lovely face. "She'll die and the future will change too much."
"You don't know that." he said as he walked towards her. "Kouka will be fine." he chuckled. "She's just one girl."
"One girl who changed everything for the better." she stated. "I've studied her life thoroughly. She'll become the savior this country needs and then become the most powerful Queen this country will ever have."
Her father pulled out a gun from the inside of the long haori jacket he was wearing. "Sorry, but I'm taking her." he stated. "You can't stop me."
Ora frowned at her father's words. "No, but I can scream." she stated.
"Go ahead." he said. "Ill just stop you from coming here once I return home."
She chuckled. "Don't you understand?" she questioned him. "That future will stop existing and a new one will appear. I may not exist in that one."
He chuckled. "Then I'll finally get rid of you." he said causing her eyes to widen. "I never loved you. Every invention you've had, should've been mine and if you cease to exist, then all the better." he smiled as he pulled the trigger of his weapon.
A single gunshot echoed into the night.
Kye-hon watched his daughter fall to the floor in the middle of the hallway in front of the princess' chambers. As he walked passed her, he could see a pool of blood forming under her. Lifting his device up, he saw that he had one hour left. Bending down, he searched her person but couldn't find her device. Cursing, he stood up and quickly went into the room where he found the red haired toddler awake and looking around herself, as if she was trying to figure out what was happening. Picking her up, he began to make his way out of the room when he was suddenly tackled from behind causing him to drop both the child and the device.
The princess began to cry loudly as the two men in front of her began to fight.
Kye-hon growled as he punched the unknown male in front of him. The grunt allowed him to know that his punch had some effect. The body fell off of him. Standing up he kicked the smaller body until it stopped moving. Turning around he found that the princess had stopped crying and now had the TDD device in her hands and was pressing the buttons on it.
"Give me that!" he yelled but before he even took a single step forward, he suddenly fell forward.
"Zeno won't let you hurt the Miss!" Zeno yelled as he tripped the man when he grabbed both of his legs, causing the man to fall forward when suddenly the princess noticed a bright red button on the device that just screamed to be pushed and like most children her age, she did what she wanted and pressed it.
The next second a huge whirlwind suddenly filled the room. Lightning and energy formed a hole behind Princess Yona and began to suck her towards it. Zeno and the strange man watched in horror as the bright red haired child suddenly was sucked into the black hole before it vanished.
Kye-hon quickly kicked Zeno off of him before rushing out of the room. Zeno began to chase after him when he heard Ora suddenly groan. A part of in wanted to chase after the man, but the young woman that had been so worried about the Miss needed him. Taking the scarf off from around his head, he began to press it against her wound. It wasn't long before guards began to show up. With pointed weapons pointed at them, Zeno knew they were in trouble. He needed to think quickly.
"You need to stop that man!" Zeno yelled. "He stole the Princess Yona!" he pointed towards the way Kye-hon had disappeared to. "He hurt my sister!" he cried, trying to fool the men. Either these guards weren't very perceptive or his words got to them, he wasn't sure which; but they took off in the direction Zeno had pointed towards. Seconds later though, more people began to show up with more soldiers. Zeno gave them the same story, and soon the entire castle knew what happened as these guards stayed to help Zeno transfer his sister to the medical wing, all the while people were running around searching for the missing princess. It was during this chaos that Zeno suddenly felt his bond with the little princess snap causing the dragon blood in his veins to scream out in desperation, which caused the eternal dragon to whimper with sorrow.
M-Angel: Okay, I know I should've posted another chapter in one of my other stories, but I couldn't get this scene out of my head. I hope everybody enjoyed this chapter. 2500 words. I'm impressed. Usually the longer chapters come later on in my stories. ^_^ LoL!