Chapter 6: Princess' Adventure

Since finding her way to the man that looked like her and made her feel like there were butterflies in her tummy, Yona eventually found out that both Mommy and Daddy would not be coming to get her. However the first night she didn't realize this though. That night she had fun with the red haired man. He let her climb all over him, it made him laugh at her antics. The green haired man had yelled funny words when she'd pulled his hair; which caused both the golden eyed man and the white haired man to hit him over the head. Yona had started giggling as they began yelling at each other. The blue haired man grasping a fist full of green hair as the white haired mans hand turned huge and bonked the green haired man on the head. She began laughing at the same time the red haired man did.

Yona then crawled over to the yellow haired man that mad her insides feel all warm and spoke for the first time in front of everybody. "Zzzzzzenno..." she said reaching up to his face. He smiled as she hugged him tightly.

"Hey!" The green haired man yelled. "Why'd she say his name first!?" This caused the other two to nod in agreement of that question.

"Maybe because I found her?" he asked just as she yanked the pendant around his neck. "Does Miss Yona like the dragon pendants?" he asked her as she suddenly put an edge of it into her mouth to suck it. Zeno laughed as the other three went "Aw." at the same time.

"Damn it, she too adorable!" Shuten yelled with a wide smile.

"Stop cursing in front of her!" Guen yelled with passion in his voice.

"Shouldn't you get back to that noble lady?" Shuten asked the silver haired Hakuryuu.

Guen sputtered at him. "Shut up!" he said with a pout as he leaned his head on his arm which was on his leg as he sat on the cushions in the kings chambers.

"You're one to talk." Abi stated. "Which girl are you with this week?"

"At least I've got a girl, goldie." Shuten stuck out his tongue at Abi.

"How mature." was Abi's response.

"G...oooon." Yona said pointing at Guen.

"She's trying to say my name!" he said excitedly.

"She called you goon." Shuten stated before chuckling. "That's right sweetie." he said to Yona. "He's a goon."

Yona cocked her head at his words. "Ah!" Guen yelled. "I am not!" He growled at Shuten who began to laugh loudly.

Hiryuu stared at his companions as he watched them argue and yell at each other over what the little one was saying. "Zeno," he spoke softly gaining the others attention. "You called her Miss Yona, why?"

"She said her name was Yona when I found her." he stated, his yellow hair swishing as he moved while Yona found the dragon necklace's beads suddenly important and begun to move them between her fingers. Testing something she pulled on them, which caused Zeno to lurch forward. "Miss, be nice. It's not nice to pull the necklace like that." Hiryuu watched Yona for a moment interact with Zeno before giving a nod to a thought he had.

Yona suddenly smiled at him. "Zeno." she said clearly as she pointed at him.

Zeno smiled. "Yes, I'm Zeno." he pointed at the man next to him. "This is Abi. That's Shuten. That's Guen."

"Goooen." Yona repeated the Hakuryuu's name.

Guen groaned. "Guen." Zeno repeated.

Yona looked up at Zeno, then at the silver haired man and then back at Zeno again. "Gu...en." she said in a stutter before giggling and crawling across the bed to him. Sitting in front of him she said it once more as she pointed at him. "Guen."

Guen's face lit up like nothing else in the world matter. "That's right!" he yelled excitedly.

"Shu." she pointed at Shuten who groaned causing everybody to laugh at her.

"Well, she learn quickly at least." Abi said as he stood up. "I've got a few reports to look at, and one to write up." he picked up some of the dishes from the floor before setting them on the cart.

"What report?" Hiryuu inquired as he watched his friend stand to leave. Abi froze, while the others suddenly looked nervous. "You're hiding things from me." he accused them.

"We just don't want you to worry." Guen stated as he sat Yona down on the floor. The little girl watched them for a moment before finding them boring as they were no longer paying her attention. "There was an incident, but we handled it."

"Yeah, it wasn't even that big of a deal." Shuten stated with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I'm sure." Hiryuu stated as he frowned at them. "I have a hard enough time trying to keep the nobles from usurping, I don't want to worry about you four hiding things from me." he took a deep breath, a pain in his side made him take a steadying breath. The four warriors gave each other worrying looks. "I know I am weakening. I am slowly dying, I have known for awhile;" he glared at them as a fire of determination entered his eyes. "but I will not die just yet!"

They had the courtesy of looking ashamed. "Of course." Abi said softly. "Then do you want me to tell you what has happened in the water tribe?"

"Yes." Hiryuu said with some authority in his voice.

Abi gave a soft smile at his words before he began to tell Hiryuu about the barbarian arm that came from the sea. "At first I thought they were from Sei, but the flag was not one from that country, nor from Xing." he looked over at Shuten who gave a nod.

"It was black with a white star under a golden half moon." Shuten said as he recalled seeing the glad flown by one of the military soldiers he had killed. "The skin of the men was darker than normal too."

"I noticed that!" Guen agreed. "Almost the color of wet dirt, but not black like night. Just a darker brown color." he said describing the enemy.

"The armor they wore was black though, with red fire drawn upon it." Abi said trying to recall every detail. "The leader had golden armor with a bird upon his chest."

Hiryuu touched his chin. He recalled in his early days fighting an enemy like this. "They don't come from Kai, Xing or Sei." he said sounding confident. "I fought a similar enemy a long time ago. They came from a country of sand." he looked up. "I thought they'd been eradicated." he sighed sadly. "I'll have to look up my early battles. I don't remember the name of the people."

Zeno smiled sympathetically towards his king. Even though he had no idea why he didn't age like the others, he knew that with age came memory loss as well as many other things. He then took notice that while they had been busy talking the little Miss had gone quiet. "Uh..." he began as he looked around himself. His brothers turning towards him with clear annoyance in their eyes. "Where is the Miss?" That got everybody's attention and with that all five men began searching for the tiny little girl.

Yona got bored of all the talking. She wanted to go to the gardens and play, but she didn't know where they were. She wasn't much of a walker yet, so she crawled everywhere. The long walkways were gated off with red trellis between each pillar, so she couldn't really go anywhere but where the walkways led. Each building had lots of people going to and fro to their jobs. Servants didn't see her because she was crawling on the floor. Councilors didn't pay her mind because she was below them. So she just went on with her exploration. She saw guards at their posts, but they didn't pay her mind because they couldn't leave their posts unless she was going kill somebody; which they doubted.

Yona found a really big building with lots of scrolls and books. Off to the side was a secondary chamber with a huge bed. Crawling deeper into the building she could hear a voice mumbling numbers and words she didn't understand. Looking around for the source of the words she found a young man who looked like the red haired man, but had dark locks like the boy that the one eyed man who yelled a lot. He was sitting at a desk writing something with one hand while reading something out loud. Giggling as she sat on her bottom while looking up at him, suddenly violet eyes looked around before meeting her violet eyes.

Yak-shi was bored out of his mind with taxes and how much each territory was giving the king and how much was still owed or had gone missing from the kings purse. The sound of a child's giggle interrupted his thoughts, but was a welcomed distraction. Lifting his head, Yak-shi looked around, but saw nothing until he looked to his side and saw the red haired toddler. She was wearing his father's colors as her kimono was made of the same material as his father's, she even looked like him. Standing from his seat he approached the child and picked her up.

At sixteen Yak-shi was the only child between King Hiryuu and his wife, the late Queen. Looking down at the child in his arms, Yak-shi smiled at her. "It seems father has been keeping a secret." he said as he kissed her forehead. "Are you my baby sister?"

As Yona looked up at the young man before her, she was suddenly reminded of her scary uncle's son, the boy with kind eyes. This man looked like him, Su-won, if she remembered right. The only difference was the hair and eyes, but everything else was the same. She frowned at him, before reaching out at him and grasping his hair.

Yak-shi chuckled as he unwrapped her fingers from his hair. "That's not nice." he said before sitting her down on the desk before grasping the ribbon he usually had in his hair. Tying the long strands of black hair back, he then picked the little girl back up. "My name is Yak-shi." he said as he held the child on his hip. "What's your name?" He waited for her to say her name, but got nothing. "Hmm... Perhaps you're too young to talk."

"Shu." Yona said pointing up into the air.

Yak-shi looked at what she as pointing to and saw Lord Shuten jumping high in the air. "You know fathers warriors?" he asked in wonderment. He gave a soft laugh. "Of course you do. I was raised with them too." he watched the Ryokuryuu warrior take off towards the barracks. "Which do you like the most? I like Lord Abi, not because of his eyes; but because he taught me how to love to read." he said looking up at the many shelves of books and scrolls in his personal corridors. "Ryokuryuu is fun to fight, if you want a challenge. Hakuryuu is a bit easier to fight, I think he lets me win though." he smiled as he began to walk towards his father's personal chambers. "Lord Ouryuu is nice to talk to, he's easily the nicest one out of the bunch; very calm too."

Yak-shi was almost to his father's rooms when Yona spoke. "Yona." she said looking up at him.

"Yona." he repeated before smiling happily. "I like that name little sister. It means Dawn." he cocked his head at her. "Does this mean you are the dawn of a new era? Or the dawn of new life?" he chuckled. "Everything father does has meaning to it." he shifted her go his other hip as he continued down the walkway. He found his father's rooms empty though. Going into the kings garden he found his father looking under bushes as Zeno was rushing around near the koi pond. He suddenly chuckled causing both to turn towards him. "Did you lose something father?" he asked, his eyes sparkling with joy at finding that his father wasn't as perfect as people thought.

"Yona!" Hiryuu exclaimed as he rushed over to his son.

"Why have you kept her a secret father?" Yak-shi inquired as he handed the child to his father, the little girl hugging him.

"Huh?" Hiryuu suddenly found himself confused.

"You should've known I would've loved having a sibling." he touched Yona's cheek. "Especially one so adorable as she is."

"You wanted a sibling?" Hiryuu asked his son.

"Of course." Yak-shi responded before pulling his hand away at the same moment the other warriors arrived.

Hiryuu smiled. It would be a lie, but in order to protect her. "I apologize son." he said handing Yona back to Yak-shi. "I have been hiding her for over a year." Guen was about say something when the others waved at him to be quiet. "Her name is Yona. Her mother was a consort, but she left soon after she gave birth to our daughter." he said sadly. "I...was in need of companionship. I suppose she was not one to stay." he looked forlornly.

Yak-shi frowned. "I knew the council was trying to force something onto you, I never thought they'd force you to have a companion when you were adamant to stay single after Mother died when I was born." he said thinking his father's lie was truth, after all Hiryuu had never lied to him before.

Hiryuu nodded. That was true. He was hoping no more questions would be asked. "Your father wishes to keep her a secret for awhile longer." Abi stated.

"Today we lost track of her." Zeno said sounding sad.

Yak-shi smiled. "That's okay. No harm was done." he said as he looked at Yona. "I'll help keep her safe. Nobody will harm my baby sister." he kissed her forehead once more. Everybody smiled nervously and just hoped Yak-shi would not question anything else when it came to Yona. Little did they know this was just the beginning of their troubles with the little Princess.

M-Angel: I think Yona needs to wear a bell so they don't lose her again. Who liked Hiryuu's cover story? LoL!