Chapter 13: The Return
As soon as Ora stepped out of the time-stream with Zeno she took notice how the little red haired princess was playing with Zeno's face and could repress the giggle coming out. Yona grasped Zeno's cheeks and pulled them to the point his face was turning comical. Zeno pull Yona's hands off of his face, only for her grasp her hair and begin pulling. Ora put her hand over her lips to stop the laughter, but it was to no avail. Zeno put Yona on the ground before pulling, gently, her hands out of his hair. "Miss, that hurt Zeno." he told her.
Big bright violet eyes looked up at him before she gave a giggle. "But brother Ouryuu always plays with me." she told him with all the innocence in the world in her voice.
It was just too cute and she just couldn't resist, so Ora went over to them and picked Yona up. "You're just so cute!" she squealed. "But you're hurting Zeno when you do that. You don't want to hurt him, do you?"
Yona pouted. "No." she said sadly. Turning towards Zeno, Yona spoke sincerely to him. "I'm sorry Zeno."
"I forgive you Miss." he told her before touching her cheek. Looking up at Ora, Zeno could see some qualities from Kaya sneaking through and smirked as Ora held Yona close.
"So now we find the other you?" Ora asked him causing Zeno nod.
"Uh..." he scratched his cheek trying to recall where he was in this time before a memory sprung up of him and Jae-ha talking when the young Ryokuryuu warrior was young. "Ik-su." he muttered causing Ora to look at him after fixing Yona's pretty pink obi that was around her waist. The little girl giggled as she took Ora's hand.
"Who?" she asked as they began walking down the road. Yona taking Zeno's hand with her free one and smiled as she walked between the two. Bouncing with sheer giddiness for no reason at all.
"Ik-su was or is a priest who was kicked out of the temple near Hiryuu Castle by Lord Yu-hon because he believed priests had too much control." he shook his head. "The true reason was the prophesy given during her first day of life. It scared him that his father King Joo-nam believed that a young girl was the reincarnation of the once King Hiryuu." They continued on the main road until Zeno saw signs ahead of them. "We go there, then we travel the road towards the canyon between the fire and wind. The canyon is where Ik-su is and where Zeno and his brothers will be." he looked at Ora. "I cannot be seen by them, so you'll have to explain things to myself and the others."
Ora looked at the sign as the passed it. Her old Koukan was a bit rusty from her language classes, but if she was right, the sign said they were headed towards the old city called Fuuga. In the future, Fuuga had been destroyed during a world war that had encompassed most of the country. A huge crater now stood where the once populated city of Fuuga was. Hundreds of thousands had died that day. The war had ended fifty years before she'd been born, but it had left scars on Kouka that would take centuries to undo.
As they walked the road to the wind capital, Zeno told Ora about the era that would come in the next hundred years. Of the peace and prosperity that would come from the Emperor that would be born. The question was now, would That same future occur now that Yona was back or would it change completely?
As it turned out, they had appeared closer to the wind territory than the sky territory, which was a plus because that meant they wouldn't have to travel too far to get to the capital; however, it still took them a full day and a half to get to Fuuga. Thankfully there was a festival going on, so the guards were laxed and the people weren't being very observant. They were able to get into the city without any problems and found a place to stay for the day. The inn was small and was located about half way through the city.
As soon as Zeno finished making the futon beds, Yona jumped onto one and curled up on it for a short nap. Ora noticed how Zeno yawned and laid down next to the red haired child. "I'll check the city out to see what's going on." she told him.
"Stay close." he mumbled tiredly.
Frowning Ora wondered why he'd say that. "I won't go too far." she assured him as she closed the door and left him to sleep.
Walking around the city for an hour, Ora found herself fascinated with how the people here seemed so happy. She had always read how the people of the wind were always happy and knew how to throw parties. They were also a trump card because of their lax way of life, people took them for lazy people; but it was the wind that could break or keep the nation strong. Their people were considered the strongest, fastest and were known for coming up with ingenious ways of defeating their enemies. She'd read once that there had been a young boy who'd been adopted by the chief as his grandson and this boy became the strongest warrior that the wind had ever had. He had been so fast and strong that he'd gained the nickname raiju in a tournament.
I wonder if that boy is in this era or another? she wondered as she continued to walk around the city until she came to the river that ran next to the city. The view from where she was, was very nice. The air here smelled so much better than in her time. Of course it does. she chided herself. There is no pollution in this time. No cars or factories that are spew emissions into the air.
Suddenly Ora heard someone fall near her. Turning her head she saw a black haired boy wearing feathers in a headband on the ground. Rubbing his knee, she saw that he had fallen out of the tree above her. "Are you okay?" she asked him causing the boy to look up at her.
"Yeah." he said with a light flush on his cheeks.
The boy looked to be a year or two older than Yona. It was then that she saw he was bleeding slightly. "You're bleeding. Let's go take care of that." she told him. Holding out her hand, which he grasped onto, she took him back into the city. She returned to the inn where she'd left Zeno with Yona. As she walked into the room, she saw that Yona had migrated from one bed to laying on top of Zeno who was sleeping on his stomach.
She heard a snort behind her. Looking down at the boy, he commented. "That's an odd way to sleep."
Ora chuckled quietly. "True." she agreed with him as she poured some water from a pitcher into a basin. Dipping a rag into the bowl, she then wiped the blood from the child's leg. He never cried out in pain or teared up. He winced, but otherwise made no sound. Ora then took some bandages from her messenger bag that she'd been carrying around and put them on his leg. "There. All done." she smiled up at him.
The boy looked from the bandage to her. "That's it?" he asked, obviously having been expecting something worse. "No wraps?"
Ora chuckled. "Nope." she said as she stood up. "You can take that off in a day or two." she told him. Just as she was about to stand Yona woke up and looked at her.
"Ora!" she cried out happily. Wiggling off Zeno's back, she ran over to her and gave Ora a hug. That was when she noticed the boy. "Who is that?" she asked Ora, her voice was filled with curiosity.
"I'm Hak." the boy told her as he looked Yona over. "You're hair sure is red."
Yona giggled. "Yours is black." she told him matter-of-factly. Holding out her hand, she introduced herself. "I'm Yona."
Hak took her hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you." he said. "You wanna go play?"
Yona looked up at Ora. "As long as I can see you." she told them.
"I'll keep her safe." Hak told Ora with a very serious tone that had Ora smiling at him.
"I'm sure you will." she told him causing Hak's eyes to light up with excitement. "But Yona is a special little girl. I'm keeping her safe myself, so I have to keep her in sight."
Hak pursed his lips as his face took on one of deep thought. "We can play in front of gramp's home. It's up the hill away from the celebration." Hak smiled at this cause he knew it was the perfect place that would allow him to get to know this strange red haired girl.
"Alright, but I'm coming with you." Ora stated causing Hak to nod at her. The trio then left the room, leaving Zeno behind to catch up on his sleep.
Zeno's eyes slowly opened. He knew he'd slept a long time due to the sun's position in the sky. Perhaps two hours at the most. Feeling the bed next to him, he found it empty. Panic set in instantly. "Miss?" he called out thinking she was playing a game with him, but there was no answer. Standing quickly, Zeno left the room and began searching the inn for Yona, but came up empty. Quickly running out into the street he found that she wasn't playing in front of the inn with any of the other children that he could see.
Panic was quickly setting in as Zeno began searching the city. He then noticed that he hadn't come across Ora either. It was possible that Ora had Yona with her, but he was certain he would've woken up to either making noise in the room.
Zeno searched everywhere, but couldn't find them. He was close to tears when he spotted red hair in the crowd. Running after it, Zeno came to a stop when he saw a black haired boy next to Yona, sitting by a fountain with Ora giving both children some dango. Zeno came up behind Ora and gave her a hug. "Zeno missed you." he announced not wanting to scare her.
Yona giggled. "Zeno!" she cried out. "I made a friend!" she told him causing Zeno to look at the young boy who flushed as Yona hugged him.
"Mister seems nice." he said, knowing he'd met this boy before but couldn't place it.
"Hak is a very nice young man." Ora agreed with a nod as she handed Zeno a dango stick.
Zeno blinked. Hak? he thought of that name before a memory of a young man fighting against the current earth general came to the front of his mind. "Son Hak?" Zeno inquired from the boy.
Hak sighed. "Yeah. That's the name gramps gave me." he spoke as if it was a real pain to admit that, that was his name.
"I've met Son Mundok once." Zeno told him. "Nice man, but seems to have a scary side too."
"You have no idea." Hak stated with annoyance in his tone. "I've gotta go." he looked at Yona. "It was nice to meet you. If you're here long, come find me and we'll have fun again." he then took off running through the crowds.
Zeno smiled at this. If he recalled Son Hak was destined to become the next wind general and would be considered the strongest warrior in Kouka. "Mister has a bright future ahead of him." he then frowned. "We should leave tonight."
Ora looked up at him with surprise. "Why?" she asked as he picked Yona up, the little girl seeming to not mind being held by him again.
"Because, Zeno doesn't think Mister won't stop himself talking about the Miss to Son Mundok who is both the chief and general of the wind tribe." Zeno told her as he led her back to the inn where they packed their things and left Fuuga just as the sun was setting over the horizon.
Old tired steps could be heard by Hak as he waited for Mundok to come into his room and check on him before Hak went to bed. Truthfully Hak was exhausted from chasing and being chased by Yona most of the afternoon. He rarely played with girls, but for some reason he'd wanted to play with her. Hak looked up as his gramps came into the room. "You look tired this evening." Mundok commented as he stood over Hak as the boy laid down. "Did you play with Tae-woo today?"
Hak had made friends with the other boy who was a year younger than himself a few weeks ago. "No." he said. "The festival brings all sorts of people to town." he said. "I met a girl and we played around the manor while you were gone today."
"Oh?" Mundok raised an eyebrow. "Should I make engagement arrangements with her parents?" he was only half joking. If the girl came from a good family, he'd be seriously tempted into making an offer of feature marriage between Hak and the girl.
Hak snorted. "I doubt I'll see her again." he then smiled as he recalled how red her hair had been. "I've never seen hair like hers."
Mundok paused as he went to blow the lantern out. "What was so different about her hair?" he inquired.
Hak yawned as he turned on his side. "It was red." he told Mundok causing the older man's good eye to widen. "She had pretty violet eyes too; but her hair was red like...the dawn."
"Hak?" Mundok said his name questioningly. "Where is she now?"
"Hmm... Shi-tae's inn." he mumbled quietly as he fell asleep as soon as the light was blown out of the lantern. Unknown to him the next moment his grandfather had gathered together a dozen men and headed towards the inn to find the red haired girl and if she wasn't there, he'd question the innkeeper for it sounded as if the young Princess Yona had finally returned from wherever she'd been. Time was ticking for them and the five year old princess as King Joo-nam was soon to die and without an heir, Prince Il wound advocate the throne to his brother Yu-hon. Many feared his accession would bring war to Kouka and though many would march next to him, there were many who feared what his rule would bring to Kouka.
M-Angel: Finally took a moment to sit down and write a chapter for this story today. I hope everybody enjoyed it. ^_^