Several of the men and women gasped, a few stepped backwards with terror in their faces. Every one of them could see the boy they remembered in this handsome young man. He was certainly Jae-ha, the monster that fled, come back to them.
"You…" the elder hissed.
"Hello, chief," Jae-ha said softly. He fixed the man with a violet stare, intimidating in its serenity.
"To think you would ever show your face here again," the old man growled.
"Then it is true," Ki-ja said, "You kept him chained up in that room? And this one…"
His gaze shifted to Garou's remains.
"Yes, he was the previous monster," the elder admitted but with disdain, "He died letting this one escape."
"He died giving me the freedom we both deserved from the start," Jae-ha snapped.
Hak, who had been entirely silent and never taken his eyes off of Jae-ha until this moment, slowly turned and pushed his way through the crowd, returning to the city. Jae-ha thought he seemed angry, but he hadn't thought the boy would leave them like that. He was a bit disappointed.
"You all are a disgrace to the dragon clans," Ki-ja said now. He was still so shocked at the injustice that was this entire village. He could feel his own dragon blood pulsing in his claws. It was at this time that one of the villagers noticed his white-scaled arm.
"He's one of them!" the man cried out.
The crowd became a flurry of questions, insults, and accusations. Yun was trying to explain it away as a trick or illusion, but no one was having that.
Meanwhile, Hak made his way back through the clutch of frightened villagers. As he passed Jae-ha, the green dragon saw that he was carrying a shovel of his own. No doubt he'd gotten it from one of the townsfolk's gardens. Jae-ha's love for the boy, his gratitude toward him, shone in his eyes but ever-stoic Hak ignored him. He simply made his way to the hole Jae-ha had started and silently began to dig.
Jae-ha noticed now that Shin-ah was standing over Garou's bones as if guarding the body, protecting it. Zeno smiled beside him, and Jae-ha's chest tightened.
Above the din of the villagers' fearful voices – Jae-ha could hear within them prayers to the gods, demands that these intruders be removed at once, even put to death, and muttered words of disbelief and amazement from some whose eyes were still searching his face – Yona spoke again.
"Please, everyone! Please listen to me!" the young girl cried out.
The clamor took a few moments to die down, and Ki-ja, Jae-ha, and Yun had put themselves firmly between the princess and a handful of villagers who were brave enough to advance on the group.
"The four dragon warriors are not monsters," she assured them, "And we didn't come here to harm any of you. The dragons protect this country."
"It's because of these creatures that our numbers are so few," the elder informed her, "Our village was once massacred by soldiers searching for one of these beasts. We lost friends, families. We were forced from our homes into this place." He gestured to the declining woodland.
"I'm sorry," Yona said softly and she was sincere, but she continued, "I'm sorry for your losses and your hardships. But you can't blame Jae-ha for a mistake that another dragon made. You had no right to punish the rest of them, to treat them the way you did, and that is why you haven't found peace or salvation."
Some of the men and women of the village shifted and mumbled guiltily. They weren't staring at Jae-ha now; they could no longer meet his eyes. He looked from them to Yona and back again before turning away and rejoining Hak to dig the grave.
"If you live in this fear your whole lives, nothing will get better," Yona told them, "You will remain isolated and afraid, and the pain you inflict on the dragons will only be revisited on others. You can break this cycle. Or…you can do nothing. Either way, we promise to leave here, and we will never tell anyone of this place. You have my word."
There was muttered consultation among the villagers, their voices less fearful but their eyes still darting to the four dragons and the spirited young girl. Hearing the words of his people, the elder sighed deeply and fixed Yona with his cold stare. His gaze flickered to Jae-ha only once when he spoke.
"You will leave in the morning," he said, "And you will never return."
Yona nodded firmly, and both Yun and Ki-ja visibly relaxed as the village leader and the rest of the residents began to walk back inside the walled town.
Before they disappeared, Jae-ha looked up and called out, "Chief."
The old man turned only enough to acknowledge he had heard the young man speak. So Jae-ha stopped digging and raised his voice with his next words, speaking more strongly than he ever had before.
"When the next ryokuryuu is born, I will know," he said, "Don't you dare chain him down."
The elder paused, weighing this warning, then continued into the village without another word.
Yona sighed and shook her head as they left. She joined Shin-ah near the wall and Garou's bones, asking him gently if he was ok. Yun followed, but to scold Zeno quietly instead, as the yellow dragon had been waving fondly at the villagers as they walked away.
Jae-ha still wanted to say something to Hak, but the boy wouldn't look up at him as they dug. Instead Ki-ja approached them slowly and stood by, watching them, looking unsure about something.
Finally the white dragon spoke.
"Jae-ha, I am…" his voice broke and he was quiet again, long enough to gather his thoughts and try to form more words, "If I had ever known…the way they treated you…I –"
He stopped again and now that Jae-ha looked at him he could see tears in the boy's beautiful blue eyes. Jae-ha realized the younger boy was trying to apologize to him, but for what he didn't know. And then suddenly he remembered his words to Ki-ja when they first met. How ardent in his loyalty Ki-ja had been, and how Jae-ha had so quickly dismissed it because his experience as a dragon warrior had been very different. No doubt Ki-ja was thinking of this too.
"Ki-ja-kun..." he said softly, "It doesn't…matter, really."
"It does!" he insisted, the tears spilling down his pale face, "It does! And I am so sorry!"
Jae-ha sighed and shook his head before answering, "Ok, well, I forgive you then. I just don't really want to talk about it, ok?"
Ki-ja nodded, sniffling and wiping a sleeve across his face.
Zeno and Yona distracted Ki-ja for awhile after that, comforting him, allowing Jae-ha and Hak to dig. Shin-ah still seemed determined to protect the remains of the previous ryokuryuu, but Ao had hopped off his shoulder and was now also digging at Jae-ha's feet. He watched the squirrel pull rocks from the hole and set them aside very reverently.
By some unspoken understanding, both young men knew they didn't have to dig very deep. Certainly not as deep as a traditional grave should be. But then, this was a fairly unconventional funeral overall.
It was Jae-ha himself who approached Shin-ah when the hole was dug, kneeling down as the boy stepped aside. Very carefully he gathered the bones, keeping most intact, and returned to the grave. He just as delicately laid the skeleton among the dirt and stones, but he didn't immediately stand up. He could only stare at the grave, the world having gone silent around him once again.
He snapped out of it when Hak shifted, readying to push a scoop of the dirt back into place and complete their burial. Jae-ha held up a hand and shook his head, getting to his feet again.
"I'll do it," he said, "But for now…I'd like to be alone for awhile…"
Ki-ja looked like he would protest but Hak had set the shovel down and grabbed his arm, leading him away with Zeno and Shin-ah. Yun followed shortly after, but Yona stepped toward the green dragon. She very gently took his hand in hers and made sure to meet his eyes when he looked at her. He gave her the faintest smile and she nodded before following the rest of the group.
They would go back inside the village for the remainder of the night, and they were sure the elder's attendants would no longer be spying on them.
Jae-ha stayed with Garou for a long time, thinking. The night grew cooler and a breeze swept his hair from his face, and he realized with more than a little relief that he could feel the air on his skin now, compared to being numb before.
He didn't know why, but he decided as he filled the hole in that if Garou really could see him, he'd probably be proud. And this thought comforted him.
