Disclaimer: I don't own Akatsuki no Yona.
A/N: I hope everyone is enjoying the story!
Chapter 4
Dragons and princesses and legends and captivating golden eyes…
Lien let her thoughts swirl around in her head like pieces of bright silk on the wind. Anyone who lived or traveled through Kouka Kingdom knew about the story of King Hiryuu and the Four Dragons who protected and served him. It was an ancient story, one that people loved to hear, so their caravan had actually performed plays and songs and dances based on the tale.
It seemed that lately legends had come to life to do chores around the caravan's winter quarters.
The only ones who knew the full story behind the newcomers was the caravan's leader, Milady Xi, as well as Kyung and Lien, who had been allowed to sit in on the meeting between the group and their own leader. Yona herself had been the one to tell them the story, about how she had left the castle after King Il's death and found the dragons and started traveling. There were pieces missing from her account, Lien knew, but everyone was allowed to keep their secrets.
Everyone was pretending to not know who Princess Yona was, but quite a few of the older members of the caravan recognized the princess and her bodyguard, the mighty Thunder Beast. The other four were more mysterious, but their powers and gifts gave them away soon enough. It was practically impossible to hide that hand of Kija's and Jae-Ha didn't even bother to keep from jumping around and flying about the caravan's little winter village. Zeno was assumed to be the yellow dragon because of his association with the other three, and the last one, Shin-Ah…
Those eyes. She wasn't going to forget them anytime soon. So warm and startled and beautiful…
Lien had volunteered to help Yoon take care of Shin-Ah since she felt somewhat responsible for the whole group. He was staying in her family's house along with Yoon, Yona, and Hak, which meant it was a little crowded. However, Yoon's extreme usefulness made up for any discomfort, and Hak and Yona were always willing to help out.
Yona was currently sharing Lien's tiny closet of a room, and the close proximity was quickly bringing the girls together. Honestly, Lien was surprised she didn't feel more intimidated by sharing a room with royalty, but Yona was so down to earth and friendly, she didn't seem like a blue blood. Plus, Lien always had a strange feeling when she was around the redhead. It was a content, settled feeling, as if she was finally were she belonged.
What was that supposed to mean?
"Where's your head at, Lien?"
Lien looked up from folding laundry and realized that she had only gotten through half of the first basket, and there were five more baskets to go. Oops…
Kyung hovered over her, his hands on his hips, but before she could make an excuse or he could scold her, Han-jae leapt past him and landed in one of the baskets, toppling it over. The five-year-old ball of boyish energy emerged from the laundry, looking pleased with himself.
"Lien!" he exclaimed and flopped over onto his sister's lap, "Kyung's hurting me!"
"I am not," Kyung growled, "They're called chores, not torture, but that doesn't mean they're fun. I'm still not hurting you."
"He's killing meee," Han-jae whined before burrowing his head into Lien's shoulder like he was a toddler again.
Kyung flung his hands into the air. "Why am I cursed with siblings like these?"
"You deserve us!" Han-jae yelled back at him.
Lien laughed and hugged Han-jae close, squeezing him tight. "Why don't you get Jala to help you?"
"She's busy staring at Hak and Droopy Eyes," Han-jae mumbled.
"That doesn't surprise me," Lien said, rolling her eyes. Her younger sister was beautiful, kind-hearted and absolutely infatuated with the young men that had come into their winter camp. She refused to talk to them and turned ten shades of red whenever one of them talked to her, but she did end up sitting around and staring at them for long periods of time. Which wasn't disconcerting at allll.
"I'd like to point out that I'm the only one actually doing chores around here," Kyung said, arms crossed over his chest again, "Me and Yoon. I'm trading all three of you out for him."
"Fine by me," Han-jae said, flopping back into the laundry, "We can go on adventures and stuff, and Yoon can do all our chores."
"If you're switching out with me, you'll still have to do chores." Yoon stood in the doorway, looking somewhat amused.
"He's the Mother!" Zeno declared, popping up behind Yoon. Both of them were carrying clothes baskets, which reminded Lien that she was way behind in her folding.
The look on Yoon's face said that he was used to being called Mother but didn't particularly appreciate it. The two boys carried the baskets over and set them down beside Lien, and Han-jae sprang out of Lien's arms to tackle the yellow-haired dragon.
"Zeno!" he squealed as Zeno toppled over, landing on the thick carpets.
"Han-jae!" Zeno tickled the little boy, getting quite a peal of giggles out of him.
Yoon sat down beside Lien and started folding clothes. "You've gotten really behind."
"She was daydreaming," Kyung said, heading over to rescue Zeno from Han-jae. Instead, the two of them yanked the young man down, and Han-jae seized his chance for revenge by tickling his brother mercilessly.
"Get off me!"
"Never!"
Lien grinned at her brothers and then looked back toward Yoon. "I wasn't daydreaming exactly…I was just thinking."
"How about you think less and fold more, then," Yoon said in a deadpan tone. He had already folded half a basketful of things, which put her previous work to shame. She blushed and started folding faster, trying to keep up with him and his deft, agile pretty boy hands. Was there nothing Yoon couldn't do well?
Together they got through the laundry quickly, especially once Zeno and Kyung decided to help out as well. Han-jae was useless when it came to folding, but he entertained them with songs and dances and reciting his small parts from the plays he was supposed to be in. When he finished acting out a scene about getting eaten by a lion, he rolled over toward them and leaned against Lien.
"Everyone performs in your caravan, don't they?" Yoon asked, placing the last shirt in the basket.
"Yes, in some way or other," Lien answered. Whether they played music, performed onstage, or did background work, everyone worked on the productions they put on in the cities and towns throughout their region of the world. Young, old, it didn't matter. Everyone had a job to do in the Swift Song caravan.
"We should put on a performance for you," Zeno said with a grin. "Jae-Ha knows how to play a couple instruments and we can make Kija and Yoon sing. And Hak could do a sword dance."
"I'm not singing," Yoon said, "Though I have a beautiful voice."
"You can sing, then!"
Lien laughed as Yoon tried to argue and Zeno playfully ignored his protests. While the caravan didn't have much to offer these people, they were trying to help out and fit in as much as they could. It would be sad to see them leave once the weather improved, though that was the way it was when you lived in a caravan. You visited a place, made friends, left, returned seasons later. People always came and went in her life, only her family was steady and constant.
So why did it feel like a hollowness was growing deep within her whenever she thought about Yona and the others leaving without her?
