Disclaimer: I don't own Akatsuki no Yona!
Chapter 21
For the next few days, the group continued to sleep outside of the village and walk in to help the villagers during the day. As a performer, Lien had done a lot of traveling, but her caravan only stopped in cities and towns that were prosperous enough to support the caravan. They had gone past villages like this one before, but their caravan didn't stop. There was no point, the people here didn't have the time or money for dancing and plays and music. In the places where they did stop, her aunt and parents forbid her from going into the slums of the city.
She had never seen poverty like this before. Each day in the village was a struggle to survive. People were still starving or stricken with illness, and there was nothing to give them hope since the fields were barren and water was scarce and far away. Their group had started going hungry, sharing all of the food they had with the villagers. Slowly, things were improving around the village, but they expected the bandits to come back any day. According to the villagers, each time the bandits came, they stole what little food and supplies the village had, which made it impossible to pay the taxes the Fire Tribe government required. Lately, the bandits had been threatening to take the children as well.
The guys were the most helpful around the town, since they could be put to work repairing the houses and buildings after years of neglect. Shin-Ah, Hak, and Kija were out gathering more wood from wherever they could find it while the rest of the group made themselves useful where they could.
At the moment, Lien was entertaining a passel of children while Yoon took care of their mother inside their shack. The woman had been carrying a bundle of firewood when she had slipped and fallen; Yoon was pretty certain she had broken her wrist. She had five children, ranging from infancy to seven years old, and Lien had her hands full. Yona was helping, though by the awkward way she was holding the one-year-old baby, she didn't really have a lot of experience with infants or kids in general.
"Are you sure you don't want me to hold her?" Lien asked. She had the other four sitting in a semi-circle, keeping them busy by telling stories, but the four-year-old boy was getting antsy. He kept antagonizing his sister, inciting riot.
"I'm fine," Yona said, rocking the baby by shifting back and forth, looking like a teetering doll herself. "Like this, right?
Lien suppressed a smile. "That works."
"I wanna fight bandits," the four-year-old boy said, jumping up and grabbing a nearby stick. He waved it in the air and then innocently jabbed at Lien. "Be a bandit!"
"I don't think I'd be very good at that," she said, "I'm not very intimidating."
"Are you sure?" Jae-Ha asked as he walked past, carrying building materials for repairing some of the houses. "I could have sworn you're the one that catches on fire."
Lien made a face at him as the kids reacted exactly the way Jae-Ha had wanted them to. They sprung at her, grabbing onto her clothes, excitement on their thin faces. She was nearly pulled off the rock she was sitting on as they tugged at her.
"You can catch fire? How do you do that?"
"Is it like Mr. Kija's hand?"
"I see, I wan' see!"
"Magic trick! Do it, do it!"
"Yes, show them your scary magic trick, Lien," Jae-Ha said, his voice full of teasing.
"Thanks, Jae-Ha," she said as the green dragon kept walking, a smirk on his face.
"You don't have to if you don't want to," Yona said. She was now holding the baby in her lap, where she peered around and giggled at her siblings.
"It's all right," Lien said, extending her hands, "You guys are going to want to step back."
The four children sprang back and bounced up and down in anticipation. Taking a breath, Lien spread her fingers and beckoned to her flames. Fire sprung to attention on the tips of her pointer fingers. The kids squealed at the sight of it, and the youngest clapped. She focused, using this as a chance to practice being more detailed with how she used her flames.
Slowly the flames lengthened, becoming more like strings of flame, and they twisted around her hands like snakes, threading between her fingers. This was a lot harder than just letting them catch on fire, and it was starting to tire her out.
The fire dissipated, and the kids cheered. Two seconds later, they surrounded Yona.
"What can you do?"
"Can you make fire?"
"Show us more magic tricks!"
"I, well, I'm not…" Yona looked back at the kids and then over at Lien, who grinned back at her.
"You can shoot a bow," she said, "That's really cool." She thought Yona was awesome besides her archery skills, but kids weren't exactly impressed with things like 'leadership potential' and 'compassionate nature.' They wanted flashy, showy talents.
"Right, I guess there's that," Yona said, hugging the baby closer, "Maybe I could show you some archery?"
"Yeah, do it," the four-year-old boy demanded. Yona stood off and passed the baby to Lien before grabbing her bow and quiver. The group headed out of the village to a small place where there was an old, rotting archery target.
"Our dad practiced here," the eldest, a girl said. Her brown eyes were sad as she looked at the target in the distance. "He's in the Fire Tribe army. He hasn't been home since right before Asa was born."
"I hope your dad gets to come home soon," Yona said softly, and Lien felt her heart tug. Poor Yona, she had lost her own father not so long ago. She couldn't imagine that kind of pain.
"He'd like it if someone used his target," the girl said, "Please shoot well."
"I'll do my best," Yona said. She drew an arrow from her quiver and notched it before aiming at the target. It was lopsided and dark with rain damage, but there was still a circle there. She left the arrow fly and it went in with a solid thunk, disappearing halfway into the old target.
The kids thought that was just grand and showed it by whooping and hollering.
"That was fantastic, Yona," Lien said, "You're so good at that!"
"Thanks, I still need to practice more."
Honestly, Yona was better at using the bow than anyone in Lien's caravan. In Lien's arms, the baby laughed and pulled on a lock of her hair, tugging her head. "Ow. Okay, all right, let's let go…" A couple of the kids ran off toward the target to retrieve the arrow.
The sound of hoofbeats made both of the girls look toward the west, where a cloud of dust was rising. Lien stared and then looked at Yona, who was startled as well.
"Come back!" Yona yelled at the two kids who were still running toward the target which was in the path of whoever was approaching. Horses appeared over the rise, and Yona took off toward the two little boys, bow in hand.
"Yona!" Lien handed the baby to the little seven-year-old who was starting to cry. "Go back to the village, tell them bandits are coming. Go!" She gave the girl a firm push toward the village and then raced after Yona and the boys. Everything in her told her that even though she was scared, she had to keep Yona and those kids safe. How exactly she was going to do that was a mystery to her, but that's what the kirin fire was for, right?
One of the bandits closed in on the boys, but before he could reach out to grab either of them, Yona shot an arrow at him. It found home in his left shoulder, forcing him back. Yona shouldered her bow and grabbed the children by the hands before turning and running back toward the village.
The injured bandit recovered quickly, jerking the arrow out of his padded shoulder armor and tossing it. Drawing his sword, he charged at Yona, intending to run her and the boys down. Panic seized Lien. No, no, this couldn't be happening. She raced forward and fire leapt to her hands, danger wrapping around her palm. Yona dashed past her with the two kids, and Lien let her flame burst forth, catching the approaching bandit.
She would never forget that scream as the fire clung to the bandit, catching on his clothes and hair. It was terrible.
Lien stumbled back and then turned to realize Yona had sent the boys on ahead and was standing behind her, bow raised. "Yona, run!"
"No, we have to make them leave."
And how exactly were they supposed to do that?! It was just the two of them, they didn't have the dragons or the Thunder Beast. The other bandits had caught up with them, and now they were surrounding Yona and Lien while a couple of them dragged their comrade off his horse and beat at the flames. Lien didn't extinguish her fire and Yona didn't put down her bow. They stood back to back, both of them trembling but determined.
"Get away from this village," Yona said, "It's our place now, and you just better get out of here, you brats."
Was Yona affecting an accent? Lien recognized it, it was from the coast of the Earth Tribe, and it would have sounded funny coming out of the princess under other circumstances.
"They're really pretty," one of the bandits said, ignoring Yona's threat, "I want to play with them."
"That one's on fire," another one said.
"It's just a trick, she must be wearing gloves."
"The redhead is sexy."
"You should go," Lien said, then winced at the uncertainty in her voice. She was scared, but she couldn't let them see that. She needed to act. She was good at acting. "Leave now." That was better.
"Let's take 'em."
"I want the redhead."
"They're...mine." It was the man that Lien had set on fire. His eyes were full of hate as he looked at her, and Lien backed closer to Yona, frightened. That expression. He didn't just want to kill her, he wanted her to suffer.
"Don't touch us!" Yona shouted.
Lien spread her hands, and her flames forced the nearby men to pull their horses back. She wasn't sure how long she could keep this up, but she would protect Yona with everything she had. Luckily, she didn't have to worry about doing that by herself. She just had to hope that reinforcements arrived in time.