Disclaimer: I don't own Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn.

Chapter 22

Keeping flames going consistently for this long was exhausting. Maybe with more practice, Lien would be able to keep her fire blazing longer, but for now she was reaching her current limit. Once it was gone, she wouldn't be able to do anything to protect Yona and that would make her so very useless. She was really going to have to demand some weaponry training after this… Assuming there was going to be an "after this."

Lien's fire wavered, playing around her fingers instead of blazing from her palms, and the bandits closed ranks, tightening the circle.

"You should get out of here before you really regret it, you bunch of idiots," Yona said, an arrow trained on one of the bandits, "We're not alone."

"Really? Are there other girls running around with weapons they can hardly use?" a bandit asked. That got a chuckle out of some of the others.

"What, are you part of a girl gang?"

"You look super dangerous with your cute little angry faces!"

The bandit that the girls had hurt stepped through the horses, his eyes narrowed at them. Hatred emanated from him, and in response, Lien's fire grew brighter, forcing him back.

"Don't come near us," she said, one hand held up toward him.

He flinched but when she didn't shoot flame at him, he didn't step backwards. "I'm wondering how long can you keep that trick up."

Lien tried not to look unnerved. "As long as I want."

"Yeah, right."

Behind her, Yona shifted, her back pressing against Lien's. They just had to keep the bandits busy for a little while longer, right? The little girl should have made it to town by now, so hopefully it wouldn't be long before she found Jae-Ha.

"Boss, I'm getting tired of waiting," a bandit said, his tone whiny. "Can't we take 'em, raid the village, and then have some fun with these two?"

"I told you, they're mine," growled the leader.

"Then you can have fun with them, I don't care. I just want to do something."

The leader suddenly smirked. "Tu-Dol, Erat, Pol, you three stay here. The rest of you, bring back what food you can and pick up a couple kids. We can sell them in Retsu."

"No!" Yona shouted, but none of them paid any attention to her.

The majority of the bandits pulled their horses back and took off toward the village at a full gallop. Yona shot an arrow after them, but it soared harmlessly over the shoulder of a bandit. Lien's heart pounded as she watched the remaining bandits start to come closer, taking their chances that the girls wouldn't put up too much of a fight regardless of Yona's bow and Lien's fire.

Lien didn't give them any warning as she drew on the last of her energy, casting a blast of flame at the bandits that forced them backwards and caught the dead weeds in front of them on fire. Two of the bandits' clothes caught fire too, which distracted the leader and the remaining bandit. Her flame flickered out and Lien had to push through the wave of exhaustion to stay standing. Yona grabbed her hand, and suddenly they were running toward the village, the princess tugging Lien along as she tried to keep up on feet made of stone.

They were halfway there when she heard the hoof beats running up behind them, thundering across the ground. Lien gathered her strength and shoved Yona to the side as the bandit leader raced up behind them.

He snagged Lien's left arm and dragged her up onto the horse in front of him, and something in her shoulder popped out of place. A scream ripped out of her throat at the surge of pain, and for a second she blacked out as the horse spun in a tight circle. When she came to, the ground was a swirl of brown and yellow from her nearly upside-down vantage point and Yona was shouting. She felt sick and dizzy.

Something green flashed in the sun as the horse spun again, and she caught a glimpse of Jae-Ha landing in front of Yona before the bandit drove his heels into the horse's sides. It sprung forward, away from the village and back toward the plains.

She needed to get down. She had to get off the horse, but it was hard to think past the pain. Fighting back seemed impossible, but she was going to have to do something if she wanted to get out of this situation.

There wasn't any way she could make fire anymore, she couldn't focus. But that didn't mean she couldn't make things hot… It would probably knock her unconscious, but she had to do something if she didn't want to be abducted. Grabbing onto the bandit's leg with her right hand, she pulled everything she had left and sent it to her palm, making it scorching hot.

Something struck the back of her head, and Lien blacked out.

When she woke up, she was off the horse and in someone's arms, but her shoulder was still roaring with pain. She cried out, reaching for her shoulder, and the person who was holding her stopped walking.

"What's wrong with her?" Yona's voice asked, sounding worried.

"I don't know," Jae-Ha replied, "Lien dear, does your arm hurt?"

Lien gritted her teeth and nodded, realizing that it was Jae-Ha carrying her. She wasn't sure what had happened, but he didn't seem very rushed so she guessed the bandits had been taken care of. Forcing her eyes open, she looked over at Yona. The princess seemed all right, so that was a plus, and Hak was walking next to her. Zeno was on Jae-Ha's other side, and when Lien glanced at him, his eyes were sad and gentle.

"You'll will be okay," he said before looking up at Jae-Ha, "Kirin's shoulder is dislocated."

"I can fix that," Hak said, "Do you want to do it now or back at the village?"

"Yoon might want to look at it first, and we should get back before…well never mind, here comes Shin-Ah."

Shin-Ah had been with Hak and Kija getting wood to repair some of the buildings when a boy from the village had come out to find them, shouting about bandits. The three of them had raced to town and swiftly dealt with the problem, tearing through the bandits easily. There were only nine of them in the village, harassing the people and trying to steal their food, and they weren't prepared for two dragons and Hak.

While he fought, he wondered where the others were, especially Lien and Yona. He hadn't seen Jae-Ha fighting, which was strange since usually he was in the thick of things. Maybe the green dragon was watching over Lien and Yona in one of the buildings, though Shin-Ah wasn't sure if he believed that. Hak broke away from Shin-Ah and Kija halfway through the fighting, and Shin-Ah was sure he was going to go find Yona.

When the fighting was over, Shin-Ah and Kija gathered the bandits in the middle of the village, keeping them together so they could decide what to do with them. Yoon appeared from one of the buildings and let them know that he wasn't sure where Yona and Lien were but Jae-Ha and Zeno had gone to find them. Yoon had stayed behind to protect a group of kids and their injured mother.

Shin-Ah noticed movement at the edge of the village, and his heart skipped a beat before he took off running toward Jae-Ha, Zeno, Hak and Yona. Jae-Ha was carrying Lien, and the look on her face was one of agony.

"She'll be all right," Jae-Ha said as Shin-Ah rushed up to him, "She's just a little worse for wear."

Shin-Ah wanted to pull her out of Jae-Ha's arms and fix whatever was hurting her immediately, but he was scared of causing more damage. Also, he didn't know what was wrong. She looked like she was in so much pain, and he wanted it to stop.

And on top of that, he wanted whoever had done this to her to stop existing.