Awaiting The Dawn

27: Belittle And Expose

In the morning, Kija recovered enough strength to lead everyone to the green dragon. They set off immediately.

If Hisa remembered correctly, they were on the northern tip of the Fire Tribe's territory, on the eastern side of Kouka. By going west, they'd be passing Saika and Kuuto.

Those were two major cities where Princess Yona and Thunder definitely had to avoid. They'd probably through the mountains that bordered Kai in order to not get their identities exposed.

So they'd have to walk a little extra, and it seemed Yoon was thinking the same.

"We'd better take the long route along the mountains." He suggested to the group, holding the map.

Hisa couldn't bring herself to look at him. What happened the night before kept repeating in her head and she wasn't ready to go near him longer than a handful of seconds.

Maybe it was the embarrassment of pulling his feather decorations, but she couldn't even look at him for the entire morning. Her ears went red every time she saw him. It was good she could hide it with her hair and hat.

And that wasn't all.

She couldn't tell if this was worse or not, but Yoon was acting a little strange too.

For breakfast, he added too many spices in the food. He also woke up later than usual, according to Yona.

Because she was busy thinking and repeating her most embarrassing moment of pulling Yoon's feathers, she wasn't paying any attention to her surroundings.

Hisa was caught nearly tripping on tree roots, rocks, and even her own feet almost a dozen times.

It got so concerning that the princess even pulled her aside at one point to ask what was wrong. Thunder just kept calling her a klutz.

That was how the day went until they encountered a village with a stream empty of water and fields filled only with dead crops.

Dust and sand flew in the breeze.

The people that remained all wore rags, covered in dirt, clearly in need of food and water.

Death loomed over the air.

Hisa had seen plenty of such villages, especially when she briefly entered Fire Tribe territory. Every time, she wanted to curse the gods for their indifference. 

She wished General Su-Jin would halt his selfishness and aid his people, unlikely as that was.

"This place..." The princess stared at the sight. 

This may have been the first time she saw desolate land to this extent.

"The village was abandoned by the generals and the king." Yoon explained with a very complicated expression. "This area's been barren for several years now. There's no water. The able-bodied men were probably taken away to the capital to be trained as soldiers."

The general meant to protect and govern the Fire Tribe cared more about his own ambition than the needs of his people.

"Disease also left the village in shambles." Hisa pulled off her veiled hat and put it on the princess' exposed head. "Many didn't have enough strength left to leave, forced to stay here and wither away."

She had seen what a village looked like when all its people died of disease.

It would get to a point where no one had the energy to move the bodies. The air of death would get suffocatingly thick.

For a moment, Hisa thought she smelled ashes.

Thought she heard that devastating howl of fire.

Her mind was playing cruel tricks on her.