The Lost and Found

Chapter 9

A/N: I'm trying to finish a lot of my long-abandoned works this summer. I've forgotten a lot of what's happened, but hopefully this works... XD

--------------

The fire crackled, sending sparks and embers into the night sky. Everyone who was soaked had switched out of their wet clothes for any other outfit they could wear, most of which had been pilfered from the stolen loot. Jae-Ha had used his sail-mending skills from his time on the ship to hastily stitch together a kind of belted tunic Sumi could wear from the cloth they had taken from the bags. It was big on her and it didn't look very good, but it worked for now. Yoon had offered, but he needed to rest, not work.

Which also meant that the meal was interesting.

"I think my mouth is on fire," Kija said, reaching for the nearest flask of water. "Jae-Ha, am I breathing fire? Can you see it?"

"No. But if you are, I'm afraid am too," Jae-Ha said. He was sitting against a tree, mouth half open, sweat on his brow. "Zeno. What in the world did you put in that stew?"

"Spices," the cheerful yellow goblin said.

"All of them?" Hak asked, setting his spoon down.

Zeno nodded. "Zeno thought we should all warm up."

"By having us catch on fire from the inside?" Jae-Ha let out a long breath and then stretched out his hand to the water flask Kija was holding. "Share, won't you?"

Kija shook his head and dodged as Jae-Ha tried to get the flask.

Shin-Ah wasn't saying much, but he had taken the fluff off his mask and shed his robe. He had his arms outstretched like he was trying to catch a breeze. Yoon was sleeping instead of eating, which was probably for the best. Leaning against a tree, he had his head drooped forward on his chest, completely exhausted. It didn't look very comfortable.

Not far from Hak, Yona had taken two bites and then abandoned her meal. She yawned and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. Beside her, in fox form, Sumi nibbled on more dried deer meat.

Hak thought that maybe the girl had the right idea. Grabbing one of the packs, he found the rest of the jerky wrapped up in a cloth. He threw it to Jae-Ha. "Here."

Jae-Ha opened the cloth and offered Hak a half-smile. "Well, this is much better."

Zeno laughed and finished up his bowl. "This is good, too."

That really was debatable.

Hak leaned back, resting his hands on the ground. It would be nice if tomorrow could be a calm day, preferably without thieves or near-death experiences. They would probably reach wherever the stolen goods had come from. With the luck they were currently having, they would probably be mistaken for the thieves and run out of town. He sighed.

"How are you feeling, princess?" Kija asked Yona. "You look tired."

"Oh, I'm all right," Yona said, giving him a small smile. She was working hard to appear more energetic. "It's just been a long day."

"That, I believe, is an understatement," Jae-Ha said.

Sumi got up, her eyes on the jerky that was getting passed around. She narrowed her eyes and plodded that way. As she passed by Hak, she popped back into her human form and stumbled, like her legs didn't want to cooperate. Hak reached out and caught her by the elbow, keeping her from falling. She looked at him with sleepy eyes before she promptly sat down next to him. Apparently being tired was worse than being hungry.

"What will we do with her in the village?" Kija asked, glancing over at the girl.

Shin-Ah tossed the cloth back over to Hak, who pulled out a small piece and handed it to Sumi. She took it and started gnawing on the edge of it.

"It would be best if she would stay in this form," Hak said, "We'll have to cover her ears, but it's better than having a girl that changes into a fox or having fox around that's not trying to eat Ao all the time."

Shin-Ah reached over and scratched under Ao's chin. The squirrel chittered and curled up in the crook of his neck.

"Can she do that? She changes back and forth so quickly," Jae-Ha said. "I'm curious, how are you going to get her to stay one way?"

"She likes switching," Yona said fondly. "I think it makes her happy since she wasn't allowed before."

"The villages won't understand," Shin-Ah said. He had a point, and Hak agreed. Their group was used to weird magic stuff, what with the dragon hands and feet and

"Asking nicely might work," Kija said.

Hak rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure." He glanced at the girl. "Sumi, could you please stay like that and not switch back to a fox?"

She blinked at him, transformed back into a fox, and continued to chew on her piece of jerky. Hak gave her a long look and then glanced over at Kija. "Yeah. No." It seemed to be in her nature to be somewhat contrary.

"Something has to work," Kija said.

"We'll let Yoon figure it out tomorrow," Jae-Ha said, "That is his job as the self-proclaimed genius, after all." He smiled a little. "Though no one is disputing that claim."

Definitely not. Yoon was certainly the smartest of them all, if you asked Hak.

After everyone finished up their meal, they finished setting up camp. Bed rolls were laid out and Jae-Ha wrangled half-asleep Yoon away from the tree and onto his bedroll. Yona laid down as well, curling up on a bedroll without even asking to practice her sword swings or archery.

"Time to sleep," Hak said, signing the words to Sumi as he said them out loud. The faster she learned, the better, for her own sake. He put down a thicker makeshift bedroll from cloth out of the loot. She might as well be comfortable. Sumi had switched back to her human form, and she patted the edges of the bedroll, her hands smoothing out the soft material. It looked as if she liked the feel of it.

"Sleep," she signed back, eyes half-lidded.

He couldn't quite crush his small smile as she lifted up a corner of the bedroll and rubbed it against her cheek.

"Sleep." Hak repeated the sign and pointed at the bedroll. "Go on."

Sumi yawned and flopped over onto the middle of bedroll. He rolled his eyes and grabbed her foot, gently turning her so she was actually taking up the whole bedroll. It got a small giggle out of her.

There was a shiny blue feather on the ground. Reaching down, Hak picked it up and twirled it in his fingers. Maybe...

"Sumi." He sat down beside the makeshift bedroll and twirled the feather in front of her face. "We need to make a deal."

Her eyes locked on the feather. Her fluffy ears twitched.

He bopped the tip of her nose with the feather. "Where we're going, lots of people wear feathers. It's the Wind Tribe, so feathers make sense." He even used to wear them, before he became a general. "If you can stay human the entire time we're around other people tomorrow, I'll give you this feather to wear." Because little kids liked things like feathers and sticks and stuff. Easily amused, right? Besides, she seemed interested in this one.

Her hand darted out toward the feather and he drew it back. "After tomorrow, not now. Deal?" He made the sign for the word 'deal.'

Her ears flattened for a moment. She wanted the feather now. But finally, she nodded once. "Deal."

"Good." Hak ruffled her hair and then tossed the edge of the blanket over her head. "Now sleep, troublemaker."

Maybe this would work.