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Chapter 5: Paths

Her mind wondered why they were flying towards the shore, but Haruna stayed silent. Honestly, she felt like a pile of disgruntled body parts, too beaten up, too destroyed, too tired. More importantly, she just escaped but she also just left her father behind.

The person she looked up to her entire life, the person who took care of her and taught her everything she knew. She just left that person behind. As much as she knew there was no other way, that they would have been caught if they stayed and searched for her father, Haruna couldn't help but feel like a horrible person. In her place, her father would never leave her.

But at least she believed their enemies wouldn't dare hurting the king now. They had two options to find what they wanted before, now they only had one. Haruna believed that was a guarantee that she would find her father alive once she managed to go back... she just didn't know when or how that was going to happen.

Was she honestly thinking of ever going back? They had been invaded, defeated, and humiliated. If she wanted her father back, if she wanted her home back, she would need an army of her own. One that could magically appear out of thin air just like Seiryu's soldiers.

She couldn't even think clearly now. It felt like a war between her brain and her body; the former wanted to stay alert and think of a miraculous plan to make things go back to normal, and the latter just wanted to curl and lick its own wounds to rest. She didn't even care that she was riding a red dragon, and red dragons were supposedly very dangerous. It wasn't a very comfortable ride either.

After a while the dragon started to descend, moving closer and closer to the shore, far from the city. She may have given up to tiredness for a couple of moments, because she closed her eyes and when she opened them again they were much, much closer to the shore. The dragon was now flying in broad circles in order to land.

When Arai touched the sandy ground, Rina immediately jumped off his back and surveyed the place around them. Haruna had some difficulty to climb down the dragon, but once her feet were firmly back on land, she felt strangely awake. They were away from the city, but still in the outskirts and within reach of that army if anyone saw them.

There was only the moon to light their path now, Haruna had absolutely no idea what time it was.

- Ok, the old cabin is up there. - Rina said, pointing somewhere along the shore and Haruna followed with her eyes. She saw the now abandoned fishermen's settlement; it was a very large cabin now half destroyed after all the fishermen moved either into the city of Suzaku or another village far uphill. - Reizei said he would come at sunrise, so we should wait there.

- Reizei? - Haruna started, frowning - Is Reizei that big white dragon I met once?

- Yes. He's taking care of something and asked me to meet him here, that's why Arai went to rescue you with me, not him.

- Arai...? - the shorter brunette repeated, now looking again at the somewhat small red dragon. He raised his head - Right, must be you. Thank you for flying us out of there. I'm in debt with you.

"Don't worry about it. I like a challenge."

Haruna smiled for a brief moment. She liked that dragon.

- Ok, while we wait for the sunrise we should do something about that arm of yours. - Rina started, walking over to Haruna - Let's go sit near the cabin, I'll figure something out.

The shorter brunette sighed and nodded, feeling tired but restless. They walked over the sandy ground, making their path to the abandoned old cabin with Arai following closely behind them. Haruna's mind was still spinning a bit though. Where did Rina just come from? She didn't expect to see her friend again anytime soon if ever, and now there she was all tall and brave, rescuing her from trouble.