Dawn of a New World - Akatsuki no Yona

Chapter 8

Yona and I, oh, I'm sorry, Rina and I were currently walking around the village in curiosity. It was quite a beautiful area, I wouldn't mind living somewhere like this myself to be perfectly honest. Not to mention I love the houses, they're just so small and quaint. They look very cozy, much better than the castle in my opinion. "Rina, did you sleep well last night?" Yona kept on walking seeing as she didn't realize that the lady was talking to her. I went to nudge her but the lady called out again "Hey, Rina!" This time Yona turned to look at her and quickly realized that she was talking to her. "Oh, yes." I shake my head at her, she spaces out far too much.

"You're such an absent-minded girl. I heard you were thrown out of the castle. They said you couldn't cook, sew, clean, do laundry, play the koto, or even dance." I muffle the sounds of my laughter behind my hand. This was definitely Hak's doing. Yona was utterly confused and became even more so when the lady burst out in laughter. "Don't worry, I'll teach you everything from scratch." She then handed the both of us a pile of clothes "First, wash these." "W-Wash them?" We questioned in unison "I'll leave it to the two of you." "Um, I..." Suddenly someone walked past and grabbed a bit of the load from each of our piles. We both glanced up to see Hak walking away from us whilst carrying the large amount of washing. "This way, my ladies." Yona and I pouted childishly.

We quickly caught up to him and began walking beside him. Hak, quickly noticing that something was wrong, decided to speak up "What is it?" "I can play the koto and dance a little." Yona said in an annoyed tone. "Oh, right. That cacophony." Hak says goofily. "You're a bit more like yourself." Hak mumbles to himself, obviously not intending on Yona hearing him. "Huh?" "Nothing." After a moment of silence I speak up "So, you have a younger brother. He's utterly adorable, unlike you Hak!" I say teasingly, "I have to agree." Yona says nonchalantly. "Sorry about that. Grandpa took Tae-yeon in, just like me." Hak explained, "Unlike me, he's frail. That's why everyone's especially nice to him. He got a bit too excited yesterday." Yona and I glanced at each other and shrugged in unison.

"We're here. We wash clothes in that river." Yona kept on walking as Hak turned to a bunch of baskets. I followed after her but didn't get too far as we noticed something incredibly wrong. "That water is the Wind Tribe's life, so be careful with-" "Hak, I can't." Hak looks at us in shock "You haven't even done anything yet." he says irritably. "Hak, she literally means that we can't. Come have a look for yourself." Hak gets up and walks over to us before stopping just beside us in complete shock. "The river's dried up..." I have a feeling that this isn't the only bad thing that will happen today.

~*~*~*~*~*~

A little while late, quite a few people had gathered around in a panic. There was a lot of commotion going on, so Hak stepped up and silenced everyone. "Calm down! We're sending Heang-dea to check the conditions upriver." Obviously the men weren't very pleased by how calm Hak was in this situation. "Young lord, this isn't the time to be so leisurely!" Hak just glanced down at the man and calmly spoke to him "Making a fuss won't fix anything." Nicely said Hak, nicely said. "For now, we can buy water from the merchants. They should have enough reserves to see us through the current situation."

The sudden sound of a horse neighing caught everyone's attention and we all turned to see Mun-deok approaching us on a horse. "Elder Mun-deok has returned!" Someone exclaimed. "Grandpa!" Hak called out as he began running towards him, Yona and I following close behind. As soon as Mun-deok saw the both of us, he quickly dismounted his horse. "Princess Yona, Princess Amaya..." We launched ourselves into his awaiting embrace. "You're all right. Thank goodness. I didn't want to believe it, but when I heard the king was dead, and the two of you had left the castle with Hak..." He squeezed us a little tighter. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you both then!" tears had gathered in our eyes at his words, "Mun-deok... we can't breathe." Yona mumbled. Mun-deok quickly released us, holding us at arms-length.