Dawn of a New World - Akatsuki no Yona

Chapter 20

When we awoke the next morning, it was painfully obvious that Ki-Ja had gotten little to no sleep. He was as pale as a ghost and his cheeks were deeply sunk in. Yona shrieked at the sight of him. "Ki-Ja, your beautiful face looks awful!" Ki-Ja weakly replied "I'm sorry you had to see that..." I patted Ki-Ja's back in reassurance causing his lips to lift up in a small smile. "Hey, there's a bug on your back!" I leaped away from Ki-Ja as he began frantically jumping around. desperately trying to get rid of the bug. "Ki-Ja, wait! Hak is lying!" Yona called after him as he ran away whilst shrieking. I glared at Hak with my eyes narrowed. That was not funny.

"Be quiet, you jolly exotic beasts." Yoon deadpanned as he stared blankly ahead before turning to face us. "Listen up, we're about to enter a village. And we're in Fire Tribe territory, so don't draw attention to yourselves!" We all sighed, "Okay." Yoon sighed exasperatedly at the sight of us "Not that it's possible."

As we got closer to the village, we ended up on a small hill overlooking the small yet lovely village. Yoon looked at Ki-Ja and I, "Guys?" We both closed our eyes in order to feel the Blue dragon's presence, however we felt nothing. "He isn't here." We stated in unison. Yoon looked back down at the map with a disgruntled expression. "I guess it won't be that easy. Next we'll go forty kilometers ahead to..." Yoon was cut off by Hak "Wait, we can't go there." I tilted my head in confusion, "Why not?" Hak glanced at me before looking back at Yoon to explain his reasoning. "That's a training ground for the Fire Tribe army." Yoon looked at him with widened eyes "Huh? What about here, then?" Yoon showed the map to Hak and pointed to somewhere on it. "That area was recently developed." Yoon sighed in slight relief, "I'm glad we didn't go there."

"Ki-Ja, what's wrong?" I turned away from Yoon and Hak to see Yona standing next to Ki-Ja with a look of concern washing over her features. Ki-Ja smiled at her, "Nothing." I could see the small twitch that his lips made has he tried to continue smiling at Yona, he was obviously lying. "We've reached a decision." Yoon's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "it's a bit of a walk, but we're down to three possibilities. The village will probably be one of them." Yona looked at him excitedly "Really?" Yoon glanced at Hak with an impressed look, "You know a lot about this area, Thunder Beast." Hak placed his hand on his hip with an arrogant smirk on his face "Well, I was a general. I'm sensitive to changes in the tribes and their armies." I scoffed before hitting him across the back of the head "Yeah, yeah. We get it buddy."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

We traveled to all three of the location that Yoon had suggested, however Ki-Ja and I weren't able to sense the Blue dragon at either of them. "Ki-Ja, anything?" Yoon asked with a slightly desperate expression. We had all taken it upon ourselves to get a short rest, all of us sitting down on some large rocks that were in the area. As Ki-Ja shook his head once more, we all let out deep sighs. "He's isn't here, either?" Yoon muttered. I stood up before walking over to stand next to Ki-Ja. I then pointed out into the distance "I feel something coming from over there." Ki-Ja agreed with me as we both looked back towards the group. "What? He's still farther away? That's odd... We visited all the likely places. The Blue dragon didn't cross the border, did he?" Hak looked at Ki-Ja with that stupid look of his, "Maybe your nose is congested, White Snake." Ki-Ja looked at him with an irritated expression. "We're not sniffing him out with our noses." he was about to carry on talking when he noticed Yona rubbing her right leg.

"Princess, did you hurt your leg?" I knelt down next to her to check her leg for any obvious injuries. Yona batted my hands away before looking up at the others with a reassuring smile. "I'm all right. I'm just a little tired." Yoon pulled something out of his bag before handing it to Yona "Drink this." Yona did as she was told. "It's good. What is this?" Yoon smiled back at her, "Loquat juice. It eases fatigue. I'll wrap your legs in honeywort. You should rest for today." Yona smiled even brighter than before as she held an amazed expression. "Yoon, you're amazing! You know so much!" I chuckled at her over-excitement before placing my hands a top her shoulder, "Okay, come on. Time for a nap, don't you think Yona-chan?" Yona nodded tiredly before following me over to the small area we had decided to set up camp for the night.

I had decided to keep watch tonight, seeing as everyone was exhausted from all the walking we had done today. "H-How can they sleep in a place like this?" Ki-Ja mumbled as shivers ran through his whole body. "We're all used to it by now. It's not that bad." Ki-Ja glanced at me, only just noticing that I was still awake. "Oh, Amaya. I didn't know that you were still up." I let out a soft chuckle. "I'm keeping watch tonight." Ki-Ja's eyes widened as he looked at me in shock. "What? Why? You should be sleeping!" He whispered to me since he couldn't yell, seeing as that would wake everyone up. "It's my duty to make sure that everyone remains safe, especially Yona." I looked down towards the ground causing my hair to fall in my face. "I couldn't live with myself if any of them got hurt while I could've done something to prevent it from happening." I glanced up shyly only just realizing that I had said that out loud, Ki-Ja softly smiled at me in reassurance. "You're very strong Amaya." I chuckled at his words, "I guess, I need to be much stronger though."

A few hours later, Ki-Ja had fallen asleep, myself quickly following however I noticed Yona start to wake up. "Yona, you alright?" I asked gently as she sat up groggily. "Yeah' I'm good. Just want to get in some more practice." I smiled at her determination before gesturing with my hand out to the small clearing not too far from us. "Go ahead milady." She smiled in appreciation before picking up her bow and quiver and began practicing.

I had closed my eyes for a short moment when I heard someone try to talk. "Princess-" I bolted up into a standing position before relaxing when I noticed that it was only Hak and Ki-Ja. Hak had clamped his hand around Ki-Ja's mouth, preventing him from talking. "Don't disturb her." I smirked at his words before poking his shoulder causing him to flinch slightly in surprise. When he saw that it was only me, he calmed down. "When did the princess begin practicing with a bow?" Ki-Ja asked curiously. "She's been practicing every chance she gets since before we met you. She shoots up to two hundred arrows a night." Ki-Ja looked at him in shock "Two hundre-" "Keep it down." Hak quickly shut him up before he got too loud.

"Why does she push herself so hard?" Ki-Ja once again asked curiously. "She has me. She has no need for martial abilities." "Yeah, the princess has me, so she doesn't have to do anything." Hak said with slight arrogance before continuing, "But the princess can't allow herself to be powerless." Ki-Ja was extremely confused by Hak's words so I tried helping him understand a little. "Yona doesn't like having to rely on people. She wants to be strong enough to defend herself, even if she already has people to do it for her." I sighed before moving away from the two boys, "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to get a few hours." I waved at them before slumping down on the ground against the tree that I'd been leaning on earlier. I quickly dozed off, falling into the deep dark abyss that is sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next morning, I noticed that Ki-Ja's expression was full of determination. Before I could comment on it, Yona slipped her hand into Ki-Ja's right hand, which was the dragon hand. "Ki-Ja, did you get any sleep last night?" A profound blush spread across his cheeks as he realized what she had done, "Huh? Ah, um..." Yona being the oblivious girl that she was, smiled cheerfully. "You're tired, aren't you? I can tell you haven't had any rest since you aren't used to sleeping outside. Take care of yourself. We can't progress if you're not feeling well." Ki-Ja softly gasped "Princess... Am I useful to you?" he asked with a desperate look on his face. "Of course! No one could replace you!" That caused Ki-Ja's heart to go into over drive and his face to crimson red. I lent close to Yona's ear, "I think you broke Ki-Ja." Yona looked at me in confusion " What do you mean?" I shook my head at her obliviousness.

Suddenly Yoon whom had been sitting down on the ground not too far away looking at the map, snapped his fingers. "I've got it!" We all looked at him with confused expressions. "Yoon?" Yona mumbled. Yoon looked up at us with his eyes shining from excitement. "The Blue dragon's village! I missed it! I didn't think anyone could live there, but there is a place!" Yoon then smirked while pointing towards the mountains that weren't too far from us. "It's right on the border, in those mountains." We all stared at the mountains with determination.

I'm looking forward to meeting you, Blue dragon.

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