The Lost and Found

Chapter 4

"Is she asleep?"

"I think so. She's stopped wiggling so much."

Yona, Yoon and Zeno walked behind Hak, their eyes trained on the little fox that was draped across his shoulders. An hour out from the village, Sumi had switched over to her fox form and crawled up on Hak's shoulder. He had kept one hand on her, making sure she wasn't trying to run off, until she had finally laid down on his broad shoulder and seemingly fallen asleep. She had been like that for a few hours now.

"So she can stay in fox form even when she's asleep..." Yoon said, his genius side provoked into serious curiosity by this new little beast, "Maybe that's her true form?"

"Zeno disagrees," said the blond dragon, "Not if she has a human dad. She's probably just happier like that right now."

"She's so cute," Yona said, watching the fox-girl's paws twitch as she dreamed. "Can I carry her, Hak?"

"No, princess," he replied, "She'll probably try to run off again if we wake her up, and I don't think you could catch her. You're slower than a turtle."

"You're so mean sometimes," Yona said, rolling her eyes.

"We need to have a meeting about what the princess plans to do with her," Kija proposed. He and Jae-Ha were behind the others, bringing up the rear while Shin-Ah walked ahead of everyone. "This is an official mission for the four dragons."

"And us," Yoon said, motioning toward himself and Hak.

"All of us," Yona said.

"All right, this is a mission for everyone," Kija amended, "So we have to do this right. For the princess."

"I really think we should take her to the Wind Tribe," Yona said. She reached up and scratched the fox girl's ears before Hak ducked away. She darted after him, determined to pet the cute little creature. "Mundok would take care of her, and the Wind Tribe would protect her."

"Mundok wouldn't know what to do with a little girl," Hak said, "He's only raised boys."

"But he's always said he wanted a girl," Yona protested.

"Does he want a fox, too? Because he'll be getting both," Jae-Ha said. "Captain Gi-Gan might not mind if we brought the little dear to her. She has a lot of experience with unruly things."

"She had to deal with you, so we know that's true," Hak said, making Jae-Ha smirk. The green dragon wasn't going to disagree, since he knew that he was a wild and free sort of person.

"Ik-Soo might know of somewhere we can take her," Yoon proposed, "He's spaced out, but he knows a lot of people."

"The White Dragon Village would be happy to have her," Kija said with conviction, his eyes shining with pride and confidence in his people, "They would take care if her, especially if the princess asked them to!"

In front of everyone, Shin-Ah stayed absolutely silent on the subject. He didn't know of anywhere that the fox girl would be safe besides with them and maybe Jae-Ha's Captain Gi-Gan lady. His own village had treated him like a monster. It seemed like they should just keep her with them, but he wasn't going to say that, especially since he didn't know how to take care of a little kid. His predecessor, Ao, hadn't been the best example of a parent figure. Still, he could help watch her when she was in fox form, at least.

"We could take her to the Wind Tribe," Hak said, "Mundok and the others would help raise and protect her, and Tae-Yeon and her are probably the same age. He'd like a sister."

On his shoulder, Sumi lifted her head and stretched, her paws spreading out so her tiny black toe-beans were visible.

"Awww..." Yona and Zeno both said.

Hak reached up to grab the fox girl, but she darted across his shoulder, scurried down the glaive, and onto the ground. However, instead of racing off toward her village, she walked in between Yona and Zeno, keeping up with the others at a trot.

Hak glanced back at her. "You can walk by yourself, but you better not run off. I don't want to have to chase you down."

Sumi nodded, tiny head bobbing up at Hak's huge form. Ao bounced off of Shin-Ah and onto Jae-Ha's shoulder before racing down his side to the ground. The squirrel darted over to the fox girl and climbed up onto her back to ride.

"Sumi, are you hungry?" Yona asked. It was obvious by the look on her face that she wanted to grab up the little fox girl and cuddle her, but she refrained.

"Or thirsty?" Yoon asked. "You haven't had anything to drink." He unhooked a water pouch from his bag and shook it so the girl could hear the water. "Don't get dehydrated."

A moment later, Sumi blurred back into a human, holding Ao in her arms. The squirrel chittered happily and dashed up onto the girl's shoulder as she cautiously took the water pouch from Yoon. She took a few deep gulps and handed it back to Yoon, nodding her thanks to him.

Hak stopped walking for a moment and turned around. He knelt down in front of Sumi, and she took a step back, eyeing him warily. She was as bad as Shin-Ah had been when he first joined the group. Hak held up his hands, letting his glaive rest against his shoulder, and made a motion, one hand touching his mouth and then coming down. "That's the sign for 'thank you.' You can thank Yoon that way." He repeated the motion and then Sumi made the same gesture. Hak offered her a small smile. "Yeah, that's it."

The fox girl turned toward Yoon and mimicked the gesture.

"You're welcome," Yoon said before looking over at Hak. "Is that some kind of sign language?"

"Yeah," Hak said, standing up again, "The Wind and Earth Tribes both use it. Gramps taught it to me a long time ago, so I'm sort of rusty with it."

"I've seen it before," Jae-Ha said, "I know a little of it."

"Zeno too!" The blond grinned brightly. "It's fun."

"Teach me," Yoon demanded, the fire of inquisitiveness in his eyes.

"Me too!" Yona put in, "I want to learn. And we can teach it to Sumi so she can communicate with us."

"We can all learn," Kija said.

"I know some curses..." Jae-Ha said, and then grinned, "Sumi sweetheart, come here so Uncle Jae-Ha can teach you some colorful language."

"Don't call yourself that, Droopy Eyes. It's creepy."

"Jae-Ha, don't poison her, she's too young," Kija protested.

"Don't you dare, Green," Yoon said, glaring at the tall dragon.

Jae-Ha laughed. "Yes, Mother."

"You're no child of mine. When I have kids, they're going to be well-behaved."

Yona was smiling at her friends when she felt a tiny hand slip into hers. Sumi was walking beside her, one hand in hers while her other hand held onto Zeno. She still looked upset and as if she wanted to run home, but she was moving forward. Yona squeezed her hand, hoping that she could help this tiny little enigma of a girl.