The Varied Path (Akatsuki no Yona Fanfiction)

Chapter 35: Internal and External Wounds

After a long and heated debate with Yoon, Calista managed to get them all to agree to go to sleep once they got back, with the promise of giving them a detailed explanation tomorrow of what happened earlier. In exchange though, she had to let him treat her hands.

It was a shockingly easy decision. Ever since Shin-ah had bandaged her back at his village while she was bleeding out, she found herself being more inclined to let Yoon remedy her more minor wounds.

Speaking of which, I need to change those bandages. She thought, remembering that the cotton wrapped around her torso was already days old, long overdue to be switched out with new ones.

But with her ruined hands, she wasn't sure how she would manage to do that now.

While Shin-ah stayed glued to her side during the trek back, Hani took a special interest in Yona's flame-red hair, tottering behind the princess adorably. Calista couldn't help the wide smile that overtook her face. After so long of trying to convince Hani that she could trust her, she was just glad the little one seemed a bit more at ease than before.

Everyone seemed quite taken with the young, blonde girl.

"How did you guys even find us?" Calista asked the minute they started traveling back.

The way they were walking reminded her of a wolf pack. Somehow, Yona, Hani and her all ended up in the middle, the rest of them taking up a side. Hak was directly behind Yona, with Yoon covering the corner in front of the princess. Kija was on Calista's left side, and she could feel Shin-ah's gaze trained on her from the back.

Her brother rested his covered glaive across his shoulders. "We got worried when you didn't come back after a while, so Shin-ah offered to keep an eye on the town."

Hani's burst of energy faded quickly, and her little legs had given up walking. To Calista's surprise, Kija was the one who swooped in and offered to carry the little girl the rest of the way back.

Yoon nodded in agreement with the Thunder Beast, somewhat pacified for now, but she had a feeling he was going to give her a thorough berating later. "The rest of us held back in case you came back through another route. But when it got dark..."

"We went looking for you." Yona finished softly, her delicate voice filled with worry as she remembered the panic everyone was in. "Shin-ah told us where he was going to be, so we went there, but didn't find him so we started looking around."

"We ran into those guys that were after you, though." Hak recounted nonchalantly.

"Really?! Did you see what they looked like?!" Calista interjected hastily. If she had a clue of what they looked like, maybe she could follow that lead and figure out what they were after. Or confirm what she believed to be true.

Yoon shot her a dirty glare at her interruption, refraining from smacking her only because she was already injured and the assassin smiled apologetically.

Her brow furrowed as she thought about it more. Those men, there was something about the way they organized themselves and chased her and Hani all the way to the edge of town that set off a red flag in her head.

"No, I didn't see what they looked like." Hak replied. "We had to hide. I didn't want them to notice the Princess."

"Those guys," Kija spoke quietly, speaking directly to her the first time since she came back. He shifted Hani uneasily in his arms. "They didn't feel right."

Calista's eyes narrowed. If the always optimistic Hakuryuu said that, then that wasn't good.

She put it out of her mind once they came across their campsite. Yoon immediately waved a hand at her to take a seat under the cover of a giant tree while he started a small fire. Bending her knees, she then sprung back up and shuffled, a frown crossing her face. She didn't know how to sit down without using her hands to help.