❝𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗥❞, akatsuki no yona.

O11. Power of the Claw

"I a-apologize, princess."

"Hak! This is the first time Kija has been outside his village and he is very uncertain right now. So don't pick on him!" Yona had a firm stand where her hands were by her hips— acting quite like mother scolding their two sons.

"I'm not-"

She turned towards the White Dragon, "Kija! Being a bully is Hak's hobby. So don't pay any mind to him!"

"My hobby?"

Since it looked to be going nowhere, Yun stepped in between them, bringing forth a map for them to see, "Kija, you can sense the presence of the other dragons, right? Tell me which one is the closest."

Kija closed his eyes and placed his dragon claw to his chest. Silent enveloped the group, the only thing able to get in their ears in that short seconds was only the rustle of the wind and their own breathing.

"I feel that the closest one is," Hakuryuu stopped, concentrating a little bit more, "the Blue Dragon, perhaps."

"So you know who it is too. Where is he?"

"Well," Kija lifted his dragon claw off his chest and make it point towards a certain part of the woods, which in all honesty, made his answers sounds quite vague, "I feel something rough coming from over there."

Yun rubbed his head, "That location sounds rather sketchy."

"Don't worry, I am not scared. Everyone follow me."

"Of course I'm worried! I'm scared to follow a guy who has never set foot outside of his village until now!"

Ahn Rei snickered at the way the white-headed man bravely march towards the darker part of the area alone, trying to ignore the valid points that Yun yelled to him. The view of his back beckoned for the others to follow him short, but she saw the naivety from the slightly different move of his shoulders. 

Her snickers were loud enough for Kija to throw his pink palleted face to the side bashfully, hiding a light 'hmph' under his breath. "I have been outside of the village, and I know enough about the outside world." He claimed otherwise. "My clan has jumped from place to place and has gathered information about the country."

"Really?" Rei raised an eyebrow amusingly, crossing her arm before leaning onto the tree beside her. A touch of a darker crimson was added to his pallet, so he kept on walking in a hope that his companion won't see it.

"Oh right, by the way, there's a pit-"

But the wanderer's words were cut off when Kija's figure disappear from their sight in a whoosh. Well, not exactly— he just fell. Into the pit that Rei found not long ago when Yun told her to inspect the area; and was a little too late to warn the others about it.

Kija didn't capture what Rei was trying to say when he felt his body floating, then immediately a rush of motion, dropping to the deep pit that lay beneath his feet. The White Dragon tightly closed his eyes in mid of falling, so when he opened them, dread clouded his vision.

"W-w-what is this?!"

Pushing himself away, Kija flinched when his back hit the rough wall of the said pit, unable to distance himself with these— certainly a creature, he would conclude.

"Whose permission did they get to settle here?!" Obviously, his question was left unanswered. Instead, it was like an invitation for the creature to inched nearer to the intruder that welcomed himself to their warm home.

"It's just a pit— he doesn't have to react that much."

Rei chuckled awkwardly at Hak's statement, him leaning boringly on to his Guan-do.