Foxes & Dragons | Akatsuki no Yona

Episode 03 | edited

"I-I'M SCARED, OKAY?!" Saya's sudden outburst was shocking to all who witnessed it. "I'm scared that one day you really will die. You'll leave me behind in this world and I won't ever see you again."

"Saya, it's inevitable. It's the price I paid to stay in this world," he said softly, taking her small hand in his significantly larger one.

"That's unfair," Saya confessed, whimpering. "You're the reason I came to this stupid world in the first place and now－ now you're just leaving."

"I'm sorry." He was, he truly was, but there was nothing else he could say to relieve her of her pain. He knew his end was near and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

A long pause between the two drowned the room in awkward silence.

"Hey, Hiryuu?" Saya spoke up. The said man looked up at her, tilting his head to the side in questioning.
"Do you... ever resent me? Do you ever resent me for choosing to keep my immortality instead of withering away alongside you?"

A slender, shaky hand reached out for her silver trusses, caressing them with upmost care and affection. "Of course not," he said, almost inaudible. "That was your own decision and I could never hate you for it."

Saya sighed, relishing in the warmth of his hand a moment longer.

"Sae-rin-sama... lets allow the king to rest," Dao-yi said from behind her. She turned her head to face him, a sorrowful expression on her face as she nodded.

Carefully, the man ushered his master out of the room alongside Zeno, relying on the blonde dragon to help support her deadweight.

>>>

Saya wept as she saw the limp-bodied king.

"I shouldn't have left you that night," she wailed, clutching the cold bedsheets of his bed tightly in her hands as her tears dripped onto the blankets.

After the trio left had the room and Hiryuu went to sleep, he died in his slumber, smiling to himself. It seemed to be a pleasant end, at least.

Bile rose in the Fox Goddess's throat as she thought about all the years she would spend without her dear friend and her stream of tears became a roaring river as she watched the other dragons weep around her.

When would the others die?

>>>

"Hey, are you alright?" a sweet, frantic voice called out to her. The person was attempting to shake her awake.

Saya eyes slowly opened to reveal a small, red-haired girl with big violet eyes. "H-Huh?" Her eyes were wet and stained with tears.

Hiryuu's eyes－ his hair, his reincarnation...

"What is your name?" The girl inquired. Hak was leaning against a tree not so far away, intensively watching the scene incase things became violent.

"I－ my name is... Sae-rin, miss," Saya said. She faced the ground shamefully due to embarrassment. "I apologize for attacking you and the general, miss. You see the thing is－"