The Varied Path (Akatsuki no Yona Fanfiction)

10K Special: Veiled Cove [Part 4/7]

The path led to another, but smaller cove. Limestone obscured the entire thing from any kind of tampering, and years of erosion had created a near perfect spherical dome high above them. Eons of untouched elements made the sand sparkle like crystals and waves lapped at the shore, peeking out from just underneath the arching entrance of stone that led out to the sea.

"How did we miss this yesterday?" Yona breathed out.

"I don't know..." Calista's eyes were round with wonder. "I guess we just didn't know where to look."

After testing the rock that led into the alcove, she helped the princess down. The rock was almost entirely smooth, but it was soft. Luckily, she had brought along her trusty daggers and that did the trick.

Yona landed on her bottom with an 'oomph', but sprang up quickly, eyes glowing with excitement.

"Calista, look!!"

The princess pointed happily at the shells poking out from the grains of sand and the older girl chuckled to herself.

"Go have fun, Your Highness."

Without hesitation, Yona ran forward to explore the uncharted territory. Calista stayed behind, tucking away one of her blades on the sheath strapped to her arm while twirling the other absentmindedly.

This place is incredible...

But she saw no other ins and outs besides the one they had just found and the one leading out to the ocean. As soon as she finished her analysis of the place and determined that they would be safe given the limited access, she allowed herself to relax and join Yona on her beachcombing mission of collecting shells.

Calista was surprised to find that there were as many shells as there were since she didn't see any other signs of life. Besides the sand and water, there was nothing else. She found it quite intriguing, but welcoming nevertheless.

She lost track of how much time had passed. She had taught Yona how to collect shells of the same size to string together in order to make a bracelet, and the princess had made several.

"Yona, I don't think any of the guys would wear these. It might threaten their masculinity." Calista joked. "Except for maybe Yoon."

"Oh hush," Yona chided the older girl and she took it with a laugh. "It's the sentiment that counts, right?"

After not receiving an answer for several moments, the princess lifted her head curiously to find Calista gazing at her adoringly.

"Yes," She agreed softly. "It's the heart behind it that matters."

They heard their names being shouted, and ran back out, tripping over their feet in their haste. Once on the other side, Yona's eyes grew wide the same time Calista's did as they both saw the dragons, Hak and Yoon all scouring the beach for them.

A flash of guilt crossed the fighter's expression as she saw how frantically they all were searching for them.

Yoon was the most distraught, with Shin-ah almost on par with him. Zeno was skipping around, trying to reassure the others that the missing girls were fine but no one was paying any attention to him. Kija was wailing, falling down to his knees almost every other second and Jae-ha was nowhere to be seen.

Nothing her brother did was out of the ordinary. He was going haywire as usual since the princess was out of his sight, but that was about to change.

Raising her hand discreetly to catch Shin-ah's attention, Calista gestured for him to stay quiet as he caught the movement and his head snapped up towards her. One by one, the dragons' worried eyes turned into relief as they spotted the girls' safe and sound figures.