Calls You Home [Akatsuki no Yona ~ Shin-Ah]

Chapter 42

"No, no, don't add salt! You, over there, keep stirring. No one touch that pan or else."

Shin-Ah hunched his shoulders as he continued to stir a pot of soup methodically, just the way the elderly innkeeper lady had told him. Da-som, the woman who ran the inn, had taken one look at their assembled group and put them all to work in the kitchen area, helping to fix their own dinner. Shin-Ah didn't really mind since all he had to do was stir a pot of stew, but he couldn't help but feel a little sorry for some of the others.

"Thinner slices!" she said, whapping Jae-Ha in the shoulder with her wooden ladle as he cut through vegetables. It wasn't hard enough to hurt him, but his eyebrows did jump up and come together.

"How thin—"

"Thin enough to see through," Da-som said. She shook the ladle at him. "Don't do a quick, poor job, stay the course and do it right."

"Yes, ma'am," Jae-Ha said, the corner of his mouth quirking up.

Shin-Ah lowered his eyes back to the pot as Da-som charged by, her ladle pointed at Kija this time. The white dragon jumped back and held up his hands as the woman poked at his chest. "I'm sorry! I apologize!"

"Are you trying to tenderize the meat or absolutely smash it into oblivion?" she demanded, "What a heavy hand."

A blush warmed Kija's cheeks. "I'll be more delicate."

"I hope you actually will, if you want to eat." Da-som gave him a final glare and then headed toward Yona, Yoon, and Lien, who were making dumplings at a large table. Shin-Ah peeked over as she beamed at them warmly. "Aren't you three doing a good job? Very nice."

Half of the dumpling pile looked perfect, as if they had been made in a shop by a professional. Another portion looked decent, as if the person who made them had experience but it wasn't their passion. The last scanty few dumplings looked like they might fall apart the moment they were put into in a pan. However, the worst dumplings were being buried by Yoon and Lien, both of whom worked faster than Yona. Their fingers grabbed filling and pinched dough at a rate that Yona just couldn't sustain. However, it seemed that either Da-som didn't care about the dumplings Yona was making or she hadn't spotted them thanks to Yoon and Lien's hard work.

Zeno had been working on chopping vegetables alongside Jae-Ha, but Da-som had chased him out of the kitchen once she discovered him eating more vegetables than he put in the pile.

Everything smelled great, and Shin-Ah didn't mind helping, even if Da-som was a little scary. She reminded him of Jae-Ha's captain.

The door to the kitchen opened suddenly, banging against the opposite wall. An icy figure stepped into the doorway, tall and menacing.

"Close the door, snowman!" Yoon said, turning from the brisk wind that cut through the room.

Shin-Ah moved away from the pot to close the door, but Da-som swept past him, the ladle catching him in the side. "I'll do it, don't you stop stirring." She stomped over and shut the door as Hak trudged over and set the firewood by the hearth. Stamping his boots, he brushed the snow and frost from his arms and dropped the hood back from his wind-burned face.

"Doesn't look like it'll be lightening up any time soon," he said, holding his frozen hands up to the fire. He must have forgotten to take his mittens with him before he left.

"Well, our larder is well stocked if you have to stay for a few days," Da-som said. She tossed a cloth at Hak so he could dry off. "I'll still need help in the kitchen."

"As if we could say no to you," Jae-Ha said.

Shin-Ah leaned out of the way as Da-som walked past again, giving the stew he was stirring a suspicious look. She rolled her eyes at Jae-Ha and then went on to scold someone else about their cooking style.

While they worked, music started somewhere else in the inn, bright and cheerful. It was some kind of stringed instrument, if he had to guess; honestly, he hadn't had a lot of experience with music until joining Yona's group, but he was starting to learn more about it. Staying with Lien's caravan had helped, since there had been so much music there.

As they finished up with the various parts of the meal, Da-som instructed them to carry everything out into a hall with a fireplace to set on a table for dinner. Zeno wandered in, still playing the instrument, his fingers dancing across the three strings. Shin-Ah wondered how hard it would be to learn to play something like that. Lien did like to dance to music, and she was very, um, pretty when she danced. If he could play...but no, he doubted he could learn. It was probably too hard.

As they ate, Da-som and her husband told stories about the local area. Apparently the territory kept switching back and forth between belonging to Kouka kingdom and the Kai Empire, so often that the two of them didn't feel like they were truly a part of either region.

"I'm actually not sure which nation we belong to at the moment," the old man, Ji-hoon said, shaking his head. He reached out for a bowl of rice, which Kija moved closer to him. "We accept money from either region. It's not like it matters."

"Doesn't it bother you?" Yoon asked, his cunning eyes narrowed. "Always being tugged back and forth?"

"Maybe when I was a younger man," Ji-hoon huffed, "But anger like that isn't beneficial when you own an inn and people travel from everywhere. And it's not so bad, to not belong to either."

"We belong where we need to be at the moment," Da-som said. Her grin was sharp and bright as she looked at Yoon. "It's safer that way."

Shin-Ah glanced over at Lien. She had traveled a lot, he knew, and he also wondered if she felt like she didn't belong anywhere except with her caravan. And now their group. He hoped she knew that she belonged. Her golden-brown eyes caught his behind the mask for a moment, and her eyebrows raised in a question. Blushing, he focused on the food again. Um, yes, time to eat...

"Speaking of being safe, you should all dye your hair normal colors and not wear weird clothes under your winter gear," Da-som said sternly, "You all stick out like a bunch of wildflowers in the middle of winter."

"We can provide clothing from the Kai Empire," Ji-hoon said. He leaned forward, palms on his knees. "And dye, if you'd like, though we've never used it with hair before."

"I think we'll skip out on the hair dye," Jae-Ha said. His brushed his braid back behind his shoulders and smirked. "No one's been too bothered by it so far."

"It does stick out," Yoon said.

"Kai Empire clothing could be useful," Yona said, "If you would be willing to part with it?"

"For a small fee," Da-som and Ji-hoon chorused.

"Or if you're willing to stick around a few days and help with the chores and some repairs," Da-som said with a shrug. "Either works."

With the snow piling up the way it was, it did look like they might be here a few days... The group all exchanged glances plus a few shrugs and a couple smiles. Personally, Shin-Ah didn't mind helping, though he agreed with Jae-Ha. He didn't want to dye his hair, though he would, if the others wanted him to.

"I guess we'll help," Yona said, "As much as we can."

"Fantastic, we'll start building a shed tomorrow then," Da-som said, extremely pleased, "And these young men can start cutting fire wood for the winter, and actually, there are so many things to be done..."

Hopefully the clothes would be worth all of the work.