The brilliant sunlight shines amidst the infinite hues of blue, spotted with a white color that decorates the ever changing sky, the clouds ruffling as if it were a divine cloth given to the heavens by the gods themselves. The noble walls of the area carved by nature, fringed by the emerald green plant-life. In a sea of stones, pillars of rock stand tall and proud from the ground. The ledges of the stone are decorated with green leaves, clinging bushes and vines. Amidst the desolate area are two figures, one, a female, dressed in a light blue cloth held together by a lilac obi around her slender waist sits upon a small plateau to rest her feet, this is the runaway Princess Yona.
The second, this time a male, dressed in colors similar to that of the sky above him, black-ish blue ribbons which presumably are there to keep the cloth from getting in his way, this is the Thunder Beast of Kouka, Son Hak. The female stands at a diminutive 5'1" and when compared to her companion who stands at a towering 6"2', she appears even more small. A single vulture flies overhead, it's foreboding nature not sensed by the pair below it, after all a vulture can represent a warning sign of peril, often considered to be rulers of death.
The girl of short stature turns to the tall male "Do you see anything?" she asks inquisitively, to which the male responds with a bored "No." The male covers his eyes with his hand, squinting his eyes as he surveys the area. "How does the old man expect us to find someone, when we don't know where he is?" The male relives a memory of the older male that he considers as his adoptive grandfather, wary of the words the former General and now Elder of the Wind Tribe had spoken to him. An unnerving feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.
"A priest?" Hak questions both confused and incredulous. "Yes." Mun-Deok replies wisely to his adoptive grandson, the elder male goes on to elaborate his point, "Since ancient times, a priest who has seen the Kingdom of Kouka's future has been said to live somewhere within the Wind Tribe's territory. If you are unsure what to do next, you should seek out the priest. I am sure the priest will show you the way." Hak nods, though still unbelieving but takes the elders words to heart.
However, as Hak and Yona turn to leave Son Mun-Deok stops them, and holds out a small leather pouch. "Should you find a tall young woman with ebony hair, ivory skin and red eyes, give this to her would you?" The elder requests as he hands it to Yona, not exactly trusting Hak to keep the fragile contents of the bag from getting ruined. "Why should we old man?" Hak questions suspiciously, glancing back and forth between the small bag and his grandfather.
Unsurprisingly, Mun-Deok smack Hak upside the head with a "How many times have I told you to call me Grandpa?" The elder asks rhetorically, Hak moves away from his grandfather and glares at him from behind the princess. Nevertheless, Mun-Deok answers Hak's question with the short version of what had happened. As told by Mun-Deok, the young woman he had described saved Tae-Yeon from a wild boar attack while Tae-Yeon had wandered off when he was unsupervised.
The female brought the child back to the Wind Tribe, on the way the two bonding with one another, and after a misunderstanding where the sickly boys injuries were blamed on the female, which was cleared up when Tae-Yeon told the Tribe that it was in fact the female holding him who had saved him from the territorial pack of wild boar. The female stayed for a short period of time and helped out around the Wind Tribe and slowly bonding with a couple people here and there, mostly young children.
Mun-Deok mentions that the female had an affinity to calm and take care of very young children and was more awkward toward those her age and those she couldn't consider children. The Elder explains that Tae-Yeon had made small pieces of origami for the female that had saved him, which he motions towards the bag that the redhead holds. Hak looks at his grandfather figure and asks "What's her name?" A simple question really, to which Mun-Deok looks off to the side and mumbles about how he didn't get the chance to ask for her name because of how much work she insisted on doing, so he referred to her as "Akame" meaning "red eyed".
The name he gave her stuck and no one else really bothered to question what her name was since she already had one she was known by. Yona agrees excitedly and tells Hak, that should they come across her that they would ask her to join them in their quest. Hak refuses and says that it would be smarter and safer to assess how the female is as a person and if she would be a help rather than a hindrance to getting to their goal. Yona sighs sadly but agrees with her bodyguard, know that he only wants what's best for her. Mun-Deok bids them farewell and reenters Fuuga to get back his duties as Elder of the Wind Tribe.
Yona turns to Hak slightly confused, "Why does the oracle live all the way out here?" Hak turns to the female and answers his princess' question. "Long ago, the priest lived in a temple at the royal palace, and was deeply involved in the kingdom's rule. After Yu-hong began oppressing the priest, he left the castle. Now he lives quietly, somewhere far from people." Yona leans her elbows on her knees, she curls her fingers and places her chin on her palms.
" "Far from people," ... This certainly doesn't seem like somewhere a person could live." The violet eyed female looks around at the beautiful but barren scenery, wondering just how little she truly knows about how to survive. She looks to her side and down at the edge of a cliff not to far away from her, wondering for a moment how deep it goes. "If you tried living here, you might fall off a cliff. But I'm sure one could do it if they really tried." Hak taunts nonchalantly as he surveys the area, keeping a keen eye out.
The crimson haired female stands from her seat and carefully walks over to the edge of the cliff, her mind racing with all kinds of thoughts. 'Even though I called myself the princess of the kingdom, I only know Hiryuu Castle. It sounds foolish to say I don't know.' The female forlornly looks at the deep darkness that hides the bottom of the cliff from human sight. Her eyes relax slightly as her brows furrow in thought 'What path should I follow now? Right now, just trying to live takes everything I have.'
Hak turns his head slightly, eyes closed as he speaks back to the person he swore to defend with everything he had. "By the way, Princess," Hak looks forward and opens his eyes as he continues to speak to his princess "If we must search every corner of this area, we'll have to sleep outside. Is that alright?" The redhead looks at the black haired male that stayed by her side through everything. "Sleep outside?" She questions naively, "I've gotten somewhat used to it." Hak hunches over and swings his Hsu-Quandao back and forth in front of him, doing it to either motions to their surroundings, something akin to embarrassment for what he is insinuating, or something that only he knows the reason for.
"Unlike the mountains behind the castle, it gets cold here." Hak continues to swing his weapon back and forth in front of him as he waits for his princess' response. "Then I'll snuggle against you while I sleep." The large weapon comically flies from Hak's grip as he quickly registers her words. The weapon makes a whoosh sound as it leaves its owner's hand. "Jeez ..." Hak mumbles beneath his breath as he crouches down to grab his weapon from where it landed.
A dark look over takes his face for a fraction of a moment as he moves his hand from his weapon to the stone ground beneath him, sensing something off. "I don't mind ... but I'll play pranks on you." Hak swiftly picks up his weapon and turns to face his princess, their faces not too far apart from each other. Yona's eyes grow wide at the sudden lack of distance between them, and she blinks. "Pranks?" She innocently questions. Hak's eyes gain a soft shadow over them as he speaks, "Pranks are things like this."
Hak swiftly takes Yona's head in his hands, the action knocking off her hood. In the fraction of a second in which Hak's hand touched Yona's face, the male seemed to reconsider something and instead chooses to pin the redhead to the wall behind her with his body. His hands on either side of her slender figure, her hands on his biceps as she struggles confusedly. "Hak, what are you doing?" The female yelps out before a single word from her bodyguard silences her, "Quiet." Hak's face finds its place in the princess' neck as his ear gently pressed upon the rock wall behind the two of them.
The princess finds her face in Hak's clothing, as she tries her best to stay silent. "Footsteps." he murmurs to himself, calculating quickly approximately how many people he hears, "Forty No, fifty." Hak narrows his eyes in concentration "With one outlier," The rest he could tell were soldiers but it was the outlier he was worried about as they were an unknown, and that was dangerous. The outlier seemed to be proficient in combat so than a common soldier would be, with a good amount of stealth training, as they moved quickly and quietly, almost as if it were second nature to them.
They seemed to have either heavy equipment on their person or they just had more mass, Hak knew it was most likely the former rather than the latter, but was smart enough to realize it would be stupid to assume something about a possible opponent he knew nothing about. "Pursuers?" Princess Yona quietly questions, Hak stands straight and gently pulls his princess away from the wall, putting a comforting hand on the back of her cloak. "I thought they weren't chasing us anymore. That's quite a lot of people, too. They must mean business." Hak announces with a mischievous smirk.
"Are they the king's men?" Yona's question is interrupted by Hak pulling up her tan cloaks hood and roughly pulls it over her red hair. "Hey Princess," he says looking off to the side, "If we're going to be snuggling in our sleep, I won't feel like pranking you if you aren't a bit more comfortable to hold." The princess chases her bodyguard childishly as Hak playfully runs away, his Hsu-Quandao laid over his shoulders, one hand gripping the shaft and the other laying over it in a seemingly carefree manor.
"What are you talking about?!" The princess yells out to her bodyguard. Hak stops all of a sudden causing Yona to run into his back. "Now then, I'm all warmed up." Hak says with a carefree grin. "Time to get to work." Surrounding the two travelers are archers, soldiers and spear men alike, placed upon almost every ledge decorating the gray stones and greenery with their dark uniforms. Uniforms that signify that they are hired under the rule of a person of noble status, in this case it is the young gray haired lord Kan Tae-Jun.
Unknown to those about to begin their conflict, the "outlier" that Hak had sensed earlier was watching them from afar. They had changed their clothes as they did not want the final gift that their mother figure gave them to be tattered by something as trivial as a young male chasing after an uninterested female. Now, the figure dons a monochrome outfit, perfect for blending in with the shadows and going unnoticed. A dull gray garment worn under a black kimono top with flared out sleeves held a thick dark gray cloth around her midsection, under her ribs, and dark muted gray obi tied in a bow at her front.
Her long midnight black hair is tied in a high ponytail with a ribbon, tied in a bow to keep the rather long piece of fabric from getting in her face. It would be rather troublesome should Tae-Jun realize that she both met him and saved the princess and her fake husband, so she wore a black oni mask, with long curved horns where the temple of the mask would be, sharp white teeth decorated the mouth of the mask that curved into a threatening smile that promised horror beyond imagination. A small detail that she quite liked was the blank red eyes with simple black pupils, a reference to her own red eyes and black pupils.
She turned her head to the side and put on the mask, keeping her predatory eyes on the upcoming battle that had yet to begin. On her person she had only her scythe which she referred to as "Arashi" or "Storm", as her "Sword of Goujian" named "Tamashī" meaning "Soul" was not well fitted for battles in which she needed to be quick and silent. Tamashī was meant for heavy hits that required a lot of strength and left her slightly open to well planned out quick attacks that took advantage of her low defenses.
Arashi, however, was made for silent kills in quick succession of one another, it required much core strength and arm strength as it was often needed to make split second changes in attack patterns and suddenly stopping should the need arise, especially to avoid hitting a comrade. Karasu wasn't stupid enough to leave her belonging where they could be found, should she be unable to come back to her hiding spot to retrieve them. So instead she had packed her unneeded belongings gently into a thick leather bag and rolled it down a smooth part of the mountain, moss growing in the recently dried out river atop the still slightly damp soil.
Karasu gripped Arashi tightly in her hand as her eyes surveyed the soldiers through the eye holes of her mask, which thankfully, didn't obstruct her view as much as a normal mask would as it was custom made at her request. The battle was about to begin. The spear men and soldiers readied their blades as they shone in the sunlight. Archers notched their arrows and pulled back their strings into a ready position, set to free their arrows at any given moment, only needing the command to fire.
The princess' eyes grew wide in fear, even more so as she caught a glimpse of a figure wearing a dark mask with demonic red eyes gripping a dangerous looking scythe, Yona's voice was nowhere to be found as she tore her eyes away from the unknown figure and looked around at the soldiers that were surrounding them. Hak's voice brought her back to her senses "Stay close, Princess." Hak ordered as a smirk found its way upon his lips, his blue eyes dangerously narrowed, promising no mercy would be given. And with those words escaping from the lips of the famed Thunder Beast, the battle began.
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Word Count: 2600
(A/N) Hey! 2 updates in one week? I'm surprised in my self as well, I really wanted to make up for the last chapter, as I wasn't really satisfied with it. I hope I was able to make it up to you guys, and now that I'm on break, I'll be able to update more and put more time into this story! Yay! I really want to do a Christmas Special chapter, but I need to know you guys want it too. If I can get like 10 votes by Christmas Eve, I'll stay up and make the Christmas Special for you guys. Thank you guys so much for reading my story, I can't express enough how much this means to me. Vote, Comment and Share. Thank you again!!!
-Liz D. is out!!!