Rescue

Seems all was not well

“You should have thought about wandering off without your friends, a beauty like you will be sold for a high price.” He gave a boisterous laugh, holding a dagger in his hand. I carefully crouched, pulling Shin-Ah by the hand to crouch and walk with me before letting go, touching the wall slightly- if we burst in now it could be a problem because we didn’t know if he was alone. He could have had a small amount of men with him. However, the smell of Yona’s blood was overpowering my senses because I was worried about her. I tried to concentrate elsewhere, anywhere in the cave besides her. Carefully, we inched closer. As he pulled her up by her hair, I slipped inside and cut straight through his hand, at the wrist - it almost felt like I had snapped. The princess’ face, was nothing less than surprised as her hair was freed forcefully from the man’s grip.

The man stumbled backwards as his dagger fell to the, clutching his bleeding appendage. The scent of blood made me sick as I clicked my tongue. “B*****d! How could a woman do this to me!” He yelled sternly at me until he caught sight of my face. His twisted face was stunned instantly as his complexion went white- he realized who I was. He was alone and almost catatonic so I decided to  turn to Yona, Shin-Ah by her side on the ground, fretting on what to do. I placed Matthias back in its sheath as I outstretched my hand for her to grab. Some of his blood had gotten on her. So I instinctively brushed it off - wiping it free of her face.

“Sorry I’m late. Princess.” She blinked as I helped her onto her feet. Her own blood was covering the corner of her mouth and it seemed her wrist was bruised from being pulled around. I quickly picked her up in my arms, she giving a small yelp of surprise. Shin-Ah pointed at himself and tilted his head. “It’s okay Shin-Ah, I can carry her. Go up ahead and tell Yoon to prepare medicine for Yona’s wounds. I’ll follow your scent so don’t worry.” He nodded, taking a look at Yona for a moment before turning around and headed out of the cave and towards the camp. 

I took one more look at the man, he was in a stupor, maybe from the pain of losing his arm or from the shock of the woman who killed his men finding him again after he ran away. Either way he’s not going anywhere and with no pressure on that wound he’ll fall into death’s grip and I have no problem with that. I made my way out of the cave and to the forest, running with the princess in my arms. “I can walk, truly. There’s no need to carry me, Shoe.”

I gave a small chuckle, “I don’t mind carrying you one bit; you’re as light as a feather, plus it’s faster this way.” She gave a small blush and looked away from my face as I jumped over a fallen tree, “Hak always says I’m heavy and pokes fun at my weight.” She gave a pout at the memory, but her face looked fairly sad. I sighed, Hak is sabotaging himself, but it’s cute that he teases the one he likes. I looked up ahead to see our campfire, as we approached the camp, Yoon was the first to greet us, medicine in his arms. Hak came into my view, seeming to have just got there with Jae-Ha coming up from the rear, “Princess!” Hak quickly took the small girl from my arms, worry evident on his face as he moved her towards the fire- Yoon trailing along quickly with his bundles. 

The others gathered around the princess as well, too occupied by taking care of her and asking if she was alright to pay attention to me. As I stood there I just watched Yoon snap at Kija for crying and to ask everyone to give them some breathing room. I suddenly felt almost out of place as I toyed with my finger tips, noticing then that I had blood on my hands and sleeve, looking at it blankly I sighed. Tori, I did it again. I thought.

I sat by the river, trying to get the blood stain out of my sleeve as well as the stench. I would have to say it had been hours since I went to save her. I cursed to myself, I had said to remain calm. While the situation could have turned out far worse - the bloodlust from the dragon's blood made my instincts go wild. I winced as I sighed, watching my breath come out in thick clouds. I heard someone step behind me - it was Yoon. Holding a small cup in his hand, as he offered it to me.

“Here…. you should drink this.” I blinked for a moment. Sniffing the air - even though blood still remained thickly in my nostrils I could still tell it was mint tea. I laughed, placing a hand against my mouth. “Hey, what’s so funny? You’re the idiot who took on such a dangerous job of taking out all those bandits and even fought the leader alone. Though you had Shin-Ah, I can tell you fought as if you were the only one there,” he pointed to my bloody sleeve, looking up with almost tears in his eyes, “Idiot!” He started to scold me as I stood and took the cup. --

“You’re amazing Yoon.” He blinked - seems like I had confused him. “While I’m glad you were worried, you seem to be all forgetting I’m also someone who carries the dragon blood. I’m not so fragile. I meant what I said when I said I wanted to serve the princess to help her make this country great. No matter what she wants to do.” I don’t know why I was explaining this to him but I was. I smelt the tea, it was just as my advisor made it - Tori - sort of like a sister and a mother to me. “How did you know I was having anxiety?” Yoon looked off to the side frowning with a small blush on his cheeks.

“When you try to isolate yourself without getting thanks from someone, and trying frantically to wash that blood out of your sleeve. It’s not hard to tell.” He muttered. I smiled and took a drink of it, taking in a deep breath.

“You’re too kind…. Yoon.”  I muttered.

Lightning Dragon Fun fact,

Strong electric lungs of a dragon - radiates through the body. For the body to keep up the blood has thickened and becomes black due to high iron count. However, - the lightning dragon is much like the blue dragon. Their powers take a toll on their body - and Shoe tends to use it more when she’s angry.

“Come on it’s this way!” I pointed down the path, I was way ahead of everyone as we walked towards the next town - this time it was one riddled with poverty. Yona had said something about wanting to help more towns and this was the closest one I knew of. Though it was known for it’s shady activity too, I was sure we could handle that fairly easy. In the middle of my walk, I was stopped by Jae-Ha. I blinked, looking at the green dragon. What he said next was nothing but surprising.

“You should leave.” I blinked at his words, recoiling my hand.

“Jae-Ha - “ The green dragon turned the princess down with a raise of his hand.

“Me and Kija were thinking about it for a while. Dragon blood or not Yona already has the four dragons from the Kouka kingdom - you’re leading her into dangerous situations and you drag us down. Not to mention there is still a lot we don’t know about you, we can’t trust you.” Kija folded his large arm across his chest and gave a weary, but certain nod. I took a step backwards, my expression did surprise him a bit. I probably looked like a startled rabbit - I hadn’t meant for this to happen. Right after I told Yoon why I was staying in the first place, what was the point of telling Tori I was going on an important adventure. If I could help Kouka at all, it wouldn’t be as a Queen because my kingdom was on the other side of the Kai empire.

“She’s staying.” I turned to Princess Yona who glared at Jae-Ha. Not out of spite it seemed, just something that she firmly believed. “Shoe hasn’t meant us any harm even if it happened by coincidence. Besides she saved me and is offering up her strength as a dragon from another land.” Hak didn’t seem to want to be in the conversation at all. His gaze was off to the side as Yoon smiled.

“Though we would prefer you leave the planning to the handsome genius - and at least take one of the dragons with you if you’re going out on a hunt.” Yoon had that mothering tone that reminded me of Tori so much. Zeno jumped up and down, “Zeno likes the missus! She’s kind!” His toothy, genuine smile touched my heart. Shin-Ah nodded too as Ao jumped off his shoulder and onto mine, “Ao, likes her too.” He spoke gently.  They were defending me. I hadn’t spoken to them much but they were defending me, I started to tear up. Jae-Ha flinched at the sight, but I couldn’t help holding them back anymore as I burst out into tears.

“Now look what you did White Snake you made a girl cry. Isn’t that against some code of yours too Droopy Eyes?” Hak teased as Kija flared up nervously, eyes wide and hands waving as he stuttered what might have been a form of apology if he wasn’t so flustered. The green dragon seemed unnerved as well as he looked away, biting his lip with a pained expression. I lowered my head as I tried to wipe my eyes just as Yona approached me. She put a hand onto my trembling back and rubbed it in circles as she wiped my tears gently with her other hand. She smiled softly.

“There’s no need to cry.” she gave a soft, almost soothing laugh as I watched Kija look apologetically at me, tears almost in his eyes as well. Jae-Ha stiffened when he felt my eyes on him, still refusing to look at me, but he had this worried frown and scrunched features that told me he was sorry but didn’t know how to say it. I looked to the others, almost as confirmation that what they said wasn’t just my imagination. Shin-Ah put his pointer fingers to his cheeks and exaggeratedly dragged his features up into a smile, tilting his head as he did so. I couldn’t help but to give a choked laugh that didn’t come out of my throat quite right.  Zeno, looking at the blue dragon, turned to me and did the same thing; dragging the corner of his lips up into a crooked, toothy smile. Hak gave a side smile when my face finally turned to him. The small nod in my direction was one of the most comforting things I received. Yona spoke again, more sternly now that I’ve calmed down, “You are staying.”

“But….. - You all.” I said almost frustratingly at the lack of words I produced. Even if I did find the words and put them in a sentence it wouldn’t be enough to express how I felt. I found myself wrapping my arms around the princess, pressing my face into her shoulder. She gently patted my head as I tried to control my crying. No one’s ever been so sincere about that to me.

Author's Note

-pets shoe and yona- You know I forget Shoe's an adult sometimes.

Reviews

[TheRaven]

Hmm, maybe it's just me or it's the anime style. I just don't find Shoe getting so immensely emotional quite often to be realistic. She's got a blood-lust, and she's cut a man's arm off (possibly has killed before), but things get her to tear up a few times. I feel she'd be more reserved with her emotions, shielding them. That's just my opinion anyway.

At the beginning, the action was rather confusing. A lot of pronouns, and we hardly knew anything of this enemy to make him anyway confusing. I never felt like the princess was in real danger because everything resolved itself so quickly, and far too easily. Again, most of this may be because I'm detached from the anime source.

Many interesting potential character pieces here, for me it's just not quite coming together the way I'd like. S. von Glaubitz said it well below when she pointed out a bit of mechanical wording. Certain places I felt the same beyond just the having anxiety part.

Potential will be the word and theme of the day with this story. You have creative potential from what I can tell from the highs and lows so far. :)

[S. von Glaubitz]

More good stuff!

Again, there’s some confusing action in the beginning. Shoe goes from not even being able to tell how many men there are to having the precision to cut off the man’s hand, for example.

I’m worried that in the course of three chapters Yona is nearly drowned in a river and then kidnapped. First, because this makes her very much the damsel in distress. Second, because she has five dragons, a Hak and a Yoon that are supposed to be protecting her, and that makes them seem rather inept at their jobs.

How did Hak and Jae-Ha know to come back to the campfire? Weren’t they out looking for Yona together?

“Having anxiety” is kind of funny wording… like it’s too clinical or something.

Lightning Dragon Fun Fact: While amusing and enlightening, it interrupts the story. I know you have the writing power to work that info into the story.

Shoe bursting into tears makes me wonder whether she hasn’t had a lot of friends or seen such loyalty in her life. Makes me want to learn more of her back story. As long as there is a reason hiding there and this didn’t come out of nowhere (though who wouldn’t be touched!). It just seems against her character otherwise. And, as you state in the notes, you forget she’s an adult. Otherwise, this is really is very touching and a really nice beat to the story. Coupled with the Yoon scene, it feels like a very important chapter character-wise.

Again, better with every chapter!

[JBoone]

Another amazing piece. You are awesome.

[AliciaB]

Aww... this is so sweet! I love the part at the end where they are all being rather awkward but sincere in trying to show Shoe that they care about her. Also, the fact about the lightning dragon having more iron in her blood is super cool - I am a science nerd, so even though this kind of thing isn't technically biologically accurate, the fact that it makes scientific sense on some level (electricity being more easily conducted through the higher ion concentration of her blood) makes me very happy. :) Also... YOON IS ADORABLE!!! He is totally my favorite character. The fact that he recognizes Shoe's anxiety and makes tea for her... I love him so much! Keep up the great work. This story is awesome!

[Centipedle]

You make me want to upload more of it xD but I don't want to ovewhelm people(since it has many more chapters already)