Akatsuki no Yona - The story of Ishi 4a

Ch. 4 Part 1
You, Me, He, & She

“We should stop here for tonight.  We won’t reach Saika until tomorrow,” Yoon announced as they came to a mostly deserted section of land not far off from the base of the mountain.  It was a dry area that was surrounded by large boulders and almost barren trees.  They would be kept sheltered and protected throughout the night before starting their track across the arid landscape to the Fire Tribe capitol.

Unaware that there was any sort of set routine about setting up camp, Ishi went straight about putting the tent together that the old man of Senri Village had packed for her.  Everyone else, who stood waiting for Yoon’s instructions, stared at her in awe of her initiative.  Yoon, in particular, stared at her with feelings of agitation and apprehension. “Well, come on, what are you waiting for, you monsters?” Yoon ordered to hide his irritation.

Before anyone could move, Jae-ha quickly suggested, “You know, we have three tents now.  There isn’t any need to have to cram four big guys, plus Zeno into one tent.  Yona and Ishi could share one tent and we could split up the six of us between the other two.”

“What are you talking about?  Two women in one tent, that’s a horrible idea; who would protect them if anything happened?”  Yoon spoke up angrily, but only loud enough for their small group to hear.  He glared over at Ishi, who truly aggravated him.  “She can take care of herself.  Didn’t she tell Yona that she would?  Besides, Yona is my tent mate.  I have no intention of sharing a tent with you monsters,” he defended his sleeping arrangements.  “Now get busy!” he barked, walking away from the group to start putting together a fire pit.

“Well then, Kija, Shin-ah, grab the tents,” Jae-ha tossed his backpack at Kija as he started to walk towards Ishi.

Kija caught the pack effortlessly with his dragon arm before raising an eyebrow at Jae-ha’s retreating form.  He bit back his comment about only taking orders from the Princess after seeing that Shin-ah was already pulling out one of the tents.  

“Zeno will help!” the golden dragon – Ouryuu - exclaimed, and went to assist Shin-ah, the blue dragon – Seiryuu.

“Hak, let’s go get some wood for the fire.  If I’m lucky, I might be able to find a rabbit or a bird for dinner,” Yona spoke while she pulled her bodyguard back towards the entrance of their encampment.

“Do you need any help, Ishi dear?” Jae-ha asked as he came closer to the young woman.  

Ishi peeked out from behind the material she was unfolding.  “No, thanks, I’ve got it.”

“You’ll get it up much faster with help,” Jae-ha persisted.

With the material now stretched out, the young woman revealed the now uncovered length of rope.  “I’m good...,” she said, not even looking up at him.  

“Here, let me do that, I’ll tie it to that branch over there,” Jae-ha insisted, holding a hand out so that she could give him the rope.  

Ishi raised her eyes to glance at him before breathing a sigh of annoyance through her nose and turning her head away.  “Why don’t you go help them?” she nodded her head towards Shin-ah, Zeno, and Kija.  “It looks like they need it more than I do.”  Zeno was covered from head to toe with a tent and waved his arms around, trying to free himself from the cloth, making him look like a disembodied spirit. Shin-ah was trying to help, but instead caused Zeno to trip.  Zeno fell to the side and was soon rolled up like a fancy rug into the back of Kija’s legs.  An unsuspecting Kija fell back, tripping over Zeno, and landed hard on the ground.  Shin-ah fussed over trying to help while Ao – the squirrel – jumped around all three of them.  It was quite a sight to behold and Ishi could barely contain her laughter with a smirk.  

Jae-ha pinched the bridge of his nose at the catastrophe before him and shook his head in disbelief.  With a sense of relief, Ishi watched him walk away.  It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate his offer to help, but he was trying too hard.  She wasn’t sure of what to make of it, or of him; were his intentions honest or more sinister?  Her eyes found Shin-ah as she observed their mishap.  He was trying desperately to help unroll Zeno, though Ishi couldn’t tell if Zeno was laughing or yelling.   Setting her tent rope to the side, she pushed herself back to her feet.  How many men did it take to pitch a tent?  She gave a short laugh and started walking towards them.

Jae-ha also grabbed hold of the tent with the intention of helping to unravel their friend.  Their combined efforts caused the tense material to pull over a rock and the sound of ripping cloth silenced the chaos.  Having the same effect of a dog whistle, Yoon appeared, as if possessed by an angry spirit.

“What are you monsters doing?” Yoon demanded angrily, immediately zeroing in on the infraction like a bee to honey.  “Do you know how long it’s going to take to fix this?  I still have to mend the tear in Shin-ah’s shirt!” he panicked overdramatically.

Jae-ha had managed to help unroll Zeno from the rest of the tent and they both came to stand by their partners in crime.  “Calm down, Yoon, it was an accident.  I guess we’ll just have to sleep a few nights without a tent.”

“It may be more than a few nights…,” Yoon grumbled as he examined the rip.  He gave a heavy sigh, “I don’t have time for all of this.  Yona is in a hurry to get to Saika…”

“I can help,” Ishi stepped closer.

Yoon studied her through narrowed eyes.  He wanted to refuse her offer.  Ever since they’d met her, she’d muddled the natural order of their group.  He didn’t like the way she disregarded Shin-ah’s privacy, or the way that Jae-ha seemed to act like a fool around her.  It was his belief that all of this was her fault.

“I can help cook, too…”  Ishi refused to back down.  

“That’s great!”  It was Jae-ha who broke the silence.  “See, Yoon, she can be helpful to you!  Why not have her work on Shin-ah’s shirt.  We have time, it won’t be dark for another couple of hours at least, and you have to wait for Yona and Hak to return with firewood before you can start a fire.  I’ll help Kija and Zeno with the tents.”

As much as he wanted to argue, Yoon couldn’t disagree with Jae-ha’s logic; he was far from happy about it, though.  Now she was taking over his job.  He was the one who took care of the group, to make up for his lack of fighting skills.  He was the pretty-boy genius!  As much as he complained about how much work he had to do, he had to admit that it gave him a sense of purpose and belonging.  

“Come on, let’s get you both out of the way,” Jae-ha said as he directed Ishi and Shin-ah away from the group.  “Don’t worry about your tent.  I’ll put it up with the others.”  Suddenly remembering something, he called over his shoulder, “Hey, Yoon, where do you keep your needle and thread?”  He left Shin-ah and Ishi by one of the boulders that was out of the way from where they would be working and returned towards Yoon to get the aforementioned items.

Yoon hadn’t yet spoke a word of acceptance to Ishi’s offer of help and he glared as Jae-ha approached him.  Jae-ha just smiled.

“What are you up to?” Yoon asked Jae-ha in a harsh whisper when the older man was close enough.

Jae-ha continued to smile.  “What do you mean, Yoon, dear?

“Don’t give me that!  You’ve been acting weird ever since that girl joined us!” Yoon hissed in a harsh tone.  They were away from the others, but he didn’t want to be too loud.

Jae-ha’s smile faltered into a worried frown.  “What’s going on, Yoon?”

While Jae-ha spoke privately with Yoon and Kija and Zeno put up the tent, Ishi found herself once again face to face with Shin-ah’s silent and understanding form.  It was impossible to call his expression anything but patient as he stood there waiting for her to figure out what she was going to say.  

“I’m sorry about earlier… back at the village.  I told you last night that I would keep your secret… and then I unmasked you right in front of everyone,” Ishi looked down shamefully.

Shin-ah tilted his head at her in confusion, but because she wasn’t looking at him, he spoke.  “Secret?”

Blinking at the sound of his voice, she looked up at him with uncertainty.  Did he not remember the promise she’d made to him?  “When you said your eyes were cursed.  I told you I’d keep your secret, meaning that I’d help you keep how gorgeous they are hidden from the others.  You didn’t want all of the village women swooning over you like they were with Jae-ha, Kija, and Hak, right?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Taken back by his reply, Ishi raised an eyebrow.  “But, the other day, you were trying so hard to keep the woman from seeing your face.  I assumed you didn’t like the attention…”

Shin-ah started to shake his head but stopped.  “That’s not the main reason…”

“Oh…”  So, she had gotten the wrong idea…  Maybe he had wanted the attention of the village women, after all.  If that was the case… she’d declared him hers and kissed him for no reason.  The realization made her face feel hot.  She was looking down again, embarrassed by her misunderstanding, but before she could apologize again he continued to speak.

“My eyes are cursed because of the power of Seiryuu.”  During his travels with Yona, they hadn’t ever told anyone that they were the dragons that Hakuryuu – the White Dragon, Kija – spoke so highly about.  Ishi wasn’t just anyone, though; she was their traveling companion.  Yoon and Hak knew of their identity as the dragons, so surely no one would protest that he’d informed Ishi as well.

“Seiryuu…”  There wasn’t any question in her voice, but rather familiarity.  The name triggered another memory, from long ago, before her family’s fateful journey into the Kai Empire.  She remembered the story from her childhood; King Hiryuu and his four dragon warriors.  Her eyes widened and stared off into the distance at the others.  Kija and his “deformed hand;” it was so obvious, how had she missed it?  So… who was… “Then which one of you is King Hiryuu, Jae-ha, Hak?”  She didn’t imagine that it could be Yoon or Zeno, though Yoon was bossy enough, so she supposed that he might be.

If Shin-ah should have been surprised by her knowledge, it didn’t occur to him.  Everyone seemed to have more knowledge about the dragons then he did, anyway.  “Jae-ha is Ryokuryuu, the green dragon,” he explained.  “Hak isn’t one of the dragon warriors.  Yona is Hiryuu.”

Ishi stared at him for a minute in disbelief before a slow grin crept over her face.  Yona was the red dragon, King Hiryuu; a woman?  She started to laugh.  Oh, if only Tae-Jun were here!  She laughed harder, overcome with the irony of it all until she bent over to hold her stomach in pain.

~To Be Continued~