Chapter Text
“Kid, you’ve been on this ship how long now?”
“Almost two years, Captain!”
“How about you prove your worth, for once? Go find out what’s on that ship.” And Jae-ha, torn between I’ve proved my worth plenty of times and I’m part of the boarding party? For real? had simply nodded and leapt into the sky. “Don’t do anything too stupid!” Gi-gan’s voice trailed after him.
Finally, he thought. It wasn’t that the captain never let him fight; she was smart enough not to waste his abilities that much. When the fighting came to their ship, everyone had to hold their own. And of course, Jae-ha’s unique skills allowed him to take out enemy lookouts before they knew what hit them. But when it came to actually boarding enemy ships, it was always “Kid, you’d just be in the way,” and “I can’t trust my men to babysit and fight at the same time.” But there was something different about tonight, something special about that ship. Maybe the captain felt it, too.
This ship had appeared on the horizon without warning just before dusk, making its way from one of the port towns—Awa, probably. It was a strange time for anyone to set out to sea, and that alone was suspicious enough. But that ominous feeling as it approached …
It had been dark for over an hour as the mysterious ship neared the cove where the pirates lay in wait, and they clearly had no idea they were sailing towards danger. Jae-ha landed in the crow’s nest and took out the lookout first, of course, then scanned the deck below. It was fairly empty; he’d definitely be able to make it into the hold unseen. These guys look way too rough for this to be a legitimate merchant ship. Were they slavers? Or simply smugglers? But that ominous presence only grew as he leapt down to the deck, and he was pretty sure he knew the answer.
However, he wasn’t prepared for the sight that met him in the hold. We’ve done this before. We’ve rescued prisoners from slavers many times. But he’d never been here, never seen the row of children, none of them older than ten, chained to the hull of the ship, that lifeless look in their eyes. Tied, just tied. There are no chains. As if that made things any better. And that dangerous presence—it was here, too. But … there were no guards in here, not for helpless children. So what …? As he scanned the hold, his eyes fell upon the second child from the end, a little girl no more than six years old, eyes as lifeless as the rest. She had bright red hair.
Warriors of the four dragons! Jae-ha felt the blood pounding through his leg. What is—? You are now our other halves. You will serve Hiryuu as your master, protecting him with your lives. You will love him, and never betray him. Oh, no. Hell, no. The dragon blood wanted him to serve someone on this ship? Someone who would do this to a bunch of kids? His knife already out, he cut the red-haired girl’s bonds and lifted her into his arms. If the dragon blood wanted him to serve a slaver—of course it does, it wants to make a slave of me, doesn't it?—he’d defy it to the end. “We’re going to rescue everyone, ok?” he said, looking back at the other kids. Then he raced back out of the hold, leaping into the sky the moment he reached the deck. The girl let out a shriek, but then seemed to calm down on her own as she gripped him tightly. She even went so far as to gaze around in wonder as they soared through the night sky.
“Jae-ha, your report?” Captain Gi-gan asked as soon as he landed. Then she noticed the girl in his arms. “Boy, I thought I said not to do anything stupid.”
“They’re slavers, Captain, the hold was full of children.” Gi-gan’s eyes softened. “And … I think there’s someone really dangerous on board.”
“Take the girl below, to my cabin,” said Gi-gan.
“Yes, ma’am! Then I’ll go get the others!”
“No.”
Jae-ha frowned. “But—”
“You’ve alerted them to our presence, even if you did take care of the lookout. You did get that right, didn’t you?” Jae-ha nodded. “It’s too dangerous to go back alone. But when we take the ship, rescuing the prisoners and bringing them back here will be your task. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The slavers’ ship fell quickly, and the other children were rescued without incident. With the slavers safely tied up below deck, and the children huddled in the crew’s quarters, Jae-ha made his way back to the captain’s cabin for that first girl. He found her sitting quietly on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees, but her eyes lit up when she saw him. Good. No little girl should have that lifeless look in her eyes. “Hey there,” he said. “We won. We beat the bad men, and rescued all your friends. Shall I take you to them?” The girl frowned. “Not your friends? You don’t know them?” She shook her head. That was odd; the other children all seemed to be from the same small village, one whose name Jae-ha hadn’t recognized but a fellow pirate had been familiar with. Jae-ha sat down next to the girl. “I won’t take you anywhere you don’t want to go. No one’s ever going to do that to you again.” She nodded and unclasped her hands, reaching out to take his. It feels like she’s holding on for dear life. But she was safe now, he didn’t need to worry about her like this. “My name’s Jae-ha,” he said. “Do you want to tell me your name?”
“... I’m Yona.”
That’s good, she’s talking. “Yona, I need to go help my crewmates, but I’ll come back to check on you. All right?”
“That girl is still in my cabin.” The wounded were taken care of, the mess of battle squared away, and the ship was well on its way back to Awa, where they would dump the prisoners and try to reunite the stolen children with their families.
“She didn’t want to leave,” said Jae-ha.
“Uh-huh,” said the captain.
“I told her no one would make her go anywhere she didn’t want to go, so …”
Gi-gan rolled her eyes. “Of course you did,” she said. Then, “She’s asking for you.”
“Then, is it okay if I—”
“Hold it.” Gi-gan placed a hand firmly on Jae-ha’s shoulder. “What you said earlier, about someone really dangerous. There was no one like that. Are you going to tell me what that was about?”
When the captain asked like that, he really didn’t have a choice, now did he? “I’ve told you where my power comes from,” he began.
“Far too often,” the captain agreed.
“And that there’s some master I’m supposed to be destined to serve. On that ship, I thought I felt—no, I didn’t just think, I definitely felt the presence of someone my blood wanted me to serve.”
Gi-gan raised an eyebrow. “The red dragon, King Hiryuu, a slaver?”
Jae-ha stood straighter. “I’ll never serve someone like that!”
“Jae-ha. When that red-haired girl asked for you, it wasn’t by name. She asked for the green dragon.”
“What? But I didn’t tell …” She saw me fly, but … realization hit. “You think she’s—but she’s a girl!” The captain gave him a long, flat stare. “I mean she’s like five,” Jae-ha hastily amended.
“I don’t know what this girl is or isn’t,” Gi-gan said. “But I saw how much you cared about protecting her before. If she’s what you’ve been running from, will that change?” Resolutely, Jae-ha shook his head. Yona was a scared, lost little girl. The idea of her being Hiryuu was ridiculous, but if she was … well, she can hardly help it, at her age. “Then go ahead. Go see her.”
Jae-ha tapped at the door before entering. “Yona, I’m back.”
“Jae-ha!” The girl rushed to meet him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Fortunately, the cabin was small enough she couldn’t build up much momentum. “You came back!”
“I said I would, didn’t I?”
“Uh-huh.” Yona lowered her voice. “Is that scary lady your mom?” she asked in a mock whisper.
Jae-ha laughed. “No, she’s the captain,” he said. “You know what that means?”
“She’s … in charge of a lot of soldiers?”
“She’s in charge of everyone on the ship. She’s the one who rescued you, really.”
Yona frowned. “You rescued me.”
Well, Jae-ha couldn’t exactly deny that. He lowered his voice, too. “You think she’s scary?”
“Good scary,” said Yona, nodding. “Like Uncle Yu-hon. Not bad scary, like …” She didn’t finish. Like the men who kidnapped her. Yu-hon, that name was very familiar—where did he know it from? Eh, that wasn’t important now.
“Yona, do you think you can fall asleep? This is the captain’s room, but I’m sure she won’t mind if you use her bed.” Actually, Gi-gan probably would mind, but she wouldn’t take it out on Yona, anyway.
“Will you stay?”
“Sure. And tomorrow, we can take you home, okay?” Suddenly, Yona’s expression darkened. “You … don’t want to go home?” If that was the case, he’d … Gi-gan would never let such a small girl stay aboard their ship, so they’d have to …
“I … I wasn’t supposed to go out,” she said.
“Hey, the first time I ran away, I was about your age.”
“I didn’t run away! I just wanted … my friends wanted to show me the city, but I wasn’t supposed to go out.”
Okay, that was better. For a moment he’d been worried that, if she was really was Hiryuu—and I still don’t know that, do I?—that she’d needed to escape her village just as much as he had. That’d sure be a twist on what they told me, wouldn’t it? But she was just a little girl who’d broken a rule and was worried about being punished for it. “What city?” Jae-ha asked.
The girl sniffed. “Kuuto,” she said. The capital? That’s a long way for slavers to bring just one girl, isn’t it?
“All right,” said Jae-ha. “Don’t worry about if you’d get in trouble. Do you want to be back home with your family?” Slowly, Yona nodded. “Then I’ll make sure you get there safely. It’s a long way away, so you should get plenty of sleep.” He picked her up and set her on the captain’s bed. “Goodnight, Yona.”
“Jae-ha … are you really the green dragon?”
Jae-ha tensed. Here it was. “I’ll tell you if you tell me,” he said, much more lightly than he felt.
“If I tell you what?”
“Are you the red dragon? Are you Hiryuu?”
Yona giggled. “Silly, Hiryuu was a really long time ago! He was the first king. I told you, I’m Yona.”
“Right …” There, she told me she’s not. Now no matter what the dragon blood says, I can … what a cop-out. “What makes you think I’m the green dragon?”
“Well, you can fly and you have green hair,” said Yona, matter-of-factly. Fair enough. “And I had a feeling about it.”
His own heart rate picked up in response to that. It’s definitely her. “Yeah, I’m the green dragon.”
Yona’s eyes widened. “That’s so cool,” she said. “Is one of your legs a dragon’s leg? Can I see it?”
“You should go to sleep.”
“Please?” She hopped out of the bed and started tugging at his boot.
“It’s the other leg. Why do you want to see it?”
“It’s … how you rescued me, right?” Oh.
“Get back in bed. If I show you, will you go to sleep?” Yona nodded and climbed back into the bed, legs dangling over the side. “It’s not very pretty, though.” She just shrugged, and Jae-ha began to unlace his boot. Why am I doing this? Even though the other pirates all seemed to think his abilities were cool (which, obviously, they were), it wasn’t like he ever paraded his weird-looking foot around. This is just to shut her up.
“Wow, it’s really got scales …”
Jae-ha rolled his eyes. “Yes, it has scales.”
“It looks like a lizard foot.”
“It does not!”
“Does too!”
“Fine.” Jae-ha stuck out his tongue. “I rescued you with an ugly lizard foot.” He began lacing his boot back up.
“I never said ugly.” Which … that was true. She hadn’t.
“Go to sleep.”
“Will you tell me a story?”
“No! You said you’d go to sleep!”
“But you’ll stay here, right?”
“I’ll stay here till you fall asleep, and I’ll be close by all night. We’re on a ship, there’s only so far I can go.”
“You could fly away.”
“I won’t, though. I’ll stay with you till you’re safe at home.” Yona nodded and, finally, closed her eyes. Despite all her energy just moments ago, she fell asleep almost instantly.
The captain was waiting outside. “You put her to sleep in my bed, didn’t you?” Jae-ha gave a slight nod. “How is she?”
“Hyper! Are all kids like that?"
“I shudder to imagine you at that age,” said Gi-gan, but she was smiling. “Considering what she’s been through, hyper is good.”
“She’s from the capital, or near there,” said Jae-ha.
“Chi’shin? That’s quite a trip.”
“No, Kuuto.”
“Oh, really.”
“That’s what she said …” Even the Earth tribe’s capital would be a long journey, but Kuuto … “I told her we’d get her home to her family, though.”
“Of course we will. I’m sure we can find some merchants heading that direction who’d be willing to take her.”
“No!” Jae-ha surprised himself with the vehemence of his protest. “I mean … I don’t want to just hand her over to strangers. If I carried her, I’m sure it wouldn’t take that long …”
“You don’t want to get her off your hands as soon as possible?” asked Gi-gan. “I thought you wanted nothing to do with the legendary master you’re destined to protect.”
“Come on, I’m not going to abandon a little girl just to spite destiny.” Besides, he wasn’t taking care of her because it was his destiny, it was because … well … “She’s been through a lot. She doesn’t need to be handed off to even more strange people.”
“Somehow, I don’t think she’d find anyone more strange than you.” The captain stepped towards the door of her cabin.
“Ah, Captain?”
“What? You’re not about to tell me I’ve been kicked out of my cabin, are you? I can sleep on the floor tonight; I won’t wake her.”
“… right.” Dammit, he did care too much about this girl. And Captain Gi-gan knows it. She’s laughing at me, isn’t she? Oh right, there was that other thing Yona had said. “Hey, does the name Yu-hon sound familiar to you?”
“The king’s brother?”
Oh. Oh, shit. “Uh.”
“What about him?”
“Yona … mentioned an Uncle Yu-hon.”
Gi-gan paused. “The king only has the one brother.”
“Maybe it’s someone else with the same name?” But that was just wishful thinking on Jae-ha’s part; she was from Kuuto, and furthermore, she was—I won’t serve the king! I won’t be some royal attendant!
“What did the girl say about him?”
“… that you were scary like Uncle Yu-hon.”
“Hah!” That, at least, seemed to put a grin on Gi-gan’s face. “You’ll set out tomorrow. Take Princess Yona back to the palace yourself, as quickly as you can. You’re right, we shouldn’t bring anyone else into this.”
They were back at Awa before dawn and, though he’d had time, Jae-ha had barely managed to get any sleep himself. So she’s the princess. The king didn’t have any sons, right? So while she wouldn’t inherit the throne herself, she still would … It was supposed to be a king. I shouldn’t be too surprised. But here he had been thinking that taking care of a cute little girl wouldn’t be so bad, and it turned out to be exactly what he’d feared all along. I have protected her. I rescued her from slavers, and I’ll take her home, and then I’ll come back here. I don’t owe her any more than that. It wasn’t like a girl that age had any business commanding warriors, anyway. And the dragon blood doesn’t say I have to do anything for her father.
“Jae-ha.” The captain was already awake too, of course. “The rest of the crew can deal with the slavers and the other children. You should head out with the … with Yona as soon as possible.” She didn’t use the word “princess” in front of the crew, he noticed.
“Did she sleep?”
Gi-gan nodded. “She asked for you as soon as she woke up. Go fetch some porridge for her, then come to my cabin.”
“Yes, ma’am.” When he returned to the captain’s cabin, Yona was wearing a new dress, and the captain was pushing a small chest back underneath her bed. Why did Gi-gan have a chest of girls’ clothing? Well, nevermind that. The blue dress Yona now wore was a little big for her, and made of rougher fabric than what she’d been wearing before, but it was clean and fresh. She looked like a normal little girl, not like a victim of human trafficking. And she’s actually a princess. “Good morning, Yona, I brought you breakfast!”
“Now then,” said Gi-gan. “After you eat, Jae-ha will take you home. Yona … is your father the king?” Yona glanced up at Jae-ha, who gave a slight nod. It’s okay, you can trust her.
“Uh-huh.”
“Well then, he’s probably very worried about you, so you need to go home as quickly as possible, which is why Jae-ha will take you.”
“We’re going to fly?”
“I can’t jump that far all at once,” said Jae-ha. “And I’ll get tired faster, carrying you, so we’ll probably end up walking some of the way, too. But yes, we’re going to fly.”
The captain pressed heavy purse into Jae-ha’s hands. “Stay at good inns and make sure she eats well.”
“You’re generous today, Captain.”
“She’s the king’s daughter, boy. If anything happens to her, it’s not going to be on my watch.” Right.
“Well then, Princess Yona,” said Jae-ha. “Shall we go?”