Dragonfall

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/54769531.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Category: F/M
Fandom: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Relationships: Jae-Ha (Akatsuki no Yona)/Original Character(s), Shin-Ah (Akatsuki no
Yona)/Original Character(s)
Characters: Jae-Ha (Akatsuki no Yona), Shin-Ah (Akatsuki no Yona), Kija (Akatsuki
no Yona), Zeno (Akatsuki no Yona), Son Hak, Yona (Akatsuki no Yona),
Soo-Won (Akatsuki no Yona), Yoon | Yun (Akatsuki no Yona), Ao the
Squirrel (Akatsuki no Yona), Ik-Soo (Akatsuki no Yona), Original
Female Character(s), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Major Original Character(s), Original Character-centric
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2024-03-27 Words: 3,534 Chapters: 1/1
 Dragonfall
by Space_Romeo

Summary

"The day the seas turn to ice, on the night the crow slew the dove, war shall be ushered, and
the false leader brings the graven image. Beware the hunting dogs, for they are born to hunt,
as is their name. A reunion of friends to the grave, a death of great travesty shall bring the
downfall of two kingdoms and the end of leadership. Beware the slain dragon."

That was the alarming prophecy that Ik-soo had traveled all the way to Xing just to warn the
'Happy Hungry Bunch' about. Just when they thought Soo-Won usurping Kohka Kingdom
was a bad enough situation, they found themselves proven wrong with the rise of an entirely
different faction: The Seonguja.

Notes

So, this is my first time posting here!😗 Yona Of The Dawn has been my top fandom for a
long time and I figured, why not share one of the works I have for it.

I will warn, that the fic contains OCs, some shipped with the original characters, so if that's
not your cup of tea, that's alright!

I've tried my best to keep everyone in character, but sometimes the "canon" behavior for
characters can be strewn among people's interpretations, especially when said characters are
complex. So, if anyone feels off I'd actually love for you to tell me, it helps.

And, welcome to the dead fandom club haha. Anyways, enjoy!

The farm field is littered with bodies, debris, and wounded fighters. Shades of browns,
blacks, grays, and blues are the new colors of what was once a tremendous field, and an open
plain. The latter has now become the stage of a full-blown invasion. The air which would
usually be filled with the scent of food in - in a town not too far from Tenkyou, is now
deafening loud, the sound of explosions, and sword clatter, and the smell of rising smoke
drowns any other sound and bakery smell in the area, enough to make even the bravest
tremble in fear.

Two parties, two armies of two kingdoms, fight each other not because of the lies of their
leaders, but because of the false prophet. Differentiating beliefs have caused the prided
downfall of what were once glorious lands. Now it's yet to be determined which side's on the
winning hand. The wounded on one side lay in heaps across the farm field and the faces of
the fighters are frozen with what was once hope in their hearts and eyes searching their
surroundings, they carry out their orders in a tough fight.

With the uncertainty of battle coursing through their minds the other side fights with fear
flowing through their veins. Some have succumbed to terror and are hiding or running away
from the war, while others fight on in the hopes to survive this terror. The toll on both nature
and humanity is unimaginable. It'll likely take ages before this farm field will have recovered.
Its apparent gore, weaponry, and explosion holes have taken the place of plants, crops, and
shrubs. Farms were demolished and houses were up in flames. The battle was going in no
one's favor today. You’re telling me those Kohka monsters still aren’t here? What the hell…
Anytime there’s a battle like this they’re always involved, it's like they’ve got a sixth sense
for this.” Ine of many soldiers who was fighting the oncoming army from South Kai
grumbled beneath their breath, hiding behind what was left of a small wooden shack, most
likely a farmhouse of some sort, they along with three others hid as best they could. "You and
your tall tales, Tae-Hyun…I’ve never seen them once, so why should I care? No one’s seen
them in weeks, either they finished whatever they’ve come here to start, or their desire for
battle finally got them killed.” "Your ignorance is exhausting. You forget, Si’u, they’re on our
side. This battlefield stretches for miles across Xing, maybe they’re held up elsewhere.”
"Then why hasn’t anyone come to tell us that?” "As I said, this battlefield stretches for miles,
trying to come and warn us or bring us good news is a death sentence on its own, such a risk
is suicide.” The soldiers all grumbled instead of continuing to bicker. It was clear that they all
had very different ideas about where those monsters had gone. The girl with the crimson hair
of dawn, and the five monsters of Kohka kingdom. One has an arm like a dragon, ten times
as strong and as large as that of any man, able to kill in a strike. Another that seems to fly and
attack from above, a third with piercing eyes, a fourth with an undying ability to protect their
master, even when facing the harshest of wounds and death, and the fifth, the Thunder Beast.
Sharp and skilled, should you meet him in battle, pray he is on your side. Both soldiers Si’u
and Byeong-Ho had no hope that those monsters would come to their aid. Ever since the rise
of the Bumanian Powers, they’ve either been in hiding or worse. Not many knew of the
prophecy that beveled a small village of Nomads just outside of Chisin, so close to the
Imperial Capital, yet no one truly knew what was going on.

One enemy of the Crimson Dragon King that was a hard battle to win, and to fight, was the
war between the High Basilisk Queen Bumi, and Hiryuu Palace. One that ended in nothing
but destruction. Bumi believed that the Crimson Dragon King had no rights to Kohka
kingdom, ever since her banishment, and believed that she was the true ruler. Despite her
downfall, she still had followers.

And over time, they had grown strong. So strong and operating in nothing but the dark, so
much so that their motives were almost untraceable. It was like they used the oncoming fame
of the dragons as their void. To act in the shadows, hidden from the light. Then, they struck.

Wherever the dragons and Yona may be, they were needed. But they were needed, not in
battle, but to be safe. They needed to stay away. Stay away, are exactly the words that were
echoing on and on through Tae Hyun’s mind. He wanted to scream it to all the nations,
throughout the Kohka Kingdom and beyond. But he knew that would give their location
away.

“You hear me you brutish monsters, stay away from Kohka, and away from here!"

From the outside, the Inn looked nice and traditional. Built with sandstone and wood furnish,
with tan stone decorations. In the form of dragon sculptures. Tall, rounded windows add to
the overall look of the Inn’s rooms and have been added to the house in a mostly symmetric
way.

The Inn itself is equipped with an open kitchen and baths in each room, as well as a hot
spring for pleasure. It also has a comfortable lounge space, supposedly to converse, and was
rather large. Fourteen rooms are available, and only four are open. Each room is the size of a
small house, much like the size of Iksu’s, and plenty of room for Yona’s party of six.

The entire Inn is fairly rounded in shape. And is fully surrounded by stylish gardens. The hot
spring is hidden somewhere in the middle. The second floor is smaller than the first, which
allowed for several balconies on the sides of the Inn. This floor has a slightly different style
than the floor below. The group got lucky in the ability to have a room upstairs.

The roof is low and slanted to one side and is covered with wooden shingles. One small
chimney pokes out the center of the roof. There are no windows on the roof. The Inn is
surrounded by a modest garden, covered mostly in grass, a few flower patches, and a small
pond. The pond is open for fishing and lazing about, and the hot spring is on the opposite
side, hidden by lush plants, and wooden high fences.

“And yet, this was the cheapest inn for the night. Are you sure you didn’t just hear wrong,
Yona?”

“I’m positive. Kang-Mi wouldn’t steer us in the wrong direction, not after how persistent she
seemed in finding Jae Ha a room. And it was only eighteen suk per person, that's 108 for all
of us. Kang-Mi even offered to pay half of that.”
Jae-ha laughed with a shake of his head. Kang-Mi was a woman he had met in a town over
whom he helped pick up some fallen fruit, and upon his… devilish ways of charm, and
learning of the Happy Hungry Bunch’s current situation, she was almost driven mad that they
were outside in a tent and drenched wet nearly every night. She gave them pointers to an Inn
nearby in the mountains, secluded enough to stay at for a minor amount of time, until they
were found out and off to run again. How it came down to this, even they didn’t know.

“That woman is a sure spitfire. I was almost intimidated.”

“She intimidated white snake enough, that’s for sure.”

Gija nearly jumped out of his skin at Hak’s teasing, as if any reminder of that woman was a
sin beyond all sins. The poor white dragon always seemed to get the blunt end when it came
to Jae Ha’s trumpets about women, and any woman that seemed to push themselves onto him
or flirted with him made him beyond intimidated, ever since his Granny’s urge to get him
married. He was so devoted to his destiny of protecting Yona that thinking of any other
woman was far from his mind.

And within seconds the boys were bickering, all except Shinha, who never seemed interested
and always stayed out of it, huddled in a corner of the room with Ao, and Zeno was too busy
trying to break up that fight rather than playing a part in it.

Yona was so exhausted that even thinking about what had just happened no more than three
days ago was mentally draining.

One minute they were ready to depart from Xing after finally leaving Ik-su and beginning
their journey with the four dragons, the next they were told it ended before it even truly
began. And Ik-su came running all the way to Xing just to warn them about this “false
prophet” and apologized for lying to them about the actual danger this journey had to offer.

Now they’re stuck in hiding, after running away. The one thing they seemed to have gotten
used to.

“Who would have thought that being declared ‘persona non grata’ by nearly all of Kohka
could be so exciting.”

“¡How can you be so casual about this? They caught us by surprise, they nearly caught Sinha,
wounded Yun, and almost attacked the Princess. This is no matter to be so amorous about. ”

Gija began to ramble, everyone was on edge, exhausted, and all forms of torpid. No one had
eaten in days, and water was scarce. This inn was their first form of comfort in a long time.
Right after they would bathe and get settled, everyone would be off to the kitchen for some
much-needed refreshments.

The boys were back at it with their bickering, and Yun, despite being tired, and nonetheless in
pain, had snapped back at their argument like a mother. He had torn his heel pretty could and
severely wounded his shoulder in a desperate action to save Yona, one that she did not take
too kindly to.

“Listen… we’re all exhausted here, we’ve been running for days and haven’t had any time to
get some rest. We should be in the clear for now, at least for a little while. Instead of
bickering like children you should all eat and get some sleep, take some baths too. We can
figure out what to do next at a later date.”

For the first time in days is what it felt, Sinha had responded, he hadn’t done much talking,
not that he usually does, but he had been warming up to the Happy Hungry Bunch ever so
slightly. Despite the verity that they have not even been together for long. But his speaking
was to propose an idea, whether or not it would work, but he still wanted to find out.

“...Why don’t we head back to Awa… Nara is still staying at an inn there. She said she would
help us whenever we need it. We can settle at her place until we can figure out where to go.”
He spoke softly, petting the sleeping squirrel, Ao, that rested in the crook of his shoulder.

“Sure, but it would be getting in and out of Awa that would be the problem. Awa is near
Chisin, right? That’s practically where the Seonguja have set their base, they’ve been
patrolling the areas around the Earth Tribe lands for days, plus who knows how far they’ve
spread since then. Not to mention they still hold high enough power in some of the Kai
Empire’s territories after chasing Tae-Jun away. As much as it would be nice to go back and
visit, since we hold pretty high regard in the town, and I’m sure Jae Ha would too, it just
doesn’t seem doable. It just feels like a suicide trip, that’s all.”

Hak twisted and twirled with the handle of his glave, everyone sitting in an almost circular
shape, now on the topic of brainstorming. Seems that food, shelter, and the necessities now
weren’t what was really on everyone’s minds. It was trying to find a way to make it back to
Kohka, back to Awa, and back to Iksu’s house that was the problem, and the matter at hand.

Jae Ha however, had an idea, and a stupid one at that. But he was certain it would work.
Maybe aside from Hak, he was the quickest out of the group, and with his ability to jump
high and jump far, and stay in the tree line, then it may just work. It was getting the party to
agree that was the issue.

“Then I’ll go alone.”

All amounts of angered “what”s, “are you kidding me”s, and seriously”s erupted from the
group, and with a sheepish chuckle and a wave of his hand to shut them up, they seemed to
listen, mostly. The glares on their faces were killer. Jae Ha thought he would double over and
succumb right then.

“That’s got to be the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth.” Hak poked his
cheek with his glave, and Jae Ha gently moved it away, suddenly the tone in the room shifted
entirely. He really was serious about this?

“You and Gija may be the two who are the most willing to lay down your lives for Yona, and
despite still standing by my freedoms, I would too. With my leg, I’m quick in the air and on
land, and in the treetops. So long as I pace myself and bring enough food, water, and rations,
I should be able to make it to Awa in less than a week, I just need to follow the river and stay
hidden. And… if I go alone, then there is less of a chance for them to catch us all. It’s better
one of us than all of us, I’m afraid.”

“You’re too self-sacrificial for your own good! One of these days it’s going to get you killed.
You’ve still got that wound on your shoulder, don’t you?” Hak glared.

“What’s that got to do with it? Look, I’m just suggesting the idea is all, there’s not much else
we can do. One of us scouting ahead doesn’t seem like a horrible idea to garner, I can hold
out on my own quite alright.”

Jae Ha tossed his ponytail from his shoulder to behind his back, his shoulders slumped and
his eyes seemed to droop more than they already did. The others weren’t quite glaring at him,
but they were not quite so happy either. Jae Ha had yet to see them so angry, intimated he was
indeed.

“We know you can, that’s not the problem. It’s just that running headfirst into things like this
doesn’t feel like something we should be doing right now. None of us are ready for that.”

Hak retorted, and Jae Ha did too. Not to cause an argument, but to try and prove his point.
They’d been arguing so much and it all went nowhere, that now they seemed to stop. They
had realized that arguing was pointless, especially now. The sudden arrival of the Seonguja
was enough to test the limits of their newfound comradery, breaking it would lead nowhere.

“And none of us are ready for another war, either.”

“It’s the same war, Ryokuryuu. It’s only the enemy that’s different. If you truly think that you
can do this alone, then we cannot stop you. But please understand the risks.”

Zeno spoke. His tone was wise, unlike his usual bubbly and upbeat nature. Maybe it was the
lack of food getting to him, or that he has seen thousands of years worth of wars to know
when too much is too much. Seeing enough war in a lifetime is horrible enough in its
standing, but Zeno has lived for so long, who knows how he must feel.

“I just don’t feel comfortable with you going there on your own.” Yona expressed her
unsureness, her voice a low whisper. Jae Ha would not admit it, but seeing her so worried,
worried him as well. He had been the one to have roped the others into this mess in the first
place, he assumed they would be safer without him for a short time. Gija and Hak were
strong, and Sinha too. Zeno may not look the part, but he would protect the Princess with
everything he had in himself.

And it would be nice to see Awa again and to speak to Nara. So long as he stayed along the
paths made by the river. He would be safe. He had to be safe, for Yona. For his newfound
family. The Princess had lost enough people and had seen enough death. Her father, a servant
boy who helped her escape the castle, nearly lost Hak and her own life, witnessed the death in
Awa, and a girl by the name of Kye Mi-soo, whom Yona had said traveled with her and Hak
at the beginning, someone who also helped them escape the castle, was fighting with Hak
against the Fire Tribe’s soldiers, but she was lost after the three fell off a cliff. Yona and Hak
both have not seen her since. Whether she is alive or not, they don’t know. But it has been
many weeks, maybe months since that day. And the two have given up hope.

Had Jae Ha died now… well, that would bring their journey to such an abrupt ending. Yes,
he’d be reborn. But they would be back to having a blank slate. And no newborn child, nor a
child in general should fight.

“Why don’t you take white snake with you? His arm may come in handy, or how about
Yun?”
“Gija is strong, he should stay here if anything should go wrong. And no offense to the dear,
but Yun is about as intimidating as a dainty little butterfly.”

Yun most definitely did not take what was meant to be a compliment so well, and a thwack to
the head from Yun, surprisingly hurt more than it looked. With a retort of “try that for a
dainty butterfly”.

Such serious conversations of battle were no longer uncommon, whether it was about
scouting, fighting, or reconnaissance. But this was the most of it by far. And the longest they
have talked about such a topic in a long time. The most they had spoken in a long time.

“...If you think you should go, then go. Jae Ha. But promise us you’ll be back safe?”

Yona had a despondent look in her eyes, she was unsure, significantly, but she had full trust
in him. Jae Ha knew that she would be worried, maybe all of them would. But it seemed they
had made their decision. Jae Ha simply nodded, taking a small rice sack full of rations and a
canteen of water, as light as he could get, before he bid the others farewell. A gentle, soft kiss
on the forehead to Yona, in a chaste way, to which Hak said nothing of disdain And then, he
left.

At last, he was out of that inn and outside again. Following the forest should lead him far
enough. Yona had also given him her spare bow for hunting, it seemed she knew he would be
gone for quite some time. The river was lengthy, and no one knew this secluded area in the
mountains was here. All his travels prior to the war, and he surely did not.

Maybe he could take a day of rest and camp deeper into the forest before he truly headed out.
Now he was starting to worry himself. He brought up the idea as a way to keep Yona and the
others safe, but as he thought about it now it just felt so wrong.

The forest outside of the inn was far-reaching, archaic, and rather dark. Its canopy was
overshadowed by maple, alder, zelkovas, and birches. Camellia and camphor trees added a
splash of color and light to the forest, and rays of light bursting through their crowns allowed
for a range of saplings to monopolize the thick layer of leaves below.
Curving vines held onto every tree, and a potpourri of flowers, which claimed quiet corners,
added more life to the otherwise dark lower level. A cacophony of sounds, belonging mostly
to the harmonization of the birds above echoed in the air, and were strangely synchronized
with the occasional sounds of large animals like deer or the occasional howling of a wolf in
the distance.

The river seemed to span for miles upon miles. According to the innkeeper, it was duly
named “dalbich-ui sulo” or, “Moonlit Waterway”. And well-earned the name was. It was dark
now, and the moon reflected off the river in a way that created an almost illuminated path. Jae
Ha followed the slow-moving current, exactly, or around, north-west was the direction of the
river flow, and so was Awa. It seemed to align perfectly.

He was lucky tonight.

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