HakYona Week 2018

Day 4 | 16/08 – Battle

"Hak!"

"Hak!" A voice screamed again at him through the haze of pain.

"Come on! Stay with me Hak, you have to stay with me! Just hold on!"

Vaguely he could feel hands grabbing just under his arms as he heard whoever it was that was yelling at him, straining to drag him away from the battlefield still rife with enemy soldiers looking to finish them off.

They had shown up to help aid Kouka, in a battle against the Kai Empire before they crossed the border. They thought they could handle it, thinking it would only be a few smaller troops set out as scouts to wait at the border for further orders before crossing. They weren't supposed to have already amassed the full strength of their army. They weren't supposed to have been ready for them.

Someone from one of the nearby villages that straddled the edges between the two nations must have tipped them off in exchange for mercy so as not to be trampled by the troops as they advanced.

Things had gone bad. So bad. And so quickly.

By the time they realised what was wrong it was already too late and the Kai Empire soldiers had managed to separate them all as Hak and the Dragons fought tooth and nail to get out and find Yun and Yona.

Even Zeno fought with a vengeance that the other dragons never knew he had the capability of holding.

It was like all the pent-up rage and torment that he had held over the thousands of years he had lived in the immortal prison that was his body, had been released into a devastating and heartbreaking flurry of pure strength.

Still, it wasn't enough.

They were too far away from the castle for the dragons to be at their stongest.

They hadn't been able to reach one another.

He had not been able to reach her. And god knows where she was right now, what she was doing or if she was ok.

Blood continued to pour into eyes from the gash on his forehead and from the wound in his side, but in a last attempt of desperation he struggled to wriggle out of his captor's grasp.

He had to find her. He had to get to her. He promised he would never leave her, that he would stay by her side. He had to make sure she was safe. He could not die now.

As he fell to the ground in a bloody heap and tried to drag himself across the ground, his hands pulling out bloody fistfuls of grass and mud in his agony, he heard whoever it was that had been trying to drag him away yelp and cry out in dismay.

Even as they tried to grab hold of him again, he struggled.

"Hak! Please, It's me! You have to stop! It's me, Yona! We have to get off the battlefield and try and regroup with the others. I don't know where any of them are. Everything was going to plan and then. . . and then," she broke off into sobs before she could finish.

"Princess?" he asked, trying to see her through the grit and blood in his eyes.

"Yes, it's me. I'm right here." She said, grabbing his hand and holding it against her cheek as she used her other hand to tilt his head to look at her.

"Princess, you have to go. There'll be soldiers here any minute. You have to run." He said weakly, urging her to leave him while she still could. Right now, it seemed it was all he'd be able to do for her in the state that he was.

"No! I'm not going to leave you! How could you even suggest that?! You have to stay by my side and I have to stay by yours! I promised myself that I would do whatever it took to protect you! You have to be alright!"

The tears now streamed down her face in rivers and she grabbed under his arms again and continued to do her best to drag him away into the woods and away from the battlefield, but it was slow going.

How she was doing it at all he'd never know. Because while she certainly had grown considerably stronger, there was no way she could lift him that far away. He was too heavy. But he hadn't the strength left to try to urge her again to leave him and save herself before he blacked out cold.

The last thing he remembered was the sound of her struggling as the end of the battle faded behind them and the feeling of her tears falling on his face.

{*****}

When he awoke again, he didn't recognise were they were and tried to sit up abruptly only to fall back down in a delirious blur before trying again, more slowly this time.

He was lying on the ground on the dirt floor of a small hovel, its thatch roof starting to rot away after years of neglect and the door merely a wide plank of wood that could be propped over the entrance as it now was.

It must have been somewhere around half-past three in the morning based on how dark it was through the hole in the roof, the only light being that of the waning moon.

He shivered. Everything was cold –Probably due to blood loss when he thought about it –and it all hurt.

The only part of him that wasn't cold he realised, was his right side, which struck him as odd.

When he looked down to see why, he nearly wept with relief and anger.

The Princess lay tucked into his side on the ground beside him, curled into a little ball as she shivered and tried to wrap them both in her cape.

Relief that she was safe for now and that overall, she appeared to be unharmed flooded through him.

Anger, however, boiled in the back of his mind at himself for being unable to help her when things had gone to shit.

As he made an attempt to shift and draw her closer in an effort to try and warm her and shield her from the cold, she awoke with a start, looking exhausted and worse for wear as she looked around the room in a panic before her eyes rested on his face.

"Oh, thank The Gods, you're awake," was all she could say before collapsing on top of him in a boneless heap as she flung her arms around his neck, new tears now falling down her cheeks and onto his.

"I-I didn't know what to do" she hiccupped in between sobs as he coughed from being momentarily winded as she accidentally put weight on one of his cracked ribs.

"I'm sorry!" she said in alarm, realising what she'd done and easing off his chest a little bit still not letting go.

"Y-you passed out and I couldn't find the others and you were bleeding. There was blood. So much blood. I dragged you as far as I could until I came across this place. It was already dark by then, so I practically ran into it without noticing and I didn't know what else to do so I took us both inside and just lay down beside you. . ." she rambled, more sobs now wracking her small frame as she buried her face in his neck.

"I tried to patch you up the best I could" she continued, and as she said this only now did he notice the bottom half of her dress was gone, now covering only just above her knees as the strips of cloth were now wrapped tightly around his side and head.

"I thought you were dead. T-that you had left me –"

"Yona" he rasped, cutting her off and grabbing her attention before she could dwell on the thought any further.

"I promised you I would never leave you and I intend to keep that promise. I'm just –"

Tears now slid down his own cheek as he managed to lift an arm hold her to him, as tightly as he could as he gathered his strength and spoke softly into her hair.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through this. I'm so sorry that I couldn't make it back to you. I'm so sorry that we're in this mess, if I had –"

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare say those words." She now said with new vigor, anger even, as she pushed herself up enough to stare into his eyes."

"None of us knew this would happen. We all did everything we could but there's nothing any of us could have done differently to have stopped this from happening so don't say those words Hak. DO NOT."

The fire that had briefly lit her eyes as she spoke began to dim as she finished, now leaving her looking cold and small again in the absence of their flame. So, with nothing else that he could think of to do, he reached up and wiped away the tear tracks that stained her cheek and held her face in his hand looking solemn.

She leaned into his touch and gave him a weak smile in an attempt to lighten both their hearts in their current situation and in the aftermath of all that had happened.

"Let me amend what I was going to say then," he began slowly, "Thank you, Princess, for saving my sorry ass from being finished off. The fact remains that you never cease to surprise me with all that you manage to do and I'm grateful that you're alright."

He rubbed a smudge of mud and dried blood from the corner of her mouth and chin, trying not to think about who's blood it may have been.

"Thank you, Yona."

No sooner had her name left his lips did she fall forward and embrace him as if the world were ending and these were their final moments.

No sooner had he wrapped his own tired arms around her in return did her tears begin to fall again.

No sooner did his own tears begin to fall before she began to smother his face in tender kisses, kissing the tears from his eyes and holding his face in her hands, willing his pain to go away.

Willing everything to be alright.

That he would heal and that they would find the others safe and sound.

As she kissed the last of his tears away, and as her own dried up, she huddled close again, doing the best she could to keep them both warm against the growing cold that the late autumn night brought upon them.

All Hak could do in return was hold her close and try to share with her what little warmth he had to offer in return and pray that the sun would come up soon as he stroked her hair in an attempt to sooth her.

To let her know that he was still there and that his heart still beat.

That it beat for her, and that they would make it through this if they could just get through this one night.

Tomorrow it would be ok.

Tomorrow they'd find the others.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.

Tonight, all that mattered is that through the chaos of the battle she had found him by some miracle sent from The Gods themselves and that they had each other in their arms. That they could not and would not be separated now or ever again, if they could just get through the night.

{*****}

By the time morning broke, things still seemed bleak.

With little idea of where they were and with no energy left between the two of them to go out and try to find the others, they were left with few options.

Hak knew she wouldn't like it, but their only chance would be if Yona ventured out and tried to find the dragons, leaving him there until they could come back for him.

He couldn't move much, the wound to his side being deeper than he first thought, and while nothing important seemed to have been ruptured he was still in pretty bad shape.

"Yona," he said, using her name again this time instead of Princess to let her know he was serious with what he was about to say.

"I need you, when you find the strength again, to leave me and go find the others. We don't know if soldiers will be roaming around looking to finish us off and I can't get up right now to follow you. Come back with the others when you can but right now I need you to go." He said, voice though not as strong as usual, leaving no room for argument.

Room for it or not however, she would still have none of it.

Stubborn, beautiful, wonderful girl, he thought to himself.

"You have to live, Princess. For me. I live to be with you, right by your side. To protect you. My life is yours, but your life is more than that. You have to live for these people and this kingdom. For the dragons who waited centuries for you." He whispered reaching for her hand to hold in his own.

"I'll be fine. But I need you to get somewhere safer than here first."

He had hoped she would listen to reason. That she would realise this was what needed to happen if they stood a chance at leaving this bloody battle behind them to live to fight another day, but his words only seemed to enrage her further. Those embers in her eyes beginning to spark again in their outrage.

"Why? Why are you allowed to throw your life away for me, but I can't do the same for you? You say that should I die; your life is meaningless. Can you not see that without you I am the same? Why? Why do we have to throw our lives away for each other when we could live for each other?! I can't lose you!"

Her voiced then turned to stone.

"I will NOT lose you Son Hak. And I will NOT leave you. We leave here together and no other way."

Her voice then softened again as she linked her fingers with his.

"I'll figure something out, don't worry. Just rest for now. Have faith in me."

It seemed there was nothing else he could do. He could not argue with her after all she had said because she was right. It was not fair on either of them to throw their lives away for the other. So, they would just have to live for each other instead and this warmed his heart in a way that revitalised something within him that he thought had long since died.

"Alright then, Princess. You win, so I'll leave it to you." He finally relented, giving her a weak but genuine smile, letting her see how proud he was that she was his Princess.

She smiled back, and it seemed to banish any remaining cold from his body.

"Thank you, Hak. Now rest."

And with that he did.

They would live another day.

Another Year.

Another century.

And they would live to fight another day.

The battle may have been over, but the war had only just begun and with the rage of a fallen Princess and her loyal dragons beside her, nothing would stop them from rising victorious in the end.

{*****}

Hey guys! Hope you all enjoyed this little drabble as my contribution to HakYona Week 2018!

As always comments/reviews of any and all kinds are always welcome and appreciated and I hope you all enjoy this years HakYona Week as much as I am!