Baby Steps (Akatsuki No Yona)

Fifth Step

Yue had agreed the next day to join Yona and her group of extraordinary companions. Yue had decided that whatever lay ahead of her, she would leave to fate. She had the feeling that these people had a rather adventurous life, and the ongoing daily occurrences seemed to confirm her suspicions.

Within the group, Yue had to say that she got on with most of them. Zeno was an absolute sweetheart to everyone, Yue included. He would always include her into his conversations, making sure she was heard and her opinions taken into account. That was more than she ever had; 18 years in solitude had given her enough time to form philosophies on many aspects of life so she was never short on conversation topics.

Shin-ah, though never spoke, was a dear, making sure she was always warm, offering her his fluff whenever she so much as shivered. Ao as well would cuddle up next to her whenever the nights became chilly.

Kija, being the lost puppy he was, was always sweet and considerate around Yue. His blushing and stumbling, especially his fear of bugs was rather enduring to the young woman. When they had run into people, they always assumed Kija and her were siblings. Though they shared a similar hair colour that was about as far as their similarities went, leaving the others confused at the resemblance that was assumed by others. Even her hair was slightly different, being more on the grey end of the spectrum whilst his was a bright silver white. She also had a prominent beauty mark on her upper lip, giving an entirely different appearance to Kija, it always puzzled the group how they were confused as siblings.

With Jae-ha, despite his rather flirty nature, they both got on swimmingly. He would make sure she was always comfortable wherever they were, asking her if anything was too much for her. Hak was always kind to her, in his own twisted way. Though he was more reserved, she never felt like an outsider, maybe it was because he treated her the same as everyone else, something that she was extremely grateful for. Yona might as well made it her duty to catch her up on anything she didn't know which included a lot of girl talk.

And that left Yoon. Yue couldn't understand why the ikeman would not talk to her or even look at her. Whenever she tried to approach him, he would turn away in a huff, making out as if just looking at her was a task. To say she was not upset and hurt by his behaviour would be an understatement. Had she done something, his apparent hate would be justified and she would have left it be. Everyone was entitled to like and dislike whomever they pleased, but she certainly wanted to know why he seemed to dislike her so much.

The journey to Ik-soo's home would take them an entire month, seeing as Yue's 'home' had been on one of the remote islands of Kouka. They had explained to her that the dragons had the ability to track other dragons and that had been the reason for why they had ran into each other at such a convenient time. According to Zeno, he believed that Yue's subconscious was causing her to move towards them without her knowing, one of many topics they had conversed about.

By this point, Yue had been in their company for two weeks, and she was enjoying every minute of it. They had reached the mainland, travelling through the Earth kingdom territory and everything was all so new to her. She was exposed to a whole new world, both literally and figuratively.

"It looks like it's going to take us another 3 weeks to get to Ik-soo's" Yoon sighed as he traced out the route they would be taking on a worn down map. The others sighed, half in annoyance and the other half in exhaustion. Yue wanted to show her fatigue as well, though soon decided it would be impudent of her if she did so.

"You not tired Yurei?" Hak asked as he leaned against a nearby oak tree. Ah, that nickname again.

Hak had picked up the habit of calling her Yurei, a play on words with her name and alluding to her appearance. Apparently, her short and thin figure paired with her grey-silver hair gave the impression of a ghost, hence the nickname. It didn't help that in the first few days of her being in their company, Hak had almost wet himself when he had woken up to spot Yue coming back from the toilet. It wasn't her fault that her hair was a mess and her robe at the time was white.

"Hak-san, please don't call me that. And no, I'm still good to go" Yue sighed giving a thumbs up at the end of her sentence to reaffirm her claim.

"If she complained about the trek, I would say she really was useless after all" Yoon muttered to himself, busying himself with the map again. The spike of hurt would not have dulled even with Yona's reprimand but Yue could only smile, trying to play it off as nothing.

"We'll make camp here for the night, it's getting dark anyway" Yoon stated before everyone began unpacking the supplies. Yue, too tried to help but at any point she had tried to lift something or fix something, her efforts would be thwarted by the angsty teenager that seemed to have it out for her ever since they first met.

"I'll just go collect water" Yue muttered, grabbing the empty flasks and heading down to the small creek that was out of view before Yoon could complain. She could hear hushed whispers exchanged between the group but couldn't bring herself to listen in. She wouldn't like to admit she was pouting but it had come to that.

Why wouldn't the cute munchkin like her?

The cute munchkin she was referring to in this case was Yoon, despite how aloof he had been, his interactions with the others has her wanting his friendship. Stumping to the creek's edge, she began the tedious task of refilling the ten flasks they carried with them. Carrying them back would be a challenge and usually two people would be assigned to refill the water but she hadn't thought it through at the time. She had just wanted time alone.

"Ouch" Yue muttered as she noticed a small red spot on her ankle, guessing an insect must have bit her when she had been kneeling to get water. Putting it off as just a small cut, she glanced down to the flats she had been given. Seeing as she was bare-foot when she had run into the group, they had lent her a pair of flat shoes until she could get her own. It was the only time Yoon had been nice to her, though 'nice' could be used loosely as he had all but thrust the shoes in her face before stomping off, red in the face.

Yue managed to carry all the flasks back in one trip and when she arrived back to the camp, everyone had just finished up with their tasks and food was about to be served.

"Mhh I'm starved!" Zeno yelled as he plopped down beside Yoon, who was stirring the pot of stew, eagerly awaiting a bowl as Yoon ladled some stew for everyone. Yue was handed a bowl and everyone fell into silence as they were all too preoccupied with their meals, walking all day could really build up an appetite.

As everyone cleaned up and got ready for bed, Yue was hit with a wave of dizziness; her eyesight blurring causing her to bump into the tree that she hadn't realised was right in front of her.

"Oi what's wrong with you?" Hak asked, staring at her with a raised eyebrow. Yue tried to laugh it off, playing it that she was just tired.

"Well get some sleep, we have to wake up early tomorrow" Hak chided, pushing her towards her bed mat that someone had kindly laid out for.

Everyone had settled down, with Yoon and Yona already asleep in the tent. Despite lying down, Yue still felt a little dizzy, her gaze coming in and out of focus. She could not help but worry but brushed the matter to the side assuming the day's walk had only tired her out more than usual, and that she would feel better in the morning with a good night's rest.