The Dragon of Life | Akatsuki no Yona Fanfiction |

20 | Split

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| Chin-Sun |

I woke up to the sound of a single twig cracking in the distance. It was subtle, but despite my deep slumber amongst the trees I had woken up cautious.

My instincts told me to investigate the matter further. Instead, my thoughts were diverted to the fact I was covered by a patch of white fur and latched onto someone else.

Within a second of realizing it, I recoiled from the warmth and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. The person jolted awake the moment I shuffled away and my heart began to pound with astonishment.

It was Shin-Ah. He was sitting right beside me, golden eyes probably wide open behind that mask of his. I'm sure he was surprised too, but I was more worried about the situation itself than anything.

He followed me?  Not knowing how much he'd seen of my loneliness, I suddenly felt embarrassed. I guess not coming back to camp was a good enough reason for someone to come get me... I wonder when I fell asleep.

"I . . . I'm sorry for disturbing your sleep," Shin-Ah muttered, seeming just as uncomfortable as myself. "I wanted to make sure you were safe."

"It's okay . . . " I said plainly. "I shouldn't have been so reckless."

I knew it wasn't safe out there. Not with our enemies being so close. But I'd ran away from them out of fear. I didn't want to be a burden to them. They were my allies- my friends. And yet I still inconvenienced them with my lack of experience . . .

"Chin-Sun-" Shin-Ah began to reach his hand out to touch my shoulder, but the harsh whiz of an arrow cut him short. I felt my body seize in pain and shock as a sharp arrowhead embedded itself deep into the bark of the tree we were sitting in front of.

"Ngh . . . " I winced, somehow feeling the pain of the old tree I had selfishly took refuge by the night before.

Shin-Ah's demeanor shifted completely as he grabbed me by my arms and lifted me to my feet. Next thing I knew we were hiding behind the tree in hopes of protecting ourselves from another flying arrow.

We were being hunted. Someone was out there, waiting for the perfect opportunity to take their shot. We'd been lucky, but the dark sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach told me they had missed on purpose.

Shin-Ah looked to me, his back bare of its fur cover and his shoulders stiff with seriousness. "Are you alright?"

"We must get out of here," I said quickly, not caring about the pain I'd felt for the forest. "We need to run."

I could hear more twigs cracking in the distance. The forest floor was alive and nowhere felt safe. They must've been waiting for us to wake up. Why they didn't kill us in our sleep, I wasn't sure, but thinking about it only made the pit in my stomach grow deeper.

"We need to get back to the others," Shin-Ah grunted as he turned and crouched down in front of me. "Get on my back. We must move quickly."

Without thinking, I did what he told and closed the distance between us. As I pressed my chest against the plain of his back and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, another arrow whizzed by us. It came from a new direction, signaling that there was surely more than one person after us.

Shin-Ah broke out into a dead sprint in the direction opposite of the arrow's owner. I held onto him with an iron grip and pinched my eyes shut.

I should've never left last night. This is all my fault. Now Shin-Ah is in danger. The others might be in trouble too.