In the realm between waking and dreaming

"All that we see or seem is

but a dream within a dream."

― Edgar Allan Poe

In the realm between waking and dreaming images appeared and disappeared in front of his eyes.

Shadows spoke to him through the mist…The overall darkness of this place threatened to overwhelm him….A menacing feeling, so as if he would stand on the edge of cliff.

"Why? The question is why? And you don t understand," a thick, small figure told him. He could see barely the outlines of that person.

Hak knew his name. It seemed like his name was on the tip of his tongue, but he was not able to say it.

But it was significant…he was aware of that. If he could just say, who that person was…However, the shadow dissolved without giving away his identity…

Another figure appeared. A huge shadow, whose owner seemed to have a brawny appearance. He didn t say a word….Though his aura was intimidating….Suddenly his shadow morphed…More and more…The figure was pulled and twisted, shrunk…into a bird…that took flight…high…high above his head…transforming again into an entity far bigger than the first form of this shadow…

The last person that showed himself to him…was so familiar…that his head didn t wish to think about it…His heart seemed to stop, when he recognized that person.

A smaller figure than him, long hair, a thin neck…Though still just a dimly phenomenon, just like the rest of these sinister companions.

"What do you know….I cannot marry Yona", said this person…His voice sounded hollow and so not like him at all.

"Why?", he asked this person. He couldn t help it.

Hak didn t mean the marriage…he meant something else…something completely different…

But this person refrained from answering the question.

Something had pulled him out of his sleep. Hak couldn t tell what it had been. There was no noise, he could recall….

It was still dark…Blackness still embraced him.

Glancing out of his window, facing the east, he was able to perceive the first rays of sunlight. Soon the day would begin. Another day in the service of King Il.

His heart was still beating rapidly against his chest; however, his breathing had already normalized.

What a weird dream. Hak rubbed his eyes. He should try to get rid of these weird thoughts.

A dream about Lord Soo Won. Yes. The last person had been his friend. Truly a weird dream…A mere trick his head had played on him.

As if…Hak inhaled and exhaled….He had to think about something else…The impression he had gained still lasted heavily on him.

The upcoming birthday of Yona would be hard enough to turn the world upside down.

His thoughts were still in a disarray. He needed to clear his head. A good opportunity for a walk and maybe a soon training session to appease the god of dreams.

He smirked.

There were merely hours before the great banquet of Yona s birthday….Of course the cousin of the Princess had made his entry in time.

King Il would make a big fuss of that event like every year. Yona would spend the most time in front of a mirror, exhausting herself to look as pleasant as possible for the one she loved….

Hak shook his head….What a weird dream….

The normality surrounding him eased his mind…Clearly the outlines of the table and the chair, that he used for correspondence and reports.

A maid had placed a vase with a variety of different flowers on the sill. This odour reminded him of his home…The castle surely was a peculiar place.

With a sigh on his lips, since this day promised to be a very exhausting and tiring event, Hak rolled out of his wooden box.

During his wanderings he encountered a few of the guards. One of them tried to suppress a yawning.

" Aren t you supposed to keep watch, Bae" asked Hak. He had nothing against a little pause, but most likely not while they were on duty.

Even though Princess Yona wouldn t have guessed it, but he took his job fairly serious.

Bae waved at him. Hak lifted his hand to reciprocate the greeting.

Aside from the soldiers protecting the castle, there was nobody around. It was still too early for the bustling noises of the servants, trying to please the royal family along with the present nobles.

Many guests had already arrived several days before the festival. Lots of them forgot the day of Yona s birthday every year and thought that they could celebrate a little before the big event. This caused an uproar every so often.

But King Il has never prevented that. He had never tried to reprimand his guests. This bubbly king surely was a nice person…A too nice person, yet, Hak didn t mind it in the least.

He sighed. Sometimes he worried a little bit…But that was precisely why he wished for Princess Yona and Lord Soo Won to marry.

His glance became soft. This person had a far broader mind than any other he knew. Lord Soo Won didn t care about status and would even tell him of all people, that he…It was still awkward even thinking about it.

That day, years ago, when the nephew of King Il had told him "that"….that he would admire him of all people…A mere orphan that was adopted by General Mundoek.

In fact, the current Wind Tribe General had already conveyed this wish to his friend, though it seemed that he was not very fond of that idea.

"I cannot marry Yona", that was what he had answered him. Maybe that was the reason why, he had this pretty weird dream?

His head had transformed and twisted Lord Soo Won s words to a hellish ride of a nightmare.

In the distance a white shadowy figure became visible…In the darkness before sunrise, the ghostly white person attracted attention naturally.

A certain ghost, passing the court on his way to heaven knew where…

The blond hair fell loosely on his shoulders, billowing in the wind like one of Princess Yona s dresses. His body was covered with white clothing. This thin, lean figure…just for a moment…Hak had considered him to be somebody completely different….This thought disturbed Hak.

Even more so since this person didn t look like he would love to be approached. Nevertheless, it was a strange occurrence that Lord Soo Won would roam the palace grounds on his own, directly before Yona s birthday.

Was he following somebody? Carefully not to make any noise, Hak sidled up to him. Nearer and nearer he walked behind Lord Soo Won. His steps were light, but his mind was heavy…The images of the dream were still hunting him.

His friend looked strangely foreign to him…

The way he moved, quietly, without making much noise.

It would be better if he broke the spell…the spell of that moment that had been casted on his poor head, imaging things that would never occur in the world.

If he called this person, would his presence also dissipate like the vile demons of his dreams?

"Lord Soo Won, what are you doing here?", asked Hak. His voice sounded unfamiliarly loud in the silence of the moment.

Abruptly the movements of the ghost in front of him stopped. A few heartbeats Hak feared that this was as well a dream…a continuation of that nightmare from before.

This person didn t turn around fully, merely turned his head so far, that he could see one side of his face.

In the first moment, there was an expression on his face, on Lord Soo Won s face, that Hak had never seen there before.

A mixture of sadness and…what? The expression was so out of place for that person that Hak s brain was not able to process this information correctly.

What had happened?

Later, years after that event Hak would look back on this situation….on that one moment, he could have said something and the turn of events wouldn t have led to the outcome that left people important to him in tears.

To be precise, it is unknown, if his interference would have changed the current of fate encircling these three people….The powers that be were guiding them…on the path of destruction and hope.

Hak was not aware that right in that moment he had caught Soo Won in a moment of weakness. The wall of friendliness had vanished for a certain period.

The young leader of the Wind Tribe was preoccupied by that sight, since their relationship was not like this…It was not so easy that he could just come to him and put a hand on his shoulder or lend him an ear.

This scene reminded him of the one, where Lord Soo Won had shed tears at his shoulder. Just like back then. It was a difficult situation. An even more difficult situation, as Hak was now facing Lord Soo Won directly and could not turn away from it so easily.

Besides being friends, there was a border between them calling itself status. Apart from that and which was far more significant in that situation, Hak had no clue, if Lord Soo Won would wish to talk about the issue..or if it would be tangent to a topic the other didn t wish to reveal to his friend.

Hak respected the boundaries of others.

All these reasons combined led to Hak hesitating in that moment.

The ghostly figure of Lord Soo Won looked at him with that expression just for a tiny moment in time. Then the moment had passed, and he turned around and continued his way without looking back….

No words had been exchanged.

It was a scene as surreal as put out of a dream…

The birds were chirping, welcoming the new day, that would be Princess Yona s birthday. Long ago, a red, fiery star had appeared high in the sky…. announcing the birth of the reincarnation of the Red Dragon God.

When the first bustling noises of the servants could be heard, Son Hak, the leader of the Wind Tribe and Princess Yona s guardian awoke.