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Chapter 1

Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur – Unknown

"That man is wise who talks little"

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Hak had a bad feeling. He could not place it but his stomach was doing uncomfortable flips every now and then, the young man could not keep himself in place and standing still was not an option. If Mundok were there he would have whacked him upside the head already.

For the moment he was leaning against a tree with his horse ready to race back towards the castle. Too bad he had to wait for the rest of the party to get ready. Hak was tempted to just grab the reins and go already. It's not like anyone would admonish him for it, he was the goddamn general after all.

The orders were unusual. King Il never really gave him another command besides safe guarding the Princess before, most of the time he treated him like a nephew more than either of their titles dictated. It was stranger still then that he would send him to check a border from the sky tribe during Princess Yona's birthday. There weren't even direct reports from patrols telling about the so called group of bandits that were assaulting the people from the capital, he hadn't seen any suspicious activity so far, though they did spent the night on watch.

An image of the Princess smiling brightly appeared in his mind's eye. Even though he doubted she would be very upset if he wasn't there in a way he was relieved from not having to watch as she confessed to her dense cousin (seriously how Soo-Won hadn't realised the Princess's feelings for him was beyond him). Again the horrible nagging feeling was back, and accompanying it was also a very familiar pain tearing the inside of his chest. Now he was so used to it, it didn't really bother the General that much anymore, as long as he ignored it and focused on their happiness it was just a dull throb.

A trembling called his attention and Hak realised his leg was jumping up and down on its own. His impatience was so palpable the surrounding small company of soldiers had sped up taking the camp down.

The young man could wait no more.

"I'll go back to the castle" Came the almost too casual announcement to the soldiers who looked up and saluted. He was the Wind's Tribe General after all. He thought about bidding farewell but the contemplation flew out as soon as he mounted and kicked his horse's sides sending it into a gallop.

~x~

The roads were clear since the sun was just coming out; a beautiful red began to envelop the world and its tone reminded him again of the airheaded Princess back at the castle. He began to think of his childhood friend again, of her unique hair and her eyes too, a shade of purple seldom encountered. She was egoistically naïve, didn't know the first thing about anything, he thought fondly. I wonder what Yona is doing right now he wondered while secretly using her name alone. Then remembered her determined face to confess and felt his own pull into a painful grimace, he was sure he'd scare anyone who saw him right now.

The capitol was now visible in the distance, and the General noticed some unusual activity. There were soldiers in what looked like everywhere. As he entered the city, people appeared to be in a hurry and talking nonstop to their neighbours, soldiers were asking questions to any market vendor and passerby or making rounds as if searching for someone. It bore ill to Hak, especially when they saluted him but did not approach to report.

The black haired youth pulled the reins of the horse so it would slow down and stopped in front of one soldier.

"What's going on?" he asked the startled young man who looked like he was sweating a lot despite the chilling morning air. His comrades began to busy themselves frantically and that put the Thunder Beast off. He began to feel his impatience to see the Princess as soon as possible turn slowly into irritation (even more) and to anger when the uniformed young man stumbled over his words and didn't seem to be capable of a straight answer.

Everyone knew the Thunder Beast's loyalty to the King and Princess. "… The Royal Family was attacked last night" The guy reported while avoiding eye contact.

For a moment everything stopped.

He could not breath and didn't seem to remember how to. His body was frozen except for the horribly loud palpitations of his heart. The strongest man of Kouka was afraid of hearing more but forced himself to.

"What did you say?" He demanded. His fear came out as anger and for that he was thankful. He could deal with anger, but anything else was out of the question at the moment.

The soldier cowered under the stronger man's almost rabid glare and didn't dare make him wait "King Il was murdered last night and the Princess was abducted by an unidentified man, General" by now the unfortunate messenger was sweating like crazy, his gaze was rooted to his feet.

But the Leader of the Wind Tribe didn't answer. Simply yanked the bridle roughly and kicked the animal's flanks mercilessly to make it go at full speed in the direction of the castle.

He didn't want to believe it, wouldn't believe it until he saw it with his own eyes. How could things turn out like this in just one night? The very night he wasn't there… No, maybe it was because he wasn't there. Dread was seeping through his every pore; he felt very cold, his hands sweaty in their dead grip over the reins. He shook his head. It would do no good to draw conclusions until he knew for sure, right now he worried most about the Princess; he would not forgive himself if something happened to her.

The blue eyed man tried to recall her happy face, tried to convince himself that she would receive him with that expression like always, calling his name and then nonchalantly saying she set the wild rumours to just see his reaction. He must be very scared if he tried to convince himself that Yona would do that just to tick him off. Even when extremely annoyed at him she never ever did anything like this even in small scale.

The gates were in front of him now and the sight gave him more dread than hope. It looked like it always did except for the soldiers scurrying around and the servants warily observing from the sides.

Almost tempted to make the horse jump the stairs, he stopped at the end and hopped off the dead tired animal, he spared a pat at its damp lowered neck before striding as fast as he could up the staircase.

"General Hak," called the stiff voice of the Sky Tribe's General, Han Joo-Doh, meeting him at the end of the hall "Please come to the meeting room with me". He turned and walked fast not bothering to check if he was being followed for he knew he was.

They arrived quickly and no one dared to even look into the Thunder Beast's face along the way. Hak's already inner turmoil went up a notch. He just wished anyone would tell him it was just a cruel joke or something. He was also afraid of his Majesty's rumoured fate. He wished he could wake up already, wanted to see those purple colored eyes so he could tease her senseless for scaring him like this even if it were a dream-nightmare. He corrected the last thought.

Soo-Won was standing with his back to the door and looking out the window.

"What happened last night?" Hak went to the point. His childhood friend turned and sent Joo-Doh a look, who turned and closed the door on his way out.

"There was an assassination last night. His majesty, King Il was murdered" The blond knew the other enough to realise beating around the bush would cause a negative effect. He seemed to decide to get it over with "Also, a fire started and almost consumed the hall where the events took place and Princess Yona was abducted by a not identified man while everyone was trying to escape or stop the fire".

Hak remained motionless while he digested the information. Then like a broken dam he shouted "How could that happen!?" But Soo-Won's impassiveness got on his nerves more than anything. How he could give him a military-like report while his closest remaining family was murdered and kidnapped not a day ago, especially to him of all people, he could not fathom. It angered him even more. But he would deal with that later; every minute he wasted here the Princess could be going through anything and getting farther away.

"Explain the events of last night with detail".

~x~

Both men were silent for a long while. Soo-Won observing him and Hak had his head down, long bangs covering his eyes.

Finally the strongest soldier of Kouka lifted his head and looked on with a myriad of emotions: sadness, worry, guilt, fear, all flashed across his face briefly and then settled on determination.

"I'll search for the Princess" He informed the other, leaving no room for debate. Soo-Won looked mildly surprised, as if he expected it.

"The kingdom needs the five Generals to select a new King" he said "You can't go until that is taken care of". That ruffled Hak's feathers even more.

"My duty is to protect the Princess, and even if King Il died my duty is not over" The Thunder Beast gave no openings for doubt. Feeling like the conversation was over Hak turned his back to the blond and began to march out, clutching his weapon tightly.

"Wait! Hak, you need to stay to help sort everything out at the emergency meeting" that made the Thunder Beast's pause before he reached the door "We can't do this without you". There was a long stretch of silence.

"… Then I resign as the Wind Tribe's General and pass that title once more to General Mundok" he intoned as he turned around to fully face the man who now seemed more like a stranger than a childhood friend to him. Hak stayed silent, he had some half baked theories but would not ask any more, at least not from the cold man across from him.

Done with him, he turned once again and left.

Before going out he needed clues. So he went to the King's quarters where the events took place. He immediately smelled the burnt remains of the approaching chamber and when he finally arrived he almost didn't recognise the place.

Everything was blackened by the fire. How it started was hard to tell, but the centre place of the room seemed to be the most charred. When he got close to it the planks gave in and he jumped back, looking down he saw the scorch marks went all the way in and not only the surface. As if the fire had started big and covered the area an instant from the base to the surface of the plank floor, reaching the sailing too he noted while looking up.

What kind of fire was this that burned so hot and big so fast he had no idea, or how was it possible such a decontrolled fire had died down without killing anybody was anyone's guess.

He remembered what Soo-Won said about a man walking through the flames, grabbing the Princess and making a run for it while everyone was panicking. According to him, he heard the Princess screaming and went in to look just to be cornered by the flames. Hak had serious doubts about that story but decided to keep quiet for now.

After checking the place thrice and finding nothing else he decided to question the witnesses.

~x~

It was getting dark outside when the now Ex-General finished terrorising servants and soldiers and was preparing his stuff for the search. And he found some facts: The majority of the versions did not coincide, the soldiers were the most fidgety despite everything, everyone was surprised by the fire and could not explain its origin or extinction and, some said the King's death occurred sometimes before or after said fire, in all cases Soo-Won and Joo-Doh seemed to have been there with the Princess before the fire.

The young man's head was swimming with information and the only clue he got about the Princess was that she one of the servants disappeared after the incident; Min-Soo had not been seen since last night. Hak wished he was there to ask him, the man was good at getting information better than he was.

Preparations done, the Thunder Beast grabbed a travel bag with his ever present spear and walked out. Once on the grounds he decided against using a horse, thought fast right now he needed to gather more information. The town's people ought to have seen a red haired Princess being taken with the entire ruckus unless they slept like the death.

Hak wished she was safe wherever she was. Please wait for me, Yona. I'll definitely find you and make whoever did this pay. If only I was there. The last thought almost made him drop his luggage.

There was something he knew he had to face sooner or later, but did not let himself dwell on it out of fear of the thought crippling him.

"Please your Majesty Il help me find her, thought I'm unworthy of your favour after what happened".

As he walked outside the castle he grimly noted that the approaching evening had painted the sky red.

Hi, I hope you like the first chapter. I wanted to begin with Hak and didn't really liked the idea of redoing the betrayal scene again. Besides, it's kind of a different approach. It was kind of tiring to do this chapter because as necessary as it is, it was a drag to write. I'm sure my impatience was reflected by Hak's 'let's get this over with attitude'. I know it could have been better but please let me know your opinion on the matter.