Submerged - She caught a glimpse of a tress of dark hair just as it submerged into the dark, freezing cold river water.

AN:As previously mentioned, Submerged is now being deleted from my WYG collection and will continue here instead.

It all happened so fast.

In one second Yona heard the thin ice under them creak alarmingly as Hak went down on his knees, dropping his Hsu Quando in favour of clutching his right thigh and letting out a single hissing breath of pain as the wayward arrow drilled itself deep into his flesh.

In the next moment she felt a strong arm wrap itself around her torso and pick her up as if she weighted no more than a feather before tossing her with inhuman strength all the way to the other river bank. Far away from their pursuers and the unstable ice that was getting closer to crack with every second under the pressure their combined weight presented. The young princess landed ungracefully on her backside but her fall was luckily dampened by the foot-deep, soft glittering snow on the ground. As soon as the world had, at least somewhat, stopped spinning, she rushed up and let her gaze sweep across her frozen surroundings, searching frantically for him and fixating her eyes on the big hole in the crystal-clear ice which had not existed mere moments ago. She caught a glimpse of a tress of dark hair just as it submerged into the dark, freezing-cold river water.

Fear ripped through her stomach with raw intensity and embedded itself into the bottom of her chest, making it near impossible to breathe and she struggled to force air into her protesting lungs. She wanted to scream but the words refused to erupt from her trembling lips as she silently shaped her mouth around his name.

She could not believe it; he had done it again, sacrificed his own safety to protect her. The ice had been so close to giving in already and the quick shift of weights when he picked her up must have presented the final blow to its fragile state.

As in a haze she observed her pursuers closing in on her, trying to find a way across the cracked ice. Dark figures distinctively contrasting the pure white environment. They carried sharp swords which glittered in the cold afternoon sun and slowly, carefully, tested the ice. Her pursuers took a long detour around the pitch black hole in which Hak had disappeared mere moments ago in order to reach their ultimate goal: the red haired, previous princess of Kouka Kingdom.