Seungwan had woken up from a nightmare again, a film of cold sweat covering her skin.

She felt a hand resting on her chest lightly as a gentle voice asked, “Seungwan? Are you having nightmares again?”

“Y-Yea…” Seungwan admitted ashamedly.

The room was slowly illuminated by the candle light. Her elder sister Taeyeon had lighted them, pulling Seungwan into her arms and began rocking her.

“I am not a baby,” Seungwan complained as she tried to get away but her sister had caged her in.

Despite Seungwan’s love to boast of her strength, Taeyeon was living up to her reputation as a Mongolian princess as well and was strong enough to resist her attempts.

“Come on, stop acting tough and be a good baby sister,” Taeyeon said teasingly and Seungwan stopped resisting.

Instead, the young princess had snuggled deeper into her sister’s embrace. “Taeyeon, I miss mother.”

“I miss her too,” Taeyeon concurred.

“Of course you do, you’ve known mother for a longer time than I have,” Seungwan had said with such incredible cleverness that it had made the elder princess slightly surprised.

They were bathed in silence with just the candlelight accompanying them for a long moment before Taeyeon spoke again.

“Seungwan, I have a question for you and you must answer me honestly.”

Nodding her head innocently like the young child she supposedly was, Seungwan hummed a response.

“Do you really love hunting? Or do you just want to kill things?” Taeyeon had asked pointedly, clearly referring to the day’s event, the hunting debate that erupted amongst the siblings.

When the young princess had given no reply, Taeyeon was beginning to wonder if she had asked her young sister a question that was too difficult for her to answer.

Alas, Seungwan was as intelligent as she had proved herself to be and finally answered. “I want to kill things that prey on weak others.”

Once again, the elder princess was astonished by her sister’s answer but did not let it show. The condor and other predatory birds were infamously known to hunt weaker animals like rabbits.

“Like rabbits?” Taeyeon asked.

“Like rabbits,” Seungwan confirmed.

Sighing, Taeyeon engulfed her sister in another hug. “Seungwan, sometimes it is necessary that animals do that. They need to live but that does not mean that they are bad.”

“Then are they good?” Seungwan asked.

Taeyeon tilted her head a little, unsure of how she should best answer the question. After a long moment, Taeyeon finally came up with an answer, “no… animals just… live on instincts. They are not exactly good nor bad.”

“Then are humans animals too?” Seungwan asked again.

Taeyeon froze because she knew where this conversation was going. It had to do with Seungwan’s dark dreams and the loss of their mother. Learning that there was no point in honeying any words when it came to Seungwan, Taeyeon decided to speak more candidly with this child who was like an adult.

“Humans can be worse than animals sometimes, Seungwan. We all choose to be who we can become and unfortunately, some people just chose to become…”

“Worse than animals,” Seungwan said.

Nodding her head, Taeyeon echoed, “worse than animals.” Later, the elder princess added, “which is why… Seungwan, you would best learn to not become like those people. Instead, you should model after better, righteous people.”

“Like father?”

Taeyeon smiled sweetly and nodded. “Yes, like our father, our Great Khan.”   

Seungwan pulled away from her sister’s hug a little and said in a brighter tone, “like you and all of our brothers too.”

Taeyeon guffawed. “Well… I know that I certainly am a good person but I cannot vouch for all of our brothers,” Taeyeon joked.

“Like Leeteuk? That day when Leeteuk made stew of one of your sheep?” Seungwan asked.

Taeyeon laughed but agreed. 

Then in a more cunning tone, Seungwan added, “and that day when Siwon teased you and Miyoung.”

This time round Taeyeon’s eyes went wide as she stared at her sister at arm’s length. The elder princess was trying to fathom what her younger sister had meant.

“Seungwan… what are you trying to say…?”

Miyoung was one of their best general’s only daughter, someone whom Taeyeon had grown up with and treated dearly. Taeyeon was nervous because beyond Miyoung’s official titles, they had acknowledged each other as soul mates and love interests. It was a taboo if they had made their love known to others but as long as they kept quiet, there could be a possibility that Miyoung and her could grow old together discreetly.

The little princess then shrugged innocently. “Nothing. Just saying that Siwon likes to tease the two of you.”

Narrowing her eyes, Taeyeon then pinched her younger sister’s arm, hoping that her younger sister could understand the severe consequence of such a knowledge. All her elder-sister-gentleness had melted away. “Don’t you dare be cheeky with me, Seungwan.”

Seungwan chuckled naughtily. “Don’t worry, sister, only I know.”

Taeyeon’s heart skipped a beat.

“T-Then you better make sure you will be the only person to know ever. Sleep! Don’t make me tie you to a tree and rock you from there,” Taeyeon threatened.

Seungwan must have sensed the severity of her sister’s tone and immediately mellowed. “Taeyeon don’t be angry with me. I swear on my life to not tell anyone.”

Taeyeon felt as though a knot had eased up in her heart because she knew she could trust Seungwan, her favourite and closest sibling.

Nodding to the younger princess, Taeyeon then cuddled her sister a while longer as thoughts about Seungwan’s intellect and courage worried her.

**

The royal children had woken up, was fresh by morning twilight and were doing an array of activities. The younger princes and princess Seungwan had busied themselves with practicing martial arts whilst the Great Khan had gathered the older siblings for a political discussion. The Great General Hwang as well as his only child, child scholar Miyoung, were present too.

It was about the Emperor of Bae’s request for the discussion of the renewal of their peace treaty to be held in their palace instead of on more neutral grounds. The peace treaty was a triennial agreement between the greater Mongolia and the Bae Dynasty. As the Great Khan of Mongolia, Khun’in Khan was expected to represent most of the Mongolian tribes and negotiate in the interest of the Mongolians in mind.

“This is absurd! We have traditionally been discussing our peace accords near the country’s borders and never in anyone else’s territory,” the General pointed out.   

Princess Taeyeon felt troubled by this arrangement as well and voiced out her opinions freely, along with several of the princes.

Miyoung had maintained her silence until the Great Khan had asked of her opinion.

“The Emperor of Bae might ask for more if we acquiesce to this single request. That has always been the Emperor’s way. Unfortunately, I doubt we can turn down this request of his. It is also not unknown that the Emperor has been playing host to many other smaller countries and they have all given in. If we were to reject him, this might delay the peace treaty between us and the Baes. The Jins to the North of them might find this chance to ally with the Baes and trample on our homelands as they did before.”

Prince Leeteuk snorted. “Then we would crush both the countries with our own power.”

The Great Khan regarded his son with critical eyes and the eldest prince immediately apologised for his mindless talk. Both countries of Bae and Jin had military power far greater than the Mongolians and since they were made up of scattered tribes, it was even harder for them to coordinate their military strength. Their soldiers may be fierce but they would be too drastically outnumbered. As the eldest child and the one who accompanied the Khan most frequently into battles, Prince Leeteuk should have known better than that.

“Father, what bothers me is that they had specifically asked for both the Princesses to accompany you while you are there,” Prince Leeteuk tried to salvage his embarrassment.  

The Khan’s eyes remained impassion but his children could tell that their father shared their concerns as well. Both the princesses were the Khan’s favourite children and that was a huge stake. Then again, it would not appear to the other countries that it was a dangerous mission and so they could not turn down such a proposal easily.

“Princess Seungwan! Princess Seungwan! Princess Seungwan!”

The crowd cheered on as the two children who were heavily clad in boiled leather armour sparred against each other. Seungwan, having already trashed three other opponents before, should have been exhausted yet that was not the case and the princess only became more energised.

Her poor opponent, despite being older and bigger sized than Seungwan was, had been wrestled off the ground and knocked away mercilessly by the female princess.

A cacophony of joyful cries went up as the princess achieved her feat once again. Seungwan had strode over to her opponent and stuck out her hand. However, her opponent had refused to meet her eye.

“Come on Chanyeol, don’t be a sore loser,” Seungwan drawled and did not withdraw her hand.

Chanyeol was the prince of another friendly Mongolian tribe and was raised as a ward amongst Khun’in Khan’s own children. Groaning, the male child finally grasped onto the princess’s hand which was much tinier than his to heft himself up.

“You always defeat me so heartlessly,” Chanyeol complained.

Seungwan was about to reply something witty when a messenger had came for them and summoned the children to meet the Great Khan.

“Me as well?” Chanyeol asked in a slightly disgruntled voice.

“Yes, Prince Chanyeol as well,” the messenger confirmed.

The prince made a face that looked as if he