Work Text
yona's mother dies the moment the child's out of her womb. most people expected it, though. the woman had grown frailer, weaker as the months went on; a shell of her former self ('too bad,' the servants whisper, huddled together with hands covering their words, 'too bad the king refuses to take another wife.').
yona, as a babe, cries like there is no tomorrow. she refuses the nursemaid's milk, always ends up biting, licking up the blood. (her teeth have always been sharp, and the woman has learnt this the hard way.) rumours grow, slowly but surely, and they say princess yona is a demon.
his majesty, king il himself, is a superstitious man. he draws the signs together easily, and while his daughter may a child blessed by gods—no one can deny there is something wrong with her. when violet eyes, wide and as kind as her mother's, bleed into something inhuman, he knows (but he should've always known. power is fickle, always coming with a cost, and centuries of generations cannot undo the gods' will. so why would it fade with a god reborn?).
still, he does what he must.
yona is always hungry. her appetite is an enormous sort, but no matter what she eats, it tastes acrid and burns, burns, burns—oh, why, it hurts so much, she'd rather starve herself than eat anything again. still, she is always, always hungry, but for what, she doesn't know.
general (not crown prince—not king) yu-hon takes a glance at his niece and he knows exactly what's going on. it's happened to him, after all; to everyone with the same blood flowing through their veins. soo-won himself shows signs, faint as they may be, and something in yu-hon preens at the fact (there is a chance, a future where he, in some way, will emerge victorious).
one day, the hunger yona feels becomes unbearable. but what—what can she eat? something sweet hits her nose, overwhelming her. it's coming from all around, surrounding her in its scent, and it smells so, so good, she just wants to take a bite—(in the moonlight, the hunger persists. and it pushes her to move, move, move.
she meets a maid on the way. sweet and kind, that's how the older smells, and it's delectable, comepletely compelling to her nose. the older girl asks her what she wants, and yona—
she attacks faster than the girl can screech.
if yu-hon finds his neice ravenously eating the flesh of a poor servant girl, then he tells no one. if he finds his neice more monster than human, then he tells no one. (besides, why would he harm family just like him?)