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It was still dark outside, but dawn was fast approaching. Seonghwa had to hurry, he had to be on a boat before the sun rose. He had to be hidden away by the time the city stirred awake, before the people at the house noticed he was gone. This was his only chance to be free, escape his captors and return home. He just had to make it on a boat big enough for him to be able to hide, he couldn’t risk being discovered. After all, humans were all the same. They were cruel creatures. They would not bother listening to Seonghwa’s story, not that he could properly tell it. If he got caught he would be sent back to that awful house or worse, tortured and killed.
The port wasn’t empty despite the early hour. Thankfully, no one paid attention to Seonghwa, he was just another person going about their business. The cloak he had on was thick and it shielded him from the world, from any curious gazes. Seonghwa knew nothing about boats or ships, he had no idea which of the anchored one would be best to make an escape on. The big ships had flags waving gently in the breeze. They were a mystery for Seonghwa, just weird symbols with no meaning.
The biggest ship in the port had Seonghwa scrambling away as quickly as he could. Not because there were men patrolling the deck, but because his gut was telling him not to board that ship. And Seonghwa always listened to his gut, always trusted his instincts. He was running out of time, so he decided to settle for a medium sized ship. It was black and looked well cared for, flying a black flag with a golden hourglass embroidered on a white compass. The deck was empty, no man visible, and Seonghwa decided to risk it.
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A shrill scream startled Hongjoong. He had, once again, fallen asleep at his desk. Another scream had the captain scramble out of his seat. He slammed the door of the captain’s quarters open and stormed onto the deck. He was greeted by quite a sight. Yunho was still at the helm, where Hongjoong had left him a few hours ago when he retreated to his quarters. His grip on the wheel was tight and his face set in a stony expression. He was looking at the commotion happening on the main deck.
Jongho was holding … someone, a stranger. It was a man, taller than Jongho but not stronger. He was slender, bordering on too skinny, clearly underfed. Not that it mattered to Hongjoong, because he didn’t know the man. The man with pink hair and struggling against the crew’s youngest. Hongjoong had a feeling that something wasn’t right, no commoner had pink hair. Such color was the mark of aristocracy, of enough money to spare. Why would a rich man be a stowaway on a pirate ship?
Hongjoong strode to Jongho and the struggling man, determined to sort the situation out before it escalated. The stranger’s eyes were wide and wet with unshed tears, and when he made eye contact with Hongjoong the fear was evident. Jongho squeezed the man hard and he slumped forward with a wail. Hongjoong winced. He had this feeling that the stranger was no threat to him and his crew. Still, caution was necessary.
“Who are you?” Hongjoong asked.
The man looked at him then started struggling harder than before. He screamed as he did so, loud enough to probably wake the dead. Jongho had no problem holding onto their stowaway, clearly having more strength than the stranger. A million questions were running through Hongjoong’s head as he lunged at the man in hopes of pinning him down. But the man managed to kick Hongjoong in the thigh, making him loose balance.
“That’s it,” Jongho muttered.
It was clear that until now he hadn’t been using his full strength, probably afraid of hurting the man too much. Jongho’s grip on the stranger tightened and suddenly he was on the floor, pinned under Jongho’s weight. He let out a scream, but stopped struggling. The stranger’s wide eyes met Hongjoong’s and the captain’s chest felt tight. The man was clearly terrified and honestly, Hongjoong couldn’t blame him. Yet no one could blame Hongjoong and his crew either, they had a stranger on their ship. And they had no idea if he was a friend or foe.
“I am going to ask you some questions,” Hongjoong said. “Don’t even think about lying.”
Hongjoong didn’t enjoy being cruel, but he would do anything to protect his crew – his family. He couldn’t get over the sight of the man’s pink hair. This stranger was either someone very wealthy or … something else. Hongjoong wasn’t sure what he preferred more. If this man was part of the aristocracy, there was probably a search going on for him. And Hongjoong had no patience for the upper class or the navy.
Still, Hongjoong would prefer this man was just the son of a rich asshole, because the alternative was this pink haired man being something else, something inhuman. Hongjoong had heard stories from other sailors and land dwellers alike, stories of creatures that looked human yet were actually anything but. That was a terrifying thought. The man may have looked harmless, but that could be a façade.
“Who are you?” Hongjoong asked.
The man just looked at him, his wide eyes shining with unshed tears. He didn’t say anything. Hongjoong could be patient when he wanted to, he could stay here all night if he needed to. If a staring contest was what the man wanted, that was what he would get. But the footsteps of Hongjoong’s crew reminded the captain that getting answers from the man was an urgent matter. He couldn’t allow a dangerous stranger on board his ship.
“What is your name?” Hongjoong asked.
His crew stayed silent around him and so did the man. Jongho’s grip relaxed now that there were multiple people on the deck, some of them armed Hongjoong assumed. The pink haired stranger started crying. Hongjoong winced, this could be an act to get them to take pity on him. But something told the captain that this wasn’t the case. The man was truly afraid of them. He probably sneaked on board to escape some gruesome fate, not to hurt Hongjoong and his crew. And Hongjoong wasn’t a cruel man.
“Let him go,” he said to Jongho.
“Are you sure?” Jongho asked.
Hongjoong nodded and Jongho let go of the stranger, who curled into a ball as soon as Jongho’s weight was off him. He sobbed and kept mumbling something that Hongjoong couldn’t understand. It was a foreign language, one unknown to the crew of Aurora. Yunho whistled from the helm and Hongjoong sighed. He felt out of his depth, unsure of how to handle this situation properly. Mingi and Yeosang gave the stranger a wide berth as they headed up to the helm to assist Yunho with the navigation.
“He must have sneaked on board at dawn, right before we raised the anchor,” San said.
“Yeah, we did a sweep of the ship last night,” Wooyoung added.
“And he was nowhere on the ship then.”
“His hair in unnatural,” Yeosang said.
Hongjoong stared at the man blankly. His instincts were telling him that the stowaway was no danger to them, but he still wanted to be cautious. He had a crew to protect and Hongjoong didn’t feel like putting anyone in danger senselessly. Until he could get information from the pink haired man, Hongjoong was going to be wary of him just in case it turned out the stowaway was actually dangerous.
“We’ll lock him in the spare cabin,” Hongjoong said. “Wooyoung, get him something to eat. Jongho, help me get him to the room.”
The crew members didn’t question Hongjoong’s decision, thankfully. The man whimpered when Jongho forced him to stand up, but didn’t resist being led below deck and into the small cabin. Hongjoong grabbed a long rope that was hanging from a random hook and grabbed the stranger’s wrist when Jongho pushed him into the cabin. The man flinched, but didn’t try to free himself from Hongjoong’s grip.
“What are you doing?”
“I am going to tie him to the bed, just to be sure he doesn’t try anything,” Hongjoong said.
“I don’t think he knows how to pick locks.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
The stranger let Hongjoong tie him to the bed, he didn’t fight back. The man just cried silently, clearly resigned to his fate. Hongjoong pushed their stowaway on the bed gently and refused to meet the round, shiny eyes looking up at him. Hongjoong was not a cruel captain and he was sure that he would cave if he met the stranger’s wide eyes.
Wooyoung brought a plate with bread, dried meat and fish for the stranger. He eyed him warily as he placed the plate on the small nightstand. Hongjoong lit up the lantern in the cabin and made sure it would burn through the night as Jongho made sure the rope was tied properly. The locked the door behind them and Hongjoong placed the key on a cord around his neck.
“I’ll have to redistribute the provisions,” Wooyoung said.
“Do that,” Hongjoong agreed.
“What are we going to do with him?” Jongho asked.
“I’ll try to get information from him, see if he is a threat or not,” Hongjoong said. “If there’s no problem, we will just drop him off somewhere.”
“Preferably, at the next port,” Wooyoung muttered.
“Let’s get some sleep for now, we’ll deal with this later.”
Hongjoong returned to his quarters, but sleep eluded him. He couldn’t stop thinking about the pink haired stranger and he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a sign. Of what? He had no idea, but he was sure the stowaway was a sign. Hongjoong had this feeling that the man tied to the bed was no human, he couldn’t be human. The man was no aristocrat, no matter how hard his brain tried to convince him he was. Hongjoong just hoped that the ocean had not sent him a bad omen, he hoped the pink haired being was actually a blessing.
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Seonghwa was locked in a room, one wrist tied to the bedpost with a soft rope, a rope that was long enough to allow him to move around the room. Seonghwa had expected to be thrown in a cell as soon as he got discovered, yet here he was in a nice room with a decent bed. The ship’s crew wasn’t what Seonghwa expected, they were very young for one. They were also very kind, anyone else would have been very violent with the stranger they found on their ship, but this crew was … nice.
He had been restrained, but there were no bruises left on his skin. Seonghwa got food and clean clothes, which made the fact that he was tied to the bedpost a little more bearable. Four days had passed since Seonghwa had been found hiding on the ship and locked in this room, but those had been the most peaceful days he had been through in years. No one screamed at him, no one touched him and he got enough food not to feel constantly hungry.
Now, if only he could find a way to communicate with the crew. They didn’t speak his language, of course they didn’t, no human could speak in his native tongue. And Seonghwa could barely understand or speak like them. He didn’t have time to learn, not when their kindness could run out at any second. He was running out of time. How could he get his message across with such a barrier between him and the men?
The door opened and the man with black and white hair and huge fur coat stepped inside. He had a bowl of food in his hand, but Seonghwa couldn’t help but feel a little afraid. The man was armed, the sword at his hip could easily injure Seonghwa who wasn’t yet back to full strength. The man approached the bed and Seonghwa pushed himself against the headboard. The man was clearly someone with a lot of authority on the ship, the captain probably, and Seonghwa was afraid of him the most. He held all the power and therefore Seonghwa’s fate was in his hands.
He placed the bowl of food on the bedside table then turned to look at Seonghwa. He said something, his lips moved and Seonghwa heard his voice clearly, but had no idea what he said. He couldn’t understand the man. He continued to speak, stopping from time to time to allow Seonghwa to respond. But Seonghwa was not going to respond, because he only understood a few words here and there. And none of them made sense to Seonghwa right now, he was pretty sure he couldn’t even answer with any of the limited words he knew.
“… home …”
Seonghwa knew that word, it meant the place he was from; he learned it from a woman that was also a prisoner in that awful house. She had to write it down on a piece of paper and repeat it a few times before Seonghwa learned to pronounce it. Then they spent a lot of time, time they couldn’t spear, on trying to make Seonghwa understand the meaning of the word. But it was worth it. Seonghwa scooted closer to the edge of the bed, gesturing wildly at the man. He said something again, something that Seonghwa didn’t understand.
Then there was silence. Seonghwa and the man stared at each other and Seonghwa felt frustrated enough to cry. The man took out something from the inner pocket of his coat, a brown tube. He stepped closer to the bed and Seonghwa scrambled away, afraid of getting hurt. But the man didn’t hit him with the tube, he just placed the tube on the bed and rolled it out. It was a map, Seonghwa had seen a few during his stay in the house, but he had no idea how to read them. The man was tracing his finger over the map.
“... home …”
There it was, that word again. Did the man want Seonghwa to point out where his home was? Would he be willing to return Seonghwa to the place he came for? Not that he needed to be brought back to the exact place, after he gained some of his strength back Seonghwa could just jump into the water. He was pretty sure he could find his way back home easily once he was back in his element. Seonghwa’s tail will grow back once he was submerged into the salty water of the sea, he was sure of it. He just had to stay safe and alive until he got his strength back. So, even though he had no idea to what he was pointing at, Seonghwa placed his finger on the map randomly. The man frowned and for a second Seonghwa was afraid that he had done something wrong, but then the man nodded.
He rolled the map back into its tube shape and said something to Seonghwa, something that Seonghwa didn’t understand. The man gestured to the bowl of food before leaving the room, locking the door behind him. Seonghwa heard the click of the lock clearly, reminding him of his time in that awful house. But just like before, Seonghwa was going to escape this situation and he was going to get back home. He refused to lose hope.
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Their stowaway didn’t speak their language, nor did he understand it. But today Hongjoong felt like they finally made progress. Still, it was very little progress and it didn’t answer any of Hongjoong’s questions about the man. He rolled out the map on his desk and stared at the cluster of islands the man had pointed out when Hongjoong asked where his home was. From what the captain knew, those particular islands were not inhabited, he found it strange that the man considered them home.
Hongjoong couldn’t help but feel that something weird was going on. The stowaway didn’t speak the common tongue and looked like some sort of royalty, so why did he point to some far away islands where no one lived? It was strange. The man was clearly not a danger to Hongjoong or his crew, of that the captain was sure. Still, he wanted the strange man off his ship as soon as possible and if that meant sailing to those islands then so be it.
There was also the possibility that the man was not human, that he was one of those creature of legend he had heard about. Hongjoong’s main priority was the safety of his crew, so he pushed down the urge to investigate more about the man and went to search for Yunho. He found his quartermaster by the mast, checking the sails. Yunho smiled when he saw Hongjoong.
“Hello captain!”
“I think I made some progress with our stowaway,” Hongjoong said.
“You think?”
Hongjoong unfolded the map and turned so Yunho could also see it. The quartermaster frowned at the cluster of islands circled on the map. Hongjoong couldn’t blame him, he was just as confused as Yunho in this situation. It would be so much easier to communicate if the man that snuck on their ship spoke the common language. It would surely help Hongjoong feel less on edge if he could actually speak to the man.
“What’s this?”
“I asked our stowaway where he was from and this is what he pointed at,” Hongjoong said.
“Those islands are uninhabited.”
“I know.”
“And in some very dangerous waters.”
“I am well aware.”
“Please don’t tell me you are considering sailing there,” Yunho said.
Hongjoong kept quiet because that was exactly what he was thinking about. Was he that easy to read? Hopefully not. And he didn’t really want to sail through dangerous waters towards some random islands for a stranger any more than Yunho did, but his gut was telling him that there was something here. Something big. He had to find a way to communicate with the pink haired stranger, he had to sail to those islands.
“No, no, absolutely not,” Yunho said as he snatched the map from Hongjoong’s grip. “With all due respect, captain, but we are not sailing to the middle of nowhere just because a pretty boy pouted at you.”
“Yunho!”
“I am serious!”
“It’s not like that!” Hongjoong felt his cheeks heat up and he hoped his quartermaster didn’t notice.
“It is exactly like that!”
“We need to get him off the ship,” Hongjoong said.
“And we can do that just fine at the next port.”
“I have a feeling …”
“And that’s the problem,” Yunho cut him off. “A pretty man looked your way, and you got feelings.”
“Jeong Yunho, I am your captain!”
“And I am this ship’s quartermaster!”
“Have some respect!”
“Ok, with all due respect, captain, we should dump the pretty man at the next port and then be on our way,” Yunho said.
They stared at each other and Hongjoong hated to admit that his quartermaster was right. Everyone would be better off if they dumped the stowaway in the next port. But he just couldn’t let this go, he had to get to the bottom of this mystery. It felt almost like if the ocean was testing him, testing his worthiness, and Hongjoong refused to fail. The pink haired man was a sign of … something.
“There’s something here, you must be feeling it too,” Hongjoong said.
“Whatever it is, I say we stay far away from it.”
“We’ll have the crew vote then.”
Yunho nodded and Hongjoong took that as a good sign. It meant that his quartermaster was still willing to consider making the journey despite the initial refusal. Hongjoong couldn’t help but feel that they had to do that, they had to take this journey. It was the path set for them by a higher power, and Hongjoong was not going to refuse following it. He just hoped the rest of the crew was going to agree to this too.
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His crew was looking at him and the silence that enveloped the dining hall seemed to stretch on forever. Hongjoong was the captain of the ship, but he was no tyrant. Important decisions were subjected to a vote and he encouraged his crew members to always speak their mind and not hesitate to keep him in line if they felt like he was about to make a mistake. The plan he had just laid out was exactly that, a mistake. But then, why did it feel so right?
“Why can’t we just drop him off at the next port?” Wooyoung asked.
“I second that,” Yunho said.
“That does seem like the smartest and safest decision,” Mingi added.
“He isn’t human,” Yeosang said. “I am sure of it. He may look like us, but he is no human.”
“Human or not, it doesn’t matter.” Hongjoong really wanted to get his point across. “I feel like we have to do this, we have to take him to those islands.”
“He pouted at you, didn’t he?” San asked amused.
“He definitely did, our captain is a weak man,” Yunho said.
“I am still your captain!”
“I say we do it,” Jongho said, surprising everyone. “We’ve been in dangerous situations before and we survived just fine, we can definitely do it again.”
“I second that,” Yeosang said. “I am also curious to find out what exactly our stowaway is.”
“I’m in too, just because I want to see how far our captain will go for a pretty pout.” San dodged the punch aimed at him, annoying Hongjoong even more.
“Four to three, seems like we lost this round,” Yunho said.
“Make it five to two because now I am also curious to see how weak of a man the captain is for a pretty man.” Hongjoong glared at the cook, but Wooyoung was long past being intimidated by his sharp looks.
“We need to stop for supplies first,” Hongjoong said.
“We’ll set a course for the closest port.”
“Thank you, Mingi!”
“I still think this is a bad idea,” Yunho said. “But I trust your instincts, captain.”
“Thank you!”
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Seonghwa had been let out of the room and allowed to roam the ship as he pleased. Of course, he was never alone, there was always someone watching him, but at least he wasn’t tied to the bed anymore and he could explore the ship. At night he was still being locked into the small room, but it didn’t bother him as long as he wasn’t being hurt or starved. He preferred having his every move watched to being hit and denied food. If only he could understand what the men on the ship said. If only he could communicate with them, that would be very helpful.
Since he couldn’t communicate with them, Seonghwa had no idea where they were actually heading. Seonghwa could jump overboard anytime, the men would surely not bother trying to save him if he voluntarily threw himself in the water. But it had been so long since he had been in the water, Seonghwa was afraid that the ocean will reject him. His only chance was getting to the random islands he pointed on the map, if the men were actually willing to take him there. Maybe he could get away from this ship and its crew at the next port.
That was if they didn’t lock him in the small room when they got off the ship. Seonghwa could learn to open the locked door, he was confident that he could pick up that skill. Or he could wait until those men grew complacent and either forgot to lock the door or decided not to bother. If he made himself seem as harmless as possible, he was sure the men would go lax around him. They were going to slip up and Seonghwa was going to take advantage of that. Until then he had to settle for roaming the ship and making himself look as harmless as possible.
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