FELLOWSHIP || Ateez Fanfiction

Chapter Eleven: Burglary

It is weird that they assigned me to examine the palace with Mingi. I am the cook should I not buy the groceries?
Me and Mingi take some paper and pens with us to take notes before we take a sled to city. From the plaza we walk westwards until we are only a few meters away from the palace door.
"Try to go around the palace without drawing to much attention to you. I will try to get inside and look around there.", Mingi says.
He goes straight towards the guards at the door. While they are focused on him I sneak past them to the right side and walk along the foot of the mountain. Two soldiers walk towards me. I quickly hide behind a wagon and wait until they are out if my sight.
After 15 minutes of walking without finding anything of interest, I reach the city wall. I walk up some stairs to get on top of the wall.
You have a nice view of the mountains and the area around the city from here. I look around for a few minutes before I decide to examine the left side of the mountain.
Just as I am about to leave I see sleds and a mammoth with something on his back drive by outside of the city.
I observe them for a bit. They drive towards the mountain.
Maybe there is an entrance to the palace outside of the city walls?
I sneak back to the place where Mingi and I split. Mingi is already waiting for me.
"Were you able to look around in the palace?", I ask him.
"No, only in the throne room. I noted that there is each one guard at the doors that lead further into the palace. Did you find another entrance?"
"Not yet. I saw sleds and a mammoth outside the city walls that moved towards the mountain.
The entrance might be outside the walls at the side of the mountain."
"Okay then lets look there."
"It will take us an hour to get there. We should let the captain know where we are going first."

We search for the others at the marketplace in the north of the city.
I spot them at a booth that sells jewelry. Is Hongjoong buying a new necklace again? Or maybe the other are just buying some.
"HONGJOONG!!!", I scream as loud as I can.
He notices us and runs towards us.
"Are you already done?", he asks.
"No, but there might be an entrance outside of the city walls, so we will look around there. I just wanted to tell you before you worry about us because you can't find us in the city.
We should be back in 2-3 hours.", I explain.
"Okay, we will go back to the ship soon which means you two will have to go back alone. Here, have some money for the sled ride home.", Hongjoong says and gives us one gold.
"Okay, see you later.", Mingi says.

We walk towards the city entrance.
From there we walk along the city wall for a while. Sadly there aren't many traces of the mammoth and the sleds because it has been snowing all day.
"Do you have any interesting child hood stories?", Mingi suddenly asks me.
I think about it. It is hard to tell him any stories about me and Yeosang without revealing that he is the prince.
"Hmm... I actually wasn't born on Nekra's main island. Before I became a servant at the castle, I lived in a small village. I had three very good friends there. There was a big pond near the village that we used to play at. We always rolled around in the mud. My mum always got angry when I got home and was head to toe covered in mud.
One day my friend Minha and I were there alone. We were very reckless and I dared her to go over a tree trunk to a rock that stuck out of the water in the middle of the pond. We were joking around with each other for a bit. Then I was so stupid to throw her off the rock into the water. The pond wasn't too deep but we were also just 5 years old back then. She didn't know how to swim but I didn't know that when I pushed her. When I saw her struggle, I immediately jumped in to save her. I was able bring her back to the bank of the pond.
She gave me kiss on the cheek because I saved and then slapped across the face for throwing her in immediately after.", I tell and giggle as the memories come back into my mind.
"I can't even count how many times Yunho and I have thrown each other into the river in our village. It was our favorite hang out spot in the summer.", Mingi says.