𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖'𝐒 𝐃𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑 | Jungwon

chapter 26

"We've already arrived?" Suyin inquired.

"We're arriving soon," Jungwon corrected. Jungwon spotted anxiety stirring in her eyes, even when he only captured a quiet flash. The edges of Suyin's lips dipped down. Her fingers twiddled atop her lap.

After emitting a bright amount of quartz, his hand lowered, sensing no sign of her headache. "Is it done?" Jungwon asked.

"Yeah. Thank you," Suyin responded. Her tone dropped, layered over by a blanket of blue. Her sweet eyes flew up to Jungwon's gaze. "We'll be okay out there, right?"

Jungwon patted his hands onto his knees and flattened his lips. "It'll be fine," he reassured her. "They say it's been in ruins ever since the first battle."

"I hope so," Suyin sighed.

Jungwon watched as she freed her ponytail, and her slender fingers brushed through her hair. Her back straightened as she gathered up the silky black strands together. She closed her eyes, retying her hair with a thick black ribbon.

A knock interrupted the moment, followed by my pink-haired boy. "We're here," Sunoo informed from the doorway.

≿━━━━༺◎༻━━━━≾

The colossal black mountains towered before Suyin's eyes. The Forbidden Mountains were a corpse–left rotten for ages. A hush of smoke lingered at the mountain's surface, floating so slowly that it seemed unmoving. Unexpectedly, all sounds had dampened here. The winds no longer shrieked, for they sighed down their backs. The only thing that hadn't changed was the gloomy gray skies, which lived in their darkest state here.

"Is it snowing?" Niki wondered, holding out his palm. Odd dust floated in the air, landing on his hand.

"I don't think it's snow...it's like ash," Jake remarked while scrutinizing the black dust between his fingers.

"Ash from what, exactly?" Sunoo cut in.

"Don't know," Jake shrugged. Sunoo shivered, and his mouth curved in disgust.

The unsettling ambiance ceased the members from moving forward for a moment. Nonetheless, Jungwon shattered the mountains' attempt at petrifying them.

"We should keep moving," Jungwon commanded, heading down.

Now that the weather no longer tormented them, Suyin managed to stay within the group. As she explored every glimpse she could get, she felt like she was walking through an illicit dream. Her feet were stepping through piles of dark history–the birthplace of the most evil being known to their kingdom.

"I'm expecting us to find something explanatory for the queen's poisoning since we've traveled so far," Jake shared. "But at the same time, I'm too scared to find out."

"The enigmatic evil was annihilated years ago. There can't possibly be a significant amount of remains that can harm us. If there are, we can handle it," Jay responded.

Suyin pondered over the hours it could take to investigate the mountains. She contemplated whether she should share her idea with the team regarding the several other times she had. "Well...Should we split up?" Suyin suggested.

"No," Almost everyone answered. Suyin rubbed her arms.

"Wouldn't that be more efficient, though?" Sunoo pointed out.

"Boy, I am not trying to perish here," Niki shuddered. "We should stick together. Who knows what's lurking out here?"

"What a wuss."

"You f–"

"But we'd gain more ground faster if we split up. These are mountains. We don't want to stay here for days, do we?" Jungwon said from ahead.