FELLOWSHIP || Ateez Fanfiction

Chapter Forty One: Memories

Right before noon the first people usually start to come in but this time nobody comes. Then at noon soldiers come into the inn. They are not the soldiers from our village which is weird. My parents become very nervous but mom still greets them friendly.
"Good day! What can I bring you?"
"Give us the best booze that you have and meat.", one of them says.
My mom gives them the stinky juice and father makes steaks for them which I bring them.
"Your good at this, kid. How old are you? Ever thought about working for the king?"
"I am almost 11 and I will never work for the king. I will inherent my parent's inn."
"Haha, we'll see about that."
I sit down at a free table and look at them sternly while they are eating.

After they are finished I bring the dishes back to the kitchen and begin to wash them. The soldiers speak to my parents in meantime.
"We are here to get your taxes."
"We already paid our taxes.", dad states.
"The king increased the taxes for inns."
It becomes quiet for two minutes.
"What kind of ******** is this.", mom comments. She sounds angry.
"This is unreasonable. How are we supposed to pay for our ingredients and clothes?", dad adds.
I finish washing the dishes and lurk around the corner. My parents have a letter from the king in their hands and are shaking their heads.
"Are you refusing?!"
"How can the king still increase the taxes, when most people already can barely pay them!", mom utters.
"Don't talk like that about his majesty. Maybe a few cuts on your face will bring some sense into you."
"Don't you see that what the king does is absolutely messed up?!", dad shouts.
"Seems like you both need some sense beaten into you."
"Noo! Leave us alone!", I scream but they ignore me.
"I think it's you that needs to come back to his senses. I-", mom says but before she can finish she has a sword in her abdomen.
"NOOO-", dad screams out but he gets stabbed too. Blood streams out of their bodies. I stand there in disbelief. This all a dream isn't it? I am going to wake up now. Please I want to wake up. I can't even scream or cry. This feels so surreal. It can't be real. Please don't let it be real! Slowly it hits me that this is really happening now. I feel tears dwell up in me. I didn't even notice that one of the man comes to grab me. He drags me behind him. I stumble and fall into the puddle of blood that surrounds my parents. I get a quick glance into my dad's lifeless eyes before the soldier picks me up and drags me along. I begin screaming and punching around. The man picks me up into a firm grip and puts his hand over my mouth. I try to bite him but because of his thick gloves it doesn't bother him.

They bring me to a small cramped room in their ship. I get thrown onto the floor and the door gets slammed shut. Images of my parents getting stabbed, their lifeless bodies, the pool of blood go through my head. I crawl into a corner and cry out my parents names. After a while I just can't cry anymore and fall asleep. When I wake up again I hear rapid footsteps on the deck. After I cried so much yesterday, my sadness has turned into anger.
"YOU MURDERERS, LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT, ********!, I scream.
No reaction. I swear to myself that next time someone comes in here, I am going to punch them.
After an hour someone comes in. I try to attack him but he simply picks me up and ignores my punches.

When we get outside, I realize that we are in the city. How long did I sleep?
We walk by a lot of people. Some of them are working, some are going out buy things and some get beaten up by soldiers. There are also some people from the army in the streets. They look very scary. Before I can take everything in, I find myself standing in front of the scariest place in Wolkmaar: the Nekra Castle.
A female castle guard grabs me by the arm.
"Here is a new servant for you. He will need some disciplinary measures though."
The guard brings me into castle. We enter a bedroom that is full of men of all ages.
"You will stay here from now on."

Now
The others comfort me as I tell them my story.
"You can wait outside if you feel uncomfortable to go in there.", Hongjoong says.
I shake my head.
"It's fine. I'm kind of curious what it looks like now."
"Are you sure?", Yeosang asks.
I nod.
I wipe my tears away and we enter the inn. Behind the counter where my mum used to stand is instead another familiar face which immediately lets me forget my sadness.
"Minha?!", I exclaim.
My childhood friend looks at me confused.
"It's me Wooyoung!"
"Wooyoung?", someone asks. Another familiar face pops up behind the curtain that leads to the kitchen.
"Roduez?! Wait are you married?"
"After you and Miicalo were gone, we grew closer together.", Minha tells and smiles awkwardly.
"What happened to Miicalo?"
"He was forced to go to the army and died during his training.", Roduez says. He looks sadly to the ground.
"Who are your friends? And what is going on with your hair? And where were you all this time? We thought you were dead or forced to join the army.", Minha quickly changes the topic.

I introduce my friends to them and tell them everything that has happened.
"Wow, your life has been crazy! I can't believe you fled with Prince Nekra from the castle and traveled the world.", Roduez says.
"Just call me Yeosang, please."
"Of course, your majesty."
"..."
"As for the key. I didn't even know that it exists. I never heard about it.", Minha comments.
"Do you have an idea where we search for it?", Hongjoong asks.
"The Nekra Kingdom was not always the way it is now. As far as I know the Salcrito Prince got rid of many things that belonged to his ancestors. I'm not quite sure what he did with them.", Roduez says.
"Is there a library where you could research something like that?"
"No, we don't have a public library."
"There is one in the castle. But we probably shouldn't go there unless, we absolutely have to.", Yeosang says.
"By the way how did you get to own our old inn?", I ask.
"My parents bought it and led it. After I turned 18, they gave it to me.", Minha tells.
"We also saved some stuff, that was important to you and your family. We kept them as memory of you but maybe you want to have some of it."
I follow Roduez upstairs into the bedroom. He opens the last drawer of his cabinet but it's more like he is opening a treasure chests. The drawer is full of my families belongings. In there are some of my favorite toys from my childhood, a flute from Tongcheok that belonged to grandpa, old dishes and tablecloths that we used on holidays, my mother's favorite scarf, a picture that my brother drew that used to hang in our kitchen, one of my dad's aprons and his cooking book. I take the scarf, the flute, the book and my brother's drawing with me. I put the scarf around my neck. After all those years it still smells like my mother. I feel myself getting emotional again.
Roduez hugs me.
"Thank you for keeping these. It means a lot to me. Also I am so glad to see you again."
"I am glad to see you too."

We go back to the others. Minha has brought something to eat for us. It has been a while since I have eaten traditional Nekra food. It tastes really good. The others seem to enjoy it too. After eating we discuss which island we should go to next.
"I think we will look around here a bit more and if we don't find anything, we should go to the next island. The question is which one.", Hongjoong states.
"Definitely not the main one. I think we should go to the next bigger one: Isre da Neje.", Yeosang suggests.
"Whatever is the least suspicious option.", Yunho says.
"Just be careful. The people here usually don't just wander around, so it might be suspicious if you do that.", Roduez tells us.
"We should pretend that we are working then.", Jongho says.
"Well we can't just go and start working. We are outsiders, it might scare or confuse the villagers and they could report us.", Mingi comments.
"We have seen most of the island already. There isn't much else to see, maybe we should just move on.", I utter.
"We'll just take a quick jog around the edge of the island since we found hints randomly in treasure chests before and then go back. After that we will go to the island that Yeosang mentioned."
"Just be careful, okay?", Minha says.

We say goodbye to my childhood friends. I give them a very long hug before we go. I keep looking backwards as we walk away. I can't believe that I saw them again. I wish I could have stayed there a lot longer. Someday we'll hopefully be able to meet again and hopefully the Nekra Kingdom will be a better place by then.
We split up into two groups of which each go around one side of the island.
I am with San, Seonghwa and Mingi. We walk pretty fast and keep an eye out for the soldiers. San spots a treasure chest among the trees but when he opens it, there is nothing inside. Instead a soldier sees us. He storms towards us and puts his sword against San's neck.
"I knew you were suspicious. Who are you and what are you doing here?"
I punch the soldier and San kicks him. We run as fast as we can towards the ship. The others aren't there yet but I can see them in the distance as well as five soldiers. Three of them are running towards us, the other two are taking out their bows. Mingi is in absolute panic while the other two are a bit calmer.
"Guys, duck down! They are going to shoot at us!", I shout.
We hide behind the railing. Two arrows fly by above our heads. I peek a little bit over the railing to see where our friends are but I don't see them anymore. The soldiers reach our ship, so we run inside the Captain's Cabin and barricade the door with Hongjoong's desk. The soldiers try to get in but give up after a few minutes.
We are save for now but also trapped inside here.