Magic Man, SeongJoong

꧁•⊹٭𝚝𝚞𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚕٭⊹•꧂

Perhaps it was a nightmare that awoke Hongjoong from his slumber. Perhaps it was the strange shivers he was experiencing down his back even though he was warm beside the fire. Either way, he had awoken during the night, and the immediate thought he had was whether Howl had returned to them. He looked to the stairs, but there was only a slight creaking in the floor boards.

He was just about to rise up out of the makeshift bed he had created, when a shadow of something had been illuminated by Mingi's fire. A bird print. A three-toed bird foot had been squelching around trying to get past without noise, but it had stained the floor. On top of that, a large grey and black bird feather had fallen to the floor. Hongjoong reached out, and picked it up delicately. As soon as the feather touched Hongjoong's fingers, it burned up and the embers turned the feather to ashes.

Hongjoong panicked and wondered if Seonghwa was alright. He grabbed an unlit oil lamp, and used Calcifer's flames to give some light to the room. Hongjoong wasted no time and put on his boots from the day. As quietly as he could, he stepped through the sleeping people, and dog, and followed the muddy bird prints up the stairs.

Hongjoong was worried about Howl. The bird prints belonged to him, but why? What had happened to him?

As he was walking up the stairs, more feathers had fallen on the steps. He held the candle light to them, and to his horror, blood had followed. Hongjoong quickened his pace, trying to go as quietly as possible. He followed the footsteps to the first floor corridor where both Yeosang and Howl's room were. The door to Seonghwa's room had always been a bit ominous, despite Hongjoong being inside his room before.

He stood in front of the door, hesitating a little bit. Something deep down had told Hongjoong that something wasn't right. Seonghwa was hurting, and even a little bit afraid. Both of their hearts were faltering, and hesitant about showing it. Hongjoong was scared, so terribly scared, but he wanted to be determined. He just wanted to help Howl.

Despite Hongjoong's fears, he reached out to the doorknob and turned it. Hongjoong came face to face with a dark and damp tunnel. A large tunnel made by something not human. Howl's old room littered with magic and junk was no longer existent, in its place was a nest. A large mud tunnel, with Howl's trinkets wedged in the dirt. Gold and jewels, things with intense sparkle, were sticking out of the tunnel's mud walls. The random expensive trinkets were the only evidence that Howl's room had once existed.

Although it was horrid and bizarre, Hongjoong held tight to the oil lamp in his hand and walked forward, trying hard not to trip on any of the trinkets. As he walked in deeper, the golden light off the candle was the only thing he seemed to like, when suddenly, he came to a crossroads. Howl had seemingly made two tunnels, and one was to throw Hongjoong off his trail. Hongjoong could feel a harsh warm wind come from one of the tunnels and knew immediately that Howl had decided to hide in that one.

Perhaps it was the desperation in which Hongjoong wanted to find Seonghwa badly? Or the ring connecting them both?

Hongjoong journeyed up that tunnel, and figured out it was not wind at all. In place of the wind, it was instead a warm breath. Breath that belonged to a large creature. In Hongjoong's heart, he knew this cursed creature was indeed the wizard he had come to love.

The creature was large and feathered. Littered with hues of blue, grey and black. It's body moved up and down with every large breath it took. Strangely, Hongjoong wasn't scared, more worried about how Howl was holding up.

"Howl?" He called out to the large bird. He didn't know what he expected but when he called out a second time, Howl had told him to go away.

"Stay away." He said, although it didn't sound like the elegant voice of Seonghwa.

"I want to help you." Hongjoong stated, he was nervous to be rejected but he couldn't fault the fears of the wizard, "I want to break the spell your under!"

Hongjoong knew of the curse. Mingi had mentioned it, but he never guessed what the curse might've been. Seeing Howl as he was now, it almost hurt Hongjoong to see such a thing. He pitied Seonghwa, even though he knew Howl hated to be pitied. At first, Hongjoong wanted to break the curse in order to get his own curse lifted, but the wizard had become more to him than that. He really wished for Seonghwa to be happy and healthy.

"You can't even break your own curse..." The harsh words spoken by the gruff voice echoed down the tunnel as the body of this large bird moved.

Those words were harsh, but they were true. Hongjoong didn't know if he even had the power to remove his own curse, but he had been feeling better lately. Perhaps this curse was one that wore of when the cursed fixes something in their life, maybe that's why Jongho couldn't remove it. Even then, Hongjoong was struggling. He thought maybe because as he's been old, good things have happened to him. As he's become old, he had someone to hide behind...

Hongjoong didn't think about it for long as Seonghwa finally revealed his face. He was not human at the minute, nearly on the brink of no return. Determination to get Howl back suddenly flowed through Hongjoong's body.

He loved this wizard. Despite his curse, despite everything going on with himself, he wanted to save Howl. He wanted to relieve Seonghwa of his curse before anything else. He would try his hardest to help, do everything in his power to lift the curse of him. He would figure it out.

"Because...I love you." Hongjoong said loud enough for the words to echo off the mud walls.

Hongjoong didn't expect the next words.

"It's too late..."