Precious

08: Surface Beauty

Wooyoung sat up with a humph, reaching out, leaving his palm up. San dropped the seashell into his hand, allowing him to hold and observe it closer. Indeed, Wooyoung could understand how this could be one of the siren's favorites, the shimmer and color of the inner shell certainly seemed unique.

"It's pretty." Wooyoung muttered, returning the shell to San's hand, looking up to his eyes, finding that he was already being stared at. "What?"

"Nothing." San lowered his eyes, smiling down at the shell, but Wooyoung could just tell by the manner of it that he was smiling at his thoughts instead.

Wooyoung sighed, shaking his head. His eyes found the horizon, looking out ahead at the subtle waves, watching the water shimmer under the sun.

"Can we stay out until dark?" Wooyoung asked, not expecting an answer to work in his favor, but he hoped.

"So you can look at the stars?" San said in return, understanding and quite frankly he sounded content. His smile evident in his words. "I was already assuming that was what was happening."

Wooyoung looked down, unable to hide the smile that formed on his chapped lips. On the way his eyes caught sight of his wrapped leg. The configment was annoying by this point, very, very itchy both from what was used to cover his wounds, and the healing wounds themselves. That was a good sign though, that he was healing. Pain didn't shoot up his entire leg anymore when he moved it, which was even better. He walked with a limp, but that wasn't much of a bother to him.

"There's a reason I brought so much of your food." San taunted, smirking when Wooyoung looked over his shoulder, their eyes holding contact. "You should eat by the way."

Wooyoung hummed, shaking his head with his own smirk on his features. He started moving, awkwardly getting himself to stand on his two feet.

"I'd rather go explore." Wooyoung raised his brows momentarily, looking away from the siren to the main hill on the island. He was sure there wasn't much to explore, the island seemed small just from the side of the beach and the clifface in the direction the underwater cave would be in.

San's eyes widened, scrambling to his feet to follow after Wooyoung who simply started walking away. He abandoned all of his gathered treasures, assuming he'll go back for them later. And if not, then that was fine. He'd lose all of his other treasures if it meant following the most precious of them all.

The ground beneath Wooyoung's feet shifted from sand to grass, combining in some areas but for the most part remaining separate. It felt nice to have solid, dirt ground underneath him, the sensation different from sand, and most certainly different to the rocks in the cave.

Tall grasses brushed around the two sets of legs, small unnoticeable bugs jumping from some of the blades, trying to escape death. The climb definitely wasn't as bad as Wooyoung thought it would be on his leg, which made him happy, especially when he could see the view from the top.

A small grotto of trees created patches of much appreciated shade. Some of them contained fruit hanging from the branches, as of now going unnoticed, just like the rotten fruit that splattered on the ground.

Wooyoung was focused on the ocean from this vantage point. He spun around a few times, trying to fill in the blanks from where the trees blocked his vision. He couldn't help but feel so alone, distressed when no matter where he looked, he couldn't spot any kind of ships. In the far distance there seemed to be some land, but he wasn't sure if that was his eyes playing tricks on him or not, especially since what he spotted was so close to the horizon.

The distress and sense of panic was clear on Wooyoung's face as he continued to look around. San frowned, having watched his human the entire time.

"When your leg heals, I can bring you to the human settlement."