Ch.3
Today was the day you were going to the castle. Definitely. It's not like you've been stalling on that decision this entire morning. Except you totally were! The sun was already high in the sky which meant you needed to seriously get going if you wanted to come back before it got dark. Today was the best day to do it because it'll only get busier the next couple days. You had no doubt that Miss Arla would try to visit you at least once. With the two hundredth anniversary approaching in three days, you had a strong feeling she wouldn't let you leave that day.
There's supposed to be a blood moon that night. People just lock themselves in their home when the blood moon appears. The creatures tend to grow stronger and more wicked. That was the color of the moon when your parents were attacked. It was better for you to stay home then too. Miss Arla has already given you the long speech on that and Youngjo made sure to give you his own thoughts on the matter. He was set on not letting you die because according to him, you couldn't leave him alone. Didn't he have other bird friends?
"Obviously. I'm quite popular with the ravens of my community." Youngjo had a smug tone. He was staring at himself in the mirror in your home. He had his chest puffed out as he admired his appearance. "But that doesn't mean I gave you permission to leave me."
"Well, you won't have to worry about me pushing any daises soon." You chuckled at the raven. He tilted his head at you, noticing you were holding the jewel of the necklace in a fist. "I'm protected by an angel."
"The shiny man."
"Yeah, him." You let out a breath. "I guess I'll be testing it out to see if he was right about finding me when I find myself in trouble."
"So soon? We barely got your horse back." Youngjo was right about that.
Luckily, Malakai had made it back to a farm out here in the village. They automatically recognized that it was your horse. Yours was the only horse here that had a solid black coat. Others had a white spot on their head and white near their hooves. They brought Malakai over and you were grateful although you did have to deal with an awkward conversation. Why would Malakai run away? Their suspicion was clear as day, but you managed to get yourself out of it without telling the truth. That was for you to know and you only.
Youngjo's presence also managed to creep them out which wasn't ideal. He took a spot to sit on your roof, mimicking the growl of the wolves. You already look suspicious enough! He was stressing you out for no reason! But they luckily left and you got your horse back, so it wasn't a complete mess. Youngjo just decided to act like a guard dog for no reason. His reasoning being that he didn't trust that man. Well, that man certainly doesn't trust you anymore either. Perfect.
"I can't stay stuck in bed all day. I've done that far too many times." You sighed heavily. Even though your stomach was twisting in knots, you needed to keep pushing. Act brave. Or be brave? Whatever, you'll figure it out.
"Then you're not going alone. I'm coming too." Youngjo flew away from the mirror to land on your shoulder. He has to stick to you like glue, doesn't he? You smiled to yourself as you went around your room shoving everything you needed into your bag. The protection potion was made and you made sure to drink it. Once you do, you really have to go through with going to the castle or else it would just be wasted. It tasted horrible like most spells, but it would do the trick. You even gave Youngjo some since you weren't about to risk anything just because he could fly. "Ew."
"Now you're picky? You literally ate a dead rat once." You put your bag over on your other shoulder as Youngjo laughed. It sounded robotic when he did it out loud. Who did he even copy that from?
"Yes, but I always wash my meat first. Don't you see me putting it in the pond to wash?"
"As if that water is clean." You knew arguing with him on this was going to be pointless. He saw things one way and you saw them another. "Let's get going. We only have so much sunlight before night falls."
The two of you nodded to each other before stepping out of the cottage. You shut the wooden door behind you, making sure it was locked first. Although Malakai had ran from danger back in the forest, he was a lot calmer now. You hoped he wouldn't do it again, but there was no guarantee on that. At least you had Youngjo just in case. He remained perched on your shoulder as you got up on your horse and whipped his reins. Right away Malakai took off down the long path headed towards the castle on the mountain. You could see some of its towers in the distance. It'll be strange standing in front of the entire castle after only knowing its highest roof tops your whole life.
It looked like you would be doing a lot of firsts in your life for once. Hopefully, Miss Arla doesn't ever find out about this for the sake of her own health. It would also be nice if Malakai didn't ditch you again. You rubbed Malakai's side as he continued to go through the forest. His hooves pounded on the soil path. It had been clear before the unkept grass began to sprout from the ground. No one has used this path in so long. There were no signs of footsteps or carriage wheels imprinted onto the soil. Not even animal footprints. Holding the reins close, you tried not to swallow hard. Youngjo would be able to hear it with him your shoulder.
The ride to the castle was eerie. As the grass grew longer, the trees became taller and hung over you with its leaves trying to block out the sun from entering. It felt as if you were entering another world by going through this long shadowy tunnel. The foliage was thick, but Malakai was able to make his way safely to the gate of the castle. At first you couldn't believe what you were seeing. A tall stone wall surrounded the castle with a metal gate that was practically falling apart. Weeds were wrapped around the rusted gate and it didn't end there. You saw the weeds covering the courtyard along with so many dead bushes.
"How inviting."
"...this place is real." You carefully climbed off Malakai to approach the gate. Youngjo decided to get off your shoulder to land on the gate. He watched you walk up to peek inside in awe. The place was unsettling abandoned like this, but you couldn't get over how you were here. You've heard about this place so much and what happened here like it was just some folktale. Seeing it for yourself was another experience. You slowly brought your hand to the gate when you suddenly heard crows caw. "Eek!" You crouched down, covering your head as if that would do anything.
"It's just birds, (F/n). Are you that scared already? We should just turn back."
"N-No...I was just startled is all! I'm not scared of birds." You stood up with a flushed face. You're fine. Taking in a deep breath, you looked up at the sky to see the crows flying away. There's probably a ton of wildlife now living inside the castle. Letting out that breath, you forced the gate to open enough for you to get inside. It didn't really want to move and with the gate dragging on the dirt, you had to use a lot of force just to get your way. "Now come on. I have a spell to do inside the castle."
"You better not get scared of the rats inside."
"I won't." You huffed. At least you hoped you didn't. He seemed to be judging you on the gate until you held your hand out for him.
Youngjo flew down to perch himself on your forearm. He held on tight which wasn't always pleasant with his talons, but it was tolerable. The both of you faced forward to keep searching for the entrance of the castle. So much of what you were seeing was ruins. The extravagant fountain was no longer working with the water dark and murky. The cherub statue in the center had crumbled with half of its face gone and moss covering a majority of its body. You walked past it, hoping Youngjo didn't hear how your heart almost exploded when you heard an owl hoot.
You got this. It's time to be brave and explore the abandoned castle! This will be fun, right? Your attempts to comfort yourself were the only reason you could keep stepping forward. Eventually you found the large staircase that led to the front doors. It was intimidating as you went up every single step. Youngjo and you didn't say anything once. For you, it was a mixture of awe and fear. Then the fear only increased when you saw how much cobwebs were by the entrance. That's when you saw it. You felt your legs go weak at the sight of a big spider on the doorknob.
"I guess it's time to go back home." You took a step back. That spider was way too big and you were not going to do anything about it! Its legs were stripped and its plump body had red on it's back. Nope! No way!
"You're ridiculous." Youngjo flew off your forearm to get closer to the doorknob. Short panicked squeals left you to see him knock the spider down on the floor. GOODBYE! You were already going down a few steps as he tussled with the horrid thing. Youngjo grabbed the spider in his beak, eating it with no shame. You're going to be sick. "See? That wasn't so hard."
"I hate this." You forced a tight smile on your face. Youngjo didn't care if you were grossed out. He got a free meal and removed the webs on the doorknob for you. However, you weren't going to touch the doorknob whatsoever. "Atrepa," You said the spell while holding your hand out. The doors pushed themselves open as if a large gust of wind had done it for you. Magic was definitely useful for times like this.
This way you didn't have to touch anything and Youngjo couldn't complain since he got a snack. Very gross, but at least it wasn't you eating it. Just him and his bird self. Youngjo went back on your shoulder by the time you were stepping inside the castle. The inside was lost in darkness which was to be expected. Not a single candle was on and many curtains were covering the windows. Muttering a spell for light, a sphere appeared in your hand. It worked like a lantern and did the trick much better than a candle. Taking in another breath, you continued searching the castle.
The goal was to find where the ball was held. Wherever it took place, you would perform the spell to have the last memory there play out for you. Only then will you discover the truth of what exactly occurred here almost two hundred years ago. The idea of being here on the day of the anniversary freaked you out so it was better that you were a few days early. Exploring an abandoned castle was already out of your comfort zone. Baby steps. Even though this felt like a giant leap and you were plummeting, but you're fine.
"There's hardly anything good here." Youngjo wasn't impressed. After you got over the size of the place, you were able to focus on the mission more. Aside from the fact that this place was extremely creepy. Yet Youngjo felt the opposite as always. He judged the old décor and nearly got excited when he saw baby rats running to get to their hiding spot. Could he stop trying to eat for a second?
You were doing your best to find the ballroom. It could literally be anywhere with how massive the castle was. It felt like there were thousands of doors. When you stepped into a hallway, you were tempted to give up. You've gotten this far though, so giving up was not an option. While there were stairs leading to more up above, you knew the ballroom had to be on the first level. It shouldn't be too far into the castle to prevent commoners from wandering off inside mindlessly. That meant it had to be...here!
Opening a door, you stepped inside eagerly in hopes that you would stumble into the ballroom. Instead, you found a simple storage room. You shut the door with a sigh as you continued to go down the long hall. The carpet beneath your feet was stiff and covered in dust. Practically everything here was buried underneath dust and hadn't seen daylight in so many years. You held the spherical light up as you stared at each door you came across in the hallway. They usually ended with disappointment when you found yourself looking at the paintings hanging on the wall.
Was it the King? He didn't look that friendly in the painting. Neither did the prince when you stumbled on his painting. As cruel as they looked, you did feel bad that they had to suffer painful deaths on a day that was supposed to be exciting. The prince passed on his birthday of all days. Sighing, you continued to walk down the hall with the witch in mind. Regardless of her reasoning, she harmed people and you were positive it was because the demon encouraged her to. What spell did she cast? Was it something she learned or was it the demon using her body as a vessel?
"What if coming here was pointless?" You opened another door in disappointment. You weren't even scared anymore. Everything was just becoming a dead end.
"Don't say that. You still need to do your spell."
"Yeah, I guess." You nodded. Hopefully, the spell works and gives you the answers that you're looking for. Everything you do after that was to be determined.
There was no immediate progress on your search. It was beginning to bug you, but you reminded yourself to be patient. This place was like a maze and the dark didn't help. Naturally, it was going to take a while to find the ballroom, but it wouldn't take forever. One of these doors was bound to bring you to the ballroom. Youngjo helped with removing any spiders that came across your path. At least he could do that for you. Another heavy sigh left you as you finished checking each door in the hallway. Should you try the other one?
Today was feeling like a long day. Youngjo coughed out of boredom while you yawned. It was surprising you could yawn considering how eerie it felt to be here. Were you getting used to it already? Youngjo was making jokes about how someone should open a window. This place could definitely use some sunlight and a ton of cleaning. The both of you were smiling at the stupid things being said when you opened a door revealing a large staircase down. It looked like it led to a dark pit of nothingness.
"...did I find it?" You whispered to Youngjo. He tilted his head as you looked up at the ceiling. There were pillars at the side that stretched up to the arches. The architecture was beautiful at the castle. That you had to admit. Stepping closer to the steps, you relied on the glowing light in your hand to keep you from falling. The thick railing was covered in years' worth of dust, so you'd rather not touch it. You carefully made it to the bottom, releasing a breath as you looked around. It was still too dark to really see more than five feet in front of you.
The raven left your shoulder to do some exploring on his own. He better not go too far since he was going to disappear in this darkness. His confidence and curiosity did not stop him from blending in. You really didn't know where to go now. Should you just do the spell here? Licking your lips nervously, you left the sphere of light floating at eye level. Here goes nothing. You closed your eyes to concentrate on getting this spell right.
"We have a guest."
"Not now." You tried to ignore Youngjo only for his comment to make you uneasy. What did he mean by that? You opened your eyes as you heard him pecking at something. Looking off to the side, you furrowed your brows and stepped closer with the light. Your stomach dropped the moment you saw Youngjo was standing on somebody's skull. "AAAAAAAH!!"
"(F/n)!" He called out after you. He watched you take the light and stumble backwards in fear. Unfortunately for you, you almost slipped doing that. You looked down in panic to see you had stepped on the bones of someone's arm. There were more skeletons covering the ground of the ballroom making you feel lightheaded. You didn't want to overthink and yet how could you not!? There are dead people in this room! Just how many more? "(F/n), breathe. You need to relax."
"Oh my god, oh my god." You kept your voice low. Holding onto the sphere of light, you pressed it against your chest. You were doing your best to listen to Youngjo even as your eyes stung. You kept taking slow steps back with your raven trying to calmly approach you.
"(F/n), just..." Youngjo trailed off as you felt yourself bump into something hard. It felt cold and different from a wall. The wall could breathe. Youngjo had stopped speaking and was raising his wings to fly. What was it? Why wasn't he talking to you?
"Wha..." You nervously turned your head around to see what you had bumped into. With the bit of light you had, all you saw was red scales stretching into the darkness. You didn't have enough light to show you what you were seeing. Still, this was enough for you to know you needed to get out of here.
"(F/n), run."
Nothing left your throat as you held that sphere for dear life. Youngjo didn't have to say any more. You were running towards the staircase as fast as you could. He flew over your head, making his way to the door at the top. You weren't as fast, leaving you to hear an echoing growl inside the ballroom. The room was feeling hot as you tried jumping over the steps to be faster. Just one mistake made you slip harshly on the marble stairs. Ignoring how your cheek roughly crashed into a step, your eyes widened to see the sphere had escaped from your hands and was falling down in the air. You looked back to see large glowing red eyes when the light sphere finally hit the ground.
A flash of light went through the room. There was no sound as if lightning had entered the castle. In that split second, you were eye to eye with a large dragon. Deep ruby red scales covering its entire body as smoke escaped its nostrils. The room was growing hotter with its mouth opening. Your heart pounded as the room grew dark again and you were desperately crawling up the stairs. You couldn't even see your hands in front of you. Youngjo was panicking when the room began to light up again from the fire leaving the dragon's mouth. It came in a blast except it never hit you or Youngjo.
You felt warm, but not painfully hot. Your skin wasn't burning and you weren't dead? Maybe you were. It was peaceful all of a sudden. There were no sounds as you just felt warm and comforted. Someone was holding you, making you wonder if you were finally reuniting with your parents again. It felt nice yet you still had so much to do. Was that selfish? It was strange, causing you to open your eyes to see Jungkook holding you. Youngjo was inside his protective sphere as well that was beginning to fade away, revealing that he had brought the two of you outside.
"What were you doing inside the castle of all places?" Jungkook set you down on the ground. Not even a minute after saving you and you were getting scolded. There were tears in your eyes as you shook, falling onto your knees in relief. You were alive. Youngjo was fine too without any injuries. "I know I gave you that necklace in case you got into any danger, but this was asking for it. Why are you here of all places?"
"(F/n), I'm okay. Everything is okay." Youngjo walked up to you, rubbing his head affectionately into your hand. He was doing his best to comfort you after everything. You were still in shock that you hadn't been consumed in flames after coming face to face with a dragon. An actual dragon.
As much as you wanted to discover the truth, you weren't looking to run straight into fire. Though you were doing exactly that with coming to the castle and trying to uncover the truth. Some things were meant to stay secret. Maybe one of the various stories you've heard is the truth and there is nothing more to learn. You let your head hang down as Jungkook sighed softly. He placed a hand on your head for comfort. It helped you stop shaking so much like you were drenched in cold water.
"Why were you here?" Jungkook asked again in a softer tone. You continued to pet Youngjo as you slowly met his eyes.
"...I just wanted to...discover the t-truth? I don't even know." You stopped stroking Youngjo's head when you got lost in your thoughts. You were thinking back to that dragon. Of all the mythical creatures that escaped, this is the first time you found out dragons were a part of that list. It's a miracle it hasn't burned down the entire castle already and escaped.
"The truth? Like the curse?" Jungkook was doing his best to piece the puzzle together. He got a nod from you, earning you a sympathetic nod. "I understand your curiosity, but this was so dangerous. Look what almost happened. You need to be more cautious, (F/n). I almost didn't arrive in time."
"I'm sorry." You frowned, quickly getting him to shake his head.
"No, don't be." Jungkook patted your back. "Let's just get you back on your horse and on your way home where it's safe."
"The sparkly angel is right, (F/n). Let's go home now." Youngjo flew up to your shoulder. Jungkook smiled at this before helping you get up on your feet.
Being alive never felt more odd. As you walked away from the castle, you looked back at it with some confusion. From the outside it appeared peaceful. Quiet and almost scenic. Yet inside held such a dark twisted history that hung heavily in the air. There are layers building up with each passing year. Then in the ballroom where it all occurred is a dragon that has never been encountered by a human until now. It still didn't feel real.
Jungkook helped you get on Malakai who had thankfully stuck around. With a simple whip of the reins, the horse was running through the forest once more. Youngjo and you didn't say anything the entire way back. Your mind was stuck on everything that occurred in the castle. It would be hard to get that out of your head. When you made it back home to the cottage, you left Malakai outside then hurried your way to your bedroom. Youngjo kept up with you to see you collapse on your bed. He flew over to the edge, watching you bury your face into your pillow.
"For a scaredy cat, you did really well today. At least we're okay, (F/n). That's all that matters at the end of the day. Let's listen to Jungkook and not search for trouble. I'm sure Miss Arla would appreciate that. Plus, the blood moon is soon." Youngjo was rambling on. He always called you out for being scared, but he had to have been scared too. That's why he didn't want to go back. You peeked out slightly from your pillow, unable to feel your legs from the fright.
Despite that...you stared out the window to see the moon in the sky.