Beyond the bustle of the wet market, the setting sun beats down heavily on the crashing waters and its golden-blessed sand.
Waves came; at times receding into the deep, vast ocean, and at times, growing onto the golden shore.
Each time they rolled in, the crests of white would take home the shore's offerings; from seashells to seaweed, to earth's golden treasure.
Yet, the seemingly peaceful beach was currently a refuge to a soul in much distress.
Having lost the fight with the assassins, Gap Soo, Captain Jeongjo's second mate, had been saved by a pile of sand that made him invisible to the untrained eyes.
A pile of sand shifted ever so slightly, for the man it had saved was finally coming to.
Somewhere, the lulling waves continued to crash against the ocean's seabeds, creating a clashing symphony of harmonic peace against the squawking seagulls and sweeping sand.
It would have been easy to get lost in those sounds, had a hacking cough not disrupted the order of nature.
Bit by bit, Gap Soo dug himself out of the sand, gradually regaining the senses that had become dormant in his unconsciousness.
There was an almost unpleasant burning in his throat, as though he was breathing fire when the human body wasn't made for it. His nose felt dry too, although what truly nagged at his consciousness wasn't his physical discomfort. Rather, Gap Soo had questions.
How long has he been out?
Has it been days, weeks, or dare he say, months?
Shaking his head, Gap Soo reasoned that that wasn't possible. He must have lost a week at most, judging by the growth of his facial hair. Even so, that wasn't what mattered.
Where was Captain Jeongjo?
The last he remembered, the Captain had been next to him. They had been fighting...
They had been fighting...him.
Mental images infiltrated Gap Soo's mind then, forcing him to shut his eyes as he stumbled from the gravity of his thoughts.
The shadow assassins...
Blood...blood of his mates splattering around him.
Clashes of metal against metal; swords designed to kill.
Their Captain grunting as he slammed into a tree...
A flash of silver...the numbness in his heart, his panic-fuelled mind as he stumbled, his desperate shout for salvation.
The gruesomely raised skin concentrated around an all too familiar symbol.
That symbol.
It was him. He was sure it was him.
Eul Soo.
"How can this be?" Gap Soo gasped before he spluttered as another cough tore at his throat.
Pounding his chest, Gap Soo bent over the waves that were brushing against his knees, soaking the cloth that had been ripped at its threads. Summoning the rest of his strength, Gap Soo fought to contain the urge to cough again as he wiped his lips harshly.
And then he stood, propping himself up using a stick beside him. Stable now, Gap Soo walked into the sea, until he was knee-deep in the rising waters. Not once did his gaze fall towards the waters, rather, determination was set upon his brows as he gazed upon the open horizons where only pirates exist.
From where he was, no life persists beyond the land he had been lying on and the waves that were eating at him. He was sure that his Captain wasn't on the island, nor was he stranded in the surrounding sea. If he was dead, he would have floated up with the debris by now.
Captain Jeongjo must be alive somewhere.
That was the only reality Gap Soo believed in.
As a second mate, it was his duty to find his Captain.
"I'm coming, Captain." Gap Soo whispered, letting the waves carry his promise to a place far away; to a ship where Captain Jeongjo lives on.
☠☠☠
Whoosh!
Stiff fingers were the first to twitch, as the man sprawled upon the floors of a dungeon woke from his state of restless restfulness.
His pain-addled mind could barely register his surroundings as the man fought to open his eyes. He could make out the unmistakable sounds of waves slapping relentlessly against the hollow wood of a ship.
Around him, the creaking of rusting metal, the gentle vibration of the rocking ship, and the clanging of weapons being dumped onboard reverberated.
Somewhere above, he could hear footsteps; heavy and sluggish as the pirates; undoubtedly drunk, walked about their cabin.
He was on a ship.
Jeongjo was sure of it.
But was this his ship?
Instincts told Jeongjo otherwise, yet the pirate remained foolishly hopeful that somehow, his mates had found him after the surprise attack from the assassins on shore.
Clang! CREAK...
The noisy creaking of rusting metal was growing more disconcerting to the Captain in a mind-numbingly irritating way.
Still, Jeongjo couldn't do much in this state.
He ought to open his eyes first. Yes, that is what needs to be done.
Cracking his eyelids open slightly, Jeongjo fought with the pain that tore through him at such a seemingly harmless act.
Almost immediately, he closed his eyes again, just as the beginning signs of a migraine slammed right into him.
He groaned deeply, for the pain tearing through his body was almost unbearable. In fact, moving might be out of the question now despite his god-level tolerance for pain.
Frustrated with his weakened self, Jeongjo laid there for a good minute, breathing in and out until the pain subsided to a dull ache.
It was then he started to notice more about his surroundings.
There was a lingering stench of smoke clinging to the air around him. He thought he could detect the damp smell of rotting wood with the briny stench of pickled fish which he absolutely despises.
Fish might be a staple of his life, but even the Captain had to admit that pickled fish was the bane of his existence.
It was revolting.
He smelled blood too.
That distinct, sickeningly dry yet sweetly metallic stench was one he was familiar with.
It didn't take him long to realise that the blood was his.
That would explain why every movement brought excruciating pain to his body, for the wound at his abdomen was deep enough to kill, should it get infected.
"Captain!" A voice greeted.
"Speak." Was what he would have said...
...except, a feminine voice had beat him to it. That and the fact that his attempt at speaking was instantly reduced to a bout of wheezes and coughs.
His mouth felt dry, so dry.
Unsurprisingly, his lips were cracked too.
Fantastic, this was just what he needed when his body had already been battered from the attack – sarcasm intended.
Jeongjo didn't have long to dwell on those thoughts, for he wasn't alone anymore. As he listened to the conversation between the woman and a man, he grew more certain that he had become a stowaway on another ship.
Could this perhaps be a merchant's ship? Or a trading ship?
No, it couldn't be. He called her Captain.
That was the pirates' way.
He wasn't on a merchant's ship, he was on a pirates' ship.
But whose?
Suppressing another groan, Jeongjo forced his eyes open again, out of a sense of curiosity more so than any sense of self-preservation. His vision throbbed in and out of focus as his eyes grew accustomed to the light – or the lack thereof – until finally, he could see again. Clearly.
Groggy and disoriented, Jeongjo could finally make out the peeling paint of the metal bars keeping him hostage. Beyond those bars stood a man and a woman, yet, from where he was lying on the floor, Jeongjo could only see their calfskin boots.
As much as he wished to lift his head, to put a face to the voice that roused the curiosity within him, Jeongjo remained helpless in his weakened state as he wheezed once again from another random bout of coughing.
That stopped when a pair of beautiful, raven orbs and a head of long, brownish locks came into his field of vision. Momentarily, Jeongjo forgot how to breathe as the eyes studied him intensely. So intense were they, that Jeongjo was sure that she was gazing deep into his soul, such that the man she was seeing was the raw version of himself, rather than the version that duty had dictated him to be.
There was this saying, that the eyes are the window to the soul.
What exactly was she searching for, in him who was once whole, but was now shattered beyond the point of repair?
Who was she, and why was torment hidden in the depths of her eyes, hidden behind the walls that were meant to block everyone out?
Why was it that he could understand her, even when words hadn't been exchanged between them?
Perhaps Jeongjo had hit his head harder than he remembered, for the thoughts stirring in his heart were those reserved for the quietest of all wintery nights and the rainiest of a summer day.
It was rare for this side of Jeongjo to surface – in front of a stranger, no less.
As quickly as those thoughts came, they ended when the woman stood up abruptly.
"He's awake. Give him some food." She commanded in a stern whisper.
Without bothering to wait for a reply, she left, leaving her crew to deal with the man who remained a mystery to her as much as she was to him.
As the sound of her calfskin boots hitting against hallowed ground gradually faded, Jeongjo was left with one final thought.
Who was she and why was she so beautiful?
☠☠☠
A/N
Hello lovelies, if you have noticed, The Seventh Voyage is back online now! At the point when I deleted the fic, I was feeling a little lost about how this plot should progress and didn't think I would be returning to it. But, I admit, I have been a little bored with my writing (mainly because slice-of-life fics tend to be dialogue-heavy) and I wanted to challenge my writing a little with a different style of storytelling. So here's me giving this fic another chance and I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm doing my best to churn out updates for all my fics so do bear with me if the chapters are a little slow at times :)
Love,
Claire