【oo3 : the desolate kingdom】
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"Okay, I change my mind. This is no kingdom. This a ruin." Jongho said as he craned his neck to look more around the mysterious desert kingdom that they had just entered.
"Judging by how the kingdom was structured in a defensive manner, I really thought that as soon as we stepped inside it's walls, we would be attacked or something. But it's just total silence here." Mingi added in confusion as he pocketed the daggers he had prepared. "There's literally no one here."
"Let's not be comfortable enough. Pay attention to your surroundings everyone." Hongjoong said as he scanned the empty ruins in front of him.
Now that the men were inside this mysterious kingdom's defensive wall, things seemed to have gotten even more confusing. After passing it's ancient looking baffle gate, there were many various houses that were either crowded together or scattered randomly. They were all the same color and earthen like, with some of the houses decorated with motifs in clay brick. Some houses stood tall with towers beside them, and some were small and packed together.
Unlike what they had expected, the place was deserted. The earthen structures looked like they haven't been touched for a long time. Some looked badly damaged were in ruins, and there were some buildings that looked completely fine. A suffocating silence filled the air, as if time itself had stopped in this place.
As if one move could trigger a bad incident, a bad memory that every person who once lived here had tried to forget every single year.
"This must be the capital of Noinea." Yeosang said.
"Well, it clearly was once the capital of Noinea." San said, "Look around you, many buildings are damaged or in ruins. A clear sign of a disastrous battle and war."
"Did you know about this, captain?" Jongho asked their captain who was also busy looking around.
Hongjoong shook his head, "I honestly didn't know. As far as I was informned, Noinea was a thriving country despite its poor weather conditions."
"Okay, but shouldn't we search the place? There could someone else here, you know." Yunho asked as he touched the ground. Stones and clay. Unlike the desert that surrounded it with dry sands, the soil inside this village was different. Very different. The ground was clay and filled with stones, and although they were pretty much dry, it was much better than the barren sands that they have been walking on for the past two hours.
Hongjoong nodded in approval. "Everyone split up into twos. Search the village. Send up a flare if something happens."
"But we're an odd number right now." San said to their captain, suddenly missing the presence of their comrade, Wooyoung.
"Ah, right."
"One person has to be alone." Yeosang stated.
"That person is totally not gonna be me." Mingi said as he clinged himself unto Yunho.
"No. Let's split into two groups instead." Hongjoong said, "Yunho, Mingi, Yeosang, and San. You take the left side. I'll go with Jongho and Seonghwa to the right side. Let's meet in an hour at the foot of the hill before going up the fortress."
The boys nodded as they split up. The four pirates went to the left side while the captain and his company went the other way.
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"I'm really certain that this kingdom is deserted. Just like the desert." San said as he peeked inside on one of the dozens of houses. Even the interior of the houses were empty. There was no furniture to be found, and any signs of a person living on it. Just the four earthen walls, ceilings, and dry ground. Nothing else.
"This is almost like a ghost town." Yunho said.
"Ghosts?" Mingi flinched at the word. "I hate ghosts."
"There aren't any ghosts, Mingi." Yeosang chuckled at his crewmate's idiocy.
"Come on, we still have a wide area left to search-"
"What's that!?"
All the men focused their attention to Mingi who had just spoke. He was facing the other way-to the outside of the village, and was pointing at something. The other three looked at the direction Mingi was pointing at. And then they saw it.
The men who were high up by the hill saw a figure running outside the walls of the kingdom and along the sands of the desert, casting a huge dust trail behind it. It was a very small figure, which meant that it was far away. But it wasn't going towards them, it was going the other way.
It looked like it was either escaping or running away, away from them and towards the seaside city. It had already ran pretty far away from the kingdom, so it was pretty impossible for the men to catch up with it.
"Is that a horse?" Yunho asked. "Because as far as I know, camles don't run that fast."
San nodded as he used his spyglass. "Someone's riding it."
"Shouldn't we report this to captain?" Yeosang asked. "And shouldn't we run after that? Who knows, maybe it has seen us."
Yunho shook his head. "If we tried to run after it, we won't be able to catch up. Also judging by the distance it has travelled away from us, I think that horse and its rider had already left this place before we even entered. Why we didn't meet it is another mystery. Let's just tell Hongjoong later when we meet up."
The other three nodded.
"Now let's get back to what we were asked to do."
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Meanwhile on the other side of the village, Hongjoong, Seonghwa, and Jongho was also busy checking the buildings of the desolate kingdom. The square shaped earthen structures were all either empty or in ruins, so there was no use in checking them out thoroughly.
"This place is pretty creepy." Jongho said.
Seonghwa nodded, "I think this kingdom must've been abandoned for years already. The people must've moved towards the seaside city right, Hongjoong?"
"Maybe that's what happened. But we can't be exactly sure about it unless we know the whole story." Hongjoong said as the three men entered a house. They all stared at it's ancient stone walls and empty interior. There was nothing unusual in it.
"But I gotta say, the architecture on this place is amazing. Even though they have no windows nor doors-"
"Kina?"
The three pirates freezed. Another unfamiliar voice had joined their conversation, and it was a girl's voice.
They looked at the doorway and saw a short haired girl dressed in a black colored tunic dress that reached a few inches just below her knees paired with black knee high boots staring straight at them. She made eye contact with them, and as she saw the three men inside the house, she froze too.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were my friend-" then the girl widened her eyes as she realized that she was talking to people, inside the kingdom. As she far as she knew, the only people left in this forgotten place was the three of them living in the fortress. There was no one else living here in this desolated kingdom.
"What are you guys doing here?" She asked the men, completely oblivious to the fact that they were outsiders and even worse, pirates.
"This place is-"
The three men looked at each other with meaningful gazes and same thoughts before Seonghwa shouted,
"Get her!"
And before she could react, three men jumped unto her and dragged her to the ground.
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a/n:
things are gonna get pretty interesting in the next chapters! i'll update it after our exams!