Playing Among The Stars | Minsung

- Ch. 8 -

Honestly, Minho didn't trust the man. He thought he had told him directions for a long walk on a short pier, sending him to his death for being so stubborn.

But, North. North is all the man told him before flying off on the dragon, never to be seen again. Then again, did he have a choice? No. Now that he found out that dragons and dragon tamers were real, he needed to go through with phase two of his plan: actually—

Holy fuck, dragons and dragon trainers were real.

Not only real, but both came so close to killing him, experiencing the very real threats posed toward anyone that came across them.

Everyone back at The Capital had said he was crazy, just adding more fuel to some non-existent flame. Though, he'll admit, he sounded the tiniest bit crazy back at home: borrowing almost all books about dragons he could find in the city, locking himself in his office to work on his research and plans, never seeing friends or family who all thought he had died, et cetera, et cetera. But all evidence he placed on the table was plausible, and turned out to be real, so who came out on top? Minho did, he was right all along (which, he also admits, sounded like something a crazy person would say).

And he had a witness too! Soonie could testify that yes, a dragon almost ate him. And because a dragon almost ate him, Minho fainted once the dragon left his sight.

Though the morning after, he headed north with newfound vigor. He had evidence; he had a direction, one plus one should equal two. Unless Minho ends up dying on the way, or something happens that would make his equation equal forty-two. But if he could survive a dragon attack, he was sure he could survive anything else. Hell, he might as well be immortal at this point.

North were the mountains. With Soonie on his shoulder and a spring in his step, he claimed some distance up the mountain, following the natural path at the base. However, there was no passage over or through the mountain without having to climb—Minho wasn't too keen on climbing. He continued to travel west, trying to look for an area easier to climb.

The mountains are just too steep all the way around, separating the island into two areas.

Though, there was, however, an opening, almost, between the mountains, cliffs either side of a large trench. A tiny river passed through it, fog settling in the large ravine as the sorcerer stood before its mouth.

This must've been where the man had wanted him to go. After all, this seemed like the only way to bypass the mountains besides climbing the thing or rowing his boat around an entire island which could take up to at least a week. But Minho didn't have such precious time, so as much as his stomach twisted at the horrors the ravine could house, he needed to push through (He was already so over man-eating trolls). He's already come this far. There was no turning back once he entered this. Whatever regrets he has in his life, he needed to resolve them now.

With a breath, Minho heads into the ravine, Soonie glancing up to awe at the tall cut sides of the mountain, like the blade of the Gods had sliced the Earth into two.

The walk took forever, borderline never-ending that Minho feared he ran into a curse—was he lost in the mist forever? All the rocks and debris looked the same, he couldn't see the sky, the trajectory of sunlight was unmoving. But Minho continued on, clenching his fists to ready an attack spell if any monster were to lunge out of the mist.

The ravine was getting narrower and narrower, and Minho feared that this ravine only led to a dead end. Though slipping past the narrowest part of the ravine (Minho thanked every God out there for not getting stuck) the ravine got wider and wider from there.