The Legend of Magic Island | taejun + sookai

part 3: knife or sword?

Yeonjun

Beomgyu and I were seated against some crates and eating oranges.

"Hey, how come you don't have a sword like everyone else?" I asked, throwing a couple orange peels aside, "I saw the captain have one, Taehyun had one, and so did Hueningkai."

"Says the one without a sword too," Beomgyu retorted, popping an orange slice in his mouth, "Listen Yeonjun, swords are for amateurs. Swords are stupid, pathetic pieces of metal that just shish-kabob people and literally nothing else. Compared to cannons, I bet a sword could do nothing against it."

"Besides," Beomgyu continued, pulling out a small knife from his pocket, "I'm more of a knife kind of person anyways. If I could have any weapon, I would have knives. And you wouldn't want to get me started on why knives are better than swords."

I hummed in response, popping another slice of orange in my mouth. We stayed quiet for a couple more seconds when Beomgyu put his knife back in his pocket.

"I just love knives," He said all of a sudden, "Big knives, small knives, knives with holes, literally any knife. I just love knives, they're so cool. You can't throw swords but you could throw knives. Taehyun and I used to play fruit ninja before the sun rises and the captain would be so mad about the fruit pieces being everywhere so we ended up eating all this fruit in one day."

Beomgyu sure could ramble on, I thought to myself, closing my eyes tiredly. He kept going off about knives and how cool they were when Taehyun walked over and sat down next to us with an apple in his hand.

"Mind if I join you two?"

"Taehyun! I was just talking to Yeonjun about knives," Beomgyu responded happily, moving aside so the other had a place to sit.

"I've noticed," He replied, sitting down next to us, "Try not to bore him too much, Gyu."

"Hey, speaking of swords and knives," I interjected, "Do you think I could get my own sword or something? My old one was- confiscated."

Beomgyu's eyes widened and he tugged at Taehyun's shirt.

"SEE? See? If you had a knife it wouldn't have been take-"

"You could ask the captain about it," Taehyun interrupted, shooing Beomgyu's hand away, "Unless you want a knife like Beomgyu has, he could probably spare you a few."

"You see, normally, pirates prefer swords, but I prefe-"

"Knives. We know," Taehyun scoffed.

"I was going to say a slingshot, but yes, I love knives too," Beomgyu said, rolling his eyes.

"By the way," I asked, trying to change the subject, "How come there's only the five of us on this ship? Where are the others?"

"The others?" Taehyun responded, raising an eyebrow, "It's just been the four of us, the captain never bothered to recruit anyone else until we found you."

"I-I know but with my old crew- there were at least 9 of us in total and-"

"Gosh you sound just like my parents!" Beomgyu interrupted, covering his ears, "Almost never happy with whatever they had and always wanted more!"

"What? No- Don't get me wrong it's not that I'm unhappy or anything," I reassured, "I'm just surprised since the crew is quite small-"

Taehyun let out a small laugh, "The other pirate captains always point out how small our crew is. But as long as we have a captain and a place to go, I don't have a preference."

Beomgyu nodded in agreement with a smile on his face.

====

Later that afternoon, I walked over to Hueningkai who was steering the ship. I offered to steer for a bit so he could rest, but he refused.

"You're still injured," He replied, "For now you get a break until you're ready, alright? In the meantime, just let me take care of steering, yeah?"

I looked around in the glistening sea, the sun shining onto the water. Peering over the railing, I could see the faint outlines of fish just swimming on the side of the ship.

"We're heading to a marketplace on Illusion Reef next to refuel on supplies," Hueningkai informed, looking over at me, "Taehyun was telling me you wanted a new sword since your last one was taken. I think we should have enough to get you a new one!"

I hummed in response looking at the ground solemnly, "I think I'll just stay on the ship while you guys go... you probably don't need me there anyways."

"We'll see when we get there, alright?" Hueningkai responded, turning the wheel slightly, "It's your first adventure with us, and I don't want you missing out!"

I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

"It's just a marketplace, it's nothing special."

Hueningkai shrugged, his hands tightly gripping the wheel.

"I beg to differ. I heard Illusion Reef had a booming economy, lots of wealthy merchants go there," He answered, "There's lots of things to see and do there, it's a bit of a shame we're only there on business..."

"Maybe you could convince the captain to stay there longer? It does sound like a nice place."

"I doubt it," Hueningkai replied, and smiled to himself, "But I think it's worth a shot! Do you think he'll say yes?"

"How could he say no to you?" I joked, as Hueningkai lightly shoved me.

"Oh shut up! The captain is more difficult to convince than you think!" He scoffed, hitting me playfully.

We were sailing smoothly in the open sea for a while, the sun starting to set. I leaned against the railing, enjoying the sea breeze blowing through my hair when I saw a warm, yet faint glow off in the distance.

"Illusion Reef is just up ahead!" I heard Beomgyu shout, tucking his telescope into his pocket. He climbed down from the shroud again and ran to the front of the ship where Hueningkai and I were.

"Would you look at that," He said proudly as a small, bright town started to appear into view as we got closer, "We're here at last! I've always wanted to see what trouble I could get up to here."

"Don't forget we're just stopping for resources," Hueningkai scoffed, "Don't pick any of the wrong pockets, we don't want any trouble with locals."

Beomgyu rolled his eyes, leaning against the side railing. I hurried below deck, where the captain was sitting in his room with Taehyun.

"--But that doesn't make sense, it's just bare ocea-"

They paused when I leaned in the doorway, looking over at me.

"Captain, we're here at Illusion Reef," I informed, looking at the map on the table, "What were you guys talking abou-"

Soobin quickly rolled up the map and tucked it away.

"Great! Looks like we arrived sooner than I thought," The captain said, getting up and capping the jar of ink on his desk.

"W-We haven't landed at a port yet, Hueningkai is steering us towards a port though," I added, as Taehyun grabbed the rolled up map and hid it somewhere. We walked to upper deck again, where the town was in full view.

I could see sparkling, colored lights from lanterns and the commotions coming from the market in the distance. Beomgyu looked over the railing happily, jumping up and down excitedly. Taehyun took care of steering us, straightening the ship so we could stop at the port.

"We've arrived Capt'n!" Hueningkai said proudly as Beomgyu hurried to lower the anchor. The ship came to a complete stop, Captain Soobin smiling happily, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Everyone, welcome to Illusion Reef."