FELLOWSHIP || Ateez Fanfiction

Chapter Forty Nine: Old Letter

Hongjoong POV
The next day we eat a big breakfast in the town and sell the things that we found yesterday. Around noon we leave the harbor. Two days later Yunho comes into our bedroom late at night.
"Captain, Joong...", he whisper and shakes me gently.
"What is it?", I ask half asleep.
"There is an island directly in front of us. Should we stop there?"
"Yeah, do that."

The next day Seonghwa wakes me up.
Sleepily I drag myself outside. I would have loved to sleep a bit longer. It takes me a few seconds to notice the giant trees next to our ship. A few small monkeys sit in them and stare at me. Why do I feel like they are judging me? I go into our kitchen and eat my breakfast.
"Did you see those little animals in the trees, Joong? They are so cute.", San says.
"Only until they try to steal your stuff or throw things at you."
San, Wooyoung and Mingi giggle.
"Don't laugh. They can do some serious damage. They are really smart and strong. We should definitely barricade the hatch and the door to my room before we leave."
Yunho, Seonghwa, Jongho and Yeosang enter the kitchen.
"Captain, can we feed the animals on the trees.", Yeosang asks.
"No, as I just explained to the others, monkeys are really mischievous. If you feed them, they will know that we have food for them and come onto the ship to search for it."
The four look sad and leave the kitchen.

Before we leave we put a heavy rug that we still had in our storage room over the hatch and put one of the bedside tables in front of the door to the captain's cabin. Hopefully that will keep out those monkeys. We enter the rainforest. I know that it is adviced to stay away from rainforests as a foreigner if you don't a guide as it can be dangerous but I think I should have enough experience with it and the island isn't that big. My parents did often entered the rainforests without a guide too.
The monkeys follow us as we explore the island. We find some chests, one of them even contains religous stuff that you will often find in Tongcheok's temples.

A while later Seonghwa stumbles across a staircase that leads into the ground. It seems to belong to one of these mysterious ancient ruins.
"Oh, is it one of those places again? Will we go in? The last one had a really fun puzzle and we got a pocket watch. Maybe we'll get something rare and useful again.", Wooyoung states.
"We'll definitely take a look at it."
Yunho and San sprint down the stairs and hilariously walk right into an inivisible wall. Everyone can't help but laugh out loud.
"What is this why can't we enter? But we can see what is on the other side.", San complains while rubbing is nose.
"Hey look there are pictograms above the door.", Jongho points out.
Above the door are three little pictures. The first one is a mouth, the second one are two happy people and the third one is an open door.
"What does it mean?", Yeosang asks.
"I have no clue.", I admit.
"Maybe your supposed to kiss someone.", Wooyoung says and grabs Yeosang to kiss him on the mouth. Yeosang pushes him away and hides behind Jongho. Wooyoung then turns around and tries to kiss San. The taller boy leans in towards him with puckered lips which makes Wooyoung panic and turn back around with a bright red face.
"M-maybe not."
"Maybe you're supposed to say something.", Yunho suggests.
"Like what?", Jongho asks.
"We have to analyze the second pictogram I guess."
"FRIEND.", Mingi exclaims who has walked right in front of the invisible wall.
Suddenly whatever blocked our way looks like it's burning away and blue particle fly through the air until it's completely gone.
"How did you know what to say?", I ask confused.
"I felt like I read about something like this in a novel."

We enter the ruin. It is surprisingly bright for being underground but I don't know where the light is coming from. A short tunnel leads to a messy looking room with a big stone table in the middle. There were other doorways leading to other rooms at some point but they collapsed. Rotten shelves and some pebbles lie on the ground.
"I was expecting more. Especially after it required a riddle to get in. But this just looks like someone's abandoned house.", Yunho says.
"I think this IS someone's abandoned house.", I comment.
Wooyoung goes and kicks some stuff on the floor around which makes dust fly around everywhere.
"Hey, stop it.", San says but Wooyoung doesn't listen to him.
"Wooyoung, really, stop it.", Seonghwa tells him but he still doesn't listen. Jongho looks at him angrily and he immediately stops.
"Wait there us something on the ground.", Mingi says and bends down to pick something up between two rotten wood pieces.
"Be careful. Don't get a splinter.", Yunho calls out.
Mingi careful dusts some dirt and wood splinters off of a piece of paper.
Weidly enough, apart from the dust on it, it looks like it's brand new.
We all gather around Mingi and look at the paper together. It has something written on it in an language that I have never seen but only a few seconds later it translates itself into the common language. It reads:
"Hii,
I know you haven't heard from me in a while. I couldn't text you the normal way as there are a lot of interferences right now, so I am doing it the old school way. Anyway I just wanted to tell you that me and my brother are still alive. As predicted, the war didn't end well and has caused even more anomalies to show up. If we really want to save the planet and the humans, we have to act now. They did some bad thing but our species was even worse to them and now we are about to destroy them and our planet. I can't let that happen, they deserve a second chance. Even if they will have to start from zero again. You know my brother's calculations. If we can get most remaining magicals on our side then we can make it and then we need only about 10 full-blooded magicals to maintain everything. But if everything works out, we might be able to survive anyways. Though we should stay away from the humans this time around then. Please help us convince the others and we'll meet at the ruins of the main city to plan everything. I will tell you when we are going to meet, when we have a connection again."
"My brain is hurting. Interferences, planet, magicals, anomalies? What is this person talking about?", Yeosang asks.
"It sounds like their home was in danger but it sounds like something out of a fantasy novel.", I reply.
"Maybe they were role playing?", Seonghwa suggests.
"What if this is something that really happened? I mean if you think about it, this place isn't normal either. We were blocked by an invisible wall that disappeared after saying a word. This place is older than almost everything else in Wolkmaar but this piece of paper looks not even a day old and the text magically changed to our language.", Jongho argues.
"Yeah, but it still sounds very crazy.", Wooyoung comments.
"If it was true, would that mean that how our world is now is because of what happened then and before that there was magicals and a planet, whatever that is, and they succeeded?", San questions.
"I don't understand what a planet is supposed to be. Is it just another name for home or Wolkmaar?", Mingi asks.
"None of us know.", I reply.
"But it sounds like a cool story. I want to know what happens next.", Yeosang says.