The Jewel of Atlantis (Ateez FF)

Chapter 13

 The ride itself over to the island had lasted no more than 10 minutes, and was in complete silence. I mean aside from the grunts coming from Wooyoung and San occasionally as they rowed, and once we were finally on the beach of the island, Seonghwa shooed me off. I'm guessing he had assumed that I wouldn't be too much help with my hand, and he didn't want me to get in the way. Which made me feel bad, but at the same time I appreciated the time I got to be able to enjoy the sand underneath my feet.

Really just taking my time to bask in the sun and not be on a boat. I mean I love the boat with the gentle rock of the waves, but sometimes it really did feel good to feel steady, stable, and safe on land.

As I stood in front of the great expanse of woods the men soon came to surround me, "So is there any hidden path or something that leads to the cave?" Wooyoung asked as they all settled into their spots beside me.

I just shook my head at Wooyoung's question, "No."

Then I paused and kind of weighed my options in my head, "Well actually I don't know," Sucking in a deep breath I pointed to the trees, "But I do know that we'll have to trek through the trees to the base of the mountain, and then we'll have to climb the mountain."

"And where's the compass?" Seonghwa questioned as I dropped my hand back down to my sides.

"There should be a cave about halfway up that'll hold the compass, and there might be a path up the mountain. Yet, again I'm not really too sure about any path." I answered as I gazed farther down the coast to see if I could possibly find one.

The boys nodded in silence as they hardened their gazes on the treeline, "Okay so from what I'm hearing is that we just got to hike through a forest, up a mountain, into a cave and then come back to the ship in a day." He turned to look at me then, "There aren't any surprises or mysterious challenges we have to face right?" Seonghwa clarified as the lot of them all turned to face me.

I turned away from their gazes and up at the mountain in front of us. Then I just shrugged, "I hope not."

"You hope?" Wooyoung asked incredulously as soon as the answer left my mouth, "That's not very convincing."

He went to stand in front of me and put two hands on my shoulders, making me look him in the eye as he shook me with wide eyes, "You need to be sure to tell us if there is some giant man eater in there or something." He rambled as he continued to shake me.

"Well I'm going off of what my dad said." I ran a hand through my hair pushing the male away from me as I turned to look at Seonghwa. He had on his thinking face as he watched me carefully. So I just said, "So yes I hope there isn't anything in there, and if there is I have no clue about it. You have my word."

A soft scoff could be heard from the other side of me as San listened in on the conversation. "We can just go check it out and see if she's right." he pointed out.

Seonghwa nodded and finally looked off into the distance, "He's right. It's not doing us any good just staring at the forest. So let's get going. Just stick close to one another, and don't do anything stupid."

Then just like that he began walking towards the forest. We all were kind of kicking up sand along the way, and I noticed very quickly that the men had a certain dynamic. Seonghwa led the pack and sliced through the brush of trees as he made contact with them, San stayed close behind him almost in a protective stance as he surveyed the surroundings, and Wooyoung stuck close to me as we walked behind the two. The whole while San and Wooyoung had their hands hovering over whatever weapon they had on them.

We were quiet once more as we walked, all until San quickened his pace to match Seonghwa. Then I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but the two were talking in hushed whisper yells basically. So when San asked, "What is going to happen to her if there is something inland?" I got to hear every part of the conversation.I normally would have blocked the conversation out, but as it was about me I couldn't help myself.