Young and Wild || seongjoong || ATEEZ

Chapter Nine : The Dying Willow Tree

Chapter warning: descriptions of gore

By the time they had dropped anchor and set foot on land, it had stopped snowing and the wind had settled down.

There was an easy crunch to the snow, it was thick and deep, layered up over the past few days of the horrible storm that had sought to set ramage over all the land it could cover. The land itself was covered in thousands of trees that filled the rolling hills that poked up from the very ground and were tall enough to touch the clouds above them. The trees were different than the ones Seonghwa knew of back in his kingdom, but he had heard of these large evergreen trees that were known to be the Northern kingdom's pride and joy. Seojun had talked about them many times, how they would sparkle when the snow sat upon their branches.

When they first set foot on the new land, it had been morning. The clearness from the night before had not carried onto the next day as the darkened clouds were back again, so they blocked the sun's direct warmth from shining down upon them. The frigid air was brutal, but without the presence of the wind, the thick animal furs they all wore seemed to be enough to keep their bodies from shutting down.

They had pulled their rowboats onto the land and had looked over the terrain briefly. There wasn't much they could see past the thick line of evergreen trees that went as far as the eye could see, a very heavy and dense forest, but there were two very large mountains that mirrored each other- both of their peaks touching the gray clouds above them. The snow was pure white, untouched, and without blemish. Seonghwa found himself nearly knee-deep in the snow at some points, his footprints showing his direct path clearer than anything.

In the back of his mind, something was ticking with the fear of being tracked. There was no way they could hide their trail in snow like this.

Though as he looked back over his shoulder, out to the gray ocean where he could see the icecaps poking out of the rolling waves and the Destinyfloating easily where she was anchored and left with the rest of the crew, Seonghwa knew that their journey through the Northern hemisphere would not be tracked.

There was no way they could've been followed through what they had just experienced.

It had just been the eight crew members that had rowed their way to land, the others were simply given the task to look over the captain's ship and to start repairing the small damages that the Destiny had taken on during the rough few nights where the ice caps had caused some leaks in the hull.

Seonghwa stood there with his feet freezing and his dark fur coat pulled up nearly over his nose to keep it from freezing off, a comment the first mate had joked about earlier but Seonghwa feared that it wasn't entirely a joke, and he couldn't help but feel relieved that it was only the eight of them to embark on this journey.

With a deep breath of the freezing air that burned the insides of his nose, Seonghwa finally turned away from the rolling ocean and started his trek further inland to join the rest of the pirate crew who had settled just before the line of evergreen trees where the snow wasn't as deep. They all were wrapped up in their furs with their boots lined with some kind of ointment that did not allow for water to penetrate the fabric, huddled up with rosy cheeks and noses.

It was almost endearing to look at, and it might've made Seonghwa smile if he wasn't so cold.

The captain had already pulled out a map of the land and had pushed it up against the tree's trunk and was pointing out different spots that he had marked with circles. The first mate stood next to him with his arms crossed over his chest, while San stood on the captain's right with his eyes trained on the map with heavy concentration. They all stood in a small circle so they could see and listen to the captain's debriefing before they hiked further inland.