Young and Wild || seongjoong || ATEEZ

Chapter Fourteen: To Ash We Return

Chapter warnings: violence and kidnapping 

The Tale of the Walled Island.

It was a tale that had been forgotten by the new generations for centuries. There were few who knew of its words, and there were even fewer who knew of its warnings. No one knew who had been the author of such a tale, there were never any names associated with the story that had been passed down since the beginning of time. It was a tale that was so old, some believed that it had been created when time was created itself, or perhaps was created during the second creation of the world.

A tale so precious and thought-provoking, it had been treated like a sacred reading until the lust for money and gold began to take hold of its victims once more and poisoned their minds until they could no longer see the truth about what the gold really was. So, year after year when the thoughts of men became so narrowminded and focused on shiny gold that shimmered in the sunlight, the tale itself began to slip away until there was nothing left besides an unnatural desire for an object that could not breathe nor grant eternal life.

It did not take long for the sacred tale to die out completely- brushed away like dust and dirt.

But even then, it appeared that there were some who had not forgotten it after all. Perhaps it had been kept in the family like an heirloom- a story told to fearful children during a thundering rainstorm to calm them and teach them that storms were only the great protectors of the land.

What Seonghwa had told the captain of the Destiny on that one fateful day on the beach when the day hadn't yet fully begun, wasn't entirely the truth. The Tale of the Walled Island was never a tale that had been written in the great books of the library- it had never been passed down on paper with old and crumbling ink- but had only been a tale taught orally. That's why it had died out so quickly because there was never a physical record of it. The ones who had been gifted the story had been given the job to pass it down to those they deemed worthy enough to know of such graces.

It was a lesson that few knew, but many needed.

How Seonghwa had come to know of this tale was through the wise words of his mother during his childhood when he was no taller than her hip and would stand on the extra fabric of her long dresses when he stood next to her. When he was young enough that the storms would still scare him because they would slam all the castle's shutters shut and the deafening sounds of the great booms of thunder would shake the bed he lay in- that's when his mother would come to him and kneel on her knees beside the bed to peek under the many layers of blankets he would hide under in hopes of escaping the storm.

When she would peel back the sheets to find her son's tear-stricken face and his fists holding onto anything he could as the fear consumed him from the anger of the storm, was when her face would soften in sympathy, and she would softly shush him and run her thumb so tenderly under his eyes to wipe away his tears.

"Do you know of the great tale of a faraway place- the Walled Island?" She had whispered to him softly that one night when the great storm had come over them and the thunder and lightning seemed only a few moments from touching down on the very castle. Her voice had been so soft as she asked him, and it had been when she was so very young and her face was still bright and playful as she looked at her only son to try and distract him from the violence of the outside world.

Of course, she had known that Seonghwa had no idea what she was talking about, yet she still entertained him as any mother would before she had moved up from her knees and sat down on the bed next to his shaking body and smoothed out her long and flowy dress while her soft fingers ran through his hair to try and soothe her child.