Somewhere Between the Sea and the Sky.

Episode 0: Chapter 29

Song Mingi.

Tall, handsome, strong... The pirate was a lot of things, and unlucky was part of the list. He was aware of it, a lot of people saw him as a stupid and clumsy disaster, ever since he started his journey as a pirate. Always being chased, always having to find a way out from every island he found.

Even other pirates avoided him, why would they want such a mess in their crew? Why would they want to be close to someone who seemed to attract the White Army?

Oh, he almost started to believe those words, he almost let his bad luck forge his identity but something new happened.

He happened.

Kim Hongjoong took him in his crew, helped him when he was hurt and trapped. Did he see through his bad luck, did he see something special in Song Mingi?

Perhaps the real Mingi?

He felt good, he felt validated and appreciated, but there was something wrong. He didn't tell him, he didn't explain why he was known as such a clumsy pirate. He didn't say anything about the guy that somehow found him every time.

His dear friend from the White Army.

Perhaps this was his chance to fix it. He had an opportunity to talk to him like he never had before, for once Mingi wasn't the one trapped and surrounded by enemies.

Oh, Yunho might be so scared.

Mingi didn't know well what would happen to the soldier once he talked to him, he didn't know what those pirates would do to keep their secrets. He couldn't judge them, they were doing what was best for the crew and shouldn't have mercy for just one soldier.

The matter was, Yunho wasn't just one soldier for Mingi.

The pirate was following the instructions he got to find the island's prison, it was somehow apart from the camp. It made sense, no one wants a jailed enemy right next to their bed. The path was guiding him into what looked like a stone forest, it somehow seemed to be the original environment of the island. Perhaps the forest surrounding the camp was only a tiny weird part of it.

Anyways.

He started to move between pillars of stone and bushes until he saw what he was looking for.

A huge door covered the entrance to a cave, probably not a natural one. The door was also made of stone, how was he supposed to open it? How did any of those guys open the damn giant rock thing?

The more he discovered about the island, the more questions he had.

Those weird pirates altered the island somehow, honest work and effort wasn't enough to build a place like the one Mingi had in front of him. He heard about the captain's curse, but did it give him enough power to create such a big thing? What kind of stupid monster would curse a pirate and turn him into— Well, the same guy but with weird magic.

Huh. What if it was a curse? Did it affect him? Those guys were friendly, Taeyong didn't look like a bad guy.

Mingi really hoped he wasn't a bad guy, gods.

"Focus, Mingi." He spoke to himself and started to approach the door in front of him

Maybe he was just imagining it and it was a totally useful wooden door, not an inamovible mass of pure rock he would have to cross. He carefully put his hand in the door, the touch was— Yes, stone. Pure stone.

He tried to push with one hand, trying to find a weak spot, perhaps some kind of mechanism that would open the gates for him. There had to be one, right?