Awaiting The Dawn

37: Lady's Plans

Yoon offered to make a big dinner for the whole crew, so everyone planned to get out of the Vanishing Cape and head to the ship. As they were walking, the captain stopped everyone in their tracks. "Wait."

She pointed her pipe to Hisa's direction. "This one looking to fight Kum-ji too?"

"Yes." She kept her head up, trying to look more confident than she felt.

"What can you do, then?"

Hisa was stuck between revealing she was a priest or showing she could fight. The choice was obvious, since one would take a lot less explaining.

"I know archery." At that exact time, Jae-ha chose to open his mouth. "Says she's a priest."

Why, Jae-ha?!

For some reason, this felt like a betrayal.

"So which is it?" The captain looked a little too unimpressed for finding out her not-really-a-secret-but-still-a-secret.

"Both?" Hisa quickly gave up from hiding the truth, recalling that Kija had already given it away. "I can find information from whoever I touch."

That wasn't a lie, but she made it sound easier than it was. Divination needed physical touch, but the mental focus was far more important.

She took a puff from her pipe. "Then tell me something useful, that no one would know."

This was her own test. At least she didn't have to get the cliff herb. Thinking about it, Yoon had been the only one who hadn't been tested.

No, focus and answer the scary elder, Hisa!

She immediately pointed at the green dragon, knowing exactly what to say. This was revenge. "Yesterday when he was running away, Jae-ha slipped and got his butt stuck in a barrel."

"It was a jug!" Jae-ha boldly interrupted as though this tiny detail made any difference to his dignity.

A crowd of pirates erupted in laughter. Several were poking fun at the green dragon, including Thunder.

Hisa continued. "He likes grapes, he left his village when he was twelve, and he's a known womanizer."

"How violating, to have a stranger know so much about me~!" Jae-ha made a show of hugging himself, looking like he was about to strip any minute.

Nobody was convinced that he was actually bothered by it. Though, Hisa couldn't imagine that he was happy that some priest might've seen his past. She didn't like to think about how heavy the chains felt around the wrists, or the way they'd rub painfully against the skin.

Hisa narrowed her eyes. She wanted to look away. "You asked me to 'peel' away your secrets before. What's the problem?"

"Don't mind his antics." Captain Gi-Gan didn't even glance at Jae-ha, looking overly used to this. "You pass."

So, by using the little things she knew about Jae-ha, Hisa became a pirate.

.

Hisa thought it'd still be by the sea cliff that had no platform to stand on, but the ship was docked in a different spot, further along a river ravine.

It made sense since the location from before would've made it impossible for the crew to go aboard. And they needed a base on land where they could store supplies. It made so much sense that it was embarrassing she didn't figure it out soon.

Kija, Shin-ah, and Ao tried their first seafood from what Yoon called his 'Special Pirate Soup.' It was wonderful. Kija seemed to have a hard time eating the crab, which he thought was a mutant bug or something. He let Hisa eat it for him.