All to Zero || Ep. 1 of the Treasure Series || ATEEZ Pirate AU

Chapter 5: The Kraken

It had been mildly stressful for Wooyoung as he'd worked under Jongho all morning with one eye on whatever task was at hand and the other eye on the island where he knew the Captain and those with him were scoping things out.

He had watched anxiously from deck as sharks had surrounded the longboats on the way back and jumped in to help them aboard. San had grasped his hand and glanced up at him, fear in his eyes.

Neither of them had ever seen sharks attack like that.

He'd been having thoughts about running for it as soon as they found civilised land.

Captain Hongjoong seemed determined to sail east and face any obstacle without a thought for the lives of his crew and having seen the risks faced just that morning for whatever the Captain's secret quest was, Wooyoung liked the idea of being alive.

It wasn't so bad under Si-Hyuk if he remembered correctly, other than lack of pay and sparse meals. At least Si-Hyuk had stayed in familiar waters most of the time.

He was still curious about the unknown however, so that afternoon, Wooyoung caught a break and found San on deck gazing at Smokey Island.

"What was it like?" He asked. San turned to face him and worked his mouth into a small frown. "For me, not as exciting as last time Captain put me on boarding party."

Wooyoung raised his eyebrows, remembering their conversation last night. Yeosang had jabbed at San for being scared of wild creatures because of something that had happened at their last stop. San went on to tell the tale without prompting.

"It was a few weeks back, we landed on another supposedly uninhabited island with caves on it, and of course we went in those caves to look for clues and such and, well, we found something else..."

San's face turned red with embarrassment at the memory. "There was a dragon."

Wooyoung's jaw dropped. "A dragon? You're sure it wasn't just a large lizard-"

"No it was a dragon. With wings. Breathed fire," San cut him off matter-of-factly.

Wooyoung shook his head in amazement. "Yeosang didn't believe it either," San shrugged and went on with the story.

"The dragon was asleep on a pile of gold, and Captain warned us all to be quiet while we searched around for clues-"

"Clues?"

San shrugged again. "Evidence of other humans, anything to prove someone had been there. Captain always has us look for clues like that when we land on an island."

Wooyoung wanted to ask more but San was already moving on with the story. "I was going through some very nice looking jewels towards the top of the pile when, well, I happened to lose my balance and dropped one... on the dragon's face."

Wooyoung's eyes widened.

"I made a run for it and the others realised what had happened and followed but it was all we could do to get off the island before the dragon came flying out at top speed, scorching the whole place in fire. I could still feel the heat on my face as the ATEEZ sailed away," San shivered at the memory. "No one was killed or injured but... that's why I wasn't sure about landing party this time. I knew Captain wasn't happy I had caused any potential clues on Dragon Island to go up in flames, but I'm also not too keen on caves anymore."

"Captain's party went in the caves," Wooyoung pointed out.

San nodded. "But all Mingi and I found was an empty cabin, an unreadable map, and some over-ambitious sharks."

"Who do you think was here before?" Wooyoung asked him, trying again to get San to talk about what the point of this journey east was. But San simply shrugged.