VOYAGE I: Onwards To Utopia

Chapter 11

The Second Clue

Twilight fell and the Captain was once again overtaken by the curse, Seonghwa keeps his stoned body company, standing next to it and making sure nothing bad happens.

The others climbed down the other side of the hill and onto the said open field. It was a vast grassy area, but one tall tree stood amidst of it, looking out of place.

"So what now?"Mingi asked.

"We wait till it gets a little late, it's said to come out at around 8 o'clock in the evening."Shinji answers, with San next to her.

"I guess we'll be staring at some tree for the next four hours."Wooyoung mumbles.

Yunho decides to sit on the ground. Jongho sits next to him and makes a fire.

"There's so many of them."Yunho mutters staring up at the night sky.

"I know, they're so annoying."Mingi replied while waving his hands around in an agitated manner, slapping the air around him, in attempts to shoo away the bugs that were circling around.

Yunho erupts into laugher."I meant the stars."he cackled."not the bugs."

Jongho couldn't help but to snicker at the amusing scene in front of him."You probably stink, that's why they're only swarming over you."

Mingi bolts up and starts running around like crazy, everyone else's bursting into laugher.

"No fair, I took a shower."he says, still running.

A few hours later, they were all seated on the grass quietly, the sound of crickets and the crackling fire were the only sounds.

The moon was indeed in its full phase, glowing brightly and majestically in the sky, an aurora looking halo around it.

Suddenly something flies out if the lone tree in front of them. It was a butterfly about a foot long, it's wings glowing green.

Wide-eyed, all of them slowly stood up. The butterfly then flies over to them as if asking them to follow it, so they did. It flew back towards the tree and enters a cavity in the tree, before dispersing into embers of green light.

Yeosang steps forward and reaches his hand into the hollowed out space of tree, while Seonghwa and Mingi had a sort of terrified look.

"You sure you should stick your hand in there?"Wooyoung asks uneasy.

"It's fine there's not—"he mutters while feeling inside the space. He was about to say 'nothing' but his hand felt something.

Yeosang grabs whatever it was that his hand has touched and retrieved it outside. It was a rolled up piece of paper tied with a string.

The rest huddled up around and he removes the string and opens the parchment, it was blank making everyone frown.

"Shinji-ah it's your time to shine."San happily says while assisting Shinji towards the others to see the paper.

San takes the paper and unfolds it in front of her. In her view, cursive golden letters started appearing.

"You've found the first piece of the map to a glorious place

Hurry now, you must make haste

There are two more parts needed to see the full picture

One of them is guarded by a fearsome creature."

After Shinji reads the words, golden lines started appearing on the back of the paper, surprising the rest.

"What the..."Yeosang mumbles, taking a parchment back to inspect it. The lines formed images of skylands, but the lines stoped at the edge of the paper where it seemed to have been torn.

"It's a map!"

**

Upon returning to the ship, they rested and waited for the next day. Of course they had to carry the Captain since he was immovable which was quite a sight to see.

The next when everyone was awake and freshened up, they all headed to the Captain's quarters as requested by the Captain.

"I'm a bit concerned about getting the second piece."Yunho says.

"I agree, fearsome creatures aren't my thing."Mingi seconds, hiding behind Yunho.

"Fearsome creature, there's lots of those in the sky."Jongho retorts, a finger on his chin."So which one?"

"Which creature is most well known?"asked Hongjoong.

"Probably the Skygers, the ones found in Thundren."replied Seonghwa.

"Oh I've heard of those! They're know for preying on sky sailors that dock on their Island."Wooyoung comments, and San and Mingi grimace, while the others exchanged concerned looks.

"Yeosang-ah, can you point us to Thundren?""Hongjoong beckons the navigator, who nods and approaches with a rolled parchment.

Yeosang unroll the map and eyes the illustrations on the paper, before pointing at a little blob."Here."he says."If we leave for it today, we'll get there in three days."