Prince of Bones

14. Dazzling Light

San came early the next morning to get the two of them and he had Yongguk with him. Hongjoong sneaked a peek in the calm face of the man, finding him smiling secretly behind his tousled locks.

"I'm yieldin' ye thanks. Tell me anytime if ye need some weird ingredient fer yer wizardin' stuff.", the pirate murmured with an appreciative pat on the other man's shoulder, stepping out with him then. Seonghwa followed them with a smile towards Yongguk, moving to San's side while Hongjoong discussed business with Yongguk.

At least San kept his fingers to himself this time as to not blow their cover but San's mind had never been hard to read. Of course he wanted to touch Seonghwa so bad.

"I managed to prepare for us to leave. Any spells around the cave have been lifted so I need that wendigo of yours to break a hole in the wall. Ditch the wendigo after and travel westwards. Your navigator will find you on the way and bring you to the city where your crew is. I will stay here a while longer and do my wizarding stuff.", Yongguk explained even more quietly than usual and Hongjoong had to lean his head in the warlock's direction to even hear him.

The captain merely nodded then, listening in to the sounds coming from the main hall. As it appeared the wendigo was already on rampage again, cleary dissatisfied about not being fed any actual humans. Hongjoong extended his arm to nudge San before they entered the big hall.

"'ay, send yer shadow o'er there. Tell them to break a 'ole in the wall."

San nodded, his shadow sliding away from him without him having to do anything. They watched it go off, splitting up then so Seonghwa and Hongjoong could go act surprised about the whole ordeal.

"You! Pirates! Tell him to calm down!" The leader robe floated over to them in obvious panic, some black stains visible on his clothes.

"Why now? Be 'e not... whatever stupid stuff ye do, purifyin' them? Redeemin' maybe?"

The robe looked as if he wanted to hit Hongjoong for that, clearly too fed up with their whole plan heading south that he cared much for his image. Hongjoong merely grinned at him, making sure to rile the creatue up further.

"Yes, but if he kills all of them there will be no one left to pray to him! He moves too fast!"

"What did ye expect when ye animated a 'ole god? 'e would be no god if 'e could be predicted like a 'uman.", Hongjoong chided with a frown, pulling Seonghwa closer to his side. His lover contentedly lolled against his body.

"This all would not have happened if you had been human! Why not tell me you were not human?! The other two were human!"

"Bold o' ye o' all people to assume that the somebody ye deem yer dark prince an' the person accompanyin' 'im be 'uman. This here been yer mistake to make. An' oh lad do I not care about 'elpin' ye." Hongjoong just wanted that idiot ripped apart already so when he indeed hurried off to try to talk to the wendigo himself, the pirate discreetly pointed at him, motioning the monster to kill that one next.

The wendigo was in full on beast mode by now, not even picking up and eating the creatures - they could be ghouls upon further thought - but just throwing them left and right. Nobody dared defy it as it was their god, sliently letting themselves be thrown about like puppets.

Leader robe ran up to it with his arms stretched wide as if in prayer, just starting to speak when their umbras decided they had had enough of him.

Hongjoong's hand flinched upwards and in front of Seonghwa's eyes, shielding the man from the cruel view when an angry claw came down swiftly. He waited until both halves of the ghoul had disappeared somewhere in between the hectic mass that floated around in a silent panic, taking Seonghwa's hand then instead.