Mahan, Fire Fork Countries, Qali
Satura, the ninth day of Enerin, 1149

Leeteuk could feel a headache coming, Donghae having dumped various scrolls, maps and parchments onto the dining room table. On second thought, the headache started last week when Donghae announced during New Year dinner that he would start on an expedition to the Far Reach.

He took a peek at the building storm on Sora's face as Donghae enthusiastically spread out the maps he borrowed from the Yutabuhen, intent to show them how he thinks it could be done. Leeteuk correctly guessed that Donghae was ignoring his mother's frown in favor of explaining his hare-brained idea.

New Year dinner was when Donghae first broached the idea of going into the Far Reach to ask for help from the god-race, the Ginu. The dinner had upset Sora, and if Leeteuk truly knew his wife, calling her son daft after sharing that idea was already tempered with motherly love. But with the same stubbornness reminiscent of his Grampa Kangin, Donghae insisted it was a viable solution, and something that needed to be done with haste for them to eliminate the blight and let the land start healing.

They all thought that was the end of it. Leeteuk should have known better - Donghae had a certain tenacity when it concerns to things and ideas that he believed in. Maybe Grampa Kangin shouldn't have gifted Donghae with his Great Granma Cordana's diary, which he now kept mentioning had provided actual clues of a possible trek north to the Far Reach.

Sora's family history is rather colorful. Long before the creative mind of Cordana made her known in Mahan as a lore-master, that family line had been movers and shakers in the history of the Fire Fork Countries. If Leeteuk's side of the family is considered staid, Sora's side are the adventurers - even her Grampa Jinki, Cordana's husband, came from one of the northern Fire Fork Countries, a traveling minstrel who settled in Mahan when he met Cordana. As a lore-master, Cordana told and wrote stories, and the tome gifted to Donghae was considered a personal collection.

Certainly not an instruction book for a journey of no return.

"Mum, Dad, it can be done. Look, look, see here," Donghae started pointing from their place down in the southernmost fork of the landmass collectively known as the Fire Fork Countries. "Great Granma mentioned these places in the book." He started to trace a path northeast dictated by the hamlets, town and cities Donghae read from the book, including the town Alcorra where Great Grampa Jinki came from, then up due north to a village sitting at the foot of the mountain ridge that circled and shielded the Far Reach.

Sora is familiar enough with the places between Mahan and her Grampa Jinki's Alcorra, having taken the trip north with her Da Kangin and Ma Seohyun back when she was younger, to visit relatives in that part of the world. But everything beyond that she only knew as patches of land types, flora, fauna and seasons relevant to her study of the land litanies. She didn't need to know the kind of forbidding landscape the Far Reach had to understand why the Lore tells of it as the god of unworthy ambitions. It has been told that those who attempted to go into the Far Reach has never come back.

"It seems like the ideal time to be there is during the allnight, when the Central Sea is frozen over and makes it easy to trek over ice masses," Donghae continued, already having an idea of when he'd actually need to start out, to at least get to the Far Reach at the start of the allnight season, when the cold is hopefully not yet chillingly cold.

Sora pursed her lips, knowing it was useless to dissuade Donghae at this point. "And you'll be the only one going? Isn't there someone else better equipped to do it? Or at least accompany you?"

Leeteuk only stayed silent, not having heard of anyone else in recent years who attempted to get into the Far Reach, not even on a crazy dare. And here his son was, actually thinking up a suicide mission.

Him being a parent wasn't the only thing keeping him from expressing support for his son's idea. It had everything to do with Donghae. Leeteuk thinks if Donghae had grown with his Grampa Kangin's kind of bulky and sturdy build, or had Donghwa's height and calculating mind, he might slightly be convinced. Unfortunately, Donghae came off as painfully naive. Even planning this expedition, Donghae had not considered yet that he needed the kind of survival skills being out in the wilds would mean - he couldn't even recognize between the weed poison's folly and the herb amaranth. Their rough life here in the farmstead meant nil when dealing with nature out in the open. Leeteuk doesn't even know if Donghae can scale a rock wall or swim against a raging current or shelter from a storm.

Or maybe he didn't know because he was away working at the mines for most of Donghae's growing up years.

"I dunno, Mum," Donghae was replying to Sora's question. "Maybe if we put it out there, someone could join me?"

Sora struggled between treating her son as her child, and treating him as the adult he already is. "How about we find out more about this? There have been stories before of attempts to travel into the Far Reach, maybe we can find out something more that can help us. I'll look more into the land and weather conditions for the places you'd get into around the time you'll reach it, perhaps we can better plan when and where you'll need to travel."

The surprise was evident on Donghae's face. "You'll let me go?"

Leeteuk and Sora only shared a brief look. "You're not a child anymore, Donghae," Leeteuk replied. "We understand that, and you do have a way of looking at things differently. As it stands now, not seeking help will be the same as doing nothing, not when the masters and elders in this world still have no answers to the blight. Who knows, maybe in the time you're supposed to do this, a solution may already come. But I guess, it's still better to be prepared."

"And your Mum is right - find out more about how you can be better prepared for this. When you finally have a list of places to go, I might be able to send out messages to some of the miners I know who lives in the area - wouldn't hurt to also ask them for help, and it wouldn't seem like you'll be doing it alone."

Mum, Dad and Donghae all nodded, a faint thread of hope forming around this audacious plan.

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