The beginning of the airship
The Lonely Prince and The Thief
‘Okay, and here’s the herb you were looking for. I’m sorry I dragged you into helping me like this.’
Jessica spoke, setting the herb along the edge of a nearby counter, her face frowning as she skipped over to where Taecyeon stood lifting boxes to place them up on shelves. Taecyeon chuckled heartily while places them snug together before turning to pick up another one.
‘No worries Lady Jessica, these boxes are heavy and I don’t see how you even manage to do all of this with little to no help.’
He spoke, Jessica sighing to herself as she moved beside him to help him pick up the smaller boxes that weren’t as heavy, picking them up and placing them on top of the bigger boxes, Taecyeon huffed but smiled, it was normal that he would help anyone in need, and work such as this wasn’t any harder than a lot of the stuff he helped with back home, though Jessica was a bit more nicer than some of the women back at the castle, at least she was helping in some way.
‘You see usually I have my younger sister and my eldest cousin helping me, but they had to go out plant picking in a nearby town for an herb they don’t grow near here, so that leaves me fending for the herb shop until tomorrow, and all these boxes needed to be on high elevation or the contents would be ruined.’
She spoke, a frown forming along her lips as Taecyeon hoisted up another box, at least he wasn’t wearing his armor, this would have been ten times harder.
‘At least you’re not working for free!’
Jessica spoke pleased as she helped lift up another box, setting it down before wiping the back of her hand across her forehead, she was a very frail girl so Taecyeon wouldn’t doubt even the small lifting would tire the poor thing out, Jessica smiled in his direction now, Taecyeon lifting the last box up onto the shelf before his own hand wiped away the beads of sweat forming along his jaw line. He smiled in return as Jessica clapped her hands together.
‘How about a drink from all that hard work before I let you leave? It’s the most I can do and also giving you this herb for your poor friend’s shoulder.’
Jessica stated, automatically swiping up the herb from the counter and placing it in Taecyeon’s hand’s, Taecyeon’s eyes went wide as he looked down, then looked up, his mouth automatically opening.
‘I can’t take this for free! You’ve already given me a bath washed my armor and letting me have a drink!’
Taecyeon spoke, Jessica patting his shoulder before pushing him along towards the open booths on the other end, the other still protesting even when she managed to get him into the only booth in the store and sitting down. She huffed loudly, her hands being placed on her hips before she turned to walk away quickly, giving no room to hear anymore of Taecyeon’s complaints. The man sighed in defeat on contact, his head hanging.
‘I should of grabbed my armor and just left after helping her, then I wouldn’t have to be accepting all this free hospitality.’
He spoke to himself, placed the herb bottle on the table before resting his chin in his hand, his lips puckering, eyes looking down at the small bottle, he wondered if it would taste alright for the prince.. Junsu hadn’t taken any type of medication other than the kind the queen use to provide from the royal physician, he was hoping no severe side affects would come along with it.
‘Ah, so this is where you ran and hid off too.’
A voice spoke, breaking Taecyeon from his concentration, the knight being startled slightly, his eyes rising from the table to a familiar face that stood at the end of the table. Wooyoung easily sliding into the seat across from him, his arms folding together, his chin resting against them. Taecyeon rose an eye brow, but felt no need to argue as he sighed.
‘I got into helping a young lady who couldn’t lift boxes by herself.’
He spoke, Wooyoung looking rather amused as he smiled cheekily, Taecyeon chose to ignore it, a finger settling atop the bottle for Junsu, Wooyoung glancing down at it then up and Taecyeon.
‘So’d you hustle that out of her?’
Wooyoung asked, smiling, earning a death glare from the knight and an almost scolding if Jessica hadn’t approached, her eyes falling on Wooyoung, then a usual smile spread across her lips.
‘Welcome to my herb store, I’m guessing you know this lovely man?’
She asked, Wooyoung giving his own smile before nodding his head, Taecyeon grumbling something in audible before a glass was set in front of him and Jessica was saying something about getting another drink for Wooyoung. Taecyeon’s gaze turned back to Wooyoung now.
‘Any sign of the prince and Chansung?’
Taecyeon asked, Wooyoung perking up, his head nodding up and down. Taecyeon sat up straight as he picked up his cup, awaiting the answer from Wooyoung, where ever the two were in town, he was going to find them, it was already bad enough he had been away from Junsu for longer than needed, anything could happen and it would be bad if he wasn’t there with him.
‘Just saw them on the out skirt of town, they had to have just got here, I didn’t go to them cause they seemed to preoccupied.’
Wooyoung spoke, shrugging his shoulders, Taecyeon taking down his drink in one gulp before slamming it down on the table, both Wooyoung and Jessica, who had approached again, jumping at the sudden action, Taecyeon placing his hands firmly on the table, pushing himself up to stand as he slightly bowed towards Jessica.
‘I’m glad I could be of assistants to you, but I now must take my leave, but I will be back for my armor of course.’
Taecyeon announced, taking the herb and placing it carefully in his pants pockets, it was going to be a little weird, but Taecyeon was going to have to come back for his armor later whether his body liked it or not. Jessica stood rather confused as Taecyeon pushed past her, her eyes wide, the tray she held being carefully sat down before she eyed Wooyoung who only shrugged his shoulders.
‘Guess he had something important to do?’
Jessica spoke, Wooyoung chuckling, shaking his head back and forth.
‘Nah, he’s just to caught up and won’t realize he’s worried over stupid things.’
--
‘It honestly looks like it’s going to rain today.. Great.’
Chansung mumbled, fingers running through dampened hair, eyes looking at the strands as they fell back onto his forehead, he sighed a little before letting his hand fall, the small town before him looking wider than he had thought, him and Junsu approaching the front gate to enter. He, in all honesty did not want to come into town at all to listen to Taecyeon’s rants about how reckless it was to walk off with out the prince, and so on and so forth, he wanted to deal without that day lecture, but Junsu had insisted they go so that neither of them would have to sleep on the hard, cold ground tonight, outside where any possible animal could come. Chansung couldn’t help but agree, what with the prince’s pleading face? No wonder Taecyeon could never say no. Chansung sighed heavily again as his head hung, both him and Junsu stepping through the entrance, people quickly bustling past them with carts and hands full.
‘What’s wrong?’
Junsu asked now, stepping around two children who played innocently in the dirt, using a stick to draw little figured, one yelling something about a hero saving a princess from a castle? Junsu chuckled before giving his attention to Chansung again.
‘I’m not ready to listen to Rust buckets lecture..’
Chansung admitted, looking around the small town, it was nice to know no one really cared about visitors here, it wasn’t anything like the big places where every eye seemed to be on you, wondering why such a run down person was running through their fancy city.
‘I’ll just tell him to shut up or something.’
Junsu spoke, Chansung giving the man an amused look at the sentence he just spoke, Junsu looking worried in his direction.
‘D-Did I do it wrong? Do I still sound to fancy for the country side?’
Junsu asked, his voice a little worried, it took a large amount of will for Chansung not to laugh, his head only shaking back and forth, Junsu raising an eye brow, he must not have been believable enough, but it was true, the man’s Daegu accent was still there, but he sounded a more like a common folk from the streets of Daegu themselves then from the royal castle.
‘I’m not joking, the sentence was a little different for you considering with how much trouble you were having not to long ago, but it’s getting better, you’ll be pro at speaking in no time!’
Chansung spoke, patting Junsu’s good shoulder, the prince giving him a wide smile, his eyes shining bright, just like a child’s, it was kind of cute, Chansung tempted to wrap his arms around him and hug him tightly, if the sound of stopping feet and a very loud man came rampaging full force at them.
‘YOU LITTLE PEST!’
Taecyeon’s voice shouted, Chansung’s head hanging as the large man practically stopped in front of him, if Chansung wasn’t so tired he probably would have been chest to chest with the man, ready to fight, but he only looked up at him lazily, his head leaning slightly more to the right as tired eyes looked up and angry ones.
‘Who do you think you are taking Pri- June out into that dreadful forest?!’
Taecyeon asked, pushing against Chansung, the thief rolling his eyes, hands lifting to rest on his temple, just in time for Junsu to pry a hand between the two and push the giant away from him, Chansung was thankful as Junsu glared at him.
‘Taecyeon we have no time for this, we are extremely tired and would like nothing more than a little sleep and then after that, maybe a look around, this place seems cozy.’
Junsu spoke, Taecyeon’s lips twitching, his adam’s apple moving on it’s own as if he was about to speak, but words refused to come, his head jerking in the direction he had come, his words a low mumble when they finally did come out, he glanced towards Chansung with daggers in his eyes before he stood sulking.
‘We also need to figure out a plan of what to do next, I have a map, but Wooyoung may no a different route seeing as he is the one from Busan itself, his way might get us there more swiftly if possible.’
Chansung spoke, just in time as Wooyoung approached the small group, a tea plastic tea cup in hand, his lips pressed against the edge, his head tilted back. He lowered it away from his face once he confronted them, his other hand stuck in his pocket.
‘Didn’t think I see you two so soon, thought you might do some more wandering around the village before you actually came inside it.’
He smiled, taking another sip before throwing a glance at the pouting knight, his hands now on his hips and eyes still adverted from Chansung and Junsu. Wooyoung gave a look that was quickly dismissed when Chansung and Junsu sighed together.
‘So, we are staying here for now correct?’
Wooyoung asked, finished off his tea before tossing the cup towards a small pile of rubble, probably trash, Chansung giving an audible yes, Wooyoung stuffing both hands in his pockets,
‘Alright, any other plans for the day?’
Wooyoung continued, Junsu looking towards Chansung who yawned before shaking his head back and forth.
‘Nope, we’ll look around more when we wake up, plus we have some planning to do on out next move, you’re the man from Busan, we were hoping you could possibly get us there faster then the carriage is going.’
Chansung spoke, Taecyeon finally moving, his place by Junsu being taken as Wooyoung looked up, his hand coming from his pocket to rest on his chin, a thoughtful expression running over it before he looked back down,
‘Oh I have a much faster way, but we’d have to ditch that dumb old carriage thing.’
He replied, Chansung, Junsu and Taecyeon raising an eye brow at the same time. Chansung leaned his weight all on one foot, his arms crossed over his chest again.
‘Ditch the carriage? Are you suggesting we walk Jang Wooyoung?’
Chansung asked, looking a little concerned, the carriage had everything they needed, there was no possible way any of them could carry all of the stuff, even divided between the four of them. Wooyoung only laughed, his small frame shaking when done so, though Chansung wasn’t sure what was amusing.
‘Walking’s for losers now a days, you really wanna ride in style? You need to be high in the sky.’
Wooyoung instructed, his finger pointing into the air just as the wind picked up, the windmill not to far away from them also picking up speed the wind propelled it faster. The area around suddenly got darker, the three clueless men instantly turning around with raised chins just as a large looking ship passed over the small town, Junsu and Taecyeon’s mouth gaped open in awe at the large ship over head, Chansung’s head was down in seconds as he pointed up.
‘They run this time of year?’
He asked Wooyoung who was looking up as well, his head shaking up and down before looking at Chansung.
‘They transport a lot of the export and bring in imports for small towns like these around this time, but if you know the right people then you can get on one and ride it straight to your destination. We are lucky this one that just flew over head goes to Busan as a stop, but the trips not till tomorrow though, so that’s plenty of time for us to get some rest and to look around if you need to.’
Wooyoung replied, his hands on his hips as the ship passed completely over, Junsu and Taecyeon’s awe faces coming down to look at the two who seemed more then familiar with the machine running in the sky. Chansung turned to Junsu.
‘What you just saw is called an air ship. I know it’s probably pretty surprising to see something like that in the sky, seeing as Daegu doesn’t have any yet, the fancy people want something fancy, so they’ve been working on designs left and right, waiting for the perfect fancy flying machine to come to their heads.’
Chansung explained, Wooyoung agreeing, Junsu’s eye still a little wide, he didn’t seem to understand the concept of the whole thing in the air in the first place, I mean he’d seen the new trams that had been running to and from the castle leading in the city, but he’d never seen, read or heard about the ship in the sky. Taecyeon shook him from his trance when he spoke up.
‘Is it safe enough to travel on though?’
He asked, his voice still a little gone from being shaken, he apparently had never seen the thing before either. Wooyoung grinned.
‘Oh yeah they are safe, the only time those things have a hard time flying is when the atmosphere changes dramatically, those things can even fly through a storm.’
He stated, his thumb pointing towards the large ship that was making a landing on the other side of town in a large grassy area, the wind around it strong enough to continue to propel the windmill at full speed. Chansung huffed slightly, pulling everyone’s attention back to him, Wooyoung looking towards him for approval, he hadn’t forgotten that this was his mission to begin with, the other thief was all full of smiles as Chansung rolled his head around, even Junsu gave him a look for approval, his urge to ride the mysterious machine showing through his eyes, Taecyeon even looked half way interested.
‘Let’s get some sleep please, then we’ll get up and move everything into the airship and go from there, as long as Wooyoung is positive we can get on that thing.’
He spoke, Wooyoung throwing a hand in the air victoriously, Junsu’s hands instantly clapping together, Chansung shook his head back and forth, he just hoped no one was sea sick like some from One day, it was absolute hell the last time he had ridden one of those things with a full party.
‘Then off to the inn! Today and tomorrows going to be a busy day so we need all the sleep we can get!’
Wooyoung shouted, Junsu copying his move as he threw a hand in the air, Taecyeon opened his mouth again to say something, but seemed to forget his words as he looked down at Junsu, the princes happy expression making him smile slightly.
‘Alright stop cheering and let’s ing go! I’m about to pass out from exhaustion here! You guys are such pains in the asses!’
Chansung spoke, teasingly waving the group to move towards the inn at the bottom of the hill.. The rest of the day, and tomorrow truly was going to be a busy day, and probably a pain in the one as well.
--
A/N: So sorry this update took forever, finally got some solid thoughts for this! :/ Sorry if you don’t like it, I felt like this was more of a filler chapter to show all you fans that Jessica was only a temporary character for the last chapter and this chapter~ xDD No TaecSica going on at all~
Now, once they get on the airship things are going to get more interesting, no more semi smooth travels for the group from here and on, for more people good and bad are to come. (: Just giving a little hint is all~
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