Chapter 29: Giving Value Face

Catfish are deathly afraid of water; Jongdae had time to spare on this phrase. Gibberish produced by insanity was his first guess — fueled by reactionary hatred towards Cadejo’s villainous act against him. Every gesture scrutinized, tiniest mistakes held under a microscope, preoccupying his thoughts with blaming an imagined man helped dull the limpness of limbs.

Man. Technically speaking, a Black Coat is a man. Externally similar to humans, internally an unmanned fortress. Impenetrable to siege engines. Possessing the capability to collapse under emotional stress. Like man.

Jongdae held vain hope Minseok would come back for him. Sunrise peeking over the horizon, even the Queen ignored the trouble Cadejo caused as she continued her royal walk across the gorge. Made way to another cocoon seeking a new generation. A single egg couldn’t disrupt the species’s routine.

What’s the individual to progress: insignificant. Used. Chewed up. Spit out. Man. 

Catfish are deathly afraid of water; Jongdae gives meaning to this phrase. Though part fish, who’s to say they don’t splash through streams and seas. Struggle to survive. Afraid of a wet world crashing against them. Like cats.

Technically speaking, a Black Coat is a man. Able to bend. Break. Become. Become—it takes Jongdae approximately 3 hours to drag himself up the cliff face. The hole wasn’t nearly as deep as anticipated. 

Pain seized Jongdae’s muscular control, legs kicking upwards as electric pulses convulsed downwards like a shockwave. Scream. He wanted to scream. He bit bunched cloth instead; a torn shirt hem. Footsteps approached the alcove sheltering him from midday heat exhaustion. 

Soggy creatures dripped, sand gathering into tiny pebbles. Searched for the man who disrupted their clear oasis with his filth hours earlier. Paradise claimed became paradise lost the moment Jongdae’s chapped lips met the water's cool surface. He disrupted the Sapien Lizard’s habitat to quench his thirst without hesitation; he only regretted he hadn’t thought to address his paraplegia first.

Giant shadows curve along the cavern’s walls. Tongues lap against fangs glowing white. Hiss once. Twice. Gone. Jongdae flattens his black coat on his lap, holding fast to frayed lapels. 

A brief aside on the Sapien Lizard: the species walks vertically, balancing six to eight feet of diamond-shaped scales on shapely legs — so beautiful race horses would cry. Possessing incomparable grace even as the creature charged towards Jongdae with the intent to kill. Sharp claws slashing. Long jaw snapping. 

He swings his coat, blinding neon yellow eyes. Shock mixed with fearful acceleration sends the beast head first against Jongdae’s . All it takes is a headlock and a twist. “Just a little pressure here, a little extra there, and” pop.

“Have you ever killed a man before, Chen?” Han, hands bloodied, breadcrumbs lining a smile, asked; the trail home isn’t gone, just different. Jongdae’s just different when the second reptile attacks. Crying like a jealous race horse. 

A blunt rock does the trick this time. Once. Twice. Gone.

The moon dips low, and Jongdae can wiggle his toes. It's a slippery slope of feeling touch, temperature, tense muscles stuck beneath two massive bodies covered in cracked armor. Perhaps avoiding a vengeful Queen's mating pattern, reinforcements for these lost soldiers never arrive. According to the Hunt's itinerary, the Black Coats should be hitting the turnabout further north. 

After using the sky's torch to sketch the Sapien Lizard in his notebook, Jongdae begins a hobbling pace towards “home.”

Hortum: this wasteland's given name. Translating from a lost language called “Latin,” it supposedly means “garden.” Society takes to the untilled fields with exemplary farmhands: Black Coats; saviors of the world; angels of Haven. Repopulate the Earth — how grand a phrase. Holding as much uncertainty as the oxymoron catfish.

Jongdae discovers his gift for navigation, making record time as frostbite nipped at exposed ankles. Surprise snowstorms keep the blood pumping; Jongdae wraps his head, hands, feet in tin foil every time he seeks protection behind crumbling buildings that used to be. The desire for heat, warmth, is greater than his hunger. 

Upon recalling his first Seasonal Hunt, Jongdae remembers it the most: the gnawing hunger; a need for unreasonable excess; the comforts in safety; certainty. Rule #1 and #2 filled the void temporarily. Became all encompassing thoughts to overshadow hovering inevitability. Until man decided to live or die.

“I kept coming back alone,” Minseok had said; driven by reason. Jongdae approached the far off campfire with purpose. Orange tints blinded like camera flashes, capturing snapshots of a landscape riddled with concrete. A thin structure disappears in a misted shroud above. Its needled head points straight up.

“John!” “John’s here!” “John’s standing right there!” He appeared as an apparition. Seemingly impossible. Spreading disbelief to unfetter the soundest Black Coat. 

Minutes later, seventeen faces sat in awe while Jongdae ate. Shoveling food into his mouth, he gave little room for reasons to explain themselves. Hunger satisfied, hatred settled several days prior, Jongdae’s first words were, “Where’s Cadejo?” Quiet answered.

Then Minseok spoke, his voice beating fondly against Jongdae’s eardrums, “Dead.”

Days ago, Cadejo got the bright idea to strike out for water alone. Sapien Lizards left only the trespasser’s skull behind. “Inconceivable,” Cadejo’s partner muttered over and over; though mentally unsound, the man had enough reason to avoid danger. 

The talk died down as tongues froze halfway through words. Sleep was elusive, hazy patterns dancing across grieving gray and whipping white. Amidst uncertainty, Cerberus locked gazes with Orthrus. His brother kept mum about Cadejo’s circumstance. Most certainly; to Minseok, Jongdae became invaluable. 

A/N: What do you think? Did Minseok have something to do with Cadejo's death?