Tongue of the wise ones you must seek.

"Ackbl nda itewh ixedm ogethert in armonyh.

Erewh ereth is ackbl ereth is itewh, nda erewh ereth is itewh ereth is ackbl.

Ouy illw indf eth neo ithw othb ereth."

 

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nequam | worthless

 

 

Cirrus sat on a log with her elbows on her knees, and stared at the strange blue trees in front of her with bored eyes. Baekhuyn had told her to “sit still and wait” and that’s exactly what she was doing. Sitting. And waiting. For hours.

 

She was being used as bait.

 

Cirrus didn’t believe him, but Baekhyun was convinced that Jongdae had taken an interest in her because the only times he had shown himself were around her. So, when she heard Niteo yelp a few trees away, followed by a very familiar mischievous laugh, her lips curled into a smirk.

 

In that moment, she wanted to run up to Baekhyun and laugh in his face. His prediction was incorrect, and she knew he loved being right. She imagined the look of disappointment and embarrassment that would paint his face, which made her want to laugh even louder. Of course, that wasn’t something a princess should do.

 

Still, she wanted to do it.

 

Cirrus traversed her way over to Niteo, who had fallen on his behind. He was looking up at Jongdae, who wore his usual impish grin.

 

“You scared me,” Niteo breathed once he knew it was Jongdae who had appeared before him.

 

“You’re a resident of Dolum, aren’t you?” asked Jongdae.

 

“Well, yes. I was born and grew up on Dolum,” answered Niteo. The pirate stood up and dusted the dirt off of his pants.

 

“I knew it!” Jongdae said with a snicker. “Once a Dolum-ian, always a Dolum-ian.”

 

“Is that even a word? Dolum-ian?” asked Cirrus.

 

Jongdae shrugged and swished his tail around. “Don’t ask me. I’m the one who made it up!”

 

“Shouldn’t we be asking you then?” asked Niteo. “Since you’re the one who made the word up.”

 

“Perhaps,” the troll started. “But it’s not a good idea to ask too many questions.”

 

“Why not?” asked Cirrus.

 

“Because you lose sight of what it is you wanted originally,” he replied.

 

Niteo’s eyes darted around him, as if he were in search of something. He thought it strange, because Baekhyun had told the crew to yell as soon as the troll made his appearance. He expected the captain and the rest of the crew to come running towards him to capture Jongdae, but minutes had passed and no one showed up.

 

“Where’s Baekhyun?” Niteo mumbled.

 

Jongdae’s ears perked up, and although Niteo’s volume was low he heard exactly what the pirate had said. His grin widened, and he started to cackle. “I said not to ask too many questions.”

 

Once his laughter subdued, Jongdae jumped up and caught hold of a branch. He swung himself up and landed on the branch with his feet. He was crouching, and his eyes were glued onto Cirrus and Niteo. “Your captain is over there,” he said as he pointed his tail in a random direction.

 

“How do you know that?” Niteo demanded.

 

“Because I visited him first before I visited you,” Jongdae said matter-of-factly. “Though we were playing a game of hide and seek. He was the hider, and I was the seeker. Except, he didn’t know we were playing the game so I caught him easily and now he’s tied up.”

 

Niteo’s eyes widened and he sprinted off in the direction that Jongdae’s tail was pointing at. Cirrus looked up at Jongdae, who was humming a tune she found very familiar. She remembered it as the lullaby her mother used to sing to her when she was a child, and it brought back memories of the palace. Strangely enough, her heart didn’t ache as intensely as it did before.

 

He caught her staring at him, and Jongdae stopped humming. He smirked at her and said, “See what I mean? It’s not a good idea to ask too many questions.”

 

“I don’t understand what you mean,” Cirrus told him. She found that that was starting to become the norm when it came to Jongdae. She didn’t understand him. How could someone who was so clearly in pain be able to laugh and smile? Why was he putting up a façade? And for what?

 

“If you didn’t ask me those questions, perhaps you’d have been able to catch me,” Jongdae mused.

 

“You… know?” she mumbled.

 

“I know all,” he told her. “But I’m not going to be caught.”

 

“But, we need you to-“

 

He clicked his tongue at her and waved his tail behind him along to the rhythm. “The game can’t end yet. Can you catch me? You’ll have to run very fast, and search very hard.”

 

“I’ll catch you,” Cirrus said, with less conviction than she had hoped.

 

“Can you, hime? Can you catch someone who hides in the gray?” he asked her with a smile that pained her to see. He kept his gaze on her, and in those few seconds of silence Cirrus thought she understood the troll just a bit better. They were kind of similar.

 

He jumped up and disappeared into the leaves, but Cirrus wished he could have stayed longer. She wanted to talk to him, and she had a feeling he wanted to as well.

 

.::.            .::.            .::.

 

When Cirrus caught up with Niteo, he saw a very angry looking Baekhyun tied up against a tree with a cloth in his mouth. Niteo was in the process of cutting the ropes that bound the captain to the tree, and Cirrus couldn’t help but stifle a laugh.

 

He looked absolutely ridiculous with the cloth in his mouth, but what really made her laugh were the black markings that decorated his face. A circle around one eye, and a triangle around the other. His cheeks were covered in stars, and just above his lip was the illustration of a mustache.

 

When Niteo finished cutting the ropes, Baekhyun broke free and removed the cloth from his mouth. He glared at her, and pointed a finger in her direction. “Stop laughing,” he ordered.

 

She stopped immediately, but broke into another laughing fit shortly after. Baekhyun walked to the river that was nearby and glanced at his reflection. He raised a brow and smirked. “I don’t know what you’re laughing about, princess. I think I look quite dashing with a mustache.”

 

“Baekhyun, about the troll,” Niteo started.

 

“I know,” the captain sighed. “He’s a crafty one. Jongdae snuck up on me and caught me off guard.”

 

“He knows about our plans,” Niteo said dejectedly.

 

Baekhyun bent down and splashed his face with water. The black paint washed off with ease, and Baekhyun wiped his face clean with the front of his shirt. He walked up to Cirrus and glanced at her. “I thought for sure he’d go to you first,” he mumbled.

 

“Plans are just that – plans,” she told him. “What happens in real life is a completely different story.”

 

Baekhyun hummed and brushed through his hair. “Wise words coming from a princess that snorts when she laughs.”

 

She gawked at him and her cheeks flushed red from embarrassment. “I do not snort!” she exclaimed.

 

He smirked and walked past her. “I couldn’t tell the difference with you laughing so hard like that.”

 

Cirrus pursed her lips and bit back the desire to yell back at him. What was she doing? She was bickering with a notorious pirate like children on a playground, and she wondered when she had started to become so comfortable around him. When was it that she had become able to laugh freely around him? Dolum was indeed a strange place; even more so because she was acting like a stranger to herself.

 

Baekhyun’s voice snapped Cirrus out of her thoughts. “Where’s Ardent?” he asked.

 

“Dunno,” Niteo shrugged and replied. “I came running to you as soon as the troll told us about what he did to you.”

 

Baekhyun sighed and massaged his temples. “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, still shame on me.”

 

“Now what?” Niteo asked. “The plan failed.”

 

“I guess we wing it and see what happens,” Baekhyun replied. “After all, a very wise person once said that plans are just plans.”

 

Cirrus’s face lit up at his words, but immediately darkened when he added, “But I don’t know how credible she is, because this person also snorts when she laughs.”

 

Niteo started chuckling, but cleared his throat and regained his composure when he caught Baekhyun looking his way. “Assemble the crew,” he told him. Niteo saluted the captain and ran into the forest to gather the other crewmembers.

 

Baekhyun and Cirrus waited by the river for the crew to come. She was standing with her back against a tree, while he was sitting on a log. “You met him just now?” he asked her.

 

She nodded her head and looked down at the ground. “He thinks this is all a game,” she said under her breath.

 

Baekhyun scoffed and picked up a rock. He threw it into the river, and it skipped a few times before it sank into the water. “It’s a game where he knows all the rules and we don’t even know if we’re winning or losing. Though, I’ll bet good money that we’re losing.”

 

“Maybe you should just look for another troll,” she suggested quietly.

 

“No,” he answered immediately. “We make our own rules, and turn this into our own game. This is personal.”

 

“And how do you plan on doing that?” she asked.

 

He raised a brow at her and said, “You ask too many questions, princess. Didn’t the troll tell you not to ask too many questions?”

 

She sighed in defeat and slumped down against the tree until she was sitting on the ground. “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, still shame on me. Fool me thrice, shame on you,” she said.

 

“Exactly,” Baekhyun exclaimed. “And thrice is where it shall end.”

 

.::.            .::.            .::.

 

Jongdae was sitting atop a tree with his legs dangling out in front of him. He enjoyed sitting on this one tree in particular because he could see the majority of Dolum from where he was situated. He could see his own village, along with the many human villages that were of great distance away. If he looked hard enough, he could spot the Lux Pirates.

 

Sometimes, he wondered if he should just lead them in the direction of one of the human villages. Other times, he wondered if he should just help them in their quest. Most of the time however, he found he quite enjoyed playing with them.

 

After all, they were humans who didn’t fear him. They also weren’t trolls who would back away at the sight of him.

 

Jongdae squinted his eyes and tried to find the pirates, but to no avail. He pouted because he thought they might have left the island, but when he saw their ship anchored at the perimeter of the island, he knew they were still there.

 

They were hiding, and he was the seeker.

 

Jongdae lowered himself and hopped onto another tree. He surveyed the area, but didn’t see anyone. He jumped from tree to tree and made his way to their camp when something caught his eye. It was a shoe, and he wondered why on earth a single shoe was in the forest. He wondered where the other shoe was, and if the shoe in the forest missed its other half.

 

He walked up to the shoe and picked it up. As he picked it up, he noticed a rope that came with the shoe, and before he could let go of it a separate rope tightened itself around his ankle. Next thing he knew, Jongdae was dangling in the air with the shoe still in his hand.

 

Ardent jumped out from a bush and cheered in victory. Then, he started itching his body and asked himself, “Why am I so itchy?”

 

Jongdae rolled his eyes and threw the shoe at the blond pirate. Ardent received the shoe in the head, and yelped in pain. He rubbed the sore spot and looked up at the troll with a glare. Even though he was hanging upside down, Jongdae folded his arms and said to him, “That was Ivy Bush you were hiding in. It’s like Poison Ivy but in bush form.”

 

“Oh,” Ardent mumbled. “Is there an ointment I could use?”

 

“Do you really think I’d tell you that, in my current situation?” Jongdae asked.

 

He opened his mouth to speak, but Ardent couldn’t think of a response. He didn’t have much time to think of one either, because Baekhyun suddenly entered the scene. Baekhyun waltzed up to Jongdae with his signature smirk, and asked him, “What’s up? Or should I ask you, what’s down?”

 

“Dirt, and ants. I think that’s the Queen over there actually,” he replied nonchalantly.

 

“I caught you,” Baekhyun said.

 

“I suppose you have,” Jongdae chuckled. “Did you want a cookie for that?”

 

“No,” Baekhyun replied in a stern voice. Then, he cracked a smile and continued, “I thought I told you before. I like information and intel better than anything in the world.”

 

“Oh good, because I can’t bake,” Jongdae breathed in relief.

 

Baekhyun snapped his fingers and his crew ran up to Jongdae with several ropes in hand. They tied his arms, legs, feet, and hands together. When they were sure that the troll was secured, Baekhyun withdrew his rapier and sliced the rope that kept him hanging in the air, and Jongdae fell to the ground.

 

As he towered above him, Baekhyun sheathed his sword and told Jongdae, “I wouldn’t have eaten them anyway. I don’t like sweets.”

 

“Is that why you’re always so bitter?” Jongdae asked.

 

“I prefer twisted,” Baekhyun mused.

 

“But that’s not a flavour.”

 

“It is, in my books,” the captain said in response.

 

.::.            .::.            .::.

 

The Lux Pirates lugged Jongdae onto their ship, and tied him around a pillar. Baekhyun circled him and said, “Not very fun being tied to a trunk, is it?”

 

“No, I don’t fancy it very much,” Jongdae replied with a wrinkle of his nose. “But you know what I fancy even less? Twigs.”

 

“Twigs? Why?” Baekhyun asked sarcastically. “Is it because they’re not exactly branches, but snap like them all the same?”

 

“Exactly!” Jongdae said in awe, with no sarcasm at all. “They’re the same as branches, aren’t they? So why must people call them by a different name?”

 

“Because they’re different,” Baekhyun said with an eye-roll.

 

“Just slightly,” Jongdae pouted.

 

“Alright, no more games, troll,” Baekhyun said as he unsheathed his rapier. He brought it to Jongdae’s neck and kept it in place as he continued, “Here are the rules to my game. Tell me the translation, and I’ll let you go. Win. Or, don’t tell me anything and I’ll slice your head off. Lose. Pretty simple rules, right?”

 

“Are you referring to me or you?” Jongdae chuckled. “If I give you the translation, you win and I win. But if I don’t, you lose and I lose.”

 

“I’ll give you some time to think about your next move,” Baekhyun told him.

 

“Gee thanks,” Jongdae said unenthusiastically.

 

Jongdae stayed tied up for hours, and eventually the Sun started to set. He looked up and watched as the once blue sky transformed into purple, red and orange. Finally, it became a uniform sheet of midnight blue, with tiny stars and a crescent moon decorating it.

 

He hummed the same tune he always hummed, and stared up at the endless cosmos. He knew stars were very different from each other, but from where he stood they all looked the same. Small, bright, white lights that twinkled together.

 

But that didn’t change the fact that they were still very different from each other. Just like twigs and branches.

 

If he was a star, he’d be a pink dwarf – a mixture of a red and white dwarf. If here was a stick he’d be part twig and part branch. Who would want to admire a pink dwarf though? And who would pick up a twig-branch to use in their nest or project? No one.

 

In that sense, he was worthless.

 

For no one would ever love and accept a half-human, half-troll hybrid like him.

 

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A/N: Hey guys, I know it's been like 2 weeks since my last update and I wanted to apologize. Tbh I’ve been feeling kinda down lately and stressed about a bunch of things. I feel like there are days where I’m borderline depressed, and that really the creative writing out of me. For these past couple of days I really didn’t have any motivation to write and some nights I wanted to just pop my laptop open and delete this fic altogether (don’t ask why; I kind of have some self-esteem issues :/)

 

So yeah, that’s the reason why I missed my usual weekly update. I doubt many of you even noticed though XD I do feel a lot better, and I actually have some inspiration to write tonight, so I think I will :) Not for PYP though; I’m currently planning another fic about kitsune!Baekhyun. If any of you are interested in the details of it, lemme know and I might post the foreward/description soon ^_^

 

\\ xoxo