5/3/14
When you're so overwhelmed,
the story leads you to solace.
The salt air stung as the wind tore down the coast, storm driven currents being sent by the Mother from the churning depths of the ocean to the arid clouds of the desert of the Father. Two heartless expanses colliding with one another, neither willing to give way. So many saw the shoreline as a saviour, only to learn too late the treachery she hid below the surface. To tempt either element is to throw your life to their perils. Can you swim against the waves? Or walk through a sandstorm? The coast was where life was abandoned, and only the winds survived all, carrying the fury of each into the other, until all you heard were the crushing roars of the Father and the Mother.
This was just another part of Brutask that terrified him.
He had been there once, and once was all it took to learn that lesson; the screams never let him forget it. The furious foaming salt clawing at you, turning your legs to lead, filling your lungs until you choked, gasping for air, strangling your voice, dragging you under and tossing you about like the putrid sea grasses that reached for you with their ghostly fingers.
He stood on the pier, clutching the railing until splinters bit into his fingers, the salt air already drawing bile to his throat. He closed his eyes, swallowing hard until he could breathe again. It didn't matter that they would be sailing a different ocean, far from the desert coast, the waters were just as dangerous. Just keep your eyes on the horizon, follow the sun, one day and one night, just a short trip... He felt her presence behind him, those eyes burning into him.
"Stop. Evelyn." He muttered through gritted teeth, turning from the railing to face her as she quickly cast her eyes down. He sighed in exasperation, she was never quick to back down, unless she knew something he didn't. "I would rather not know if I am to drown on this trip." Her eyes flickered back to his face; they both knew he was lying.
"You will be fine," she told him sternly, the usual bravado coming back into her features as she smirked at him. "Lug this for me will you?" She added, lifting a crate. He gave her a small smile, the crate was not important, but it gave his shaking hands something to do, and for that he did thank her.
A short trip, he repeated to himself, just around the point. He stared up at the large sails, holding his breath as they walked up the plank, joining Kai on deck as the crew finished loading. His face appeared stern as he oversaw the preparations but they knew the elation he suppressed over the chance to leave the mountains.
"You are very pale," Kai stated, concern burrowing into his brow with a slight frown as he fiddled with his gloves absentmindedly.
"That's because every muscle is screaming at me to get off this damned boat." He tried at a light hearted laugh but fell short, and Kai's concern continued to follow him as he headed below deck. He knew he hated to be kept in the dark, but Damon did not feel in the spirit of describing another tale where he had cost people their lives.
His path was shrouded in just as much death as the coast.
never trust the waves,
from sjp