Chapter Text
It's not everyday a hurricane comes to the docks of Stixx...
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Burning!
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... nor do they come with much warning...
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Air! Need air!
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... but the people of Stixx know the signs.
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Where's the air?!
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"You have to let me go!"
"No."
"She'll pull us both in if you don't!"
"No, I'm not letting you go-"
"Dad, please!"
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Water rushes past his face-
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And he's pulled from the water.
For a moment, he's hanging in air -- no, there's water in the air, too.
Then he's falling, hitting the ground hard.
The ground is... moving? Rocking?
The movement is somehow both nauseating and soothing, and he just wants to go back to sleep... just fade back into the dark...
Light flashes above him, so bright he can hear it. He flinches from the onslaught to his senses.
Then he feels it.
Air. Moving air.
It brushes his skin, whipping his hair into his face. The sensation of air against his skin feels familiar -- and oddly comforting.
It feels like-
Wind.
Morro snaps his eyes open.
He can breathe. Why can he breathe?
Something pounds in his chest. It takes him a second to place the sound as his heart.
His heart.
Beating.
Something moves in his field of vision, too close to be safe. Morro scrambles away.
His hand hits empty air.
He begins to fall...
Fall back to the water....
When something grabs his wrist and yanks.
He's pulled back onto the boat -- a boat, Morro's on a boat -- before he can fully slip off the side.
"Careful," an unfamiliar voice grates in his ears. Morro whips his head around to stare at the source.
"Wouldn't want you to fall overboard, right?" The fisherman smirks.
Morro's blood runs cold.
He's gonna throw me overboard. Back into the water.
"Thai, leave the boy alone!" A someone calls from the back of the boat. "He's obviously traumatized. Take him below. We need to get out of this squall, and we can't afford any distractions."
The fisherman -- Thai -- growls.
"Yes, Captain."
Thai drags Morro toward the stairs to belowdecks. Morro looks up, pleading to the sky to free him.
Then he sees it.
The wave.
Too big, too risky, too close.
Morro experiences the next few seconds in flashes.
The shock and anger on Thai's face as Morro wrestles free-
The wave, hanging over the boat menacingly, drowning out the view of the sky-
Morro throwing his hand in front of him-
He shouts-
The wind obeys.
When he next opens his eyes, he's looking up at a clouded sky from where he collapsed on the deck. Shocked faces come in and out of focus, blurring before he can take in features. He hears yelling in the background.
A tall figure pushes through the crowd.
"What are you? Where did you come from?"
Darkness collects at the edges of his vision as he looks past the crowd to the sky.
And Morro makes a stupid mistake.
"Wu..."
The darkness swallows him.