Chapter Text
Morgan was not having a good day. Not only had he been jumped while at Port and gotten the shit beat out of him, he had been taken prisoner by bounty hunters. The very worst part about today was that these hunters weren't very bright. Morgan is 100% certain they just got lucky when they found Morgan because these two were complete idiots.
Who in their right mind gets drunk while still on the job? They haven't even collected Morgan's bounty but were drinking like they had already cashed it in. Morgan had to remind himself not to care so much about these hunters, besides it'd be easier to escape if they were drunk, Morgan had already loosened the rope tying his hands together and the two idiots hadn't used any other form of restraint.
"Another pint!" The first bounty hunters calls to the server, even though they were suppose to go up to the center bar and order drink instead of just shouting. The barmaid glares at the men, Morgan tries to avoid her glare, it was bad enough he got captured and was being escorted back to his stuffy family's manor but these stupid bounty hunters had almost no class. And he does not mean class as in they were stupid because they were born poor, no class as in they thought they were better then the other people here just because they will be collecting a large amount of money soon.
Morgan had been with the poorer class for quite a few years now and had to admit that while he did miss the comforts of his family's manor, he was in much better company among the slums that he was back at the manor.
The barmaid does comply and brings more beer to their table, Morgan takes the opportunity to trip the poor girl, making fall halfway onto the table, sending their drinks flying everywhere.
This automatically pisses of the drunken hunters and they start berating her. The other patrons of the bar don't take to kindly to this and a brawl breaks out.
Morgan feels a little bit guilty for tripping the girl and not saying anything when the hunter went off on her but he really needed to escape and couldn't draw any attention to himself while slipping away.
While the bounty hunters were busy with the fight they had started, Morgan slipped out of the bar and made his way over to the docks. He scooped out large ships, checking to see if any of them belonged to his relatives. Most of his family were either high ranking members of the Navy or owned merchant ships. This exact situation had happened so often to Morgan that he had decided to memorize the names and even styles of his family's ships.
As he walks along the docks he sees a pristine ship named The Chadster. That was his brother's first ship, not something you'd normally give to a man who can barely run a ship on his own but his parents had believed in Chad. More accurately, they believed Chad could run the ship with Morgan there to do all the leg work.
Normally Morgan would take Chad's ships presence as a sign that his parents weren't far behind him and therefore Morgan's que to leave, but not today.
Morgan was getting pretty tired of running from Port to Port, never being about to settle anywhere for too long until his family showed up to ruin what little life Morgan had built for himself, and this particular night left Morgan especially frustrated since he had bought a house on the outskirts of this town.
He had saved for months and had finally found a home of his own when the bounty hunters showed up. Months of planning went down the drain in a matter of hours. All because of Chad. A small part of him knows its not all Chad's fault, his parents are to blame since they put it in Chad's head that he needed Morgan to properly run his ship, but his parents ship wasn't here, only Chad's was.
Gathering up his confidence, Morgan boldly walked up and onto the Chadster, acting as if he belonged there.
"You there!" Morgan called out to the closest deckhand, "Mayhaps yoy know of the wear about of Captain Chaddrick Sterling?"
"Aye, but what's it to you Sir?" At least Chad's crewmen were competent, and didn't just hand out his information to strangers like Chad would have. Morgan feels a bit if relief at the deckhands competence, he might not like Chad at the moment but the big idiot was still his brother, and Morgan couldn't bring himself to stop caring about his family.
"I am his brother, James Sterling," James was one of Chad's favorite younger brothers, there's no doubt that Chad has talked about him more than once. The deckhand perks up at the mention of James, and Morgan knows he's got his in.
"Captain Sterling has talked about you before, he said you've got a lot of potential for sailing!"
"Really? It means so much to hear that, I've always admired him for being one of the youngest captains, I hoped to follow in his footsteps now that I'm of age." The real James was a few years from being at the age where one could sail legally, but Chad always forgets people's age so Morgan doubted the deckhand actually knew any specific details about James.
"That's great, we need more good captains in these seas, there's far to many pirates and monster and we could use more captains like Captain Sterling."
"Speaking of Captain Sterling, would you happen to know where he is? I've got a pretty important message for him."
"Oh! He's gone into Port, Lord and Lady Sterling had sent him to pick up a thief, a very dangerous fellow whose robbed his way from town to town single handedly. Most towns know him as the Dreaded Morgan. There's rumors that he's part fae, that's how he's so good at tricking people." The deckhand speaks like this thief was more of a ghost than an actual person. Morgan is kind of flattered especially since his robberies were anything but daring. Half the time Morgan would have to seduce his way close enough to the nobles and then rob them when they weren't looking.
Although most nobles wouldn't want admit they got seduced by a street rat like Morgan. Sure Morgan was also born noble but not many people new that, so acting dumb and pretending that Morgan was some other worldly creature probably helped them save face.
"I only just survived here and am not to familiar with this Port, would you be so kind as to go to Captain Sterling and accompany him back?" Morgan made sure to smile shyly at the deckhand, he knew how to play the 'Nervious new sailor' to a tea and looks like it's working very well on this sorry sap.
"Hi have no qualms with that's- but he's probably already on his way back-" Oh no, Morgan thinks, he's using logic, time to turn the charm on.
"I know my brother very well, I know he can handle himself," Morgan glares nervously over the dark town, faking him fear, "I also know we nobles tend to overestimate ourselves."
Morgan can see that the man wasn't going to argue with that, Morgan takes his hand, looking directly into his eyes before continuing. " But men like you, stronge men who've been at sea and has fought not only fir himself but for other... well their the kind of men who could make the track through a treacherous town like this without a worry. I love my brother but he's not like you.. Please, won't you make sure he come back safe? I'd be ever so grateful."
Morgan must have laid it on too thick because this deckhand was as red as a rose, he stuttered out an agreement before practically running into the night. Morgan watched him go before surveying his surroundings.
Finding no one else to be around, Morgan made his way to one of the life boats. It wound have probably been just as easy for Morgan to steal from any other ship, but the Chadster always kept the lifeboats fully supplied so Morgan wouldn't have to steal any more supplies for the night.
Morgsn grinning to himself as he hopped into the small boat and lowered it into the water. This is way Chad shouldn't have been given a ship to manage so early, everyone know you should at keast have multiple people guarding the ship, that way thieves like Morgan couldn't take care of the one deckhand and wouldn't be robbing the ship. Oh well, perhaps Chad just had to learn these things the hard way.
~~~
Morgan wasn't a complete idiot, really he wasn't. He hadn't ment to rowing out to sea, he had simplely ment to hide himself among the fog rolling off of the ocean. For the first few hours he had been successful in his plan, he was far enough from the docks and ships that he wouldn't be seen right away but close enough to find and row with the shoreline, making sure he could see the street lamps to know how far he had gone from shore.
It wasn't until Morgan was several miles away from his brother's ship and away from civilization did he attempt to row to shore. It wasn't until he had completely exhausted himself trying to row to show did he finally realize he had been caught in a riptide. He was being pulled out to sea and he couldn't do anything to stop it. His limbs were exhausted from rowing almost an entire night, and from the lack of sleep from the past few days.
Just as Morgan is about to pass out from exhaustion he sees the sky above him lighten. Sunrises are suppose to bring homemade, but all Morgan could feel was dread as he realizes how powerless he is in this situation. He's about to pass out, he's being dragged out to sea, and the sun is about to shine over him for however long it takes for himself to wake up.
Morgan silently curses everything in his life, from his family to his own terrible luck, before slipping into darkness.