Chapter Text
„And then what?”
His own voice echoed in his mind.
After losing his ship, crew and... his family at the three bridges.
What is he going to do with himself, now?
He really did give up everything in his deal with the witch, after all...
His past greatness is gone. Paid by his own pride.
...
The Hunt of them beasts is no more. For it was uncovered that it was raised for the profit of The Man's greed.
...
The inevitable is destroyed. Just as his promised future for the next generation of hunters meant to sail on it for years to come.
The absence of a course in his life accompanied by the feeling of betrayal makes his blood boil. He was livid. Trying to fill the bottomless pit in his heart, drinking those sorrows away, he becomes a husk of what once he was.
Between his rum-induced escapades and pointless wandering, Crow took a special sentiment of silent brooding at the cliffside over the seashore. Looking at the rising tides as the soothing ambience of the nature's most dangerous element sang, Augustus tried to grasp the fleeting memories of golden years of his, his father's, grandfather's and every other hunter's who have ever sailed on The Inevitable
.
That’s how two years of his life have passed. Two blasted years of useless mourning and grief and fury...
Fury over the deal with Gwen Batterbie.
...
Fury over The Crown and The Three Bridges.
...
Fury over the the whole bloody sea and every living thing in it.
...
Fury over Jacob...
...
No amount of rum could've calmed the storm inside his head that night.
Neither the real one, that streamed the hard rain down his neck.
After another session of his senseless, possessed mumbling, he managed to pull himself to the same very place he loved to reminisce the past at. The bitter beverage clouded his senses to to the point where he couldn't think nor stand straight. As if his bones were breaking under their own weight. He gazed at the distant turning tides.
He was born for the sea. He learned everything he needed to know on it...
Maybe he should end it all there as well.
His mind tuned out the powerful sounds of the thunderstorm. It was too late. Completely detached from the present world. He closed his eye. Thought of his son as his knees gave out, plunging him into the dark abyss of the cliffside. Crow's, worn out by the hardships of life, body became enveloped in the black salty water of the sea.
To consume him forever.
Before losing the last bit of consciousness, the old captain could've sworn to the fates themselves that he saw a form of a beast he once fought.
Its serpent-like body, illuminated by the cold glow of a lightning. Devoid of any traits, almost as if covered in ink.
Perhaps a ghost of his past has been sent to haunt him for an eternity. Cursed by its maker.
And just like that.
Captain Crow was gone.
...or was he?
Sudden draught of wind rustling through the fallen autumn leaves has stirred Crow from his coma. Coughing sea water out of his lungs, he struggled to sit up. His age weighed on him like a chain.
Was this…
…the afterlife?
No, it couldn't be.
It appeared to be the same shore he used to visit. Disappointment has washed over him like a rogue wave.
He dragged his hand across his face in attempt to get rid of the wearing feeling. It didn't help to soothe anything. Instead, to add to the exhaustion of a hangover, Crow felt the familiar sting of salt kneaded into fresh wounds. He hissed from the sudden pain.
Searching for its source, he found that his whole right arm was adorned by deep gashes. It also hasn't gone unnoticed by him that he was without a boot. He must've missed it because of the lack of his right deadlight. It all wasn’t necessarily a gore-y sight. Crow has been in much worse state before however something about those mysterious wounds have caught his attention.
Investigating them closer, he took note of some of them were clean, definitely more precise. The rest sprawled across his already scarred forearm.
As if something couldn't keep him in its clutches.
In that moment, he felt being watched. He swiftly drew a dagger out of his belt.
"I Know yer in there. Stop mocking me an' fight like yer made to!"Crow yelled, but to his rising frustration-- there was no answer.
Angry groan escaped his throat. He was about to hide his blade, however stopped when a decorated shaft marked with The Hunters' insignia caught his eye. Another snap to the past has shoot him through with a force of a bullet. One of last remnants of the past he carried, already getting swallowed by rust. His face took a solemn, softer look.
Almost ... longing.
A truly, rare sight to see on a man like him
.
A nearby snap of twigs and moved shore rocks startled him out of his trance. His watchful, bloodshot eye narrowed, searching for anything out of order. Drawing his blade again, he anticipated the target more and more with each passing second.
An abrupt flight orchestrated by the sea birds broke the tension. The sea's merely toying with him.
Just another disappointment for this godforsaken day.
He was just about to stand up from the wet sand when he saw something he didn't expect to see.
Not even the six feet away there was a large seal, propping itself by its front fins, next to him. The unexpected proximity of an animal this kind, managed to lightly startle him. How did it manage to get so close without making a sound, he questioned in his thoughts.
It didn't move. Almost as if waiting for something.
Investigating the creature before him, Crow recognized it as a seal, of course, but not just a seal. Definitely not the kind one could see at the harbor, entertaining the townsfolk with their curious nature. It looked... savage. Yet kind at the same time. It was a hunter, just like him.
For a safety measure, he adjusted the grip on his dagger.
It noticed the weapon in the old captain's grasp. Light reflected by the rusting steel of the blade glimmered in creature's deep, black eyes. Flaring its nostrils, it refused to back away. It clumsily an object in front of him, closer. He hadn't noticed it before.
While Crow's gaze trailed down from seal's head, he took notice of its dark fur coated dark spots all over the body, avoiding stomach and bosom. Broad scars decorated the seal's neck and tail, possibly earned in a hunt. The ways of how it went will forever wait for him to discover.
The blasted thing this sea demon touched appeared to be... his own boot. The very one he was missing on his foot.
Why would it fetch him it--No, it couldn't be that.
He saw it before. This creature. Right before he fully lost his senses.
The marks on his right arm reminded their existence, stinging him again. This time much more painful.
This thing rescued him after a failed attempt of ending his life, but...
...
...why?
"Why... Why would you take pity on me life?" Crow yelled, his throat dry from the lack of proper hydration. A clear sign of his frustration getting better of him. Lashing out at an animal like a madman.
Just when he was about to ask again or throw some poor insults like a common sailorat the rather unfazed seal, the creature's skin started to act as if it was shedding. This wasn't natural. The spotted flesh pooled over a standing frame.
Crow's face twisted in mix of disgust and horror as he watched the unholy imaginery happening right in front of him.
Out of loose, patterned and scarred seal skin a hand came out to unveil the hood which he was sure that it used to be the seal's head. It freed the long rivers of unruly hair aswell as a human face hiding under it. Now, in place of a sea demon there stood a woman with a similar to the seal's unimpressed, cold expression.
Her-- It's deep gaze had him stunned in place. Those eyes. Those eyes weren't human, only mirroring the creature's own.
While watching intently, Crow took a special notice of the woman's markings that lightly spread from her crest across her cheek to her arm. Breaking the silence, he asked again.
"Why would you take pity of me life, witch...?"
He uttered those words with a clear hint of distaste in his tone. At the name, woman's gaze hardened. Without a warning, she kicked the lone boot closer to him after which he heard her declare.
"Death is not the right way to deal with your problems."
He didn't dare to speak, mouth agape. The second after, she ran away, plunging herself into the sea.
Now, he was truly alone.