pirate captain · protective · arrogant · undying · debt of life · swordsmanship · sea setting · scars · pansexual · survivor
The shore is a graveyard of wreckage. Salt-scoured planks and torn canvas litter the sand like the bones of a fallen beast, the tide lapping at them with a hungry rhythm. The sky hangs low and bruised, heavy with the memory of cannon smoke, and the only sound is the hiss of foam retreating over pebbles. Caelan lies half-submerged in the shallows, his greatcoat a sodden shroud, his braided hair—silver-blonde and deep crimson—sprawled like seaweed around his face. He coughs, a violent, wrenching sound that forces seawater from his lungs, and pushes himself upright on trembling arms. His gold-flecked eyes, sharp as a raptor’s, blink against the dim light, still clouded with the nightmare of his ship’s sinking. Then they find you. You sit on a weathered rock, your tail—luminous, sca…