Oceans of the Unforeseen

--

Taking place on the seas of the 18th century, Krad is commander for an elite naval force, while Dark is a well known and popular pirate. What will happen when the two collide and Krad is thrust into the arms of his sworn enemy?

--

Chapter 14

--

Azumano wasn't a horribly large town; being located on a small island a few dozen miles away from civilization had left its mark. The northern side of the island was low and close to sea level, which made it a perfect location to have harbors and ports. Unfortunately, the years had worn away the area, and the poorer of the civilians had taken to residing in the area.

Two new ports were set up in town when it began to flourish, one on the east side and one on the west. Almost all commerce happened between these two ports. The southern portion of the island was, surprisingly enough, sparsely populated. Farmers, mainly, lived in the area. The land here was rich and fertile, supporting roaming hills and valleys. Aside from the farmer, there was an occasional flock of sheep or cows, but this wasn't anything to brag about.

Farther south than the eastern point, the gentle land violently shifted into harsh cliffs. It was atop these cliffs that sat a beautiful mansion, rising against the sky. The building was large, though only a story in height. Within it's cold brick walls radiated life, spread throughout dozens of rooms. The house was always bustling, and someone was always awake, no matter how late in the evening or how early in the morning it may be.

Fortunately for Dark, he knew this to be true, and had set off for the place with Emiko in his arms. Her clothes were filthy and wet, and her hair was disheveled. Her face and body was slightly blackened, and she sported a few bleeding cuts in various areas of her figure. It was lucky that she bled little.

Long into the night did the three arrive at the great mansion, though soon was it that Emiko had been changed and bathed, and the members of the house—a wealthy couple from far across away that had managed to both learn and retain great medical skills—had given her a thorough check over.

The three males sat in silence, crowded in the small room where Emiko had been placed. Daisuke was sitting, his elbows firmly planted atop his knees, in a wooden chair next to the bed where his mother was lying. Dark sat cross-legged atop the desk, his back pressed firmly against the cold brick. He watched Emiko with pained eyes.

Satoshi was nowhere near the other two, however, who seemed to loom protectively over the older woman. He, having no right to be in such a position, himself, had taken to locating himself into a corner, where he drawn his knees to his chin and wrapped his arms comfortingly around them.

Silence radiated throughout the room for well over half an hour before it was broken by the gentle click of a door being opened. A petite figure stepped through the door—a young woman with deep blue eyes and vibrant blonde hair, tied behind her in a long braid. She was pallid in complexion, though shined with a light of her own. In only a nightgown of white, she stepped into the room, wearily.

A smile on her delicate face, she turned to Dark. "All is not lost," she said in her tiny voice, "Emiko will be fine. She'll be sore, and maybe have a headache, but I'm positive that she hasn't shown any evidence that she's sustained any traumatic injuries."

Dark moved his gaze to the young girl. "Thanks, Freedert. For everything," he said. His voice was pained, though gratitude lingered his words, no less.

"It's not a problem. You're a good friend of ours. And Elliot and I love to help when we can."

A look of worry crossed over the girl's features. "Dark, I was meaning to ask you…what happened?"

Satoshi looked bitterly up at Dark, and the two exchanged silent words. "Someone attacked my ship."

"Oh, dear…is everyone all right?"

Dark's face took on a look of anger, then grief. "I don't know," he whispered. "Only Emiko…"

Freedert swallowed, crossing her arms over her chest. She shook her head. "I'll pray for them. There is always hope."

"Yeah, right," Dark said bitterly. He jumped off the desk, taking rapid steps past the young girl, who followed him with only her gaze.

"Where are you going, Dark?"

"Maybe someone else made it. I can't chance that there's someone out there suffering."

"Dark, you need to rest," the girl argued, reaching out to tug on his sleeve. He paused for only a moment before ripping out of her grip.

"You don't understand," he hissed before disappearing from the room.

Satoshi watched, hatred burning in his eyes as Dark left. Freedert shook her head sadly and followed soon after him, closing the door behind her. Nothing moved in the room, save for the occasional flicker of the candle on the bedside desk and the shadows it caused. The silence was unbearable. The thought that Krad might be dead was unbearable. The thought that this was all Kei's fault was unbearable.

The teenager rose to his feet angrily, receiving a curious glance from Daisuke, who had finally roused himself from his mother's bedside. He watched with eyes red from silent crying. Satoshi couldn't help but be jealous of the boy. At least for him, he knew that his mother was going to be all right. Satoshi had no idea if he would ever see Krad again.

He grit his teeth angrily, and stomped across the room. He'd be damned if he was going to stay in this room with that sniveling red head. The least he could do was give Daisuke some time to collect himself. Unfortunately, the younger boy had other plans.

"Where are you going?" he asked, brokenly, when Satoshi opened the door.

Taking a long breath, not to collect his words, but to assure himself that he wasn't going to have a sudden out burst, Satoshi said, "I am of no use, here. If we go out and search for survivors, than at least I can do something to help. I figure that I can catch up to Dark. We can cover twice as much ground together than alone."

Daisuke nodded and rose from his seat, the chair making a nerve-racking screech across the floor. "I'll come, too."

"What about your mother?"

"I can't do anything for her. Freedert says she'll just sleep. Probably until late tomorrow evening. I want to help, somehow…"

Satoshi nodded, releasing a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. "So be it, then. You can come with me. I would love the company."

Daisuke sniffled, and ran his sleeve across his tearing eyes.

"Let's go," Satoshi said, gesturing to the door. Daisuke nodded and moved away from his mother with one last glance.

The two disappeared into the night.

--

Dark his fist against a tree, cursing loudly as pain shot through his arm. He drew the injured hand to his chest and clutched it tightly. His vision was suddenly blurred, and he reached up a calloused hand to wipe the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes.

"I can't," he hissed. "I can't."

I can't lose you.

He was running again, oblivious to the faint calls behind him. Daisuke and Satoshi were running as fast as they could, charging at full speed down the hill. Dark was still in their line of vision, though his height gave him a running advantage. He disappeared swiftly, though Daisuke still called his out for him.

Panting and out of breath by the time they had reached town, Dark was definitely gone for sure.

"We'll never find him," Daisuke said glumly, his shoulder's sinking with defeat.

"We weren't looking for him."

"…Right. What now?"

Satoshi ran his delicate fingers through his hair and scanned the town in front of him. They were walking now, slowly, back towards the dock. All was dark from a few blocks away; the ship had stopped burning. It had probably already sunken to the bottom of the floor, Daisuke thought with regret.

The sound of water sloshing became louder, and soon the little port came into view. The boat was gone, entirely, and Daisuke couldn't help but feel a pain of agony in his chest. He had grown up on that boat. It was his home.

He must have made some noise, because before he had realized it, he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. The redhead looked up to see Satoshi watching him with a cool expression. "I'm sorry," he said. Daisuke studied the other boy's features for a long moment before nodding. His gaze drew itself back to the empty ocean where the Black Wings should have been.

He gave a sigh. "I am too."

"Let's start looking. I'll go left."

"And I'll go right."

"If you don't find anyone before…"

A clock chimed in the distance, twice.

"If you're efforts are in vain, and no one is found, meet back here when that clock strikes three. I'll wait for half an hour, and if you aren't back, then I'll come after you. If I'm not back here by then, don't worry about looking for me. I'll find my way back."

Daisuke licked his lips, finding for the first time in his life the taste of salt repulsed him.

"All right."

--

The moon was gone, and had been for at least the past hour. Dark's searching had been difficult, for without the light from the moon, he had been searching in nearly pitch-black waters for any hope of life.

He was wet and cold, sticky from the salt and grimy from the sand. He had given up walking on the docks; they were too far from the water for him to search.

He couldn't find a single one.

The captain growled in rage, balling his hand into a fist until his nails had drawn blood. Salt in the bleeding wound did not please Dark, and, infuriated with the night's events, he violently slapped at the water. He pounded at it, screamed at it, and eventually sank down into it. The ocean was shallow here; even when he was sitting on the sand, the water reached only up to his chin.

He stared into the distance, and for the first time in his life, the fact that he couldn't tell where the ocean ended and the sky began frightened him. A whole ocean stood before him. Krad could be anywhere out there.

Maybe he wasn't even out there at all.

The captain's gut wrenched, and he rose to his feet. "I'm not giving up," he said to himself, fighting off fatigue. "I will find someone. There's not way in hell that they're all dead!" he cried.

Of in the distance, he saw a spark of white—a glimpse of gold.

A figure dressed in white. Only one person alive had hair that long.

No doubt in his mind, Dark was confident that the figure dimly standing only a dozen or so yards in front of him was Krad. He gave a cry of joy and rushed to the figure; his cry of joy faded when he saw the white and gold dip beneath the waves.

He ran, now, searching frantically. The person was gone. Had they fallen? But Krad knew how to swim. He wouldn't drown!

Dark dashed through the water, searching. His heart pounded loudly in his chest. Noise flooded his ears. Nothing made sense any more…just find Krad. Where had he gone?

Dark stopped splashing about in the water when his foot kicked something, hard. He leaned forward, peering into the black water as something surfaced…

As someone surfaced.

Dark gave a muffled cry and leapt back. His eyes never left the cold stare of those golden orbs that gawked, unseeing, at the sky above.

He fell back into the water, his eyes stinging from tears and salt.

The corpse floated for a moment, than made an effort to sink. Dark had wits enough not to let it, however, and scrambled for it. Dead or not, it was Krad. He dragged the body up from the water, drawing it in a tight embrace. He slowly hauled the figure to the rocky shore, where he lay it down as gently as he could.

But was it right? For one who had lived his life on the sea to be buried in the soil on the land that he hated?

No.

Tears flowed, still, from the captain's eyes.

It wasn't right.

He would give Krad what he wanted. An honorable death at sea. But…one last look before he would disappear, forever.

Krad…Dark didn't want to forget. One last look…to preserve his features in Dark's mind. One last goodbye.

His eyes scanned over the face, and he saw the blonde's delicate features, unmoving. Before he knew what he was doing, he had leaned forward, slowly, and placed a kiss on the cold forehead. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "So sorry…"

The figure coughed below him, and in a sudden burst of movement, rolled over onto the rocks. Coughing ensued. Much coughing ensued, and after a long pause, there was a cry of life.

"Dark?

The voice was not Krad's.

Dark's eyes narrowed as he peered closer into the face of the figure before him.

"Towa?"

--

Yeah…Well. Now, Towa isn't dead. It's funny, though…I had really planned for her to die. I hadn't meant to, but it just happened that she would come back. For any of you that are confused what just happened with Dark, he went out after someone that looked like Krad. In his highly delicate state of mind…Towa looked like Krad, and he nearly killed her by sending her out to drown. How fortunate that she would find breath so sudden!

Bah. And I could have been so mean. I was going to leave a cliffhanger where Dark was staring into the dull and lifeless eyes of Krad. But…I didn't. Just remember that! I didn't give you an entirely bad chapter this time! I'm relatively pleased with how this one came out, and am so glad that I can say that. I finally put some effort into writing something, again! But, all of you readers may go out and thank Goddess of the Black Moon! She's such a marvelous writer, and I must thank her immensely for the awesome praise she's delivered in the past evening. You don't know how thrilled I was…

Anyway, my dear readers, thank you for reading, and I hope you look forward to the next chapter, which will definitely be up in due time. I'm off to update my other stories, now, because that is definitely long overdue…and I'm also going to go back and rewrite them, so…yes. Well, thank you for reading (again) and listening to me ramble. Reviews are loved, though if you haven't the time, I understand…