I-I’m sorry this took so long to write, OP! I had a bit of anxiety about it because this is the first story I’ve ever posted for anyone else to read publicly. I hope it’s not too weird or anything oAo
Once a year, the sea comes to the Southern Archipelago to find a lover. The islands all turn out for the occasion, men and women alike bedecked in flowers in the hopes of catching the eye of their god. This year, it is no different in that aspect. The men and women gather on the beach in the moonlight and watch the phosphorescent waves for the sea god’s approach.
This year, however, there is a stranger among them. Not strange enough, the elders might say, frowning sagely and shaking their nut-brown heads. His reputation for rape and plunder and selfishness have proceeded him far and wide. He’s Arthur Kirkland, the scourge of the ocean. With his crew of fellow pirates at his back as he raids merchant ships carrying goods to and from the Archipelago and the Continent. His fearful reputation is the only thing keeping the islanders from driving him out.
Instead, the islanders give him a fair berth, a ring of space where nobody will dare meet his eye. A small girl breaches the space inadvertently, pushed by her brother, and gives a startled yelp and bolts away through the forest of legs. The pirate king with the strange light hair and green eyes is something her mother told tales of, to scare her and her siblings with when they were naughty, and seeing him in the flesh is bit much.
She does glance back, once. He looks nervous, trepidation and hope mixing in a strange expression that makes her wonder. It’s not too different from the look on the faces of her family and the rest of the village, but why here? Why now? She might never know, but she’ll be wondering about it for the rest of that night.
---
When the god of the sea arrives, there’s no fanfare like one would expect. The sea is not pretentious, the sea just is. He walks out of the surf and onto the crowded beach and the islanders fall to their knees in unison. The pirate king is the only one left standing, and he refuses to kneel. Arthur Kirkland kneels for nobody, god or monster or land-dwelling king.
The god looks like glass, or water made flesh, light refracting off of his clear body. As he walks among the kneeling villagers, tipping up chins to inspect their face and then moving on, he flickers into a more solid form for just a second at a time.
The little girl sees him getting nearer and nearer to the pirate king without selecting his lover- or is she feeling it, trapped as she is in the forest of taller men and women? She wants to protest, to speak up and tell the sea god about all the stories of the pirate’s atrocities. Villages burned, women beaten and battered and who would be better off dead, men gutted and most certainly dead.
Don’t do it, he’s a dangerous man!
Almost as if he’s heard her, the sea god looks back over his shoulder and smiles. She can tell it’s a smile, despite distance and the impermanence of his face. Then he takes the pirate king and kisses him, taking the shape of a white-skinned man from the Continent and staying like it even after the kiss has been broken. He’s made a choice. Now the pirate king will be taken to the temple, and the renewal will happen, and the seas will be sated for another year.
Ah, you see. I am dangerous too, but I am not a man.
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Re: UKUS Sea God and the Pirate
(Anonymous) 2014-01-16 02:24 am (UTC)(link)cathedrals where you cannot breathe [1/???]
(Anonymous) 2014-01-25 02:55 pm (UTC)(link)Once a year, the sea comes to the Southern Archipelago to find a lover. The islands all turn out for the occasion, men and women alike bedecked in flowers in the hopes of catching the eye of their god. This year, it is no different in that aspect. The men and women gather on the beach in the moonlight and watch the phosphorescent waves for the sea god’s approach.
This year, however, there is a stranger among them. Not strange enough, the elders might say, frowning sagely and shaking their nut-brown heads. His reputation for rape and plunder and selfishness have proceeded him far and wide. He’s Arthur Kirkland, the scourge of the ocean. With his crew of fellow pirates at his back as he raids merchant ships carrying goods to and from the Archipelago and the Continent. His fearful reputation is the only thing keeping the islanders from driving him out.
Instead, the islanders give him a fair berth, a ring of space where nobody will dare meet his eye. A small girl breaches the space inadvertently, pushed by her brother, and gives a startled yelp and bolts away through the forest of legs. The pirate king with the strange light hair and green eyes is something her mother told tales of, to scare her and her siblings with when they were naughty, and seeing him in the flesh is bit much.
She does glance back, once. He looks nervous, trepidation and hope mixing in a strange expression that makes her wonder. It’s not too different from the look on the faces of her family and the rest of the village, but why here? Why now? She might never know, but she’ll be wondering about it for the rest of that night.
---
When the god of the sea arrives, there’s no fanfare like one would expect. The sea is not pretentious, the sea just is. He walks out of the surf and onto the crowded beach and the islanders fall to their knees in unison. The pirate king is the only one left standing, and he refuses to kneel. Arthur Kirkland kneels for nobody, god or monster or land-dwelling king.
The god looks like glass, or water made flesh, light refracting off of his clear body. As he walks among the kneeling villagers, tipping up chins to inspect their face and then moving on, he flickers into a more solid form for just a second at a time.
The little girl sees him getting nearer and nearer to the pirate king without selecting his lover- or is she feeling it, trapped as she is in the forest of taller men and women? She wants to protest, to speak up and tell the sea god about all the stories of the pirate’s atrocities. Villages burned, women beaten and battered and who would be better off dead, men gutted and most certainly dead.
Don’t do it, he’s a dangerous man!
Almost as if he’s heard her, the sea god looks back over his shoulder and smiles. She can tell it’s a smile, despite distance and the impermanence of his face. Then he takes the pirate king and kisses him, taking the shape of a white-skinned man from the Continent and staying like it even after the kiss has been broken. He’s made a choice. Now the pirate king will be taken to the temple, and the renewal will happen, and the seas will be sated for another year.
Ah, you see. I am dangerous too, but I am not a man.
Re: cathedrals where you cannot breathe [1/???]
(Anonymous) 2014-01-26 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)ooh, interesting start! the last bit made me wonder if the sea god kills his lover - so that the "lover" is a sacrifice to the sea.
but i suppose arthur has a trick or two up his dirty pirate sleeves to prevent that...
anyway, i think this is great and look forward to seeing what happens next :D
Author!Anon
(Anonymous) 2014-01-26 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)It's going to come in regular weekend installments, because school is terrible and I can't get on the internet during the weekdays ;-;
So keep an eye out for the second part next Friday or there-abouts!
Re: cathedrals where you cannot breathe [1/???]
(Anonymous) 2014-01-27 02:44 am (UTC)(link)OP
(Anonymous) 2014-01-28 03:09 am (UTC)(link)Re: cathedrals where you cannot breathe [1/???]
(Anonymous) 2014-01-31 04:25 am (UTC)(link)