I'm not giving up...
I'm just giving in.
The feathered canid had been in the ocean for… a while… riding the waves as if he expected them to take him somewhere. His journey had been surprisingly peaceful. Perhaps the sea had been a little rough, and there were moments he struggled to keep afloat as the waves attempted to tackle him under. But he had managed… somehow.
He didn't know how long it had been. perhaps it was fate, or perhaps he was just stupid. His own four paws had carried him into the salty water - fueled by a dread like he had never felt before. A dread that told him he needed to leave his old home entirely - even if it could cost his life. Everything he had ever known collapsed around him so quickly, he wasn't even able to give it all a final glance or say farewell. It all shattered like glass and vaporized like dust all too swiftly, and all too silently. That was, until, the maddening screams.
"it's all your fault!'
The echoing of his mother's words still rang in his ears. Haunting him like a ghost of the past - though he knew now, she wasn't the only ghost that haunted him. There was another one now… a lot less familiar, and perhaps it was that one, that scared him more. Why did any of this matter anyway? Why did it matter if everything he had known, everything he had fought for, everything he had built… was all a lie. His whole life was a lie. So why did it matter if it had all shattered to pieces around him?
Well, It wasn't himself he felt sorry for… The once great pack had fallen under his leadership. Now, everyone he knew was nowhere to be seen… he only hoped, fate had been kinder to them than it had been to him. A calling to the sea had washed over him, beckoning him forth like a siren somewhere in the distance. The cold liquid was refreshing at first, and relaxing to his heart which had frozen over, numb. Where he thought the sea would take him? He didn't know. He hadn't given it any thought really. He'd just given into the call and the current swept him away from it all. His past could stay there, in those old lands. That's all he wanted. There was no going back now. There was only going forward.
If he wasn't a Valkyrie, then, that meant he was someone else entirely. For all he knew he had a family waiting for him somewhere out there. Or maybe he didn't, but the thought is what kept him moving forward. Metaphorically anyway, in reality, the ocean was the one doing all the moving. He had given up on flight a while ago, and now, he was afraid his soaked feathers would be useless... he was too tired now to try and fly anyway. By some miracle, he has survived the journey this far - however far it had been. The seas had been gentle, but now, he was tired, and he was hungry and thirsty. If the ocean wasn't going to drown him, then his mortal needs would get to him for sure.
This was, perhaps the most stupid decision he had made in his life… no, it was definitely the most stupid decision he had made in his life - and there was no getting out of it. He'd be swallowed whole by the jaws of fate, paying the ultimate price… drowned beneath the waters where no one would ever find him. A mere distant memory to anyone he had met… if they were to even remember him at all. He feared he hadn’t meant much to anyone. Maybe he should have known he wasn’t of the Valkyrie bloodline... He never truly fit into Athadia - even during the short period he had ruled he felt like an outcast. An outcast that couldn’t do anything as everything crumbled around him. All he had wanted was a place to call home - to have some sense of security, but since the day of his birth… he had never felt that. It was an endless, fruitless journey. And how was the sea going to fix any of it?
Hours ticked past. His vision started to get blurry. The blue waves collided with the sky and faded into a tranquil blackness. The sounds of the waves became a loud ringing until… silence. Numbness… nothing. And still, the clock turned. When he got his consciousness back, he felt grainy sand below him. He breathed in, unfamiliar smells entering his nostrils. Though he was too light-headed to register any of them.
Where was he?
How did he get here?
"Mom!?" he'd call out.
She was the last one he remembered being with… but as soon as the word left him, shivers ran down his spine. Though his brain was still foggy, his body still remembered the strain of those recent events. And slowly… he began to recall. A soft moan escapes him as he lay pitifully on the sand, fur soaked with saltwater. The sand felt weirdly comfortable… he didn't want to move. Or perhaps he was too weak too. Maybe… he'd just stay here for a while.
AW - I just ask you don't kill him