Stavanger Bay Shaded me on summer days

She warmed him with her words, but even still, he was uncertain. It was no new uncertainty. It was a stubborn feeling that had stuck him like a thorn in the paw a while ago, and was left alone to root itself in deeper with each new folly and disappointment, until the injury had festered terribly and was now so much harder to repair. But one look away, casting his eyes down the vast shoreline, was enough to start the process. Because when all was said and done, Raptor was a wolf who wanted nothing more than companionship and family, and Roz was the closest thing he had to that right now. Her company looked a hell of a lot more inviting than the lonely coast before him, than a life he had never lived. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

"I'll be your First Mate." He answered, quietly, as he turned his head back to her and took a pace toward her. Raptor shifted his paws. "I can look out for you," he said. He had no desire for a promotion. He did not aspire to the rank of Captain when he hardly felt fit to call himself a pirate at all. He had never been ambitious that way and was surprised to have even been named Quartermaster. His reason for agreeing to the rank was simple. "I think that's something I can do." He did not know the crew and he felt unable to attend them the way a Quartermaster should. But he knew Roz and he trusted her. Having her back was not only something he thought he could do, but something he had at least some want to do.