Stavanger Bay turn around unless you want to fornicate in the willows

He had departed Ironsea in search of a prospective raid. He had been content then. The future on these shores had seemed promising under their new Captain. He liked her as a leader and as a friend. That had not changed; what had changed was the discovery that he had a daughter, and that she was not gone as he had thought. But she was not here, on this beach, in this bay, and so neither was his heart nor his mind. Both had become hers, and he knew that no matter his efforts he would not be able to reclaim either from her.

"Roz?" He hailed the Captain softly when he found her. His eyes scanned around. There was no one here along this stretch of sand but the two of them. "Got somethin' to tell you, 'bout what I found when I went scouting."

For when you have time! :)

Oh, this didn't bode well.  Raptor's bearing didn't scream trouble, but he hadn't exactly approached her with the carefree abandon she'd become used to in her dealings with her crewmates.  Soft meant serious, and serious generally meant not good.

Despite the twinge of unease in her gut, though, she smiled easily enough, nodding and pausing.  She'd been meaning to run the southern shore, but it could wait. "Whatcha got for me?" She asked, wondering what news he'd picked up that would have him so... hesitant? Maybe not, but definitely something.

Raptor took a long and deep breath that quivered as he drew it in. He bit his lip, looking up at his Captain and friend as he took a seat. There was a spark in his eye, and his tail started to thwap the ground with happy uncertainty. "I—" The sable corsair swallowed. He tried to hold his composure. He failed. He gushed. "I have a daughter!" He exclaimed, leaping back to his feet. His tail wagged energetically, and his mouth split in a broad and tongue-lolling grin. His expression was euphoria and sheepishness. "Ohhh she's just... she's so cute and she likes fish and I like fish... and she's mine and I just... I love her." He was brimming with joy, shaking with the power of it, no room in his mind for anything but the memory of meeting Tiercel.

If Rosalyn was expecting anything, what Raptor had to say definitely didn't match.  "What?!" Her brain caught up a minute later and made the question rhetorical, but she still didn't shake the surprise.  "A kid?  Where?"  

Genuine surprise, but no displeasure.  Raptor hadn't struck her as the family type, but it was odd to think anyone in this sorta pack was.  Pirates and kids didn't often mix.  Who with, and when?

He could only answer her what?! with a grin and several enthusiastic nods. His tail never stopped. She was in disbelief but he still was too. His mind was unable to comprehend Tiercel's existence. Not when he had dreamed of having his own family for so long. Not when he thought her mother and her were long gone from these wilds never to be seen again. Raptor was stunned every time he thought of himself as a father.

"Oh, she's not here." He said. That is when the trembling energy of his excitement died down and he became more subdued. It occurred to him then that while he had shared what had happened with Smokestep, it did not sound like Roz — as First Mate — had ever been informed. "So you don't know?" Raptor arched a brow. He did not feel the same uncertainty that he felt when he was about to disclose the events to Smokestep. It did not matter so much now.

"This spring," he began, furrowing his brows as he tried to decide how much of that story needed to be shared. It was a strange and somewhat complicated tale. "I met a girl on the beach. She was in season." Surely, she could fill in the blanks on that one. "I thought she was gone and that I'd never see her again, but I found her when I went inland to look for packs to raid. She let me meet her... my daughter." The sable wolf smiled, his fondness as bright and obvious as the day's sun.

Rosalyn didn't honestly know much about her packmates' lives outside of the bay, and she assumed this was because they preferred it that way.  She wasn't the type to nose much where she didn't belong, unless there was some point to it.  

She shook her her head and waited for him to explain.  Fortunately when he did, he did so in a way that allowed Rosalyn to fully assume the encounter had been mutual, and she smirked at the mention, understanding what he implied.  If she knew the truth, there was honestly no telling how she'd have responded - she had a bit of a complicated history with the like.  Probably not well.

Well, good news! Perhaps.  Though it gave her a small pang to hear he'd formed a familial tie outside of the bay and crew; he'd been one of the few with her who had nothing aside from this.  She kept this well hidden though, instead grinning and giving him a small push.  "I'm happy for you! Seems like fatherhood fits.  Are they lookin to sign on? Or do they got a crew elsewhere?"

The excitement and joy in sharing this news with a friend who could appreciate his happiness was about to be shadowed by what he had to tell her next. Raptor's expression softened and his wagging tail slowed to an idle sway. He would have been more sullen, more nervous and ashamed, if he was not so determined in what his next step would be; if his heart was not beating so strongly for his daughter.

He shook his head to Roz' questions, and then held his Captain's gaze. "She's too young to come here. Her mother won't come here." He had not asked her but he knew the answer. He knew how fortunate he was that she allowed him to even see his daughter, let alone spend any time with her. "I don't want to leave you. Not after you gave me a chance to get back on my feet and do right by you. But I can't be your First Mate any more. I have to go to her, Roz. I have to go be a father."

The regret shone in his eyes then. He did not lament so much his failing at his title (again), but his failing in being her friend. "I'd be no good to you anyway," he murmured quietly, looking away across the sea. The only home he had ever known was on salty shores, and he was leaving them too. "Not when I am so lovesick over that little girl and can think of nothing else."

He looked back to Roz, silently pleading for her understanding and forgiveness.

His news, when he finally delivered it, hit her like a gut punch, and it caused that flicker of jealousy she'd initially felt to freeze with an icy jolt of bitterness.  Of course.  Because how could he stay?  It wasn't like they were family.

She knew it showed, but she'd never been good at hiding emotions that came true like these.  Again another chose blood over crew, again and again and again.  She'd wanted to believe it didn't always need to come first; not after her own had sold her so long ago.  She didn't know how easily; some questions were better unanswered. But it seemed outside her own, to ask a wolf to care more for their crew than their own damn blood was impossible.

It was unfair; Raptor was a father.  But still she had to grit her teeth with the frustration of it.  Fine.  Like she'd said; better to be rid of those who didn't want to be here.

"Alright.  Then go."  She couldn't bring herself to wish him well, but couldn't bring herself to persuade him.  The pup who'd grown up without a father in her warred with the woman who now stood without a first mate, and neither were budging.  So instead she turned and left him, before anything else could be said from her end.  There wasn't really anything else she wanted to.

His heart clenched when she turned from him and he allowed himself a few moments to hang his head in despair. He had failed his friend, but the determination he felt not to fail his daughter next had him hoisting his skull back up and plodding onwards. He departed the coast at a purposeful and quick gait, plowing on inland back to his little girl.