Cerulean Cape but when a person is alone in the dark...

It was peculiar how the sea had taken so much from him – so much of him – and yet he had not turned away from it. No matter how she battered him, the pallid creature always returned to her depths to bathe in the most lightless of settings on the planet. One would call him foolish for behaving in such a way. It would only make sense that a witless fool would find solace in the one thing that had destroyed him and all that he cared about.
 
Just as she had taken his sister, so she had taken him. The waters had grown too fierce and had pulled him under. Beneath the swell, he had seen the most magnificently terrible beast. So riveted by the sight of it, the pale pirate had almost not resurfaced. When he finally did, there was nothing left of what he had been before. All that had existed inside of him had been swept away into the trench.
 
But she did return him…
 
There, on the shore that rested not far from the land he had once claimed, Smokestep Cairn washed up. His ribs jutted from his sides. Dark circles had made permanent indents around his eyes. His limbs did not appear strong enough to support the weight of his rail thin figure. He was not standing when he arrived on the beach. The water pushed him gently into the sands and then retreated. For several long minutes, he did not stir. Then, as though he had been struck by lightning, Smokestep lurched upward and retched. His gaze danced wildly to his surroundings. He knew nothing about where he was or how he had gotten there.

Since last night, Shock had had her mind on one single thing. It wasn't just her mind, though. Her entire body cried out with longing. She had been banished from her home, and she had never looked back. To be fair, she'd always been a bit aloof, a bit ungrounded, a bit directionless. But now her body had given her purpose. Nature demanded she find wolves of the opposite sex. So that's what she was doing. No care or thought was given into the consequences.

When she spotted a lone figure on the beach, she immediately pivoted to go toward it. As she got closer, her nose indicated that yes, this was a male. Shock wasted no time with pleasantries or getting-to-know-you conversations. She paid no attention to his current state of health. The white wolf merely whined and craned her neck toward him. The scent of her heat would tell him the rest.

It was unfortunate for the woman who was seeking to have her pleasures met, that she would have stumbled upon the sea-wracked figure of Smokestep. Had this interaction taken place a year before, the youthful pirate would have leapt at the prospect of such a sweet interaction. His heart would have raced wildly and his mind would have wandered to the only thoughts that a young man could have when faced with something of that nature. Instead, he choked out the last bits of water to expel it into the sand. Then, the specter fixed her with a look that seemed to go directly through her.
 
If there was a woman standing in front of him, he did not know it. All he saw was his sister standing behind her. The golden flecks of her coat seemed to dance like fire in the sunlight. It was good to have her back; Smokestep had missed her dearly in the time they had been pulled apart. The jagged gashes in her frame had not healed since he’d found her, though. He wondered if he should have sought a healer for her wounds. Sandpiper looked at him with lifeless eyes before she seemed to gurgle out a mouthful of sea water. Smokestep nodded his head in understanding.
 
“Ahoy…” his choked voice was nothing more than a raspy scratch on the way out. His thin frame shuddered against the touch of the ocean breeze.

Well, too bad for him. Shock wasn't about to offer him a second invitation, and the first one had been rejected as far as she could tell. She snorted at him in a scoffing manner, bristled the fur along her back, then whipped around and took off just as quickly as she had arrived. She would find somebody else posthaste.

The stranger did not seem to appreciate his reaction to her. She bristled at him, snorted, and quickly turned away to leave him on the edge of the earth. The pale figure followed her with a careful gaze. His breathing came in ragged gasps, and his entire frame seemed to quiver against his own body’s attempt at survival. There was nothing inside of him that wished to stop the woman. He was not even certain that she really existed at all. All that he knew to be true was the figure of his sister. Everything else could have merely been an illusion cast on him by the leviathan. Everything except for Sandpiper.
 
Smokestep cracked his dark lips into a wide grin. His yellowed fangs glistened against the glint of the sun from overhead. A wheezing chuckle was emitted from the pits of hell and they were released through him. The haggard creature followed the stranger with his sights until she had disappeared further up the beach and far away from him. “Goodbye,” the pirate whispered softly. The mad smile that had adorned his lips faded quickly, his eyes were left with a soulless glint as he continued to wheeze into the saline air.