Cerulean Cape you'll love her til it all goes dark; you'll love her even after that

Fate had a peculiar way of working. In any normal scenario, the russet Redleaf woman should not have found him there. His drowned figure was much too far away from where she had sought to make a home. It was mere happenstance that she was so close to the edge of the world. It was happenstance, or it was only the hands of destiny pushing against him and her until they collided. Still, it was not the happy reunion that he had wished for. Instead, it was the meeting of a half-dead thief and a desperate woman.

She had rushed forward and latched her teeth to his scruff to pull him free from the grip that the ocean had on his frigid frame. Tadec did not fight against her touch, for he did not feel it. His mind was still washed in sunlight and warmth; he had vanished into a daydream of something that was not his present reality. The dark crow had sought to go to the only place that he believed he had ever been happy. His mind had ventured to the dark caverns beneath the world where he had shown Indra the light of the caves. While that meeting might have created a great deal of turmoil for the red-cloaked woman, it was not in their shared moment of intimacy that he found his happiness.

He had found it in the glimmering of her eyes, and the doleful sound of her voice.

The cries of the birds overhead were nothing more than a warning sound. They did not reach his ears. Before long, the gulls had vanished from sight and had sought to pick at something further up the beach. Tadec was dragged through the sand until he was free of the water, but he did not wake.