Cerulean Cape salt tracing

she ran, but @Crowell was unflaggingly direct in his pursuit. for a time she did not see the pirate, and slowed to catch her breath. the pain in her sides was immense now, a terrible ache that extended even to her very breath.
forest gave way to riverland, and chani trotted warily through it toward the glittering blue expanse of sea. 
behind her, a figure.
seawolf sobbed for air and began to run again, toward the end of the sand, a peninsula ending in a single point.

crowell crashes from the treeline like a storm made flesh, gaunt legs flying, jaws parting with a snarl. her scent was everywhere now—salt and fear—and he drank it down like wine.
flamebright eyes catch her, just a flicker of tan against the blue-glass shimmer of sea ahead, and it sets his blood alight.
erzuuuulie! he bellows, a crow’s caw dragged through oil. thought ye could fuckin’ outrun me?!
he laughs, full-bodied and cruel, surging down the slope toward the sand. she was running again—but there was nowhere left to go.
ahead, only sea.
behind, only him.

crowell had killed pepper.
crowell had torn him, stained sapphique red with the blood of another man who might have fathered chani's children. she was not certain of love, but she had begun to adore him in words too strong for sentiment's description.
water loomed;
land narrowed.
babes stirred in her belly.
seacliff strength lit every artery.
chani meant to be free. her time as a captive of murkwood had only intensified that need, the desire for open salt air and the white sand of siren's bay, the tangle where her cousins had been born, the beachhead of corsair where the children of her lineage gathered.
to slow here was to be collected, trashed, dragged;
to be indentured to the desire of a man who thought he was able to own a granddaughter of rosalyn and erzulie.
there was no hesitation;
there could not be.
claws hooked to capehead, pushing off;
chani was a dizzying arc of sandstone and oxide.
mother and aunt had given their all, and her new cousins had even borne that, drawing their first air here instead of home.
there would be no surrender.
crimson-caped girl landed among the large cerulean waves rearing overhead; her final sight before they crashed down upon her was crowell's expression, his shadow there over the peninsula.

He was trailing Crowell, though keeping close—if the man turned on him instead, it would give the girl a chance to escape his clutches. The wolves broke free from the forest and galloped over the open field, and the seabreeze hit his nose like a blow, cold and pungent.

Hex blinked the windblown tears from his eyes, beginning to gain on the pirate. He was within pouncing distance when he noticed Chani had slowed, then stopped—

And proceeded to hurl herself over the edge and forfeit her life to the watery maelstrom.

He felt as if he'd been struck in the solar plexus, the wind going completely out of him. He barely made it to a halt himself, paws grappling for purchase as he lurched precariously upon the end of the world, looking down at the disturbed water below.

No, Hex gasped, shaking his head. Not her. Not this. No!

Slowly, he turned to face Crowell, his expression shifting from grief and disbelief to something akin to hatred. You— 

He charged toward the older man with a strangled snarl, teeth bared and blood in his eye, seeking violence.

she flung herself from the cliff like seabird. her cloak caught wind, flared red like a sail before it vanished into the churning sea. her husband forced to watch in disbelief; in... despair?
no—! a choke of disbelief. he hit the edge at full speed, skidding to a halt, chest heaving as he peered down into the froth. she was gone. waves frothed, swallowing her whole.
fuck, he hissed, voice cracking. fuck! again, louder, like the sea might spit her back. and he had no time to mourn, for, soon there was an idiot boy coming upon him. and crowell turns, flame-bright eyes wild. ye little shit, he spits, bracing just as the lad lunged. they collided with force, and crowell reeled back a step before snarling, jaws flashing.
she were mine! he howled, throwing himself into the fight, madness flaring like fire in his blood. teeth wildly raking wherever they might, using powerful legs to lunge and try to force the boy back against the very edge chani had fallen from.
he wanted her so bad, he could join her.

rolled for 65/100 damage; fuck 'im up

The two darklings collided in a terrible, thrashing bundle of limbs and teeth. He felt jaws in his flesh, blood welling up, but kept going—an angry, hopeless young man slamming himself against a brick wall.

Maybe, Hex snarled in reply to Crowell's assertion, but you killed her!

And the unborn children, too.

He felt sudden emptiness over one back leg, and felt his stomach drop to the ground as he realized they were right on the edge. Hex dropped low, trying to slip underneath or alongside the other pirate to get further back inland.

The Mayfair witch might have been crazy, but he wasn't yet suicidal.

feel free to give him some dings back!

crowell took the hit with a snarl, blood spraying hot from his shoulder where hex had sunk in. the pirate’s grip held fast as hex slipped beneath him, scrambling for the edge like some writhing eel. teeth bared, froth at his lips. nah, nah, crowell hissed through clenched jaws, pressing all his weight down. ye ain’t slitherin’ out now, lad.
he slams a foreleg across the boy’s spine, driving him flatter. leaned in, pressed down, using his whole filthy weight to pin the younger pirate against the edge. his voice grew ragged, venom-spit and flame.
with a savage heave, he twists, trying to shove the younger pirate off the cliffside with a brutal thrust of his chest and shoulder.

somehow the dice saved him from being yeeted off a cliff (for now)

Funny, that the snake would talk of slithering. Hex lifted his chin to the sky, withstanding the burly pirate's blows and somehow, somehow, keeping himself earthside.

He instead tip-toed against the edge and then pushed back, the will to live stronger than the man's insistent shoving.

You aren't, either, Hex spat in response, and launched a fresh assault upon the man's neck and forelegs, trying to weaken Crowell enough to go for the underbelly. And then. . .

The girl was beyond saving, and the women in the gods' hands, now. But he could take this demon to hell with him.

feel free to pp <3

teeth tore into his neck, then forelegs—he buckled slightly, footing scattering loose stones down into the frothing sea below.
fuckin' rat, he hissed. won't die proper, will ye?!
he reared up, but hex hit back just as hard. they clashed again, blood-slicked bodies twisting in the mud at the peninsula’s tip—and then the ground gave way beneath them both.
claws scrambled for hold. crowell snarled, legs skidding. the wind howled up from the sea, bitter and cold.

His luck had run out. Crowell was far larger and far stronger than his wiry frame, and the battle of blows was one he was destined to lose.

But then the ground began to shift, and the pair tilted dizzingly downward, lurching toward the sea.

Hex went first, body beginning the sickening fall down, down, toward his almost-certain death.

But he would not die in vain. All he could do was try to bring his rival down with him, and so his flailing arms grappled toward the dark pelt, trying to tangle their limbs together and send them

down, down, down

He went numb with fear; he felt and thought nothing as he plunged into the water, his body at the mercy of the waves and the rocks they pummeled.

up to you whether Crowell also falls or not!

limbs scrabbling for hold—but hex was already falling, and he dragged him with.
no— but it came too late.
the ground vanished beneath his feet. the world lurched sideways. weightlessness took him, and then gravity claimed the rest.
they plunged.
his body slammed into water like stone, the sea swallowing him whole. the cold was a knife, the churn a vice. limbs flailed, jaws snapped—no air, no light, just salt and fury.
and then it is lights out.