Tonight, its over, at long last we will fall
ruins will fight in our stead, Silence and solitude had become a way of life for the painted bastard son of the scorned Quartermaster and Sailing Mistress after his mother had left. The cool wind danced along his wavy pelt, sending a small shiver down his spine as tangerine eyes scanned the landscape, familiarizing himself with the new territory Tortuga had called home. Though Castillo had never quite left Tortuga's boundaries, he might as well have as he crept around the borders, keeping to himself and out of the public eye. He had heard rumors, this and that, about the power struggles of the empire since Rita had left, but he paid little mind to the politics. He mainly kept an ear open for familiar names, though this was always left him with no news. No news was better than bad news, right?
This time though, he wanted to be seen.
He had to be seen. A deep sense of longing with a hint of anxiety swirled around in his belly as he took a deep breath, pushing himself onward towards the open rims of Tortuga's borders.
He was near grown now, a spitting image of his calico mother, though quite a bit more unkempt than she would have ever allowed. His fur was thick and wavy, hues of wine and vanilla twirling around his body, a patchwork of a being. His stature was small, unlike his twin he presumed, who had been the brute of the two for as long as Castillo could remember. A shark tooth necklace swung softly as he moved, the only gift he had ever received from his father- whoever he had been. Castillo exhaled, closing his tangerine eyes.
Would Tortuga remember him as the son of a traitor, or would he be given the chance to show his own worth outside of his tainted bloodline?
It was not as if Castillo hadn't tried to join in on the pack before. Oh no, he had tried a handful of times, the last unfortunately met with an overwhelming number of unfamiliar pups who were all too friendly- friendlier wolves than Cas had ever come across in Tortuga. As they approached him one by one, recollections of the night Tortuga's beautiful exterior crashed and burned to ash flashed with every step the newcomers took towards him, their own faces melting as his tangerine eyes widened in horror. It was a never-ending nightmare, the same horror reliving itself in his mind like a cinematic reel. The smell of burning flesh lingered in his nostrils, and the screams of his blistering pack-mates as the flames had licked their bodies to ashes as they cried for salvation was forever branded in his memory, a venomous strike every time he closed his eyes.
But he was home now. He could do it this time. He
had to do it this time. Mustering up every ounce of courage in his petite body, a raspy song left the boy's maw.
"Tortuga! It is I, Castillo. I have come from the edges of Tortuga with the hopes that you will once again have me as one of your own. I offer myself and whatever skills I may possess to the whole of the pack. I will fill whatever duties Tortuga and the Captain require. "
My flesh is burning from the embers
but still the brilliant tale of our utopia
survives!