Arc 1~> On Board The Razor
The world fell into a blur for Rowan and the Sound of the Slow buzzing of the sea turned into a low sound of brain-splitting static. Rowan felt the world spinning around him like the ship had been sucked straight into a whirlpool, he felt it all in his mind, and his body felt so distant he even forgot about it.
All sound ceased and his vision went black, he could perceive the world around him but it felt like a distant dream, everything felt so distant even himself he felt like... like... something but he didn't know what.
The darkness around him grew brighter and then he wasn't on the ship again, all sense of his body lost, then he was somewhere else, he looked around and saw it looked familiar, it was a dock, and before him was a massive ship and... and beside him was, mother. Rowan felt a huge part of himself return to knowing who this woman was. She was his mother and it felt like knowing who she is made up a huge part of who he was. He looked up at her face but it felt like he was looking at the sun, but it didn't affect his eyes even if it was so bright instead he felt comfort, he looked at her hair and saw long brown hair, thick dreadlocks, running from her head Down To her waist filled with ornaments.
"Rowan, my boy, the sea calls to me, I wonder for how much longer I can resist, oh it calls so....." she said almost in a whisper,
The last part was almost inaudible, but Rowan heard it as clear as day.
Rowan looked at his hand which she held tightly, but he felt none of it this was all in the mind, he looked at her black skin which looked more creamy than black it looked just like his own skin. he tried to move but he found he couldn't move, he struggled but his body didn't move an inch.
The world Spun again, but this time shorter and there he was again, this time he felt his body walking, muffled voices made their way to his ears and when he focused he found them as clear as day. He could make out the figures and of the woman talking but everything else was covered in thick darkness.
"Little Rowan's four years old now ain't he? The boy grows up fast." He heard a raspy voice, he tried to focus on the speaker and found a very familiar old woman, she was very old, emphasis on very. Her black skin looked like an oversized cloth on her body and her mouth was filled with brown broken teeth, her eyes were a dull grey, they looked empty like those of a dead person. How did he know how the eyes of a dead person looked? He died, didn't he? That's how I know, yes. Wait, who? Who died? I... I... I don't know.
"Yes, mama shella, about the other thing," Rowan's mother asked
"Ah, that, a few more months will do, you still want to go? Okay. It's up to you I won't say anything. what about your little rowan over there?" Mama shella said her face was a little conflicted, this conversation gave Rowan a feeling of abandonment.
"I'll talk to Steven about him. I'm thinking of taking him with me." She said with care in her voice but a bit of worry. With this rowan felt a little better but he still felt sad not from this moment but from his mind.
"Mother, where are you going?" Rowan heard a child's voice say, he knew the voice, it's my voice, my voice when I was four of age.
"My son, we'll be going to see the world, to see lands which we can never begin to imagine," she said more gently than rowan had ever heard, the comfort that came over rowan was that he had forgotten if he had ever felt it, which of course he must have felt seeing as this was his memory, but that aside Rowan felt loved from the love and care her voice carried.
"Really mama, I want to see the world too." He said then the voices and the people faded into the darkness. After that Rowan felt his dream to see the world grow even stronger. Father had almost killed that part of me.
"Steven, what do you think about what I told you, we can all go together and you and the boys will get your own dice heart's later after me." His mother said he heard her voice coming from beyond the door that led to his parent's room. Yes, my father and mother, Steven and... and... what's her name? From inside the Room, Rowan heard a crash and his mother sobs, and then a roaring voice followed.
"Didn't I tell you not to talk about that anymore? I told you not to spread your ideas to the boys! Guess what I heard Rowan saying last week, medy? Guess what, medy!? Rowan is talking about adventures! Adventures!.. the world is a cruel place, there's nothing but evil out there..." He heard his father's voice, and with every new sentence, his voice grew louder, and Rowan felt a terror so great that his heart started skipping beats.
"I'm sorry, I'll never talk about it anymore." He heard his mother's voice say in between sobs, her tone pleading. At this point the young rowan had already burst into tears.
Then silence
Rowan felt chills running down his spin, Saber the sea beast and the army destroyer. Saber the krakens match. Rowan felt so drawn by the stories and there he made his mind to do more than adventure, he wanted more he wanted to be a figure all would know his name, Rowan the warrior who stands shoulder to shoulder with saber He liked the sound of that. Yeah, I did like the sound of that and I still liked it.
Then it all fell into the pulsing darkness.
"I'm sorry son. You might come to know me as oathbreaker for leaving you behind but be sure to remember one thing, remember that I always loved you, my dear son," medy said her voice a quiet hush, which tickled his ear, her sadness filled her quite and loving voice like a cup overflowing with liquid. "Find me one day son, remember me and when you do remember what waits beyond this island, remember there's lots of adventure." After that, she mumbled something before…
Her voice faded into the darkness which moved like it was alive.
"Your nine now, rowan act like it, can't you see your elder brother, he doesn't talk about things so far-fetched as you do," he said quietly, rowan remembered this after his mother had vanished in the middle of the night when he was still four his father had blamed himself and tried as much to be more gentle, this where the memories he had of his father a calm man, not that other memory, rowan tried to remove the memory of his father beating his mother from his head but it returned stronger than before even clear until. "Son I know you Share your mother's dream, and I might Come off as the enemy but everything I do I do for you."
During this time I didn't remember mom talking to me. Why?
"No father, you only think about yourself, and dath is no elder brother of mine, maybe family but nothing more. I don't know where he came from but I'll appreciate it if he goes back." Rowan said he could feel his hand shaking. He felt hot pain on his jaw and he was on the ground the next instant, his father was looming over him, his face filled with anger, Steven was a big man, his dreadlocks as long as that of his wife and his ebony skin was covered with hair. Rowan's father had tried to become more gentle but his abusive relationship towards medy seemed to have become a habit. With Steven looming over Rowan, he remembered how he lost the little confidence he had while growing up and how he became so stuck in his mind.
"When I was little me and my sister had this... this dream of yours. We would dream about adventures outside of sona. Guess what changed, guess? She was defiled and tossed overboard. I found her body on the shores of the island rowan. This island is a safe part of this world and it was meant for us rowan." He said holding back tears "I just care about you guys, why can't you see it?" Rowan on the other hand was sobbing furiously.
Both sound and vision faded into darkness as rowan looked at where his father had stood confused, he might not have understood the man but it was clear what he did everything for, it was all for them, him and his mother and his elder brother, who was actually just his cousin, but rowan felt that his way to care was wrong and screwed up, but that was all he had known growing up.
The darkness rippled like the sea and it began forming a memory.
"Did you hear what pendros said?" Rowan heard the cheerful voice of Smith and he felt his heart skip multiple beats.
"Yeah, I did. I wonder if I can ever see men like this Lord curvaxx pendros talked about." Rowan heard his voice and it felt more familiar now. "James, can you tell the story again like pendros did?"
"Yes, that I can." James paused. "A long time ago in the continent of Valorath, in the cold North called winter's origin, a land where trees grow but are ice where no colour reached through the blizzard and the sun is just a ball of light in the sky. Men were pray while the yetis were the predators but that all changed when a boy was born in the heart of a snowstorm and was named curvaxx, meaning the eye of the storm, he grew up in the snows of the mountains of winters origin and he grew up being able to control the endless storms of winters origin and with that, he turns the tides against the yetis and soon hunted them till the last one standing. Curvaxx storm god he was named and he was named Lord of winters origin."
Rowan had heard the story but he didn't know what to feel, the story was just too much a man able to control a storm. Just what the hell went on outside this backwater island
He looked at Smith and he smiled, then turned to James and the world Spun around and was sucked into James's eyes and his lively eyes became hollow Rowan screamed as he looked at the body laying in front of him, it was James his friend who was often with him and Smith, his eyes laid open and dark like he was staring into somewhere far beyond this world, his body lied in a pool of blood along with the rest of his family, they were killed by pirates. Rowan looked at the bodies limp and red. Then he heard his father's voice from behind.
"They were killed by the pirates and their house robbed clean." He heard from far behind him.
He heard footsteps approaching him and then he heard a whisper in his ears. "You see son, this is what happens outside this island every day, this is why you have to stay." Rowan almost gave in but no... he saw things differently. No. This island makes everyone weak, nothing ever happens here, everyone's weak, they would've fought if they were given the chance to learn and see more… yes like curvaxx and Saber. Rowan thought he had learned to only think his father could say and believe whatever he wanted, Rowan just needed to remain strong, but the truth was that Rowan had lost all confidence in his dreams and confidence in his words.
Darkness swallowed all
"Son, you want to travel the world you say again and again.' his father said with a smile. "Dreams like yours often come with a cost. Your mother was having to leave you, what will yours come at?"
After that all of Rowan's memories came rushing back all at once, him and his brother talking and laughing even though he always acted as if he hated him when he talk to his father, for whatever good that had done him he appreciated his presence.
Smith's head bursting right beside him and Bones words with him then he was back to the real world his mind furiously from the overload of memories both those that he had long forgotten and those he knew like the back of his hand rushing back into his head.
"Are ya alright, boi?" He heard a female voice ask