Winds of Fate: Homecoming
#7 of Darkened Seas
They say, you can never go home again and poor Timothy has learned that first hand. Now it's Darquebane's turn to look back into her past to see the town that she once loved, the people who betrayed her and the beast she became to destroy it all.
Winds of Fate: Homecoming
By Xenny Diemes
There is a saying that haunts any traveler away from home: "You Can Never go Home Again". The reasons are various, but the end result is always the same. The world changes, and you with it in so many ways. In doing so, returning to what once was will never be the same as it was. First mate Timothy Biggens learned this and now on a foggy summer day, the captain of the night splinter will have her turn. After a successful raid of a imperial fleet, Darquebane decrees that the undead crew of the ship get a well-deserved rest after going out on hundreds of voyages as pirates, adventurers and scourge of the seven seas. On their way back to Harbinger cove, the conditions were nearly perfect for the ship to change course without anyone on board noticing. Even the winds conspire to work against the might of the Night Splinter to send them far off course.
Before anyone notices, the boat crashes ashore knocking everyone off their feet including the captain and the first mate. Funny how she broke Timothy's fall by landing right on top of her incredible bust line. A good reminder of how "big" she is. Bigger than his own arms is as wide pulling the house cat off her chest and getting up herself, Darquebane goes to the deck to demand what is going on. One of the crew was asleep when they just realize now that they are way off course from their hideout and ended up, from the familiarity of it of a shoreline town. It then hits her that something isn't right, something that is far familiar to her and decides while giving the order to have the ship repaired, she will go on shore, alone. Walking deep into the fog, the eerie chill in the air has no effect on her, such mortal feelings of fear died when you are the living embodiment of fear itself. But deeper inside reveals something that would make her afraid the moment the fog clears.
They are ruins of a seaside village, a village... she once called home. Her expression turned from grave to worry the deeper in she goes. She knows everything that was in place prior to being left in ruin: The marketplace where she gets her supplies, food and other essentials. Further down, the school where the children play out at the backyard and then get back in without question when the afternoon bell rings. The old church where everyone would come and pray on Sundays, leaving the village to look like a ghost town for just an hour, less than what it is now. More and more, Darquebane is flooded with the memories of the past that makes it often painful for her to the point she fell to her knees and covered her ears hoping the voices of the past would stop. They did, at a storefront, her old storefront.
It's was under a different name now but in her memories, it was called DeAteneu Knittings and Attires. A personal workshop where a young golden lioness used to work day in and day out working her magic to create spectacular dresses, coats, hat pieces and even tapestries. She had the fiery soul of a storyteller to write in fabric. That lioness is her when she was a mortal centuries ago. Before her execution, she had a special compartment hidden within the shop where she kept her most prestigious project for the town: A tapestry of the town's overall history, it took many, many years to develop and it was ready to be debut to the town as a show of her appreciation. However that day was marred by her arrest on that very same day. Struggling to just squeeze herself through the doorway, her huge tits and bulky muscles where the only things holding her back. Without any good options and the store was down to begin with, Darquebane smashes the storefront to get to the special compartment located under the floorboards. She hopes it is still there for the last memory was of her store burning down.
Sadly, time did its work on the great tapestry. What was once a great and expansive history of the village she once loved, now reduced to a piece that can barely cover a table. By cruel irony, it was of the present with all the people who made the town grow and prosper. The same people who threw her to the sea. As the rain clouds arrive, Darquebane walks down the main town road leading back to the sea with the tapestry in her hands. The same road where she was dragged by her arms with the anchor. Darquebane can hear the voices of the past coming back to her but in a more different tone. From the cheers and property to the boos and scorn of the quick trial as she was forced to the sea, all while holding that piece of cloth. Her mighty heart breaks and tears run down her face, her body grows weak and falls to its knees. She was a victim of both her own naiveté and the old ways and the town paid the dire consequences in blood in her ferocity and insanity.
Darquebane can easily take this town out in the same way she did with Timothy's but time and storms already did that making the desire pointless. Getting herself back up she walks back to the ship seeing the crew working on what scant damages it has been afflicted. Timothy is the first to notice Darquebane's expression as she still holds onto the piece he wants to talk to her but is stopped by one of the crew and tells him that it's best to leave her alone for a while. Honestly for himself, he doesn't know what happens but thinks it is for the best since she seldom tells anyone of her past. Hours later the Night Splinter is fully checked and repaired and is ready to leave shore, this time to it's correct destination. Meanwhile, the dark lioness lies sideways in her bed as she contemplates the events of today. She didn't want the crew or Timothy to see her like this for it could bee seen as a sign of weakness, now feeling that was much as a mistake as walking deep into the town.
Darquebane falls asleep and in her dreams can hear the voice of the Heart of Demons call out to her. The dark lioness talks of the events of today and asks if this is fate punishing her more just by bringing her back in town. The Heart consoles the lioness and tells her that it has no power to change the winds of fate that guided her back to that town that did this to her. By its reasoning, it took her there to get the most precious treasure in her life: The tapestry fragment itself. A sign of her 'fiery storyteller' self that makes Jacqueline DeAteneu what she is under all the power she gained. She may have motives and terror in her black heart, but her un-shattered soul is what keeps her true self in check. Something that on its own life will not let the prince of darkness have. Darquebane immediately wakes up before she can ask more.
It is still a long way back to their hideout and Darquebane leans against a mast looking out in the ocean, back in the direction of the town for one last sigh. This was an emotional experience for her and the crew doesn't even know about it. Remembering the words of the heart over the 'winds of fate' blowing her to the town. She can only hope now that those winds can take her someplace different. Back in her personal quarters, the tapestry she kept, has been restored, thanks to her own skill. But now it's a piece of a new chapter of her exploits and the crew's including the Night Splinter as it is guided by as he Heart says, the Winds of Fate.