<aside> <img src="/icons/lemon_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/lemon_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> $INFORMATION$ Characters: Saffrie | Owen Tags: character exploration | minor angst | fluff | cursing Warnings: N/A

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Ringing was all Saffrie heard for the following moments before being submerged with a harsh splash. Water engulfed the fibers of her clothes and hugged her dry hair. Hitting the water wasn’t enough to wake her out of her stupor, but the vibrations in the water as more canon fire went off above did. Realizing that she couldn’t hold onto her breath much longer and that the top of the ocean was only getting further away, she made a mad dash up.

The feeling of the harsh sun on her head as she surfaced was almost more welcoming than the large intake of air. Saff was never a fan of getting wet, preferring to be on the sand more than the peeling and creaking wood of the many ships she’d board. It didn’t take long for her eyes to focus on the surrounding chaos. She quickly noticed that the ship she was on was completely destroyed after three direct hits—off-handedly she sighed in relief that it wasn’t a ship she bought, and instead one she stowed on. The other nearby ships were in varying degrees of disarray. Saff swiveled her head to the nearby beach and her destination was set.

With her nerves on high with the falling debris and canon blasts still sounding off, her adrenaline pushed her along faster than her normal strokes would.

As she reached the shore, she noticed splintered wood and food crates littering the hot sand, along with a mess of a man, red smothered across his chest. Planning on ignoring him as she crawled out of the waves that guided her to land, Saff failed miserably as she noticed it was Owen. Of course, they were on the same ship; of course he’d be slung out to sea as well. Weakly she pulled herself up and stumbled over, landing beside him, head hung right above his, hair cascading down and covering his line of sight to the sun, leaving dappled rays across his face, as if she was a tree shading him.

“Owen,” she breathed, her voice hoarse from the salty water she had accidentally inhaled incorrectly when she got swallowed by the sea at second hit. Smeared blood peppered down from his nostril, tainting his wet lips.

His head lolled to the side to meet her wide-eyed gaze. She peered down into his eyes, judging his awareness. “Ah, Saff-rie” his voice cracked as he called her name like the sand beneath her boots. “Last time I checked, I was bleeding.” He raised his hand to show Saff, and to check himself, but she didn’t avert her gaze, instead grabbed his hand and roughly shoved it against his chest, assumedly where he was bleeding from.

“Hold that still. I’ll go and get some leaves—” Before she could leave, he whined, drawing her attention back to him. Against all odds, he was her focus.

“Saff, please, I—I don’t think I can make it—I,” tears welled up in his eyes as he looked into her eyes and Saffrie could feel her arms wobble, matching the quiver in Owen’s lips. “Can, can you give a dying man just one wish?”

She swallowed down her growing bile and nodded.