Love is only realised in Death.

  The dead do not weep.

  Pity the living.

  Everything is meaningless.

  Being alive is a constant state of misery.

  Every living being subtly realises these truths as they experience and learn the nature of nature.

  ….and from these are born core truths.

  Why am I here? I have duties to fulfill. A purpose for which I am born… but what is it? What do I need? I need prosperity. I need stableness but then why do I do acts that will never give me any of those. Oh oh, what do I want? Love. Yes. Love is what I want, oh love I cry for you, I beg for you… wont you fill my lonely heart?

  Who am I?

  Liberation.

  I am born free yet why am I not..? Why are there so many illusionary chains that bound me from attaining the meaning of who… I… am..?

  The questions of salvation. The true escape from reality that is illusion. Yet no one can escape unless they destroy their ego. But… what is the first step…?

  The sound of waves hitting against wood resounded across the air carried by the gentle breeze that ruffled the hair of a dainty light mauvish-crimson eyed boy.

  He had a pleasing face to look at, pale skin and high cheekbones. His nose was straight and his hair were a peculiar silver that looked almost devilish but not an uncommon sight.

  However it was his eyes that stood out the most, cold… dark and unnaturally empty. If one gazed deep into them then they would see a strange sight.

  Bright pink double flowers each lined in dark magenta.

  The boy looked no less than five years, he leaned onto the rails of the deck and looked at the scenery in front of him.

  An isnd far off into the distance and nothing else but water on all four sides of him.

  The isnd is where the ship's course charted toward. However they had been steering toward it for three days, it only looked a handful closer.

  "Boy! Are you scking off again?" The magenta eyed kid turned around, looking at the individual towering above him.

  "No Gatsby. It's just that we are not getting any closer. I am tired of the ocean. Also is it not too cruel? My hands and leg hurt. I am just a child."

  The man named Gatsby rolled his eyes, he was tall but rather skinny for his stature. The bones of his body almost revealed themselves out of the skin that covered them.

  In short, he was a very skinny individual with a high hairline that was covered due to the man in question keeping his hair long.

  The man leaned against the railing along with the child staring at the isnd into the distance. From his right pocket, he removed a piece of bread.

  He contempted breaking it into two halves but in the end he broke a small piece of the bread.

  'The stomach of a man is bigger than that of a child afterall, this is too big of a piece already.' Having such thoughts, any guilt vanished.

  With a 'hehe' he handed the piece to the child who took it without hesitation. In a matter of a second the piece instantly vanished.

  The child gnced at Gatsby and the piece of bread he was about to put in his mouth. Gatsby paused for a second, a small smile crept onto his visage.

  Shaking his head, he gave the entire bread to the child. Staring at the turbulent waters of he Pasafique, he sighed softly.

  Gatsby was an ordinary sailor. His father was an ordinary sailor too and so was his grandfather and his father.

  Although Gatsby often cimed that his great great grandfather was a pirate king but that was just on nd to impress the whores, the crew on the merchant ship Chewynuts owned by the Mascox Ducal Family knew that Gatsby was spewing cockery.

  "….unfortunately it was the Treasure of Morgana that cimed the life of my grandfather."

  The dark haired child chewed on his bread before retorting, "Didn't you say it was your great great grandfather that was a pirate?"

  Gatsby showed a toothy grin to the child, ironic because half of his teeth were falling apart. Why? Who knows.

  He ruffled the hair of the child beside him, "Listen well Vesper. My great great grandfather was a pirate king, this one… was an ordinary pirate."

  The child named Vesper nodded lightly, clearly not believing him. Breaking of the piece of bread Gatsby had given him, he shared it back.

  An unexpected glint of joy lit up in the skinny man's eyes. He quickly grabbed it and began to ravenously eat it.

  "Heh. Don't call me shameless."

  Vesper smiled beside him, the next second it faltered. His brows's furrowed staring at the murky waters of the ocean and the ominous intensity of the sun.

  "I can feel darkness."

  "Huh?" Gatsby looked at the child confused. Chuckling, he ruffled the boy's hair again.

  "At your age even I used to talk to myself and py a game in which I would save a damsel in distress. Heh. Sometimes she would reward me in ways you can't imagine child."

  Before he could continue to expin more- a shrill voice boomed.

  "Oi! Gatsby! Are you scking on work again?"

  The man in question was immediately startled, he gnced at his immediate superior that was walking toward him, the chief mate of the ship.

  Antony Forgzes du Mascox

  A young prodigy in the practice of Miasma, an art that grants an indivual with otherworldly power.

  A son adopted into the Mascox Ducal Family of the Bellivana Kingdom, situated near the northwestern coast of the Fuji Province.

  Gatsby immediately straightened his back and pointed at Vesper.

  "He was scking off and as an officer of the ship, I believed it was in my duty to reprimand such zy individuals."

  Antony at that moment wanted to jump from the ship and drown himself in the ocean. Rolling his eyes at Gatsby's antics, he gnced at both the child and him before speaking.

  "If you have time to chit chat you have time to work." Grabbing a bucket of water along with a broom inside, he lightly kicked it toward Gatsby, making it slide toward him.

  "Maybe you should clean the pnks along with the child or worse drain water from the bilge."

  Gatsby almost cried out in disbelief, "This is abuse of authority!!"

  Antony stifled a chuckle, "Hehe nothing you are not used to."

  Grabbing the piece of falling bread from Gatsby's hand, Antony pushed it in his mouth, relishing the taste of it.

  "Delicious bread. Thankyou for that snack Gatsby."

  Gatsby visibly shuddered, tears welling up in his eyes as he muttered silently, "Shameless bastard."

  Antony pretended not to listen to it, turning around right as he was about to leave to resume his duties- Vesper asked a question.

  "Vice-captain. When do you think will we reach nd?"

  Antony paused in his footsteps, showing a doubtful expression, he chose his words carefully before speaking.

  "A day or two."

  As he said that, his gaze subconsciously met that of the child. Antony's brown eyes stared into the Magenta of Vesper, a little lost.

  Breaking out of his daze, he cleared his throat and straightened his back, a little embarrassed.

  "Off to work now boys."

  Saying that, he hurriedly left but right as he was about to disappear from the sight of Gatsby and Vesper, Antony paused in his footsteps.

  Gncing at the sky and the waves in the distance, he turned around with a somewhat grim expression.

  "Boys. Prepare for a terrible storm tonight."

  The words of the vice captain sank deep in the hearts of the man and child. Each understanding the implicitly of his words. Maybe they would even die… afterall deaths were rather common during storms.

  Gatsby shuddered, a chill passing down his spine. He gnced at Vesper, eyeing the bread he was eating.

  "That bread looks pretty good, won't you let your superior have a bite?"

  Vesper stared at Gatsby and his eyes that were filled with greed and then the bread in his hands. A small smirk crept onto his face as he swiftly tossed the remaining bread into his mouth.

  Gatsby whistled loudly, sgging his shoulders a little.

  "Truly. Children are evil. I hope you choke on it."

  "…."

  -kufgh

  "HELP SOMEONE CALL A DOCTOR!"