Eight Intertwined

114 - Baltazar

Time passed as it was prone to doing, and the years wore on long and weary. Leon and Baltazar's same old rivalry continued as it always had, and Leon was left to always pursue the shadow his friend left behind. Their races were the same, and it was easy to lose track of time in favor of the perfect fantasy of constantly chasing an identical prize with hopes of beating the other. Years in the future, Leon would look back and realize that Baltazar had never been chasing anything to begin with, but at the time, he never came close to understanding. All he wanted to do was follow, and that was what he did. 

On a rainy night not unlike the evening of their race to an island years prior, Leon and Baltazar stood together at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. Raindrops lashed at Leon's face, but he barely noticed them as he continued to watch the wind whip by before them. Baltazar didn't look in his direction either. They were at peace for the moment, but when morning came, all of that would end once more. Such was the way of their endless competition. It had been this way for years, and it would continue for years to come as long as Leon had something to say about it. 

The silence around them was heavy in a way no words could quite articulate. Baltazar was the first one to break through the quiet though, taking in a small breath that seemed to carry the weight of the world. "Can I tell ye somethin', Leon?" His voice was tired, as if the universe had ben wearing away at his resolve for longer than he had known how to keep track. Time was pointless to begin with. As long as they were caught in their constant game of cat and mouse, nothing mattered but the rush and the prize. 

At least, that was how Leon viewed it, and he knew nothing but his own mind. 

Leon just looked in Baltazar's direction, not saying a word. That was enough for Baltazar though, and he let his breath out after holding it for a lifetime found in a mere few seconds. "I never wanted to be a pirate," he confessed, the words fragile but concrete. 

Leon turned to face Baltazar in full at that, his eyes going wide. "What?"

Baltazar simply shrugged, allowing a bitterly nostalgic smile to spread across his lips. "When we were lads, I dreamt of bein' a merchant," he explained. There was a gleam in his eyes Leon hadn't seen in years, a light of levity not fit for the life of a pirate. 

But Leon didn't recognize it for what it was at the time, and years in the future, he would curse himself for it. He just laughed, a jovial sound that cracked against the thunder in the sky. "Have you gone daft? Baltazar of the Eastern Seas, a merchant?"

Baltazar let out a scoff with a roll of his eyes. "Yer a bloody scoundrel for laughin', Leon. But it be the truth. I wanted to trade treasure from every corner of this here world and bring people together." He turned to look out over the raging seas below, the wind continuing to pull at his face and hair. "I lost sight of that dream after becomin' a pirate. But these days... It's all I be thinkin' about." 

Leon turned to look at the water below as well, and the waves thrashed against the stone base of the cliffs. Lightning crashed in the sky, but neither man flinched. They had long since gotten used to the sensation of lightning against their irises since it was a prerequisite for survival on the high seas. Leon instead took this time to think his way through Baltazar's words. Never would he have expected his rival and the greatest pirate of their time to have wanted something else in life. Leon was chasing the shadow and the image of a man who barely had to try to succeed at a dream he didn't care for in the slightest. It opened a raw wound in his chest to think about like a stab that had never been given the chance to heal, not that Leon would ever spare it time in the first place. He needed to be better, not jealous. 

Silence lapsed between them, and for a long time, neither of them dared to break it. Like everything else though, it eventually had to come to an end, and Baltazar was the one who found the strength to take that step. "Leon?" Baltazar eventually questioned. Leon said nothing, but Baltazar still knew he was listening. "Do ye have somethin' precious to ye?"