Imprecations, maledictions, execrations, malisons, anathemas, or combinations. The believers can get as fancy as they want, but the words all mean one thing. Curses.
Shadow didn't believe in curses; they were stories created to strike fear in the weak and illiterate. A man, such as himself, is smart enough to know that curses are nothing to be worried about. They do not exist.
So imagine Shadow's surprise when he, someone who insists that curses were merely fantasy, found himself cursed. A symbol was burned into his shoulder after a nightmare, one he would never forget.
A being of darkness entered his dreams, warned Shadow of his future and left, leaving the hedgehog confused and regretting ever doubting the existence of curses. Now, decades later, the captain still lives with the symbol of darkness on his shoulder and a warning.
Those you love will be taken from you.
And it had been true.
First, it was his grandfather—the man who cared for Shadow as if he were his own. Gerald Robotnik disappeared mysteriously one evening and never returned, forcing Shadow to flee with Gerald's granddaughter. Someone who Shadow considered a sister. Maria.
Together, they fled to the seas, far from any land and hoped that the waters would keep them safe. But it hadn't. Their seafaring life was cut short when their small ship capsized during a storm, and Maria...she disappeared under the waves. Shadow held on to the hope that she would resurface, but that night was the last time he ever saw her. Maria vanished, just like Gerald.
Shadow then spent years by himself, condemning the sea and the one who warned him—asking the heavens why this had happened, why he had to be cursed to lose the people close to him, his family. He never got an answer.
Eventually, Shadow became captain of the ARK by popular vote. He had yet to let down his crew or anyone seeking shelter aboard his ship. Shadow recalls the day he rescued a certain blue hedgehog from a piece of driftwood and how, soon after that, he fell in love with the stranger. It was fleeting, a wonderful feeling, falling in love all over again. Shadow thanked the universe for sending Goldheart his way.
But one night, the symbol burned. And Shadow remembered.
Those you love will be taken from you.
"No," Shadow whispered to himself, his voice breaking quietly under his breath, "not him too."
It was futile; he knew it. But if Shadow was powerless to stop the eventual outcome—Goldheart vanishing like Maria, like Gerald—the least he could do was pray and beg for the curse to spare the blue hedgehog. The captain can't live through another loss.
Shadow sighed, watching his first mate, his lover. Goldheart was prancing around the ship's deck, talking with the crew he's come to see as his family.
He didn't have a care in the world. Goldheart didn't have to worry about vanishing and being taken away from Shadow.
But Shadow has to.
Those you love will be taken from you.
