Oceanine - Ateez Pirate AU -

Chapter one

The sky was like a dark blue canvas, splotches of pink and yellow appeared on the few clouds as the sun was starting to peek out of the thin line of the horizon, casting its warm colors on the water below.

The wind on the deck wasn't too strong and the pulleys clacked quietly on the ship's railing while its wooden deck cracked with every wave that lapped at the hull.

The sails were full of wind as the vessel cut through the ocean, leaving behind nothing but a trail of pure white foam.

Most of the crew was already awake, brushing the sleep off their faces while starting to work on their different duties.

One started preparing breakfast and others mopped and waxed the deck, checking on the mizzenmast in the meantime as it remained a little damaged after the last thunderstorm.

At the wheel stood a man with a long blood-red coat a hand fixated on one of the handles focused on conducting the ship and, at his side, leaning on the railing was the quartermaster, his eyes on the rising sun conversing with him.

"Do you think that we will be really able to find it? We've been looking for it for two years now. I'm starting to think that this will end up with nothing but a handful of sand."

"I'm positive, Mingi. I'm sure that we're on the right route, I feel it in my gut." he answered not taking his eyes off the horizon "And plus, I trust San's skills... he's got the right charts. We almost ended up getting killed for them."

The quartermaster sighed softly.

"Yeah... but what about his pivot? He lost it during our last raid."

"He's got a spare one in his cabin. He'll be okay, stop worrying so much."

He hummed back.

A comfortable silence lingered in the salty air as they continued staring at the vast ocean. It was so quiet, it seemed nearly unreal. 

As if on cue, a high pitched scream tore that blissful tranquility to pieces. The Captain threw a glance at the man beside him who understood immediately without anything being said.

"Aye Cap'n, I'm going to check and try to calm down that tiny little monster. I'll be right back."

Then, Mingi flew down the stairs of the bridge shouting at his screaming crew-mate who saw God knows what.

The Captain returned to stare blankly at whatever was in front of him, fiddling with the remains of a bracelet loosely tied on his left wrist zoning out of the whole shouting that had now moved belowdecks.

He leaned on the wheel slowly breathing in, following the rocking of his vessel and humming a tune that had been stuck in his mind for days.

His eyes trailed sideways spotting a strange dark cloud of what it seemed to be smoke; it was quite far away so he took out his telescope and veered to get a closer and better look.

As he brought the telescope to his right eye, he searched for the source of all that smoke.

Large pieces of wooden boards floated on the surface and the silhouette of a mainmast sinking quickly in between a ship split down the middle was all of what remained of it. Fire blazed from a half but there were not any screams nor prayers, the already heavily damaged bowsprit snapped and fell with a loud splash.

The others of the crew had noticed the odd change in the air: the surrounding area seemed so still even though a massive boat was quickly sliding down to the depths of the ocean.

Everyone came to the edges and looked around.

By then, they were close enough to see what happened without anything else but their own eyes.