[hider=The last moments of the Legend's Forgery][center][url=https://www.artstation.com/artwork/L4aDw][img]https://i.imgur.com/YjgxvbF.jpg[/img][/url]

[h3][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJon23WzIQ8]♫[/url][/h3][/center][/hider]

[indent][color=lightgray][i][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKKDfynx4ZY]The sea thrashed and roared[/url] beneath a howling sky. Waves arose like dark mountains and crashed, collapsing, into chaos. Lightning reached with forked fingers across smoky clouds. Collisions of thunder trembled in the bones of the ship's crew while waves fell on their backs and the deck tilted and tossed beneath their slipping desperation.

Sailors shouted incoherent over the stinging rain and the hiss of foam. Whistles pierced the shrieking wind. A brightness in the sky illuminated a man clambering up the swaying mast before a clap of thunder deafened him. The Legend's Forgery creaked and lilted, vaulted over a wave and crashed down again, flinging its precious cargo against the bulkhead.

The cargo hold, sloshing saltwater, was crammed with sobs and screams. Lanterns swung violent from the rafters, casting horrible shadows on the walls.

"Man overboard!"

A flash of light revealed the outline of a colossal wave that rose up out of the froth. It loomed there, growing blacker and higher, until it darkened the last of the electric sky.

The heavy jaws of the sea swallowed the sound of breaking wood.

Everything was cold, and froth, and dark.
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[right][img]https://i.imgur.com/8ZVoSBE.png[/img][/right]

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Q7TPoApX4]The sea breathed and sighed[/url], twinkling in the light of the first-quarter moon. Little waves splashed and foamed, racing up the perfect beach in fans of glittering saltwater, leaping and hissing over the still forms of those who were left of the Legend's Forgery.

The ocean stretched on forever, to the perfect line of the horizon where it greeted the starry sky. There was no sign of ship nor flare.

The beach was long, white and barren -- miles of gentle, breathing waves and undisturbed sand, glinting in the moonlight.

In the far distance to the southwest, at what appeared to be the end of the shoreline, faraway firelight burned high in the dark sky, reminiscent of a lighthouse.

To the northeast, the end of the shoreline was far closer. Something yellow and shimmering glowed there, like an illuminated gemstone in the sky, but nothing more could be made out -- at least, not from the beach.

The sand became dunes on higher ground, then ended abruptly at a gradual rocky incline. There was no vegetation among the rocks save a few patches of rugged moss, and no indication that anything living had come by here in quite a long while -- except the distinct bleating noise of goats, just beyond the crest of rocks.

The low clatter of an approaching tin bell heralded the arrival of a small white goat over the top of the rocky incline. Its hooves clattered on the stones, and it paused a moment to raise its bearded head to scan the shore through long eyelashes, its little tail swinging. It shoved its chin forward, the tin bell at its throat jangling, and bleated again.