Description

"Vestiir heard Kaulen shouting to him, but the words were lost in the roar of the storm. How many leagues? He fought the urge to turn away from the wheel, he needed all of his focus to control the ship, to keep it from capsizing in the toss of the sea.
It didn’t matter how far the beast was, only that it was there, only that it had finally come for him. Blood called to blood, and the monster that had claimed the lives of his father and his father before him had come to claim the next of the line. Vestiir gritted his teeth, his nails digging splinters from the polished wood of the wheel. He could throw himself into the sea, as his father had done, giving his own life to save the rest of the ship’s crew. He spared a glance back at Kaulen, still clinging bravely at the helm rail, still keeping watch. Vestiir could imagine the young man in the monster’s jaws, bone shattering, even as the wood of the boat would shatter, and everything he cared about lost to memory under the water.

If he let the monster take him, Kaulen might be safe.

Vestiir tightened his grip on the wheel as it tried to wrench away, the ship hurled by another wave. There was still a chance. He refused to lose his ship, and he refused to lose Kaulen."

Painted in Photoshop 7.