He was ready to die of boredom, watching over these eggs. There was nothing about them to indicate that there was life beneath their shells. All the rest had hatched, yet here he sat, watching the stragglers with diminishing hope. The excitement of the hatching was long gone, and he was alone with his thoughts, the hatching sands at last cleared off.

It felt like a waste of time. Time, that stretched on, and on, and on --

Hands, out of nowhere and nothing. Hands grabbing him, pulling him out of his seat. He --!

"Let me go!" he cried, before a sack was tossed over his head. Darkness.

Darkness, and then cold, nothing. Nothing that never seemed to end, and he screamed into that nothingness. Falling, falling, falling forever. The only thought in his mind this: that he had failed, that he was most likely dead or soon would be. Slowly he slipped into unconsciousness, even that thought not enough to hold him long.

----

"Welcome, Captain, to your new life." There was a smirk in the man's voice, the masked figure taking hold of his shoulder and pushing him into line with the rest. He stared back at the man, silently cursing him and swearing vengeance.

All was not well among the party, several of their number battered from the trip. Among the small crowd he could make out figures that he knew, some of the passengers on his very boat. One of the women stepped forward, clambering to the front.

"Where is my son? What have you done with him?" she demanded, her tone skirting perilously close to begging. Half hysterical, half bitterly betrayed, she fought at her bonds, glaring furiously at the man who mocked them from behind a featureless mask.

Laughter was her only answer before they were all shoved forward into darkness.