After paddling all night we're almost to shore. There are no beaches to speak of, but large red cliffs banked by a shallow gravely shore-line. I can make out a few caves here and there that's make good shelter.

Motivated by the sight of dry land, and the prospect of being able to dry off my fur, I pick up the pace of my paddling.

"Whoa settle down there cub, not so fast!" Hati exclaims, quickly staying my now turbo paddling.

"I'm glad you've got your spirits up but we don't want to be doing any splashing around here.  Just make smooth strokes, like this." showing me her form. I mimic her motions with these small new legs of mine as I ask, "What are we worried about? Being spotted again? There's nobody for miles and those ships even went and sailed in the other direction, so why the caution?"

Hati looks hesitant to tell me, but she soon elaborates. "Well from the stories I remember there should Lapis eels around here; Big blue-scaled beasts, as thick as a canon and twice as long, packed with muscle and covered in sharp fins. They're meant to live near the cliff-coast up here, and we really don't want to get their attention by splashing around too much. "

I immediately stop after hearing that much and move a little bit further up my box.

Hati just laughs, watching me. "we'll be fine cub, they won't come up so long as we don't make too much noise."

We soon get to shore without incident and start to dry ourselves off, Hati showing me how to properly shake to get rid of most of the water clinging to me. It's dark but we can still see pretty well, so after the quick lesson Hati takes her time picking out a suitable cave for us to shelter in and we gather some driftwood to dry overnight, leaning planks and branches up against the cliff walls outside.

After the work we're both pretty tired and we settle down in a corner, sticking together for warmth as we drift to sleep.

When I get up in the morning I'm almost reminded of Christmas with all my excitement, and the first thing we do is open the boxes we rode in on. The first one we opened had been full of hard bread, which would be the perfect traveling meal as it stays edible for weeks. Though unfortunately the box had gotten filled with salt water, and It's all just a soggy mush now, completely inedible.

When we cracked open the second box we saw that it was just as flooded with water, but was also filled with something called kento beans, which are now delightfully salty! We each take some of the delicious beans before sealing the box back up, and tear the other one apart for firewood, drying it with the rest.

After a while we start to see some things drifting ashore from the wreckage, so Hati  decides to take me up and down the coast to salvage what we can for the trip out of here. We mostly just find a bunch of firewood in the form of loose planks, and bit of linen in the form of a couple hammocks and one very large flag. I've also taken notice of a few bodies coming as well, you can always see a few here and there, just bobbing in the water, but I come across one that's already been washed ashore and I can see the chunks missing out of them from where I'm standing. Something's actually managed to take a bite right through this woman's breastplate. Something I definitely do not want to meet.

In my search for stuff I eventually wander away from Hati and round a corner in the cliff and freeze at the sight. The water here is just littered with corpses and debris, there are that many bodies that I'd have expected the ocean to turn red if they hadn't all simply drowned.

I try to scan the water to see if anything stands out and I find a large bundle of crates not too far from shore, [What a huge haul though]. It's all been tightly bound by some sort of cargo net, and there's a man leaning on it. Looks like he actually tried to paddle that whole thing to shore himself, geeze, I'm kind of impressed.

It doesn't take long for me to decide to paddle out to the cargo, it's too good for me to pass up, I shiver just thinking of all the goodies in there!

As I get closer I try to call out to the man resting on the crates, not sure whether or not to expect a response. However he quickly starts awake and looks around, and I assume he's spotted the sea of corpses he's in as he immediately starts freaking out.

But what I have a problem with here, is that in his attempt to escape this little hell he's actually started kicking and paddling as hard as he can, trying to get away.

I look around and I can see them coming already, the ripples in the water, the streaks of blue with their fins sticking out, almost like very long sharks. Some of the other bodies around us begin to disappear into the water, pulled under one at a time, but the man doesn't seem to take notice.

Remembering Hati's warning, and the woman from earlier, I want to get away from here as fast as I can, but I'm already too far from the shore at this point. I make a judgement call and keep swimming toward him, I need to get on those boxes, now.

Seeing it's already too late at this point I pick up the pace, making it over and scrambling to climb up.

The man tries to pull me off his boxes as he shouts, "Get off of there you damn beast! I brought this here and you'll have none of it!", thinking I'm some sort of box pirate.

But I really don't care, there's no way I'm going back in that water.

I watch the streaks close in around us, and see the man stop and freeze as one brushes right between his legs, finally realising the trouble he's in.

He hardly has time to react as his body jerks downward, he grabs onto the net as he screams, trying to stay above the water, but they keep pulling on him so hard that the boxes are starting to tip, and I can't let that happen. Not willing to be thrown in the water to share his fate I swipe at his hands, prying them from the net.

The moment he loses his grip he's pulled under without a splash, and the water is still.

I'm so sorry, but I couldn't die here. I try not to imagine what's happening to him under the water as I wait for things to calm down, unmoving.

After some time I inspect the boxes for something I can use as a paddle. Not finding anything I decide to try and work a plank loose from one of them, tearing it off and using it to gently push the cargo and I through the water.

I finally make it to shore after a while and it's time to take care of the loot. The cargo is way too heavy to drag in all at once so I carefully untie the net, making sure to keep it all in one piece, and unload the crates one at a time, piling them up on shore.

When the work's done I quickly rush off to go find Hati so she can help me bring it all back, and I find her already returned to camp working on a fire. I tell her about the pile of crates up the coast and we leave immediately, though when we get there she's less than thrilled.

"Mars, these crates, tell me you weren't actually stupid enough to go into the water to get them with all these bodies floating around!?" Hati yells, gesturing to still numerous uneaten corpses.

"Uhm, well yeah, kinda. ." I admit, rubbing my neck.

And she really did not like that answer, "You're damn well lucky to be alive!" she goes off, "What if there were some eels feeding on all of this? You think they would have hesitated to take a bite out of you!?"

Oh boy. I hesitate for a second, but I tell her what happened and she calms down a bit.

"Well you're still a damn fool, but you made the right call out there, don't let it eat you up." she says. Then all the sudden she pulls me into her arms, "I'm glad you're safe, Mars.". I let myself sink into her and return the gesture.

After a while we've finally managed to haul all the cargo back to the cave, Hati managed to get a nice fire going and we're sitting by it as we eat some more of those amazing beans.

After eating, Hati gets up to grab some of the wood to place by the fire.

And that's when I feel a blade press against my throat.