#ASWaM Chapter 2: Tree Storks

[tyrantisterror]

At Sea Without a Map pt. 13

(hey, look at that, an almost perfect 3 way split! Thanks to @fragmentaryremains and @zndr315-blog for submitting several questions/discussion prompts as well! I'll say that earns 4 questions a piece)

You decide upon three discussion topics, and decide to begin with the one that seems least personal, in order to work up the courage to discuss the other two. "What were those birds?" you ask. (Monster questions remaining: 3 of 4)

"Um, birds, I guess?" Calibani says with a shrug. "I've never seen anything like them before, to be honest." (She doesn't have an answer, so you get a mulligan! Monster questions remaining: 4 of 4)

"Well, are there any land creatures you do know of?" (Monster questions remaining: 3 of 4)

Calibani stops and thinks for a moment. "Um... I don't know. I don't go on land very often. I'm too vulnerable out of the water - I have to drag around this huge tail, and all of my blubber feels a lot heavier, so I end up moving so slowly. It's terrifying, really. Most of the creatures I've met were swimming in the sea, like me. But I have seen a few go onto land - turtles, crocodiles, and humans like you, for example. I don't know if that makes them land creatures, though."

It's not the most helpful answer, but it does illuminate some things. You hadn't considered that Calibani's, uh, voluptuousness would serve a purpose beyond luring people to their deaths, but sea animals do often need blubber for insulation and buoyancy. You briefly wonder why you knew that marine biology fact, which in turn inspires your next question. "Well, what sea creatures have you encountered, then?" (Monster questions remaining: 2 of 4)

"Oh, lots!" Calibani says with a smile. "There's all sorts of creatures out here in the Sea of Monsters, you know! Lots of fish, obviously, but I imagine you care more about the big-enough-to-eat-you things."

She takes another moment to think. "Hmm... tell you what, I've been kind of building a category system for them in my mind. Most of my fellow monsters can be sorted in two ways: first, by what kind of thing they are, and second, by how they hunt."

"There are four main kinds. The first are serpents - scaly, sinuous things like snakes, crocodiles, eels, and dragons. Second come fish, with their round bodies and flippers, i.e. sharks, whales, dolphins, seals and the like. Then there's tangle-limbs, critters with lots of arms like krakens, luscas, and squids. Finally there are armorskins, who are covered in skin as tough as rocks - crabs, lobsters, turtles, et cetera."

"But it's more pressing to think of how they hunt," Calibani says with the conviction of a creature that is neither the top nor bottom of her food chain. "You have trappers, who hide or disguise themselves and passively wait for food to come to them. Then you have lurers, like me, who actively attract prey by tempting them to be reckless. Hunters take it farther, pursuing their prey without subterfuge and taking it by brute force.

"Most monsters are those three types, but there are some that are even more dangerous - the big guys. There are island beasts, who spend most of their time sleeping and are so big that people mistake them for islands, only to realize too late that they're on a giant monster. And there are ship eaters, who look for large prey exclusively. Whenever you humans have a really big boat, a ship eater inevitably comes to tear it apart, which often gives creatures like me some free meals.

"But the most dangerous of all are the True Leviathans. They're unfathomably vast and live deep in the depths of the sea, but when they come up? EVERYONE has to run. They're stronger and nastier than any other sea monster, and when they go on the prowl, no one's safe."

She smiles at you, completely oblivious to how fucking terrifying that whole spiel was. "See, I'm a serpent lurer," she says. "It's not the most thorough system of classification, but it works pretty well, don't you think?"

You gulp, still processing the nightmares her description has conjured in your mind. "Are there any nice creatures?" you ask. "Social ones, like me, who just hang out together and talk and stuff?" (Monster questions remaining: 1 of 4)

"Well, we're all social to some degree," Calibani says. "I've had some great conversations with my fellow monsters when we were both well-fed. Most creatures are only antisocial when they're hungry, you know." Her eyes flit to the ocean as she tries to find a better answer to your question. "A lot of us go it solo, though, rather than staying in groups like you humans. Well, except..." She wrinkles her nose in disgust. "Except mermaids."

"Mermaids?"

"Yeah, fucking mermaids," Calibani sneers. "Stuck-up, haughty, vain, self-obsessed mermaids!" She grits her sharp, hooked fangs in anger. "Think they're better than everyone else because they're 'classically beautiful!' Fucking mermaids, Sailor, don't even get me started!"

You take her advice. "What about others of your kind? You're not the only one, surely?" (Monster questions remaining: 0 of 4)

Calibani's smile falters. "I don't know," she admits. "There might be others. There - there must be, right? Just because I've never seen or met any doesn't mean there aren't others like me out there. I can't - it'd be very sad if I was the only... oh..." She trails off, her eyes wide as she thinks about her own loneliness for a moment. "I don't like thinking about this question very much."

For her sake, you decide to change the topic. "So, you don't know who Shakespeare is-"

"Shakespeare's a person?"

"-but you do know who Jesus is," you ask, ignoring Calibani's interjection. "How's that work?" (Knowledge questions remaining: 3 of 4)

"Oh, that's easy," she says with a smile. "I learned about him from the pogos."

"...the pogos?" For a moment you think she's talking about the 50's novelty toy.

"Yeah, the pogos! They're a type of lake dragon. One pogo told me about a great land beast called the Jesus Christ. He's a terrible and powerful beast whose head is crowned with thorns, that roars like a lion and a lamb, whose tongue is a sword that he uses to slice the heads off his prey, and whose hands are constantly bleeding from the wounds inflicted upon him by his foes, the Romans. He buries his enemies in a pit of fire, which is grave disrespect given how fire is the opposite of water.

"Yet even though he is a land beast, he blesses his chosen with a sacrament of water, and if they prove their worth, he lets them suckle upon his divine blood, which turns to wine in their mouths. He is a vicious and violent monster, but he is also compassionate, and can make an endless amount of fish to feed the hungry. The pogos tell me that you can invoke his name in times of strife, be it out of fear or frustration, and he will work some of his inexhaustible power to help you navigate the situation as well as is possible. I don't know if I believe in such a creature, but there's no harm in borrowing someone else's lucky charms, right?"

You blink for a moment, considering the incredibly twisted version of Christianity this sea monster just relayed to you. "Well, it's less fucked up than what the Fundies believe," you mutter to yourself before going to the next question. "What about cheese and rice? You mentioned those too. How do you know about human foods when you've never eaten them before?" (Knowledge questions remaining: 2 of 4)

Calibani's smile becomes a bit nervous as she averts her eyes from yours. "Well, I listen in on human ships a lot," she says quietly. "Whenever I find one, anyway. Sometimes I have to wait a while before I can find a human waiting alone on a ship, so I end up overhearing a lot of conversations. I don't know what cheese and rice are beyond being some sort of food." She looks at the cooking stork thigh and licks her lips with her forked tongue. "Bet they taste good, though, especially when cooked."

"You'd win that bet." You smile, then feel your stomach grumble at the thought of some non-seafood. Living off of fish alone has been hard, and while the stork meat is a nice change of pace, you'd kill for some carbs to eat. "So is that how you learned how to speak? By listening to sailors?" (Knowledge questions remaining: 1 of 4)

"Oh no, not at all!" Calibani laughs. "I've always been able to speak!"

You shake your head. "No, someone must have taught you, right? Language is learned, after all."

"Hmm, no, I don't think so," Calibani replies. "I certainly don't remember anyone teaching me to speak. Why, do you remember someone doing that for you?"

That question hits you hard, because, well, you don't. You know that humans have to be taught language, from their parents and, like, school and stuff, but as you try to remember your own experiences with it you realize you have no recollection of who taught you to speak and how. It makes you wonder if you and Calibani have more in common than you thought. "Do you remember your childhood, Calibani?" (Knowledge questions remaining: 0 of 4)

"Of course! I hatched out of a little egg, and started swimming around looking for something to eat. Of course, I was a lot smaller then, and a lot of things thought I looked like something to eat, so I had to learn to be quick on my fins pretty fast. I kept my wits about me, ate what I could when I could, and got big and strong enough to stake out a territory of my own away from the bigger fish, and all in all it's been pretty nice!" She looks at her tail, much smaller than it used to be, and sighs. "It's going to be a while before I'm back to that size, though. Guess I've got my work cut out for me!"

Despite everything, you find yourself feeling a bit guilty about that. You shouldn't, of course - you were just trying to survive yourself, and it's not like you meant to run her over with your boat or drop her down the stairs, and none of that would have happened if she had left you alone in the first place. But if you have a right to survive, doesn't she?

Lost in thought, it takes a moment for you to notice you've allowed an awkward silence to fall on the conversation. Calibani is looking at her tail with a forlorn expression, clearly lost in her own anxieties too. A part of you insists that you try to lift her spirits, and, perhaps unfortunately, it does so by suggesting you flirt with her.

"So... were you singing when I found you?" you ask, remembering the melody you faintly heard when you saw her distant silhouette in the stormy sea the night before. "Because if so, you have a beautiful voice." (Flirts remaining: 3 of 4)

That makes her perk up immediately. "Oh, thank you! I flatter myself to think so, too. I love singing, it's my favorite hobby! And it's so good at luring... um... that is... humans like it a lot, too." She blushes blue in embarrassment at the faux pas of mentioning the people-eating thing that's clearly a point of contention with you.

Another awkward silence, and another angle for flirting comes to your mind. "It was really impressive how you killed that stork. You're really strong!" (Flirts remaining: 2 of 4)

"Oh, pshaw!" Calibani scoffs. "You could have done the same, surely!"

"No, really, I couldn't," you say.

Calibani peers at you intensely with a concerned expression on her face. "I would have said the same before today," she replies. "You never know until you try. You're the one who taught me how to use that harpoon, you know, I bet you're even better with it than I am. And if you're not, well, maybe you're just out of practice?" She gives you a small smile. "I bet you're stronger than you think."

You blush beneath the high collar of your raincoat. "I'm glad you like that sweater I gave you. I was worried the wool might be scratchy." (Flirts remaining: 1 of 4)

A wide smile spreads across Calibani's face as she rubs the sleeve on her cheek again. "Are you kidding? This thing is so soft and fuzzy, I love it! I've never felt anything like it on my scales and skin before, it's so nice!" She rubs her hand over the fleece and gives the sweater a warm look. "I've never really needed to wear clothing before, but now that I've tried it, I have to say I love it. It does get kind of heavy when it's wet, though."

"Yeah, we'll need to wash and dry it," you say. "I can find you something else to wear while we do that, though. I think there were a few other sweaters below deck."

"I'd love that!" Calibani says. "But I think this one might be my favorite. It's my first, after all."

Something in your heart warms at that. You made a pretty girl happy! Yeah, she's also a man-eating monster, but still, props for that! "I'm glad I met you, Calibani," you say earnestly. "It's been pretty lonely out here on the sea, and I know we had a rocky start, but it's nice to have made a friend." (Flirts remaining: 0 of 4)

Her serpentine eyes go wide as a deep blue blush fills her cheeks. "Friends?" she squeaks out while sinking into her vast mane of hair a bit, all while her smile slowly grows. "I'm glad we're friends, too." Her smile becomes absolutely euphoric even as she withdraws further, and eventually she shakes her head and blurts out, "We're talking about me too much! What about you, Sailor? Tell me about you!"

That's hard question to answer when you have amnesia, so you consult your compass.

[tyrantisterror]

At Sea Without a Map pt. 12

Water laps placidly over the corpse of the enormous stork, this nightmare bird who clearly never forgot that its ancestors were dinosaurs. As you survey the titanic avian's bleeding corpse, a single though dominates your mind: there's a lot of good eating on that bird.

Butchering the monster bird's carcass is no easy feat, especially since you aren't a butcher (that you know of) and are mostly going off of hazy recollections of baking turkeys once a year. Oh, and the fact that the bird you're trying to cook is the size of a goddamn Tyrannosaurus rex (albeit a lot longer in the leg and neck and smaller in the torso). There's more meat than you know what to do with, and some of it looks significantly less appetizing than the others, so you focus on the part of a bird you've always preferred eating when getting fried chicken: the legs.

You shove your harpoon through one of the bird's enormous thighs (once you pried off the feathers and scales, of course) and take some of the stranger instruments in your kitchen to prop it up over a fire you've made out of some sufficiently dry driftwood you've found, and proceed to slowly roast the meat to... well, not perfection, but edibility.

The drumstick is so large, though, that roasting it all in time for dinner is an unlikely prospect, so instead of rotating the rotisserie you decide to just cook one side at a time and call it good. That's... probably fine, right? And if it's not, hey, you're an amnesiac sailor, not an amnesiac chef.

At least one person enjoys your cooking. Clutching a huge chunk of roast stork meat in her long, hook-clawed fingers, Calibani's expression is full of delight as she tears into her meal with insatiable hunger. It's a sight that's at once endearing and terrifying, for while her obvious love for your cooking feels very complimentary, watching her sharp teeth tear into the flesh of that bird keeps reminding you of how she wanted to set those same chompers on you just last night. Plus her teeth don't seem to be fully rooted to her jaw like yours - there's a lot of movement going on behind her lips as she tears the chunk of meat apart that goes beyond the human act of mastication that you're used to seeing.

"What did you call this again?" Calibani asks between mouthfuls of stork meat. "Cooking?"

"Yeah, cooking," you reply. "It makes our food healthier, and it tastes better too."

"That's fantastic!" she squeals after taking another ravenous bite. "I never knew you humans were so clever!"

You laugh. "This isn't even good cooking. If I had some spices, I could-"

Her eyes go wide as she lunges forward and grabs your hands. "Let's find some spices!" she says, her smile wide and and just a bit crazy as her serpentine eyes peer deep into yours. "I'm serious! I want to try good cooking! Where do spices come from?"

You scratch the back of your head. "I dunno, India, I think?"

"Then let's go to India!" She beams at your before adding, "Where's India?"

"I don't know, I don't even know where we are!"

"But I told you, sweetness, we're in the Sea of Monsters!" Calibani shoots you a skeptical yet amused glance. "Don't tell me you forgot that already!"

"No, no, I remember, I just don't know where the Sea of Monsters is in relation to India," you say before adding, "And besides, people crossing the sea to take spices from India has historically resulted in some horrendous shit."

Calibani crosses her arms, puffs out her cheeks, and pouts. "Harrumph!"

Scratching your head again, you suggest "But maybe we can find spices elsewhere?"

Calibani's face lights up again. "Yay! Spices!" She goes back to eating her chunk of stork meat, while you look over the roasting drumstick and think about the day's events.

"Why did they run?" you ask quietly, more to yourself than Calibani.

"Hrmm?" Calibani looks up at you with a huge chunk of meat hanging from between her needle-teeth, then swallows it whole before asking, "Why did who run?"

"The storks," you answer. "They had us outnumbered, easily. Why'd they all take off when we killed their pal here? Why not finish us off?"

"Because they didn't think of that."

You blink, having not expected an actual answer to your question, much less one delivered so bluntly. You look at Calibani, and she has her eyebrows raised like what she's saying should be obvious.

"Most creatures don't think of themselves as part of a group, but as individuals," she explains. "When things go South, their first thought isn't 'what should we do,' but rather, 'what can I do to keep myself safe?' Just a knee-jerk reaction of short-term self-preservation. Those storks saw one of their own die, and each one thought, 'Oh, that could be me next,' and decided to bail. Most creatures work that way."

You nod, realizing her explanation makes an odd sort of sense.

"You're different, though."

That addition hits you like a semi truck. "Whuh?" you grunt in confusion.

Calibani is looking at you very thoughtfully. Her smile is smaller now, as if its flame was intentionally dampened, but no less genuine for it. "You think about others before yourself. That's why you tried to get me onto your boat last night, why you didn't let me fall overboard, why you gave me this nice fuzzy thing to wear-"

"It's called a sweater-"

"Right, a sweater, I remember." She smiles as she rubs the sleeve against her cheek to feel its soft texture. "And it's why you warned me when that bird was coming for us. You could have just run - some would even say that was wise, since I've given you nothing but trouble anyway." Her small, soft smile manages to radiate even brighter than the big ones she was giving earlier. "But you warned me, because that's the kind of person you are. I've never met anyone who acts that way before."

She looks down at her meat, as if afraid to meet your gaze, and you look away too as your struggle to figure out how to even begin responding to her analysis of you. Thankfully, the gap in the discussion proves unbearable for her too, as she breaks the silence with a new topic.

"That harpoon is really amazing! I never would have thought I could take down a creature as big as that bird, not in a million, billion years, but here we are, feasting on its remains thanks to your pointy little stick! You humans are really resourceful, aren't you?"

"Yeah, we're... clever." Your voice trails off as a flurry of thoughts and feelings rain down inside your head. "Calibani?"

"Yes, Sailor?"

"I..." You trail off again. "Um..." There are so many things you want to discuss, but you're not sure where to begin. It seems like the time again to consult your compass.

(We're in another conversation scene, so feel free to reply with questions/discussion topics to bring up. You can offer as many as you like, just make sure you label your suggestions with the Direction they'd correspond to. The more replies this gets, the more in-depth the conversation will be!)

[tyrantisterror]

At Sea Without a Map Pt. 10

You can't ignore the nagging feeling that the foliage on the island has shifted position - namely, that the trees are a lot closer to the shoreline than before. You look at them closely, taking note of the strange bird-like thing sitting on top of one of them, which seems to be pretty large itself - perhaps even as big as you, now that you look at it.

As the weird bird sits on its perch, your notice some more oddities about the trees. The individual fibers of their fronds are a lot thinner than you'd expect, so much so that they're almost impossible to make out, giving them an oddly soft appearance. And there seems to be a sort of... you're not sure, a thorn, you suppose, sticking out from the top of each tree at odd angles.

Suddenly the fronds of the nearest tree shake.

The strange bird sitting on top of it spreads its furry, leathery wings and flies off as a massive head and neck emerge from between the leaves, or rather feathers, of the enormous false palm tree. As the massive beak of the monster swivels in your direction on a neck covered in warty, ragged skin that's sunburnt-red, you realize with horrible clarity that these aren't palm trees at all.

They're storks.

An enormous bird slowly and deliberately stalks towards you, its spear-like beak poised to stab out at any moment, while a few feet away Calibani continues to fish, completely unaware of this predicament. You consult your compass.

[tyrantisterror]

At Sea Without a Map Pt. 8

It has been a while since you've had anything to eat, and as you reflect on it, you think that Calibani might have a few points - namely, that you would feel better with a fully stomach, and, well... you are very lonely. So, in a move that's either bold or foolish depending on your perspective, you decide to go help her fish.

However, when you exit the cabin of your boat, you see no sign of your aquatic acquaintance. She isn't sitting on deck with a fishing pole (perhaps unsurprisingly, given that you didn't show here where you put yours), or standing in the water, or anywhere immediately within sight. Did she take off? A small part of you - like, say, 6.3% of your mind - is glad if that's the case, since she did admit to feeling no remorse for trying to eat you, but you can't help but feel bummed out that she didn't even say goodbye before leaving.

Then you spot something wrapped around the railing of your boat.

It seems Calibani didn't take off after all - she's just hanging down the side of your boat for some reason. You look over the edge and see her down below, dangling by her tail with her hair in the water.

"Oh hey, Sailor," she says as she spots you. "Feeling a bit better?"

You squint your eyes at the strange sea monster hanging off of your boat. "I thought you were fishing."

"I am!" she replies cheerfully. "I've already caught a few, just look!"

At first you have no idea what she means, but as you stare at her you notice that there actually are several small fish swimming towards her mane of hair, their eyes wide and mouths open as they head straight for her long, flowing locks.

As one fish approaches, you notice her hair seems to float towards it, almost as if moving of its own accord.

Suddenly the strands of hair snap outwards and wrap around the fish, dragging it back into her mane where it wriggles and writhes, getting more tangled in her locks until its finally breaks its own body trying to get out and lies still.

Calibani squeals in delight. "Ooo, that felt like a big one!"

You simply stare at her, still not sure what you're seeing.

"Is something wrong?"

"Oh, I've just... never seen anyone fish like that before, is all," you say with a penchant for understatement.

"No, I imagine not. Your hair doesn't look long enough for it," she remarks before tilting her head up at you. "Though maybe I'm wrong, perhaps you're hiding a luxurious mane under that hat and raincoat of yours." She giggles as another fish is caught by her hair. "So how do humans fish, anyway?"

"Lots of ways," you say, and for a moment you consider heading back for your fishing pole, until your foot kicks something loose on the deck: the harpoon. Suddenly you get an idea of how you might impress Calibani.

Grabbing the weapon, you climb down the side of the boat and into the water. You look at some of the larger fish swarming nearby, having been attracted by the schools of smaller fish that are swimming towards Calibani's hair. Despite having never used a harpoon before, you're struck with tremendous confidence that you'll be quite effective with this one, taking aim and throwing it hard.

And... your aim is true! The harpoon practically sings as it shoots through the air in a perfect arc, striking into the side of a particularly large fish and pinning it to the floor. You wade over and pick them both up, then present your catch to the sea monster hanging off your deck.

Calibani's tail lets go of the railing as she twists in midair to land on her feet with a fairly small splash for a creature her size, and immediately wades over to see your catch. "That's a big fish!" she remarks with wonder. "My hair could never catch something like that!"

You smile brightly beneath the collar of your raincoat. "Human fishing techniques are pretty great," you say, as if you're an expert all of a sudden. You look over your catch with pride, noticing how it's a completely normal fish and doesn't have any weird anatomical quirks like extra eyes and jaws or strangely human hands. Just a normal, safe, non-monstrous fish that you caught with harpooning skills you didn't know you had until this moment and used to impress a man-eating sea monster in a hand-knit sweater.

...your life has gotten strange.

"Can I try?" Calibani asks as the dozen or so small fish tangled in her locks of hair dangle around her shoulders like bizarre ornaments. "If we catch a few of those, we'll have a great supper!"

Unsure of how to respond, you consult your compass.

[tyrantisterror]

At Sea Without a Map pt. 11

"Calibani!" you shout as you back away from the stork with big, jerky steps backwards through the water, "There's a - a big bird!"

She looks up as soon as you shout her name and turns around, spotting the enormous creature bearing down on you both. Like a beautiful crocodile, she dives headfirst into the ocean and shoots through the water with phenomenal speed and grace, her tail flicking back and forth like a ribbon as it slashes the skin of the ocean in her wake. At first you think she's bailing on you as she tears far ahead of the stork out to sea, but her movement through the waves suddenly arcs as she turns directly towards you. You struggle to follow what happens next, feeling her claws sink into your coat before you see her hit you, and then all of a sudden you find yourself being dragged through the water like an unfortunate jet skier.

Your ride is over almost as quickly as it began when Calibani leaps out of the water with you in tow and tosses you aboard your ship. As you clamber onto your feet, you sea your sea monster friend climb to the top of your boat like some pissed off lizard and brandish your harpoon in her talons as the vast stork stalks towards you both once more.

The two monsters face off for a moment, while you watch on the far end of the deck, unsure of how to help. Calibani puts on a fearless face as rears her arm back to ready the harpoon clutched in her claws, but even you notice a twitch of fear on her face, an a nervous shiver down her spine. This monster that nearly killed you the night before is scared shitless.

The stork watches her closely, its wings flaring out in a threat display as its bulging eyes fix on the sea monster with the harpoon. It shuts its beak tight, ready to spear Calibani like a toad. Both wait for the perfect chance to strike.

And it comes.

The harpoon flies so fast through the air that it actually whistles as it goes, at least before it spears right through the stork's ragged, sun-burnt gizzard and plunges out the other side of its neck. The enormous bird's beak flaps open in a howl of pain that's reduced to a wet and ragged gurgle by the chunk of wood shoved through its windpipe. You watch as the bird stumbles through the water on its stilt-like legs, its long neck whipping about in a frenzy before it finally falls over and collapses into a dying heap on the sandy floor of the ocean.

On the island itself, the remaining "trees" stick their heads out far enough to peek at the scene, just in time to see their kinsman fall dead into the drink with a harpoon through its neck. They blink in surprise for a second, then unfurl their wings and rake off into the sky, their massive wings carrying them high and far away.

You look back at Calibani, who stands on top of your boat with starry eyes as she looks at the bird she brought down. Eventually she feels your gaze, turns to look at you, and beams. "I think you were right!" she tells you. "Maybe my parents did shake spears after all!"

[tyrantisterror]

At Sea Without a Map Pt. 9

Whatever questions or qualms you might have about helping Calibani - and you know you should have several, she tried to kill and eat you - are overwhelmed by your desire for even the tiniest smidge of companionship. It goes to show that humans really are social creatures, as here you are, teaching a man-eating sea beast how to become more lethal by wielding a harpoon, purely for the sake of some friendly bonding. Well, that and perhaps to stroke your ego a bit - you didn't know until a few minutes ago, but you are apparently a genius at throwing harpoons, and guiding Calibani through the basics that you inexplicably know is immensely satisfying. Here you are, Sailor, a master of harpooning.

Calibani is a quick study, too, tossing her harpoon with great precision after a few tries. You have to wait for the fish to calm down after her first few attempts, but with a little time she might very well catch a fair number of fish. Supper today should be pretty good!

As she eyes the fish and lines up her next shot, you look back at the island. It's a pretty beautiful vista, all things considered, with plentiful trees providing shade and, potentially, lumber. Hypothetically, you could stay here a bit. Or even longer than that.

It would be a nice life, wouldn't it? The air is pleasant, food is plentiful, just you, your boat, and your strange sea monster lady friend. Perhaps this is where your journey ends and your life begins.

You lose yourself in the daydream for a bit, only to be snapped out of it by Calibani's excited shouts of, "I got one!"

As you focus on your surroundings once more, you get a faint but noticeable feeling that something has changed, but can't quite place what. You consult your compass.

[tyrantisterror]

At Sea Without a Map Week 2 Roundup

Read the Chapter 1: Dead Set on Getting Fishy roundup here.

We're two weeks into this impromptu lost at sea story, so let's do another roundup and summary!

After surviving the storm with our sea monster acquaintance, you found yourself on an island full of palm trees with Calibani, the man-eating sea creature who you kind of ran over with your boat. You spent some time getting to know her and discussing the fallout of your brief fight, and only noticed at the last minute that the palm trees were moving closer to you. It turned out the trees were actually enormous storks in disguise, one of which tried to make a meal of you and your sea monster acquaintance, only to get a harpoon through its neck for its trouble. After the others fled the scene, you and Calibani shared a meal and got to know each other better, learning that you both share a sense of loneliness and desire for community out here on the Sea of Monsters.

There were only six updates for this chapter, Tree Storks, the last of which was just posted as of this writing and has a poll you can vote on here.

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

And some concept art for your perusal after the cut!