The broken boat spiraled as it plummeted through the darkness. Everyone held on tight hoping it would end before their grip gave out.

Plunged into light, they all felt the familiar shifting of gravity as they fell through a rupture and scattered across a sandy beach. Jadon pulled himself up immediately and looked up. The sky was a vibrant blue, two suns in the sky. The group had landed on a small island in the middle of an endless ocean.

The outer ring of the island, which could be covered in under a minute, was a sandy beach. A few trees stood in the center of the island. Their leaves fanned out and Jadon could see the rippling of the water as much as feel the momentum of the island. They were moving.

Beth looked over the edge and into the water, quickly pulling herself back. The water did not have a visible bottom, although it was clear enough to see far deeper than she had read about the oceans in Rinterria.

“Where do you think we are?” Beth asked the group.

“How about we introduce ourselves,” Ephin said, “I’d like to know the names of the last people I see before I die. I’m Ephin Aeleis.”

“I’m Beth Cogsman. But could you try being a little more sensitive about that sort of thing?”

“Oh, I meant no offense to any of you. Except you of course.” Ephin turned to stare daggers at Jadon who raised his hands.

“What did I do?” Jadon said, “Jadon, by the way.” He followed to the others behind Ephin.

“If you didn’t get us to go down that damned tunnel, we wouldn’t have let out whatever that thing was. Which means that rabbit’s death is on your hands.”

“Now, that’s unfair,” Jadon said, taking a step towards Ephin. “You went down too. If you didn’t try to sneak off when you did, we wouldn’t have alerted that guy in the first place.”

“You saying I’m to blame for its death?”

“Arledge.”

“What?” Ephin asked, turning around.

“His name was Arledge Clove,” Iarkspur said, tears welling up in her eyes. “Be respectful.”

“In any case,” Beth said, stepping between the two men. “How are we going to get off of this chunk of land?”

“Good question,” Guy said, “Oh, Guy Melneramus here. Anyway, I noticed our friend Iarkspur here has quite the knack with plants. Perhaps she could ask them for advice?”

“No offense, guard,” Jadon said, “but what the heck are you on about?”

“People gifted with nature manipulation are generally able to communicate with the plants they can manipulate. I- I thought that was common knowledge.” Guy smiled and then looked at his feet and backed up slightly, so that the others could look at Iarkspur.

Iarkspur was not capable on commenting about her abilities as she had progressed from small tears to near breathless crying. Sniffing and trying to wipe away her tears as more came down, she turned from the group and went to go sit by one of the trees, with her back towards the others.

“I think she just needs some time,” Beth said softly, lying down on the sand and soaking in the warmth of the suns. “We may as well make the most of this chance to rest. It feels like we’ve been running for days.”

“Are you insane?” Ephin said to Beth, “how are you so relaxed in this situation?”

“What am I realistically going to be able to do about anything?” Beth asked, her eyes closed.

“We need to work out how to get off of here.”

“Which is in Iarkspur’s hands,” Beth said, “and she needs time to process the last few hours. Can you at least give her that?” She opened one eye to look up at Ephin who wavered and then sat down beside her.

Jadon groaned as he sat down also.

“Serves you right,” Ephin mumbled, getting a stray swat from Beth.

“Can you lay off for one second?” Jadon said, taking in the heat. He had never felt natural weather like this, although he had heard that further up north, they had long periods of time to soak in the warm light of the sun.

Guy did not settle, making the most of the view and inspecting the large trees that acted like sails to push the island along. Every now and then he spotted a similar looking island in the distance, but they were far and few between.

Then a strange thought caught in his head. If the island was moving, that meant they were on land that was somehow light enough to not only float but to move at the pace they were. Which also meant that their land was not connected to land beneath them.

Jadon, Ephin and Beth all shot up from lying down, hearing the splash of Guy going head over heels into the water. They looked at each other and Ephin scrambled to his feet to jump in after him. Ephin dove under the island to find Guy, who was flailing around under the water, he tried to help pull Guy to the surface, however the movement of the island meant that they were stuck underneath it and trying to swim to the back of it meant that they would be left behind in the ocean.

Ephin looked up, the bottom of the island was a mass of seaweed, many strands reaching out and paddling to help push the island along. His lungs began to reach their limit. He was not used to holding his breath like this. He could see that Guy was faring even worse and a flurry of bubbles escaped as Guy coughed out, trying to drag in whatever air he could. And he smiled. He indicated for Ephin to breathe in, which he resisted against.

Ephin heard a splash and saw Iarkspur near the surface, holding onto the side of the island. She extended some of the strands of seaweed and pulled both Ephin and Guy to the surface.

Just before they crested the surface, Ephin’s lungs gave out and he automatically tried to gulp in something to replace the lost air. Water flooded his lungs in a refreshingly filling feeling. Yet he could breathe. He exhaled and inhaled once more.

They were flung onto the beach by the seaweed and Iarkspur pulled herself up afterwards. Both Ephin and Guy coughed out the water in their lungs, exchanging a look of confusion and amazement.

“You idiot,” Iarkspur said, slapping Guy’s head sharply, “you realize you could have drowned. Gods, you nearly did.”

“No, we didn’t,” Ephin said slowly.

“What are you talking about,” Beth said, “you just threw up like a bucket load of water.”

“We can breathe underwater,” Guy said.

“What do you mean you can breathe underwater? I thought you were human?” Jadon asked Guy.

“I am. It’s weird but just try it, trust me,” Ephin said.

“Sure, trust the guy who won’t stop having a go at me,” Jadon retorted.

“Trust me then,” Guy said.

“You’re a city guard. Trusting you was never on the cards.”

“Look,” Iarkspur said, “like it or not, we’re stuck together. The sooner we get over that, the quicker we can work towards getting home and going our separate ways.”

“How are you doing?” Beth asked.

“I’m okay. Thank you. I have a plan, although I’ll need to go home to sort it out,” Iarkspur said, “for now, let’s see if I can talk to trees.”

Iarkspur shrugged and walked back into the shade of the sail-like trees and sat down, pressing a hand against one of them.

Hey, she thought, anyone there?

Oh, hi there, came a smooth, low voice in her mind. It is not often that we get visitors that chat to us.

How often? Iarkspur asked.

Well, never. How are you? The low voice responded.

I’m okay, but my friends and I are in a bit of a bind. Any chance you know how to get off this island?

Not personally, but I would always suggest swimming. That is, if I weren’t a tree, the voice seemed to try a laugh but it came out rigid and unnatural.

Of course. Anything more useful?

Not really, all I’ve seen since you showed up was water and water and more water.

Well, thank you for your time anyway. I’m going to go now. Iarkspur thought, lifting her hand off the trunk of the tree.

“I don’t think I got anything useful from them,” Iarkspur said to the group as she walked back. “Just told me to swim.”

“Well, that’s obvious,” Jadon said.

“I can’t swim,” Beth said, “I grew up in the desert.”

“Well, where better to learn than a never-ending ocean?” Jadon said wryly.

“A never-ending ocean where you can breathe underwater, too,” Guy said.

“I guess so,” Beth said, “but where are we swimming to?”

“I saw some things deep down,” Guy said, “when I went under for an inspection.”

“Is that what you call it?” Ephin said, flapping a wet sleeve in his direction.

“Yes,” Guy said, “look over here. We might be able to see one if we look over the side.”

“Sea one,” Beth said, “d'you get it?”

“Shut up, please,” Jadon said.

“Not a single laugh, really?” Beth asked as everyone sped up their pace away from her and to the edge of the island to peer over the side.

Guy pointed into the water towards something that was shining, deep down. If it was as far away as it looked, whatever it was, was huge and strangely giving off light. Guy then pointed to another one a good distance away to the right, the opposite way to the island’s direction of travel.

“I think we should check out one of those things,” Guy said.

“What are they?” Jadon asked.

“Not a clue, but when I got a look underwater, they didn’t look like sea creatures, so it’s unlikely we’ll get eaten by one.”

“Great,” Beth said, “now I have that thought stuck in my head too.”

“Look,” Ephin said, “we need to decide to do something soon. We have no food; no drinkable water and the weather is hot. If we don’t find somewhere to sort out those things, we won’t have the energy to deliberate much more.”

“My vote is swim to the weird light bubble,” Guy said.

“Screw it, same,” Jadon agreed.

“I was told to swim and if that’s the only working direction, sure,” Iarkspur said.

“Beth?” Ephin asked, everyone turning to look at her.

“I’ll go where the group goes, but you’re going to have to show me how to swim.”

“Then it’s settled. We’re-” Ephin sighed and shook his head in disbelief. “We’re going to swim down to the random light in the middle of the ocean.”

The water was cool, but Beth noticed the temperature dropping the deeper they got and the further from the influence of the suns they swam.

Being able to breathe underwater was a huge help for the others teaching her how to swim. They drifted with the currents quite a bit, quickly losing sight of the island as it continued on its journey.

Beth managed to copy the motions of the others and figured out how to use her feet and hands similarly to paddles to push herself along under the water.

They stayed together as a tight knit group as they dove lower and lower.

From what Beth had read, they had rapidly passed the depth at which water pressure would be fatal and yet they were still alive.

It must be something to do with this water, she mused, we are able to breathe it and the pressure is little more than a comforting hug, if cold, maybe the same thing that makes it breathable stops the pressure getting to us?

She focused on the theorizing to keep her from looking around at the rest of the ocean. Even trying to avoid looking, she could see things moving around out there. Many were smaller than the bubble of light they were swimming towards but some were larger, far larger.

Thankfully most of the beings that dwarfed them were too far away to bother coming closer, although some shoals of fish did split around them, taking in the peculiar looking beings.

The closer the group got the more details they could pick up about the ball of light. Firstly, it was moving. Just at such a slow pace it was negligible for the group trying to catch up to it. Secondly, the light was actually coming from multiple smaller light sources within the bubble and not the bubble itself.

They approached closer still and saw structures. And beings moving about between them. They were swimming towards an underwater settlement.

They carried on swimming closer until they were within touching distance of the bubble. They all looked at each other and pushed a hand into the outer rim of the bubble and gravity grabbed them once more. The group fell from the outer rim of the bubble towards the center, the rock rising to meet them.