Roger stayed for a long while trying to recover some energy. He felt completely exhausted and weak. He struggled to remember. All the experiences of the past night were still spinning inside his head as a fast whirl. He could hardly comprehend what had just happened.

He could only recollect a great confusion, thunder, sirens, frightened screams, fog, rain and people running. He remembered himself falling overboard, desperately trying to hold on to something and float after the ship hit the rocks and sank. His cloudy memory brought back the torture of swimming against the storm, the fatigue, the wound...on thinking of this the blow on his head started to pang again. His mind captured some vague impression of the storm calming a bit toward dawn and the strong waves pushing him to the shore when he had no more energy left to swim and floated carelessly holding a piece of wood.

He had the impression of having been there all morning, dazed and tired. As he slowly recovered his senses now, for the first time realizing he was actually alive and safe, an indescribable relief invaded him. Never had he been so close to death as the night before.

With effort he sat and looked around. Effectively he was in a tropical island and apparently the only survivor. The wound on his forehead hurt him more than ever and he discovered he was a lot more tired than he thought. Aching in every move he crawled towards the vegetation. He knew he needed some rest before he could think what to do and preferred to lay down in the jungle sheltered under the palmers than scorch beneath the noon sun. He stretched out on the fresh grass, breathing deeply, thanking his lucky star he was alive, and before he had time to think anything else fell fast asleep.

Near him the sound of leaves moving, careful footsteps and the cracking sound of a stick being stepped on awoke him with a start. He was still dazed and sat up moaning, with difficulty, rubbing his aching head. He must have slept a long while for the sun was now very low, nearly kissing the blushing waves.

The sound started him again and he turned, alert, looking everywhere around. He met a stranger face peeking at him from behind a big bush. Roger felt uneasy, observing the distrusting expression those eyes fixed on him and without losing them from sight he carefully drew his hand to his waist ready to grab his knife in case of a sudden attack. Before he knew it the face had disappeared and was now beside him, peeking from behind a palm tree. Roger let out a sigh of relief and dropped again flat on his back on the plant carpet beneath him.

"'s just a woman...!" He whipped the streams off his forehead and put his knife back. "You scared me!" He reproached her. "Come out here. Let me see you."

Seeing the man lying down giving no signs of getting up to attack her Calou ventured to walk out from her hidingplace. However she dared not approximate too much, noticing now that his eyes were a greenish blue matching the exact hue of the ocean and the expression they addressed her figure concerned and frightened her.

She had no idea why the sea god had abandoned his kingdom and now wore a human body, but whatever affairs he had on land she would not stand on his way; instead she'd make his stay pleasant treating him as his superior rank deserved. She had brought her basket full of fruits to offer him but hesitated at first.

The sea-blue eyes scrutinized her from head to toes making her extremely nervous. Roger observed the girl intensely trying to identify in her outfit and features what part of the world he was in. Obviously this island was far away from any country and probably nonexistent in the maps as he could tell from Calou's uncivilized aspect.

The girl was brunette, with very dark skin and straight long hair that fell in disorder over her shoulders and breasts half hiding a number of necklaces made out of stones and flowers covered her like a cape. She had flowers interwoven all over her black hair and some fell on a cascade of colors down to her skirt, made of a very thin leather and covered with plenty of long and thin leaves. She wore giant seashell-shaped earrings as sparkling as her black eyes. On the back of her left hand he could see a tattoo representing as red fiery fair-face with glaring eyes and sharp teeth (though he could not guess the meaning of such an ornament). Both her wrists and calves wore broad gold bracelets.

Roger feared he might be in trouble. Everybody knows natives are hard to deal with: very different in behavior and quite unpredictable. Still, people was people, and despite the danger it was comforting the knowledge that he wasn't all alone in this remote place. His only hope was trying to communicate.

As he laid down thinking about his possibilities Calou had cautiously approached him and kneeling down beside him she put the fruits on the floor.

"well... at least they're sociable..." Roger looked at the gift somewhat relieved, for the first time realizing he was starving.

While he partook of this simple meal he asked her many questions about the island and the other people that lived there. He tried to help the speech with gestures but after a while it became quite obvious the native understood his mimics even less than his tongue.

Calou stayed quietly seated beside him waiting for him to tell her the reason of this visit to dry land. In a few minutes she realized that gods can't speak since this one only emitted incoherent sounds like animals do. Not understanding what he tried to say she soon stopped paying attention and just entertained her eyes on his appearance, which fascinated her by the strong resemblance the sea god had with his element.

She was about to ask him how long he intended to stay on the island when the strange being took off his turtle shell (which was actually a life vest) and his shinny black feet, as if he was peeling a fruit. Calou followed all his movements astonished.

The night was falling and Roger took some dry sticks and pulled out his lighter. A few seconds later Calou ran like the wind through the jungle while Roger, astonished, called after her: "Wait! Come back!... What's wrong?"

She ran without even turning her head back until she almost reached the hut and stopped for a minute to recover her breath. The sudden fear and her speed had caused her heart to pound like thunder and she had to sit on the floor, panting, trying to calm down.

Seeing the sea god so human-like had given her the confidence to approach him, but now, as she witnessed him making fire with the move of a finger, it suddenly reminded her this was a mighty powerful being and it was wise to keep a prudent distance. She had no idea what he intended to do in her land, but she would definitely not distract him from it.

Meanwhile Roger stayed on the beach disconcerted by that sudden escape. The night soon became cold and he drew close to the fire to warm up. He was feeling somewhat recovered thanks to that fruit supper Calou had brought him. Now all he needed was some good sleep and tomorrow he could explore the territory and find a way to return home.