The lightsmith shaded his eyes and looked out to sea.
Further out, the waters had darkened to violet,
and on the horizon iron grey clouds were piling up.
Out over the ocean, a vast vortichurn was forming.
A cone of condensing water vapour which towered high into the stratosphere,
with cycling winds at its heart.
Slate dark, lit occasionally by electrical discharge somewhere inside its bulk,
the vortichurn slowly moved toward shore.

The woman stirred at his elbow, roused by the loss in warmth, and the darkening of the sky.
She noticed that the increasing,
cool winds had brought out goose bumps on the pale blue skin of her partner,
and that his nipples had hardened into small knots of mauve.
She curled her tail round her feet, propped herself up with one elbow and surveyed her male.

The mass of cloud towered over them now, and around them the sand began to boil.
From amid the blue sand grains emerged thousands of blood red crabs, as large as the air weaver's hand.
Sensing the electricity in the air, the crabs were abandoning the land
and marching armylike into the foaming pink surf.

The lightsmith looked at his lady.
Orange flesh tiger striped with black.
Well coloured, with only the eyes retaining the mirrorshade silver.
He felt his passion rising rapidly.
The clouds blotted out all light and the keen winds made him cold.
He sought out the nearby source of warmth.

As their ferverent coupling reached its crescendo,
the first stinging drops of rain struck the beach.
Where the droplets struck, the sand grains sizzled,
shivered and dissolved in little wisps of smoke.
The intense acidity bit into the lightsmith's back
as he arched over his lover in both agony and release.
He lay over her.
Utterly spent, like a salmon that having spawned,
lies in the shallows and waits to die.
The rain beat a fierce tattoo over his limbs, trunk and head.

Much later, the woman levered the man gently off her,
and then crawled quietly out.
With a last sad glance down at the lightsmith,
she walked along the beach and into the dunes.

Later, the blood red crabs emerged from the surf, and consumed the corpse.