In the morning Kerrick stirred the fire and put the last of the wood upon it. The salt-encrusted driftwood crackled and burnt fiercely with yellow and blue flames. Armun spread their skins before it to dry. The two hunters still lay wrapped in theirs, reluctant to emerge. Kerrick poked them with the butt of his spear and elicited only groans.

“Up!” he called out. “We need some more wood for the fire. Beasts of great laziness—emerge!”

“You had better get it yourself,” Armun said.

He nodded agreement and pulled the wet madraps onto his feet, then trudged to the top of the dune. The rain had stopped and the fog was burning off, clear rays of sunlight touched color from the sea. There was fresh seaweed, shells and other debris at the high tide mark. Any wood there would be too wet. But there was an entire dead tree further along the beach. He would break some branches from that. Kerrick sniffed the sea air and looked out beyond the breakers and spray. Something dark rode up on a wave, then was gone. He dropped to the sand—was it an uruketo? What were Yilanè doing this far to the north? He shielded his eyes and tried to find it again among the whitecapped waves.

There it was—but not an uruketo at all.

“A sail!” he shouted. “A sail, out there—the Paramutan are out there!”

Armun ran to join him, the two hunters finally aroused stumbling up behind her.

“It is a sail,” she said. “But they are going south. What are they doing out there?”

“The seaweed,” Kerrick shouted. “Hanath—run and get some, wood too, even if it is wet. Build up the fire so they can see the smoke!”

Kerrick stirred the fire until it burned fiercely as the two hunters staggered back with their burdens. He spread the seaweed out thinly on top, so that it crackled and smouldered but did not extinguish the fire; white clouds of smoke boiled skyward.

“They are still going south,” Armun cried. “They haven’t seen it.”

“Bring more!”

The fire roared and the column of smoke thickened and climbed higher before Hanath shouted from the beach.

“They have stopped, they’re turning, they’ve seen it now.”

They watched from the top of the dune as the ikkergak wallowed in the water, sail flapping, then came about on the other tack with the big sail billowing full. It came racing towards the shore, rose up on the waves and was carried forward with a rush, onto the sand in a flurry of foam. Dark figures waved and shouted to them while one of them hung tight to the bow. Let go and dropped into the sea, splashed ashore. The two hunters hesitated but Kerrick and Armun ran across the sand towards the ship.

A wave washed over the Paramutan and he stood up, dripping and spluttering and calling out with joy.