It felt early. The sky was bathed in predawn gray, a light mist playing across the valley of sand. A salty breeze howled softly through the archway, but the ocean, thankfully, was nowhere to be seen. Just to be sure, I reached for the binoculars dangling from my neck and scanned the western horizon.

It was out there somewhere, concealed behind distance and fog. Having witnessed the full moon’s effect on the tide, I thought it possible the beach might remain a barren desert for another three to four weeks, depending on the radical pattern of the altered lunar orbit.

Three to four weeks … I wondered if I’d be awake by then.

But wait … the desert was not barren after all! As the sun rose behind the cliffs, its golden rays reflected a brilliant spark upon an immense object that had washed ashore against its will. I trained my glasses on the spot, the glistening monstrosity anchored in the sand perhaps a mile or so away.

Oceanus …

Chapter 20

20

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

—BUDDHA

It became almost impossible to think clearly or organize my thoughts.

Real or not, the process of withdrawing the ant toxin had cost me a pint or three of blood—at least that’s what it felt like. Woozy, I backed away from the precipice, retracing my path as quickly as I dared through the cavern of bats, sensing, from the increased activity overhead, that the furry fanged creatures were awakening with the dawn.

I cannot say how long it took me to return to the section of cave where I had last seen the cephaloped; perhaps it was an hour, perhaps half a day … or maybe I had never left? Maybe I had dreamt the whole bat-infested chamber and the vision of Oceanus beached like a giant globe while I lay—delirious; the entire episode a hallucination caused by the real or imagined loss of blood. All I know is that one moment I thought I was slogging my way up stream, the next—I was lying in it.

The prolonged immersion in cold water helped remove the inflammation from my body and eventually revived me. And yet I felt so drained that I could have remained there indefinitely, floating in waves of ethereal orange light had my hunger pangs not intervened.

Rolling over onto my knees, I dragged myself onto my feet and leaned against a stalagmite, the dripping rags clinging to my limbs assuring me that I had at least ventured through part of the cave. And so I set off again, this time moving upstream, following the path of the eight-legged being that had saved my life, even though I could find no evidence that our shared moment in time had ever taken place.