The ocean was very like the deep desert, Sumira initially thought. But then, the similarities were superficial, just as their vessel, appropriately dubbed "Flotsam", could only ever ride the surface of the sea.

There was the wide, unbroken horizon in every direction. The waves rolling like dunes. The way the sky seemed bigger and closer than anywhere else. The way the sun could be so harsh, and shelter a priceless comodity.

But the desert had been a lonely place when she had travelled there, and this voyage was anything but.

It was like a caravan, but if that caravan contained a travelling circus. Their escorts were jovial, and so welcoming that Sumira and Enoch had been fully adopted by the pod by noon the second day out.

The leader of the pod was Great Dayang Malygaiea, who was most often simply called "Grandmother". She was larger than Flotsam, and older even than Strom, and she followed beside them with her 250-strong clan of irrepressibly happy Leviathan.

The pod brought their own pontoons and lashed them up against Flotsam's sides, and thusly were able to yoke themselves to the drifting houseboat and make it into an ocean-borne carriage, with the strongest swimmers towing them in shifts.

There was a bewildering ammount of variation to their forms. Some of them were more human-like, but for the firm, slippery, hairless skin they had, and the way their limbs flared fin-like at the wrists and ankles. Some had fluked tails and no legs at all. Some were less like whales and sported tentacles like an octopus, or the translucent crest of a man-o-war, or the gills of a shark. Yet they were all Leviathan.

When night fell and the sea was calm enough to keep the oil lamps lit, Sumira sat bundled in wool blankets, leaning back against the low gunwale and watching the stars.

"It's as clear as Elbrus' peak," Enoch said as he joined her, another blanket around his shoulders. "You can even see the cities on Nephele tonight."

Sumira nodded. "Do you think they have wine on Nephele? I wonder what kind of grapes grow on the moon."

Enoch chuckled at that as he sat down beside her. "There's an account in the Academy archive that says they have a kind of grape there that's deep, dark blue, and wine the color of indigo dye."

"How do they know such a thing?"

"They don't, not really. It was told to a scholar by someone claiming to be a moon-traveler. She refused to divulge how she got here, though, so the only proof she had was in her odd appearance and unusual magicks."

"Odd how?"

"Bluish skin, pointed ears... and she could cloak herself in invisibility."

Sumira made a face. "Sounds familiar. Was she also ill-timed and completely insufferable?"

Enoch laughed, the sound drowned under a splash of water as one of the Leviathan vaulted up onto the pontoon behind them. "You're in luck, Bina and Daki are bringing a fire-pit. Calm seas means a hot meal." Kiddat was strong and sleek and close to the two of them in age; he was the one who most often acted as liason between them and the rest of the pod. But as though his advent to the surface were a signal, the waves broke and two or three other young Leviathan hoisted themselves up over the gunwales, smiling wide.

"Sumira! When they bring the fire, you'll teach me the palm-fan dance?" Akkay wasn't the youngest of the pod, but she was the smallest, barely taller than Sumira herself, sleek as a dolphin with streaks of bright yellow along her flanks.

Sumira hopped to her feet and did her best to hug Akkay without dropping her blankets. In the distance, on the darkened sea, a small raft was being towed towards Flotsam, a scattering of dorsal fins breaching the water around it.

Kiddat slid over the gunwale and prodded at the leatherbound logbook Enoch held against himself. "Draw me this time! It's my turn!"

"I've already drawn six other bipeds, Kiddat. I don't need to document more."

"I don't care about your documenting, I want Nagir to see my abs."

"Everyone can see your abs."

"You make everything look prettier when you draw it."

Enoch pursed his lips and hunkered into his blanket.

"I'll get Tomei to surface long enough for you to 'document.'"

Enoch scooted closer to the lamp and opened his book with a tiny sigh. Kiddat grinned at him and struck a pose, leaning back to show off his belly. "Like what you see, shore-man?"

Enoch rolled his eyes. "It's not about what I like, is it."

"Eh, a little. I have a theory, like you would say."

"Oh?"

"I think you like everything you draw. Everything you see, when you start to draw it, you fall a little in love."

Enoch hoped there wasn't enough light for Kiddat to see his cheeks turn red. Alal had said the same thing before they'd entered the port town and parted ways.

"...what makes you say that?" His stylus flicked across the page as he tried to sink his thoughts into blocking in the drawing.

"It's there in how you draw things. Something in it is just very kind and soft."

Enoch glanced up to see Akkay and Sumira looking at them and he wished for the hundredth time that Leviathan voices weren't so naturally loud.

(continued in Thresher's lore entry)