About this story
Rather than go back to sea, you and your friend Toby slip away from the liberty party to strike into the interior, cutting through reed brakes and starving across five days of ridges and gorges. Descending at last into an inhabited valley, too weak to retreat, islanders meet you and name it Happar, though the look between them tells Toby the answer is not settled.
How it opens
Six months without land had reduced the Dolly's provisions to hard biscuit and salt meat.
Jack LewisThe ship falls off because even her timbers remember growing on shore.
Sun had cracked the paint, barnacles burdened the stern, and the last chicken awaited Sunday.
MungoWhen Pedro reaches the captain's table, perhaps he will finally steer for vegetables.
Captain VangsNext week we shape course for the Marquesas and replenish properly.
Choose
Land is welcome even when sailors know almost nothing about its people.
A harbor visit is not deliverance if the Dolly means to resume this voyage.