Stavanger Bay Clearest blue

He didn't answer right away and thought she heard the dim ringing of a warning bell in the back of her mind. But it faded into the background when his rich timbre sounded again. What did she think? Sharkbait balked, if only inwardly. She didn't know what to think. Thinking hurt. Her lips parted as if to tell him this, though he continued and put her worries to rest. He was her father then. She knew the meaning of that word intimately, despite all the other disconnects in her mixed-up mind, and though her trepidation did not cease, she suddenly felt that much safer. She half-listened as he declared his name and title, the information meaning nothing to her, though she filed it away in one shadowy corner of her mind or another.

She didn't have much else to say. With her thirst quenched and hunger sated, true exhaustion crept over her. Little did either one of them know that Sharkbait would require nearly a week to recover from today's ventures. She would sleep for days, regathering her strength. Whether she would recover her memories and sense of self too remained to be seen. For now, the juvenile thought of very little as she unwittingly slumped forward, dropping to a boneless, snoring, salt-crusted heap at her daddy's feet.