Shimmering Sands Danger, Will Robinson

He'd been lurking about the tidepools for some time now, creeping about and most often plucking himself a juicy meal of well-salted meat from the lush smorgasboard the small hollows of water frequently offered. The sun had risen, and set, and risen and then set again, and still, he scurried about all mouselike and lingered in the area. His belly had made itself content enough and no longer wound in quite such a tight knot of anxiety... but increasingly he was feeling it was time to depart.

It wasn't the first time he had told himself so. Earlier that night, in fact, he had made up his mind to depart, only to find his road blocked once again by the star-limned silhouette of a magnificent buck picking its way across the glimmering sands in the night. Blasted deer! Once he could sweet-talk his feet into moving again, as trembling he stared after the deer as it sauntered out of sight over the next sandy rise, Driftwood beat an ignominious retreat back toward the tidepools, whence he had remained for the rest of another night.

Now, standing on the precipice once more (albeit now a little more to the north), he took a moment to gaze out over the gently-lapping ocean waters shining in the fresh sunrise before inhaling deeply, leaping out among the bobbing waves and starting to determinedly paddle eastward. His dogpaddling paws made interesting patterns in the roseate-hued early morning light reflecting off the ocean waters, but his eyes were drawn much more to the specter of the retreating shore off to his right, and whether or not another sneaksome, interfering ungulate was planning to make a repeat appearance there. Most any other critter, he thought he could handle...even crabs, so long as they kept theirdistance! Just not another of the hooved ones, please.