Blackwater Islands The blood is rushing, but you're paralyzed

"what were you doing when de attack happened?" mireille asked bluntly. she was investing herself into this tale, for it kept her from anger, from annoyance, from thinking of her seacliff home and how her mothers must be sick with worry.
"i t'ink i fell into a lake or somet'ing. de water where i woke was no longer salty. an' dis ocean be different. fierce. darker." 
she huffed, lapsing into a silence during which her belly growled loudly and embarrassingly. mireille pinned her ears back and said nothing.