Wheeling Gull Isle the invention of the ship was the invention of the shipwreck

Abel had not yet realized how to adapt to the cruelty of the world. He wanted to surrender himself to something larger than himself; he wanted the universe to hold him. He wanted to be loved unconditionally. He was falling into a bottomless pit, seeking constant reassurance to overcome his inner sense of helplessness and paranoia.

He found this comfort only in Ava. He didn't believe that anyone else would love him the way she did. She didn't see that he was made of sin, and she didn't mind that he couldn't verbalize his thoughts or affections to her. The time they spent together was enough.

So spend time they did. Abel typically avoided the water; there was something nebulous about it he didn't like. In his dreams, it swallowed him whole. But if Ava led, he would follow, and he would do so without fear. He nipped at her hocks as he trailed behind her creeping shadow, dipping his toes in the water for the first time since his baptism, and only the second since he'd set foot on the island.