The Answer is in the Stars

"Rather a crooked vase, but yes, I can see what you mean. I'm not sure what we would call it in Aqualaria. I'm afraid I never did learn the constellations."

"Well, in Allaria at this time of the year it would be low down on the southern horizon. So I think we must be a long way south for it to be so high in the sky. We could be somewhere on the coast of Nom Malbra or Caibu, maybe, or perhaps even further south than that."

"So we could be beyond the edge of the known world, then. Though it must be known to somebody. That brig is the evidence for that. It didn't look to be of Hespanish design to me, which suggests that we are unlikely to be in one of their colonies."

"I've never seen a brig of that design either. If we can get aboard her tomorrow, perhaps we shall find some clues to her nationality."

"Is it certain that we are somewhere on the east coast?"

"It seems certain that we are on an east coast, since the sun rose over the open sea, remember. But it could be that we are on the east coast of a cape that emerges from somewhere on the west coast of our continent, or even that we are on one of the other continents that geographers have hypothesised might exist."

They settled down for the night. They had realised that the lagoon seemed to be non-tidal (another reason for thinking that it was not joined to the nearby sea), which was fortunate. As far as they knew (they had not as yet tried any experiments), Fred and Astra still could only breathe air, though they could hold their breath for much longer than before. At the same time they did not want their fish halves to dry out. So they chose sleeping positioins on the shore such that their upper bodies were out of the water but their tails beneath it. Obviously this would not have worked if the lagoon had been tidal.

1. In the morning...

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