Gnats

Hespan was famous for its beautiful beaches [14618]. The clean, white, fine sand was characteristic of the beautiful east coast, facing the endless Terel Sea.

Astra was facing a beach on Hespan's south coast.

There appeared to be no harbour, or settlement of any kind. However, a haze hung over the beach, much like the smoke from a bonfire. The 'sand' appeared to be greenish-black and glossy in places. Sea oats covered patches of the beach, and strands of stunted dwarf oaks were clumped further back. The gulls and little greyish-blue birds zipping around in the haze gave Astra hope that there was food, if not human habitation, nearby.

Astra took the plunge. She was wary of sharks and stinging animals, such as the jellyfish, but saw no signs of them. The waves were gentle at first. She received a jolt when something scaly slid across the back of her hand, but it was just a harmless fish.

As Astra approached shore, the waves started to break. She would slow down, and stay behind the crest of a wave, bobbing up and down on the ocean's surface. She still could not quite touch bottom yet. Suddenly an unusually large wave caught her unawares, and she rose with it into the air as it started to break, and then plunged to the ocean's bottom. Fortunately, it was not deep, and she was able to bob back to the surface quickly, spitting out briny water.

Within a couple of minutes, the ocean was now shallow enough where it was easier for her to wade than to swim. The bottom of the ocean was lined with fine shells from tiny clams and shellfish, and wading in did not appear to be dangerous. She now could smell something foul and heavy. She thought that it must have been the smoke, but this was not the normal smell of burning wood. The smell was similar to the oil one would put in a lamp, but far more powerful.

She was waist-deep in water when she understood what the "haze" was, and why the little greyish-blue birds were zipping around. She swatted the back of her neck, and could hear the high-pitch buzz of millions of sand gnats. She quickly ducked into the water, and swam out just beyond the reach of the gnats. When she looked up again, she saw that the little birds were catching and eating the gnats. Astra doubted that she would be able to land here without receiving thousands of small bites, or at best, driven to distraction by the swarm of gnats getting in her eyes and buzzing in her ears.

Seeing the birds and the gnats set off a chain of associations in Astra's mind. The birds were called Blue Gnatcatchers, first named by the noted explorer Captain Shirk. She remembered hearing this from a traveler entertaining at court one time. And she remembered something else. The same explorer was said to have found a dark, foul-smelling waxy goo that was said to be proof against insects on one of his voyages. His crew was able to survive on an insect-infested island by rubbing the goo all over their bodies. Something on this beach certainly smelt foul, and some of the rocks on the beach did seem to be smooth and shiny, like candle wax. There appeared to be a pool of it that she could get to in twenty seconds.

Of course, the account of the insect-repelling goo was a tale of Captain Shirk's voyages. How much was truth, and how much was poppycock, could only be imagined.

1. Astra decides to try to smear the goo on herself.
2. Astra tries to swim along the coast, away from the swarm of gnats.

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