"Haste to the shore, look to the main,
Be not beset by fears.
Wait faithfully for a Sea King there,
And take with you six tears."
No creature within the Abbey walls was more eager or determined to carry out the Warrior's bidding than Tansy. In the space of three days she had organized everything and made the journey.
Auma had given Tansy permission to take a small party with her and erect a marquee on the beach. However, the badger Mother had insisted that Skipper and his otter crew, including Rangapaw and her searchers, in company with Log a Log and the Guosim shrews, accompany the little expedition as bodyguards. Log a Log led them to the place where Waveworm had left Mossflower's shore, and a camp was set up. Tansy took with her Craklyn, Rollo, Gerul and Friar Higgle, and much against the badger Mother's better judgement, but after great persuasion by the hedgehog maid, Arven, Diggum and Gun-bowl. The Dibbuns were thrilled by their first visit to the seaside and promptly got into all kinds of mischief.
Rollo sat atop a rocky outcrop close to the tent, with Tansy and Craklyn at his side. Their eyes ached with two days of staring out to sea. The old Recorder polished his spectacles, drowsy in the noontide warmth.
"Are you sure that's what Martin said in your dream, miss, wait faithfully for a Sea King there?" he asked. "What's a Sea King?"
Tansy held the six pearls in their scallop-shell case on her lap. "I haven't a clue. Sounds pretty fearsome, though, doesn't it? What d'you think this Sea King'll look like, Craklyn?"
"Well, my guess is that it's some kind of fearsome monster, just like those lizards who came with the searats. The Sea King probably has Abbot Durral and Viola with him, that's why Martin told you to take the pearls along, to ransom them both back from the Sea King."
Tansy's eyes strayed to a rockpool where the Dibbuns were playing. "Hmm, that makes sense, I never thought of it like that. Arven! Come here, you little maggot, and show me what you've got there!"
The little squirrel and the two molebabes carried a wooden shrew soup bowl carefully, water slopping over its edges. Approaching the rock where the friends were seated, Arven peered villainously up at them, holding the bowl up.
"Whooo, Tansy pansy, we gorra likkle spider wot swims inna water, an' he gonnajump up an' bite you noses off!"
Rollo peered down at the tiniest crab he had ever seen, no bigger than a little apple pip. It scrambled sideways underwater, holding up two claws that were almost invisible to the naked eye.
The Recorder looked severely over his glasses at the giggling trio. "That's no spider, it's a baby crab, and somewhere in that pool it has a mother and father as big as I amno, bigger! If you don't put their baby straight back into the pool they'll be out here in a moment and have you three for dinner!"
"Gurr, ee do say, zurr? Purrum back ee likkle crab-spoider, h'Arven, quick loik. Oi bain't gettin h'etted up by that'n's mum'n'daddy!" They fled squealing to empty the bowl back into the pool.
Tansy returned her gaze to the horizon of endlessly shifting sea. She stared westward and pondered, "I wonder what happened to Martin and the others? I hope the Sea King hasn't harmed them. Maybe we'll be able to use the pearls and strike a bargain that'll get them all returned to us."
Gerul wandered over, munching on a hot shrewcake. "Sure an' I know how t'get me ould mate Clecky back here, just keep good vittles cookin'! That great gut-tub'd smell 'em from a hundred leagues off, so he would!"
"Aye, an' those two sons o' mine," Log a Log called over from the cooking fire, "they'd foller their noses down t'the gates o' Dark Forest if'n they thought they'd find a free feed there!"
Skipper looked up from some hotroot soup he was stirring. "Let's 'ope none of our friends 'as found their way to Dark Forest's gates," he said.
A respectful silence fell over allbeasts who had heard the otter Chieftain's words.
Night fell over the encampment. Skipper gathered the snoring Dibbuns up from the remnants of supper and their broken sand-castles, carried them into the marquee and deposited them gently on a heap of dry rushes. Smiling fondly, he watched the Ab-beybabes snuggle down, still asleep, but giggling and snuffling as they settled. Rollo was deep in slumber and Craklyn was sitting with the shrew and otter crews, singing ballads and ditties. Skipper hauled himself up onto the rock, where Tansy was still seated, watching westward over the night-time seas.
"Ahoy, miss, ruinin' yer eyesight ain't goin' t'get no Sea King 'ere a moment sooner than he's due to arrive, believe me."
Tansy rubbed the back of the scallop shell case with her paw. "I know, Skip, but I feel as if it's my responsibility, somehow. I'd hate to think of the Abbot and Viola arriving here by night, in the clutches of a foebeast, with not a friendly face to greet them. It wouldn't be right, would it?"
The otter Chieftain nodded. "I know wot y'mean, young 'un, but you go off'n get yore rest now. I'll watch awhile then post some others later. If anythin' gets sighted I'll wake yer meself."
Thanking the kindly otter, Tansy went into the marquee and lay down alongside the three Dibbuns. Outside she could hear the restless waves breaking on the shore. Flickering firelight shadows against the tent wall reflected the creatures sitting around the fire outside. She fell asleep to the sound of Craklyn joining the shrews and otters in an old woodland ballad.
"Shrum, shrum, double die dum,
Rivers may flow but the streams they do run
Kissing the willows that droop sad and low,
Through sunlight and shadow as onward they go.
Shrum, shrum, fie upon thee,
Ye rivers an' streams that flow down to the sea,
I sit by your banks through the long weary day,
To mourn for my true love who you bore away.
Shrum, shrum, cruel is fate,
How long must I linger by water and wait,
You babble round rock and you swirl around stone,
And share your dark secrets with none but your own.
Shrum, shrum, tears may fall,
I'm bound for the place where the lone seabirds call,
I'll build me a boat and sail down to the sea,
There I'll search for the heart that is dearest to me.
Shrum, shrum, shrummmmmmmmmm!"
In her dreams Tansy was again visited by the ancient spirit of Martin. This time he had only one thing to say. “The Abbess will know .what to do with the pearls!"
Morning light found a breezeless day, with heavy mist wreathing the shoreline. Everybeast was up bright and early to help with the day's chores. Tansy and Craklyn took the Dibbuns along the tideline, gathering driftwood for the fire.
It was a strange, subdued sort of day, even the Abbeybabes seemed quieter than usual. Tansy and Craklyn kept an eye on the little ones as they looped a rope around the bundle they had gathered. Only the gentle lap of waves against the sand broke the silence where they stood, hemmed in by mist shrouds.
Suddenly Tansy felt an odd compulsion stir within her. She turned to face seaward, staring into the mist. Craklyn and the Dibbuns turned with her. Arven sounded rather fearful as he tugged her tunic hem.
"Tansy, worra matter, sumfink out there ..."
A great shining dark monster, dripping water and wearing a gold crown upon its head, came shuffling out of the sea, dragging in its jaws a thick rope. Casting aside the rope the beast threw back its massively sleek head and roared.
"Haaaaaaaawm!"
As Craklyn and the three Dibbuns clung to her, Tansy could hear herself shouting aloud, "Help! The Sea King! Help! Help!"
Then the beach was alive with dark shining creatures of all sizes, from fully grown to little ones, all roaring as they flung ropes in the air.
"Haaaaaaaaaawm! Haaaaaaaaaaawm!"
Armed with javelin and rapier, Skipper and Log a Log came bounding through the mist. However, they skidded to a stunned halt when a dark mountainous object rode through the fog on a wave and ground to a halt, ploughed deep into the tideline sands.