Tortoise trudged along the black sand beach. Seagulls cried in the wind. On the point up ahead, Gecko was gesticulating wildly for him to hurry up. Tortoise kept trudging, and eventually reached Gecko’s side.

“Look!” Gecko said. “It’s already arrived.”

“What?” Tortoise said, catching his breath, not bothering to look.

“In the bay. It’s a ship. Look!”

Tortoise looked. He’d never seen anything like it in his whole life, he was sure of that. “What’s a ship?”

“That’s how I got here, remember? On a ship. It’s made from trees and stuff. But if it hits rocks it falls apart and everyone goes for a swim.”

“Oh, yeah. Right. A ship. So now what?”

“We wait until darkness, then swim over and sneak aboard.”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what? It’ll be fun.” Gecko hopped from foot to foot.

Tortoise sighed. “First, we don’t know who they are. Maybe they’re unfriendly. Second, we don’t know where they’re going. It could be a lot worse than here. This is our home. And third… well, third, I can’t swim.”

“Boring!” Gecko swished his tail.

“No, sensible.” Tortoise said, suddenly feeling very sensible.

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“Yes, sensible,” Gecko replied. “Sensible and boring.”

“You’re right. Not drowning is boring. But I think I prefer it all the same.”

“Look!” Gecko cried. “They’re coming ashore.” Sure enough, a longboat had been lowered, and slowly made its way towards the beach.

Tortoise could make out several figures onboard. “We should go, Gecko. I don’t like this.”

“What do you mean? Other people are coming. Don’t take this the wrong way, Tortoise, but you’re the only interesting tortoise on the island. All the others are kinda boring. Don’t you ever want to talk to other people? Find out stuff?”

“Not real—” Tortoise began.

“C’mon, let’s go meet them halfway.” And Gecko began to run down the beach toward the boat.

“Gecko!” Tortoise called out. “Stop!” One of the figures on the boat pointed something at Gecko, and there was a flash of glinting light. Tortoise knew they’d seen him.

For the first time he could remember, Tortoise was afraid. His whole body screamed to get inside his shell and stay there. Instead, he found himself running after Gecko as fast as his legs could carry him.

“Gecko—wait!”

#

The stranger approached, his two companions waiting by the boat. He was stocky and formidable. He was covered in hair, and had a long white snout, a big black nose, brown head, large floppy ears. He wore a black coat and white breeches, a strange hat, and various accoutrements hung from his belt.

“Do you speak his language?” Tortoise whispered. “What do we say?”

“Shh. Don’t worry, leave it to me,” Gecko whispered back. “I’ve got a lot of experience with dogs.”

Gecko stepped forward to greet the stranger. He leaned forward and sniffed the air several times, then drew up and opened his arms wide. He cleared his throat.

“Greetings, friend! We bid you welcome to our island. We have little food or water, but what we have we are more than willing to—”

Without ceremony, the dog clubbed Gecko over the head, and Gecko fell silently to the ground. The dog took a large sack hanging from his belt, and stuffed Gecko’s limp body into it.

Horrified, Tortoise tried to think of what to do. Before he could move, the dog strode over and clubbed him over the head as well.

##

Next episode: Prisoners on the Beagle