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But this e The sed powder, and he can sense the otherin the water, and below them, around theer is already descending Tap Red-and-sub-red-and-the-taste-of-blood-in-his-mouth-and-it’s-too--

The trick with sharks is the nose Not so different fro elsewhere right quick Easy, right? Easy

Gunner ain’t no easy meat The sea’s my mirror Fickle as me Crazy as me Deep currents, and monsters rise from her depths, too What others call sea spray, I call her spitting in my face, friendly like Unlike most of this lot, I can swi best at a bit of a distance

Shefierce

The shark she’s sent after er shark Good hunters Fast Curious as a crotch-sniffing hound Mad as a starving lotus eater Usually twice as long as a ht My shark’s bigger Three tih the water, of course Don’t want to exaggerate Hate exaggerators Fucking hate ’eht

The scraps and shrapnel lines and barrels of the shipwreck litter the sapphire waters everywhere, but that tiger’s co how tenacious she is, it’ll take me a few minutes to swim to an appropriately sized--

"Oy, Ceres!" I shout as a thought occurs to me "I knohy you’re mad!" Not many people know it, but the Cerulean Sea is named for Ceres Not for the color Those tits and twits at the Chro revolves around thebeautiful arcs on the open water I’ot out first, saw that the fires were headed for the powder e h the distraction of all the other et to me

"Ceres! Easy, Ceres Co my face to the beastie Sharks are cowards--like to pull you down fro with these tiny littleyou think they’re ponderous, but when they strike, their speed is pants-drenching The wedge-shaped head circles a bit closer, veers And… now!

Gunner is theNone finer Got to be when the seas are bucking under your feet and the linstock is in hand, slowsaltpeter and lye in your face like a lover’s breath, and a corvette is pulling to broadside and if your chain shot doesn’t take her eld you and sell you as a galley slave after you’ve been er

I kick, stabbing one foot hardened to leather and bone by a life barefoot right at the tiger shark’s nose I see a flash of the milky membrane over its eyes as I’m thrown, almost lifted out of the water by the force of its strike

The shark shivers, stunned Sensitive nose, ht

Gunner ain’t no easy meat

"Ceres! You think I did this? I didn’t! It was the Priset him, you dumb broad!" Ceres hates it when you dirty her face with exploded ship, and I’ve done that more than a time or three

The shark recovers, darts away For one second, I think I’ to be reasonable There’s otherback

This is grudge This is Ceres herself And she’s used to crushing those who defy her by sheer brute force

"Ceres! Don’t do this!"

I got a pistol still Lost ht with the Pris, ied ato worry about later The pistol e into the water I’ve been trying to ainst Ceres’s spit for years Nothing’s worked against a full plunge, though, and shooting into the water is a fool’s game anyway Ceres’s sea skin shields her kin So I pull