A crunch and a strange odor caught Kaimana's wandering, wavering, ethereal attention. The light of the stars hadn't illuminated some magnificent pearl, no. There were no stars in this world of Kaimana's. But not even the lights that substituted for such things had illuminated this strange gift.

Carapace. A crustacean, newly dead. Stinky. Hm...

She supposed she had no other choice. This broken, wretched thing would have to do. But if the OCEAN did not love all of its wonders, then why did it harbor them? It would do. It simply would.

She returned to her pile, and checked it; everything there, nothing lost, nothing out of order, yes? It would only last a night, maybe more if she were lucky.

She set out to work.

By the time she was done, the jaguar was legitimately exhausted. She'd put all her effort into this, just like the OCEAN had put all its effort into that one beautiful gemstone, just for her. Kaimana smiled with glee at her finished product.

There were no straight lines to its shape, this tentacle that seemed to rise from the sand. It was... as smooth as a jaguar's playful, tired paws could make it. Embedded in the sandy spiral that rose from the shore were all the gifts the OCEAN had bestowed upon her. Shell shards, bone, a fragmented sand dollar -- the works. And at the top, Kaimana had cleared a platform and balanced atop it the crustacean's corpse, like a stinky rendition of the crowning jewel of a Christmas tree. It had fallen several times during its creation (once it had toppled completely when Kaimana had nearly finished and she'd had to start from square one!), but Kaimana hadn't just given up then. And she was glad she hadn't. Oh, if only she had some way of saving this image in her mind besides memory.

Her memory would have to be her camera. She doubted she could forget all the work that went into this, even if she tried. It wasn't the best. It wasn't the prettiest. But to Kaimana, it was pretty glorious, and she hoped the OCEAN felt the same way.

It was tiring to have done all this. She felt the strong desire to finally fall to sleep. But guilty-- no, greedy is the one who both works and plays hard. At least, that's how it was in Kaimana's case.

Her eyes grazed the horizon, where wind met water. It was chilly. Maybe she could find someplace warm nearby, somewhere to sleep and keep her new prize and then check on her sand structure in the morning, to see if it survived. She'd do that soon.

One last test for Lady Fortuna would wrap up the night.

The OCEAN and Lady Fortuna both appeared to disapprove of such greed. Kaimana should've guessed; fortune fancied the bold, not the stupid. And being consumed by greed was... a little bit stupid if you thought about it. Greed was a concept, not a tangible thing! How could it possibly eat!

Kaimana would be sent to bed pondering these things due to the fact that her final trip around the shore had lead to her stepping on one of the most beautiful shells she'd ever seen. How poetic. Now with its destruction, and no hope of saving it, Kaimana didn't have the guts or the gall to add it to her collection.

The OCEAN giveth, and the OCEAN taketh away.

And for how long could she hold onto the things it gave?

Her magicka flared as she start out across the vast body of water she recognized as provider, confiscator, and home. Her body tried to hold tight to the water inside of it, clinging to it dearly as if to keep it locked in a hug, incapable of escape and doused in appreciation for being there. But its grasp was weak. Drowsiness had made it so, and soon the water would be allowed to flow as normal again. The strain of even such a small amount of time of the spell's use felt strangely encumbering to the sleepy Kaimana, who didn't understand what was happening.

It was bed time now, she assumed.

Her eyes looked purposefully towards the land now, for perhaps the first time this night. Or maybe the second. She'd tried to find a good position for her sand spire. Speaking of her sand spire, could she find a place nearby it?

Ah. It appeared not. That was fine. It wasn't a gift for her, anyways.

Kaimana scooped up the gift meant for her in her jaws, and padded off to the closest place she knew.

And she realized... it was a bit too far for her comfort. She opted to look just one more time for some place closer. Maybe there was a spot she'd missed? This stone was heavy and she wanted to make sure that her sand structure didn't have to crumble due to preventable causes.

Like a worried mother, like a harried worker, like a creature who held its creations dear, Kaimana sought out a better place. She found one a little ways back. Not what she would've asked for, but one she would've gotten.

She could barely make out the outline of her sand structure from here, and that sucked, but it beat walking all the way back to a place she knew in the dark with a nice chunky rock in her jaws.

So she settled. She OCEAN? Kaimana was learning...

And then, Kaimana was finally drifting to sleep...

- exit via sleep -