Like Jonah from the whale

It seemed he'd been taken in by an angel. Who else but a spirit of the heavens would look so tenderly after a stranger? And who, while he was mentally enthusing over strange blessings, would keep such a strange animal in their company? Sunder had never smelled such a beast. The longer he stayed out of the water the better his eyes were getting and though they were swollen from the salt exposure he could now make out large detail. He saw enough to know that the animal the woman had called to his side was the sort he'd never laid eyes on before.

He was lifted into a wheeled contraption and wrapped in a warm skin. The journey from sand to cart was bumpy but Sunder was far too grateful to complain. If he hadn't been so overwhelmed with shivering he very well might have cried from relief.

"You'll be warm in no time in there." He blinked at her uncomprehendingly, trying to break the vaguely familiar words apart into understandable chunks. It was strange how his ear could pick up on the similarities to the speech he was used to hearing but detect little meaning in the woman's words. "Whaddat?" he asked, peering from out from under the hide. "Lotta wata my ears, I tink," he added sheepishly, trying to find a polite way to explain his lack of understanding.