A Little Farther than you Think

The wind died down hours ago, a mighty storm had broken upon the coast and dissipated. The waves carried a strange wooden boat. It looked empty from a distance. The waves gently rocked it closer and closer to shore, and eventually, the tide left it on the sandy beach, just at the mouth of the dried river. For many moments all was silence, then slowly two fluffy pale ears peeked over the edge from inside of the poorly made craft. They swiveled back and forth trying to catch the new sounds. Then a pair of brass and glass goggles appeared then underneath those; two golden eyes peered over the edge.

"Land???" she exclaimed, suddenly leaping from the soggy misshapen boat and body slamming the earth. Arching her back and rolling in the coastal desert she rubbed the side of her face into the sand and took a few licks. Startled at the taste the golden girl sat up spitting out the sand. It didn't taste right, this wasn't home... "Home??" She mumbled looking back out to the ocean. Finally taking stock of her surroundings, and licking her sandy parched lips again, she took in cacti and scrubland and the dry riverbed. Her home had cacti a lot like these, and maybe a few scrubs.... but these were different. "Oh no...."

She didn't think her new invention would get her so far from home. Surely home was only... a few? Days away? If she wasn't so thirsty she would be celebrating the success of her wonderful invention! Now if only she had put in a way to steer, maybe she wouldn't have to walk all the way home. Better get this above the tideline so she could get back to it after she found something to drink. Spending a week out at sea with nothing but melon jugs and a few fruits to eat made the young girl a little emaciated and weak. She pulled at the craft with a rope she had attached to it before her journey and tried dragging it up away from the tideline. It was heavy.