Moominpappa and Sam were walking towards the beach, about to go fishing for their dinner tonight. The ocean waves were extremely loud as they walked towards the ocean. More so than what Moominpappa's use to hearing form it, it almost drowns out the sounds of the birds singing and the summer insects buzzing. Once the two of them finally made it to the beach, the beach was more beach than ocean. The ocean floor was seeable for at least a mile out.

"Well, this isn't good."

"I'll say," Sam agreed, "We'll have to drag the boat out farther."

"Oh, we're not going fishing anymore. Come on," Moominpappa said, grabbing her forearm and started dragging her back into the forest, "We're going back home."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"A tsunami is coming."

Sam immediately shoved their fishing poles into his grip, then picked up the troll and started running.

"We have to warn everyone!"

"Welp. This is an experience," he said out loud in his surprise, holding his top hat on his head with one hand. He's never been carried bridal style before. He's done it several times to his wife, and he never thought much about it, but know he gets why Moominmamma loves it so much. It is quite nice to be held by someone like this.

Sam was breathing hard when they made it back to the house. She sat Moominpappa down then she leaned back, looking at the sky, with her hands supporting her lower back as she breathed deeply.

"Why are you guys back so soon," Little My asked from the front porch.

"There's a tsunami coming. I don't know how much time we got, but we need to get to high ground. Do you know where Moomintroll is?" Moominpappa jogged up to the front door, threw the fishing poles on the porch, then pulled open the door and ran to find Moominmamma.

"He's going on a stroll with Snorkmaiden," Little My answered as he ran away from her.

"I'll go get them," Moominpappa heard Sam shout.

Moominpappa found his wife in the kitchen, putting together a puzzle.

"What is Sam shouting about, Dear?"

"There's a tsunami coming, Love. Gather what you can. I'll board up the windows," Moominpappa answered as he grabbed a hammer and some random nails from a kitchen drawer.

"Oh, my!"

Moominmamma got to work on gathering the essentials; food, a distillation kit, matches, rope, and so on. Moominpappa got to work on boarding up the windows on the first floor. When Moominpappa was a quarter of the way through boarding the windows in the living room, Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden came inside.

"Son, is Sam with you?"

"No, she's running around the valley telling everyone about the tsunami."

Snufkin walked up behind the couple and said, "I saw her heading for The Muskrat's den."

"That's not too far away," Moominmamma said from the second floor, "I hope she'll make it back before the water hits."

"Help me finish boarding up the windows, Son," Moominpappa said.

"Right. Let me get the other hammer."

"Where's Little My?" Snorkmaiden asked.

"On the roof. She's keeping an eye out and she'll ring a bell when she sees the water coming," Moominpappa answered.

"I'll keep her company," she said, going up the stairs.

Snufkin decided to sit outside to keep watch on the ground floor for passerby-ers.

By the time Moominpappa and Moomintroll put the last nails into the final window of the first floor, they heard Little My ringing her bell from the roof.

Moominpappa ran out of the first-floor extra bedroom and yelled, "Is everyone here?"

Snufkin came inside, closed the front door and locked it, then said, "I still haven't seen Sam come back yet."

"Oh no," Moominmamma said from the second floor, "Where has she gone?"

Their worrying was then interrupted by a roar like a waterfall, then they felt the house shake and shudder. Moominpappa, Moomintroll, and Snufkin jogged up the stairs.

"I'm sure she's fine, Love," he reassured Moominmamma despite his own worries, and as he grabbed her hand he added, "She's a good swimmer. I'm sure we'll see her soon."

Then he dragged her up to the attic, then through a window in the attic and onto the roof where everyone in the Moomin household was gathering. On the roof, the six of them watched as dirty saltwater rushed into the valley. The water raised past the first floor of the house, then past the second, and the water level started to slow when it reached the third floor of the house. By the time the sea water was lapping at the gutters of the house, the water had slowed considerable, but was still rising past the rooftop.

"I think we should have gotten a boat," Moomintroll said.

"And how would you have gotten it onto the roof," Little My asked.

Moominpappa saw Moomintroll just shrug as his answer.

"I'm sure everything will turn out all right," Moominmamma said as she started digging through her shoulder bag, then she pulled out a loaf of bread and cheese and asked, "Would anyone want a snack?"

"Hey, what's that," Snufkin asked pointing at a speck in the distance.

"Hmm, Mamma?" Moominpappa asked.

She put away the bread and cheese, then took out a spyglass and handed it to Moominpappa. Looking through the spyglass, he saw Sam on a sailboat. She was waving wildly at them. "It's Sam!"

Moominmamma placed a hand over her heart and sighed, "Oh what a relief."

"How long until she gets here?" Snorkmaiden asked.

"Don't know," Moominpappa said looking through the spyglass again, "It looks like she is paddling her way here."

"Well, then I hope she gets here before we get wet," Little My stated.

The six of them were running out of room on the roof when Sam finally got to them.

As she threw over a rope ladder, Sam said, "I'm glad you guys are okay. I have Snork here with me too."

"Oh, good!" Snorkmaiden said with delight.

The six of them climbed up the rope ladder just as the roof of the house disappeared under the water. Sam was putting away the giant oars by sliding them against the wall of the boat.

"Good timing, my girl," Moominpappa said, patting her arm once they were on board, "And what a find you have here."

Moominpappa looked over the sailboat. It was rather dusty, like it had been hiding in a cave or dug up out of the ground. The main sail and the jib had moth holes in them and felt thin in his grasp. Even if they patched up the holes, he was sure that a new tear would appear with the slightest breeze. Moominpappa tested the sturdiness of the mast, boom, and deck floorboards. They felt firm and had no noticeable rot on them. Then he walked over to the boats wheel and turned it this way and that and he could feel the resistance of the rudder against the water.

"She's old but she's shipshape," Moominpappa stated, "We'll need to make new sails for her if we're going to be able to move freely."

"I suggest layering more cloth on top of the old sails," Snork said.

"Good thing I packed bed sheets then," Moominmamma said as she pulled out said items and a sewing kit from her shoulder bag.

"I'll unhook them from the top," Little My said, climbing up the mast.

As Moominpappa, Sam, Snufkin, Snorkmaiden, and Snork got to work on sewing, Moominmamma, Little My, and Moomintroll went below deck to explore and clean up whatever mess they'll find down below.

"So… Is everyone okay?" Sam asked.

"Perfectly fine," Snufkin stated.

The other three nodded in agreement as they continued sewing.

"No feelings of loss or swelling sadness?" Sam asked.

"No. It's just another day," Snorkmaiden said. Then Snorkmaiden started to hum to herself.

"Oh… Okay…"

Moominpappa looked at Sam and could see her hands trembling and her face was crunched up.

"My girl, are you okay?"

Sam threw her hands up in the air, "No! I'm not okay! The valley is submerged underwater! I don't know how many people managed to make it to high ground or get a boat like we did or anything! And our house and garden are gone!" She choked back a sob as she said, "I just started getting used to living here too."

"Sam. It's okay. Really," Snufkin said, "The Moomin household is just a thing. It doesn't matter if it's destroyed by the tsunami."

Sam took a deep breath and placed her hands together in front of her nose like she was praying. "Snufkin. I know you are trying to be comforting," she said, her bottom lip trembling as she paused, then continued, "but you're not."

Moominpappa watched Snufkin frown as he went back to sewing the bed sheet to the sail. He thought that Snufkin had a look on his face that said, "See if I try to comfort her again. Hummph!"

"Uuuuuhh. Sam. Why don't you tell us about your world. Do you have any interesting stories to tell?" Snorkmaiden asked.

Snork nodded in agreement, "That would be fascinating."

Moominpappa saw Sam looked at Snorkmaiden with dead eyes. It made him feel for the human.

"You want me to tell you stories? About my home dimension? The one that I'll never get to see again? The same one that has my family in it? Who I will never see again? You want me. To tell you stories. During a tsunami? About a place I will never get to see again?"

Genuinely upset for Sam, Snorkmaiden started to back track, saying, "Oh! Gosh! I'm sorry!"

Sam's dead eyed persona cracked as she half-chuckled and wiped the tears from her eyes. Moominpappa patted Sam's forearm, trying to comfort her silently.

"No. I'm sorry. I'm just messing with you. The irony and all that," Sam got back to work on sewing with everyone else, then asked, "Are you wanting a mythology story or a family story?"

"Mythology please," Snork asked.

Everyone else mumbled an agreement.

"Okay give me a minute to think," Sam said.

The five of them quietly sewed the bedsheet to the sail as Sam thought. Then she began her tale.

Once upon a time there was the Sun, Napi. He was on a little raft with a beaver, an otter, and a muskrat. All around them was nothing but water. Tired of seeing nothing but this endless water, Napi asked Beaver to swim down to the bottom of the water to grab a little mud so that he could make land. Napi would do it himself, but he is the sun, and cannot touch the water himself. Beaver agreed and dived down. Beaver was underwater for a long time, but eventually resurfaced, saying it was too deep to reach. Otter wanted to try, and he dived down below the waves. Otter was gone longer than Beaver, but he too eventually resurfaced and said the water was too deep. Then Muskrat decided to try. He dived below the water and was gone longer than Beaver and Otter. He was gone so long that the three of them was sure that Muskrat had drowned, his body lost to the water. But then they saw his body float to the surface, half drowned. They dragged him back onto the raft and in his little paws, they saw that he had grabbed mud.

Napi got to work on making the land. He dried the mud out on the raft. Then he scattered and stretched the dirt over top of the water and land was made. Napi traveled across his new land. He dug out rivers, making some look graceful and others look crazy with waterfalls and rapids. Next, he made mountains made from gathered pebbles that he stacked on top of each other, and that's how you get rockslides. Then he smoothed down a large portion of the land and turned it into the prairie. He filled it with trees, and bushes, and moss, and mushrooms, and little ponds. He made the grass grow tall for the animals he created and placed special plants down to eat, like the wild carrot, the wild turnips, sweet root, bitter root, and serviceberries, bullberries, cherries, plums, and rosebuds. He made a beautiful land.

"That's not the end or anything," Sam said, finishing her story, "That's just the part I remember most because I like it. There's also this part about Napi making humans and how death became a thing for humans and how we learned to hunt and make weapons and so on. Grandma used to tell me this story every other time I went to bed."

"A most relevant story to say the least," Snork stated, adjusting his glasses.

"Now I'm worried about The Muskrat. He lives underground. I hope he made it somewhere safe," Snorkmaiden said.

"It was a good story," Moominpappa said, "Have you thought about writing it down?"

"You know I probably should, or my stories will die with me," Sam said.

"We wouldn't want that," Snufkin said.

They passed stories around as they sewed and eventually, they finished patching up the sail and Snufkin climbed up the mast to reattach it on the top while Sam attached it to the boom.

"Ah! Beautiful," Moominpappa said.

Little My and Moominmamma came up from below deck and Mamma said, "Oh, that looks wonderful."

"Yes, now all we need is a breeze," Snufkin stated.

Moominpappa wet his finger with his mouth then thrusted it into the sky and waited for a second.

"Unfortunately," he said, wiping his finger on his white fur, "we appear to be having a windless day."

"Then all we can do for now is get comfortable," Moominmamma said, "Snufkin, Snorkmaiden. Will you two help me and Moomin make dinner?"

Snufkin tipped his green hat to her as his answer and Snorkmaiden said, "Sure. I'd love to."

"The rest of us will clean up the ship," Moominpappa said.

"No I won't," Little My said, "I'm going to keep watch."

Then she scrambled up the mast like a mad squirrel and once she was on the top, she looked out over the horizon.

After taking ten minutes to find mops and brooms and assorted cleaning items, Moominpappa, Sam, and Snork got to work on cleaning the ship.

As Moominpappa was scrubbing hard, with his mop, against a particularly bad dirt stain on the floor, Sam came up to him.

"So… Like… How often does tragedy strike this valley?"

"What types of tragedies are you talking about, my girl," Moominpappa asked, wiping away the sweat from his brow.

Sam motioned for him to back up a bit so she could try and get the stain out, then as she was chipping it off with her nails, said, "Well, natural disasters and the like. All of you are taking to this extremely well and it's a bit weird for me. I feel like I'm the only one who's sad about the house being drowned and the possibility of other people being dead. How are you handling it so well?"

"I don't think I'm taking anything well, Sam. I did build that house from scratch with my own two hands. Moomin grew up in that house. Mamma always managed to make the house smell wonderful with her cooking," Moominpappa said, "If the flood doesn't let up, then I'm sure I'll be sad about what we've lost."

"But?"

"But I'm comforted by the notion that my family and friends are here with me. We have what we need together. That makes up for a lot of things. Plus, things always turn out for the better in the end."

"That's not always true," Sam said.

"Yes. I won't disagree with you on that, but in my experience, bad things never stay bad for long," Moominpappa said, then he patted her frizzy head then added, "You'll see."

Sam only hummed in a discontented way as her answer.

Cleaning went by fast and Moominpappa found that it made him extra hungry when his wife called for everyone to join for dinner below deck. Moominmamma had the whole kitchen cleaned up and with Snorkmaiden, Snufkin, and their son's help, she had the kitchen table set up with pitchers full of cold water next to a meal of meatballs, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

"This looks amazing, Love," Moominpappa said, "I can't wait to dig in."

Everyone sat around the kitchen table. It was a bit of a squeeze, with having so many people at one table, with Snork and Snorkmaiden sharing a chair, Moomintroll and Snufkin sharing a chair, and Little My was perched on Sam's shoulders and was using her head as a table.

"Little My, is that really necessary," Moominmamma asked.

"I don't mind," Sam said, "Though, I can't guarantee that her food won't have hair in it."

"That's fair," Little My said as she continued to eat her dinner on top of Sam.

They finished their meal and cleaned up. Then Moominpappa went above deck to check if the winds were favorable. They weren't, but in the distance, showing in the dying light of the sun, Moominpappa could see lights on the water coming towards them, our they were floating towards the lights. He couldn't tell all that well. He called for everyone to come on deck.

"What is it Pappa?" Moomintroll asked.

Sam, being the tallest out of everyone, was able to see the light's first, despite coming out from below deck thirdly, "Oh! Wow. Is that land?"

"I'm not sure," Moominpappa said as he walked over the to the mast. As he was passing by his wife, she pulled out the spyglass from her shoulder bag and handed it to him, "Thank you." Then he climbed up the mast as far as he could and looked through the spyglass.

What Moominpappa could see was mostly lights, and shadows of moving figures, but nothing too concrete.

"Looks like we'll reach it by midnight, if we let the tide do all the work," Snufkin stated.

"How long if we row," Snorkmaiden asked.

Snork pushed his glasses up higher on his face, then said, "Uh, I guess, two hours."

"Welp, I'm going to go to bed then. Have fun deciding to do whatever," Little My stated as she went back below deck.

"I think we should row towards the light," Moominpappa said as he climbed down from the mast and handed the spyglass back to his wife and she put it back into her shoulder bag.

"Alright! Something to do," Sam said, already grabbing the oars. She handed one to Snufkin, and said, "I'll handle this one." Then she went to the left side of the ship and slotted it into place.

"I'll direct us," Moominpappa said, "Mamma, will you steer?"

"Of course." Then she walked over to the steering wheel.

Moominpappa climbed up the mast again, then he watched as his son, his friend and girlfriend slotted their oar into the right side of the ship while Snork went below deck like Little My, to probably read a book.

"Alright everyone! Row!"

Moominpappa jolted backwards a bit from the force of the oars in the water. The left side felt a bit stronger than the right.

"Sam! Match with Moomin, Snufkin, and Snorkmaiden's power! Mamma, keep her steady," he shouted.

"Yes, dear!"

"Sorry!"

As they rowed below, Moominpappa instructed them to make sure that they don't accidentally row in circles, and as they rowed, he could see the lights getting brighter and eventually he could see a floating city setting on the dark water under the dark night sky. Then as they got closer, he saw that the city was actually a collection of boats and other floating devices, all tied together. Once they were side by side with the floating collection of boats a few familiar faces threw ropes at them to tie them into place.

"The Muskrat! The Policeman! Too-Ticky! Good to see you gentlemen!" Moominpappa said as he climbed down from the mast.

Moomintroll, Snorkmaiden, and Snufkin collapsed to the floor. Sam shook her hands out as she went over and grabbed the rope with Moominpappa, and she helped him tie the boat in place. Once the boat was tied in place, he jumped out of the boat to stand before the three troll men on a wide floating piece of wood.

"Is this everyone in the valley?" Moominpappa asked them.

"So far at least," Too-Ticky said, "We may be missing a few people but with all the lights they're sure to show up."

"That's good then."

"Watch out for me!" Sam warned them as she hopped off the boat.

The Policeman was flung a yard or two away from them as The Muskrat, Too-Ticky, and Moominpappa fell to their hands and knees, trying to keep their balance. Sam slipped off the wooden board, since it couldn't support her weight, and splashed into the water. She didn't immediately resurface, and Moominpappa was a bit worried by that.

"Can she not swim," Too-Ticky asked, looking ready to jump in after her.

"No she can," Moominpappa said as everyone watched the water for a second more before Sam resurfaced.

Sputtering, and rubbing the salt water out of her eyes, Sam asked nervously, "Do mermaids exist here?"

"Possibly," Snufkin said from the boat.

"Why? Did you see some?" Snorkmaiden asked excitedly.

"I don't know and I don't want to find out. Just throw down the ladder please. I don't feel safe in the water," Sam stated.

Moominpappa watched Moomintroll throw the rope ladder overboard and Sam scrambled up the side of the ship.

"Sorry Mr. Policeman!" Sam yelled once she was on the ship.

"It's fine," Moominpappa heard him yell from wherever he was.

"I think we should all get some sleep," Moominmamma stated and Moominpappa agreed.

"We'll see you gentlemen in the morning, and I'll help with supply counting and the like," Moominpappa told the Muskrat and Too-Ticky.

Words of goodnight was passed around as Moominpappa climbed up the rope ladder then he and the rest of his friends and family went to bed.

The next day Moominpappa rose with the rising sun and got to work on securing ropes, so people didn't drift away from the boat city they were making. Checking supplies with Too-Ticky and the Policeman to make sure everyone had rations. And helping to plug holes in people's makeshift boats when he could.

It was past breakfast by the time he went back to his own boat, and he was greeted by Snork.

"Mamma has brunch made for you down below," the little troll with glasses said.

"Thank you Snork," Moominpappa said as he passed by him.

As he went below deck, he saw that Sam, Snorkmaiden, Snufkin and Moomintroll were looking like they were about to head out, gathered together in the small cabin by the stairs.

"What are you four about to do?"

"We're going to go see if there really are mermaids," Snorkmaiden said, "I want to get advice on how to make my hair look as pretty as theirs underwater."

"Supposedly as pretty," Sam said, "Cause realistically speaking, if mermaids do have hair, that hair would probably be slimy."

"Just let me have my fun, will you," Snorkmaiden pouted.

"We're also trying to see if we can find a way to drain the valley," Moomintroll added.

"The mermaids might have a way to help," Snufkin stated.

"Alright. Have fun," Moominpappa said.

Moominpappa moved on to the dinning/kitchen area and found Moominmamma cleaning dishes and Little My asleep on the cabinets. On the table was a plate full of breakfast and lunch type goodies.

"Thank you my Dear. I'm quite famished," Moominpappa stated as he sat down at the table.

"How is everyone doing out there?" Moominmamma asked as she turned around and wiped her hands on her apron.

Moominpappa told her about his day as she sat with him at the table. As they talked, they heard faint singing in the distance, but they ignored it. Until it became too loud to ignore waking even Little My up.

"What the heck is going on?" Little My grumbled.

"I don't know. It's quite boisterous though," Moominmamma stated.

"Let's go find out," Moominpappa said as he got up from the table and was followed by Little My and his wife.

Up on the deck, Moominpappa, Mamma, Little My, and Snork could see that everyone in the boat city was singing a sea shanty.

"It's catchy. I hate it," Little My said.

"Everyone looks like they are having fun though," Moominmamma stated, clapping her hands to the beat.

"Do you know what's going on," Moominpappa asked Snork.

He shook his head, then said, "I only just got distracted from my reading."

Moominpappa saw Too-Ticky doing a jig on his way past their boat. He flagged the young troll down and asked, "What's going on?"

"It's the mermaids," Too-Ticky explained, "They're sad and they say they need music to cheer them up or the water won't go away."

Then the young troll went back to dancing and singing the sea shanty.

"Is that true?" Snork asked Moominpappa.

"I'm not sure. Mermaids were only supposed to be a legend, but I guess if the kids found them and made contact with them, then it has to be true," then turning to his wife, he slightly bowed to her and asked, "May I have this dance?"

She giggled at him, then said, "Of course, Dear."

The two began to dance and Mamma was singing along to the sea shanty.

Snork tried to do the same to Little My, but she said, "Not happening," then she jumped overboard to do something else."

Snork sang with the crowd as he watched Mamma and Pappa dance with each other.

Everyone was having such a great time under the sun and puffy clouds that no one noticed that the valley was draining, until the boats hit soggy land.

The crowd cheered at the sight when they realized what happened.

Moominpappa threw overboard the rope ladder and climbed down the ship with everyone else as he met up with his son and adopted human daughter and their friends.

"Did you see that Pappa, we did it," Moomintroll said as he rushed to hug his parents.

Moominmamma and Pappa opened their arms wide for him in celebration as Snork, Sam, Snufkin, and Snorkmaiden watched on with happy smiles.

Once they stopped hugging, Moominpappa said, "Alright. Let's go see what we can clean up around the house."