The current pushed the makeshift life raft forwards, carrying its motley crew further into the empty blue sea as sun slipped further down towards the horizon.
"Oh bother.", Pooh said as he looked into his now empty honey pot. "I still feel a rumble in my tummy."
The bear of very little brain reached down and poked the map-in-a-bottle he'd tied to his inner tube, wondering why it hadn't lead them anywhere yet.
"We're not seriously following a message in a bottle again, are we?", Rabbit asked as he rowed with his broom.
"It worked last time didn't?", Tigger replied as he dug his shovel into the ocean, chuckling at the exasperated expression on Rabbit's face.
"See anything up there?", Gopher called up to Owl as he flew over the raft, searching for dry land.
"No, not a thing.", Owl hooted back.
"Figures.", Eeyore moaned as he lay on his inner tube.
"Oh de-de-dear.", Piglet whispered, rowing nervously with his spoon.
"Where are we going, Mama?", Roo asked, clearly trying to put on a brave face.
"Dry land, Roo dear.", Kanga said sweetly, patting her son on the head. Where that dry land is, I don't know.
"What was that?", Piglet suddenly, sounding frightened.
"What was what?", Rabbit asked, looking about.
"I-I thought I saw something.", Piglet replied, staring out into the deep water, the fear evident on his face.
"Maybe it was a heffalump or a woozle.", Tigger suggested, scaring Piglet. "Or jagulars, maybe even spookables."
"Oh d-d-dear.", Piglet replied, shaking in fear.
"Now Tigger, there's no such…", Rabbit began, halting mid sentence as something caught his eye.
"See?", Piglet said, pointing with his spoon at something bopping up and down in the water, the waxing twilight obscuring its identity.
"What is it?", Tigger asked, gripping his shovel nervously.
"I don't know.", Pooh replied, watching the swim closer, its form just breaking the surface. "Perhaps we should ask it."
"Oh de-de-dear.", Piglet said fearfully. "I do hope it's not one of the fiercer animals."
They paddle on, seeing more shapes appearing from the water as the sunset's dying glow gave way to a gloomy starlight.
"What do you suppose they are?", Rabbit asked as one of the shapes swam by, partially illuminated by Gopher's light.
"Heelllooo!", Pooh called out, prompting the closest shape to swim yet closer.
The castaways looked down at the figure, its sleek body cutting the dark water with ease.
Rabbit shuddered as he saw more of the creature, a streamlined yet fat body and a rounded head set with two eyes alight with a not quite animal intellect.
"What's that?", Tigger asked, pointing at the creature with his shovel. "And that?"
Rabbit looked about in unease, one of his hands reaching for the wooden mallet laying next to him.
"Let's ask Owl.", Pooh suggested, before calling out to Owl as he hovered overhead. "What do you think they are?"
"Hmm…I'd say they are a sort of sea caterpillar.", Owl said as he alighted on the rim of the bathtub. "Harmless vegetarians."
"Those don't look like vegetable-eating teeth.", Tigger observed as one of the creatures surfaced, seeming to grin as it eyed Owl.
"Nonsense.", Owl began, turning his head towards Tigger. "I've it on good authority…GAH!"
The friends screamed in terror as the creature lunged out of the water, seizing Owl's wing in its jaws before pulling him into the water.
"Oh no you don't!", Rabbit shouted as he grabbed hold of his screaming friend, trying to prevent them from being pulled into the water as Tigger jabbed at the thing with his shovel.
"Back! Back, whatever ya are!", he shouted as his blade sunk into the thing's fat, blubbery body.
Barking in annoyance, the thing jerked its head back, taking a chunk of Owl's wing with it as it retreated a short distance.
"And stay away!", Tigger shouted triumphantly, hurling his shovel at his foe for good measure.
Rabbit and Tigger laid the stricken bird down in the tub, seeing copious amounts of blood gushing from the torn limb as they both rummaged through their makeshift vessel for something to staunch the bleeding with.
Tearing a sleeve from Tigger's old sweatshirt, they wrapped wing as best they could, then helped Owl back up to his perch atop the tub's shower-head.
Rabbit looked about at the rest of their friends, seeing the looks of shock and horror on their faces after witnessing what had just transpired.
What are we going to do, he asked himself fearfully. What are we going to do?
