The world was spinning around her, trees and bushes and sea merging into a constant whirl that she could neither control nor comprehend. She blinked, closed her eyes and opened them again. A man"s face appeared amidst the confusion; a stranger she did not know.
"Who are you?"
"I am Bradan the Wanderer." The man"s voice was clear and slow.
"I am Melcorka nic Bearnas."
"Well met, Melcorka nic Bearnas, child of the ocean." Bradan was crouching at her side, his long face serene. "You did not eat last night so you must be hungry. Do you remember where you are?" He indicated the still smouldering remains of his fire, with the soft surge of the breaking sea a few yards away and the coracle upside down beside a tangled bramble bush.
She took his arm and pulled herself upright from a bed of fr
