The people of Axotal learned quickly from their surroundings, and marshalled themselves into order.

From the pith and heads of the fern trees did they harvest their first meal from the island, and with its bamboo pitched tents made of sailcloth. From the trunk of the aloe they made quivers, and with its juice they made salves.

The broken ships they took apart and made granaries of, and they learned to harvest radiates from the coral. The fossa and the falanouc they tamed, and they bred codies that were good fishers. No Ironheart bronze lay within this mountain, but a club edged with shark teeth would suffice for most things, and of obsidian there was plenty.

Heartworm did not abandon them, though it was not often present. They were taught how to close old sores with Mason's flesh, such that they would not reopen, and how to craft masks with ballooning vessels at the sides, that might store a second breath for them to dive. Tree resin and arksynth mixed with just a little powdered crinoid made a powerful adhesive for them to repair their tools, and when a rockfall claimed the life of a fleshsmith, his climbing partner discovered that the residue on their hands had mutated into something that clung like gecko toes.

They learned that there were five great islands in the Metatic, and many hundreds of smaller ones. They knew this for they came to meet with the Tlaca, who were denizens of the southernmost isles, and a monk with no eyes translated for them. 

They learned that Axotal had been cursed for many years, such that no man could set foot there. Its plants were strange, they said, and its animals wailed in the night. Its corals were sharp like glass, and sea serpents had lately been seen in its waters.

The Tlaca of Ihuian the Tranquil and Xiloxoch the Weathered were glad to see that the curse had lifted, but would not set foot on Axotal the Cursed without a Xerxian at their side. Nor would they venture north to Xanchaladan, the great island, for its people were warlike, and hardened by suffering.

But, thought an older yet stronger Erjang, as she watched Oyur knot together a serpent-saddle in Heartworm's shadow, they are not the only ones.

Oyur finished her saddle and waded into the reef. She lowered her gasp-mask and slipped into the waves. From the shore, Erjang could just about see the Blowfly's likeness on her face.