For a time their progress was terrifying, the speed at which they travlled was as fast or faster than a horse could gallop and at times they seemed to all but skip across the tops of the gentle swells.  Emmaline and Amal both clung to the hatch as best they could. Trying to get a look at whatever beast dragged them was more than difficult as the foaming wake the thing left in its wake was opaque to Emmaline's eyes and she dared not open her magical senses for fear of disturbing the thing. As minutes stretched into hours though other problems began to present themselves, the sun was hot and their earlier activities had left them sadly bereft of any clothing. The solved this problem by sheltering together beneath the carpet which, rather reluctantly it seemed agreed to the treatment. Emmaline would have suggested they try to fly on the carpet but she knew that its endurance was limited and was obviously at the end of its tassels after having stayed aloft all night in the fierce storm. They resolved to try it only if the monster turned on them or other disaster threatened. 

By the end of the second day, with sleep taken in short snatches during the night time hours, hunger became a torment. Emmaline, driven to risk her magic was able to purify handfuls of sea water for drinking but at the speed they were moving there was no practical way to catch fish. For the most part they tried to ignore it, huddling together and telling stories. Emmaline told Amal of the great cities and mighty forests of the Empire and of the dark and terrible things that dwelt there. In his turn he told her of his days as a thief in Araby and the many close escapes he had made over the years. Unfortunately despite their nakedness there was little opportunity to do more than occasionally tease each other physically, something that Emmaline freely admited she wanted to claim the bragging rights too. How many women afterall could claim to have entertained an Araybian thief while being dragged across the ocean by a sea monster?

On the forth day Emmaline awoke suddenly, the stabbing pain of hunger in her belly preceding her eyes. It was not Amal that woke her however, the raft it seemed had lost the speed it was accustomed to and drifted on natural current once more. There was a faint whiff of flowers and rot and a greenish smudge on the horizon, a few hundred meters ahead of them the water began to foam as it hit a reef of some sort.

"Ummmm..." Emmaline stammered and then shook Amal awake.

"By Allah!" he muttered as the current drew them toward the shoals at an ever increasing rate. He grabbed the carpet and shook it gently. The carpet seemed to stir from its own torpor.

"My friend it is not far can you manage it?" he asked hasitily, clearly uncertain, as Emmaline was, if they would be able to swim that far in their weakened states. The carpet snapped taught magnanimously and hovered a few inches above the improvised raft.

"Your chariot awaits," Amal declared in Araybian stretching his hand out to her. Emmaline took it and climed on.

"My camel does what?" she asked but before he could correct her mistranslated the carpet soared up and away. A few moments later the raft crashed into the shoals and stuck fast, sure to be pounded appart by the waves before long. The rose high enough that Emmaline could make out a vast expanse of greenish forest very different to anything she had ever seen, it was fringed with the most incredibly white sand she had ever encountered and a large river mouth forced its way out to the ocean like the mouth of a gaping serpent. Somewhat further up the coast another object caught her eye. Aground on a shoal was the remains of an ancient looking ship, half smashed apart by years of tides. 

"Can you take us to the beach near there?" Emmaline asked, pointing with an outstretched finger. The carpet obeyed, zooming towards the indicated spot and a moment later it touched down softly on the beach. Emmaline and Amal both collapsed gratefully onto the sand huging solid ground for long minutes.

"We need to find food," she stated but Amal was already looking at some strange looking growths hanging from what appeared to be a kind of palm tree.

"What about those?" he asked.

It took fifteen minutes and several tries for Amal to recover one of the large green fruit. It appeared to Emmaline to be like a giant nut with no easy way to get into it. At last she resorted to magic.

"Stand back," she instructed and incanted a spell, slashing a blade of golden light with her fingertip that neatly bisected the fruit. Water spilled from the inside to reveal a hollow brown nut filled with bright white flesh. Amal looked at her and she tried another spell, searching for poisons. Nothing.

"It isn't poison that I can tell," she told him. Without another word Amal peeled out a chunk of white flesh chewed it and swallowed.

"Mmm its actually...pretty good," he managed around the mouthful. Emmaline took her half and began to eat equally ravenously.