Prosaic.

Velocity.

Felicity was awoken by an unfamiliar voice. It was highly unusual for him to hear after having been so accustomed to the same four voices for so long, and immediately, his brain was on high alert, his body on edge and anxiety-riddled. He sat up, wiping away the sleep from his eyes with his hands and then looking around to search for the new voice. The sky was grey, the morning dark, yellow, and humid with the remnants of a warm storm. Felicity considered for a moment if the warm, humid temperatures could produce a hurricane or tropical storm; though, upon dipping his fingers over the edge of the boat and into the actual ocean water, he found the water to be icy cold; he decided it must have been too cold for any sort of substantial cyclonic storm to form, and with that came a shallow sigh of relief. His eyes were wide and watchful as he peered around, looking at the ocean and the half-submerged houses, the hills that peaked out of the water around them, and the persons in the boat, whom all seemed wide awake and on high alert just as he was. The voice echoed again.

A very simple shout, "Hey!"

At this point, all except for Marina was standing in the boat. Far off in the distance was a house partially submerged in the water; the entire top floor was exposed. A slim but tall figure stood on the roof, silhouetted by the white, damp skyline and the hills in the farther distance behind him. Felicity narrowed his eyes, as if that would some how make his irises zoom in on the figure the way a camera lens could. The man waved his arm in the air, shouting something else that they couldn't quite make out.

Huan, having the heaviest and loudest voice, stood at the edge of the boat (nearly tipping the whole thing with his weight) and shouted back, "Who's you?"

"Mareno!" he called back with a very heavy mexican accent, the r rolled. The man was older than Felicity and seeming older than Tati and Zephyr, but he was clearly inexperienced and immature, thin and gangly, likely no older than mid twenties just based on his composure, voice, and lack of caution when calling to the stranger's group. Or perhaps, he was simply desperate. Felicity hated having no privacy, but he was grateful for his group, and knew he would never survive alone. Perhaps Mareno had been alone for too long. Huan dove into the water, and then began to push the boat from behind, kicking his legs like he never had before. It was still slow, but much faster than using no paddles, and the boat creaked loudly as it was thrust through the water by his force.

Zephyr, still standing, hollered back, "We're on our way, Mareno!"

"Are you help?" he asked back loudly, hands cupped around his mouth to accentuate the sound. His accent made his words a bit difficult for Felicity and Zephyr to understand, but they did their best to decipher his voice from the distance.

"Not help," Zephyr called, "We need help. Are you a friend?"

"Friend?" He asked. "Friend, good! Need uno more!" He seemed to have trouble communicating with the english-users. Zephyr seemed a bit uncomfortable with the entire situation, and Felicity shared that discomfort; they had to be careful to not say the wrong thing nor with the wrong tone of voice in an effort to communicate clearly to Moreno. Moreno continued to wave them over. He seemed friendly enough, but still, Felicity was wary.

So, Felicity joined Zephyr at the front of the small boat, to Tati's visible dismay, and he called, "Are you alone?"

"Sorry?"

He seemed confused, and Felicity tried again, "Are you in a group? Friends?"

"Ah, si! Si!"

"How many?"

"Euh... Six? No, cinque," he held five fingers up for them.

"Five?"

He nodded, "Si! I tell them you're here!"