Wham-Shell narrowed his gaze as he trodded the beaches of Leviathan Lagoon, still intent on his search for Chihiro. However, it seemed that he was out of luck, for he searched for what seemed like hours, yet no matter where he turned, there was no sight of her.

"Just my luck," Wham-Shell remarked as he looked over the sandy, near-identical sprawls of the beach. "How can a kid her age be so hard to track down? You'd think she'd know how to stay in one place by now!"

Wham-Shell looked at the path ahead of him, which, now that he looked over it, did seem familiar for some reason. Then again, it was hard to tell when everywhere on the beach all that could be seen was endless sand, endless palm bushes, and vaguely-identical seashells. Wham-Shell sighed, and looked down at the sand again to find footprints—his footprints.

As soon as the realization struck him, Wham-Shell groaned and cradled his face in his hand. "And I've been walking around in circles this whole time! Just great."

Wham-Shell's frustration built up even more than before as he peered back at path before him, his face practically plastered into a frown, when he heard whispers.

Sinister-sounding whispers.

Wham-Shell knelt down into the palm bushes that surrounded the sandy roads, and peered through the leaves in such a way that wouldn't be noticeable. When he looked ahead, he found a small team of pirates in a group as they discussed something in hushed voices. Unfortunately for them, they weren't hushed enough—Wham-Shell could hear them perfectly clearly.

"They what?" gasped one of the many pirates, a burly-looking octopus who wielded a giant anchor.

"The lad and the gillman, from the coves! They're here to steal the statues that Cap'n Kaos wanted us to protect!" whimpered a furry dog pirate who quivered so badly that he could've caused the entire island to shake. "We've already lost two of them, in fact! Me heard from Hookface himself, the gillman, he, he—"

"Calm down, Snarl!" The octopus pirate thwacked Snarl on top of his head and rolled his eyes as Snarl yowled in sheer pain. "Now, we still have two, so it seems we're at a stalemate. All we have to do is retrieve the other two from their clutches, and we be golden!"

"But that's easier said than done, Tentaclaw!" Snarl's face bore a worried expression as broken fangs poked out from his mouth. "That gillman's a Skylandee, and a formidable one at that, and I bet my booty that the little lad's the portal master Kaos warned us about!"

"So? Portal master or not, that lad's still a little lad all on their own, and against all of us, 'ey'd be absolutely helpless!" Tentaclaw's voice took a haughty tone in his voice. "That lad's fishbait!"

Wham-Shell's eyes widened as Tentaclaw spoke before he dashed out of the bushes and back onto the sands. "That kid's gonna be the death of me."

Despite his moaning, Wham-Shell's voice was more concerned than griping as he off to hunt down Chihiro once more. But, he didn't pay attention, and that turned out to be his downfall—literally, as he tripped over something hidden in the sand and fell on his face. As he groaned and heaved himself up, Wham-Shell brushed away the lump of sand he tripped over and found… A statue? Indeed it was.

What Wham-Shell tripped over was a black statue shaped like some kind of vaguely canine face. It was made entirely of smooth, shiny obsidian and completed with sparkly ruby eyes. It laid with an almost content feeling around it, as if it said, "Are you mad that I tripped you? Well, too bad! It's your fault for not paying attention!"

"Who leaves statues lying around like this anyway?" Wham-Shell picked up the statue and examining its smooth surface in the bright midday light.

As he drew a claw across the onyx statue, Wham-Shell couldn't help but frown; weren't those pirates talking about statues? Well, whatever it was, it probably shouldn't stay where they could find it. So, Wham-Shell stashed the statue under his arm and dashed off, once again, on a hunt for Chihiro.

§

However, while Gill Grunt and Wham-Shell hunted for Chihiro, she climbed up palm trees, kicked down coconuts, and did just about anything to satisfy her temporary boredom while her hunt for the imp continued.

So much for finding that imp, Chihiro thought as she kicked her legs against a palm tree's trunk, as she herself sat safely nestled into its leafy branches. Take one wrong left and you've completely lost the thing!

Chihiro sighed as her eyes gazed over the sandy beaches. For a place that was supposed to be the secret hiding place of a magical artifact, it was awfully quiet around here.

"Now that I think about it, Gill and Wham are probably searching for me." Chihiro thought for a moment before she sighed. "I don't wanna come back to them empty-handed. I'd better go find this thing—" Chihiro gently patted the leaves of her palm tree "—so long, palm tree hideout."

Chihiro looked down from the top of the tree and gulped. "I really should stop climbing up high places." Chihiro clasped her hands and legs around the trunk and shimmied down slowly and slowly. "Now, don't look down, Chihiro, don't look down…"

Chihiro screwed her eyes completely shut as she climbed down—can't fear what you can't see and all—but as fate would have it, she peered down out of one open eye and flipped.

"EEK! THAT IS WAY TOO HIGH! WHAT WAS I EVEN THINKING?"

Chihiro flailed her arms about as she screamed, but hadn't the mind to realize that in her fit of panic, she had let go of the trunk. In the split-second that she let go, Chihiro realized that she was no longer attached to the tree, and fell into the sands with a yelp of fear. As sand splashed across the shores, Chihiro staggered out and spit out the yellow grains of terror from her mouth.

"This can't possibly get any—"

Before she could finish her sentence, something fell out of the tree and conked Chihiro on the head! This, once again, sent her falling into the shore.

"I stand corrected."

Chihiro stood and grabbed the object from the ground. It was an enchanting-looking obsidian statue with red ruby eyes that seemed to radiate with a kind of magical fascination, the kind that wouldn't let one leave it be. For that matter, didn't it kinda look like that statue the imp had?

As she tucked it under her arm, Chihiro dashed off and left not a trace of her body to be seen.