Reincarnated as a Land Shark???

Chapter 5: The Shore

When I wake up, I notice two things.

One: I've overslept.

Two: I'm covered in sharks.

Um.

What.

It seems the swarm came back when I was sleeping and that, contrary to what I'd first assumed, they do not give a shit about where they go to sleep. In fact, their sleeping places must be completely random, because when I woke up my cave, which had previously been empty, now has ten sharks in it without including myself, and most of them are... cuddling with me?

That's strangely cute, even despite the horror I witnessed last night.

I reach over and pat the one that snuggled under my fin on the head, and it cuddles even closer with a rumble that feels almost like it's trying to purr?

That's freaking adorable!

Well, either way, I have stuff to do so I can't exactly cuddle all day long.

What do I intend to do, do you ask?

I'm going to explore the surface.

Last night, every single shark went up to the surface. They probably all came back at sunrise, considering they're nocturnal creatures.

If they all knew to go up at the exact same time, that probably means this is normal behavior for land sharks. Meaning so long as I'm back well before sunset I won't get caught up in that massive swarm and can go back to sleep. If I don't make it... well if you can't beat them, join them.

So with that in mind, I swim up and head in the same direction the swarm went at sunset. Sure enough, the water grows warmer and the ground slopes up and up until I find my fins dragging in the sand.

I raise the tips of my fins, folding them almost like a bird's wings, and let the claws hidden under them support my weight. My hind claws unfold, and I stretch like a cat in the water. Wow, I didn't realize how cramped they felt until I moved them!

And with that, I take my first few steps out of water.

For a second I feel like I'm choking and gag before I remember how to breathe like a land animal, gasping air through my lungs.

Alright, not the most elegant entry, but it'll do.

I walk on all fours up onto land, movements a little shaky since my legs haven't been used up until now.

The air is cold against my skin and I shiver, fighting the temptation to turn around and go back into the ocean. Instead I take a few more steps, finally getting fully onto the sand and out of the waves.

The wind whistles around me in an almost eerie fashion. Ahead of me is sand followed by a treeline of pines. There are no branches on the lower parts of the trees, all of them appearing to have been ripped off. No underbrush survives on the ground aside from a few solitary blades of grass, the sand giving way to dirt visibly in patches with dirt taking over more and more the farther I look. Even on the sand, the hundreds of impressions of footprints remain despite the waves working to wash them away.

I reach forward and slot my foreclaw into one. It's a perfect fit.

So it really was the swarm.

I take a deep breath, striding forwards into the woods. The trees, I note, are lacking bark in patches the lower one looks. This has killed more than a few of them by the looks of it. About half of them have no more pine fronds, while many of them have simply gone dead and brown. I tread through mass amounts of the brown, dead fronds and the occasional pine cone, though most are trampled nearly beyond recognition.