I Foresee A Bad End

How has this happened?

The croissant packet floating around on its own?

Not even on its own, but with a cohort of sepia apama?

At least we know who has lost it.

Ageless and Captain Baudin have been swimming towards a promising reef.

Each with an empty croissant packet.

Captain Baudin's croissant packet is tied round his dominant claw.

Awkward, but not impossible.

Ageless's croissant packet is trailing behind him, wedged into a joint in his tail.

It's holding him back. 

He decides to ditch it.

Not in a careless way. He will pick it up later.

Captain Baudin will collect the eggs and the glory, but hey. 

Ageless swims on.

The croissant packet drifts up and down in the water, catching the light.

A giant cuttlefish, looking for another giant cuttlefish to mate with, approaches the croissant packet.

Hello lovely!

The croissant packet makes no response, but flashes and undulates in a cuttlefish-like fashion.

Laid any eggs yet?

No answer.

Shy type, are we? I know a place....

The giant cuttlefish is persuasive, and furthermore is creating a current.

The croissant packet follows the giant cuttlefish for a while, before dipping out.

It drops behind, but is soon noticed by other giant cuttlefish who have not yet mated.

Which explains what Roo-kai saw when retrieving the sea captain's hat.

Yay! says Terence, when Roo-kai lands on the rock beside Gaius.

I'll take care of the hat, says Gaius. 

It's wet, says Roo-kai.

I'll let it dry out on this rock in the sunshine says Gaius. 

Did you happen to see our two volunteers? asks Denis.

No, says Roo-kai, but I did see a weird thing.  

What? asks Terence.

At first I thought it was a giant cuttlefish says Roo-kai, but it had writing down one side.

That is unusual, says Gaius. Although cuttlefish are excellent mimics.

Surely not to the extent that they mimic writing, says Denis.

Ordinarily no, says Gaius. What did it say?

Butter Croissants Bake at Home, says Roo-kai. 

This is bad news, says Gaius. One of our team must have lost it.

It seemed quite at home with the cuttlefish, says Roo-kai. I think they've adopted it.

I foresee a bad end, says Gaius. I wonder if you'd mind going back out there.

And do what? asks Roo-kai.

Locate Ageless and Captain Baudin, find out what happened and get them to fix it, says Gaius.

Okay, says Roo-kai. 

He flies off over the water.

Lucky I dropped the captain's hat in the water, says Terence.

Very lucky indeed, agrees Gaius.