The roiling waves

As Mr. Tootise landed in the tumultuous waves below, both tiny women clung to their bindings to ensure they didn't fall below the water's surface. As the brave Mr. Tootise bobbed in the surf, Hilda wrapped her arms around his neck and Tina wrapped her arms around Hilda. "Hang on tight!" Hilda yelled over the storm.

"Noted!" Tina replied, mustering up a little sarcasm even as she held on for dear life. A wave crashed into their dingy, slathering the doll-sized knights with saltwater. As Tina spit out the seawater, she yelled to her mother, "Where are we going?!"

"That way!" Hilda pointed to the beach just west of the town. "We have to get to shore before the storm gets worse."

"How do we do that?" Tina asked. "We didn't bring any rows." Hilda froze, and Tina eyed her back. "You did think of that, right?"

"Uhhh..." Before Hilda could deliver a no-doubt brilliant spur-of-the-moment plan, another wave crashed into the ducky. This time, Tina's grip on Hilda slipped and she landed in the water, her lifeline going taut. Hilda reached back to grab her, but felt herself slipping off the ducky, and held on with all her might, hoping that Tina's twine wouldn't break in the water.

Tina floundered in the waves, swirling around and trying to not let her twin wrap around her stomach or throat. As she breached and was pulled to and fro by the waves and the motion of Mr. Tootisie. She barely managed to take a gulp of air before she was pulled under the water again. As she flailed in the surf, her hands wrapped around the twine at her waist, and she suddenly felt a tugging at that twine.

Hilda, her legs wrapped around the neck of the ducky, was pulling Tina's lifeline back to her, going hand over hand to pull her aboard. Tina, her twine now tying her arms to her sides, was pulled onto Mr. Tootsie's back, coughing and spitting out water, her luscious locks running over her face. "Are you okay?" Hilda asked, unwrapping the ties from her daughter's arms.

"I'm *cough* fine *cough*." Tina wheezed, though Hilda couldn't hear her over the storm.

"Just hang on, we're almost to shor-" As Hilda tried to reassure her waterlogged ward, a bolt of lightning lit up the sky above them, and Hilda, almost imperceptibly, loosened her grip on her duck's neck. As her legs slipped off of Mr. Tootsie, her toes curling to try fruitlessly to grab ahold of him again, she reflexively gripped Tina tightly, the two of them falling into the roiling waves below. Hilda's lifeline went taut, whipping her head back andsending Tina out of her grip. The two tiny women flailed to the surface, only to be sent back down again, over and over.

Hilda could feel the twin getting looser as she tried to pull herself back to the duck, inching forward ever so slightly. Tina flopping behind her threatened to pull her back into the water, but Hilda kept an iron grip on the fraying twine as it bounced to and fro in the waves. As she reached out desperately for the rubber tail of the duck, her grip on the twine wavering, she felt a sudden loss of tension.

The twine had broken.

Now, all three figures were loose in the water, being thrown this way and that with no direction. Hilda screamed for Tina, only to get her body wrapped up in the loose twine. Turning around in the water, the ducky having floated out of sight, she saw a massive (relatively) wave coming right for her. She desperately tried to swim away, her tiny arms making little headway against the tide, as she was pulled up into the wave and slammed down into the darkness below.