Perrine grimaced, glad that the booze in her system was keeping most negative emotions pressed down. "The first time I went beachcombing," she said, her feet skidding on the shifting sands of the dunes, "I wore sandals- in February." She shivered for effect. "Second-worst mistake of my life. Didn't have the money for a doctor, had to just sit in my cottage and shiver for three straight weeks. No one came to help because I didn't know anyone, not even my neighbors, and they're all a good half-mile away anyhow." She shook her head and let the rolling sands take her down the other side of the hill. This was a practice that took balance, yet she'd done it so often by now it was near-second-nature. She glanced beside or behind her to see how Anthony was faring- he probably wasn't keeping his footing as well as she, and she just hoped he wouldn't twist an ankle. She'd done that before, too.

Anthony was mostly focusing on trying to keep his balance, rather than listening to Perrine talk, so her monologue fell mostly on deaf ears. "Oh, wow," he said somewhat absently, just to make it seem like he was actually listening. Anthony was just trying his best to follow after her without twisting an ankle or something, but considering that he was drunk and that he just generally was not the best at this shit, it was not a good time for him at all. He managed to survive it all, though by no means was he doing as well as she was.

Perrine smirked when she saw that he was sliding all over the place in the sand, but as he was remaining upright, doing a better job than she'd expected, and might be offended if she offered help (she got the sense he might), she didn't say anything. "Ah, here we are." And indeed, they'd arrived at the water's edge. There was a slight incline here and to the untrained eye, it looked like everything was just sea from here on out; it appeared to be the same from the sea, which is why the sandbars were such a hazard for ships especially on moonless nights. Luckily, they had a crescent moon tonight and no clouds, just enough of a marker in the sky for Perrine to know which way to go across the shallows. "This way." Without looking back, Perrine waded into the water and started sloshing across, assuming Anthony would follow, forgetting that she hadn't mentioned the shallows only got to six inches deep and it was barely a two-minute walk across with no current to upset one's balance.

And they both got out in one piece. That was good, at least. Anthony blinked rapidly to get used to the darkness, and looked at the sea. Kind of terrifying, and even moreso at night. Which was extremely inconvenient for him, but he didn't say a word about it, and just kept. He winced a bit as Perrine started wading in the water, because he knew that he had to do exactly the same. It was quite comforting, then, that the water was absolutely not deep at all, though that didn't get rid of all his fear. "Eww." Eloquent.

Perrine stifled a laugh when she heard him say 'eww'. Maybe a piece of seaweed had gotten caught on his boot, or maybe he'd stepped in one of the air pockets in the sand (almost like mud) and become stuck for a moment, or maybe he just didn't like the ocean. Whatever it was, she continued on, the lantern in her hand swinging before her as the waves only an inch tall brushed against her boots. Before too long, they reached a slight incline and Perrine led the way up onto the first sandbar. It was only a few feet wide, and very few boats crashed here so there wasn't much debris, but by wading across lengths of only a dozen feet at most, one could get to the further sandbars easily. It was when the water started to get deeper than Perrine knew she'd have to keep an eye on Anthony when they crossed- when the sandbars started to get packed together more tightly so one could simply jump from one to another, the current in the water around was strong enough to sweep someone a good distance away if they fell in.

Anthony just powered through this whole thing, trying not to let his sheer disgust and fear stop him, even though it was incredibly difficult. He just kept on following her blindly, much too unsure of himself to even try and deviate from the path even slightly. It was better not to do that. He wasn't sure whether to be glad or not about them reaching a sandbar, but he was very glad about not being in the water anymore, even if only for a moment. That didn't last for long, though. He was beginning to genuinely regret coming here, as they kept going, but he just stayed silent and tried not to let it show. Nevermind. He just kept following her, trying his damnedes to not fall.

A good ten minutes passed before they came to the first slightly-dangerous crossing. Perrine turned to Anthony then and instructed him to hold his lantern away from his body and to shield the side of it closest to his face with one hand. She'd had lanterns break on jumps before, but she'd found by doing this, it was highly unlikely that the lantern would break unless one dropped it. Perrine took a few steps back, then jumped. The crossing was only four feet, but landing on the sand on the other side was another matter entirely. She knew by now to land with one leg bent and the other straightened out but loose; this position would allow her to land with the balance of a cat landing on all fours despite her own two legs. Straightening up and stepping a little away from the water once she was on the other side, Perrine turned and waved for Anthony to follow her. "Do what I did, land in a crouch with one leg and keep the other straight out," she said, "and don't forget to be careful of the lantern." Perrine put her lantern down beside her and extended both hands, settling her weight into her heels in case he needed something to grab onto when he jumped- she just hoped he wouldn't forget he had a lit lantern in his hands and smack her with it on accident.

Oh, how he wished he was sober right now. This was all getting more terrifying by the minute, but he still stayed silent. He stopped abruptly as Perrine turned around to face him, and showed him how he should hold the lantern. He just followed her instructions blindly, trusting her advice. Oh, he was not looking forward to attempting that jump, but there was no way around it. It was pretty obvious how hesitant he was about this. Anthony took a few steps back, and then — he jumped. It didn't go very badly, but he did severely fuck up the landing. He almost twisted his ankle as he tried to mend his freakish landing and not fall into the water. He grabbed onto Perrine's hand and pulled himself up with that, and managed to fix his little fuckup somewhat. At least the lantern didn't break.

Perrine, whose breath had caught in her chest when Anthony landed poorly, found herself needing oxygen and so focused on her breathing for a moment while he recollected himself. "That was the biggest jump," she reassured him as they continued on, "the next few are only two feet or less." The sea air had, by now, significantly cleared Perrine's mind and she led the way with a sure step. Just a few more minutes of walking, two more short jumps, and they'd be at a wreck she'd discovered yesterday morning back had been too tired and hungover to fully search. "Almost there."

Anthony kept holding onto Perrine's hand for quite some time as he tried to get his feet back under him again, but he let go as soon as that happened. "Okay, good. That's good," he nodded. Thank god, honestly, that he won't have to do that shit again. The following minutes of walking and small jumps were significantly easier on him, and he wasn't as bothered by them as he was before. "hope this is worth the trouble." Maybe this wasn't 'trouble' for Perrine but it certainly was for Anthony.