"Come on, what's it gonna do? it's only a turtle."

"I know man, but... really? You're gonna kill and eat a turtle?"

"Fuck yeah, I'm gonna eat it. I heard they're the most delicious things in the world. No-one who ever ate one had ever tasted anything better."

"I saw that episode of QI too, and that's giant tortoises."

"Still, same thing, isn't it? Turtles, tortoises..."

"They're nowhere near the same thing. One lives on Galapagos and places like that, the other lives... places like this."

They stood on the beach, bathed in moonlight. They'd been on it fairly heavily all day, but Jay was starting to sober up with the way Matt was taking. They'd been stalking the turtle along the beach for about twenty minutes. Now Matt's intentions in following the black shape as it slithered along the white sand where becoming clear, Jay wanted less and less to do with it.

"Well, if that's the way you feel about it," said Matt, turning and catching Jay's expression. "Get on back to the boat. I'll call you when I've got a fire going."

"Fuck you," spat Jay, turning on his heel and storming off without a backwards look.

Matt chuckled and shook his head. "Pussy", he sneered, and hunkered down again, starting after the turtle again.

He closed on it quickly now that he could concentrate. Such a slow thing on the land. All the same, he wouldn't be much good up against it in the water. But they weren't in the water.

The turtle stopped about two yards from the edges of the waves that lapped lazily up the shore, deadening Matt's footfalls. He'd ditched his flip-flops some time back to cut the noise he made.

Still the turtle sat there as he closed and closed behind it. It might be laying eggs, Matt thought. Omelettes. Heh.

And still he crept up behind, the turtle not moving an inch, moon glinting off salt water in the cracks in its shell. He was so close now he could almost reach out and touch the rough carapace on its broad back. He reached. There was a crumbling sound at his feet. He fell...

He landed with a crunch. He looked down to find his foot turned backwards below him. He looked down bemusedly, then the pain hit him in the chest and knocked him off his feet.

He was in some kind of cavern, deep and pitch-dark, and the echoes of his fall still rang around the walls.

"Matt? MATT!" But no answer.