People respond differently to the call. Some flee, hauling whatever they can in a cargo of panic: nets, children, the portrait of an aunt who once hated the sea. Others climb to the highest point they can find and watch with the avidity of someone who witnesses a once-in-a-lifetime meteor. A third kind goes out to meet her—reckless, ritualistic, or perhaps simply curious. They go because stories insist that to see Elasíd is to witness a truth the land cannot teach.