1997 or so
Panting, barely thirty feet from the pursuing squids, they paused in 
shock.

Before them lay a gray ocean, with slow waves rolling towards
them like enormous slugs.  Renee stuck her toe in it then quickly
drew it back, exclaiming in disgust, 

"Eeuw!  It's hostile mucus!"

The entire ocean gave off a miasma, an aura of threat and hate, which
rose up from the far horizon like mist, like a shout of 
hatred aimed at their appalled eyes.  In some sense, it was alive.

And this, they would have to cross, or be diced by thousands of 
tiny beaks of the squids that oozed towards them, the retainers
of Queen Amanita, whose strict rules of etiquette they had 
violated innumerable times.