Post by Penny on Nov 21, 2011 23:24:12 GMT -5
The sounds of cannon's fire still echoed in my ears. Even as we went, rocking back and forth, to and fro, I still felt the vibrations of the ground shaking. Even though the freezing water splashed up against my neck, I could still feel the heat the fires brought.
There were three lifeboats. In mine, there was me, my two brothers Meka and Al, and JB. In the one nearest us, there was my uncle Per, my aunt Anti, my mother Chi, and MGG. The last, leading us, held my cousins Jack and Near, as well as my sister Carla, and Nick. All of us were at the oars, pushing forward into the horizon. We had been gone for so long, with so little provisions... I was afraid that I would never see land again. Or at least I had been, a while ago.
In the past hour we had seen an unmoving mass in the distance. We raced towards it, all of us, with all our strength, all our power and all our might. And now, it was close enough that if I were desperate enough, I could simply swim across to it. Once we had noticed it was an island, lush and beautiful and something none of us had ever seen before, we all screamed with joy.
In a half an hour at most, we struck sand, and jumped out to drag our boats ashore. As one collective unit we stumbled forward, to scout around the perimeter of the island, not daring to go into the forest, not yet. We determined that the island was relatively small- about fifteen miles around. It was nightfall before we got back to the boats, to haul out our provisions and set up a fire- luckily, Per's lighter had been kept dry and safe by his Great Coat.
"This is my lucky lighter from now on," He told us, waving it in front of us before lighting the patch. "But, from this day forward, we have to keep a fire going at all times, okay? We can't rely on this lighter to survive all that longer, and until we figure out what type of things there are on this island... we can't plan to stay, nor can we plan for having dry enough wood to light a fire with."
I didn't speak up, but I was thinking to myself how much I hated fire now.
Oh well...
It was midnight, by Anti's watch- also saved in Per's Great Coat- by the time we went to bed. I was nestled between JB and Meka on either side, so I wasn't terribly warm, but at least I was warm enough to fall asleep without too much fear.
Nobody knew about this island but us.
If we were going to stay here... we were going to have to keep it that way.
There were three lifeboats. In mine, there was me, my two brothers Meka and Al, and JB. In the one nearest us, there was my uncle Per, my aunt Anti, my mother Chi, and MGG. The last, leading us, held my cousins Jack and Near, as well as my sister Carla, and Nick. All of us were at the oars, pushing forward into the horizon. We had been gone for so long, with so little provisions... I was afraid that I would never see land again. Or at least I had been, a while ago.
In the past hour we had seen an unmoving mass in the distance. We raced towards it, all of us, with all our strength, all our power and all our might. And now, it was close enough that if I were desperate enough, I could simply swim across to it. Once we had noticed it was an island, lush and beautiful and something none of us had ever seen before, we all screamed with joy.
In a half an hour at most, we struck sand, and jumped out to drag our boats ashore. As one collective unit we stumbled forward, to scout around the perimeter of the island, not daring to go into the forest, not yet. We determined that the island was relatively small- about fifteen miles around. It was nightfall before we got back to the boats, to haul out our provisions and set up a fire- luckily, Per's lighter had been kept dry and safe by his Great Coat.
"This is my lucky lighter from now on," He told us, waving it in front of us before lighting the patch. "But, from this day forward, we have to keep a fire going at all times, okay? We can't rely on this lighter to survive all that longer, and until we figure out what type of things there are on this island... we can't plan to stay, nor can we plan for having dry enough wood to light a fire with."
I didn't speak up, but I was thinking to myself how much I hated fire now.
Oh well...
It was midnight, by Anti's watch- also saved in Per's Great Coat- by the time we went to bed. I was nestled between JB and Meka on either side, so I wasn't terribly warm, but at least I was warm enough to fall asleep without too much fear.
Nobody knew about this island but us.
If we were going to stay here... we were going to have to keep it that way.
