Contrary to my desires and wishes, God once again refused to let things go according to my expectations. I had assumed the storm was only going to last for about half an hour or so, before it expended the energy it’d gathered in the course of one morning. Boy, was I mistaken!
For about the first half hour or so, the girls and I got to rest and recuperate somewhat under the shelter of the little roof they’d put together so hastily, before things started to go all to hell, all at once. Several strong gusts of wind hit at once, and since there hadn’t been any time to try and tie the multiple layers of leaves into any sort of natural tile pattern, they all began to blow off and leave us exposed.
Half an hour later, all we could do is move to pitifully huddle together under one of the larger trees, and wait out the storm – and damn it, did we have to wait! The “quick” storm which I thought would blow itself out after about half an hour, lasted for what I’d assume to be at least three hours, and perhaps as many as five – and most of that time all we could do is just get soaked and endure silently together.
By the time the storm was over, the priorities for the items on my mental checklist had changed considerably. Of all my priorities, my top three were now finding meat – so I could feed Shadow, as I don’t think Fire Lemons would agree with him, -- finding something which I might could possibly use as a pain reliever, and reinforcing at least a roofed structure so we all aren’t so miserable, in case these storms are a daily occurrence, as I suspect them to be.
The only one who really seemed to enjoy the storm, was Shadow. Once he’d drank his fill of water from the ground, he happily barked and danced around, rolling in the dirt and generally just making a complete mess out of himself. I honestly have no idea how the heck I’m going to get all the mud out of his fur!
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The sun was lost behind the trees when the rain finally stopped. When I tried to force myself to stand up, Laulaia gently placed a hand on my shoulder and kept me down. Speaking decisively, she said something which made Red laugh, and then move down to start unlacing my boots. Too weak and exhausted to resist, all I could do is lay there as she removed my boots, socks, belt, and then pants, in that order. For modesty’s sake, I did try to keep a grip on my boxers, but they too were tugged and pulled out of my grip, leaving me as bare as the day I was born.
Looking down at my body, and trying not to blush, I was shocked by the state of my injuries. My whole right side, from about halfway up past my knee, to just a few inches below my elbow was all the colors of the rainbow. I wasn’t just black and blue; my skin was bruised yellow, green, blood-red, black, and blue! Honestly, it’ll be a complete miracle if I don’t have internal bleeding going on somewhere, or if I don’t form blood clots which will end up traveling to my heart and killing me.
Laulaia leaned over past my shoulder, handing another bundle of clothes to Red, bringing me out of my morbid thoughts. Tilting my head back to glance at her, I was shocked to see that she’d stripped completely and was now just as sans-clothing as me. I thought for certain that she’d blush, or squeal, or smack me upside the face for staring when she noticed my wide-eyed gaze. Instead, Laulaia simply leaned down, snuggled herself under my left arm as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and then helped tug upwards on me.
“Gaaahhhh…” Pain shot up and down my poor side as I struggled upright and leaned heavily on Laulaia. Red bent down, picked up the stick I’d been using as a makeshift crutch, and then handed over it to me. After I took it, she laughed merrily and bounced off into the woods and out of sight, carrying off all the clothes we’d been wearing. Barking happily, Shadow chased off after her.
Turning my gaze to Laulaia, I forced out a crooked, “Thank... You.” Talking was still a hard effort for me, but I wanted – no, I needed – to let her know that I was truly appreciative for all the two had done for me.
“Nagu, Steffan,” Laulaia corrected me, gently staring back into my eyes. “Thank you.”
I don’t know what the hell she was thanking me for, but the words were enough to bring tears to my eyes. How long had it been since I’d heard those words from someone else? Knowing I wasn’t worthy of them – after all, *I* was the one who had crashed into their ship and got them stranded in this mess, and I was the one who kept telling them to ‘fetch’, or ‘sit’, or ‘here’, like a dog – made me feel more like a complete ass than I ever would’ve thought possible.
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Neither of us said anything for several long moments, as we just stood there, until Red merrily bounced back to rejoin us. Unsurprisingly, she was now just as naked as Laulaia and I was. Shadow, who was now just a bundle of mud and fur, was enthusiastically still yipping and happily chasing after her.
“Here?” Shifting her weight to catch my attention, Laulaia questioned what we were doing.
“There,” I told her, lifting my makeshift cane to indicate down towards the beach. Now that the storm was over, I was sincerely hoping that something else from the wreckage might’ve washed up on the shore that we could use to help keep us all alive. A damn big bottle of codeine, or even aspirin, would be a lifesaver, in my opinion!
“Shaddow, here!” Laughing gaily, Red bounced off in the direction I’d pointed, my little pup wagging his muddy mess of a behind happily after her.
“Laulaia.” Leaning on my crutch, I pointed over at Laulaia, and then moved my finger to point back at myself. “Steven,” I stressed, hoping she’d see the slight difference in how she was pronouncing my name. “Shadow,” I pointed over at the little bugger, also stressing his name a little plainer for her, before pointing over to Red and asking, “Her?”
“Alaina,” Laulaia told me. Smiling slightly, she half giggled and then shrugged, telling me, “Red.”
‘A-lay-na’ sounded like a suitably foreign name for her, but I couldn’t figure out why she added the ‘Red’ afterwards. Did I by chance happen to call her by her nickname? I suppose a lot of people with red hair end up with that nomenclature, but it just seems odd since none of the other words either of us have spoken seem to match. Confused even more by the mystery of the girl’s origins, I leaned heavily on Laulaia’s shoulder and slowly started hobbling my way down towards the water’s edge.
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Laulaia quietly sang something as we slowly worked our way along the shore – she has a beautiful voice, even if I can’t recognize the words of the song – and I tried not to wheeze too loud to disturb her. This stroll was taking every bit of my strength out of me, and so far, I hadn’t seen anything more than some driftwood and scattered seaweed. Just as I was beginning to think I’d wasted what was left of my strength for no good reason, Alaina let out a loud squeal and flopped face first onto the beach in front of us.
“Alaina, shina?” Laulaia called out loudly towards her, while Shadow was barking and running in circles all around.
Flopping and twitching, appearing almost as if she was experiencing a seizure from our distant vantage point, Alaina finally bounced up, turned, and started running in our direction. Arms crossed tight to her chest, it took several moments for me to realize what she’d found.
“A fish.” Even hurt, I couldn’t keep the shock and disgust out of my voice. All that damn squealing and shouting just because the storm surge had washed up a fish and deposited it on the beach! I thought the poor girl had stepped on a jellyfish and was dying, or something!
Bouncing up to us, Alaina let loose a long stream of excited speech, which I found impossible to follow. Shadow was bouncing and barking all around just as idiot-like, and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. My poor heart was still pounding from the fear that something bad had happened, yet I knew that the fish she had – I didn’t know its type, but it hung all the way from her breasts to her knees – could feed all of us for at least a few meals.
“Alaina, shina,” I finally told her, settling on praise for the meal over anger for the shock.
Beaming happily, Alaina stuck out her arm and gave a thumb’s up. Taking advantage of her slack grip, the fish she was holding suddenly flopped and twisted, flying out of her hands. Squirming wildly, it tried its damndest to reach the shore. Squealing wildly once again, Alaina pounced down grabbing it, wrestling with the beast until she could grip it back tight against her chest.
It was at this point, where exhaustion from the shouting and near-escape completely eroded what was left of my feeble strength. “Laulaia, back,” I pleaded, trying to turn to start what I felt was an incredibly long walk back to the frame of our shelter.
Nodding, she slowly turned with me, supporting my weight as best she could, as we went back to our current “home”.
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By the time we had finally returned to our camping spot, I’m not certain who was more exhausted – me or Laulaia. Had it not been for her shoulder to lean on, I never would’ve made it the whole way back, and I’m ashamed to admit that the further we walked, the more of my weight she had to bear. By the time we finished our short round-trip, it was more like she was carrying me along, than it was me walking beside her.
Exhausted, all I could do is sigh in relief once I finally had a solid tree to sit back and rest my weight against. I couldn’t even object when Laulaia slumped down beside me, closed her eyes, and rested her head upon my shoulder. The warmth of her naked body against mine was sticky and uncomfortable in many ways, but the sound of her exhausted breathing near my ear was captivating. I truly missed the sound of my wife’s breath at night, and somehow, I couldn’t help but feel some comfort listening to Laulaia’s.
Before I realized it, the regular sound of her tired breathing had relaxed and put me to sleep.