Alaina was waiting for us by the time we made it back to the campsite. Still as naked as the day she was born, Alaina was sitting on her knees, banging on the back of a turtle with a large rock. Whether the creature was actually dead or now, and where she’d managed to get it from, was beyond me. Seeing us coming, she waved happily and called out, “Chyni,” to Laulaia.
“Chyni, Alaina,” Laulaia answered, helping me sit back down at my tree.
“Chyni, Alaina,” I repeated. I suppose ‘Chyni’ must mean something similar to ‘Morning’, or is a greeting of sorts, in their language. I’ll strive to remember it. They’re working hard to learn my language; the least I can do is try and return the courtesy.
Tired from supporting me, Laulaia sat down as I did, and continued to stay snuggled under my left arm. Closing her eyes, she sat the knife and garters down on the ground in front of us, and then rested her head on my shoulder. Seemingly completely relaxed, she exacted several words back and forth with Alaina, too quickly for me to make out what any of them were.
“Alaina, fetch,” I commanded, pointing at the turtle in her hand. Somehow, it kind of stung that the two could carry on a complete conversation without me having a clue what they were discussing.
Beaming a smile – not at all offended by my tone – Alaina hopped up and skipped directly over. Holding out the turtle, the grin on her face reminded me of one a little child might have when offering a daisy to their mother.
Leaning forward a little, trying not to hurt my side, I tried my best to peer inside the small slits where the turtle’s shell had closed up. A light, “hssssss,” greeted me for my trouble, as a small beady eye glared back warningly.
“Nagu,” I told Alaina, shaking my head slightly from side to side. Using my hands, I motioned for her to sit the turtle down on the ground. Unhesitantly, Alaina did as I indicated, without question.
Who the hell listens that well?? Hell, I can’t even get my dog to listen to me like that! Once again, I was completely baffled by how unusual these two girls were – one was relaxing and snuggling mostly naked under my arm, while the other was completely naked and seemingly happy to follow any order I gave her. Who acts like that? Trying not to let my disbelief of the whole situation get the best of me – sometimes I honestly think I must’ve cracked my head open during the crash, and this is all some odd sort of coma-induced end-of-life dream state – I tried to focus on the task at hand.
Watching the turtle for a few moments, it was obvious the thing was happy to hunker down in its shell and wait for us to give up messing with it. Being almost as big around as a hubcap on a car, I’d imagine the whole thing probably had to weigh forty pounds or more. A person would never end up being able to beat on its shell enough to crack it open; at least, not with their hands and a rock alone.
Using my crutch, I poked and prodded at the head of the shell for several moments, listening to the turtle’s hissing growl growing ever more upset and angrier. After a few minutes of poking and prodding, the beast had finally had enough and snapped out and clamped its mouth around the base of my crutch. Using both hands, and ignoring the ache in my side, I lifted the crutch up a few feet from the ground, raising the turtle with it. Generally speaking, turtles are stubborn creatures, and once they bite something, they don’t want to let go of it for a while – and that’s what this one was doing; stubbornly hanging onto my crutch and refusing to let go.
“Now, Alaina,” I told her. Laulaia noticed I was starting to tremble to support the turtle’s weight from the position I was in, so she leaned over to help hold and steady the crutch.
“Tra! La! La!” Half laughing, Alaina scooped up the knife from the ground at our feet and made a swift hack across the base of the turtle’s neck. When the first didn’t do the job completely, she made several more vicious slices, until the turtle’s body finally fell to the ground. The head, however, kept a strong and unflinching grip on the base of my crutch.
“Now,” I told Alaina, “at least you won’t get bit by the damn thing while trying to get it out of its shell.” Arms weak from the effort, and ribs burning from the strain, I dropped the crutch and leaned back against the tree. Wrapping my left arm back around Laulaia, I pulled her close and let her snuggle back up against my shoulder. “Thank you,” I told her softly, as I tried to catch my breath again.
Saying nothing, Laulaia simply nuzzled against me and closed her eyes relaxing. The sun was already starting to rise higher in the sky, and the temperature and humidity was increasing with it. From my experience yesterday, the daylight hours on this island are for sitting, resting, and staying cool as much as possible. Early mornings, late evenings, and night time appears to be the time to try and actually move around and do anything much. Working in the middle of the day is just asking for a sunstroke!
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Eventually, as much as I both wanted to sit and wait out the sun, there was still too much stuff to do. The bootfull of water which we’d gathered yesterday wasn’t going to last forever, and even though I suspected that evening storms were a daily occurrence for this time of year on this island, I couldn’t be certain. Once the pain in my side subsided back to manageable torrents of agony, I forced myself to sit back up fully and check the condition of our camp once again.
Alaina and Laulaia had truly did a marvelous job with the water-catcher, but still there wasn’t any real “roof” of sorts on it. The framework was up, and it appeared to be quite sturdy now, but I honestly don’t think we’ll be able to catch much water with it. I’m afraid it’ll have way too many leaks to be useful as it stands; much like trying to use a sieve as a bucket in a well.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Laulaia.” All it took was saying her name, for her to open her eyes and look at me. She truly does have the most beautiful pale blue eyes.
“Steffan,” she whispered, leaning forward to gaze deeply into my eyes. Her lips slowly approached mine, slightly parted…
“Fetch,” I told her, pointing over to the large pile of leaves which was still heaped up not so far from us.
“Steffan!” Laulaia half pouted, then stood up suddenly. Half stomping her tiny foot, she stormed over and grabbed up a handful of the leaves. Stomping back, she tossed them at me. “Here,” she huffed, walking past and down towards the beach.
“Sorry,” I coughed, as she stomped off, trying my best not to laugh. Somehow, I found her reaction quite honest and refreshing, even if it did seem childish to me.
Snorting, Alaina dropped the turtle’s shell, which she had still been playing with. “Steffan nagu shina,” she lectured me, pointing her finger disapprovingly, before rushing past to catch up to Laulaia.
“To anger one woman, is to anger all women,” I muttered sagely. It was a saying my father used to use sometimes, and it truly seemed to fit at this moment. “Now, how the hell am I going to show anyone how to properly tile a roof? Everyone left…”
At that time, Shadow finally came bursting out of the thick foliage, tail wagging and bouncing. Yipping enthusiastically, it almost seemed as if he’d sensed my trouble and came rushing to the rescue. “I guess, if nothing else, I could always teach you, now couldn’t I?” Yipping in agreement, Shadow happily bounced over and jumped up in my lap.
I don’t know if I can teach him how to make a tile roof out of leaves, but I certainly am good at scratching his ass when he needs it.
*SIGH*
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The sun had probably rose a good finger’s width higher into the sky, before the girls came back, laughing and giggling together as if nothing had ever happened. Worried about the state of our supplies, I had spent the effort to crawl across the sand, until I could reach the pile of leaves they had gathered.
While they were off caterwauling and cavorting together doing who knows what, I had spent the whole time gathering small groups of about 5 leaves of about the same size and placing them in neat little stacks together. Using the knife which they’d left behind, I had scored up the bark of one of the nearby trees, and was happily surprised to find they bled and oozed sap quite easily. I suppose, with the heat and all the moisture, that’s to be expected, but I didn’t know it until after I tried it.
From the smell of it, I didn’t think the sap was anything which a person would want to eat – like the sap from a maple tree – but I wasn’t looking for another food source, at the moment. Instead, I was using the sap as a natural form of glue to help stick the various leaves together that I’d been assembling. The sap was watery and not the stickiest in the word – not like pine sap, or sap from a spruce – but it was enough to help bind the leaves together.
I figured a single leaf would have cracks, holes, and bug bites, which would leak, but several of them layered together shouldn’t. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m just wasting my time or not, but it was an idea I had for makeshift “tiles”. From the way the sun keeps creeping up in the sky, and the temperature and humidity keeps rising, I imagine I’ll have a chance to test the theory out in a few hours.
“Steffan! Nagu!” The moment Laulaia got close enough to notice me laying on the ground away from my tree, she yelled and came running. “Steffan kin dora?!” Concerned, Laulaia plopped down heavily beside me and tugged my face up to stare deep at me.
“I’m fine,” I tried to assure her, seeing the obvious worry on face. I still felt like hell, and my ribs still felt as if someone had atomized them with a bazooka, but it was nothing more than the same hellish agony I was already feeling when she left the first time.
Frowning, Laulaia fussed quite animatedly with me for several moments, using words which, for once, I was happy not to understand. Finally, she simply sighed deeply and leaned up against my left side and snuggled. Pointing at the small piles of leaves I’d stuck together with her fingers, she asked something I couldn’t comprehend. Probably something along the lines of, “What the hell are you doing now, you crazy bastard?”
“I’ll show… you,” I wheezed, in response. Taking another couple of leaves, which seemed to be of roughly similar size, I rubbed one in the sap of the tree I’d scratched up, and then stuck it to the other. Repeating the process another three times, while both girls watched, I soon had another “tile” assembled for them. “This,” I told Laulaia, holding the finished product out to her.
Taking it, she just frowned moodily, and nodded, while examining my work. “Frenta,” she asked, staring at the pile beside me?
“Up,” I told her. Placing my makeshift crutch beneath my right shoulder, I struggled to rise. Still frowning, Laulaia nevertheless helped push me to my feet and then steady me. Struggling to take the few steps necessary, I closed the distance to the water-catcher and laboriously forced myself to stretch to place the leaf-tile in place on top of it.
“There,” I told Laulaia, panting and out of breath from my efforts. I really am just about completely useless at the moment. Even something as simple as sitting a leaf on a wooden frame is enough to almost make me pass out!
“Alaina!” Laulaia half shouted, snapped her fingers, and firmly spat several words out of her mouth which I didn’t understand.
Alaina instantly stood straight up, and almost took on a militaristic stance to show she was paying absolute attention. Once Laulaia finished her short set of orders, Alaina nodded her understanding, and immediately began gathering up the small groups of leaves which I’d glued together earlier. Rushing, almost as if her ass was on fire, she skipped back and forth between the pile and the water-catcher, and began layering them across the rooftop.
“You… might want… to… sticky them… with… sap,” I wheezed out, but was completely ignored. Laulaia was forcibly tugging and leading me back to my tree. Getting there, she slowly knelt down and then extracted herself from under my arm. “Use… sap,” I tried to tell her.
Ignoring me completely, Laulaia simply stood and walked back over to kneel down beside the pile of leaves. Imitating my previous actions, she began to assemble the “tiles”, while Alaina rushed to take them and lay them in a single row across the roof. One a row was complete from one side to the other, Alaina would then gather up some of the thin vines she’d collected, and use those to wrap around and hold the whole row down and in place.
“I… still think… it’d do… bet... ter with… sap,” I wheezed moodily, completely ignored by the world. Exhausted and hurting, I closed my eyes and simply focused on taking one breath after another, while the girls did all the work.
Moments later, Shadow stretched out at my side; his tail thumping lethargically against my leg as the ever-rising heat and humidity had completely sapped his energy too.