Though we relaxed for a while longer than intended, I can’t say I regret it. Life on the island was slow, and all of us realized that our plan to explore the coastline wasn’t going to be an overnight mission. So what if we laze around, take it easy, and enjoy each other’s company an extra hour or so? As long as we all had food, water, shelter, and health, another day or two stranded wasn’t going to make much of a difference at this point. After all, we’d already been here for over a month, and our goal was to explore about a day’s walk out from our current spot every week, or so. From the best I could estimate, if this island was only about a week’s walk from one side to the other, we’d end up spending the next several months circumventing around back to our starting point.
What’s an extra hour of snuggle time, when put in that perspective? Of course, one can’t just sit on their ass and snuggle the whole damn day away. I guess I’m the one who has to be the bad guy and get everyone up and moving.
“Up and at ‘em, ladies.” Damn, I sounded like a drill sergeant in the army! “You too, Shadow! Lazy ass!” All I needed was to yell, “Hup two, three, four,” and it’d complete the image perfectly.
“Awwww…. Do we gotta?” Laulaia stretched lazily and tried to bury her head under my arm to hide from the brightening light.
“Arrruummpt!” Snorting, Shadow showed he agreed with her, burying his head beneath his paws as well.
Sighing, at least I could be content with Alaina. She, at least, listened to me, stretched, and hopped right up.
Smirking slightly, I stretched and eased up myself, then leaned down and smacked Laulaia firmly on the cheeks of her pale ass. Ka-smaap!
“Yeouch!” Yelping, Laulaia half hopped up, rubbing her rear with her hand. “What was that for?!”
“Baaawooow wooow wooow!” Jumping up when she yelled, Shadow turned around a dozen circles, trying to see what the sudden commotion was about.
“Because the lady-servant didn’t listen to her lord,” Alaina replied, not bothering to hide the smirk which was openly obvious across her face.
“Good job, Alaina,” I praised her warmly, before leaning over and hugging her up tightly against my chest. “At least you listened to me,” I told her. Leaning forward, I gave her an extremely long, exaggerated kiss, just to highlight she was being rewarded while Laulaia had gotten punished.
If they’re going to call me a “lord-husband”, then by golly, I’m going to act like one!
Alaina was beaming from ear to ear, while Laulaia was visibly pouting and rubbing her tush. Shadow, on the other hand, was now facing Laulaia and staring up at her like she was crazy. There wasn’t any reason to be yelling like that and disturbing his rest!
“Okay, ladies,” I told them both, “today we’re changing plans somewhat. Before, we were planning on moving out of here by the day after tomorrow, but I’m changing that now. Alaina’s treasure says we’re going to sit right here for a few extra days, trying various things out, before we end up moving.”
“The eye?” Laulaia asked, obviously puzzled.
“You’ll see,” I told her, while deliberately not telling them anything more. Sometimes surprises are nice. “First order of business, Alaina you go get rid of the remains of that Wooly Octopus. It doesn’t take long for the sun to spoil things here, and I sure as hell don’t want the smell of rotten fish to settle over the camp.”
“Got it!” Thumping her right hand across her left breast, Alaina turned and snatched up one of the tentacles. “Come on, Shadow!” Tugging hard, she began jogging down the beach with the completely uneaten monstrosity behind; Shadow barking and nipping at her heels. He’s gotten used to going out with her in the mornings now, while I’ve been hurting and recuperating.
“Laulaia, go put my shirt on, and bring me my shorts. You don’t need a tan, and I sure as hell don’t want a sunburn on my pale champion either.”
Nodding, Laulaia turned and swayed seductively over to the shelter and began to get dressed. A bright red welp, in the mark of an open palm, shined brightly on her left ass cheek. I may have smacked her a little harder than I intended.
Coming back over, Laulaia bent down and helped hold my boxers while I stepped into them. “What’s next,” she asked, curiously.
“Now, you’re going to take Alaina’s treasure and wash it until it shines like a crystal gem, while I whittle some on one of the dry spears in the shed.” Walking past her, I gently reached down and caressed her rump where my hand print was, as a means of silent apology. Grabbing the knife and one of the long wooden spears from the shed, I found a nice open spot on the beach and began whittling long shavings off the dry wood.
Laulaia quirked her left eyebrow up, like she usually does when puzzled, but did as I asked. After several moments, where she repeated washed and polished the eye, she finally came over and held it out to me. “Here.”
“Thank you.” Sitting down the knife and spear, I was grinning from ear to ear. “Let me show you another power of the Breath of Life,” I told her.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Left eyebrow twitching up and down furiously, Laulaia said nothing. Even if she could control her mouth, the curious tapping of her toes in the sand and the twitching of her brow made it obvious she was dying of curiosity. I’ll have to make certain that she’s never allowed to play any game like poker. Never!
Holding the eye out in the air, about a foot or so above the dry shavings I’d whittled off the spear, I made certain to position it between the wood and the sun. Being crystal clear, and curved with a nice spherical shape, I adjusted position and height for several moments, until I managed to refract the sun’s light into a tightly narrow beam upon the wood.
“It won’t be long now,” I promised Laulaia.
Sure enough, I was right. With the intensity of the sun’s rays this close to the equator, and with the dryness of the thin shavings, I had a thin wisp of black smoke rising up in just a matter of moments. Bending down, I gently blew on the spark several times, until visible flames appeared.
FIRE! I MADE FIRE!!
“Quick! Go fetch some thin, dry wood!” Yelling at Laulaia in my excitement, I snapped the spear into several pieces across my knee. Slowing introducing them to the flame, I soon had given birth to the first fire that we’ve had for over a month.
I AM MAN! HEAR ME ROAR!!
The sense of pride and fulfillment I felt at the moment is impossible to describe. Sex this morning was great – a little bewildering and a lot to try and process, but over all, it was utterly great. This, however, was a thousand times more fulfilling!
----------------------------------------
The rest of the morning was a bone tiring race against time. We all knew how important a fire was, and nobody honestly wanted to see it go out – yet, we all knew how long and intense the storms tend to be. Starting a fire in the waning evening light might be an almost impossible task, especially after the storm just dumped several inches of rain over everything. If we wanted fire at night, we’d have to preserve it and keep it during the day – and that meant working our asses off in the hottest, most humid time possible.
Laulaia, I set to digging as deep of a firepit as she possibly could, in the floor of our sleeping shelter. Alaina was given the task of rushing back and forth repeatedly to the beach, to look for rocks to line the floor and sides of the firepit, as much as possible. I was hacking and chopping piles of wood and stacking them out in long rows, so the sun could dry them as much as possible. And Shadow? It was too damn hot for Shadow, so all he did was stretch out on his stomach and watch us all work, as if we had totally lost our minds.
Laulaia finished her job well before either Alaina or I did ours, so I gave her a second task afterwards: Keep the fire going, and burn me a rough “bowl” out of that large stick of driftwood which Shadow and Alaina had fetched up from the beach oh so long ago. I didn’t want it burnt up, or burned all the way through. I wanted her to center it on the fire, poke at it, and burn me an indenture the size of a person’s head in it, if possible.
By the time the afternoon’s storm began to rumble in the distance, we were all completely soaked with sweat and exhausted. Moving several burning sticks and embers into the freshly dug firepit, dry wood was stacked on top, and we all crawled in and simply slumped as the first raindrops began to fall. We hadn’t eaten. We hadn’t drunk. We might’ve lazed around and rested for an extra hour this morning, but we made up for it by working our ass off ever since.
I was utterly exhausted, but the comforting glow of a protected fire left a warmth inside that had nothing to do with its heat.
----------------------------------------
The storm that evening only lasted for a few hours – just long enough for us to cool down and eat, step outside in it and wash each other down, and have a little time to sit, relax, and rest up. As soon as it was over, everyone quickly went about their normal assignments. Alaina and Shadow ran off down the beach to scavenge and hunt whatever they could fine. Laulaia grabbed up her hose and went down along the beachline looking for fruits she could gather.
As for me, I whittled out the inside of the makeshift “bowl” which Laulaia had labored to burn out for me. Once it was reasonably clean, I hacked and chopped at one of the large nearby trees that I’ve learned produces large amounts of sap. Positioning my bowl under the sap, I began to collect as much of it as possible.
While the sap was collecting, I took the time to gather more logs and poles for use with making our raft-walls. Sticks too small, or too large, I bundled in one of the corners of the shelter to dry and use for burning. The rest I harvested and piled into a neat stack off to the side of our camp.
Once I was utterly exhausted once again, I went back and collected my sap. Leaning up against the tree that had become my long-time support, I slowly added handfuls of sand into the sap and stirred it all together. Once it reached the consistency of old oatmeal, I collected a huge handful of leaves and packed them tight in the center, displacing my “sand-sap oatmeal” up and along the edges. Bundling several vines around the whole thing, making it look like an oversized basketball, I took it into the shelter and hung it over the smoke of the fire to bake.
It wasn’t too long after that when the girls returned and we all snuggled together to freshly cook a fried chicken dinner! Well… Fried seagull, pelican, or some such white ocean bird. Alaina had been practicing with the sling shot for the last month or so, since I’d made it, and had actually became a fairly good shot with it. The only reason we hadn’t ate any bird before is simply because nobody could stomach the loose raw skin on it, or bring themselves to trust it. Sushi might be what folks call raw fish, but raw chicken is called salmonella. Since we now had fire, we now had chicken. (Even if it was sea-chicken!)
After our meal, I slowly unwrapped the vines around my smoked “basketball”. Removing the packed leaves inside, I carried the log Laulaia had burnt out for me, down to the ocean and eased it in the water, bit by bit, for several minutes, until it was cooled. Turning it upside down at the beach, I gently tapped on the bottom of the log a few times, before lifting it up.
There, laying on the beach, a second testament of my greatness: a concrete bowl.
Sand and sap can be mixed and baked to form a rudimentary concrete. All one needed was a mold to shape it, and all sorts of things were now possible for us to create. Concrete axes, knifes, and spears were one of the first uses that came to my mind – they chip and break easily, but in an environment like ours, they could be recreated and replaced even easier. And then there were bowls, cups, larger water storage basins…
Exploring the beach was going to have to wait for now. There were too many things which we could now craft and create, since Alaina found us the precious treasure she had. Another week here, wouldn’t harm our plans any, and we could keep a nice smoky fire going during the day, on the off chance that someone passing or flying by might see it.
Alaina truly had found us an amazing treasure, and I was feeling more masculine day by day. Heck, I even think my receding hairline has started to go away!