It was almost immediately obvious when the storm started, that it was going to be different than everything before, even if nothing else on the island had seemed to change. The air itself held a strange chill to it, that was at first a blessed relief from the blistering heat and humidity, but quickly became overly uncomfortable. By the time the first rain started to drift in on the roaring wind, the air was so cool as to draw everyone into snuggling together tightly in the far corner of our quickly assembled water-shed.
Moments later, pellet sized hail began to beat relentlessly against the crudely thatched ceiling above us. A few moments after that, our real torment began – the whipping wind tossed and blew fine powered hail through the open-sided entrance of the small shelter, peppering us all with its bitter cold and bullet-like intensity.
There was nothing the three of us could do, except huddle as tightly together as possible in the back corner, and endure. Covering ourselves as best we could with the few clothes and supplies we had, all three of us suffered a living hell for the next half-dozen hours, or so. I say all three of us, simply because Shadow was the only one who snored and rested comfortably through the whole icy torrent. Small enough to crawl behind our backs, he used the three of us as protection from the relentless barrage of hail, and slept peacefully through the whole thing.
----------------------------------------
Groaning, my body didn’t want to move as I slowly forced myself to unwrap from under Laulaia’s old tattered ball gown. “Are you girls okay,” I asked. Small trickles of blood leaked down my arms and legs from the rough sandpapering which the whipping hail had scoured to my skin. Looking beyond the edge of our barely-there shelter – the roof was battered and ready to break and collapse at any moment – the beach and ground itself was covered with several inches of fine icy glitter.
“It’s simply surreal,” I uttered, awestruck of the glimmering beauty of the moonrise as it began to break over the ocean, reflecting across the shimmering layer of powdery hail which covered everything. From such blazing heat to such a wonderous Winterland, in the space of a few hours. Nobody would ever believe it.
“We’re fine,” Laulaia told me, though I could tell both her and Alaina were bleeding slightly from exposed skin as well.
“Arwooo woo!” Barking at Alaina, Shadow happily ran out and rolled around in the loose hail, before turning and running down towards the beach. He’s grown accustomed to hunting with her after the storm passes.
“Not for a while, boy,” I told him, whistling for him to come back and rejoin us. “You might not mind rolling around and playing in the ice, but I’m afraid Alaina will end up hurting her bare feet in it. It looks almost like fine shards of glass, even if it’s not, so neither of the girls are going out in it until it melts. We have food already.”
“Wooouuuggh…” Snorting his disappointment, Shadow eased back into the shelter and pouted. Grumpily, he half chewed one of the small berries Laulaia gave him from our supplies, and then spit it out.
“Sorry,” Laulaia told him, gently stroking the long fur between his ears. “That’s all we have tonight.”
“There’s no meat,” Alaina confirmed.
“Arrrwooooof!” Barking to show his displeasure, Shadow wrinkled his nose and grumpily forced down the berry he’d been given.
As the girls showered Shadow with hugs and scratches, I squirmed and weaseled into my clothes in the small, cramped confines of the watershed. My old, worn boxers, were what I’ve grown accustomed to wearing for the last few months, but this time I got fully dressed. Pants, boxers, boots, and even my shirt, I squirmed my way in to. Laulaia has worn my shirt this whole time, so it’s just as faded and weathered as my boxers. Honestly, it feels rather uncomfortable against my bare, sunbaked skin. If Alaina’s gotten as comfortable running around without anything over her skin, as I have, she might have to deal with nudist tendencies for the rest of her life.
“Ok, asshole.” Tucking my two socks into my pockets, and fastening my knife onto my belt, I slowly wormed up and eased outside. “Come on, Shadow. We have work to do.” Walking on the fine hail, I could hear it breaking and grinding underneath the weight of my boots. Not attempting to walk upon it barefooted was indeed a good call.
“Groooow woowoo!!” Growing excitedly, Shadow turned and ran excitedly down the beach, expecting to go hunting with me, instead of Alaina.
“Sorry, asshole!” Laughing lightly, I grabbed up one of our small hatchets and the large man-axe. “We’re going logging so we can rebuild that roof and fix a damn door onto the front of our shelter. We sure as hell don’t want to endure another storm like that one, unprepared, tomorrow.”
“Grrrr..woof!” Sounding like he wasn’t the happiest with my decision, Shadow nevertheless followed along right with me as I eased into the edge of the forest and looked for some suitable trees to harvest.
I didn’t have to go extremely far into the dense jungle, before I was greeted with what’s probably one of the oddest sights man has ever seen: Bamboo. Purple bamboo! Rows after rows of towering trees of purple-skinned and rainbow-leaved bamboo grew towering out of the ground. Some trees had to reach heights topping that of a ten-story building, and most were as large around as a person’s head.
“Unbelievable,” I told Shadow, staring in awe at the purple wall of densely grown trees. I’ve always believed bamboo to only grow in shades of green or brownish-yellows, but these definitely had purple hued stalks, and various colored leaves. I wonder what type of soil and minerals grow beneath us. If you stick a stalk of celery in dyed water, the dye will eventually color the celery. Could there be some sort of natural pigment beneath the soil here, which the bamboo is picking up the color from?
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
“Ah well, I guess it doesn’t really matter.” Dropping the small hatchet, I gripped my Ultra-Hawk 9000 and stepped up to the first line of trees. Grunting with all my might, I smashed the oversized tomahawk deep into the side of one of the trees, hacking several inches out of it. Repeating the process a half dozen more times, the large bamboo tree swayed and then came crashing to the ground. Dividing it into man-length sections only took a few moments longer, and before long, Shadow and I were tugging and dragging several thick logs back out of the jungle and to the girls.
I’d worked up a sweat by the time I’d arrived back with the girls, and most of the hail had already melted in the natural extremes of the late evening heat. Working hard while I was gone, Laulaia and Alaina had managed to strip the damaged roof off the water shed, and they were both anxiously waiting for my return.
“This load will need a little extra processing before you can use them,” I explained to the girls, as I emerged out of the darkness of the jungle, causing them both to half jump. “But,” I laughed, satisfied, “I think what we have here will be more than sufficient to keep us safe during the next hail storm.”
“Trees?” Running over to help me drag my load the final short distance, Alaina expressed her skepticism. “Will the walls support logs that thick for the roof?”
“It’s bamboo,” I told her, grinning. “If you can split them in half length-wise, the insides should be basically hollow. It’ll form natural troughs for the water to follow back to the drain hole. It should be much sturdier, cleaner, and more efficient than trying to deal with a layer of tiled leaves.”
“Oooohhh,” Laulaia crooned happily. “It sounds perfect. Sounds like a lot less work than gluing and tying leaves to the roof, for half the night.”
“In some ways,” I agreed, “unless you’re the poor person who gets the privilege of splitting them in half. I don’t know how hard they’re going to be to split, for us. I guess Alaina gets to be the one to find that our for us.”
“I’m on it,” Alaina promised, thumping her right hand across her left breast again. “I’ll get it done, no matter how difficult it is.”
“Thank you.” Dropping my load, I leaned over and hugged her lightly.
“And Laulaia,” turning my attention to her, I slowly relaxed my embrace on Alaina. “While Alaina splits these logs, you dig out a firepit for us, over to the side here. We’re not going to stop working tonight, or in the morning, until we get a larger shelter up. A half dozen trees should be enough to roof the watershed, and I can chop those in an hour or so. The bamboo isn’t very deep in the jungle, and there’s more than enough of it.
“As soon as the shed is roofed again, you girls are going to work together to assemble us four more walls. I’ll collect the logs tonight, you ladies will lash and prepare them into walls, and as soon as the sun rises, we’ll raise and tie them together to form the frame of a quick hut. If all goes well, and God’s willing, we’ll be able to lay a roof across it before the heat gets too unbearable, or the next storm arrives.
“It’s going to be exhausting work,” I promised them, “and none of us can slack for even a moment, but I think we can get it done, working together. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be able to rest out through the heat and storm tomorrow.”
“You can count on us,” Alaina promised.
“We’ll work hard for our lord-husband,” Laulaia agreed. Though she doesn’t have the stamina of either Alaina or me, Laulaia still looked determined and enthusiastic to try and get everything done in time.
“Then let’s split and do it! Come, Shadow! You’re with me.” Turning, I quickly strode back into the dense jungle to go play lumberjack all night long.
“Grrrwooooof!” Barking his contentment, Shadow happily ran circles around me, leading the way back to the large bamboo grove where we were earlier.
----------------------------------------
After a long night of hellish labor for all of us, we were all grateful to sit and slowly chew on our gathered fruits and berries. Watching the sun rise majestically over the ocean, I was astonished at just how much we had managed to accomplish in one long night. The firepit was dug – though we didn’t have any fire in it yet. We didn’t bother trying to carry a flame with us, since we had Alaina’s Eye, but we still had to wait for sunrise and a strong beam of light to be able to produce a flame with it.
The watershed now had a sturdy layer of split bamboo atop it, working as both a roof, and a means to channel the water efficiently to the central hole for collecting. Built connecting to two of the sides of the watershed, were two of the sides for our live-in shelter. If there’s another hail event like yesterday, again, we don’t want anyone to need to run out in to, from building to building, to swap out items to catch water in. Building both buildings together saves us a little work, as part of the wall is already constructed, and gives us more room, overall.
None of us spoke during our well-deserved meal break. I was exhausted from cutting and hauling logs all night, but each of the girls looked even more ragged then me. Alaina, who arguably has the best build and endurance of all of us, had rushed around like a cat covering up shit in a sandstorm. Splitting, lifting, placing, assembling — she rushed from one task to another, never slowing, all night long. Laulaia, on the other hand, had probably contributed half as much work, but seemed twice as tired. Raised by overly pampering parents, she was nodding off to sleep while trying to eat. She truly had expended all her strength already.
Gently cradling the sleeping Laulaia in my arms, after finishing our brief morning respite, I gingerly carried her inside the finished watershed. Being careful not to wake her, I gently laid Laulaia down in the far corner, to protect her tender skin from the sun’s searing rays.
“Alaina.” Stretching my poor tired muscles as I came back outside, I took another brief moment to head over and hug the lithe redhead tightly to my chest. “Take care of her. She’s out of it. If you can bear with me for a while longer this morning, we’ll take our rest when the storm comes. I think the two of us can get a roof over this thing, even if we don’t get the last wall, or door up.”
“You can trust me,” Alaina assured me, snuggling her naked body tight against my shirt.
Without saying another word, I reluctantly released her. “Come on Shadow. We’ll rest when we’re dead. For now, we keep at it.” Forcing my poor exhausted body to move one step after another, I lumbered back into the jungle to collect more logs, while Alaina gathered up her hatchet to half them.
----------------------------------------
Try as we might, it was impossible to complete the main shelter by the time the next storm arrived with a vengeance. Alaina and I were simply too exhausted, and the morning day’s sun and heat sapped us faster than I ever would’ve dreamed impossible. By the time the storm began, we only had about half of the shelter roofed, but it was still enough to greatly increase our protection from the day before. Much like how a porch protects from rain blowing in the front door, we at least had enough finished to shield us from the hail blowing in sideways.
I don’t know if the storm this time was as intense as the one yesterday – it certainly started out as bad, with thunder and hail whipping all about, with the wind screaming from the ocean – as I slept through it. Once I saw that our preparations seemed sufficient, I struggled out of my clothes and snuggled up tight with both girls to share warmth. As overwhelmingly hot as the day becomes, the last few storms become almost as unbearably cold, due to the hail falling all about.
Thinking that this island really does seem more like hell, as each day passes by, rather than some tropical paradise, exhaustion overcame me, and I slept the peaceful rest of the exhausted.