Mila opens her eyes, looking up at a bright blue sky. Underneath her is an unfamiliar sandy beach with the sound of waves echoing around her. She sits up, confused, as her three tails twist around in the wind wildly. She checks her surroundings and only finds footprints in the sand spreading all over the place.

“Good, you’re awake,” Glyn says behind her.

“Glyn?” She asks.

“How do you feel?”

“Confused.”

“That’s expected. Just take some deep breaths and try concentrating on my words.”

She nods.

“We’re stranded on an unknown island.”

She shoots up as flames burst from her tails. “What?!”

“Calm down.”

“How can you be so calm? You said we’re on an unknown island and we’re stranded!? What….”

Glyn puts out his finger. “Listen. We have water and food from what we could salvage from the ship. Miller and Sam are making a makeshift shelter, for as bad a situation, this is its survivable.”

“Is that why you’re so calm?”

“Right. We have time. Time we can use to figure out a way off of this island and where exactly we are.”

“Figure out a way off?”

“I see you don’t remember at all.”

“Huh?”

He takes a deep breath. “This is the second time I’ve explained this to you.”

“What!?”

“We’ve been here for two days already.”

Mila pauses. “Wait. How is that… the last thing I remember was….”

Mila thinks back as images of the ship enter her mind. Her last memories reply before her as she watches the scene. To what she was hours ago, she was on the ship watching Glyn intently, waiting for when he would be less busy. Miller and Sam were aiding her, as she wanted the right moment to confess her feelings to him. Glyn, for her part, was too busy watching over the ship, making sure nothing was breaking and the ship held up, considering its hasty construction.

After an hour of sailing, she finally had her chance when Glyn was standing on the deck of the ship, looking out at the ocean. She walked up to him and started a conversation, only for everything to suddenly go dark. A storm caught the group off-guard as it seemed to come out of nowhere. After a series of strong waves and winds, the ship flipped over and everyone fell into the sea. The next thing Mila remembers is waking up on the beach only a moment ago.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“How has it been two days?”

“The barrier.”

“Barrier?”

Glyn stares upwards. “Look at the sky. The clouds aren’t moving and I don’t feel much wind. It’s like staring at a painting, a painting so good it mimics the sky itself.”

“Then….”

“You ran into the barrier.”

“I did?”

“As a test, you tried jumping to see how high you could go and then came crashing down. The other time we wanted to test how far the barrier went out and we sent you off on a makeshift raft.”

“And both times I hit the barrier and wound up here?”

“Yes. After being unconscious for a day.” Glyn shakes his head. “It was dangerous, but you seemed serious, so I went along with it. I don’t want to risk it again even if we don’t know how anything about it. I don’t want to risk you more than we already have.”

She blushes, looking away. “I…. I…”

“Mila listen.”

“Yes!”

“Sam isn’t feeling well, so Miller is watching over him. That leaves the two of us to figure out this island and escape.”

She nods excitedly. “Yes! But how are we going to do that?”

“Well, for now. We’re going to explore this island. I’m wondering if there’s something inside projecting this barrier or if it is some natural occurrence. Either way, we can’t learn anything without looking into things ourselves.”

She nods. “Okay! I’ll keep an eye out for anything strange. But how will I know when I find something strange?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep a lookout for weird stuff. You keep a lookout for monsters.”

She nods. “Alright. But….”

“But what?”

“It smells weird here.”

“Weird now?”

“Like we’re underwater, in a way.”

“Underwater?” Glyn looks up at the sky. “All the more reason for us to be cautious. Let’s take things one step at a time.”

“Right. You lead the way.”

The two leave the beach, moving towards the inner island. The terrain changes with tropical trees surrounding the duo as they look around. However, the deeper they go in, the pair notice something. The trees feel fake. The wind doesn’t blow around them, the temperature seems to drop the further they go in, and they can’t find a trace of any animal at all inhibiting the jungle. Glyn orders Mila to slice down a tree, which she does only for the tree to fall over in a single blow. The tree shows as hollow, with no wood or plant matter inside the odd tree.

“What’s going on?” Mila asks.

“No idea. But this proves that this place is entirely fake. But how did someone make any of this?” He asks.

“Could someone make all this?”

Glyn pauses. “Your right. It’d be improbable for someone to go through so much effort to make all this. But then how and why is it here?”

“No idea, but it’s cold all of a sudden.” Mila lights her tails aflame to warm herself as Glyn stares at her. “What?”

“Can you try burning these trees?”

She nods, moving her flames towards the downed tree, but the tree cannot light. “Um… that’s strange.”

“Stranger and stranger still….” Glyn stares at the tree, lost in thought, as suddenly everything goes dark.

The sun overhead disappears, replaced by a full moon hanging high in the sky. The temperature drops as a thick mist surrounds the pair snaking around the trees as it draws closer.

“Mila, get ready.”

“Huh, what?”

“Something is coming!” He yells.

Monstrous figures appear in the mist as Mila readys her sword as the monsters march towards the pair. As the two begin their fight, two figures stand watching from the tree line as more and more monsters appear, seemingly forming from the mist itself.