This time Leo actually thought in the right direction and indeed, already before midday far in the distance he could discern not one, but whole three small islands. He had no clue if there was freshwater on any of them or anything to eat, but that was something he would worry about later. Unfortunately in the afternoon he had to admit that the stream continued to swiftly carry him past all three.
He didn’t loose hope tho and before the night fell noticed few more islands of different sizes and prayed to Heavens his current ‘ship’ would get washed ashore just like ‘Auguste’ once was.
Unfortunately it didn’t happen before the night fell. Leo, of course, had no thought of sleeping since it highly likely would lead to him falling in the water. He kept sitting on the log, vigilantly staring in the darkness as if it could change anything and tried to not doze off.
There might’ve been a chance of him successfully battling this way through the night awake even without the help of the huge bodies that suddenly began to circle around in the water. The moon was not up yet and Leo couldn’t discern them clearly in the darkness, but judging from the sounds of soft splashes there were at least two, maybe even three large beasts or fishes that curiously observed the log that for them probably was some kind of a strange object.
Fortunately they didn’t inspect it by bumping into it or slashing with tails and soon got bored and when Leo couldn’t hear anything but the wind and waves his racing heart began to finally calm down. He was certain thought that all this stress would definitely lead him to have gray hair before reaching the age of fifteen.
East just began to color red when Leo’s theory proved to be correct. Slowly, but surely the log and its passenger were washed towards one of the islands and soon hit the sandy beach.
It all would've been great if not for the ‘welcoming party’ that was gathered on the shore. Already from few hundred yards away Leo could discern statures of people walking on the beach, from time to time picking something up. But when they noticed the log that was about to get washed ashore they shouted in joy and few moments later a couple dozen others joined.
That also would’ve been fine because people meant food and water and Leo definitely wouldn't say ‘no’ to a sumptuous breakfast after fasting for a whole day. The problem was that he soon realized these were only a bunch of children and quite weird ones at that.
First of all apart from them wearing only a leaf or something similar that covered their private parts, they were completely naked. From the distance it didn’t seem they had any tattoos like the disciples from the Voodoo sect, but they were as tanned or maybe even of a darker skin color, although Leo wasn’t completely sure because it was still relatively early morning and it was hard to see clearly. Few of the children held short pikes and in the excitement of seeing the log waved them around while shouting something towards the ocean, island and to each other.
The part that crept Leo out was that even from that distance he could discern several children having beards. At first he thought he was hallucinating, but the moment the log hit the sand and he jumped off, he even noticed few of them actually having boobies.
While Leo was rubbing his eyes in disbelief, the bunch on the shore dispersed in all directions while loudly screaming. All this time they didn’t spot the boy on the log since he was lying close to it without moving a muscle and now when the giant person appeared they instinctively scattered running for their lives.
Leo, of course, realized the children got scared because of him, but since he didn’t speak their language, after mumbling few words of apology he decided to not bother and began to inspect the surroundings.
Of course he wished this place to be something like the ape island he once lived on, but unfortunately this one seemed to be much smaller and the only similarity was the hot and humid air. There was no jungle and even no trees – behind the twenty or twenty five yard wide sandy beach there was a field of tall grass that stretched up to a hill located in the middle of the island. The grass was lush and tall, probably head or two taller than Leo, therefore he first decided to take a walk around the island before thinking of the next step. There was also the circumstance of the creepy children hiding in the grass and he wasn’t sure they wouldn’t try anything ‘funny’.
The children showed up the moment Leo walked a ‘safe’ distance of couple hundred yards away. With a loud cheer they ran up to the log and pulled it out the water. Afterwards they expertly broke off the two branches it had and then pulled in the thick grass and disappeared, but from time to time Leo could still hear them cheer at their catch of the day.
A short while later one of the children, a creepy bearded one, showed up and while keeping his distance shouted at the visitor. Unable to understand what he was saying, Leo simply ignored the shouts, but when the child after gathering courage, ran to him and kept excitedly telling something while pointing towards the grassy hill, he realized that probably was the place where their camp and parents were.
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Leo did his best to hide the excitement for the upcoming breakfast and followed the bearded kid through the tall grass. He was kind of vigilant towards the potential attack from a snake, but since the child carelessly battled through the tall grass, he relaxed as well. Besides fishes and those strange beasts at night in the ocean, he hadn’t noticed any animal or a bird in this mortal world thus it was unlikely to suddenly meet one here.
It turned out to be just like Leo expected. The camp or home where kids lived seemed to be up the hill he was guided to. After climbing for a time it takes an incense stick to burn Leo glanced back and saw that behind him the rest of the island was covered with the same grassy field. The view wasn’t half bad with the sun coming up from behind the hill and the tall grass swaying in the wind imitating the ocean waves, but the child guiding him didn’t allow Leo to enjoy the view for too long.
“Uma! Uma!” He kept calling while pointing towards the top of the hill.
“For your sake I hope that’s the name of your local specialty.” Leo laughed.
He was in a good mood after once again escaping the ocean. Solid ground felt much more comfortable in addition to having around greenery and freshwater.
“Uma!” The kid impatiently shouted and to his disappointment Leo realized he wasn’t brought to a village or a camp, but to a hole in the ground, around three yards wide.
“Uma! Uma!” The little beaded guy kept shouting and beckoned Leo to come closer.
“Faaaaak!” Leo cursed in regret.
Living underground was definitely uncool. But judging from the periodical flashes of light coming from the hole at least they had fire, thus – a cooked meal. He came closer to take a look what went down there, but didn’t notice how the kid’s expression turned into a wide gin.
A split moment later another two bearded kids dashed out the thick grass and jump-kicked Leo in the back at the same time. With a loud yelp he lost balance and fell into the hole, but during the process the first kid swiftly grabbed Leo’s backpack and cut the straps, and as a result the backpack was left in his tiny hands.
Realizing their operation has been a success the three jumped and cheered in joy and when they heard the loud splash of something dropping in the water somewhere deep in the hole thy began to shout, “Uma! Uma! Uma!”
The one who had the backpack was especially excited, but it didn’t take long for their joy to abruptly end.
“You little motherf*ckers! I’ll f*cking kick all of your little bearded asses!” They heard an angry shout coming from the whole and paled in shock.
“Don’t you think you’re safe up there, you little morons!” Leo continued to yell, “We’re on a f*cking island! Just where do you think you can escape to?!”
Truth to be said, he had never been so angry before. While it was fine for people to prank each other now and then, why would you kick anyone in here?! He had comfortably lived for the past year and already forgotten the stinging pain from swimming in these damn waters, but there was no way the kids were going to get away from this without a harsh beating.
Already on his way down Leo recognized the lightning flashes and in their weak light – the tree. He knew that the following bath would not be particularly pleasant and it turned out to be exactly that way.
After he surfaced he found himself in a familiar lake, or rather this one was more like a pond compared to the two he once swam in on the island with the big chicken and the cat. This one also had an island with a leafless tree in the middle of it, although much smaller in size.
While loudly cursing Leo paddled towards the island and when he got there, he realized that the tree was actually at most twice as tall he was, but still had those annoying purple lightning flashes jumping between it’s empty branches. The island was also small, probably not wider than fifteen yards, but compared to the two islands with lightning trees he had been to, there was no cultivation platform nor a canopy.
“Damned little f*ckers … damned Brandon … damned lightning!” Leo couldn’t stop swearing.
The falling in the water from such altitude really hurt and while he couldn’t do anything against the lightning or Brandon who was long dead, the kids were going to pay. He wasn’t found of punishing children since, well, he was kind of a kid himself, but the little bastards were so mean they were due for a good spanking.
It took a while for Leo’s sight to adjust and he slowly began to inspect the surroundings. The lightning flashes between the empty branches and on the water surface allowed him to see that the pond and the island were in a large grotto located, obviously, under the hill he climbed earlier. There were no stalactites or stalagmites and the only exit was the hole he just fell through.
Leo knew that in these waters nothing really could survive, exactly the opposite – last time he cooked his food in there. The problem was that not only there was no huge chicken he could feast on for months, there were no birds who could fall inside on their own. While he could drink the water which actually was quite sweet and tasty, he would sooner or later starve to death.
Upset with such perspectives Leo sat cross legged to calm down and maybe pout a little, but before his mood dropped even further, he noticed a faint light coming from one side of the cave hall. He didn’t think twice but jumped back in the water and paddled towards it and soon got out on the other side where he found three feet wide and five feet high tunnel.
It didn’t directly lead o outside, but also wasn’t too long. After rushing for approximately twenty yards and taking several turns Leo ran out in the open where the morning sun shone him right in the eye and blinded for a moment.
He heard the shocked voices of the children and prepared to catch and spank a few of them, but when his vision adjusted he froze in shock.
“What the f…” Leo involuntarily blurted.