"Don't run off you two, we don't know what's here, so stay close."

Mirna and Aqua who had run towards the woods stop and give me a short frown. I won't let it affect me though. Rou grips Mirna's hand and Aqua reluctantly walks slowly behind us.

"But how will we search? It's still a big island."

"First we need to get to the south side of the island I think. Then maybe we split up?"

"Split up? As you yourself said, this place could be dangerous. I don't think that's a good idea." Rou says still holding Mirna's hand tightly.

"Oh, that's true. Hmm…"

"On a similar line, Do you not have weapons? I figured you just weren't wearing it in town but…"

"Oh, that's true!" I had forgotten that hadn't I, I'm used to the MC already having a holy sword at this point. I suppose my strength of (129) will probably be sufficient but it would be nice to have a good blade. "Well, I'll make do for now."

"Make do?"

"Yeah."

"I trust Captain."

"Same, Same. Trust." Mirna says from beside the worried Rou.

"But, you are right we shouldn't split up. Actually the opposite you all should stay close and stay behind me if we run into trouble."

The three nod quietly and we continue along the beach until we reach the south edge. If I'm looking at the map right this should be the closest shore to the Elven boat. No footsteps, or signs of a camp. Maybe no one survived. It could have been a ghost ship before it ran aground.

"ARE THERE ANY SURVIVORS HERE!?!" I eventually shout after walking a few steps towards the forest. Rou, Aqua, and Mirna jump at the sudden shout but they begin to follow my lead a moment later.

In the end, we split up along this hundred foot stretch of beach to shout towards the forest. I was against it but they all claim if I was close I could just get to them in a single bound like with Mirna yesterday. I wasn't thrilled about the trust they had in me. I honestly wasn't sure if I really could. It may have been a good idea to spread those points a little more evenly. Strength helps me leap but it's likely Agility that defines if I can stick the landing.

That would be embarrassing.

They return after a few laps around the beach. Mirna found a leaf shaped, silver, blade so it's almost certain someone from the boat did arrive here. But they may be long by dead now. The girl's stomachs were growling so I offered to build a fire and grill burgers as a late lunch. They all heartily agreed.

This was partially for me and the girls but also I theorized that an elf would be able to smell roasting meat from several miles away. I had no way of confirming but Rou and Aqua did hear rumors that Elves have stronger senses than humans.

Rou and Aqua collect driftwood from nearby while Mirna and I make hamburger patties. Simultaneously I was also assembling the grill we built yesterday. I say us but it was mostly Aqua's doing. She really was handy.

The grill was built with a single sheet of rusty metal bent into a half circle. Two barrel straps are wrapped around it and a grate is wedged inside the barrel straps. It's simple but it works near perfect. The grate, of course, came from the Kitchen but it wasn't damaged so Mirna allowed it.

"Hows this one?" Mirna asks holding a massive patty up to me.

"Oh, that's pretty big huh?"

"It's Captains!"

"Oh, I bet it will be delicious, thank you."

"Ehehe."

"So that's all eight."

"Make ten?"

"Hmm, you think someone will come?"

"Definite. Smell delicious."

"I hope you're right. Let's do it." I say grabbing another handful of ground dragon steak and forming it.

"MMMM." Mirna hums loudly as she pats the final patty together with her small hands.

~ ~

"Aqua you brought them right?" Rou asks as we pile the wood into a small pile inside the grill.

"Here," Aqua says holding up a pair of reddish stones. She holds them together for a moment, the red flame seems to glow for a moment within the stone and then she separates them before snapping them back together near the dry kindling.

A large shower of sparks strikes the twine base and begins burning fiercely. The bone dry driftwood lights immediately afterward and begins to flicker a soft purplish flame.

"Pretty," Mirna says leaning closer towards the flame.

"Ah, step back. That toxic. That's why we collected some wet wood from the forest."

"Toxic? Really?" Aqua questions looking into the flames. "I was wondering why we collected so little."

"It's great for starting a fire but it's not really good to cook with, or breathe too much. It's also a pollutant but that doesn't matter much here."

"But we always cooked with driftwood…" Rou suddenly says with a look of shock on her face.

"Well," I say trying to calm her. "It's not terrible. It's not commonly known so it inevitably happens."

"We should warn dad," Aqua says turning her face from the flames towards Rou.

"Mhm, I'll try and remember."

~ ~

"Looks delicious!" Mirna says with a small dribble of drool gathered at her chin.

"Well, let's eat."

Since we didn't have plates I opted to craft each of their burgers, in turn, taking the toppings out of storage one by one and handing each member their particular burger.

"It's perfect." Aqua cries with a blissful smile as she munches on an 80:20 (Vegetables:meat) burger.

"Mm, mm." Rou counters with cheeks full of dragon steak.

"So much white stuff…" Mirna, cheeks dotted with mayo, says with a satisfied sigh.

"Glad you all like." I nod, biting my own after confirming their orders were received correctly. "Oh, Mirna this is great."

"Mhm." She nods smugly with loose cheeks.

We peacefully munch on our meals. The only sounds are the waves at our back and the wind through the trees. Occasionally an oddly erotic sound would resound after a good bite.

"Do you two have plans to see your dad in the future? You mentioned telling him about the driftwood."

"Ah, well it's more maybe. I guess."

"Huh?"

"Rou means the ocean spirit will decide when we meet again."

"Ah, he's still on the ocean?"

"Exactly. And now that we are to, the odds of seeing him again increase."

"We will see him again. The ocean spirit loves Captain. and Rou said Captain wants to meet father. Therefore there is no doubt. I'm excited." Aqua smiles wide and turns her body to face the water. She lowers her head and places her hands together for a moment before nodding with another grin.

The fire beside us popped and snapped to fill the silence and then a loud shout cut through the wind.

"What are you doing! Put it out! Put it out!!" A small figure in heavily torn clothing dashed towards the grill before halting quickly, causing a spray of sand to douse the wood and reduce it to embers. She continued kicking sand, covering the top of the grill and the two warming burgers left for her.

"Are you insane?!" She finally asks after panting, "Sure they hunt at night but they are still attracted by heat!"

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She glares heavily at us for a moment before her face dropped a bit. "You are people? Why are you here? How did you get here? Are you shipwrecked?"

"Yes, looking for you, boat, no." Aqua quickly counters with a smile.

"Looking for me? Oh, then you…" Her face gets dark so I step in to try and properly explain.

"We saw a boat wrecked on a sandbar so we thought we would investigate the nearby island. And sure enough." I say pointing to her. "So do you want to be rescued?"

"Yes!" She says firmly nodding and grasping my hand. "Ah, and food do you have food."

"Ah! Mirna made…" She looks down at the grill and her cheeks begin to tighten and her lips pursed together tightly. "Waahahhhah."

Tears began pouring down her face when she looks at the sand covered burger.

"Ah, I… Uwh… Sor…" The small elf looks between the similar height Mirna and the piles of sand. "No, don't cry I…"

"WAHHHHHHH…" Mirna cries, pounding the girl's chest with her fists before leaping up and running along the beach.

"Ah, It's dangerous. Come back Mirna." I shout after her. "Would you guys wait here. I'll get her. Here."

I place two rolls of bread in both of the elf's small hands. She looks up at me for a moment in shock. 'Where did they come from' she seems to ask with her small green oval eyes.

~ ~

"Come on Mirna, you can't hide! It's dangerous!" I shout after following her trail along the beach. "She didn't mean to, and we can make more you know!"

The moment I open my mouth to shout for her again I hear a loud scream from a few dozen feet away in the forest. I turn in the direction and see the reason.

She appeared to have been hiding behind a log. And now above said log is two thick arms and a long tapered face. A tongue flicks out towards the log and it opens its mouth and lets out a clicking hiss.

Leaping in the sand is tough I can only get a few feet out of a single bound. I cut the distance as it opens its mouth to hiss at Mirna again. With open jaws, it lowers its head even nearer the log. I still haven't caught sight of her but I understand the situation.

With a final leap, I reach the firmer ground and appear above the beasts head. I pull on the scalp spike thingy and make it turns its eyes to me. It gazes at me in fury of the hold. It opens its mouth to hiss and I take the opportunity to punch the inside of its mouth.

It was a light jab but it steps back with a quick stagger and then vomits on the other side of the log. I can't reach with my arms anymore but a kick might do it. I aim for a nearby thick tree and spin on my left heel delivering a heavy kick to its still puking jaw.      

It soars in the air like a kite before crumbling at the base of the tree. I hear a loud cracking and jump down to the side of the log Mirna hides on. I cover her small form with my body and feel the impact a moment later.

I look down to confirm her condition and she appears fine. Her eyes are red but she's staring at me in wonder.

"Mirna is covered in sick." She says looking at her hands. "Pretty sick."

She holds her hand filled with bile up to my face and shows me its contents. I was disgusted until I saw what she meant. More than twenty pearls lay in her hands.

"Good work Mirna. Lets get you cleaned up, But first, let me get this tree off my back."

She nods at me, revealing a pearl stuck to the top of her head.

~ ~

"Then then he kicked, and swoosh it was gone. And BOOM! CRACK! and squeeze tight. Pearls in hair!"

"So what happened exactly?" Rou asks, wiping Mirna's face with a wet towel.  

"Well as you can loosely figure out. She was cornered by the lizard we were looking for and I had to kill it. And in turn, she became like that. I really am sorry Mirna. I could have handled it better."

"S'ok, You saved Mirna! Amazing!" She then stopped smiling for a moment and spoke more softly. "Mirna won't run off again. Mirna promises! Will be a good girl. Won't cry again."

"Well, that's partially my fault so I am sorry Mirna, I understand you made those especially for me without even knowing if I was here or not. That's really kind and I was a jerk." The elf lowers her head to Mirna and politely bows.

"Which reminds me, are you… the only…"

"…yes. The others they…"

"We can talk about it later, let's get to the boat for now. I'm sure Mirna wants to change clothes."

"Uhu." She says pulling the sticky clothes away from her skin with a shluck.

We return to the boat and for some reason end up in the Captain's quarters. Mirna picked up a random dress from the corner and shedded like a snake while Rou chased her with a towel. Elf princess was laying on my bed sighing in deep comfort.

I should mention that that was just a guess but my test would come soon. She had the princess type look to her. After swimming to the boat and getting the grime out of her hair it appeared to be a sleek green. I supposed it to be an elf trait but it still shined brightly despite the rough conditions. She was very polite and spoke well. This made me curious because I had heard most elves speak a different language. So why was this elf so competent in common?

Common is apparently the name of the human language by the way.

"So princess what were you doing so far away from the elven forest anyway?"

"Oh, we were… Ah, wait…"

"I figured as much but replying to it without a pause all but confirms it."

"How?"

"Who but a princess could be as beautiful as you?" I say with a grin. "And you speak well, and a few various other things I noticed."

The bow to Mirna, for instance, was marvelous. It looked like something out of a movie.

"Hm, you figured it out earlier than I expected. So what now you ransom me for…"

"Don't say that." Rou suddenly snaps while roughly scrubbing Mirna with a towel. "Captain is amazing, he would never ransom a princess. He is noble!"

"Oh, he is? Well, I suppose the way he saved Mirna does sound fairly noble. Ah well, I'm being rude. As you guessed, I'm princess Elydwyn Green-Maple. You can call my El."

"Nice to meet you El," Aqua says walking to the bed where El sat and shaking her hand. "You know Mirna, and we introduced ourselves earlier but again I'm Aqua and the stupid sister there is Rou. And Captain is of course Captain."

"Cole." I correct her.

"Ah, right. You had such a name." Aqua says with a giggle.

"I've been curious about something," El says sniffing softly and looking around the room.

"Shoot," Rou says finally finished with her task and sitting down on the couch a few spaces away from me.

"Well, this appears to be Mirna's room." She says pointing towards the pile of clothes in the corner. "But this bed has the smell of both. Captain and Aqua."

She sniffs the pillow again.

"Rou too."

"Uwa…" Rou says scooting to the arm rest to create distance between me.

"Will I sleep here too?" El asks with a tilt of her head and a smile.

"It's the safest place on the ship," Aqua says gripping El's hand with a determined look on her face.