Dawn graced the foggy island like oil being poured on water. A few beams of sunlight managed to pierce through the thick carpet of lichen-covered treetops, but much of the land remained cloaked in shadows.

Drops of dawn's breath glimmered as they fell through the air, a brilliant shining show before they reached the darkness of the forest floor.

Just outside of the clearing, the group of four crew members began to stir. Bindon had passed the night watch over to Cundy late in the night and claimed some rest for himself.

With the coming of dawn, the experienced sailor rubbed his eyes, then shook the rest of the group awake. Cundy's light tan hair was all messed up from the uneasy sleep he got earlier in the night, but he'd kept his dull gray eyes open from the time Bindon woke him until dawn.

The entire time, he didn't see anything suspicious. There were no birds moving around through the woods, no small mammals skittering around under the cover of darkness, and no bugs in the foliage.

It was the same details all of their other members had also noticed on their watches. Even in November, the woods would always be active. All of them had been out hunting in the winter before, and all of them recognized just how unusual the island was.

"Everyone gather up your stuff. Let's start searching the island in ten minutes."

Roth slowly lifted up the thick covering of blankets over him and immediately felt the biting chill of the morning air. Everyone around him was starting to stir as well, though, so he couldn't retreat back to the warmth.

After climbing to his feet and stretching, Roth reached down and picked up his backpack.

The luckiest part of their situation was the gear they had with them. The crew had originally expected to go inland to rescue the stranded crew of the Fitz, and the blankets they'd carried with them onto the island kept them from freezing to death overnight.

That, along with some rations and basic survival gear that regularly stayed in their packs was what made Holl confident that they could hold out until another ship arrived at the island.

If we can even last that long. There is something on this island, and I think it'll find us before a boat does.

Roth glanced up at the captain, noting the composed expression on the man's face.

Holl even seems to want to find whatever it is here…

The young man continuously looked between his crewmates as he stuffed a blanket into his backpack.

Bindon had been acting oddly the previous night, but he calmed down with a few words from Holl.

The captain himself was already acting strange in Roth's books. First insisting on heading out in the middle of a storm, then readily wanting to explore a haunted island.

Roth also couldn't forget what happened with Cundy the previous night, and he unconsciously shied away from his crewmate. Even if he appeared to be the exact same man as before, Roth was wary. He'd only been on a few previous journeys with the crew, but there'd never been any problems before.

"Bindon, is this yours?"

Cundy held up a small leather booklet that'd fallen from his blankets. It looked unfamiliar to Roth.

Bindon didn't answer verbally, but immediately reached over and plucked the booklet from his crewmate's hands and stuffed it into one of his pockets. Roth could see the glimmer of a golden emblem on the front of the booklet as it slid into his teammate's coat, but he couldn't make out what it depicted.

"Right, does everyone have their stuff, now?"

Cundy was the last one to finish stuffing his backpack with blankets, and the ground that'd served as their resting place for the night was laid bare once again.

Holl shouldered a pack of his own, then motioned for the crew to follow him into the clearing. The muddy ground beneath their feet was still soft with moisture, and their boots loudly squelched as they dug into the ground.

As the group passed through the clearing, the faint sound of running water could be heard from somewhere up ahead. Cundy slightly adjusted their course as he heard it, guiding the crew toward the noise. If there were actually Fitz crew members here- which was unlikely in Roth's mind- they would likely be somewhere near the stream.

Even if they could get fresh water from the lake surrounding the island, it was always preferable to drink from a moving source.

When they reached their destination, Holl's eyebrows furrowed.

"This is the stream?"

It couldn't be more than a meter across- a distance any of them could easily cross with a jump.

Despite its small size, the rushing of the water seemed to make an unproportionally loud noise.

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It took a few seconds before anyone else spoke, but Bindon was the one who finally broke the silence.

"It's the quiet."

The sailor's sentence was short, but everyone understood him. It wasn't that the stream was loud.

The forest was just too quiet.

"Let's move around it for now. The banks look slippery, and if one of us falls in, it could be the end for them."

Holl turned and started walking parallel to the stream instead of crossing it. Strangely, the mud that'd been present all around the island finally seemed to harden up around the banks of the tiny stream, and the crew could finally walk without having to struggle.

Cundy and Holl stayed in the front of the group, while Roth and Bindon continued watching behind them. As they walked, Bindon reached down to his pocket and pulled out the small booklet he'd grabbed from Cundy in the morning. From the same pocket, he retrieved a black pen that looked oddly similar to the booklet.

His long dark hair draped over his face again as he hunched over the booklet, hanging low enough to keep Roth's eyes from seeing what was on the pages.

Roth wandered a little closer to Bindon's side, trying to catch a glimpse of the paper.

"When he sees the graves, his world will freeze."

A light murmur left Bindon's mouth as the pen scratched against the paper.

'Huh? What is he saying?'

Roth continued walking close to the older sailor's side, hoping to overhear more. Bindon was silent.

-

As the crew continued along the steam, Roth picked up his pace until he caught up with Holl. After catching the captain's attention, he nodded back toward Bindon, who was still hunched over the little booklet.

"Captain… have you ever seen him read before?"

Holl nodded his head.

"He worked as a transcriber back when he was in the navy, and as a scribe before he joined the crew. He still helps Cundy with the bookkeeping sometimes."

I guess I haven't payed any attention to that before. I haven't been part of the crew for that long, after all.

"Now isn't the time to be distracted, though. Bindon!"

"Sorry, captain. I just took a quick glance at this, but I was still paying attention."

"Don't worry about it. Just make sure you keep an eye on the woods. Put that book away for now."

Bindon nodded and started tucking the booklet away, his dull eyes quickly recovering some of their energy as he turned his attention back to the forest around them.

Holl's pace increased once more, and Roth followed by his side.

"Just took a quick glance? He's been looking at it since we started walking!"

The captain shot a strange glance at Roth, his eyes wandering over to the young man's backpack.

"What?"

"Nothing. Let's pause for a moment, I want to check this stream."

Cundy overheard the captain's words and walked back to the group, a slightly irritated expression on his face.

Cundy's light tan hair was similar to Holl's, if he aged a dozen years and took some time to grow out a scraggly short mustache, the two men might be able to pass as brothers.

Roth knew that both of them had already made considerable progress in the balding department, but both of them kept their heads hidden with hats at all times.

Cundy's was a plain black stocking cap, similar to the one Roth himself was wearing.

The captain wore something more fitting to his position- an old captain's hat from back when he used to pilot larger ships. His decades of experience on the lakes mostly came from working for a commercial shipping company, carrying countless tons of iron ore across the massive lakes.

An embroidered design matched the metal badge on his jacket, the thread of the red star already having frayed in multiple areas.

As the crew stopped, Roth joined Holl in looking into the water. The quickly running stream cut through the first in almost a straight line, and it looked to only be a meter deep.

When Roth leaned over, he could see both the rocky bottom of the clear water and his own reflection, wherever shadows didn't touch the surface.

I do look a bit out of place compared to the rest of the crew…

The young man's high cheekbones and light blonde hair betrayed him as someone of Scandinavian descent, and the faint accent he still carried in his voice proved that his family wasn't one that'd been around the great lakes for generations.

Still, it's a bit annoying when people bring that up. I was born here, too. Who cares if my family wasn't? Settlers have only been in this area for a few hundred years, anyways.

Perhaps some of the comments he got were out of envy, rather than some sort of general discrimination. Paired with his unnaturally deep emerald eyes, Roth's good features made him a quick hit with the ladies. Even if he'd never spent the time to court anyone, it was easy for people to misunderstand him as a playboy thanks to his appearance.

"It looks clean. I'll try a sip."

Roth was torn away from examining himself in the water's reflection as Holl leaned down to the water, reaching his hand out to scoop some of it up.

"Wait!"

Bindon hurriedly snatched a mossy stick from the ground, tossing it into the stream before Holl could touch the surface.

Cundy and Roth were both confused by his actions, but Holl nodded to the sailor.

"Thanks."

The small chunk of wood steadily floated downstream, and Holl leaned down once more, this time gathering up some water without any other interruptions. He raised it to his mouth, gulping down the crystal liquid.

"It's certainly cold enough. I'm surprised this thing hasn't frozen over already."

After brushing his hands off on his jacket, Holl slipped his hands back into his gloves before turning to face the group.

"I don't know how long we'll be here, but it's best if we set up a place to camp for now. I'm sure we can all agree that even with the blankets, it was a bit too cold last night, right?"

The crewmates all nodded. This island was clearly much larger than it had initially seemed, and they still hadn't run into even the slightest signs of the Fitz's crew's presence.

Continuing to search for them without paying enough attention to themselves wasn't the greatest idea.

After the previous night's panic, Roth was confident there was no other crew on the island, and he was pretty sure most of his crewmates had come to the same conclusion.

"Cundy, I'll let you keep exploring. Come back right away if you find some materials we can use to make a decent shelter, or if you find anything else of interest."

Even by the stream, the only trees they saw were the same hanging, lichen-drenched ones that seemed to populate the entire island.

Their drooping bows looked more like rotting plant tendrils than anything that would be useful as a building material.

Even the few branches that lay on the ground were soft and rotted, impossible to use for any sort of construction.

"Roth, Bindon, let's see what we can do about a place to sleep. There was a bit of a hill downstream where we just came from, it's our best shot at seeing a boat's light if one passes by."

The group of three headed for their planned shelter location, while Cundy turned and started to walk further away. The sailor glanced over at the stream every few meters, until he eventually saw a spot that looked easy to hop over.

The ground on both sides looked firm enough to jump on, and it was only just over a meter across.