Under the starry moon, Lorraine finally saw the outline of the island.
The island is just a few miles away, with scattered silver-white sand beaches and lush island jungle.
In the center of the island there are two volcanoes, high in the west and low in the east, with rounded mountains and two columns of smoke rising straight up to the top of the mountains, which from a distance look like the silhouettes of huge black rabbits.
It turns out that John Nussbaert wasn't lying. Nasbolt did not lie, there really is a black rabbit as big as a mountain on the island of Herbasi, so ... where is the wizard?
Puzzled and exhausted, the two men were washed up on the beach by the shore waves.
Lorraine only barely made it a few steps onto the dry sand before she could go no further.
He staggered to his knees and fell on his back without a sound.
Hina was startled and ran up, only to realize that Lorraine was actually asleep ...
She looked tenderly at Lorraine's pale face, leaned in close, and kissed him gently on the forehead, "Sleep, my Captain, and I will always watch over you."
This time, Lorraine slept through the night.
When he awoke, the night was as old as ever, and a campfire was burning beside him, a few sticks propped up on the beach and tied to a sling, on which dried Hina's pristine white battle dress, only but half-dried from roasting.
He knew from this that he had only been asleep for a short while.
Lorraine rolled over and sat up,㤞 exotic ... to see a naked Haina sitting in meditation with her back to him, facing the sea and holding her knees.
The bright white moonlight illuminated her coffee-colored smooth skin, slightly glowing with jade-like moistness, a beauty under the moon, unparalleled.
The movement of him getting up startled Hina.
Two short knives were at hand, and she copied them, popped up and turned around, and suddenly the two of them were looking at each other in all directions.
A man reflected in turquoise eyes ...
Coiled legs, sitting on the sand with a big horse, one hand holding his knees, one hand resting on his chin, the expression on his face was like a smile, his eyes fixed, like he was admiring some heirloom masterpiece of art.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, what a great body, why does it always like to be wrapped in a smock ..."
Duh!
The flying knife came off and went three inches into the ground.
Hina quickly wrapped herself up.
Granted, the combat suit was corseted and slimming and more than a little prettier than the wide smock, but it never looked as good as when it was bare.
Lorraine felt sorry for him.
Amidst his regrets, he saw Hina's red, blood-dripping face and panicked, fleeing eyes, and again decided to hide the little thought that was in the back of his mind and not say a word about it.
He grinned and ruffled the campfire, "Hina ..."
"Didn't you pass out from exhaustion? How did you wake up so fast!"
"To be precise, I just slept." Lorraine shrugged, "Whalers are sons of the sea, and in our mother's arms we are stronger and recover faster than ever."
"But that too ... that too ..."
Lorraine jumped up with a laugh and drew her long knife with a clang, "I'm going to spear two fish in the water. When it's light we'll go find the Buttercup and that wizard who likes to give away gold coins!"
The sun comes out of the east!
The day dawned, and the golden light that spread across the sky and the earth sowed down, illuminating the square-inch-sized island of Herbasi, unfolding before Lorraine and Haina a stunningly beautiful wonderland of the earth.
Blue sea, silver sand, sunny palms, broad-leaved scrub.
The rolling hills that look like rabbits in the distance are black, and downward there are rolling dark greens that encircle the beach again in light and soft greens, the quartz sandy beach is silver and white, and the water in front of you is crystal clear.
Lorraine and Haina sat side by side against their shoulders in the center of the beach. The campfire around them had long since gone out, and the woodpile smoldered with wisps of black smoke that drifted up into the sky, echoing the columns of smoke from the distant mountains and the wall of fog in the sky, swaying delicately and gently.
Hina reveled in the beauty.
"Lorraine."
"Uh-huh."
"Why do they call it Devil's Island?"
"Because the legends about it came out of nowhere overnight, like demons whispering in one's ear."
"Really?"
"Of course not." Lorraine was dumbfounded, "At the beginning of the Renaissance, people turned to Pythagoras' theory of the earth's roundness from the Greek canon, and found corroboration from Eratosthenes and Ptolemy, and began to doubt the theory of the earth's flatness preached by the Catholic Church. People were willing to believe that the earth was round, and of these, the navigators were the most convinced."
"The legend of Herbasi began then to appear in the mouths of mariners. They said that there was a new continent to the west of Europe, on the other side of the ocean, and depicted it with great imagination. Even when Columbus discovered America, which was not the same as the fabled Herbasi, they did not want to admit that what had been preached and depicted by their fathers and grandfathers was false, and only grudgingly turned the continent of Herbasi, into the island of Herbasi."
"It carried the voyagers' revolt against the rule of the Church, like Copernicus and Bruno's heliocentric theory. That's the real reason it's called Alcatraz, because every adventurer who seeks it is a fallen man tempted by the devil in the eyes of the Church."
"So it's so important ..." Hina blinked and stood up, "Lorraine, where's the Buttercup?"
"We didn't see the boat as we swam over. If she didn't sink in the reef belt, she must be on the backside of the island, held up by the volcano."
"Roundabout? Or across?"
"Let's circumnavigate the island." Lorraine also stood up and patted the crushed sand on his pants, "If we go deeper into the jungle, I'm afraid we'll run into the wizard who delivers gold coins. If he's not friendly, it'll be bad."
The course of action is finalized.
Lorraine and Hina are both quick-witted men of action, and once a decision is made, they are on the move.
The two traveled cautiously along the shoreline, chopping brush and circling the island without meeting too many obstacles along the way, and it took half a day to find the Buttercup stranded on the back of the island.
She washed up on the beach askew, her bow high, exposing her hideously mangled hull in the sunlight.
Seeing the sailors busy figures in all directions, Lorraine revealed a heartfelt smile, "Those guys ... did not do a bad job."
...
However, Lorraine didn't realize that it was actually a different light on the ship at this time.
The Buttercup arrived at the island later than Lorraine, and it wasn't until four hours ago that they set sail and dashed up the beach with the wind at their backs.
By then it was light out.
After successfully getting the hull aground and ashore, they spent another two hours logging, using round logs from palm trees as wheels and concentrating their manpower on straightening the hull and padding the bottom.
It was not until then that the Buttercup was completely free of the shadow of the wreck.
The pressure to survive is lost and other concerns spring forth.
Kron, carrying his own cable-breaking axe, hissed and directed the sailors to cut wood for timber.
Pierce took a couple of sailors to clean out the cargo hold, carry food and water up the beach, and set up a simple rain shelter.
Without a word, Noa sat kneeling by the helm wheel, the crystal ball of destiny in front of her, the equally quiet white ears on her shoulders, the magical silver tarot lined up in front of her, shuffling the cards one at a time, divining them one at a time.
Yacharin strutted around like a savior, looking idle and busy.
Everyone has a hard-to-declare hesitation in their heart.
After Lorraine and Hina fell into the water, the Buttercup sailed for nearly ten hours, and at a speed of 0.5 knots, they had traveled nearly ten kilometers, and it would only be longer, not shorter.
With such a long distance and deep in the fog zone, could Lorraine really swim to the island with Hina?
What would they do if they lost their captain?
Yacharin was the one of all of them who was most convinced that Lorraine was already buried at the bottom of the sea.
He becomes restless, feeling that he has saved the entire ship and deserves the support to become the new captain of the Buttercup.
To make a name for himself, he needs the support of the seamen.
Keren, Pierce, Noah ... From whom?
Acharin's eyes roamed over the trio, and a self-satisfied grin appeared on his handsome face when he saw Noa, sitting alone at the helm wheel.
Who, for a romantic gentleman, could be a better target than a cowardly, good-for-nothing Roma maiden, yet beloved among sailors?
Take this woman down and then ... take the captain and president's throne!