The boy had to face the monsters.

Every day, the boy woke up and pitter-pattered his little feet to the shore with a fishing spear in hand. The sands scraped his feet and rose between his toes as the tide washed over. The warm breezes were so thick with salt that he tasted it. From before dawn to late morning, he fished until he had his meal for the day, waist deep in water cooling him to the bone. 

An old rowboat remained dormant at the docks. A reminder of what could be. It's been there as long as the boy remembered, yet he never used it. He didn't have to as his island had everything he needed. Besides, the monsters in the fog were out there and the Great Unknown beyond that. His island kept him safe from all that.

He went back to his hut, made a warm fire, and cooked his fish. He ate his fill. Then, he'd run around the blue poppy flower fields, the sweet fragrance filling him with joy, and explored the dank dark sea caves until dusk. He tired out and found his way to his hut for bed. Morning, he rose again and continued the cycle. This was the way it had always been.

Stranded far, far away on his isolated paradise, far from the cruelty and unpredictability of the seas vicious storms. Blind to what lie in the Great Unknown beyond the fogs. It was better that way, he had convinced himself so. But his heart ached, a deep penetrating knot that never ceased to pull at memories as distant and foggy as the seas around his island. Perhaps that's where they belonged, lost in an endless haze. Monsters skulking in the unseen and unknown to guard what lie there. 

One day, he realized how alone he had been. There was no one. He didn't have anyone to talk to or play with. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, a bridge appeared. Old mossy wood stretched far across the sea into the blanket of fog. He never dared to venture out there. Monsters lurked and waited for him to leave his island to eat him alive. Though, he always wondered if that were true or his mind playing tricks on him. Curiosity trampled his caution and he pushed ahead. He cautiously crossed the bridge filled with hope that something grand awaited on the other side.

All he found was mean, scary monsters concealed in fog. He fled back over the bridge with tears in his eyes and holes in his heart. He had to make sure nothing came over the bridge after him. Specs of cinders appeared in his palms. 

His brow curled, bewildered. It didn't burn. It was rather warm and comforting. His heart knew what needed done. Flames burst forth from the cinders, sending great tunnels of fire over the bridge. Smoke rose high into the skies leaving nothing but heaps of ash floating on the waters below. A reminder of what was on the other side. He vowed never to go across another bridge.

"No, don't!" A girl's voice cried out. "You'll attract the ash monsters!"

The boy recoiled. There was no sign of where the voice came. He had not heard anyone near his island before. Was it a monster in the fog trying to trick him? He bolted for his little hut and hid until morning. Even then, he didn't want to leave. His island was no longer safe and secluded. The monsters will come and get him. Ash floated on the waves, a temptation for them like leaving a lure out for the fish.

He took his spear to the shore if any monsters came, watching the waters wave to and fro. They ascended higher than before. The tides seeped further onto the shore. He thought he may have been too hasty leaving the place beyond the bridge. We wished he had another chance. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, another bridge appeared. That time, the bridge was made of clean sanded wood encrusted with silver. He thought the bridge was prettier so there has to be something better on the other side than the last. He swallowed his doubt and braved it. Much to his own dismay, more monsters were on the other side. Again, he fled back to his island and burned that pretty bridge.

More ash floated. The tides came in harder.

The next day, another appeared. Glossed wood encrusted with gold that shimmered in the sunlight. Surely, there were not more of the same over such a magnificent bridge. He won't find out if he didn't go. He carefully tip-toed over the bridge, quiet as a mouse, to sneak past any monsters that lurked.

What he found did nothing but disappoint. More of the same. He snuck past most of them, but some caught him anyway. However, there was another person there who wasn't mean or scary, a girl with a sweet smile and warm heart, but the boy grew to distrust others. He wanted to be happy and have a friend, but he couldn't be sure they weren't hiding their true nature. After all, he had only found monsters. 

He didn't have a choice. He went back over the bridge and burned it with the others. Ash washed onto the shore; lines of soot rippled up through the sand. His shore was made of mostly ash by then. Smoke lingered in the air mixing with the salt, creating a heavy miasma that sunk deep into his core.

Over the next few days, no more bridges appeared. He feared he had made a terrible mistake and may never have the chance for companionship again. On his lonely shore, he curled in a ball, sinking into the sand. Tears welled in his eyes. He looked to the ash and his breaths strained. He wondered if he would be alone forever. Another bridge appeared with no thought to attribute to it manifesting. Makeshift, and sloppy. Rotten, broken wood creaked to the winds push.

"You don't have to be," a girl's voice echoed from the fog.

The boy shook his head, rejecting the notion. He raised his hands, cinders forming in his palms. Fire, the one answer to his problems yet it attracted more monsters the more he did it.

He sighed heavily.

The vicious cycle continued.

A girl came over the bridge. It was the person who wasn't a monster. He hesitated. He won't burn it with her there. The ciders dissipated.

"Can I come play?" the girl asked. She ringed her hands, hazel eyes pleading. An amulet hung from her neck catching glimpses of sunlight. "I, too, live on an island. I, too, have burned bridges."

The boy smiled, if only for a moment. Nobody had ever tried to build a bridge to him before, but threads of doubt had already been weaved. "How do I know you aren't tricking me?" the boy asked. Eyes jaded from the weight of suspicion peered from a lowered brow.

"You'll never know if you don't take the chance," the girl said. She held out her hand. It, too, was caked with soot. It, too, had seen many a burned bridge like she said. She was like him. She knew what it was like to fight the monsters or hide away, lonely and tired. For the first time, the boy did not feel like the only one. He was not alone.

His heart lifted.

The boy nodded. He took her hand, and they frolicked through the flower fields. Together. Over time, she visited the boy on his island. Her patchwork bridge remained unburnt, and no monsters came over it. As a matter of fact, the boy forgot about all the monsters with her around.

Over time, she came to his island every day by midday when he had caught all his fish. Her short brown hair fluttered in the breeze as he cooked the fish, and she ate them all so he'd have to fish and make more. She only came to his island for what he offered, but never offered anything in return. He never saw her island, he realized. How did he know it existed? How did he know she didn't lie? It mattered not. He led her back to her side of the bridge, with nary an island to see suffocated in haze, and went back home alone, then burned it until it collapsed into the sea of ash with the rest.

The boy, once again, existed alone on his island. The skies darkened, and the clouds wept for their lost friendship. The seas grew vicious. The waves clambered increasingly inland. Before he knew it, only the center of the island remained. His dock and his hut and fire pit all drowned in the wrath of the tides. Humanoid forms came up from the ash, giant and shifting, and started coming for him. The ash monsters.

He was wrong. The girl had kept the monsters at bay.

A rowboat made its way there with his friend on board. She bobbed and weaved through the ash monsters, then docked on the little piece of island he had left. She sat next to him and said nary a word. The tides calmed, and the water receded washing the ash monsters back but still they remained. Still, they came for him. Her boat settled next to his at the docks. His boat remained unscathed from the flooding, but his hut washed away. His home ruined but the way out remained.

"It will give you courage," the girl said, handing him an amulet like hers. "And the monsters don't really like it."

"Why didn't you tell me?" The boy asked. He slipped the amulet over his head. The cold metal stung his nape. His fingers traced a strange symbol engraved in the metal. It sent shivers down his spine.

The girl shrugged. "I thought you knew. The fog monsters wait in the fog to take you unawares. The ash monsters come out to prey on you."

"I wish I knew sooner." The boy shuttered. "Now they're here and I have nowhere to hide."

"Who says you need to hide?" She motioned to the dock. "The Great Unknown awaits you. It's where everyone has to go eventually."

The boy's chest tightened, heart pounding in his ears. He sharply shook his head.

"Let's go together," she offered.

The old boat awaited them at the dock, steadily rocking on the waves of ash with soot clumped on the hull. Smoke and salt still burned his lungs despite the bridges burned long ago and the island flooded. No more bridges. No more hiding. They venture out to the ocean beyond the mist and monsters and ash. An adventure into the Great Unknown.

"But they're out there," the boy argued, his voice trembled.

The girl took his hand and smiled. "We face the monsters together."

END