Heart (I)
Chapter 1/Episode 1
Stranded
In a world where there are big seas and islands to explore,
In a world where time ticks differently,
There's a small one-man ship anchored to a rocky island with little to known life.
Loner is having trouble sleeping. It is cold in the ship. there's no food for the furnace.
- *annoyed moans*.
He is sleeping backwards on the bed, with his feet on the pillow, as he's playing around with his blanket, lost in an unpredictable battle.
- mmm…
the full moon is casting a light onto the sea. The light travels through the window of his room, shining down onto his face.
- *more annoyed moans*
Irritated, he turns to the wall, moving his body away from the light. He takes a deep breath, trying to relax his body, when a curious fly lands onto his ear, startling him, angrily shooing it away and quickly standing up:
- Enough is enough! I'll start the ship until i find an island with maybe tree's growing in it… I cant be like this anymore!
He gets up, puts on his thick, brown jacket, his white shirt, black jeans, a brown hat and black, pointy leather shoes. He exit's his room, angrily slamming the door shut behind him. He goes to lift the heavy anchor, having trouble gripping the cold, stinging steel chains.
- ah, come on man…
Loner goes back into his room and comes out with brown, leather gloves. Now with his hands shielded from the cold. he lifts the anchor up. As the ship starts to drift, he quickly runs to the steering wheel. The waves are quieter than usual tonight. The water's almost flat. He starts the motor's to speed up the ship, The sound of splashing filling the air. The man distances from the island, until it fades away into the ocean. A nice, light breeze travels through the ship. the sky is clearer than usual, exposing the shining stars.
The sea is reflecting the sky, making it seem like the boat's drifting through the galaxy. It's very beautiful, breathtaking even. Every little star reminds you of how the world is an infinite place.
- Ah… this is nice.
He relaxes onto his seat. As His eyelids become heavy, A tune play's behind Loner's mind, taking in the moment.
His eyes start to close slowly, as his body falls into deep slumber. He's having a dream.
A boy is running into the woods, scared, exhausted with his vision blurry.
He's wearing a red t-shirt, brown shorts and sandals. The boy seems hurt, with tears flooding his eyes.
He's cornered at a huge bolder.
He's looking left and right when a voice behind him shouts out:
- Hey, freak! Turn around now…
He turns around. Two small shadowy figures are standing in front of him. It seems like they are both children as well. They start to giggle, coming closer towards the boy. The boy is crying, wheezing loudly, calling out for help… but no one answers.
As 2 of the individuals come to him, they start giggling louder, kicking him down onto the ground. They kick harder and harder, bruising the poor boy's body, when suddenly one of the figures stomp his head with full strength. The boy's vision goes white. A ringing is played in his ears.
Suddenly, Loner's eye's burst open with tears, his chest rising up and down rapidly. Loner realizes that he slept with the ship going forward. He looks at the horizon, to see the ship is getting close to a small island.
- No, no, no, no! This cant be happening!
Loner tried to prevent a crash, but its already too late. As the he hits the island, Loner flies to the back of the ship, hitting his head. The ship's front scrapes onto the ground, tearing the metal sheet off and the motors breaks as it hits some rocks. The front Half of the ship is now on the island.
- No, please, oh god…
He drops down onto the ground, standing on the sand, looking at the ship nervously. He runs towards the front to see that its badly damaged. Bits of iron scraps are scattered everywhere on the sand.
- oh, you mother of..! Ugh!
He kicks the ground and lays face first onto it, crying in frustration. After a while of wobbling on the ground, he lifts his head from the sand. With a frustrated voice, he says:
- Now how will i repair this… If only i had someone to help me.
He sits on the sand in a fetal position.
He cries quietly thinking about what problem he's facing. Time passes by. A crab emerges from the sand. It crawls towards the man, staring at him curiously, then gives him a mischievous look and pinches his thigh before escaping through the sand.
- Ouch!
Loner jumps up from the sudden pain on his thigh.
- Heh… it was a crab.
He stands up and brushes the sand off him.
- Ah, I've ben crying a lot. I guess the dream really took a toll on me.
Now collected, he looks around his surroundings.
He see's a big mountain with many trees on it. So far, it doesn't seem like there's any civilization around.
- hm… this island sure is small.
Loner goes towards the mountain. As he gets closer, he notices a small hut on top of it.
- Huh?! There might actually be some people here. It has ben so long since I've seen another human... I might be able to restore the ship temporarily to get me to another island someway.
Loner is now stranded on a small island located in… who knows where. The island has many tree's and possibly a civilization. Will Loner be able to restore his ship and swim to another island? Or will he be left stranded? And most importantly, what is Loner looking for?
Chapter 1 / Episode 2
Theo?
Its a sunny day out. The island seems to be stuffed with birds. The air is fresh and tangy. The birds are chirping, the sea is singing. Its a peaceful sound of nature, a sound that is being interrupted by a sweaty man struggling to climb a mountain. Loner is climbing with his journal in his right pocket and wearing a bag over his shoulder. He struggles to hold onto a rock, as he gets closer and closer to the hut.
- *grunts*
He wraps his arms around a rock and pulls himself up. His body is dripping with sweat, breathing heavily as he reaches for another rock. His arms are about to fall out any moment. He finally reached the hut, standing on the mountain, taking some time to breath.
- Hahh… ah… god… why is there a hut all the way up here anyway?
After he collects himself, he goes into the hut. The hut has nothing but a muffled text written on the wall. Loner could only read the word "hut" from the sentence.
- Welp i came all the way up here just to read a word. Fantastic.
He sighs. He climbs down the other side of the mountain. As he climbs down, he notices a cave. he lands onto the ground. Curious, he peeps his head through the entance to see some old cave paintings. He walks in.
- Hm. So this island must be abandoned as well. I wonder what this land was like before.
He looks at the cave paintings of ancient people killing animals and cooking them on a one, big campfire. He goes deeper into the cave as the paintings travel to the future. There's a bed made out of hay in a section of the cave that's carved into a room.
- I wonder how old this hay may be. Looks pretty rotten.
The paintings now show people building small houses with ancient handwriting on them. Eventually, Loner stumbles upon a big, wooden chest filled with iron scraps, molds and tools in it.
- Ah, these might come in handy.
He goes deeper to see what looks like some centuries old abandoned campfire logs that are half-burnt. They were infested with termites. The cave had not much else to see in it, so he took the chest and pushed it outside of the cave, struggling to move it. With a pant, he sets it on the grass.
- *huff, huff* ah… my back hurts.
He puts his hand on his back, then raises both of his arms and takes a good stretch.
Birds are watching Loner intently from a tree. They seem to be curious. Playfully, the tired man gives them a wave. The birds chirped back as if they were saying "hey". He chuckles before taking out a piece of bread from his left pocket and throwing it onto the ground for the birds. But the birds decide to stay on the tree.
- Hey, i get it. I might lo-
Before he could say what he wanted, the birds scattered away from the tree.
- Welp, they'll eat it later… probably.
Loner opens the chest and takes out stuff one by one, placing it onto the ground. The metal tools are old and may break down easily, but still can be transformed. He could smelt the iron from them into liquid and make screws. Luckily, there are a lot of screw-molds. The wooden handles can be used as food for the furnace. The big metal scraps can put on and patch up the ship. He had everything to fix the ship, the question was how he'd get the ship out of the shore. He put that question aside for now. He stored the old metal tools in his big brown bag. He held some of the molds in his arms as he went around the mountain towards his ship. He put everything near a big bolder.
- Hah… maybe i should take a break.
Loner went up to the ship. He realized he couldn't go up normally since the boat was on the shore. Luckily, there's a huge hole on the bottom of the ship which he could go in. But before entering the ship, he hears footsteps. Startled, he quickly looks back to see a pig.
- Oh, a piggy!
The pig feeling frightened, tries to run away but falls onto the ground from panic. The piggy decided to act dead and wiggles out his tongue to make it look more realistic, but failed to deceive Loner. The man chuckles, feeling almost bad for thinking about eating it. He grabs the pig from its hove and takes it into the ship. He puts him in a crate for later. After the pig wakes up from "death", it realizes the position it is in and oinks desperately, wanting to get out of the crate:
- Oink! O-oink!
- Sorry piggy.
Loner then climbs up the ladders leading to the top of the ship. He checked out his room to see if it survived from the crash. It was a complete mess. A cabinet was on his bed, his table was flipped upside down, the chair was broken and his shelf was ripped off the wall.
- Well… dang it. I cant believe i slept while having the boat started. What a rookie mistake. I need to sleep more.
Loner started tidying up his room. He took the cabinet off the bed, flipped his table, sat the shelf next to the cabinet that was in front of his bed and threw the broken chair down to the storage unit. Some scared oinks came from downstairs, reminding him of the pig he trapped.
- Maybe i'll let it free. I have enough fish anyway. But… fish and bread is all i eat at this point…
He grumbles as he slowly enters his room again and sets his tired, sweaty body onto the bed
- Eh, I'll worry about it later. I can barely feel my legs. My whole body is aching from that crash.
Loner takes a deep breath as he relaxes onto the bed. The sun is starting to set. His mind drifts to sleep. After a moment, he starts to dream about something. Or rather… saw something. A soul was approaching his ship. At first he thought it was an animal… but it walked and sounded like a young person. He was seeing through the individual's eyes. They seemed worried about something. Loner's eyes snapped open. He quickly took a dagger from his cabinet and quietly climbed down the ladder. He poked his head out of the hole on his ship, checking if anyone was there, but saw nothing.
- Must've ben a… monkey or something.
He turns back. The pig started squealing again. He sensed something was wrong. As he was coming towards the crates, a boy jumped out from the shadows with a stick, holding it like a sword. With shaky hands, he said:
- Let go of Theo!
The boy raised his arms up, threatening to hit the man with the stick, when he notices he had a dagger in his hand. He suddenly froze in fear, but quickly regained his senses:
- Let go of him or i'll beat you up! I'll… I'll… hit you! I'll hit you hard! Just let Theo go!
Loner glances at the boy, being confused and shocked, as if its his first time seeing a human in a long time… Or maybe it was… Caught off guard, Loner takes a step back.
- Theo?
Chapter 1/ episode 3
Sea you tomorrow!
- So, you live here?
- *unsure grumbling sounds*
Loner and the boy are sitting on the opposite sides of a campfire which Loner set up on the sand outside of the ship. The pig is running around them. He was probably bored of being stuck in the crate and now is taking his energy out on his freedom. The boy isn't saying much, unsure if he should talk to the strange man.
- Sorry for taking your pig there, I didn't know it was yours. I didn't mean to… scare you like that. I know how it fe-
- His name is Theo.
- Oh so he's Theo?
- *Uncomfortable humming of approval*
- Do you live here with someone? I looked around the island a bit and… it seemed as if it were abandoned.
The kid grumbles again, looking away from Loner.
- Look, ill say this again. Sorry for scaring you. I'll introduce myself to you. *clears his throat* people call me Loner. I came from the second sea and ended up in… i guess the first sea? There's not much civilization here, so I'm guessing it is. I haven't seen a person in a while, so i was hoping we could talk.
- The boy hesitates, but then introduces himself back:
- Well… I-I'm Henry. I… come from this island.
He struggles to spit out the words, feeling worried the man will do something with the information.
- I live here with my family.
- Oh really?
- You've already met my brother.
- Huh?
Loner glances at Henry with a confused expression. The boy stares at him back, as if his eyes were saying: "he's… right here". He calls out for Theo. Theo quickly turns back, runs to the boy and sits on his lap.
- Oh. I see.
Henry stares at the fire while hugging his beloved pig. Its a quiet night. This part of the sea seems oddly calmer. After a long, Awkward pause, Loner asks:
- Do you have any parents?
- Well. I… i do.
- Can you tell me how they look like?
Henry hesitates shortly, before answering:
- They… are big. They are brown with hair all over their body. They have small, round ears and a small, nubby tail.
- … Are they bears?
Henry glances at Loner as if its his first time hearing the word "bear"
- They are my parents.
- Okay.
They take another break from talking. Loner is thinking about asking more questions about his parents, what do they feed him, where do they live. He was wondering how the boy was living in this small island with animals around. Henry let go of his pig, when he asked:
- Do you have a family?
Loner froze from the thought of his family, a deep memory runs past his mind. He exhales softly, before answering:
- Well… i do. You could even say i have two families! Heh… heh heh…
- He chuckles softly, as if he was saying a joke, before trying to change the subject:
- Do you live in a cave here with your parents? Or in that hut up there on the mountain?
- Well, we live in the trees.
- You mean the forest?
- Yeah. Forent.
- Its forest.
Henry has become Irritated.
- Yeah. Forest.
Henry glances at the ship that is stuck on the shore.
- Is that a raft? Its so big!
- Loner chuckles.
- Oh, no. Its a ship. Do you like it? It has some holes in it which i need to patch up so i could use it again. I accidentally crashed here… and i must say, i feel a little embarrassed about it.
- A ship? Can it swim on the sea? Can it take you to an island? To people?
Loner chuckles louder
- You bet it can. Or well, if luck doesn't leave your side, then yeah. Do you want to explore it? I have some fish inside that i can cook up for us.
- Fish?
- Yeah, fish.
Henry, curious of knowing what a "fish" is, he stood up from his seat and walked into the ship without Loner.
- Hey! Wait up for me!
- Loner runs into the ship with the boy.
- You were here before. This is the storage unit. Its where i keep some of my tools, As well as some other ancient things i found throughout my journey.
- Loner opens a door next to the ladder. He turns on the light, glimmering the room, showing some more crates that have empty cans of oil in them and a generator poorly strapped onto the floor.
- And here's the power room. Its fairly used as you can see with the empty cans of oil. I usually try to save the oil for emergency situations, but I'm already almost running out so might as well deplete it. This ship has a sail on it anyway. This room has a lot of space though.
- what is oil?
- Well… its used to power machines.
- Wow, cool! What are machines?
Loner grumbles awkwardly before leading Henry up the stares. They enter the second floor with a kitchen that has windows.
- Here's the kitchen. I like to bake here, but since i rarely have dough i usually cook fish and make salads. The second room is the bathroom. You have to often fill the water tank here since its small. but anyways, its also very spacey in here as well. This boat was bigger than i thought when i first got on it.
- Kitchens have food in it, right? Im hungry. Can i eat something?
- Oh, I'll cook you some fish later. I'll just show you the top of the boat and get the stove ready.
They both climb up next to the sale, which was currently down.
- Now here's the top of the boat. That room over there is my room. I think the steering wheel was supposed to be in the room but for some reason it's in front of it, so… thats that. Oh, and at the back there are more crates with stuff in it. Thats pretty much it. You can checkout my room if you want.
Henry, without a word, walked up to the room, but was confused about how to enter it. He then remembered how Loner opened the doors in lower floors, which he copied and was immediately fascinated by it, completely ignoring the things that are inside the room.
- Wow..! Is this a door? I thought doors were just some big boulders used to barricade stuff. This is cool!
- Heh, yeah… I guess you really are alone here. I wonder who left you here on this island…
Henry then turns his attention over to the room, looking around, touching stuff, testing every surface with his finger.
- Woah, so cool! This is your room? Its kind of small though…
- Heh, well, i guess I'm the type of guy that likes small spaces. You can go down to the kitchen if your ready to eat. I'll get the bucket of fish i was saving up for later.
After a while of Henry walking around the ship, he finally settled into the kitchen and sat onto the table. Loner was cooking up some of the fish in a pot when Henry noticed them and almost gagged.
- Woah, woah, Henry are you okay?
- I-is that… those swimming things in the sea… i got bit by one of those one time but…
Henry Almost gags again as Loner readies a bucket when realization hit him.
-wait, do you not eat fish?
- … I don't eat living beings.
- I see… then I'm sorry about that. I can give you some left over bread i have if you want to.
- Bread? Sorry, i lost my appetite. I'll eat something else later, as long as its not… a living.
- O-okay… sorry about that again.
Loner puts the pot away.
- I wasn't that hungry anyway.
The man says.
After a while of chattering, Loner and Henry got to know each other a little more and Henry became less shy around Loner.
- How old are you anyway?
- Me?
He said as if someone was with them.
- Yes, you.
- I'm… 15 years old. How about you?
- I'm 29.
- Woah, your so old. You look older though.
Loner froze from his comment, obviously not liking the fact he was called old, but brushes it off.
- Well… for a person that risks their life most of the time from voyaging around the sea's without a map, yeah, maybe. Voyaging around like that takes a lot of strength, both physical and mental and i guess I'm good at it because I've ben keeping this up for 4 years and I'm still alive. Heh, i guess god loves me, or thats what i'd say if ours wouldn't be so wicked.
Henry looked at Loner with clueless eyes, obviously not understanding half of the things he just said, but nodded in agreement anyway. then, he realized what "voyaging" meant.
- Why do you travel the seas anyway?
- Well… i guess now just to find a human civilization and get to the second sea. But maybe not. I don't know. Your the first person i met this year.
- Why did you start voyaging the first place?
- Oh… well…
Loner uncomfortably mutters a bit before answering:
- Its a long story… I'd like to keep it to myself.
- Oh, okay. Did you have another goal in mind when you started voyaging?
- Well… no. I was really lost. I…
His voice cracks as he says:
- I was kind of… confused when i started voyaging. Again, i don't want to talk about it.
He clears his throat.
- I just want to get back to the second sea one way or another and maybe get a map. Even if i was able to hold up for this many years without a map, I'm no compass. Its a miracle that I'm still alive, especially with these sea's.
- It sounds scary but…
Henry exhales sharply
- could you… get me to a civilization as well? This is my first time seeing a human up-close. I thought you were one of those mean bandits.
- Oh… pirates? Ive ran into some of those. They're big trouble. And yeah, i could get you to a civilization, but no promises. As i said before, I'm sailing without a map.
- Thank you so much! I'll promise i'll behave on this raft!
- Its a ship.
- On this ship!
Suddenly Loner remembers.
- Wont your… parents be worried about you?
Henry pauses for a second to think about his decision.
- Well, they will but… I've told them before that i wanted to quit the island already and they were okay with it. Or at least i think they were. Maybe they just hid their emotions… but i'll come anyway. I think they understand that i should try and start a new life. They always had trouble with raising me, especially because they didn't understand me.
Loner smirks almost happily, knowing someone will finally join him in his voyage.
- Well. Its late out. We should get some sleep. Will you stay with me at the ship or..?
- Nah. I'll stay with my parents for the night. They must be worried about me anyway. I'll tell them about you. Maybe i should introduce you to them.
- Aw, well, I'd like to see them. Want to help me fix the ship tomorrow?
- Oh its actually broken? Sure! I thought you just had to ready it for something…
Loner chuckles cheerfully.
- Well then, Sea you tomorrow!
Chapter 1/ Episode 4
Bang!!! Bang!!!
- *yawn*
Loner woke up from his bed. The sun is up. sound of oinks are coming from Theo outside the ship. The man puts his clothes on, takes his journal and gets ready to meet Henry. He climbs down the ladders to see Theo waiting for Loner at storage unit.
- Oink!!!
- Im coming, Im coming.
He comes out to see Theo running in circles
- Hey Theo! Where's Henry?
Theo pauses and looks at Loner before running away into the woods.
- hey wait! Where are you going?
Loner follows the pig before he looses him. He's now disoriented and a little lost in the forest. He walks around the woods, while calling out for Theo and Henry.
- Theo! Henry! Where are you?
Suddenly, a huge bear jumps onto Loner, pinning him onto the ground:
- ROAR!!!
The bear growls before Henry appears to interrupt them:
- Hey wait! Mom! Its okay, He's not a bandit! Its the guy i was talking about.
The bear looks at Henry and then down to Loner, looking sorry before she gets off of him.
- *whimpers*
- Well… that was an experience.
Says Loner, as he stands up from the ground, brushing dirt off of him.
- So this is your Mother?
- Mhm!
- *More whimpers*
- She's sorry about pinning you onto the ground.
- Well, its okay i guess.
Theo appears and runs up to Henry. Henry sits down onto the ground and cuddles with the pig. The bear stands beside her son, before sitting while "petting" Henry and Theo with her snout.
- Whats her name? - Loner asks.
- Its Jean.
- Oh what a nice name. So you've told your parents everything you know about me? Its nice to meet you Jean.
*growls as if she's saying "Nice to meet you too"*
- So, where's your father?
- Oh, he went to get some Honey for us. Its finally honey season! His name is Gary. If you'll meet him, tell him that your Loner. I can come and help you with the ship now.
- Oh, okay.
- Alright.
Henry gets up from the floor as Theo stands beside him. Jean watches as both Henry and Loner leave, before standing up and walking away into the distance as Theo follows her.
- See you mom!
- Jean growls goodbye from afar.
- We have a long day ahead of us. Fixing the ship may take a couple of days. - Loner says.
And with that, Loner and Henry went to the chest he found earlier. Some birds are flying over them, chirping. A hiss of a snake can be heard. Loner clenches from the sound, seeming to be afraid. Maybe he's scared of snakes. Henry watches as the man quickly opens and takes stuff out of the chest.
- This chest has some stuff i could use for the ship, but its heavy and hard to carry, thats why we gotta get stuff out of it bit by bit.
- Oh I've seen this box before. I put everything i found in the cave inside of it. It has a ton of junk for whatever reason. I liked the paintings in it though. Earlier i found a small peace of uh, i think a weird mushroom growing here? I ate it and it tasted very good.
Loner glances at the spot where he threw the bread, which is now gone.
- Oh the bread?
- Are breads mushrooms? What even are breads?
- Well… i threw it down onto the ground here. Im guessing you ate it. Bread is baked dough.
- Can i have more bread? - Henry asks, with a glint in his eyes.
Loner giggles.
- Yeah, sure.
- Thank you!
Loner lets out a warm smile. He takes some of the big plates from the chest and gives the smaller ones to Henry. As they were carrying the items, they started chattering:
- So, what do you eat here anyway?
- I just eat what i find and doesn't poison me.
- Oh… interesting.
- Its mostly just vegetables, fruits and honey.
Wow. Im still amazed how you managed to survive here… Dont your parents eat meat?
- Well, yeah. I dont eat the meat though.
They get to where Loner last dropped the first batch of junk and added the plates they had.
- Now lets pick up the metal scraps that fell off the ship.
- Alright.
They gather everything they had next to the bolder.
- Welp. If only we had a little more wax molds… i could use the wax to coat the plates so water wouldn't go through the cracks or rust the plates. Oh, well. We have to make this work one way or another.
- I have a couple more of these… "molds" somewhere stored in another cave. I'll go run and get them.
- Are you sure your gonna be okay?
- I will!
Henry stormed off into the distance. With an appreciative smile, Loner gets some screws from the storage unit and gets ready to work. He takes a huge piece of iron plate that broke from the ship. He started to slowly reattach it with screws and some strong glue for the small cracks while using other smaller plates for smaller holes. After some time, Henry appeared with Jean and Gary. Loner noticed them coming:
- Oh, hey there. Is that your father?
- Yeah, he's my dad.
- Hello, Gary!
- *presenting growl*
Loner giggles awkwardly.
- Your son probably already told you, but I'm Loner. Nice to meet you!
- *both of the bears growl back*
- Hey, Henry. Got the wax?
- Yeah i did, but i only found 3 molds. I remember having more.
- Thats okay. I have some glue here as well to patch up the cracks. Plus, maybe we do have enough wax. We'll see. I'll have to cover it with something from the inside later.
- Wow, fixing a ship must be hard.
Loner smiles before returning to the hole he's patching up. Henry's helping him with carrying items. Jean, Gary and Theo are watching them from the back. They are amused by the man, how intelligent he is and how good he is with using these tools they've never seen in use. They see his caring side, how gentle he is around Henry. They start to trust Loner more with their child. Hours felt like minutes when they finished patching up a big hole. All they needed to do is now wax it. Loner went into the ship to heat up the molds into liquid wax. He went outside to wax the patched up hole. Henry is standing at the entrance of the storage unit. Loner walks up to him and the boy asks:
- So is it done?
- Well, its one of the holes done. Now we have to fix the one we're standing in.
- Oh, okay.
- Good thing the sun isn't setting yet. We still have time to finish this up. I let down a ladder from the left side of the ship so we could go up after.
- Okay.
- Anyways, where did your parents go? - Loner stares towards the place they were standing in, then his eyes gleam over the distance, searching for the bears.
- Oh, i don't know. Maybe they're at home.
- Hm. Oh, and here you go:
- Loner hands Henry some bread.
- Hope you'll like it more than you did before. - he says, while the boy takes a huge bight of his bread without a word.
Loner cant help but smile seeing Henry dig into his bread. he's taking big bights of it as if he's eating something amazing. Or well, for him it was.
- Is it good?
Henry swallows down as he responds:
- Yes, it is!
Suddenly, Theo jumps up and straddles onto Henry's leg, Oinking, begging for a piece. The boy gives the rest of the bread to Theo. Theo eats it out of his hand, clearly enjoying it. Loner watches excitedly, knowing he satisfied a customer.
- Heh, maybe i should bake some more stuff for you guys later when i get the ingredients for something. That was the last of the bread i had.
- Thank you for the bread!
- No problem at all.
Some time passes. Loner gets the rocks that were wedged into the motor out and starts patching up the next hole. Mid-patching, Loner decides to take a break. He has ben overworked for long enough. He takes a nap in his room, while the boy is outside playing with his pig. Henry's parents appeared again with some apples and banana's. As Henry's eating his banana, he decides to look around the storage unit. He found a book shelf that looked pretty old. There were some books on the ground, but one in particular caught his eye. An old, small, leather-wrapped book titled with faint yellow: "The Princess And The Shining Stars". He picked up the book and opened it. Confused of the weird symbols he sees in the book, he decides to go up and ask Loner about it. entering Loner's room, he sees him sleeping. The boy looms over the man. Sensing Henry's presence, Loner's eyes flutter open. He gasps in surprise, seeing Henry looking down on him almost menacingly.
- D-don't ever do that again! You scared me!
Henry jumps back from Loner's sudden gasp:
- O-oh, sorry!
Loner sees Henry holding the book. The boy hands out the book to the just woken up man.
- What is this?
- You mean this? Its a book.
- What is a book?
- Well… a book is a stack of paper put together with stuff written in them.
- What does it have written in it?
- Well, sometimes stories, different subjects… just… information. this is a fantasy book titled "The Princess And The Shining Stars". It seems to be pretty short, judging from the size of the book. Do you want me to read it for you?
- Sure.
Loner opens up the first page of the book that shows a drawing of a princess, dressed in blue's and purple's, wearing a long, light blue crown with purple circular tips and is holding a blue scepter with her left hand. Loner sits up from the bed, rubbing his eyes with his hand, still feeling sleepy as he begins reading:
- The Princess And The Shining stars. Once upon a time, there was a girl named Gaya who loved reading books, socializing and most importantly: living in royalty. She was a princess of the world some said, being the daughter of a god. Everyone looked up at her every step and every decision she made as she grew into a beautiful young lady in her castle above the clouds. She had the powers no other individual like herself had, except for the divines of course. She had the ability to create anything she could imagine. The world was powered by 3 stars, giving it immense energy. Sometimes this energy would slip, giving people powers and turning them into sorcerers. The world was ruled by 3 gods, Earthen, Siava and Astrass, Earthen being Gaya's father. Some say the 3 gods were born from the 3 stars. One time, a disaster occur. Siava, the god of the sea, decided to take these 3 stars for himself, giving him immense energy and enough power to take down Earthen and Astrass- the god of life and the god of time. Gaya had to live through her father's passing, while having to deal with Siava, the cru-
Loner paused, looking at the book with a surprised expression. Henry faced towards Loner, confused of his sudden pause and asked:
- What is it?
- Well… maybe its best if i'd not read this to you. This book seems to be older than i thought. Ive never read these books that were on the shelf before, although i usually like reading… its just that i didn't ever feel like reading them.
- Why wont you read it fully?
- Anyways, want to pick another book?
- Why are you changing the subject?
- … Look, this book has some deep stuff written in it thats best for you to not know about. I'll read it to you when your older. Or, perhaps i could teach you to read if you want to.
Loner places the book next to him on the bed.
- Now, if you'll excuse me, i have a hole to fix.
- But its already night, aren't you gonna rest?
- Eh, the faster i patch it up the better. This world is unpredictable. Anything can happen at any given moment. Who knows, maybe something bad will happen to the ship if i keep it on here.
O-okay…
- Its better if you go sleep.
Henry goes off into the woods as Loner spends most of the night fixing the hole.
After he finished patching it up, he climbed onto his ship and slept in his room.
Morning came. Loner woke up from his… dream.
- Oh, no…
The man quickly climbs down the ship and rushes into the forest. He goes deeper and deeper, calling out for Henry when he found him sleeping on the ground near a dead tree. He crouches next to the boy and he wiggles his body to wake him up.
- Henry, wake up! We need to go now!
Henry's eyes open up lazily. He looks up at Loner, who is looming over him, looking scared and concerned.
- *yawn* Huh? Whuh?
The boy rubs his eyes.
- There are pirates coming towards the island. - We need to go. Now.
- Pirates?!
Henry quickly stands up from the ground. Loner grabs his hand as he quickly guides him towards the ship.
- I saw them in my dream… they are looking for someone.
- In your dream?
- J-just… never mind! We need to get out of this pig island.
- Pig island?
they climb up the ship as they see the pirates coming closer. Loner remembers that his ship is on the shore. He tries to get it down into the water by starting the motors, but it doesn't budge. Suddenly, two cannon balls crash into the ship, pushing it into the water, making everything shake. Henry collapses onto the ground as Loner keeps his hold on the steering wheel and quickly turns it around.
- Are you okay, Henry?
- Im okay, but the ship-
- We cant worry about the ship now. The pirates are coming closer. We need to go!
With that, Loner sailed the ship out of the island as the pirates were catching up behind them.
- Agh, this old thing has gotten slower. Check the bottom if there are any leaks. If there are, try to cover it up someway.
- A-alright!
Henry quickly climbs down to the storage unit. The storage unit seemed fine, but the power room has a leak from a big crack on the wall. He tried to find something in the crates to cover up the crack, when he heard some familiar oinks:
- Oink!!! Oink!!!
- Theo? Your here?! Im so glad! I thought i would have to go without you.
Theo was spinning around between some boxes. When Henry caught his eye, Theo pointed at a jar filled with clay and a small bottle of glue. Henry quickly took the clay and glue. He covered up the hole with clay and then smeared it with glue, making his hands sticky. The leak stopped for now. Loner called out from the top:
- Is everything okay down there?
- There was a leak, but i fixed it!
- Is it flooded down there?
- Well, not much.
- Can you check if the generator is working? The motors aren't turning.
- Well… it doesn't seem to be doing anything.
- God dang it. Just bring some stuff up and dump into the sea through the kitchen's windows. Maybe less weight will make it faster.
- I will!
- Oink, Oink!?
- There are pirates chasing us, Theo. We need to try and make the ship faster!
Henry quickly took some empty jars and some old, dusty gems. He climbed up into the kitchen, dumped it into the sea and repeated. Loner screamed out:
- Its no use. They are almost right behind us.
A girl with long pink hair, who seems to be the captain of the ship, calls out.
- Hey! If you don't want anything bad happen to you, surrender to us! There's no point getting away from us anyway… we are the fox pirates!
A boy with green hair stands beside the girl, looking at Loner's ship with a grin on his face:
- Ah, this'll be a good catch.
Loner calls out for Henry:
- Come up and take my place! I'll try to fix the generator.
Henry climbs up the ladders when he realizes:
- Wait, but i don't know how to work a ship?
- Just keep the steering wheel in one place. You'll figure it out on your own. When i call out, press the button next to it. Its the button for the motors.
- O-okay.
Henry sits on the steering wheel, having trouble finding out which one is the steering wheel and which one is the button as Loner quickly climbs down to check up on the motor. The cable was plugged out of the generator, which the cannon balls could've shook off. He plugs it back in and calls for Henry:
- Press the button!
Henry takes a while before he finally presses the button, which starts the motors. The ship quickens, drifting farther away from the fox pirates.
- Is it working up there?
- Yes, it is! They are going farther away!
Good! Im coming up!
Loner climbs up and looks back to see the fox pirates drifting away. With a satisfied smirk, he goes to Henry.
- You did a good job. Now let me on the steering wheel. I'll carry us out of here.
- But Loner…
- What is it?
- Is it normal for islands to randomly emerge from the ground?
- What do you mean?
- Look down into the sea.
Loner looks down to see a huge, thin island slowly rising up from the sea. The waves have become stronger. Big earthquakes started to shake the sea, making the ship unstable, before the motors stop working again.
- Henry! Brace yourself onto something!
The pirates are catching up to them again, not noticing the island emerging. Loner sat on the steering wheel as he prayed in his mind that they'd get out of this alive. Henry is holding onto the edge of the ship when another cannon ball hit the ship, making him tremble onto the ground.
- Are we going to make it!? - Henry asks, trying to get up from the ground.
Loner doesn't respond to his question, focusing on the sea for maybe… a big wave to ride on? The situation started to become desperate, but as the ship was being hit by cannon balls, it went past the island just in time before it got destroyed. The pirates on the other hand got hit by the island and their ship broke in half. With a relieved sigh, Loner collapsed from the chair, clearly drained from exhaustion. The sea shifted and suddenly the waves started to become calmer. Henry, with bruised ankles, crawled towards Loner to check up if he's okay. Some loud oinks can be heard coming from the bottom.
- L-loner, are you o-okay?
- Yeah… sorry. I haven't felt good lately.
Loner slowly stood up from the floor and looked down on Henry.
- Woah, are YOU okay? Can you stand up?
- Yeah, im okay. I just hit my ankles hard onto the ground and it hurts to move them.
- Come on, grab my shoulder.
Loner leans down and helps Henry off of the ground. He tries to lead him into his room so Henry could lay down, but Henry starts moving on his own.
- I said I'm fine, i can walk.
- are you sure?
-Yeah. Im sure. By the way, Theo is in the storage unit.
- He is?
- Yeah. Can you bring him up here? He must be scared and confused.
Sure, no problem.
Loner goes down with a big backpack and finds Theo hiding behind some crates.
- Its okay Theo, you can come out.
Theo slowly comes out and walks towards Loner, still scared from all the sounds outside and from things shaking on their own. Loner picked him up and put him in his backpack. He climbed back up to see Henry leaning on the edge of the boat again while looking off into the distance. The pirates are waving their flags towards them, as if saying: "You've got away for now, but we'll be back for you later!". The man places down the pig onto the floor and walks up to Henry. For a while, he stood in silence, but then joined the boy, leaning onto the edge beside him. Henry looks towards Loner, who has a neutral, calm expression.
- How can you be so calm right now? We almost just died like 10 minutes ago!
- Eh, I've experienced worse. W-wait…
He pat his right pocket, where his journal is in. With a relieved sigh, he let go of it and looked over to the boy. Henry, almost as if he remembered something as well, turned his gaze back into the horizon. The waves almost became still, as if they were frozen in time.
- You know, its weird…
- Huh? What is it Henry?
- This… feels so familiar.
- What do you mean?
- We were in the crown island.
- The crown what?
- A voice in my head… i cant make it up who it is… he's telling me something.
- Whats up?
- Once every 10 years, a super volcano erupts inside the crown island, which is a gigantic circular underwater island with other smaller islands inside, taking up most of the sea of the first… When the volcano erupts, the water level drops dramatically. You may be safe from it when your somewhere near the center of the island but… it can create gigantic tsunami's…
Henry looks back when he suddenly turns pale. Theo is frozen in place. Loner wonders what they are looking at, so he turns back to see it… the monstrosity… It was a huge tsunami. Bigger than Loner has probably experienced. It was bigger than 3 mountains stacked onto each other. They didn't know what to do. I mean, what could they do? Loner tried to act, but he was frozen from shock. As the Tsunami hit the ship, Loner quickly grabbed Henry and Theo as he pulls them into a tight hug.