Lost At Sea (Rough Draft)

Part 04

Thoughts going a mile a minute, the protagonist sat there until the sky darkened and the sun lowered, until they got too cold and had to move and find shelter, food and warm up next to a fire stumbling blindly and out of focus. The young teen went back to the small clearing then gathered firewood and started a small fire to warm them up and dug around in their pockets and found a couple bruised apples munched on those, pondering over their situation. Ready to sleep, the protagonist crawled and laid on the ground next to the simpering fire, staring into the embers before flipping on their back to stare up at the night sky observing the billions of stars glistening. The young teen's blink grew longer until their eyes didn't open back up again and fell asleep with one arm over their chest and the other bent under their head, completely oblivious to the fact that the amulet was glowing in pulses, synced with the protagonists heartbeat and the sounds of beasts flowed out of the woods, reacting to the glowing amulet. Early the next morning, the young teen opened their eyes blearily looking up at the bright blue sky and smiled until reality dawned on them, grumbled and curled up into a ball to fall back asleep, not ready to face the world and somehow survive on this mysterious island alone. With a deep sigh, the protagonist got up rubbing the sleep from their eyes and stumbled back to the beach, knelt down and bowled the cold water and splashed it in their face, shocking the young teen awake and ready to start their day. First thing first was to find a freshwater source and then food, so the young teen could eat and not have to worry about being hungry all the time and was ready to explore the island to search for those things. The protagonist gathered nuts and berries that they hoped wouldn't be poisonous and then ventured onto bigger prey such as small animals and fish from a stream and lake that the young teen found rather quickly. When the protagonist gathered enough food, more firewood and then drinkable water they decided to explore the ruins that they escaped, feeling a need to go back and try and find something that could answer some questions they had. The young teen went back to the ruins above ground and wondered the questions, what happened to the people and why did they leave so fast that they left everything when they ran, as they picked up an old dirty doll and wiped some dust away with a sad smile. The protagonist wandered around the ruins with observant eyes and a soft hand, tracing the paintings and carvings with a soft touch until they came back around to the large mural and the puzzle it holds. For a moment, the young teen actually took a step back for a different perspective of the mural, they realized what the mural was telling a story about the people that once lived on this island and why the amulet was entangled in this island's history. The mural told the story of a young boy who was just a normal kid like them, who was a part of the civilization, the defenders of the amulet, and made a choice that would change the world for all time. One day the island was attacked by an army wanting to steal the amulet and gain its power, during the battle the boy took the amulet instead to fight off the army, who were killing his friends and family, and released a beast to enact revenge. When the battle was over, the boy tried to leash the beast back in but it was too powerful to handle all on his own so those who survived fled the island while the boy and couple defenders stayed to lock the magic back into the amulet. The story sketched across the wall through a timeline, resonated with the protagonist and they saw themselves with the boy in the story, and absently reached toward the amulet to crease the metal carvings encompassed on the stone. The young teen reached out to the painting of the islands story, touched the figure of a wolf like beast in awe when suddenly they hissed and yanked their hand back to see their pointing finger pin pricked, they sucked the small bud of blood away when the wall began to move like before and the circle opening from before appeared. With the glowing amulet as a guide, the protagonist follows its pulls and goes down a different path from before and finds a more structured room with torches lining the walls and with their own they light up the room to reveal a structure that resembles a table with a large leather tome buckled shut. The young teen followed the pull, approached the tome and unbuckled it to open and flip through the yellowed pages glancing over the hand written words all over the pages, describing everything the defenders knew about the amulet and its powers. The protagonist decided to take the large weathered tome and sat down by the table structure on a bench and spent the rest of the day reading about the amulet, learning about the long history behind the powerful magic that could destroy armies. When the sun began to fall down, the young teen left the room and the maze back up to the surface and walked back to their makeshift campsite to start a fire and prepare a meal. They ate the small meal of berries and a cooked fish sitting on the ground in the light of the fire, throwing the tiny bones over their shoulder. After that meal, the protagonist decided to sit on the beach so they could clearly process what they learned and absently stroked the amulet, staring into the blue green stone that reminded them so much of sailing on the ocean. For the next couple weeks, the young teen fell into a pattern of the life they were living on a desolate island: waking up early, gathering food and other supplies, before diving back into the tome to learn how the amulet could possibly help them get off the island and reunite with their mitch matched crew of a family on the ship.