Teenage Castaways

Chapter Twelve || Pierre & Adeline

"Nice to meet you, girls," Elijah said. "I killed a rabbit, which I haven't done before, so that's on our menu."

"Really?" Adeline seemed impressed. "Where did you find it?"

"Center of the island, a bit before sunrise," Elijah said. "You guys enjoy it." With his bare hands, he grabbed both pieces of meat from the fire and placed them on a chipped plate. It was passed around the circle. When it got to me I took a bit of rabbit and a chunk of pig.

Chewing, I asked, "what happened with the plane? If you don't mind me asking." I figured they were bombed. Planes don't crash on their own, they've become too advanced.

Mateo took a cup and lifted the lid from the pot on the fire. "Someone inside the plane didn't want anyone to land alive." He took the evaporated water from the lid and poured it into the cup. "It all comes with war," he said sadly.

"I'm sorry," I said sympathetically.

Mateo shrugged. "It's all well."

"How did you guys get onto the island?" Elijah asked us.

Adeline snorted. "It's a long story, but I'll summarize: our ship got bombed, we stayed on a lifeboat for a bit, then we found this island."

"Wow, sounds fun," Elijah said, dripping sarcasm.

There was a bit of silence as we all ate.

"What do ye do to pass time?" Mateo asked, drumming up conversation since he was finished with his meal.

"We each have jobs," Emma said.

"What do you do?" Mateo asked, seeming genuinely interested.

"Oh, I like to keep the fire going at night," Emma said.

"You stay up all night?"

"I sleep during the day."

"That's genius! Must be much easier to not have to completely restart the fire every morning." Mateo nudged her friend. "Maybe Eel can start on that tonight, he's basically nocturnal anyway."

Elijah scoffed but didn't further share his thoughts.

"Well, okay then." Mateo turned back to us. "What do the rest of you like to do to pass time? What's your niche?" He put air quotes around the word niche.

We all went over our jobs and made conversation until the food was gone and the sun was setting.

"It was nice talking with you two," I said, getting up.

"Right back 'atcha," Mateo smiled.

"Goodnight, then," Adeline said. We walked back down the trail until we found our way back to camp. The fire still burned bright.

I nodded a goodnight to Adeline and Fawn and waved to Emma before slipping into my house. Crawling into bed, I felt my eyelids grow heavy.

And then I was asleep.

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"I'm going midnight hunting with Eel," Adeline said. The sun had just risen; I could hear Adeline and Fawn talking by the fire from my house.

"Oh. Could I come?" Fawn asked.

"What? Why?"

"Elijah and you are always hanging... hanging out why can't I come... come this one time?" Fawn's voice was soft, but it had a bit of an edge to it.

"We just have stuff in common. It's not like we're best friends."

"Oh."

"He's just showing me ways to hunt. He has a knife."

"Oh."

"Oh what? Is that all you're going to say?"

"Sorry..."

"It's... fine."

A pang of guilt hit me in the gut. I shouldn't be listening to the conversation. Rolling out of bed, I got up and walked outside.

"Hello, good morning," I greeted, going to sit on one of the logs around the fire. I poke at the flames and began coming up with my to-do list for today.

"Oh, hi," Adeline greeted me. Fawn also offered a nod.

"What's on the agenda today?"

"I'm hunting later tonight so I was thinking of doing a self-care day with Fawn," Adeline said. Her gaze passed over to Fawn. "If she's not busy."

"No," she said. "Not busy... at all."

"That sounds fun," I said.

"Yeah, it's about time I get new clothes," Adeline let out a light laugh.

I nodded in agreement.

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I stalked through the thicket with a batch of dense stones in my bag, which I made from pig skins and bits of bones. Eel was somewhere beside me, but I couldn't see exactly where since there was almost no light.

Slowly, a clueless pig walked in front of me. Suppressing a laugh, I hurled down three stones at its head. They all made their mark and the pig was knocked out. Maybe even dead.

Squatting down, I picked up the pig. It was dead, but the body was still warm to the touch. Because of its size, it was easy to carry.

Smiling to myself, I waited for Eel to be done before making any noise. Ruining his hunt just because I was done with mine was uncalled for.

"Heyo." Eel appeared out of nowhere. "Got my pig. Let's go."

I nodded and we started toward Camp Avión, as Mateo had dubbed it. Eel dragged his pig by a rope he tried by its foot. His pig was a much larger, adult pig.

"How'd you manage that?" I asked.

"Oh, the pig? It was just stomping about. I'd say it's actually harder to get the small ones," he said. "They run so fast."

Nodding, I smiled. His words were a hidden compliment.

When we arrived at Camp Avión, I was quick to sit down by the fire to start my usual routine of preparing the pig. Laying it on the ground, I picked up one of my shaper stones and laid it on the pig's stomach.

"What are you doing?" Eel asked from behind me.

Turning my head, I found him hanging his hog with rope by its feet on a tree branch.

"Doing what I always do..." I mumbled, confusion dripping in.

"Oh. I guess there are more ways than one to do it."

"Show me how you do it." Getting up, I left my tiny pig, uncut, on the sandy ground beside the fire.

Eel nodded and began showing me how he cut the hung hog. He placed all the cutout meat in the bucket to wash. Since it was very cold, he simply hung up whatever was left of the hog to let it cool overnight.

Right after, I mimicked his actions with my own little pig.