Academy Island

Inhabitants

The quill flicked and flourished as he recorded the christening of Jade into his ledger, and then a new line, a range of events that kept the pen busy as he copied down his thoughts. My eyes crept up to his face, though since it was turned away from me I was sure it was stoic. A question hung on my own thoughts, wanting to ask about their group, wondering who they were and what it was they were doing all the way out here when they shipwrecked, all of that jumbled in my head and caught fearfully before I could spit it out. I watched him carefully, analytically, weighing the mysteries that swirled around them. I wanted to trust them, already did to an extent, but the doubt fought at the good things, challenged them. I sighed, and the quill stilled. He turned to me, an eyebrow raised, the writing put to the side. 

"What's the matter?"

I shifted on my feet as he stared at me, all the thoughts running through my head flirting with my tongue. There were too many, too embarrassing...or worrisome to ask. But he was expecting something, the weight in his gray eyes apparent. I calculated everything I wanted to know against how dangerous it was to ask.

"Do you think we'll ever get rescued?" I wagered instead, blurting it out as a safe resort. He had to know I'd been reading his ledger. He wasn't the type to make an oversight like that, even if I'd spooked him by my impromptu snake wrangling. 

"This is not clear yet. "

I couldn't tear my eyes away from his, but he leaned against the chair, arms folded much like Luke's had been earlier, but somehow the effect was more...severe. Rigid trying to get away with looking relaxed. He stared at the snake that had made her home in the eaves of what I guess served as his office, a whisp of the wild entering a place where he previously controlled the environment.

 I felt bad and fidgeted. He finally tore his eyes from where she huddled, gazing down at the page where my only contribution being the boys had gone fishing today.

"Are you having any trouble adjusting to cohabiting with us? Has everyone been treating you right?"

I straightened as he upped off his ill-fitting stance and made a grab for the stool Jade had been deposited on before she'd found solace in the eaves. He placed it, quite close, at his side, then sat as I gaped at him. The sharpness of him, intelligence unapologetically pinning me where I stood, regarded my face, then patted at the stools top, motioning for me to sit. I shuffled over, perching myself warily. I wasn't much a fan of stools, an uncomfortable memory of my mother's punishments surfacing despite the circumstances being worlds away. I suppressed the hallow squeezing at my throat, demanding my inner chaos to stay behind the dam I'd promised not to breach. Mr. Blackbourne looked me up and down, a tiny frown appearing, not on his mouth, but between his eyebrows. 

"Do I make you uncomfortable?" His frown deepened. I shook my head, though it would have been more truthful of me if I'd said he did. Or more, like what he'd asked me to do. He sighed, and then closed his book carefully.

"Would you join myself and a small group of the boys on a hike? We won't go far."

I stared at him, unsure about the sudden change in subject, but then nodded. It couldn't do any harm, and besides, maybe I could ask my questions along the way, discreetly. 

An hour later a few of us, I, Mr. Blackbourne, Gabriel, Luke, and Nathan were headed down a trail that I hadn't tread before. Most of it was rough going, a climb that only gave hints here and there that it was actually a trail and not virgin jungle. As I climbed over yet another exposed, twisted root cluster I worriedly looked to Mr. Blackbourne, wondering why we were pushing through such an encroached area, but he just put a hand out to help me and Gabriel over and nodded as Gabriel tried, unsuccessfully, to brush his shorts free of streaked green. I wasn't sure where we were going, but I could hear, faintly, the sound of falling water.