Yours Truly, Levi

Beautiful Island View

Between grunts of men dragging logs, the banging of makeshift hammers driving against logs and branches, and the roaring of the waterfall just up a hill away, it's hard to hear yourself think. The shelter, though large enough for all fifteen men to lie below it, with walls against a towering rocky cliff like an elaborate lean-to, is nevertheless makeshift. You wonder to yourself whether the shelter will even hold up in a storm like the one that crashed your boat here. But the work is going well, and since you're among the weaker members of the Clan whom the others seem to be ignoring, you decide to slip away and get some fresh air, maybe loosen your chest bindings for a while. You have been sore since you'd been wearing them all trip, and it would feel nice to not have to wear them for a while.

As you turn and look about the island, the beauty suddenly strikes you. It seems to you to be about one square kilometer, maybe one and a half. Although, you're not certain, because you can't see the entire thing over the massive quantity of trees towards the middle, away from the sandy outskirts. The sun shines over a glittering blue sea, beckoning you to swim in it like you used to do in the canal outside your childhood home. You've never seen so much water in one place, or trees, or sand- or anything, for that matter. You've grown up around stones and bricks and walls and such limited nature, that the island, you realize, is paradise by comparison. Once the shelter is completed and a sufficient amount of edible food is collected, life here should be easy. The location of the shelter is about twenty yards from a very convenient freshwater creek, flowing from the waterfall off the cliffside to a still, sun-warmed pool about four times the size of your family house back within Wall Rose. A smaller waterfall flowed into the sea, mixing with the salty water that a few of the Clan men had discovered (the hard way) was definitely not drinkable. Even from the distance you are at, you see silvery fish wiggling around in the pool, with birds and other small creatures visiting the waterside for a drink. So, hunting shouldn't be much of a problem.

As you walk through the sandy beach, you think back to home, recalling your mother's recently emptied bed, and your father's recently emptied liquor cabinet. What would become of it?

The idea is so grim, you force the thought from your whirring mind and focus on finding a place to relax, away from the hubbub of the day. You glance around and note that the forest within the island has an entirely different look than the sandy beach. The forest is green and lush, full of spiny-looking trees that seem to sway up above to an invisible song. They are taller than usual, with some of branches all over, and some thinner trees where the leaves are at the top, wide and palmy, high in the sky.

A particularly bushy tree catches your eye, and you slip around towards it. With bushy branches from the middle up, wide leaves and thick branches, it's much like the tree outside your old home, and perfectly suitable for climbing. Glancing around, nobody seems to pay you any attention, so you slip away towards the tree. Hoisting yourself up, you climb your way to the top.

The view from the tree is spectacular. The island is, like you'd thought, just over a square kilometer. The deep, emerald-green forest contrasts starkly with the brilliant blue sky, a golden, shining sun, and blindingly white, puffy clouds drifting lazily across the horizon like they have noting better to do. The spectacular view takes your breath away, and you feel your heart ache. Even as you reach back and loosen your chest bindings, you cannot help but feel as if you will never breathe again. Such beauty...

Whether you drift off or just are lost in your thoughts, you're suddenly torn from your awe by a voice below you.

"Well, well, well."