Trainer Rick had hardly finished his countdown when Pierce removed the blindfold. Interesting, she thought. I’m still on an island. At any rate, she was glad he hadn’t sent her to the North Pole.
“Grr…”
Pierce whipped around, catching sight of the tip of a striped tail disappearing behind the pile of material she had collected from the second stimulation. She narrowed her eyes to the area behind the pile; she could make out the shadow and outline of a feline. A tiger, her mind informed her. Tigers are large, striped cats. With the information I have, I can come to the conclusion I am stuck on an island with a tiger.
She took a brief moment to determine the size of the island she was stuck on. The island was small, three acres at most, and it was completely barren as well. There was nothing on the island except for sand, the materials to build a raft and possibly a tiger.
“Grr…”
Okay, so there’s definitely a tiger here as well, Pierce thought.
The tiger slunk out from behind the pile as if to verify her thoughts. The creature had a glossy, tawny pelt and large, velvety paws. Its whiskers and ears kept on twitching and flicking back and forth.
“Nice kitty,” said Pierce.
The tiger made no move to approach her nor did it make a move to back away. Pierce took a step towards the tiger; the tiger took a step back. She stepped to the right; the tiger copied her. She took a few steps backwards; the tiger took a few steps forwards, never allowing the distance between them to change.
“Well, that works for me,” Pierce said.
She looked off to the mainland, which appeared to be pretty close, however, she remembered Rick saying it was half a mile away. She’d have to cross half a mile of water. Maybe I can just swim across, she thought. Pierce had never swum before, but she was sure she could figure it out pretty quickly.
Pierce kicked off her sneakers, noticing the tiger observing her with great interest. She began to make her way to the water, the tiger following behind. As she got closer to the waves, the tiger began to close the space between them. Pierce stopped in her steps.
“Hey, I thought we had a deal worked out,” she said to the tiger. “You’ll leave me alone if I don’t bother you.”
The tiger flattened its ears against its skull. Pierce stuck a toe in the water to test the temperature. She saw the shadow before the tiger pounced on her, throwing her away from the water. Sand poured into Pierce’s clothes.
The tiger had returned to its original distance away from Pierce by the time she got back on her feet. Is the tiger supposed to keep me away from the ocean? she thought. She decided to test out this theory and approached the surf once more.
Pierce hardly got within a foot to edge of the water when the tiger drove her away from the ocean. So swimming to shore wasn’t an option. Pierce’s eyes drifted back to the pile of branches, vines, fruits and rocks lying in the middle of the island. She had absolutely no idea on how to build a raft. She’d better start working before her hour was up.
Pierce laid out of the sticks side by side until the formed a five-by-five square. Then she used the vines to bind the branches together; the work was slow and tedious. She stopped halfway to survey her work. The floatability of the raft was questionable; she would be lucky if the raft didn’t break apart halfway to mainland. The vines were too thick to knot securely and Pierce wasn’t even sure if she had enough vines to lash the rest of the raft together.
