As I opened my heavy eyes, the hardwood shakes below me. I abruptly shoot to my feet as my friend rolls to his back and groans.

“Rudy,” I whisper. “Wake up.” nudging him a few times with my foot, eventually giving up and walking to the door in the poorly lit room.

As I reach my hand out, the room shakes again.

Another groan comes from Rudy. “Cora, please stabilize the boat.” He slaps a hand over his eyes, “Or have Captain Cass do it.”

“Captain Cassian should be out there already.” I finally open the door, a bright light beaming into the room. A strong scent of fish

and salt hits my nose and I frown. Red tide is usually the worst closest to the shore, and it’s been bad recently.

I step outside the small room onto the boat floor, taking a look around our boat. “Captain Cassian?” I say. Silence.

As I walk around the boat, leaning on the edge, I look out. Our boat crashed into the shore, with our captain missing completely. I

look down at the white sand, dead fish lined upon it. A shadow forms behind me and I turn my head.

“Cap’s gone?”

I stiffen at the thought, “No, he can’t be. He might just be on the island.”

Rudy crosses his arms, his dark brown hair pointing in all directions. “He always wait for us to wake up.” He frowns down at me.

“Well, we need to go find him if he’s alone out there.” I shoot at him.

He looks at the island. “Cap didn’t anchor us, let’s get that done first.”

A few minutes later, I’ve changed my clothing and Rudy’s helping me off the boat. He ties the anchor, testing it to make sure it stays

in place. I walk to the front side of our boat, crossing my arms. “There’s a giant hole in the front.” Rudy steps up next to me, now crossing

his arms. “Rudy, we need to find him. We cant fix this on our own.”

He glares at me, “Well I can try.”

My head snaps towards him, “No. You couldn’t fix a paddle even if you wanted to.”

“I could.” Rudy chuckles at me. “It might take me a few days, but I got it."

I turn, walking towards the woods not far behind us. “Lets go, we need to find him.”

My body is pulled to a hault as I feel a tug from the lower back of my button up. “Hold on, missy. We need some supplies first.” Rudy shakes

his head at me. “You can’t go out there with nothing to fight off animals or to stay warm.”

I turn to him, “Right, right.” With that, I rush back to the boat, gathering food, clothing, weapons and light fixtures. I stuff them into a bag,

looking out the door.

I stand, walking to look over the ledge of the boat again. “Catch my stuff!” I yell, then throwing my bag over the edge, hoping for Rudy to

catch it. Then I jump, hoping he’s ready for me this time. I land in his arms, hearing a grunt under me, then I look at him, patting his chest as he

holds me. “Thanks, pal.”

“Whatever you need, princess.” He rolls his eyes, dropping me to my feet.

“Princess? Don’t call me that.” I spit back as he chuckles at me. “Let’s just go.”

As we begin our tread through the thick of the woods, everything is much more peaceful than on the water. And much less shakey. For

how long I’ve been travelling on the water, you’d think I’d be much more used to sea sickness, yet here we are. It’s always when we first leave

the dock, that’s when I get the most sick. But, Rudy’s always there for me.

We’ve been close friends since we were born. Our fathers always were on the same boat together, so we ended up picking up the same

hobby. Our mothers were never close, though. They despised eachother as we grew up. So we gained help from our fathers by working on the

dock just to see eachother. It’s always been that way. Our mothers would always get mad at our fathers until one day, my father stopped working

at the dock and they moved. That was when I was 13 and he was 16.

Eventually, I ran away from our new home when I turned 17 and went straight to the dock where I found Rudy and his father, they took me in

and a few years later, his mother passed away. Following that, his father ran, more so rowed away, leaving Rudy and I to the dock. So as of four

years ago, we took over and ran the dock by ourselves.

An arm shoots out in front of my chest, stopping me from walking. I look down to see Rudy’s arm and a giant valley. “Snap out of whatever

shit you’re overthinking, or you’ll get yourself killed.” Rudy warns.

I look down, then at him, taking a step back and his arm leaves my chest. As I begin walking the other way, I look straight forward, focused.

“Seriously, what’s going on with you?” He asks me, hurrying to stand at my side.

I continue to walk, ignoring him. Because at the end of the day, those years we didn’t get to see eachother don’t matter anymore. Yet, I still

want to know the anger between our mothers. I also wonder what my parents are like now. Do they think of me? Worry about me? One day I may

go back. It just may be a long time until that happens.

He grabs my arm once more, pulling me into a hug. This doesn’t happen often, so it catches me by surprise. I stiffen, my shoulders tightening

in his embrace. “Talk to me, Cora. I know when something’s wrong with you, you go silent, unable to communicate.” He rocks us back and forth.

“You zone out, almost as if someone has glued your mouth closed. I know you, Cora. So please, talk to me.”

“Nothing’s wrong. Just give it up now before you hurt yourself.” The corner of my mouth lifts up as I look into his deep blue eyes, dark and

mysterious, like the ocean.

Rudy chuckles as my shoulders fall, then he finally lets go. As he nods his head towards deeper into the trees, a loud crackle is heard from

above us. We both look up, seeing a dark cloud forming.

“We need to find somewhere to shelter. Otherwise we’ll be drenched.” I look around, spotting a small opening under a hill of rocks. I point at it,

“There, perfect for now.”

He follows me to the rocks pushing some vines out of the way. Rudy then takes the bag from my shoulder, setting it on the ground. He then lays

a cloth big enough for the both of us down, flattening it.

I step outside of the cramped cave with a hatchet in hand. I swing the hatchet at two small trees next to the cap, cutting them down and pulling

them closer to the camp. I line them up side by side, making them even lengths, then cut off all branches on it, throwing them to the side. Next, I dig

two holes in the ground, around six feet from the cave entrance and six feet from eachother. Then I stick the tree’s into the ground, filling the holes

in around to keep them secure.

Final step, I use the excess sticks to create a roof on the trees, then use vines and leaves to cover the roof. “Done, a perfect hut for a fire.”

Rudy steps outside of the cave, “Better hope we’re in the middle of the island, or close to cap.” As he finishes his sentence, rain comes pouring

down on us. Rudy quickly grabs the hatchet, then runs to a small tree that’s already fallen, he draws back the small axe and lands it on the trunk, then

repeats the motion several times as I watch.

“Going to stand there and stare at me? Or are you going to help carry these back?” I fix my stare, quickly running to him and picking up a few logs.

I place the logs down and run back, grabbing more as he holds twice as much as me. “Sorry.” I place the logs in a TP formation, throwing smaller

sticks underneath.

He drops the logs beside me, “You’re doing it wrong, that never works.” He squats, taking the logs away and placing them into a log cabin formation

instead. “This is the way that always works.” He then pulls out a lighter from the bag, lighting the kindling underneath.

Before we know it, the fire has started. Grey smoke rolls under the roof, spillout out the sides of the makeshift hut. “Are the logs too wet?” I ask.

“It only rained for a few minutes so they should be fine.” He gives me a coy smile. “Did you grab any fish from the boat?”

I nod, standing out of a squat and walking into the small cave again, then emerging from it with the bag I brought. I pull another small bag from it,

then laying out another cloth to dump two raw fish onto.

Rory glances at me as I sit across from him. “Cora, you really thought one fish was going to fill me up?” He chuckles, “That’s cute.”

“Hush, you big baby, if you want more, go find some.” A flame pops up from the cracks of the logs, and a smile covers my face. I feel a stare burning

into my side, as I look up, Rudy is looking at me, a smirk on his own face. “What?”

“Nothing,” He shakes his head. "Give me the fish, I’ll cook them.”

I nod, sliding the cloth around the fire. He picks one up by the tail, pulling a small knife from his belt. He then makes a small cut down the back of the

fish, pulling the spine from it. I cover my mouth, making a gagging sound. Rudy throws a small bone at me, I laugh while rolling my eyes, “Disgusting.”

“Who’s the big baby now?” He chuckles at me.

As I glare at him, I notice his dark auburn hair clinging to his forehead. His eyes sparkle at me and his tongue peeks from his mouth, wetting his bottom

lip. I close my eyes and shake my head, feeling his eyes still burning a hole into my side. Standing, I take the fish and stab it onto a stick, then holding it

over the fire.

“What? Afraid to look at me, Cora?” His words linger in the air, “Or is there something else I should know?"