“That’s what this is, Bastian.” Her hand slipped back down to my shoulder, and her eyes closed again.
For the first time in my life, I felt like I was where I was supposed to be and doing what I should be doing. I was complete when we joined, and the reason for my existence was suddenly revealed to me – I was here to save her and to love her.
“I love you,” I said simply and felt her smiling lips press once more against my chest before she fell into sleep.
* * * * *
For the first time in as long as I could remember, I woke up without the remnants of a nightmare in my head.
In the dream I had been having, I was behind the wheel of my schooner and Raine was sitting up ahead of me, leaning against the deck railing with her hair blowing out to one side as we skimmed the waves of the Caribbean Sea. I was smiling, she was beautiful, and when she turned to look back at me, she placed her fingers against her lips for a moment and blew a kiss in my direction. I had a cup of coffee in my hand, and when I took a sip of it, it was just plain, black coffee.
I rolled to one side and pressed my lips to Raine’s cheek before forcing myself to get up. There was a lot I wanted to get done today, and if I lay next to her long enough for her to wake up, I’d want to get my dick back into her. If I did that, the morning would be gone before we even realized it.
The last four days had been incomparable bliss as far as I was concerned. We had located water up the cliff in the form of a small stream – it was barely a trickle out of the rock, really, but more than enough for us to live on indefinitely. The water from the still and the coconuts allowed us not to have to travel to the stream every day, and the water from those sources was also a little fresher than the water coming out of the rock, which had a bit of a sulfur odor to it. Raine would drink it without complaining because frankly she didn’t complain about much of anything, but she always wrinkled her nose. I kept the still going for the couple of cups of water it provided daily, making sure she got it all because I didn’t really give a shit about the smell. Fish and other seafood were plentiful and easy to find and catch here, and the coconuts had at least added a little something else to our meals.
All that survival shit was great, but what mattered the most to me occurred after the sun went down. I had always had an insatiable sexual appetite, but with Raine, I found I was just as satisfied if she curled up next to me when we slept. It wouldn’t have mattered if we had sex beforehand or not because her being there was what I really cared about. I still fucked her every night, but I didn’t feel like I had to. I just wanted to fuck her all the time, so I also fucked her at least once during the day, usually near the edge of the water after her “mandatory” bathing and shaving were complete. I kept telling her I had to do the shaving because she couldn’t handle the knife as well, but that was bullshit. Shaving led to laying her down in the sand and listening to her scream my name when she came. She kept saying we were making love, but I called it fucking because it annoyed her, and the look on her face when I said it made me laugh.
I knew it was lovemaking. I couldn’t have explained why it was different, but it was. Even when I was fucking her hard, it was still making love. It didn’t make any sense when I tried to think about it, but my body knew the difference.
Between sexual escapades on the beach and trips to the water source, I had also started making her a place to live that would be a shitload better than the lean-to shelter we currently used for sleeping. This one would have a floor, which is what I was making first. It was only going to be about twelve feet square, but it would be elevated and keep her out of the wet when it rained. It had taken me the better part of a day just cutting a bunch of stalks all the same length until I had enough and then twisting vine into rope to wrap it all together. Raine watched for a couple hours before she started to get the hang of the ropemaking and eventually weaving, too. She picked up on everything really quickly, and it made me feel proud.
Raine was awake by the time I got back with a little seafood breakfast, hanging out near the edge of the water and washing herself off with seawater and sand. It worked surprisingly well for removing dirt, and Raine said it was a better exfoliation product than some of the stuff Lindsay spent a small fortune on. Of course, she was there without a shirt on, and I couldn’t help myself at that point, shaving included or not. Breakfast was forgotten as I lay her down in the sand and made her mine again while the morning waves rolled over our feet.
“Are we spending another day getting nothing done?” Raine giggled.
“Not today,” I said, reluctantly pulling out of her and dragging us both into the water to rinse off. “I need to find us a little more dietary variety, so I’m hiking today. You wanted to finish your weaving.”
We walked hand in hand up the beach to the shelter. I kissed her forehead before getting ready to head off. I grabbed the plastic bags from the raft and Raine’s swimsuit-turned-net and shoved them in the pockets of my cargo shorts. I reminded Raine to stay the fuck out of the sun because her skin was still really dry. I didn’t care how much she liked to tan; I wasn’t taking a chance on her burning. If I had to warn her again about how dangerous sunburn could be, I was going to lose it. She rolled her eyes at me and claimed she was the wrong skin type to burn that easily, which drove me nuts, but at least she agreed to stay near the shelter. She was working on weaving some mats to sit on and was talking about trying to make plates as well.
“Be back soon?”
“Three hours,” I said. “Maybe more. When I clocked it, the walk across the island west to east was about fifty minutes. I think north to south is closer to an hour and a half, and I’m heading south. I’ll be back before supper, though.”
“There’s plenty of fish,” Raine nodded towards the drying racks I had constructed. The hanging strips of fish had become our primary food source.
“Yeah, that’s why I’m going to look for something else.”
I kissed her once more on her lips, forcing myself away before I became too involved. If I lingered for even a couple extra ones, I’d have her naked on her back again within a few minutes and I’d never get her something better to eat. I didn’t care so much about my own nutrition, but I had to think about what she needed. Even though I had taken her in the sand less than an hour ago, I always seemed to be ready for more.
The jungle south of the cliff was still unexplored, and I was hoping I'd find something else to eat there. She hadn't actually said anything, but I could still tell Raine was as sick of seafood and coconuts as I was. I hadn't mentioned it, but we were also in serious need of some more dietary diversity. There wasn't enough nutrition in what we had been eating. We needed some plant variety, and I was hoping to find that as well. I marched my way into the jungle, turning south and marking my path with notches in the trunks of tre
es I passed.
I lucked out pretty quickly on the first find – sweet almonds. Fat and protein were definite plusses, though these were still under-ripe. In a few weeks they would taste a lot better, but I wasn’t about to wait that long, though, so I collected a couple handfuls. Later, I found a large stand of canna lilies and dug up the root stalks. They could be mashed into meal, combined with water, and boiled to make something kind of like oatmeal that would at least fill up your stomach. There were a ton of them, too. We were going to need the carbs, so I dug up a lot of them before moving a little deeper into the jungle.
“Oh yeah!” I actually yelled out loud, frightening a small group of colorful birds from their perches up above my head. I had to stop myself from performing an actual John Paul-style fist pump. I ran the last few steps and dropped to my knees next to a vine covered in light green, three-pronged leaves that reminded me of spearheads. I ran my hand down the thick, prickly stalk until I found where it went into the ground and immediately started to dig. Within a few minutes of digging in the soft sand, my hands were full of thin, somewhat underdeveloped tubers – tropical sweet potatoes.
The almonds had been a great find as well as the canna lilies – but sweet potatoes would be the thing that saved us from what killed sailors more than any other nutritional problem – scurvy. The sweet potatoes would be full of good old Vitamin C. I was instantly ravenous. Even thinking about eating something other than another fucking fish or mussel was enough to make my stomach growl repeatedly. Glancing around the area, I got a good view of some of the more unique parts of the landscape to make it easier to find again. In addition, I subtly marked the spot where I found them by bending two thin branches of a nearby tree to point towards the little crop of plants. I realized afterwards that I didn’t have to be sneaky about it since there weren’t any opponents to compete against here, but it was habit, so I did it.
I wrapped the sweet potatoes up along with the lilies and almonds and headed back towards the beach. I found myself a little excited to be able to show Raine what I had found. There were still a couple of hours before sunset, so we’d have plenty of time to get the almonds out of the fruit and wash the tubers. I wondered if Raine knew of some clever way to cook any of this stuff. I could heat something over a fire and boil water, but that was just about it. At least she wouldn’t have to eat fish again tonight if she didn’t want to. We could make something that resembled an actual meal because I was fucking starving for something different, and she’d smile and be happy and I’d make love to her on the sand. Within a couple of days, I’d be able to make love to her in our new shelter. Maybe it would even qualify as a house. Whatever it was called, I was going to feed her decent meals and make love to her in it as often as possible.
That’s when I heard her scream.
All thoughts of food and sex disappeared from my head, and instinct took over.
I had just come over the hill hiding the open beach from my view. I heard the scream right as I looked down from the top and saw Raine, arms held behind her back by a deeply tanned man in jeans and a plain white T-shirt. There were three others all gathered around her – laughing, jeering. The one standing in front of her reached out, gripped the hem of her shirt, and pulled it up, exposing her breasts as they all continued to laugh.
“Bastian!” Raine’s scream pierced through my ears, my head, my heart. I didn’t even feel my feet start to move or consciously register the gathered nutrition as it fell from my arms; I was just suddenly flying down the sandy bank, already seeing their blood on my hands.