As I walked through the forest I noticed many things. The plants and trees were not dead, but they seemed to be diseased, as if some sort of blight was attacking the island. I heard animal grunts and growls as I traveled, so I knew that the island wasn’t entirely inhospitable. I even saw some wolf-like creature as it bounded through the forest. It was a horrible sight to see. Unfortunately, the blight had effected it as well. Its mouth was foaming and it was so skinny, I could see all of its ribs. I was afraid it was going to attack me, but in its haste, the creature must’ve missed me.
            I wanted to find a place to camp, but I couldn’t find a place that would be good enough. I was very tired, and I knew that I was going to have to sleep anyways.
            I had almost crashed on the ground right then and there when I heard people. My eyes shot open. I looked around and yelled out.
            “Hello?” I called out. The voices ceased for a time just long enough to become uncomfortable. Just when I thought they were gone, I heard yelling and screaming, and the sounds were coming directly towards me. I saw a bunch of figures moving towards me in the distance. Finally, when they got closer, I could see what they looked like.
            Some had dark skin and some had light, but all had paint all over their bodies. They were all men, and none had shirts on, just a small loincloth. They all had spears or makeshift knifes.
            It didn’t take long for me to realize that they probably wanted to eat me more that saving me.
            With a new burst of adrenaline, I started running in the opposite direction at full speed, forgetting my exhaustion. They kept following. I knew that I was going to run out of energy soon, and I would need to hide, lest they would catch me. I saw a huge dead bush and figured it would have to do. I covered myself in the foliage and waited for the worst.
            They all ran past, except for one. One man, of dark skin and had war paint on his face, looked around. He saw my tracks that lead directly to the bush…
            He looked right at my eyes just spying over the dead bush.
            I knew I had to act quickly. I jumped out, and he was so surprised he almost fell over. My hands burst into flames. I didn’t intend to kill him, but I would if I had to. He started yelling and screaming, and I knew I had to do something before his buddies came back.
            He obviously didn’t expect it, so it only took my seconds to get him on the ground, with a single kick to the gut too. As he was lying there trying to catch his breath, I used a pressure point I learned on the internet. Seriously, you can learn crazy things there. He made one surprised yelp, and then went to sleep.
            Like, sleep. I didn’t kill the guy, he was only unconscious.
            I ran to my left, hoping that that wasn’t were the crazy men were. Through the foliage, I saw green… Wait… Green? Yes… It was definitely green. I then entered the most beautiful place I had ever been. The trees were tall and healthy, plants were everywhere, and life was flourishing. Except for one part, of course.
            The sides were slowly dying away. My theory was correct. It was a disease spreading through the island. I was watching as the black slowly spread from plant to plant; tree to tree. I knew it needed to be stopped.
            A solution came into my head. If I burned the edges of the healthy side, it would hopefully cease the spread. The blight seemed to be contagious, so if I could cut off the infected side from the healthy side, it should end the spread. And so the laborious work began.

           It took about a half-hour to complete. By the end, I was sweating and panting. I thought the island was bigger, but to my surprise, it was only about one mile by one mile. However small it was, burning the edges was still no small task.
            Thankfully, the spreading of the blight had ceased. Maybe it would be easier to find a place to sleep and eat now.
            Soon, I found a relatively flat area that I spread the blanket on. It was under a tree, so I could have shade in the day and shelter from rain.
            I found a spring nearby, and I immediately put it in the dehydrated meal and heated the food up. Finally, I ate and drank.
            It wasn’t hard to go to sleep after that.
            When I next woke up, it was about midday, and I knew I needed to start making a better camp. If I was going to survive, I’d better do it right.
I had slept very uncomfortably, and I needed some way to make it more comfortable. I brainstormed for ideas. I could make a hammock… But how? I discarded that idea. I don’t know where I could find the tools needed. I then got a better idea. I could find really large leaves and put them under my blanket to use as padding. That was the best I could do at the moment.
Once more, I was off in the forest, this time collecting leaves. I also looked for whatever else I could find. As I wandered, my thoughts wandered as well. Who were the natives? Did they want to eat me? Why was the island blighted? All I had no answers to. Maybe I could make peace with the natives or something.
As I walked, I found multiple resources. There was a mango tree, and another tree that had fruit that I didn’t have the slightest clue of what it was. The fruit was a deep purple with small spikes around the skin. With one of the big leaves that I had, I folded it into a makeshift bag and collected mangoes in it. Surprisingly, it held well. I decided that I would only eat the other strange fruit, that I now called Spikeberries, as a last resort because they may be poisonous.
I heard the birds beautiful melodies. I was glad to have animals in here that weren’t trying to kill me. I saw a few birds flying around; most of them I had no clue as to what the heck they were. This island was almost like and alien planet.
Suddenly, as I was picking mangoes, I heard it again. The chanting, far off. I knew it was the natives. I knew that if I didn’t take care of them some way or another, I would be taken advantage of. Or rather, they would take advantage of my exposed neck while I was asleep.
I had three choices: try to make peace and hope for the best, attempt to kill them and hope for the best, or do nothing… And hope for the best.
If I could make peace… it could probably make all of our lives easier.
If I killed them… I could remove a potential enemy, or a potential ally.
If I hoped for the best… I didn’t like that one.
So peace it was.
I started off to where I heard the chanting the loudest. I snuck up as quietly as I could; I would not risk them hearing me if they believed me unwelcome.
I started hearing voices. After a few minutes of walking, I saw their camp. There were about 50 of the natives, all men, all with war paint, all looking like they wanted to gut the guy standing next to them. They were sitting around a campfire with one man in the middle. They were obviously paying attention to the middle one. When you think of this guy, you think of an Aztec war chief, and then you picture him 10 times as creepy, and you have what this guy looks like. Pretty creepy.
He was talking. I ducked into the bushes and listened.
“Settle down. Quiet! Okay, everyone SHUT UP!” War chief dude yelled. Everyone immediately went silent and sat up straighter. Obviously, he didn’t have a lot of patience.
“I’m not sure what you have all heard,” War Chief said. He was frowning the whole time. “But, if you have heard anything, it is true.” There were a couple of mumbles.
“What is true, Kolla-Chee?” one said. I almost laughed out loud at the name. Kolla-Chee?
“The fire one… He is here,” Kolla-Chee said. There was a collective gasp and everyone started talking at once. These guys were waiting for me.
“Yes, it’s him. You know what this means. He must die!” Kolla-Chee yelled. Everyone cheered. Except me. I don’t like dying. In fact, I’m really allergic to death.
“Kolla-Chee!” One among the crowd yelled.
“What, Tokan?” Kolla-Chee said, obviously exasperated for the delay to come to kill me.
“He… didn’t he purge the Opan?” Tokan asked. I realized that the Opan was what they must’ve called the blight. “Why are we to kill him when he has helped us? The ‘Great One’ as you all call it, gave us the blight. He blackmailed us! We were given the task to kill the fire, ice, and storm one, and then he would purge the blight. Isn’t something there a little strange?”
“How… DARE YOU!” Kolla-Chee yelled. “The Great One will do whatever he wishes! Perhaps he was testing us! I will never have you talk about the Great one like that again!”
Tokan hung his head. “Yes sir,” he mumbled.
I knew I had to get out of there. I started to stand up, and of course, I stepped on a twig. Everyone looked my way. That’s it. Plan B. Hopefully I could take on 50 insane islanders.
To be continued….