Discovery
He awoke in the morning to the pleasant sensation of something warm and soft pressed up against his body. He lay there for a few minutes half asleep, basking in the feeling. It was so calming and delightful that he didn't want to open his eyes for fear that it was just a part of his dreams and it would vanish once the waking world took over.
Then it moved, pulling him out of his slumber. Lance opened his eyes and stared up for a minute at the unfamiliar plain white ceiling above him, sleepiness still blurring his vision. For a moment he didn't know where he was, then he remembered what had happened.
He glanced down, and suddenly froze up with shock. His little sister Cammy lay half on top of him, her head on his chest and her hand clutching his shoulder. She wore a peaceful smile on her face. The pleasant sensation he had felt was her body pressed up against his. Now that he knew what it was, he was unsure of how to react. Should he wake her and take the chance of embarrassing her? Should he pretend to be asleep and hope that she rolled off him on her own?
He glanced over and saw Autumn staring at them, her eyes wide and face growing red. That did it; there was no way to pretend to be asleep. He nudge Cammy gently. She yawned and opened her eyes, glancing around. Upon seeing where she was, she immediately rolled over off of him, laughing.
"Oops," she said. "I slept between you two to make sure nothing happened in the night. I guess it wasn't Autumn I should have been worrying about, but myself."
Lance smiled. It was good that she could joke about it. That meant it hadn't bothered her as much as it could have, to wake up sleeping naked on top of her brother. The thought should have disgusted him, but for some reason it didn't. Her body had felt far too nice, in fact.
He was about to sit up, but Cammy suddenly crawled over half on top of him, then leaned down and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, catching him off his guard. "Thanks anyway," she smiled, then rolled over off of him again, leaving him shocked and confused. She probably hadn't meant anything by it, but it had felt so damn good! Sexy even. His own little sister was turning him on.
He shouldn't be having those thoughts, especially about his sister. Instead, he sat up and crawled out of the tent into the cool morning air.
It was a little chilly for not wearing any clothes, but he just couldn't bring himself to put the shorts on. As long as the girls were willing to run around naked, he wasn't going to do anything to stop them. He decided that that thought, at least, was harmless. Sure they had nice bodies, and he liked to look at them, but that didn't mean he was planning on doing anything. As long as he kept his fantasies to himself, there was no harm done.
The girls followed him out of the tent, huddling together for warmth. Lance tried not to stare as they momentarily brushed up against each other, their breasts touching. Neither of them made a big deal out of it, so he didn't either. But he kept an eye out to see if anything similar happened again.
Actually, he was glad for the cold. Between feeling Cammy's body, that kiss, and now seeing the incidental contact between the girls, only the chill kept him from growing erect.
The day would heat up soon enough, especially here on the sand. In fact, he was eager to get started with the morning's activities before it grew too hot.
He built a fire and they cooked some breadfruit. With some coconut to go with it, they at least kept their bellies full. But such a meager diet wouldn't support them for long. The animal trail that they had spotted yesterday indicated a potential source of meat, and he wanted to determine its identity so that they could plan their future menu. He also wanted to have a look around their new home.
He set aside some of the cooked breadfruit for later; he would need something to munch on during his excursion into the interior of the island. His headache remained, and although it had diminished to a mere background annoyance and he had no problem pushing it mostly out of conscious thought, he decided against venturing out to the yacht again for the time being. It would not do to black out when diving and leaving the two girls to fend completely for themselves.
"Today I'm going to explore the island," Lance announced. "I'm going to see if I can make it to the top of that hill. I'll be able to get a better idea of the size of the island, and hopefully spot signs of civilization."
"Can we come too?" asked Cammy.
"I wish you could," he told them. "But that hill looks kind of steep. I'm a pretty good mountain climber, so it doesn't bother me, but until you've had some practice, I don't think you should attempt it. Besides, I'm going to be traipsing through the jungle, and I only made one pair of moccasins. You'd better stay here."
"You get all the fun," Cammy teased him.
"Well, if you're looking for fun, you could always start work on a hut. That tent will work fine for now, but if we're going to be here a while, we'll be glad for something more permanent."
"But we don't know how to make a hut."
"It's just like we started doing earlier. Lash the sticks together with dry grass, and weave more dry grass in with the sticks to seal it up. Look for some bigger sticks though; the larger you make it, the more room we'll have inside."
"Okay, fine," Cammy agreed. "You go off adventuring and leave the women folk to do the housekeeping. Or the homemaking, I should say. In this case, it's literal." She kept a grin on her face as she said it, so he knew she wasn't actually angry.
After breakfast, Lance slipped on the shorts and moccasins, covered himself with sunscreen, filled the canteen with water from the lagoon, grabbed the machete, and headed off into the forest. He first climbed the hill overlooking the clearing, and waved down at the girls from the top of the waterfall. The stream headed more or less straight for the hill, so he decided to follow it. It would keep him from getting lost.
The undergrowth wasn't particularly thick; an island this size couldn't support a truly dense jungle. There were only a few places where he had to hack his way through the bushes. He made sure to keep looking back to reorient himself. There wasn't much danger of getting lost; in a worst-case scenario he could just head to the beach in any direction and follow the circumference of the island back to the camp. Still, he preferred to keep the most direct route in mind.
The ground was far from flat. There were numerous rises and gullies, and several times he had to travel a good distance out of his way to avoid having to climb steep slopes where the stream cascaded over abrupt cliff faces. Overall, the ground sloped upward toward the hill.
The temperature climbed as the day wore on, and Lance found himself sweating profusely. He was glad he had chosen to follow the stream; several times he refilled his canteen during the journey, drinking what seemed like gallons of water as he traveled.
Twice he came across animal paths, both roughly the same size as the one down by the camp. The animals that made the paths, though, remained elusive, and for good reason, considering that Lance intended to cook and eat them. He wasn't a cruel person, but survival dictated that he had to eventually find a source of meat. Coconuts and breadfruit couldn't sustain them forever.
There was always fish, of course. But he didn't have the equipment to make a proper net. That meant spearfishing, which he had never tried before and was therefore probably no good at, or a stick and a string, which would mean sitting out for long periods of time for each catch. He might try it sometimes just for variety, but he preferred land animals, that he could build a trap to catch.
He had no way to measure the time but by the progress of the sun across the sky. An hour went by, then two. On even ground without the forest in the way, Lance figured he could have reached at least the base of the hill within an hour; the island wasn't that big after all. However, he hadn't really expected to reach it until noon.
Despite his predicament, he really did enjoy the jungle. A thousand colors surrounded him, with many different shades of green dotted with brightly colored tropical flowers. He could spend all day staring at the amazing patterns of leaves, grass, and tree trunks. Each flower was an intricate masterpiece, a work of art with wondrous detail. Each tree had its own peculiar shape formed partly by its kind and partly by its long and mysterious history.
He wondered how the girls were doing. Cammy had faced their predicament with her usual never-ending cheerfulness, and Autumn had at least not complained once. He wasn't particularly concerned with them making progress on the hut; it was more important that they keep up their spirits. But was that cheerful acceptance of their fate just an act? Was Cammy putting on a good face so that he wouldn't worry about her? Maybe they were back at camp confessing their fears to each other right now.
No, he couldn't believe that. If they had any fault, it was in not taking their situation seriously enough. That was Lance's doing of course; he had tried to make it sound like they should treat this adventure as just another part of their vacation while they waited for the inevitable rescue. He knew the truth though; after the first twenty-four hours, rescue was anything but inevitable. It meant their emergency beacon had probably failed, and nobody knew they were missing. Eventually they would have to face the reality that they were likely here for a long time. Months at least. But until that became more obvious, he was happy to let them have their fun.
He remembered watching them splashing and playing in the lagoon, and how it had excited him to see their young, nubile bodies. That was another reason why he wanted to make this journey alone. He needed to sort out his thoughts. It was too easy for him to let his passions get out of control when he had a couple of gorgeous, naked girls around him. Knowing how Autumn felt about him added a further complication. Supposing he gave in to his passions, how far would she be willing to take things?
Those were dangerous thoughts. He couldn't afford to surrender to his instincts like that because he could end up doing something they would both regret. Here on an island thousands of miles from civilization, he had to be the source of his own civilization. The better question was, just what should his relationship with Autumn be?
He was no fool; despite the difference in their ages, a man and a woman trapped together on a deserted island were bound to form some kind of relationship, and her feelings for him were going to help define it. Even with Cammy there, he wasn't sure that Lance and Autumn could maintain a platonic friendship without it developing into something deeper.
Then he laughed aloud as he realized just how absurd that was. They had already spent two months together aboard a tiny boat, and nothing had come of it. In fact, that was an understatement. Autumn and Lance weren't even friends; he still hardly knew her. Why should he expect that things would change now that they were on an island instead of a boat?
He was obviously thinking with the wrong head. It was the sight of the girls' nude bodies that had done it. The only thing that had really changed was that they were now running around naked. So what? In time he would get used to it, and it would no longer arouse him as it did now. Then things would be just like they were back aboard the Siren's Song.
With that in mind, he could afford to let himself enjoy seeing the girls without their clothes on. There was nothing wrong with appreciating such beauty.
The sun was high overhead when he reached the base of the hill. He had been slowly ascending ever since leaving camp, but now he faced a rather steep slope. It wouldn't be a difficult climb; nothing compared to Everest of course. If he used the switchback method, he could still mostly just hike to the top.
The stream had thinned as he traveled until now it was little more than a trickle down the side of the hill. No doubt it would vanish completely before he had climbed very far. In fact, in places it disappeared beneath a covering of moss and foliage, and he could only tell its presence by its sound and the shimmering where sunlit running water peeked out through holes in the growth. He would have to make sure he filled his canteen before beginning the ascent.
Before starting up, he took time to cut open a coconut that he found on the ground. He drank as much of the juice as didn't spill when he cut it open, then ate his fill of the meat. He didn't have too much because he didn't want to risk cramps as he climbed the hill. The slope was too shallow to cause him to fall, but there would be no place to lie out flat until the cramps passed.
After eating and resting for about twenty minutes, he began his ascent. There were no trails to follow, but there wasn't much ground cover either so he was able to rather easily angle his way up, stopping and changing direction every so often. There were two drawbacks to climbing at an angle. First, it multiplied the distance. Second, with the trees in the way to prevent him from keeping focused on landmarks, it was too easy to lose his sense of direction. Still, he figured that once he reached the top he could reorient himself again. The way down would be easier because he could go straight, and as long as he pointed himself roughly in the right direction at the beginning, he could find the stream again at the bottom and follow it back to camp.
He rested frequently; there was no sense overexerting himself when there was no time limit. Besides, the less effort he put into it, the less he would sweat and the less water he would need. He sipped only lightly from the canteen now and then, not wanting to drink it all up and be stuck with nothing left before he reached the summit.
About halfway up the slope, a representative of his future dinner plans hopped out in front of him. He smiled as he saw it, realizing that there was no chance of them starving on this island. He already knew how to snare, skin, and cook a rabbit, having done so on a couple of survival camps in the past.
Toward the top of the hill, the incline shallowed out, so he abandoned his sideways method and scrambled the last fifty feet or so straight to the top. Finally he made it, and he sat down exhausted but victorious. The top of the hill was a rounded dome with a diameter of about twenty feet before it dropped away down the slope. There were a couple of trees growing right at the top, but nothing that could obscure his view. In the east, he could follow the line of the stream with his eyes right to the cliff overlooking the camp. Out beyond the breakers he could see a dark line submerged in the water indicating the reef. Even the hull of the Siren's Song was visible.
The north and south were pretty much the same as the east, with the white line of the beach forming a "C" around the island. In the west, the jungle was quite a bit thicker, and reached all the way to the ocean. He couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like the shore was lined with mangroves on most of the western side.
He searched in vain for buildings, roads, or other signs of human presence, but there was nothing. For all he knew, Lance and the girls were the first people ever to set foot on this island. He marveled at the fact that even in this age of satellites and global positioning technology, of trade routes and detailed topographical maps of the sea floor, in the vastness of the Pacific there could still exist an island that had never been seen before.
He took a few minutes to scan the ocean for any passing ships, but there were none. He also saw no jet trails in the sky. The sight of the empty sea and sky, with the whole of the island laid out in front of his eyes, made him suddenly feel very alone. Other than the girls, there was no one around for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of miles.
That made him want to return to camp as soon as possible. He could do with some company right now, especially someone like the always-cheerful Cammy. Even shy little Autumn would be better than just sitting here at the top of the hill alone with his thoughts.
Now that he had discovered just how isolated they were, there was no point in staying here atop the hill any longer. He began carefully scrambling down the slope in the direction of the camp. He took it slowly and cautiously, knowing that his eagerness to return to the girls might make him go a little faster than he should if he wasn't careful. It wouldn't do to fall and break a leg. If he did, Cammy and Autumn would surely come looking for him and as long as they headed toward the hill they would eventually find him, but there was no point making the journey more difficult than necessary.
At the bottom of the hill he located the stream, so he filled his canteen and began his return journey. This time it went much faster; not only did the sight of familiar landscapes help things, but moving toward the coast meant it was downhill for most of the way. Despite the gloominess he had felt at the top of the hill, the thought of returning to the girls cheered him.
He followed the landmarks back that he had stopped to memorize on his way into the interior of the island, not that there was any chance of getting lost. He had the stream to follow after all. Mostly he just identified them so he could gauge how far he had walked and how much further he had to travel. Soon he found himself in familiar surroundings, and the welcome sight of the hill overlooking the camp.
It was then that he discovered yet another source of food. There was no mistaking the large, glossy leaves of the taro plant, growing from the swampy shallows of the stream. That made sense now that he thought of it; where there was breadfruit, there was bound to be taro, both brought to this part of the Pacific by prehistoric seafarers.
It was almost as important a discovery as the rabbits on the side of the hill. The castaways could mash the roots into poi, giving them a nice base for their diet. He would have to go looking for more taro plants later. Right now, he just wanted to get back to camp and report on his findings.
As he came over the crest of the hill, he glanced down into the lagoon below. He froze when he saw what was going on. Cammy and Autumn stood under the waterfall, facing each other and holding hands. They obviously didn't see him. The two girls leaned in and wrapped their arms around one another. Their heads moved in close, and suddenly they had their lips pressed together.
Lance's heart pounded in his chest, and he watched with both excitement and shock. This was something he had never suspected about the girls, something that took him completely by surprise. He didn't know what to think, or how to react.
As soon as he managed to regain control of himself, he hurriedly stepped back out of view, trembling from the overwhelming realization, his mind a mass of confusion. The sight of the two beautiful young girls, naked and kissing like that, was one of the most erotic things he had ever seen. But he also felt guilty, both because he shouldn't be spying on them like that, and because he shouldn't be feeling that way about his sister.
It really didn't surprise him so much to discover that she was a lesbian; ever since her recovery, she had been enthusiastic about trying new things, as if to try to cram in as many experiences as possible. It was a natural reaction to a confrontation with her own mortality.
More surprising was the realization that Autumn had those tendencies. For one thing, the girl was always so shy and reserved; he couldn't imagine her experimenting with her sexuality in that way. For another, Cammy had already told him that Autumn entertained romantic feelings about him. That meant that even if she liked girls, she apparently liked guys as well.
He had to admit, he felt a certain jealousy. Not a lot, but he had already given some mostly idle thought to the possibility of a relationship with Autumn, and now it looked like that wouldn't be a possibility. In his fantasies he had imagined weeks or months on the island with the ever-decreasing chance of rescue, and the more practical notion of living here forever. It would be only natural for the man and the girl to get together.
Still, it was probably better this way. Lance Lyons had been from one end of the world to the other, so he considered himself rather broad-minded. The idea of two girls in love didn't bother him at all. And should the three castaways ever be rescued, it wouldn't do for him to have fallen in love with a fourteen-year-old girl. He could still have his fantasies, but they would have to remain just that.
He waited a few minutes to let the more obvious physical evidence of his excitement disappear, then began to whistle a cheerful tune, perhaps a bit louder than necessary, as he made his way down the side of the hill toward the camp. He wanted to give the girls plenty of warning; it felt a little inappropriate to walk in on them in the midst of their passion. Cammy might laugh it off, but Autumn would probably pass out from embarrassment.
Part of him hoped the rushing of the waterfall would drown out his whistling, that he would catch the girls red-handed and they would have to bring their feelings out in the open. He fantasized about them giving up any claim on privacy and continuing their escapades right in front of his eyes. But he also knew that it wouldn't be that simple, and more likely their embarrassment would put an end to that relationship.
When he came into view, the girls had separated. Cammy stood waist-deep in the water, and Autumn sat on a rock near the waterfall with her feet dangling in the water. The sight before his eyes reminded him of two mermaids relaxing in a sheltered cove. These mermaids acted as if nothing had happened. They certainly knew how to fake it; if he hadn't just seen them kissing a few minutes earlier, he would never suspect that anything had gone on between them.
"You two sure have a one-track mind," he grinned. The girls stopped and stared at him for a second. Autumn began to turn red.
"What do you mean?" asked Cammy, no doubt trying to sound nonchalant.
"I mean, all you do all day is swim," he replied.
Both girls laughed nervously at that, relaxing.
"I mean it," he continued in a lighthearted tone. "I'm working my butt off and I find you two just goofing around." He wasn't really scolding them; he really didn't mind after all. The sight of the water glistening on their youthful skin and the torrents running down their bodies was plenty of motivation for him to do all the work and let them have their fun.
"Turn around," Cammy told him with a grin.
"What?"
"Just do it," she insisted.
He shrugged, and turned away from them.
"Nope, still there," she said.
"What is?"
"Your butt. So you haven't worked it off yet. You're apparently not doing enough."
"Oh, very funny," he laughed. Autumn burst out into giggles at that.
"Anyway, I think you need a break," Cammy continued. "Why don't you come join us? You know what they say about all work and no play."
"It makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise?"
"No, you're thinking of 'early to bed, and early to rise.'"
"I thought that had something to do with getting the worm."
"Oh, you're impossible!" Cammy growled playfully. "But seriously, don't you think he should come have a swim with us, Autumn?"
Her friend's eyes went wide. "Um... I..." she stammered.
Lance came to her rescue by changing the subject. "Anyway, I have some bad news," he told them. He said it that way to deliberately make it sound worse than it was, so that they would be relieved when he told them the truth.
"What?" asked Cammy seriously.
"I've found a source of meat, but..."
"Come on, just tell us."
"Well, it happens to be cute and fluffy little animals. Rabbits, in particular."
"Oh, that's all?" asked Cammy, a smile on her face. "You had us worried there for a minute. We don't mind, do we, Autumn?"
"But..." said her friend, "you're not going to kill them right in front of us, are you?"
"Tell you what. I'll set the snares away from camp, and I'll skin and clean the rabbits on the spot. The only thing you two will see is something that vaguely looks like it may once have been a rabbit."
"That's fine," Autumn said.
He had a lot to tell them, but he figured it was just as easy to tell them in the lagoon while out of it. Besides, the water really did look nice and refreshing. He wondered if the girls would mind if he took off his shorts. Probably not, so he stripped down and waded out toward the girls. Neither of them mentioned it, to his relief. Autumn, perhaps still just a little afraid of him, kept her distance, but Cammy surprised him by immediately dashing over behind him and jumping on his back. Shocked at her boldness, he let his legs give out, and they both dunked under the water. They came up laughing and sputtering. Lance couldn't believe she had done that, considering that neither of them wore a stitch. Worse still, he couldn't believe just how good her young body felt against his back. She was not particularly heavy, but she was soft in all the right places.
He decided not to let it bother him. Cammy had always been playful, and she probably didn't even realize what she was doing. To her, it was just innocent fun and games.
Lance told them about what he had discovered, that this island was completely isolated. The breadfruit and taro suggested that Lance and the girls weren't the first people to set foot on this island, but whoever had been here before hadn't likely visited for a long time, perhaps centuries. Unfortunately, that meant the island was pretty far off the beaten track. He had no idea how far off course the storm had blown the Siren's Song.
As they frolicked in the water, Lance couldn't get the image of the two girls hugging and kissing out of his mind. Certainly they weren't doing anything now to suggest that they were anything but merely good friends, and for a moment he wondered if he had imagined the whole thing. Perhaps the heat had made him hallucinate, his eyes playing tricks on him. It had looked like something right out of a fantasy painting after all. But no, delusions from heat stroke were usually accompanied by a dozen other symptoms, and he felt just fine. He decided just to put it out of his mind, especially since he was enjoying himself so much swimming and splashing and playing.
After about half an hour in the lagoon, they waded out and lay down on the sand to dry off. After the day's journey, Lance was particularly tired, so he rewarded himself for a job well done with a nice, long nap. Cammy woke him two hours later by shoving a piece of coconut in his mouth. She giggled as he woke and sat up, staring around. After taking a second to get his bearings, he caught her in a headlock and rubbed the top of her head with his knuckles.
He showed the girls the taro plant he had discovered and set them to work looking for others. They discovered quite a few of them around the stream, enough to keep them fed indefinitely. He pulled up a couple of the plants to harvest the roots.
Lance and the girls dined on coconuts, breadfruit, and boiled taro roots that evening, then Lance decided to set out some snares before it got too dark. The girls were curious as to how to set them, so he let them follow him into the jungle.
Setting a rabbit snare wasn't too difficult. All he needed was a piece of string tied in a slipknot and attached to a sturdy stick shoved into the ground, and a few smaller sticks to prop up the loop. If he set them along the rabbit paths they had seen earlier, they didn't even need any bait.
Not being aware of the population density of the rabbits, he didn't know how many snares to set. He started with three, a good average number. Since the snares would catch the rabbits alive, if he caught too many he would release the ones he didn't need. If that happened repeatedly, he would cut back to two snares or even one, but if the snares were empty most days, he would set another two.
After the work was done, they headed out to the beach to watch the stars come out. Cammy asked if it might be all right some time to camp out on the western side of the island where they could see the sunset, but Lance told her that unfortunately it was all mangrove swamps over there. Still, the beauty of the darkening sky over the tranquil sea had its own charm, especially out here away from the lights of civilization. They lay out on the beach until the last traces of sunlight had vanished, watching the moon and the occasional shooting star. They pointed out the constellations they knew, and even made up a few new ones. Before he knew it, Lance found himself nodding off, and he fell asleep without even returning to the camp and the tent.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.