Surviving the Islands

[LeighaMoscove]

OOC

Srenal rolled over and frowned, since when did her bed get so hard? Why where there lumps in it? Slowly, her eyes peaked open before she jumped up to her feet. This was not her bed, and she was not in her room. In truth, she wasn't aware of where she was. The ground around her was wet, and everywhere she looked was trees. Closing her eyes, she let her thoughts fill her mind as she tried to determine the best course of action. The first thought that struck her was to find civilization, but she wasn't aware of how far from it she was. It was certain that she'd die if she didn't have a means of sustaining herself until she found th nearest town. Another question struck her, why was she even here? It really wasn't important though, all that mattered was surviving until she could find a way out, and then she could hurt whoever brought her here. Two things struck her as most important; water and food. Water first, because she knew that she'd die of thirst before hunger if she didn't find running water. Television had taught her that much, and she heard that running water would be clean, but she wasn't sure if that was true. There was nothing else to do but check.

Before heading in a random direction, she looked both ways to determine how she'd be sure she wouldn't get lost, or how she'd find running water. Was there even running water here? It was just a hope based on the fact that there were trees and the ground was wet. There had to be a source of clean water someone to water these trees. She patted her pockets and smirked, of course she had her pocket knife. That was always on her, and she supposed that she should consider herself lucky. It was easier to improvise with at least some weapon.

She pulled it out before drawing an arrow on a radon tree to show which way she went. If this wasn't the right way, then she could follow the arrows backwards to get back to where she started. Perhaps she should choose a less permanent was to determine where she was later, because having arrows on all the trees would only serve to confuse her. Water first. She took off in the direction of her arrow in hopes of water, and stopped every once in a while to draw another arrow. It was her only way of determining that she wasn't running in circles, and that would probably be the only way to know she wasn't completely lost. Srenal paid close attention on the sounds she heard, to see if she could hear any signs of life other than herself, or a river.

---

Groggy eyes opened slowly, before she looked around. Instantly, she screamed, "Not funny guys! Bring me home this instant!" Her male friends used to always play pranks of this sort on her. They'd drag her somewhere, and leave her while they watched her break down, but she refused to break down. There was no way that she would give them the satisfaction of knowing that she had cried over a small little prank like this! After waiting a bit in silence, she looked around more worried, "Guys?" They wouldn't keep her here if she knew the prank. They saw no fun in that. "GUYS!"

Tears filled her eyes as she whined, "Not funny! I want to go home!" No matter how grown up she was, she was still a child inside. Perhaps it was the fact that she liked to follow the rules, so being out in a forest where there were no rules bothered her. "I don't wanna die! Someone take me home! There's probably bears out here and they're gonna eat me!" There was no use calming her down now. She thoroughly believed that she'd die and nothing would change her mind unless someone could come up and prove otherwise.

Sniffling, she stood up and whispered, "If you won't help me, then I'll find my way out on my own. There has to be a way out, and I'll get there eventually." With that thought in mind, she began walking, crying all the way. Her only thought was that she didn't want to stay here and longer, and that she would probably die. They weren't exactly rational thoughts, but there was nothing here to think otherwise, and apparently he so-called-friends were laughing to much to help her out. For all she knew, they weren't even around.

[HiddenBeauty13]

The sounds of screaming filled the boy's ears and jolted him awake, a concerned frown on his face. "Ciera? Is that you?" He asked, thinking that it was his little sister of five years. She often had nightmares and would wake up screaming during the night so he'd gotten used to sleeping light and waking up whenever he heard her. Much to his surprise, Oruin found that he was no longer in his bedroom but in what looked to be a jungle or tropical type of enviornment. "Now how the hell did I get here?" He asked himself out loud. He couldn't remember anything but his name, age and the fact that he was here. Everything else grabbed at the corners of his mind but would never reveal themselves.

Sighing to himself, the boy stood and then jumped as there was another scream. It sounded human, at least, and he decided to go towards the noise, even if it did sound a bit crazied. "Hello?!" He called out and turned in a little circle to see of his call had been heard. With a pout, he realized that it didn't and he contuined forward in the direction he assumed the person to be in. Eventually, he heard another human like noise but, instead of screaming, it was sniffling, like he or she definately needed a tissue. "Hey. Is somebody there?" Oruin called out again as he slowly moved the branches out the way, revealing the form of another...girl. "Hey. You. Girl." He said to her, trying to get her attention. "Do you know where we are?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aoi sat up quickly, a terrible nightmare startling her out of her sleep. "Ma!" She called out, not yet realizing that she definately wa snot back at home in her cozy twin size bed. "Mommy?" When she finally got a good look at her new surroundings, Aoi's heart nearly stopped in her chest. As far as she knew, she was in the middle of some jungle who's nane was unknown to her.

Okay....stay calm...There's nothing to worry about... she tried to reassure herself as she stood up, brushing off the little peices of dirt that clung to her pants. Something hissed near her and she nearly jumped out her skin. Nothing but snakes and other killer animals to watch out for now... The girl quickly moved away, running through a clumpf of nerby trees. What Aoi didn't know is that the trees abruptly let out to a cliff, one that she ran right over. Her screams bounced off the walls and her eyes watered. This is how it ends...This is how she would die--

Suddenly, her body hit a deep pool of water with a loud splash, nearly knocking the girl unconcious. The pool was endlessly supplied by a waterfall overhead and deposited by the mini river that was currently pulling Aoi downstream, her face up instead of down where she couldn't get air.

[LeighaMoscove]

Hearing running water, Srenal was slightly relieved as she continued forward. Her mind was going through where she could possibly be, and why she was here. So many questions ran through her mind, but all she could come up with was that she was Srenal at the moment, she was stuck in a jungle, and she had no idea how she got here. It wasn't like it bothered her as much as it should. She wasn't particularly fond of home anyways. As far as Srenal thought, anywhere was better than home, even in the middle of this strange jungle where she's never been before. It probably helped that she had wanted to run away and live in the middle of the forest, perhaps a log cabin, anyways. Unfortunately, there was no log cabin to speak of here, and she was completely lost. At least she knew how to get back where she started.

The trees thinned into a clearing revealing the desired river, a waterfall, and something that had just fell into the river with a splash. What had scared her was the fact that it looked human, and it wasn't coming back up. Maybe the person knew where a nearby town was, and could lead her there? That would always be a good thing, but what was more important was saving the human before it drowned. It was odd. If a person lived around here, then shouldn't it know how to swim? Unless it lived in a city nearby and had gotten lost. Why did it jump over the cliff though? All of these thoughts ran through her mind in the few moments it took her to jump in the river, but once she hit the water all those thoughts left her mind as she fought for not only her own survival, but the survival of this random person.

Grabbing a hold of the person, she fought her way back towards the river's banks and hauled the person back up before getting up herself. Srenal was silently glad that it wasn't cold out here, and she rolled the person, a girl, on her back and attempted to check her for a pulse, which she failed miserably at since she was no medical professional that had any kind of experience at preforming such a task. There was no way to tell if the girl was alive or not unless she got up, which was a pain.

A quick glance around her caused Srenal to notice that se was now efficiently lost, the river had pulled them both some ways down stream, and there was no way to return back to where she had woken up, which was a shame. There was still a chance that this girl could lead her, though, and that was a good thing, as long as the girl was still alive. This gave her time to ponder more about the oddness of it. Even if she had gotten lost, why would she be running so recklessly? Assuming that she did run and there wasn't some other excuse for her falling into the river. Perhaps she jumped in? Was that what locals did for fun here? If that was the case, then it was possible that the girl hit her head.

---

The crying girl looked up when she heard someone calling in her direction. She didn't recognize the voice, but maybe it was that new neighbor boy that she saw move in a few weeks ago. Maybe the others had convinced him that it was fun to pick on her and see her cry. That's what happened with the other new neighbor. No one liked her very much, they always thought that she cried to much. Of course, her thoughts became confused when he asked her where they were. If he had helped drag her out here, then he should know where they were. Unless he had been brought in to the same prank that she was. No, they only played the mean pranks on her, so that meant he had brought her here.

"You should know where we are. You're the one who dragged me out here you big meanie!" Accusing someone she just met of bringing her out here seemed like a good plan to her. For all she knew, she could be right.

Sarah quickly wiped her eyes and nose before she stopped sniffing. It was no use letting this guy see that he had upset her in his prank. That would only reinforce the fact that making her cry was fun and she was a big baby. That was always their reason for doing this to her, and no doubt he'd do it again when they got home just for kicks. Her family probably wouldn't be out here to help her. No guys probably convinced her mom that she was playing with them, which she probably was in their mind. Her mom always believed it and refused to think that anyone would be mean to her precious little angel. The guys were after all just perfect children that wouldn't hurt a fly, except that dog she saw them kicking last week. Maybe that's why they dragged her out here. Because she told her mom about the poor puppy.

"This isn't funny! Bring me home now!" She glared at the boy, only to realize that he wasn't the neighbor. Maybe the neighbor had a friend that he had help him out in this scheme? It wasn't like the new kid wouldn't have any friends, was it?

[HiddenBeauty13]

Aoi regained conciousness minutes later, coughing up water as she did so. When she opened her eys and got acustomed to her new surroundings, she realized two things: one, she wasn't in the water anymore and, two, she had a few split ends in her hair....Wait, that wasn't important. Shaking her head, she coughed again and looked at the river. The current was way too strong for her to get to shore on her own, unless she had help.... The girl perked up slightly at the thought. Could there be someone else here besides herself?

"Hello?" Aoi called and continued to look in the opposite direction in which her saviour was in. She called out into the jungle a few more times before frowning. Well, maybe she unconciously pulled herself out of the river or something. With a disappointed sigh, she stood to her feet and steadied herself by leaning against a tree. It was only then that she realized that there was a girl sitting right behind her, who was probably the one that had saved her life. "Oh...hi. I didn't see ya there." Aoi said with a sheepish grin. "Are you the one that pulled me out that river?" She asked, gesturing to the rushing body of water. "If so, I thank you...also, do you happen to know where the heck we are?" The girl asked another question, barely leaving the other female time to talk. "Because I have no idea what this place is."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oruin looked at the girl with a confused expression. What the heck was she talking about? She was talking to him like she knew who he was, when, im fact, he'd never seen her before in his entire life. "Look, I don't know who you are, but let's just take a deep breath and calm down. I can promise you two things, okay?: I don't know where you live and I definately didn't drag you out here." Even if he did do it, why in the world would he stay? Some things just weren't thought out by some people.

"Judging by your reaction, you don't know where we are either..." he muttered more to himself than to her and then began to pace back and forth, accessing the situation fully. All he knew at this point was that he was trapped in some jungle place with an overemotional girl, who would need some water and food eventually. "Hey, do you want to help me find a river or something? Then I can catch us some fish." Summer camp in the wilderness for three years straight would pay off. "I'm sure you're hungry, right?"

[LeighaMoscove]

Srenal could not mask the disappointment that crossed her face when the girl mentioned that she wasn't sure where they were. It seemed to be helpless, but she couldn't give up hope that easily. Thinking for a few moments, Srenal thought what the best course of action should be. Of course, the original plan had been to find shelter, food, and water and set that area up as a home base while she tried to find a way out of the forest. Would that still work with this girl? How could she take care of a girl that ran around so recklessly just moments before? That didn't matter though, because it appeared that they were now stuck together whether they liked it or not. If the girl became too much of a pain, than Srenal could always lose her. That wouldn't be fair, but the way of the wilderness was survival of the fittest, so this girl should be able to take care of herself if she wanted to survive, just like Srenal had to.

"I really don't know where we are. I was hoping you would." Srenal said with a sigh. Now the question was what should she do? Should she let this random girl in on her plans? Perhaps introductions would be a nice start. "My name is Srenal. What's yours?" When Srenal mentioned her name, she flinched. There was no reminder better than that of why she shouldn't be around this person. Not with her other problems. It would have been easier to deal with the rest if she had someone here? Too many questions ran through her head at once as she tried to sort this out. The biggest one was what would happen to the girl if another personality took over. Of course, Niser was kind enough, but Rxnion was... That was not what Srenal wanted to think about at the moment. It would be best to think about food. There was no way that Srenal could catch food unless she found a place to practice hunting. After all, Srenal had never experienced this before, so she was going off of what she's heard.

---

When the boy said he didn't drag her out here, Sarah looked confused. Why was he here if he wasn't the one that brought her out here? "You promise that you didn't do it?" If this boy was serious, then that meant she was in some real trouble. Trouble that crying and yelling wouldn't take care of, which meant that she had to get serious about things. The thought of being anywhere other than home where things were organized, there were rules, and things made sense was a disturbing one, but she had to manage through this. That was the only hope for her, so she would manage through this. Trying to look serious, and failing at it, Sarah stood and dusted herself off.

A smile spread across her face at the thought of food. "Fish sounds good! Let's go find a river!" She was about to start heading off, but stopped and thought for a moment before looking at the boy, "What if we go off in one direction and we end up going away from the river? What if we get lost? What if a bear or something comes out to attack us!?! So many things can go wrong and we might get hurt!" Sarah continued to look try to look serious when she decided, "We must have a plan before we go walking around. If we don't then we will get hurt." She had no experience with his other than the pranks the kids would play on her, but she didn't want this boy to be the only one contributing.