Here we are! This chapter was a challenge for me to write. I haven't written anything quite like this before. This story has been a really refreshing change of pace overall. I hope you guys enjoy reading this one, and I hope it is able to impress on you how Lana feels throughout the whole event.
Chapter Eight
Everything’s Awful Again
A kind of maniacal laughter rang through Lana’s ears as she came to. She felt soaked through her clothes, and her head was very heavy and dizzy. As she gained her bearings, she looked up to see that Lenzo was the one laughing, to her bewilderment.
He sounded very unhinged. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was also soaking wet. He was gripping a pictograph in his hands tightly, and staring at it as he laughed in an eerily joyful way. Strands of his hair stuck in uneven clumps to his forehead, which only served to make him appear even more unstable.
“Lenzo? What’s... Oh. Oh no.”
Lana finally pulled it together enough to understand their situation. They were laying on a large, flat chunk of wood. Half of it was dipping under the sea’s surface. On Lenzo’s right side sat a satchel. A single oar rested on his left. That was all that remained of
The Sleeping Gull. Nothing else of the ship could be seen.
Lana almost choked from the shock. The lump in her throat wouldn’t allow her to breathe for what felt like a solid minute. She kept rubbing her eyes, expecting this to be a dream or some kind of hallucination. Alas, no matter how hard she tried to deny the reality in front of her, the truth burned forcefully into her eyes. Their ship was wrecked, almost certainly because of the storm that brewed when the ghost ship appeared.
“Oh no... Lenzo, we...” she began.
“Lana!” he shouted. “Look at this! You see? You see?” he said, shoving the pictograph in her face.
Lana puzzled at it for a moment, and when she realized what it was a pictograph of, she doubled back and felt a chill worm its way up her spine.
“You see?” Lenzo shouted again. “It’s the ghost ship! It turned up in the film! That means it was real! It wasn’t a figment of our imagination! It actually existed! This pictograph is the proof! I got proof! I-”
“Lenzo!” Lana yelled. “Do you see the situation we’re in right now?!”
“It was real! I got proof! My pictograph is proof! If I can just take this home to Windfall, they’ll see! They’ll all see! Hahahaha!”
It was no use. He was in shock. Lana gave up trying to talk to him, and sat on the boards that kept them barely above the cold waters of the Great Sea. She looked around, and to her despair, she could see no other driftwood from the
Gull. What they had was all they had. They were far out on open water with no way to return to the safety of land.
- What are we supposed to do now?
Lana felt sick to her stomach. Her tears came flowing out again. She was very unpleasantly reminded of how she felt being a captive in the Forsaken Fortress. There didn’t seem to be any way out of this situation. She felt something sharp rising up in her gut. Her throat stung, and she crawled to the edge of the boards and hurled into the sea.
After getting that out of her system and wiping her mouth and eyes, she stared blankly out across the waters. Her thoughts were in a daze. She thought about her parents again, of course. She wished once again she had just stayed put on Greatfish. Then she thought about Emilia and how right she was to mock her ineptitude. Before long, however, those thoughts all sunk away into pure despair as the gravity of the situation began feeling more and more real. This wasn’t like the Forsaken Fortress. This time, there really was no way out. All she could think about was how dead they were going to be.
- This is hopeless. We’re either going to drown or stave out here. That’s how I’m going to die? Seriously? After everything that’s happened, that’s how it ends? You’ve gotta be kidding me...
Lana became angry and slammed her fist on the water. She got splashed in the face for her trouble. She shook her head and scowled at the ocean. It felt as though the sea itself was mocking her now.
- I can’t believe this is happening again! Why? What is wrong with me? Did I do something wrong? Why can’t I sail anywhere without getting into this... This...
“Ugh!” she shouted. “Why me?! Why is it always me? Why can’t things just go right for once? I’m so sick of this! I hate this! What am I supposed to do? Ugh!”
She had to stop screaming to catch her breath. She stared at the ocean again through tear-clouded eyes. It was quiet, very quiet. Even Lenzo had gone quiet. Her thoughts returned to her family once again. She wondered what they would be able to tell her about this. She thought about Emilia again, as well. Oshus came to mind, as did some random faces on Windfall. As she sat there panting, it dawned on her that she wasn’t going to get an answer. Not from the sea, not from Lenzo, not from the random faces in her mind, not from anything or anyone but herself.
She wasn’t going to get help from anyone. It was all up to her. It always had been, whether it was this, the Forsaken Fortress, or even before that. She was always the one who solved her own problems. She was always the one who had to help herself, and this wasn’t going to be any different. So, what point was there to sitting around doing nothing? They weren’t going to be miraculously rescued. This was all on her, and what she could do in the moment.
- Fine, I’ll do it, then! I’ll find an answer to this, too. I’ll figure it out! Or I’ll die. I’ll probably die. But I’ll figure it out, anyway!
Lana clenched her fists and gave the sea one last smack before she stood up. The boards wobbled a bit, but they held her full weight. She looked around and began to assess the situation in full.
They were in fact stranded on the wreckage of
The Sleeping Gull. Lana deduced the boards they were floating on were once part of its deck. She was surprised that such a large chunk of it stayed together. There were no masts to be seen, so she figured they’d sunk along with the sails. They only had the one oar next to Lenzo. That was going to have to be good enough.
Next, Lana examined the bag that had survived with them. It was Lenzo’s pictobox satchel. It held his pictobox and the other pictographs he’d taken that day. That was it. No food or water to be found inside it.
- Did he seriously save his pictobox over the food supplies? Give me a break...
Lana sighed, and began to examine the bag itself. The outside was soaking wet from having been exposed to the water and sea spray, but the inside was completely dry. After feeling over the surface, she realized it was made from waterproofed leather.
- If it rains, we can use this to catch some drinking water. Maybe it could even be used as a makeshift fishing net, if we’re lucky to get any fish swimming close enough. Not that we’d be able to cook them, anyway...
She set it down back next to Lenzo where she found it. He didn’t seem to react to the fact that she had touched his precious pictobox satchel, but she was too busy thinking to pay that any mind. She had gone through everything they had left of the
Gull, so next she had to figure out where they were on the Great Sea.
The sun had risen very recently, which gave her plenty of light to work with. She looked around the horizon, and she was certain she could barely make out Diamond Steppe’s silhouette to the northwest. They must have floated along the current to the southeast. Lana opened the sea chart she’d memorized in her head, and sought out the closest inhabited island to their current position.
They couldn’t go back to Diamond Steppe because they had no way to scale its cliffs, and there was likely nothing there to help them get back to civilization, anyway. There was the Five-Eye Reef nearby, which also had absolutely nothing to offer them. Then there was Horseshoe Isle, yet another deserted island. And then...
“Outset Island!” Lana exclaimed aloud.
Outset was very close to Diamond Steppe, and it was populated by a small fishing village, or so she’d heard. She imagined it as being similar to Goponga Village on Greatfish, if a bit smaller. She had no idea what the people there were like, but even if it ended up being a repeat of her experiences on Windfall, it was their only option. They couldn’t go anywhere else.
Lana walked over to Lenzo and picked up the oar. She knew trying to paddle this wreckage all the way to Outset would be impossibly difficult, especially being at the mercy of the ocean currents. It might take them days, and without food or water, they were going to be in serious trouble very soon. But Lana was going to try, anyway.
“I don’t know about you, Lenzo, but I’m not waiting around to die without doing anything. Even if we die, at least I can say I tried to live. You figure out what you’re going to do.”
Lenzo didn’t reply to her. He simply stared off into space. He had a very broken look in his eyes. She couldn’t tell if the shock had worn off or not. Nevertheless, Lana plunged her oar into the water and began to paddle.
* * *
The first night had come. The stars painted a map for Lana in the skies above, and she was more grateful to have them shining up there now than ever before. She tried her best to let the current do most of her work, as she knew it led to the southeast toward Outset. However, it would veer off after a certain point and she would need to steer them out of it.
Lenzo had not moved or said a word since the morning. He continued to stare off blankly. Lana wondered if he really had been broken by the shock. She didn’t think there was anything she could do for him besides get them both to safety again. That was the most important thing. Their lives were on the line, and she needed to keep them afloat no matter what.
Lana spent most of the night staring at the sky, making sure they weren’t drifting off course. Her stomach was growling, but with no fish splashing around, there was nothing she could do to change that. She relented having to be in this situation again so soon. She wondered if she had it in her to survive starving again.
A sudden thump knocked her out of her own head, and she looked around. The driftwood she and Lenzo clung to had hit something. With that jolt, it occurred to Lana that she hadn’t been watching the seas for danger. And sure enough, danger found them once again. Of course it did.
The danger this time took the shape of a thin black fin sticking out of the waves, following along beside them. Lana knew what that meant; every fisherman did. She stopped paddling and held as still as possible. To her dismay, however, another fin appeared around her, and then a third.
“Lenzo, stay calm. There are gyorgs.” Lana said.
Lenzo didn’t respond, to Lana's frustration. Gyorgs were aquatic monsters with powerful jaws and sturdy fins for dynamic swimming. Their teeth could put a seahat’s to shame. They were known as the fisherman’s menace in the seas around Greatfish Isle. They could be avoided by holding completely still, as they didn’t have the best eyesight. However, when the rest of the school surfaced like they had just done, that meant they were on the hunt. Awful news for Lana, but what else was new, she thought.
There was nothing she could use to fend them off except for the oar, but she couldn’t afford to break it. After frantically looking around the deck to no avail, she reluctantly brandished it anyway. When the fins went back under the surface, she knew the attack would come soon. In that small moment, she found herself wishing she at least still had that rusty nail from the fortress.
The surface tension broke with a gyorg leaping into the air. Lana yelped and swung the oar at it as hard as she could. She missed terribly, and the gyorg violently shook the driftwood as it reentered the water. Lana lost her balance momentarily, and a second gyorg came up from under and bit right into the boards.
“No!” Lana shouted.
She smacked the gyorg in the nose with the oar, and it let go. It took a chunk of the wood with it, leaving a gaping hole with terrifying teeth marks. It spit out the wood in its mouth and started coming for another bite. As it got closer, Lana jabbed the pointy end of the oar into its eye, and it reeled away in pain.
The third gyorg then took a large bite out of the other side of the driftwood, close to Lenzo. This finally got a reaction out of him, which was to scream and shield his pictographs with his own body.
- Of all the...!
Lana rushed to his aid as the gyorg gnashed its way through the wood, closer toward him. He whimpered, pressing his satchel to his chest as tightly as he could, as Lana stepped in between him and the monstrous fish. It opened its maw wide, and Lana grabbed up a sharp piece of wood that had come loose and shoved it inside.
When the beast tried to bite down, it embedded the wood into the roof of its mouth. It whimpered much like Lenzo as it swam away. With two of its friends injured, the first gyorg decided to flee. Its fin receded back under the waves, and everything became quiet and calm again. Everything except for Lana’s haggard breathing.
Lana was furious. She turned sharply on her heel and was about to tear Lenzo a new one, but she held her words in as she looked down at him. He was still curled up, shaking and mewling, holding that bag for dear life. He looked so utterly helpless that all of Lana’s anger just evaporated for the moment.
- Unbelievable.
Lana simply shook her head at him, and went on to examining the damage to the driftwood. Two large holes were punched into it, which made it harder for Lana to keep the top clear of water. If it got any more damaged, they’d be sunk.
Lana sighed. There was no way to make repairs, so the only thing she could do was keep paddling and hope the gyorgs didn’t come back.
* * *
The second night had brought with it the first blessing of the ordeal; rain. Lana was absolutely thrilled. She stood in the cold downpour with her mouth hanging open, trying to catch and gulp down as much of it as she could. She also rubbed her arms and clothes and hair, trying to use the rainwater to cleanse her body of all the salt from the sea water she was constantly being splashed with.
Then she remembered that she could use Lenzo’s bag to hold water, as it was waterproof. She looked at him, and he was still sitting quietly in a daze. The bag was next to him on the wood, so she picked it up and dumped its contents in his lap. Then, she held it up to the sky and waited for the rain to fill it up.
However, Lenzo finally reacted to this. Now that his pictobox and pictographs were exposed to the rain, he freaked.
“Hey! What are you doing?! My pictographs will be soaked! My pictobox will be ruined!” he shouted.
Lana was so surprised to hear him speak that she almost thought she was hearing things. Lenzo didn’t wait for a response as he ran at her and furiously tried to snatch the bag back.
“Lenzo! Stop it!”
“My pictographs!”
The fuss caused all the water to spill out of the bag, and the two were soaked even more thoroughly. The pair coughed and wheezed for breath after having their faces covered with water so suddenly, but they continued grappling for the bag in all that mess. Of course, with absolutely perfect timing, the rain came to a screeching halt.
“No! No, no, no!” Lana cried.
She tried to raise the bag back up and catch as much as she could before it stopped completely, but Lenzo was still fighting her for it. Any water she was able to catch was immediately spilled over by Lenzo’s flailing limbs. In the end, they had nothing but a wet pouch to show for the rain’s blessing.
As the last drops ended, Lana slumped down in disbelief, allowing Lenzo to take his pouch back at last. He had a very frazzled reaction when he saw how wet the inside of it was, and then scurried to tend to his pictobox and pictographs.
“No, they’re all soaked... How could this happen... This is awful...” he whined.
That was it. Lana finally snapped. She stomped over to him, lifted him up by the collar of his shirt, and punched him. Hard. Square in the jaw. He hit the driftwood hard enough to shake the whole thing.
“You idiot! That was the perfect chance to get drinking water, and look what you did! We have nothing!” she screamed.
“B... but...” Lenzo whimpered. “M-my pictographs... They... They have to...”
“Forget your stupid pictographs!” Lana fumed. “Our lives are way more important! Do you still not realize the situation we’re in? We’re standing on a piece of driftwood on open water, with no food and now no drinking water, thanks to you! All because you’re obsessed with these dumb pictographs! You need to think about your own life first! Get it together already!”
When she was finally done yelling at him, she turned her back on him and panted. Her fists were clenched so hard, they were starting to hurt. Her teeth were grinding, which wasn’t something she usually did. She had never been so angry in her life, she thought.
The night became quiet and cold. Lana waited for Lenzo to say something, but as more time passed, she felt more and more like he wasn’t going to speak up for himself. She couldn’t feel his eyes on her at all. That, to her surprise, just made her feel disappointed, instead of angry.
Without a word, or without looking back at him, she picked up the oar and resumed paddling. Thanks to her dedicated studies of the sea charts, she knew the ocean current would swerve in a new direction soon. She needed to get them out of it so they could remain on course to Outset. After all, that was the most important thing.
* * *
The third night had arrived, just as cold and bleak as the nights before it. Lana had successfully steered them out of the current during the daylight hours. However, that had drastically reduced their speed to a crawl. She used the position of the stars to keep track of their progress, and it was a very disheartening pace. There was only so much she could do with one oar.
To make matters worse, the hunger was setting in even worse than the last time. Her stomach was growling fiercely, and each rumble was gut-wrenchingly painful. Acid stung her throat, as if her stomach was reaching out for anything it could find to digest. She had a severe headache, and her muscles were incredibly sore from all the rowing.
She was running desperately low on energy. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep this up, especially without anything to replenish her strength. No fish were wandering close to the driftwood, and she had nothing to craft a rod with. If there were some cloth left from the sails, she could fasten a line, but they were long gone. The strings that tied Lenzo’s pouch together were far too short and much too thick to be useful, either. She had nothing.
She was also dreadfully thirsty. The rainwater she drank from the previous night had helped a bit, but she was still incredibly parched. The seawater was beginning to look awfully refreshing, regardless of how much her sense of reason screamed at her about it. She was very malnourished, even worse than when she escaped the Forsaken Fortress.
Her vision was beginning to get fuzzy. She felt like she needed to sleep, but she couldn’t afford it. If things were this bad already, another day of drifting would be the end of them. She couldn’t see a scenario where she had the strength to keep rowing beyond a fourth night. All she could envision was laying flat on the boards, starving to death as the waves carried them wherever they pleased.
- We’ve got to be close by now... This can’t end here, not when we’re this close...
“... I’m sorry.”
Lana turned her head in the direction of the sudden voice. She was bewildered to see Lenzo standing straight up and facing her. She hadn’t looked back at him since she yelled at him the previous night. There was a cut on his lip where Lana had punched him, and his cheek was rather swollen. However, his eyes seemed to show no sign of the shock and tension from the past few days. He looked incredibly self-aware.
“I’m sorry.” he said again. “I've been... utterly useless. No, I’ve been worse than useless. You’re right, I have been far too obsessed with my pictographs. I couldn’t stop thinking about it after what I did last night. I lost us precious drinking water. I prioritized my pictographs over our supplies when the storm sank our ship. I did nothing to help you when you fought off the gyorgs. I couldn’t handle the reality of our situation, I guess. I’ve never been through anything like this before. I just... I’ve been just absolutely awful. And now we’re going to die out here, and it’s all my fault. I can’t express to you how sorry I am.”
Lana gazed at him sadly. He seemed to be on the verge of breaking again. Reality had hit him with a dose that might have been too strong for him to handle. He seemed ready to throw himself overboard to make up for his actions.
“I’m sorry, too.” Lana said. “I’m sorry for punching you, I hope it didn’t hurt too much. And I didn’t mean to call your pictographs stupid. I was just really angry. I do like them a lot, and I’ll be glad that you were able to hold onto them. ... As long as we get out of this alive, of course. But that’s not going to happen if we don’t help each other.”
“You’re right. I’ve been making you do all the work. You don’t deserve to be out, here Lana. You should just... leave me here. You’ll be better off without me. I’m nothing but dead weight. It’s the least I deserve for getting us in this mess.”
It seemed extremely difficult for him to get those words out, but he forced himself to do it all the same. His whole body shook and tears began rolling down his cheeks. He was truly miserable. But, he was also truly repentant, and that was all Lana needed to forgive him.
“Absolutely not. What did I just say a second ago? We need to work together. I can’t do this without you.” she said sternly.
“But... All I’ve done the past three days is cling to my pictographs and sit around doing nothing. What can I even do? How can I be of any help?” he asked.
“Well, for starters, you can help me paddle. It’s really difficult to handle that by myself. Grab some loose boards or something and help me out, okay?” she said with a smile.
Lenzo seemed surprised that Lana wasn’t chastising him any further. More tears spilled over and his nose began running. He sniffled and wiped his face, and just nodded his head as best he could. He seemed like he was grateful to feel like he could be helpful.
He did as directed and found a sturdy length of wood that didn’t sink them when he pulled it loose. He and Lana took opposite sides and paddled as best they could in the direction Lana said to go.
Trying to paddle a piece of driftwood was dreadfully tricky, especially one with giant holes bitten into it. It was all they could manage to keep it afloat, much less going in a consistent direction. With nothing to catch the wind, they had no speed. Three days worth of hunger and thirst weighed them down and made their movements heavy and sluggish. Their minds were just as worn out as their bodies. They were on the verge of breaking down for good. A total and final collapse was imminent.
And yet, they kept paddling. Even as their arms ached enough to fall off, even as their fingers blistered and bled from the effort, they kept paddling. They moved forward, bit by bit. And sure enough, when daybreak came and lit up the sky, they caught sight of the very thing they were almost literally dying to see.
Outset Island appeared on the horizon.
