Richard had been arguing with Samuel about returning to the island for half an hour already when Heather suddenly jumped up and made the raft wobble precariously. About to scold her for her sudden move, they stopped upon seeing her expression.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly, but then her excitement won. “I think I just saw land, over there.”

“You think ( Read more... )

Once they had left the island, all their hopes lay in Samuel and his ability to navigate. And, of course, they prayed his estimate of the direction the shipwreck had come from was correct. They had enough food and fresh water with them to last three days - four, if they were careful. But it meant they’d have to go back to the dreaded island if they ( Read more... )

It did float!

They all had a rather unpleasant night, though. One of them guarded the raft, another the crazy man - and none of the others could sleep, because the guy kept on shouting his incoherent tales from dusk to dawn.

When the sun rose over the horizon, he went back to telling them how they all would die, playing with their fears. For once, ( Read more... )

It was a rainy day when they finally declared their raft repaired. But despite the bad weather, the ocean was calm - calm enough to at least launch it. They definitely weren’t going to wait for the morning, this time. Who knew what the mad guy would do? He might be bound, but he was staring at the raft with a calculating glint in his eyes, so they ( Read more... )

Since they hadn’t been able to get any relevant answers from the man, and they couldn’t afford a saboteur among them, they had tied him to a tree and started to repair the raft.

Sadly, he’d been able to get rid of his gag - and now they were treated to his tales of a hidden treasure that he was supposed to guard: with gold en masse and gems as blue ( Read more... )

Richard reacted fast: Before the others had even had a chance to identify the rustle as out of place, he was already sprinting towards the noise. There was a shout, there was a struggle, and soon after he dragged something, no, someone out of the bushes.

It was a man, dressed in what looked more like rags than clothes. There was a mad glint in his ( Read more... )

Two days later, they were nearly finished with their work on the raft. They decided to test its seaworthiness after a good night’s sleep, before adding the last details. Excitement kept them from having a truly restful night - and yet, none of them were prepared for what they found in the morning.

The pitiful remains of the raft lay on the shore, ( Read more... )

“How do you figure there’s land, just from looking at the planks?” Jeremy asked while they worked on binding the planks together.

Samuel knocked on the wood he was holding. “This here… it’s weathered but still strong. It would have started to rot, had it spent the last years at the bottom of the sea. And I don’t think so much of the ship would have ( Read more... )

Samuel’s suggestion brought on a round of protests from Richard - the teen’s father - and, of course, Victoria. While the others understood Richard’s worry for his son, they rolled their eyes at Victoria’s reasons. God forbid she’d break a nail helping to build the raft or get a sunstroke while out on the ocean!

Samuel tried to assuage their doubts ( Read more... )

Dawn found them all exhausted. The storm had subsided some time during the night, but they hadn’t dared to leave the cave. Now, in the rosy-tinted light of the new day, they were glad that they hadn’t, because strewn all over the shore lay the remnants of a ship.

“Now we can leave,” said Samuel. The young sailor looked at the wreckage with something ( Read more... )