It took the better part of an hour for Mei to pull her shaken self together. Some of that was convincing herself that the jaguar would keep away now, because it would be wary of her. We all lie to ourselves like that sometimes. The truth can be scary and we need to find a way to move forward.
Sitting in the sand, she debated what to do. The idea of trying to hike overland to the port to steal a boat wasn’t very appealing with the jaguar in there, somewhere, waiting for her. She could circle the island via the beach and shore.
Her stomach growled. What she really needed was a good meal. Those fruits were delicious, but not enough. She craved meat.
A glance around revealed a white bird with black wings floating in the water behind her. A seagull? No, it was bigger. And it had black feathers. A…pelican? No. Albatross, that’s what it was. Probably. Maybe?
Would it taste like chicken? But how would she cook it? A problem for later. First she needed to kill it. Despite the danger she’d just been in, her mouth was already watering at the thought of something decent to eat.
Rising, she left her sword and took a gun in each hand. With measured steps, she stalked the bird, her feet slipping into the cool water. It rose up to her knees, then her thighs. She made sure to keep the pistols above the waves, as they wouldn’t work wet. But she had to get as close as possible because she had no skill with these. She’d never hunted before in her life either. Pointing with one arm out, squinting along the sights as if it might help, she tried to time the shot as the bird rose up on a wave. She pulled the trigger.
A splash meters away startled the bird. It gave her an indignant look and then lazily took flight.
Mei cursed. She pointed the other pistol with her off hand. Using instinctual judgement, she fired, just barely remembering to lead her shot, firing where the bird would be, not where it was. Not that she had any hope of actually hitting it.
Through the puff of white gun smoke, she saw the bird tumble in the air. It fell, then flapped its wings, once, three times. But it lost altitude and curved towards the beach a short ways away.
She grinned and shouted with joy. Splashing carelessly, she pushed through the water towards the beach.
The jaguar exploded from a patch of tall grass not ten meters away. Long, loping strides carried it over the sand at high speed. The bird didn’t even have the chance to land. The great cat leapt impossibly high and powerful jaws snatched the bird from the air, crushing it.
Mei stood, dumbfounded, her jaw hanging open.
The jaguar turned and looked back at her. Then it leisurely trotted away, vanishing into the bush.
She blinked. “You…thief.”
Ok. That had been unexpected. Also unexpected was the fact that the cat must have been sitting there on the edge of the beach, just out of sight all this time, watching her.
Her legs gave out and she crumpled. Bird? She didn’t need the bird. It wasn’t as if she could make fire to cook. Well, the guns might start— No. She couldn’t. The cat deserved the bird. The hungry cat that might be a lot less hungry after eating the bird. And less likely to eat her. So the cat taking the bird was good. Very good.
She settled for more fruit. Another trip to the outdoor toilet told her that her body wasn’t entirely happy with eating so much of it and nothing else.
The sun was only now reaching its zenith, so there was a lot of daylight left. She pondered her next move. With the cat eating, perhaps now was the time to strike out for the port or some town? Then again, that probably wasn’t the only jaguar around, was it?
She eyed the beach, particularly the opposite direction the jaguar had gone in. She should start walking.
But, honestly, she just wasn’t up to it. She was tired and sore from both escaping the ship and not sleeping well. Her stomach was not in great shape. And she was scared. And somehow she’d have to sneak through people, fight them, steal a boat, and then miraculously escape? It felt impossible. A single jaguar had almost killed her. What chance did she have against a town full of armed guards?
Whatever confidence she’d had on the ship evaporated. Escaping had just been luck. She couldn’t do this.
Drifting over to the shade of a nearby tree, she let herself break down. It didn’t matter that the jaguar might come back. It didn’t matter that soldiers might come by. She couldn’t take anything else right now. She just needed to cry.
* * *
After a long personal time out, Mei reluctantly composed herself. But she was in a miserable mood. Despite knowing it was foolish, that she needed to get up and do something to save herself, she stubbornly told that internal voice of wisdom to fuck right off. She didn’t think she could do it. Couldn’t escape this island. All she was going to do was get herself caught while trying. So she kicked at the white sand and refused to budge. She’d just sit here and enjoy her freedom while she could. For hours she just stared at the water.
But then the sun eventually set behind her, throwing the sky into deepening shades of magical violets and blues. Her hunger gnawed at her, and she reluctantly got up and ate a few more of the fruits. She plucked two and saw that the only ones left were unripe. Guess she was going to have to move on from here whether she liked it or not. Whatever.
Feeling despondent, she wandered down the beach in front of the ruined village. Where should she sleep tonight? She wasn’t really inclined to go back to sleep on the rocks in the water. Should she risk staying in one of the dilapidated buildings?
She thought about the jaguar. She wasn’t sure how big the meal of albatross had been, but she thought she remembered something about hunting cats not eating every day. Maybe it would be sated and not come after her in the night. It’s not like they were malicious and killed for sport, right? Right?
Hiking into the remains of the village, she chose the house with the fewest holes in the walls. She entered. The floor was sand and dirt. Slouching into a corner, she put her guns in front of her and kept the sword in hand. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was out of the wind and much drier than the last place she’d slept.
She rested her head against the wooden wall behind her and let herself drift off. Her eyes began to close.
Something scuttled across the sand in front of her.
Coming awake, she saw the giant centipede, longer than her hand. Mei recoiled and screamed. She climbed out the nearest window and threw herself away from the building.
Right. Abandoned house: dry, rotting, probably home to creepy crawly things. She shuddered. Time for a new place to sleep.
But where?
The beach. She looked at it. The beach was open, clean. No creepy crawly biting spider or snake or centipede things there, right? Probably not.
But she’d be open to the jaguar or soldiers.
Feeling industrious after doing nothing all day, she tore a plank out of the remains of the fence. Much was rotted away, but she used what she had to dig a hole in the beach. It wasn’t large, just enough for her to curl inside. She got down to damp sand and then stopped, leaving a layer of dry. The sand she dug out, she piled in a ring around the hole. Kicking and punching, she took more boards from the fence and house. These she stuck into the wall of sand like a palisade. Of course, any human would see it and know it for something human made. So she tore up some grass, gathered dead branches and palm fronds, and piled them up around the sand fort.
Crawling into her nest, she pulled a few more planks and fronds up over her head, balanced on the makeshift wall. Through a few cracks, she could see the stars above. Huddled there, she slowly drifted off to the sound of the ocean crashing onto the beach. And hoped she’d be safe.
For at least one more night.
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