It’s been 25 minutes and I still can’t fit everything into my bag. I packed the essentials like Ebony said. Two t-shirts, two jeans, a pair of shorts, sunglasses, boots, thongs, sunscreen, a hat, two water bottles, three pairs of socks, deodorant plus the string bag full of fruit and fish.

“Urgh.” I sigh. I throw everything out and start again. Then Ebony comes up.

“Hurry up.” she says “What’s the problem?”

“I can’t...fit...everything...in.” I grunt, trying to close the zipper, but it just springs open again. Ebony rolls here eyes.

“Here, let me.” she sighs. She takes everything out, rolls my deodorant in my jeans, my sunscreen in my t-shirts, my sunglasses in my shorts and places all my socks into my boots, then covers the string bag with my hat.

“Better?” she asks, as the zipper closes firmly. I stare shocked at my closed backpack

“How did you-” I start

“Just preserve room.” Ebony replies, as though she’s read my mind. She heads downstairs

“You’re really creepy sometimes, you know that?” I say

“says the one who stands over people until they wake up!” I hear her call from the kitchen. I can’t help but roll my eyes.

We head down to the beach, where Ebony unties a huge fishing boat that I hadn’t noticed before from a tree.

“Right.” Ebony says, boarding the boat “take your bags down below deck. There’s four rooms down there. The galley, the dining room, a storeroom and a bedroom with a bunkbed and an ensuite. I sleep in the top bunk. You take the lower one. While you’re there, drop the food in the galley. That’s the kitchen.” she orders. I hop on the boat and gasp. A deck of polished wood greets me. A small ladder descends down into the hull. I go down to find a long corridor, with two doors on each side. I go into the one that says ‘bedroom.’ I look around to see a neatly-made bunk bed up against one wall, two empty trunks against the other, and a rectangular porthole on the adjacent side to the door. I took the string bag out of my backpack and headed to the galley. Ebony’s bag was already there, along with nuts, canned food and dead mice. I decided to explore a bit, so I went across the hall to the cargo room. A vast array of boxes filled to room to the roof. Wooden boxes labelled rope, matches, fabric, thread, paper,sugar, flour, canned vegetables, canned fruit, corned beef, batteries, seeds for various plants and tools. Why did she have this boat? I wondered. Ebony’s calls from the deck drifted into my thoughts

“Hey! Get up here!” she called. I climbed the ladder up to the main deck, but she wasn’t there.

“Up here.” I looked up to see her leaning out of the window of the wheelhouse.

“Yeah?” I call back

“Come up here! I’ll give you the tour!” she calls. I head up the ladder stairs into the wheelhouse Various photos and maps hang on the walls around the window. Ebony closes it and points to a dial on the dashboard

“You see this? This controls whether we go forward, or reverse. Got it?” I nod. She moves her hand to a cranking wheel.

“This controls the throttle. Ten is obviously full speed, which we don’t want to go at.”

“Why not?” I ask.

“Because the tension of which the water breaks is slower than the speed, which will result in us tipping forwards into the water.” she explains

“Which we don’t want.” I add.

“Correct.” That’s just about all you need to know about. If you could get Kiwi, I’ll get Spike and Mia.” she heads off down the ladder

“Don’t tell me they’re coming too?” I call after her.

“Of course they are! What are they going to do on their own?” hse calls back as he heads down to the beach.

“No idea.” I add to myself. I run down after her.

“Wait, what about Plato, or whatever your bird’s name was?” I ask

“PATCHO, will be fine to fly along with us.” Ebony corrects me.

“Right. And where do I find Kiwi?” I ask

“Probably in my room.”

“Where’s that?” I ask

“Above your room.” Ebony runs into the kitchen.

Ebony’s room consists of a bed, perfectly tucked into the adjusted walls, a veranda looking out to the sea that leads down to the kitchen, a small trunk I assume consists of clothes, a bookshelf full of books such as ‘The Old Man and the Sea, ‘Moby Dick’, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, ‘The Complete Works of Shakespeare’ ‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘Joan of Arc: A History’, ‘Wildlife in the Wilderness’, ‘Ecosystems and Environments of the Earth’, and an immensely thick book titled: ‘The Young Person’s Guide to Everything They Ever Needed to Know.’ A small window reflects light onto the bookshelf, where a small, leafy-green tree frog perches, his murky-green eyes blinking at me.

“You must be Kiwi.” I say, gently picking him up. This somehow enrages the tree-frog, and he shoots his slimy pink tongue at me, hitting me on the bridge of my nose.

“Argh!” I cry, dropping the thing out of my hands.

“Don’t drop him!” Ebony cries, coming to pick him up. I stare at her.

“How did you get up here so fast?”

“Using the bridge on the veranda.” she says, picking up the frog. I rub my nose.

“You really have a knack for surprises.” I say.

“And you really have a way with animals.” she says, heading down the bridge.

“Really?” I say, coming after her.

“No.” she turns her head, smirking.

We head back down to the beach, me holding Kiwi an arm's distance away. He’s sure to keep his large, intimidating eyes on mine, narrowed.

“So where are they sleeping?” I ask

“In the fold-out bed next to you.” Ebony answers, boarding the boat.

“Great.” I say to myself. Nothing like the sound of a snoring capybara, the hissing of a boa constrictor, and the croaking of a tree frog to keep me awake all night. How does she sleep with all this racket?

“Right. Let’s not waste anymore time. We’ll head off straight away.” Ebony says, bringing the ladder up onto the deck. She runs up to the wheelhouse and we set off, skimming along the rippling water.