Chapter Text
Even before I opened my eyes everything felt dizzy. My mouth tasted like sand and salt, a bit like blood too. Wait. Blood? Ugh, First Spinjitzu Master, everything hurt.
With some effort, I forced my eyes open. The white beach ahead of me stretched for miles, only broken up by large patches of sharp rocks. There were also huge chunks of wood, like something had been shredded to bits. Probably several different ships had wrecked near this place. The gray sky above still threatened rain and distant sounds of thunder crackled.
Where am I?
I tried to push myself up but my arm and ribs screamed with pain. I fell back down with a thud. My eyes scanned the beach in a daze. Hold on, where was everyone else? Wasn't I just with them? I’m sure I was. What happened?
There was a weird warmth from my right shin and my hair felt matted with something thick. Water lapped at my feet. Cuts stung from every part of my body. I could remember being on the Destiny's Bounty. It was raining, I think. The thunder had been loud and people had been shouting. But what happened after that? Everything felt fuzzy.
I needed to get up. To move. To find everyone, or at least someone. But my body didn't want to move. I wanted to just lay there. Something in my mind told me to just close my eyes, to let the haze take over. Maybe if I went back to sleep I would wake up at home in my bed. If I slept, the aching would stop for a minute. Maybe I could wait it out until it finally stopped.
But this wasn't a dream. I knew that. I couldn't just lay here and wait to die. So, I pushed myself up a bit with the arm that didn't hurt as much, ignoring the ache from every bone in my body. Stars, my head hurt. Now that I was sitting up though, I could see the unreasonably tall trees ahead. They twisted together like they had grown into each other. Too close together, too thick. And they were tall, like really tall. Much taller than the outer walls of the Monastery even. Something about this place felt wrong. Like the air itself knew something wasn't right. Also, were those trees moving or was I just delusional?
Whatever. Weird trees aside, I needed to find the others. They couldn't be far, right?
With one last look around the seemingly endless shore, I shoved myself up fully. Yep, there was definitely something broken. And that something would be my arm. That's so fun. This is great. Everything is fine.
Hugging the broken arm to my chest I turned right and just started walking. If I was on the beach they should be too. I really couldn't be that far out if I got flung around the time they crashed.
But as I kept walking, nothing else appeared on the shore. Well, there was a few flat wood scraps here and there, a broken raft, the leftovers of a scavenged animal carcass (ew), and natural debris like logs and driftwood. After what felt like hours of wandering aimlessly, I realized this wasn't going anywhere. I had no idea how big this place was, I had no idea when I had fallen off the Bounty which affected how far I could be from the others, and I didn't even know if the others had even ended up here. There was always the chance this place had some sort of magic, which would definitely not be good.
My eyes followed a river that split through the gnarled trees. Maybe the bounty had drifted down stream? I could feel that the forest was dangerous but it was the only idea I had. I couldn't just wander the beach and pray to the stars that something would just appear. I had already been doing that and it wasn’t working. Plus, it was getting harder to move, the edges of my vision might start to black out soon. I needed to find someone soon, or at least a place to hide out for a while. Anything could be in these woods and I didn't feel like finding out what right now.
I turned on my heel and followed the river. The sky seemed to darken and the air somehow got thicker if it wasn't already. The ground became uneven and I struggled to not fall down. Sounds came from the forest to my left but nothing dangerous leapt out to finish me off. I must be delirious because I felt eyes on my back, like the trees themselves were watching me. My mind began to wander in the relative silence.
What if I don't find them? Again, they might not have even ended up on the same island. What then? I don't know how to make a raft by myself. Last time I did that I was like 10 and neither Jay or Nya are here to help this time. Plus, my damn arm is broken. I know basic first aid obviously, it's not like I haven't wrapped my own wounds before, but that won't help with this. Not to mention whatever else might be wrong. First Spinjitzu Master, I'm going to die here-
Before I could continue spiraling, I tripped and fell with a sickening thud into the mud. Thankfully I didn't fall on my hurt arm, but my knees and other hand still took a lot of the force. I tried to move my foot but it was stuck. Great. This is so great. With a few sharp tugs whatever it was stuck on ripped free. I didn't have time to look back; I just pushed myself back up and kept walking. If I stopped now I didn't know if I could get back up.
The stream split and twisted like the surrounding trees. The water got murkier and I could no longer see the bottom of it through the waves. Not really like I could really see much in there before. I kept moving, kept dragging my legs forward. Eventually though, I spotted a small cave-like space near the river bank.
I leaned on the entrance as I looked in. There weren’t any animals or anything in it that suggested it was any den of theirs. While I scanned the inside, I hadn't noticed the forest go silent.
A screeching howl split the air. After all that quiet it made my ears hurt. I quickly ducked inside the cave, paying no mind to the pain that jolted through my body at the sudden movement. I huddled against the wall and tried to make my breathing quiet down. The world was spinning again and my ears were ringing. A pair of footsteps thundered past. A second later followed whatever was chasing it. Snarls and barks went with the second one. A wolf.
As the footsteps faded, and the world was quiet once more. The only sound was the angry splashing of the river water. After another beat, the sounds of bugs and birds came back. I finally felt like I could breathe again.
Now that I finally had a second to calm down, I let myself actually assess my situation. I looked down at my clothes. I hadn't even noticed how ripped they were, not to mention the stark red blood that stained the once vibrant green alongside the thick mud that clung to it. I was so focused on just continuing to move I hadn't realized how battered I was. There was a whole chunk ripped out of my pant leg where the skin was practically shredded, it was somehow still bleeding. The arm I'd been holding close wasn't much better. The sleeve was caked in blood. I didn’t have the heart to try to remove it at the moment. I could feel the cuts under my gloves and over my shoulder. My head ached and I lifted my hand to it. Dried blood stuck to my curly hair but it wasn’t still bleeding at least because that would definitely be an even worse problem. It was hard to tell if my arm was actually broken or just sprained. If I found Zane or Pix they’d probably know what to do about that. My ribs were bruised but didn’t feel fractured or anything. On the plus side, I wasn’t as wet as when I first woke up.
My stupid ass was gonna bleed to death out here if I couldn’t fix this. Ok, don’t panic. This’ll be fine, I’ve been through worse. With a tug I ripped the part of the pant leg that was practically hanging by a thread and tightly wrapped it around the leg wound. That should stem the bleeding. Whatever else was wrong would hopefully just close up on its own and not be too much of a problem. Maybe I could find something to use as a makeshift sling outside.
I forced myself up again, promising myself I would take a break once I made sure I wouldn’t die here. The water lashed at the rocks dangerously. Even this far out it still went strong. I walked along the edge and splashes some water over the cuts for a minute. The water wasn’t clean by any means but anything would probably help. Then I stood up and grabbed a stick from the bank. They use those in splints, right? Maybe? Or is that for a leg. Maybe I should grab some dry ones for a fire (if anything here is dry at all). I glanced around for anything else that could be useful. A fern with huge leaves stuck out of the ground along the tree line. I walked over to it and ripped out part. I tried my best to tie it into a sling. It was difficult however because, ya know, I only had one usable arm. I got it eventually though and it worked well enough.
After that, I spent the next few minutes finding any dry plants or sticks to use in a fire once that sun starts to set. Finally, I sat down on the dirty floor of the cave. While I was busy, some more of the minor wounds had fixed themselves but I still didn’t feel much better. Would it be ok to sleep now? I mean, if I had a concussion before and it would have been a problem I would still have been knocked out on the beach, so it was probably fine.
With that I closed my eyes and tried to block out the aching of my body. Last thing I could consciously recognize was the sound of rain hitting stone.