Chapter Text
“Ralph what are you doing up there? I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Came an exasperated voice from down below him.
The blonde quickly came out of his daze. On a trip to get more fruits he climbed a tree and got mesmerized by the horizon. From how high up he was he could get a clear view of the ocean as it shimmered in all its glory.
He doesn’t know exactly how long he has been on the island but it was certainly enough for his hair to surpass his ears and nearly touch his shoulders. So he can guess that’s it been over at least about three months.
In that time span he has become familiar with parts of the island. But his favorite part was within the island where majority of land was taken up by trees. Back in civilization he would never have had as much interest in the organism as he did now but a lot of things about him have changed since then.
He has always been naturally athletic so climbing them became a past time instead of a chore he had to do in order to retrieve fruits which were integral to his and the rest of the boys is survival.
As the breeze blew through his hair he quickly snapped out of it as when he got mesmerized by the beauty of the island and ocean for too long, a part of him would think, “I could just stay like this forever.”
He shivered with dread at the odd thought as staying on this island forever was the last thing on his bucket list. It was as if the island were a siren. Drawing in people with its beauty only to send them to their doom.
Or maybe he’s just slowly going insane.
To snap out of his thoughts that everyday would get more intrusive, he focused his mind to the voice shouting at him from below.
“I can’t hear you well, mate.” He shouted matter of factly to the chunkier boy.
Piggy huffed clearly irritated by his antics already. The more time they spent on the island together the less patient the boy had seemed to become but that didn’t bother Ralph.
He much more enjoyed teasing the boy and getting scolded than having to listen to Piggy talk about future life outside the island and how he was certain they were going to make it off. It would only lure Ralph into a false sense of hope that has already been slowly chipping away.
The boy below shouted back, “If you can’t hear me just climb down that tree already! We need to call a meeting but Jack stole the conch from me and you’re the only one who can get him to listen so…….-“
Ralph quickly tuned out from what he was complaining about at the mention of the redhead. It was an everyday routine at this point for Jack to be pestering Piggy.
Plus, the mention of the conch made his stomach do a summersault. He hasn’t called a meeting in a while. This maybe due to the fact that he felt his authority from the group slowly slipping.
In the beginning of his leadership he had made some obvious rules. But as more time went on the less people would follow the set rules. What if he called a meeting to reaffirm the laws of the island and everyone chooses to ignore it all over again? That would just confirm his fears.
It was just something he couldn’t stomach. He knew another meeting someday would be inevitable. But he just couldn’t handle that confirmation today.
So he stalled. “Why should I climb down? Why don’t you climb up.” He retaliated smirking knowingly.
Piggy’s mouth fell open and stared at the blonde incredulously. “Haha, very funny. You know I can’t. I’ve got asthma!”
Ralph hummed and rolled his eyes at the typical excuse, “Sucks to your ass-mar!”
The boy in the glasses glared but knew there was no arguing with the bull headed boy.
So instead he actually took the tease to heart and tried to climb up the tree much to Ralph’s and his own surprise.
Key word: tried.
Piggy was unsurprisingly ungraceful and clumsy. The blonde was laughing his head off at every failed attempt and slip up the unathletic boy made. The scene was entertaining. Until it wasn’t.
After about half an hour of multiple failed attempts of the bigger boy not being able to even reach halfway to where he was had the pitiful scene lost its amusement.
Each attempt at climbing up got shorter until it seemed Piggy was totally defeated as he crouched over the ground on all fours, completely out of breath as each intake for oxygen was rapid and seemed almost painful.
Ralph winced guiltily at the sight as he was pretty much responsible for the whole ordeal and he was half sure that the bigger boy was going to pass out and or throw up.
“I’m coming down. Hold on.” He yelled down before he quickly grabbed a few guava fruits from the tree and placed it in an empty coconut shell that he was using as a bowl.
As he climbed down, despite having done this multiple times before he ended up losing his balance when he jumped down on a branch and ended up scraping his knee, effectively having him tumble down and drop the fruits.
He landed on the floor with a hard thud.
The force of the fall didn’t shake him up too bad as his pain tolerance has become considerably high due to how much physical activity they do on this island so injury was fairly common. But his knee pricked with pain and he groaned as he lied on the dirt ground.
Piggy’s asthma attack had seemed to be calming from the time it took Ralph to get from the sky to the ground and with the thud of his friend falling to the ground considerably startling him it was completely gone.
The bigger boy quickly rushed to the aid of the blonde. “Ralph why did you do that, are you okay?” He crouched over him concerned.
He glared defensively and embarrassed. “It’s not like I did it on purpose. This is all your fault, you know! If you hadn’t practically died by just the act of climbing up a tree I wouldn’t have rushed down and fell!”
Ralph was being sort of dramatic and mean but taking responsibility was never his strong suit. The words “I made a mistake” and “I’m sorry” practically foreign concepts to him.
The chubbier boys concerned looked quickly twisted into a scowl reprimanding the blonde. “Don’t put this on me! Maybe if you weren’t swinging in trees like a savage this would have never happened in the first place.”
He just rolled his eyes and did what he did best when he was upset. Avoid.
He was just about to get up and walk away to ignore his peeved friend, but the world had other plans for him as when he put pressure on his right leg to get up he felt a stabbing pain instantly in his knee and he doubled over with a hiss.
Piggy yelped startled by the action. There was a moment of silence before he spoke up. “Ralph….”
“What.” The blonde snapped more impatient than usual due to pain.
“You’re bleeding.”
Ralph instantly felt light headed and his blood pressure dropped to the floor when he got a good look at his hurt knee. He was surprised by the amount of blood gushing out.
“Oh god.” He threw his head back not wanting to look at the sight for much longer at the risk of fainting.
To be fair, not all blood scared him. He could for the most part stomach it in movies and even on the island when he sees the hunters kill a sow. Even when the littluns get cuts and scrapes.
But something about the sight of his own
red fluid seeping out of his body was terrifying.
Blood is what kept him alive. It ran through all his body. So when it seeped out it was almost threatening.
The boy with glasses felt a bit queasy himself but due to the visceral reaction from Ralph he was sure he was stomaching this situation much better than the latter.
It was clear to the fat boy. He had to take matters into his own hands.