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Marooned. (Nevada x Wolfman)

She finished eating her meat and some berries, enjoying the fullness she felt. She carried the sticks back to the cave, saving them for the next time they had fresh meat. There was still boar meat left over and she set about setting it up to dry. Without all the proper tools, she was only successful about half the time. The rest of the time she just ruined the meat. Hoping this will all dry correctly she moved away from the meat.

She heard her wolf yap at her and she glanced over, the big wolf had his elbows on the ground and his butt in the air, tail swinging as he invited her to play. Taking him up on the offer she moved towards him, pouncing on him and they went tumbling. Laughing they rolled through the grass. She laid under the wolf, relaxing as she accepted that he'd pinned her. His jaws settled on her neck where she could feel his teeth. She relaxed, surrendering, noticing Jeffery watching her, and she simply smiled as he hurridly looked away.

Her wolf let her up and she grinned hopping up and moving back to the fire, their nightly play session complete. It was a good way to remember to have fun even on a difficult day.
 
At first Jeffrey wasn't sure how to react when she started wrestling the big wolf. She pounced on him, and the wolf snarled, catching Jeffrey's heart in his throat. His hand wandered towards his knife until he heard her laughing. They were just playing! He relaxed with a sigh. He hadn't grown up with a dog and wasn't used to the kind of roughhousing she and the wolf were engaging in. He watched them roll around, and he gasped again as the wolf pinned her to the ground, his teeth around her throat. Surely that was going too far? But no, she just relaxed and smiled, and the wolf relented.

Jeffrey had to smile. "Seems like you and the wolf are great friends, the way you trust each other," he said. "I always managed to relax when working with my hands." He'd started on the arrows now, and he absentmindedly measured if the one he was working on was straight enough to be used as such. Then he looked squarely at her.

"You seem to really like it here. What, if anything, do you miss from civilization? I'm thankful now that I never started drinking coffee, because the withdrawal would have made me very irritable. I think what I will miss most if we're never rescued is my father and my sister."

He looked down, breath catching. It hurt, thinking that he might never see them again. He quickly composed himself. She'd had it worse, he reminded himself. He looked expectantly at her.
 
She nods "Yes we do," she chuckles "It wasn't easy but we fogured it out. Now he's my best friend." She runs a hand over the wolf when he sprawls out next to her. She lounges there near Jeffery as he continues making the bows. It was fun watching him make them and she knew they'd come in handy once they learned how to use them.

She nods "I miss a lot of things." She murmurs "My mom, I miss the ability to go see different things, go new places, eat a lot of different foods, make new friends." She muses softly. "But yes, I've come to terms with living on the island and I'm as happy as I can be here. But for the first couple years I wasn't. I was depressed and sad, or angry, but it gets to a point where it's pointless to be like that and instead you have to make the best of it." She says with a light shrug.

She turned her body to lay her head on the wolf's shoulder as she continued watching Jeffery from across the fire.
 
Her watching him proved to be somewhat of a distraction. Her eyes seemed so thoughtful and curious when she looked at him, and there were so many things he wanted to ask of her and talk to her about.

"Well of course you were sad and depressed. You were just embarking on life as a grown up, and this happens to you. You'd had to be crazy not to be saddened by that. But you coped, and you're all the stronger for it. You should be proud of that, Scarlet."

He watched the bows, satisified with his work for now. "You know, I reconsidered when it comes to animal fat on these bows. There are palm trees here, we might as well tap them for palm tree oil and oil the bows with that. I mean, the nutrirional value is practically zero, and using that oil in your diet is a sure way to get heart problems."

He folded his swiss army knife together before jamming the tip of the arrows in the fire. He let them blacken up before removing them. He then gently scraped the ash and coal away. "This toughens the wood some, making it easier to pierce skin. I might collect some debris and try to salvage some metal for proper arrowheads."

He put the arrows away with the unfinished bows before stretching out. He turned on his side to look at her and the wolf, returning her stare. "You know, don't take this the wrong way now, but I am happy I am not alone here. You being here was a silver lining after the crash. I'm just sorry you had to end up here."
 
She continued watching him as he spoke and finished with the bows for the night. "I can help get the oil tomorrow." She offers as she rolls onto her side, watching him stretch out facing her. She found herself dozing off for the next hour or two, until nightmares woke her. She still dreamed about the crash.

She woke up with a jolt, the wolf grumbled softly at her as she stood up and walked around the small field in front of the cave. She went to the creek to get a drink, then just walked. She always had a hard time going to sleep after reliving the memories of the crash. She ran a hand through her red hair as she listened to the sounds of the island at night.

She wasn't sure how long she walked before she sat down near the creek and fell asleep sitting witth her knees drawn up, her arms around her legs and her head resting on her knees. The wolf joined her after she fell asleep. Laying beside her to guard her through the rest of the night.
 
Jeffrey slept like a baby, the fresh air and the physical labour (albeit light) taking its toll. He awoke at the crack of dawn to discover that Scarlet was gone. Unsure if she'd gone for a swim or to gather fruits (unnecessary, since they had planty left from last night), he was a little disappointed that she'd left him like that. He wanted to contribute as well, and he couldn't do that while lazing around while she did all the work.

He got the fire started and speared some morsels of meat on the makeshift barbecue spears she'd made. When the meat was done and he'd still not seen a trace of her, a little voice of worry started nagging him. The fire would be safe to leave, so he gathered the meal of meat and fruit in some large leaves and went looking for her. As an afterthought he brought some morsels of raw meat for the wolf. It would spoil in a few days and there was no sense in throwing any away, he felt.

He walked towards the creek and saw a set of tracks that could only belong to Scarlet and the wolf. He smiled. The big canine was her steady silent companion, it seemed. He followed the tracks for a while and soon he was upon the wolf and Scarlet. In the gloom of the forest she was still asleep, it seemed. She was also unarmed. She looked frail and vulnerable sitting the way she did, and Jeffrey's heart did a little lurch. He felt his protective instinct surging, and he wanted to be as good a companion to her as he could. She'd had it tough, and though he was still coping with the shock of being marooned, she'd had it infinitely worse.

Keeping a respectful distance due to the wolf's presence, he called her name softly. "Scarlet? Hey, it's me, Jeffrey. I made us some breakfast. You hungry?" The wolf was sitting up now, eyeing Jeffrey, its nose twitching. Jeffrey threw the bits of raw meat to the wolf and cautiously approached Scarlet. "Are you okay?"
 
The wolf eyed him and stood stiffly. Seeming to debate about blocking his path, but the wolf decided against it. He gulped down the pieces of meat and went to the water for a drink as Scarlet woke up. She jolted, looking over at Jeffery. She blinked as she realized she fell asleep by the river. She nodded "Food sounds good." She stretched and got up, smiling slightly st him before moving to the river for a drink.

She stretched lazily again as she walked back towards him. "How long have you been up?" She asks curiously, as she shifted to move beside him so they could walk back to camp together. The wolf trotted ahead of them tail swinging seeming perfectly pleased with himseld.
 
She was cute, waking up like she did. There was a moment of disorientation and then she seemed to remember where she were. The wolf apparently deemed Jeffrey to be no threat. That was progress. He watched her go for a drink, graceful in her movements. And she had a cute smile.

"I haven't been up for more than maybe an hour and a half. I got the fire going and I cooked some of the meat. I brought meat and fruit with me if you're hungry now."

He offered one of the leaves he'd used to wrap the food with. "We'll have to get some oil for the bows today. Are you up for it?"
 
She smiles, taking the leaf of meat. "Thanks." She eats slowly and nods "Yeah definitely. We can go as soon as we're done eating." Scarlet smiles, her green eyes lost the sleepy look as she woke up fully. "How much do we need?" She asks curiously. It was a short walk back to the cave and she sat down near the fire to warm herselfj, the mornings were always a bit chilly.

she finished eating rather quickly and tied her hair back eith a piece of vine that she used as a hair binder. She looked in desprate need of a hair cut, her hair was down to her low back and it had been a while since she'd tried hacking at it with a spear. "I'm ready when you are." she says with a smile, looking over at effery.
 
"How much? A quart should be more than enough. It's just the bows that need to be oiled. We want the arrows to be dry enough to splinter when entering the body. Makes for a quicker and easier kill. It's more merciful too. And last but not least, the meat will taste better when stressors aren't released into the bloodstream."

As they walked and talked, the wolf now happily padding behind them, Jeffrey was acutely aware of how beautiful her eyes were. Sparkling green, accentuating her smiles that had grown somewhat more frequent, they had the potential to turn his knees to jelly.

Sitting by the fire, he watched her tie up her hair. "Um, The offer stands. If you need help to trim your hair I'll be more than willing to help you."

"Ready when you are", she said, and Jeffrey let her lead him to a grove of palm trees. As far as he knew, the oil was in the trunk, so Jeffrey went to work, slashing the trunk with the sawblade on his swiss army knife. He gathered some coconuts and emptied them of milk before placing them under the cut he'd made, then he found some large leaves and made a funnel for the oil to pour into the coconut.

"This might take a while, Scarlet. Why don't I get you up to speed on current events?"
 
She nods "When we get back I think I'll take you up on that offer, its very much out of control." She chuckles as she banked the fire. Standing they moved together out of camp towards the coconut trees they needed. The wolf bumped her leg, wagged his tail and bounded off disappearing into the jungle.

Scarlet gathered some coconuts while he slashed at the tree for the oil. It would be nice to be able to drink something other than water. She tipped her head, looking up at him "That sounds good, I'll admit, I am extremely interested in what's going on out there." She chuckles as she piles about twelve coconuts up and turned back to him to listen to what had been going on in the last five years.
 
He told her all the events he could remember from the last five years. Yes, there was still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan both. Yes, Obama had been re-elected. There was a bloody civil war on in Syria. Russia was muscling in on Ukraine.

He tried to tell her about some lighter stuff as well, new movies, new celebrities (the rise and fall of Justin Bieber), the end of the Harry Potter series and gossip in general. All in all, Jeffrey talked himself hoarse over the next couple of hours, answering questions and trying his best to tell her of the last five years gone by. As he talked, she must have gleaned some hints about him liking both fantasy and sci-fi, as he had the most detailed knowledge about goings-on in those genres.

By the end, they had gathered a couple of pints of oil, more than enough for their bows. He didn't recommend drinking it or using it to cook with, though. He told her about palm oil being the least healthy vegetable fat there was, causing clotted arteries and cardiac arrests. The little grease they got from the boar was probably healthier then the palm oil.

Walking back towards camp, he suddenly remembered he'd talked about salvaging some of the wreckage to use as arrowpoints and maybe even spearpoints. "Wanna come down to the beach with me for some beachcombing?" he asked her.
 
Scarlet listened intently, very curious about everything. She asked questions frequently, clarifying the things she didn't know. It was nice to get caught up, even if she still didn't quite know it all, at least to have a general idea of what was going on out in the world, that felt really nice. They lounged in the shade as they talked and before long it was time to head back, until he mentioned searching down at the beach. Scarlet nodded "Sure, sounds like fun," She smiled, as they turned to head back down the path they'd come up, to get onto the beach.

She walked beside him, glancing back at a high pitched bark, seeing her wolf loping up the shore, tail wagging as he rejoined the human who he considered his pack. Scarlet dropped a hand to rub over the wolf, greeting him. "Have fun, pal?" She asks with a chuckle. Now the trio headed for the part of the plane wreck that had washed ashore. "It looked like quite the accident." She muses, eyeing the wreckage,
 
"Oh it was a spectacular crash, Scarlet. The only thing that saved me was that the nose broke off and skipped away towards this island," he said almost absentmindedly as he sifted through the debris. He was only now starting to deal with the fact that he had been extremely lucky.

He started shaking as the impact of his situation and his near-miraculous survival hit him with full force. He collapsed on the golden sand and wept, not caring about anything else but venting. In the back of his mind, a tiny voice told him to let it all out, which he did.

After he'd vented, he sat up and looked at Scarlet. "I'm sorry about that, but I needed to let it all out. It was scary, and I just now realised how lucky I've been." He took a few minutes to compose himself, then he set to the task of gathering material to make proper arrowtips.
 
She wasn't surprised when he broke down. She sunk down to the sand with him and wrapped her arms around. Scarlet knew it was important to release those emotions. She waited it out then simply shook her head, "Its okay, you need to get it out." She agreed before standing with him and helping him look for things he needed.

They stayed until it was dark then Scarlet said "We should get back before it's completely dark." She didn't like being out on full dark. Despite being on an island there were still a couple of predators and she didn't want to encounter any in the dark.
 
He grew fond of her as she came to him and embraced him. There was no ridicule or disappointment in her voice as she told him to let it out. And it felt good to embrace and be embraced. With a pang, Jeffrey realised how long it had been since last time he had been held like that. Far too long.

After they had gathered enough pieces of metal, glass, and plastic, they started back on their walk to their cave. Jeffrey highly doubted they'd be bothered by the predators here, but he saw no chance in risking it. "Well it's a good thing we have Wolfie around. His senses far outstrip ours. Does he have a name or can I just call him Wolfie, by the way?"

They walked back in amiable silence as dusk fell. Beneath the trees it was already pretty gloomy, and the sounds of the forest were subtly changing.
 
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