Chapter Text
EPISODE 1: OUTCASTS…..
The story begins on a small aluminium boat, approaching a coastal inlet. My friend Cam and I were looking for a place to fish;
“What about here?” I suggested gesturing toward the water below.
Cam slowed the boat, without a word I picked up the boat’s anchor and tossed it in the water, of course looking over the edge of the boat to make sure I didn’t hit anyone or anything in the process. Once the anchor was secured in the sand below I sat back down near the stern (front) of the boat. Cam reached over for his fishing rod that was lying in the boat (around the middle with the top leaning against the middle seat of the boat) and began to unhook it. Casting the line out onto the calm sea green ocean, toward the shoreline, with great ease he relaxed slowly winding in the line. We’re near the shore of an island near the mainland. An uninhabited and mysterious island; Puzzled I looked towards Cam.
“What are you doing?” I said shrugging my shoulder.
Cam just gave me the odd look and replied
“What does it look like I’m doing, mate?” He said rhetorically in reply giving me that weird look, which he always gives the ‘what do you think’. I sat back amused watching him fish
Now for a proper introduction: the name is Zac Blakely (embarrassing to have a last name that ‘almost’ sounds like a first name) I have short black hair (always messy and kept in fairly loose curls), fair brown-peach skin, brown eyes and usually wear ¾ shorts and any random short-sleeved/singlet I can find (depending on the weather). But first I may as well introduce the ‘moron’ here in the boat with me; his name is Cameron (Cam for short). He’s been my best friend for the past 15 yrs and we treat each other as equals, he’s the same height as me with short streaked blonde, with a bit of brown in it, hair. He usually wears a T with a plaid button down shot over the top also with ¾ length shorts (his sense of fashion is closer to mine…either that or he’s trying to copy my style).
Back to Cam and I fishing by the shore of ‘Mako Island’ (yes this is the name of the island we anchored near). We have actually heard stories about this place. Fishers claim they have seen women in the water who disappear with their ‘fish-tails’ instead of legs propelling them under. Either that or the fishers must have had something that made them go crazy! Anyway as Cam continued to fish…and it's fair to say he’s much better at it than me, I suddenly had this crazy thought come to mind.
“You won’t catch anything.” I started out of the blue, reclining onto the front of the boat, just looking out towards the island.
“You’re just worried that I’ll catch something before you do” Cam replied, remaining focused on his rod and line. This sparked my competitive instinct, so I quickly grabbed my rod that I had brought with me.
I started to unhook the hook from its ‘store-away’ position and I said “Game On”.
Smirking at Cam I threw the line in the water. After a while this gave me a bit of time to relax while winding in the line. Now this got me thinking of all of the stories that we’ve heard about this Island, I mean there is the very, very, very…Slimmest chance of it being true. It being a fairy-tale has to be more than a 100%. And as I said before it’s probably already been proven that there are no such things as Mermaids…but since I'm wanting to beat Cam I decided to ignore my thoughts and direct my full attention to my line. This time I will beat him no matter what.
“Right, let’s see who can catch a big one.” I challenged Cam.
“Well, you know I’ll obviously win.” Cam boasted.
I just looked at him with in eyebrow raised.
“We’ll see about that.” I taunted.
Some time passed and I started to brag that I’ll have a little nibble on my end any second now…and of course Cam and just sat there in silence.
Suddenly something was tugging on my line… I’ll say it again ‘my line’….this is now my time to shine and finally put an end to Cam’s unbeaten record of ‘catching-fish-better-than-Zac’, so slowly (the way my dad taught me) I begin to wield the fish ‘sucker’…as it slowly came in I could definitely feel the tug, it felt like a big one.
But then seconds later the tug had stopped…Ugh…DAMN IT, I finally had a chance, just this one chance and I blew it; I just wish that one day I could mop the floor with his record streak, but of course fat chance of that happening. Cam just looked at my empty line and smirked.
“Aw, no fish, eh?” He teased, and then went back to his line.
I sighed. ‘And I was so close too.’ I thought.
So I tried again, and re-cast my line into water.
A few seconds later it was Cam’s turn.
“Oh, there we go.” Cam announced with firm pride.
And boy did Cam have the skills, he wielded the line like a pro, moving his end of the line-up, winding back on the line and then letting the line slack; and kept on repeating the process. And then he nudged me quickly as he was still wielding it in (all while slightly standing up in the boat).
“Get the net.” He cried out still wielding it in. “Get the net.”
I quickly searched around for the net, of course which was right beside where I was sitting…I knew it…Cam must think I’m no good at this. So without complaining I grabbed the net and dipped it into the water right under to where the fish that Cam had caught, I scooped up his result…another to add to his unbeaten record streak….and boy was this thing a ‘whoopa’, it was the size of my forearm. Cam sat back in the boat laughing back at his victory. All I could do was sit back down and put the fish into its new little temporary home (my esky I’d brought from home with us), soon to be in our stomachs. Reflecting on my utter failure…
‘Okay, now I definitely wish that I could somehow be able to outshine him in fishing…if possible; (sigh) but of course that will never happen.’ I thought.
Looking out towards the Island, I just wish I could find something or someone to help me get to that goal.
Cam started to fiddle around with the boat’s engine, and I was stuck with pulling up the anchor and placing it back to where it belonged in the boat… *sigh* I’m too damned depressed. Cam finally managed to get the boat’s engine working using his ‘boat-licencing-skills’ to guide the boat straight towards the Island for the night…MAKO ISLAND. I’m now thinking back to what amazing secrets this tiny Island holds, I mean I bet explorers have travelled all over this island but how come I’ve never heard about it during history lessons.
Random topic now: (about myself & Cam) We attend Suncoast High School in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia and currently are on school holidays, going back next week. Yes I/we have heard of this island (in the past) but only through the listening in of other students at school, teachers (very rarely talked about), other fishermen (I live near the edge of a river-canal bank that connects to the pacific ocean, and I sometimes can hear them talking about the island as they dock in or as they go by) and the people on the beach (by the way both myself and Cam are Surf Lifesavers at our local Beach…fully trained of course).
Back to the camp: As soon as the boat hit shoreline of the island and I hopped out of the boat, before Cam, with my amazing skills. We pulled it in further to shore with me placing the anchor (into the sand) to hold the boat from getting swept away overnight, (we didn’t bother to cover the boat because the weatherman predicted that it would remain dry tonight…so there) we started to unload as he pulled all of our gear out of the boat, I pulled up my sack with my sleeping bag, other essentials, jam packed, and a little ‘billy tin’ hanging off. Cam, I think had the exact same things as me but he was holding the Esky with his ‘fish’/our dinner in it. Cam trailed behind me across the sand and up into the wilderness, but of course usual Cam started to muck around, caught up and playfully shoved me over a bit jogging ahead. I wanted to get him back for it so I ran after him laughing and eventually shoved him too…and then the fun died down, so we strolled towards the bush surrounding the entrance into the deeper parts of Mako.
As we continued to trek further into Mako, I couldn’t help but admire the wilderness inhabiting the island….very unique and awe inspiring. We walked on some rocks through a small natural stream, and tried to look for a campsite, but of course we could have camped anywhere as no one else were on the island as far as we could tell. So we camped near the stream, in a small grassy clearing.
“Perfect.” I said as I began to place my backpack on the grass below.
Cam had no reason to argue, it was the perfect spot almost a magical spot to take in and reflect on our vacation time; just so you know it's only next week we go back to school, so in (not so) celebration we decided to venture out on this island, and spend the last 2 days here….no other human beings around for miles. Cam was so exhausted from the trekking we just did from the beach…so exhausted in fact that he dropped the Esky (with ‘his’ catch laying inside) and then decided to sit his bottom square on top of the esky. I was going to sit down next to him exhausted myself.
“No, I caught the fish…you do the tent” He said, still panting a bit; and then he rolled the dark green bag, which contained the tent, towards me.
I couldn’t really complain it seemed fair. So I just dumped my own sack and got the tent out of its bag and began setting it up while Cam started un-loading the rest of his gear out of his backpack and began setting up for tonight’s dinner.
As the sunset on a not-so-disappointing-day, we sat around the roasting fire, it was a bit nippy tonight and there's meant to be a full moon rising. I couldn’t wait for that. While talking about what we did during the rest of our holidays we tucked into the cooked fish (we used our hands since bringing cutlery wasn’t worth it).
“Man, how good was that?” Cam exclaimed as he polished off his plate.
I however continued to eat, but then answered his question.
“It’s a bit rubbery…but not bad.”
After saying that Cam gave me a weird ‘you-think-my-cooking-is-that-bad’ look, that’s when I had to correct myself. Cam relaxed a bit, placing his plate on the grass near the campfire…we were sitting on large stones we fished out of the stream (since we didn’t want to bring any sort of chairs with us, they add weight and are really hard to carry back) plus we had woollen shirts on, as It was getting a bit colder.
“So where are the chicks? Where’s the music?” Cam bickered. “You asked Evie?”
I just shook my head.
Evie, I can say from experience loves to be in other places, but Cam prefers fun to follow him wherever he goes. This is his way of having a good time. By the way Evie is my girlfriend; her mother was a good friend of my mum’s ever since we were little, but at the age of 11 she passed away, I’ve been her very supportive boyfriend and the shoulder for her to cry on. We’ve been together for a few months by now.
“She hates camping.” I remarked.
“Isn’t exactly my idea of a good time either” Cam stated.
“Well, school starts next week (finishing up my mouthful). We won’t get another chance to get away.”
“Two days on a deserted island…it’s great.” Cam said.
I guess Cam couldn’t argue with this idea of ‘alone-time’, but perhaps a bit too much alone in it.
“I’m going to crash.” He announced as he made his way towards our tent that ‘I’d’ set-up.
I continued on with my meal, and then suddenly remembered how Cam is when he sleeps…when we were young Cam and I would sleep over each other houses for the night, and Cam had a record of snoring out loud…so...
“You snore, I hit you.” I reminded him, as I put one last bit of fish in my mouth.
Cam just looked at me with a smirk, as if to say ‘damn it, he knows my secret’
I had had enough of the rubber fish but still had chunks left over so I made it fuel for the fire. I stood from where we sat. I had to admit I was starting to feel a bit tired, but needed to make a tactical pee. I walked past, as Cam was taking off his shoes to enter the tent.
“Where are you going?” He quizzed half way through taking his second shoe off, sitting on the esky. I just looked at him.
“Nature calls.” I answered strolling past and headed beyond the river rocks in search of the perfect private place. After walking a few feet away from the campsite, I started to burst out in laughter clutching my stomach in the process…I could have said anything else. I can almost hear Cam laughing after me. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I continued on to find the perfect spot to... do-what-I-have-to-do
I still had time to think and wonder about this Island, I mean I already suspect how dangerous this island could be…like its cursed or something, but camping out here for 2 days, far away from any other human contact (and believe me it took a miracle to convince mum and dad to let me even come on this adventure in the first place) and just to enjoy nature, was maybe one of the best ideas I’ve had in a long time, admittedly I’m really proud of myself. Eventually after about 20 minutes I did find the perfect spot. I faced a huge boulder, lowered my flyer and then just relaxed as it-all-came-out. (Gross I know, but still I can imagine the looks on your faces right now…. Like ‘eww I didn’t need to know that’).
As I was peeing I looked up to see that the full moon was just beginning to come out from behind the clouds…and with that... comes light…I couldn’t help but admire the brilliant light of the moon (it struck as something familiar, like something out of a dream…but a beautiful dream) , just as i finished up; there was a warm honey glow coming from the corner of my left eye; I only glanced at it quickly as I turned back to zip up my fly, but it was still there so I turned my head back to see it, but instead of a solid rock face, there was a cave entrance.
‘That wasn’t there before…I guess those people were right this island is weird, especially now…during a full moon.’ I thought to myself.
Just so you know, since I was a man and adventure had always been our second nature, I decided to check out the cave entrance. Before I entered, I quickly looked behind me in case this was another one of Cam’s jokes, turns out it wasn’t. So I turned my attention back to the cave and made my way inside, my eyes filled with wonder and delight of what I might discover. I cautiously walked into this unknown cave, I gradually checked every inch of it as I continued in….I could tell that it was naturally made by the carvings of the walls and how precise it was, of course it could just be a man-made façades.
I can tell you that the cave was short and only one turn (veering to the left) and yet still that honey-glow of light shined; whatever the source of it was sure was a good one and at the end was a solid wall but carved into the rock face was a giant circle a few feet off the floor (it looked like it was screwed in as there was about 7 smaller solid circles around the edge of the larger circle) in the middle really intrigued me. There was a medium size circle but it had a ‘trident’ (like Ariel’s father had from the Little Mermaid…and yes I used to watch it when I was younger) carved into the middle circle and it emitted that same glow of light I saw at the entrance when I was coming in. It looked really pretty and for some reason I was drawn towards the ‘trident’s’ glowing light; I was now thinking that if I pressed my hand against it could lead to some sort of other secret part of the island.
I directed my attention back to the trident and then eventually touched it, it glowed brighter then suddenly the whole cave started to make a sort of whining noise and shake. I quickly realised the floor was glowing; I looked down and saw the floor had started to swallow my feet. Then out of nowhere I was free-falling somehow and I tried to reach upwards with my arms to grasp something, then there were bubbles rising up beside me. SPLASH. I landed with my feet first, the impact felt hard and my face followed smack down.
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