Quick recap: I planned to finally make a grand adventure. That didn’t happen. Instead, I’m stuck in this dump with a local nature's fault. It insults, bullies and abuses me and overall behaves like a complete racist piece of shit and I can’t get rid of it and/or shut it up.
On top of that, I can’t reach out to the outside world and ask a rescue team to get me out of here, so I’m not going anywhere anytime soon I guess.
Life sucks!
…
…
The last day’s events were getting hazy like I was a hangover. When I woke up, I spent a few minutes wallowing in misery, as I thought that I deserved at least a little self-pity. It was nine a.m. Goro was nowhere to be seen.
As I decided not to waste my time I open my luggage bag to check whatever I can use in my situation. Finding nothing useful, I hastily ate the remaining fish for breakfast, sat down and started to think what to do, but I couldn’t come up with anything.
Out of habit, I drew my phone out and started messing with it. To this day I don`t even realize how far my internet addiction has gone. Oh, how painful that I can’t access any social media and my favourite video game forums. How I wish I could boot up my hearthstone or super smash bros and kick some asses as a Bowser, but alas, alas.
By chance, I have encountered a recently added number. Involuntarily, I chuckled.
It was Cooper. A funny guy I`d met on the ship before this whole mess started.
…
…
It happened just a few days ago.
I was on the deck, staring at the horizon far away. Being in another trance state, I decided to draw some anime boys with furry creatures. Obviously, I wasn’t a professional. It was just one of my hobbies.
During my creative process I was greeted with an unfamiliar voice:
“Heyo! Mind if I join you?”
“I mean… why not?” – I replied mechanically.
“Really? Cool! By the way, the name’s Cooper”.
“And I’m Leon. Nice to meet you”.
He set down next to me and started fumbling his bag for something. It turned out that “something” was his sketchbook in fact.
While he was taking it out of his bag, pages of it turned over and I accidentally glanced at his sketches. Those were pictures of naked women.
“Excuse me, are you a portraitist?”
“Oh! Did you like it?”
He opened his sketchbook and showed his pictures to me.
…For some reason, more thoughtful browsing of his opuses made me feel somewhat uneasy.
I blankly stared at badly drawn sketches as I suddenly heard a question:
“Huh? That’s it?”
“I’m not sure if I am following you?”
“Come on, dude! Where is your tent?”
“…Seriously?”
For some reason, all my talkative mood instantly faded away. Too bad I`d already signed up for it. Whatever.
“Don’t tell me that you are making your way to Cuba not to expand your sexual horizons?”
“Who the fuck told you that I’m going to Cuba in the first bloody place?”
“Huh? Really? Bro, you missing out! Don’t ya know this is your lifetime opportunity to broaden your sexuality?”
“I do whatever I want with my sexuality, thank you very much. Nobody tells me what to do, so shut up”.
“Hey, that was rude!”
“I’m not being rude, rude! It’s just my way of expressing myself. You know?”
“Really? Who on earth expressing themselves in such… Oh… I get it”.
“What?”
“You are Russian, aren’t you?”
“That was… quite… an impressive deduction…” – I admit.
“It’s nothing, really. Your manner of speech and accent gives you out”.
“Aww, that sucks. I thought I was able to disguise myself as a real pro…”
“By the way, how old are you?”
“I don’t know, you tell me. How old am I?”
“Well, you look like 16 if you ask me”.
“So you are telling and showing all this stuff to a kid who`s under the age of consent? Doesn’t that make you… you know…?”
“Hey I didn’t know that!!! Wait… where are your parents?”.
“Took you long enough to figure that out, lol”.
“Hey, stop messing with me man! That’s not cool!”
“…Sorry. I… just couldn’t help myself… sorry.”
Sensing that I was slowly crossing the line of being a complete asshole myself, I immediately changed my behaviour, trying to make up for my unfriendliness.
“So, like… what brings you to this cruise liner?” – I ask to change the subject and refresh the soured contact between us.
“Oh, right! Good thing you asked me this! Well, to tell you the truth…”
He gladly told me about himself.
It turned out that he became a portraitist only to draw naked women. That, I guess, was quite obvious at this point. He also told me that he used to accompany his friend who had more interesting reasons to travel around Europe.
To be honest, at first, I thought he was lying, as his story was too weird to believe. According to him, he was a companion of another guy who's name was Scott. He took a trip across the whole of Europe with Cooper in a search for Scott’s female pen-friend.
Except for a certain plot twist: this pen-friend turned out to be a guy. Also gay. The irony of Fate: American Edition anyone?
“Okay, that really got me”, - I confess – “send my condolences to your friend. No pun intended”.
“I know, right? So like… what about you?”
“Oh…”
Caught off guard, I started to think about how exactly I should start this conversation.
“Long story… well, actually it’s pretty short. I went to school, finished it, got accepted to university, left it and now I work as a currier. Well, trying at least. That’s about it.”
“Oh, I see. Were you like, kicked out? Of university, I mean?”
“Not really, I left on my own, more like”.
“What’s happened that made you suddenly quit all of sudden? Got sick of studying?”
“Kinda. I guess I just lost interest”.
“I’m… I’m sorry. Are you, like, disappointed in your university?”
“Not the university, no. But yes, I did get disappointed. Honestly… This is really embarrassing to tell”.
He seemed smart enough to take the hint, so he didn’t press the issue.
We continued talking about this and that. Suddenly, he asked:
“Say… I and my buddies are visiting our friends in America…”
‘So he has friends both in his home country and in America? How exactly does his social circle expand?’ – I wondered.
“So… feel free to join us if you will have a chance”.
“…what?”
Honestly, I was a little taken aback by this invitation.
“I… I mean… can’t promise anything. You see, I have an important errand to run…”
“Well, your destination is quite close to Cuba. Just drop your stuff there and come with us! Forget about your universities, work and anything else! Come on, you won`t regret it!”
Why is he inviting me at all? Why me?
“Is this… really okay? We have just met... essentially… I’m just an outsider…”
“Well, let me get to know you better and you won`t be an outsider anymore! It’s that easy, really”.
“I… I…”
For a moment, I stuttered like an idiot. Luckily, I was saved by a very unexpected announcement:
“Attention to all passengers. There has been an unexpected thunderstorm to the south. Please, return to your cabins”.
I made a quick glance to the south and noticed a large overcast coming in our direction. Suddenly, I just felt somewhat uneasy.
The careless and happy expression on Cooper’s face faded all of sudden. Then he spoke:
“Hey, did you hear it? There was another thunderstorm over, like, a few decades ago there, and a large number of people died during it…”
“Are you afraid that your chicks won’t get your body in one piece?”
I tried my best to cheer him up.
“Come on, Coop, stop it. We live in the twentieth century. Do you know how much progress technology made since that moment? Everything will be fine, you will see!”
It was typically uncharacteristic to say something like this for me, however, I noticed that in times of crisis (albeit a few) my personality was slightly changing, trying to cheer up everyone around me. Doubt that it was born out of altruism though… probably just a self-defence mechanism.
“Whew, I guess you're right. Anyway, think about this. You don’t have to agree if you don’t want, but I would like to have an extra dude to hang out with. No pressure! Okay, see ya tomorrow!”
“Right…”
At the end of the day, my Mum called me. She said that she and my family missed me very much. She also wished me to have a nice time during my “Holidays” and to find a girlfriend. Then my friends called me and said the same thing.
“I wonder if this is a Conspiracy? Or maybe a sign from God himself that I should finally find my love? No, that would be way too stupid.”
I told them all not to call me anytime soon because of the high cost of the overseas steep fare (and to allow me to live alone by myself for now); then I lay on the bed in my sole cabin and tried to get some rest.
All the while I kept thinking to myself:
“Well, that seems to be it. Everything I need is now packed in my hiking bag. I can’t imagine how I’m going to tell them that I’ll never see them all again without crushing their spirits. The last two weeks of the journey, and I’m there. Then I proceed according to the plan.
...start from scratch? I keep trying to convince myself of that. Although maybe the psychologist was right, and this is just an attempt to escape from problems. Leave them all behind. What, is it impossible? What’s wrong with living alone, being free from obligations, benefits, and in general this whole world of social rules? What’s stopping me from running away from all my problems like that? I’m a grown man, I do what I want with my life.
… On the other hand, is it worth it? In the end, nothing serious happened to me. Well, I quarrelled with my father, I was rude to my teacher, I broke up with the university, I was disappointed ... you might think that my problems are not familiar to someone, and especially to someone who is also from some rich family ... is it worth to just go ahead and burn all the bridges? Maybe… I just should accept his invitation, have fun and return home as if I didn’t have any extreme intentions in the first place?
…I think too much.”
In the back of my mind, I understood that it was not the best choice either.
Cooper and I and his company were totally incompatible.
They were interested in cars and women and parties.
I was interested in videogames and anime and D&D.
We wouldn`t get along.
I would just probably crawl into a corner during their party, drew out my Nintendo switch and play something until the party was over. I don’t even need to be a clairvoyant to predict that this is exactly how things will go.
I`ve never tried to have a relationship with women, let alone sex, and I didn’t really want to change that. I’m perfectly okay with being a hopeless virgin. Usually everyone in my age desire to be a harem protagonist with hot anime waifu thrown at them at every turn, but I was feeling myself just fine as I was.
And yet…
Does it really matter what is beyond that ‘yet’? None of my plans is going to come to fruition anyway.
…
…
As I decided not to waste my time I open my luggage bag to check whatever I can use in my situation. Finding nothing useful, I hastily ate the remaining fish for breakfast, sat down and started to think what to do.
“what to do, what to do… run away? No…”
…Suddenly, I decided to draw my knife out.
I examined it. Then again. Then again. And then…
Some disturbing thoughts started to take root in my mind…
“Am I a shivering creature, or do I have the right?”
To tell you the truth, I never liked Dostoyevsky. I mean all our literature was depressing and dreary as hell, but this dude just takes the cake. Like Jesus fucking Christ, it takes real talent to write books as pretentious, dull and smarmy and his desperate attempt to be mature. Fucking David Cage is equivalent of Russian literature. It’s still beyond me how he is so popular in foreign countries.
And yet… these were the words that came to my mind at this moment. Could I really do that? No… of course not. I already tried it to do that yesterday, but I didn’t have the guts even to draw it from my pocket. And, after all, I never got myself into something dirty like this. The only places when I witnessed deaths were either computer monitors or tv screens. And the way I was going to do this… he is so big, and it would probably take a few (or a lot) of stabs to murder him, and not only could he potentially strike back at me, but also I would force myself to witness a real death, which in addition would be cruel and horrible…
“wait, not just to witness, but to become a murderer myself! Yikes… yeah, no.
Well, if I can still potentially do it, then it will solve a lot of my problems. I`ll take his body with me, I`ll become famous for this discovery, I`ll finally prove to my dad and myself that I’m not a ‘useless human being’, and probably, I`ll get money… my *own* money. I won`t be sitting on my family’s neck anymore! If only that were possible…”
I checked my survival knife again. It was a gift from my sister for my last birthday. Very sharp and well-made, she told me that it would keep me away from the trouble. My sister… this “thing” is sure lucky that right now it was me instead of her. Because a biologist who likes to play “Skyrim” in her spare time would hardly show him any mercy.
“Wait a minute… for some reason this thing wants to keep me alive, right? I mean he`s already saved my life a couple of times before. He didn’t tell me exactly why he was so concerned about me (though I can take a wild guess), but judging about it, I’m pretty damn important for him. This means, that If I am able to survive *just* long enough for the rescue team to find me then…”
I remembered his intimidating appearance and made an insidious smirk. Now all I need to do is to stay alive and survive! Even a beginner will accomplish such a simple task…
Suddenly, I felt my stomach growl.
I whistled.
“Sure takes long enough for him to relieve himself”.
My stomach growled once again.
“Craaaaaaap…”
The dine that was on the ship was always tasty and there was too much of it too.
…But unfortunately, I wasn’t on the ship anymore, and my luggage bag didn’t have anything edible either.
I looked everywhere around me but failed to see anything but the forest.
“Well, it seems like I have no choice but to find some of the food myself”.
I took my smartphone, opened the “compass” app to make sure I wouldn’t have lost this time, and started to go away from camp in a random direction. I guess I could even explore this place a bit more.
…
…
“Well, at least there are no *other* animals around…”
I have no idea why I was worried about wild animals. Even a kindergarten kid knows that they can’t exist on desolated islands like this.
I spent quite a time wandering around the forest I was already familiar with, trying to find something edible and not poisonous at the same time. And by the time I was wandering around the island, my thoughts were occupied by events of the past few days.
‘I wonder if the other passengers made it out alive? Well, they should have: I distinctly remember the sound of the helicopter…’
Honestly, the thought of someone dying during this disaster terrified me. I had never faced death directly in my life, and the thought of it terrified me. Moreover, I was the last passenger to leave the ship, and was responsible for those left behind… if there were such people.
If any of them died… I would never have been able to forgive myself.
After a while I found such thoughts to be absolutely unbearable, so I decided to switch to something else.
‘The second question is whether or not the rescuers will find me. I don’t really feel like staying here for a long time after all… with a fucking psycho around me. And I have to live long enough for others to find me… to whom I will be able to show this “thing”. I’m sure that it will cause a veeeery strong interest in science’.
During my Napoleonic daydreams, I suddenly ran into a tree with bird nests high above it.
“Oh, food. Nicely! Time to get this over with!”
Wait… I’m about splurge the nest… what will happen to poor birds? Is it really the right thing to do?”
I froze for a moment there watching high above.
“What the hell am I thinking about again?”
I started to climb up the tree by grabbing the thick branches. They were quite sturdy, so I got it right the first time. With each branch I climbed on, I was making sure that my footing was in the correct place before going onto the next one. I just realized that there was a very long time since I visited the gym lately, and therefore I lost my muscles and endurance, so I was tiring really fast. But at last, I somehow managed it.
“Woah…”
I glanced down and suddenly remembered how my fear of heights. I was so far from the ground that it was clear that I would never survive the fall from here. But the eggs were right there in front of me so I decided to focus on them.
I reached out with one hand trying to grab the eggs and the other hand held firmly onto the trunk. There were five large eggs here in total.
“Five eggs huh? Nicely! It’s breakfast time!”
I was about to grab one of them… when I suddenly stopped.
‘I’m… about to splurge the nest…’
For a moment, I was contemplating my actions.
‘Why did… nature create us that way? Why do we have to kill, hurt and destroy others in order to survive ourselves? Isn’t this… a bit fucked up?’
It was clear that in order to survive myself, I would have to destroy innocent nestlings that have done nothing wrong and rob them of their birth.
‘No… it doesn’t matter. I will do much more damage if I will die myself. No matter how hard it may be, I have to do it… to survive’.
Finally, steeling my resolve, I decided to do the thing.
I started grabbing the eggs one by one while trying not to fall.
“Come on, just a bit more… Got it! Now it’s time to… Ah!”
As soon as I placed the last egg into my pocket, I felt how my leg slipped off the branch trunk, causing me to fall.
“AH!!!”
I made a desperate scream as I was falling down and closed my eyes. My mind went blank for a moment.
…but suddenly I realized that I landed on something soft.
It didn’t hurt… and for some reason, this fact absolutely did not make me happy.
Until the final moment, I desperately wanted to keep my eyes closed to avoid seeing the reason for my soft landing. But my curiosity took over my anxiety and, overcoming my fear, I opened them. As I guessed but really hoped I wouldn’t found myself stared down a familiar disgruntled face. Wait, not just disgruntled… it was outright furious.
My heart started to pump really fast as I realized that I was right in hands of this thing. With this “thing” glaring at me. At that moment he definitely looked like he is going to eat me alive!
“What the hell are you playing at, human!?”
“I… I’m just trying not to die!”
“Are you kidding me!? *This* is how you trying not to die!?”
“It’s either that or starvation!”
“Are you *that* feeble to not being able to wait until I can?”
“If you haven’t noticed it yet, I’m not fat or buff enough to survive that long!”
“I have told you before!! Your death will cause me a lot of problems! But if you want to die that badly, I will end your life right here!!”
“CAN YOU PUT ME DOWN ALREADY!?”
I felt that we could go on forever like this, so I decided to cut to the chase.
For a moment we just stared at each other, and I realized that I started to sweat like a pig from the anxiety of what can come next. But, surprisingly, he did listen to me.
‘Guess it’s just yet another proof that shouting and insults is the only language he knows. Welp.’
As soon as he lowered me to the ground I immediately grabbed the pocket with eggs.
“See?”
“Eggs?” – he asked sceptically.
“Does it look like something else?”
“Hmph. Instead of doing something so troublesome, you should have waited back there!”
“I was hungry!!!”
“I don’t care! Pull your shit together and suck it up! Next time you pull some stupid crap as that and I will personally break your legs!”
‘How long it will go on like this, for God’s sake…’
At this point, I ran out of my witty comebacks’ supply so I didn’t say anything.
“You should have thought about it before climbing up a damn tree! Instead of doing something so troublesome, you should have waited back there…*sigh* let’s go”.
…
…
We walked for a while, asking:
“And? What are you going to do with just three eggs?”
“Eat them. What else I was supposed to do with them?”
“You want to catch stomach ache in addition to everything else?”
“I can cook them. I’ve got matches and a lighter”.
He paused.
“I want to see you doing it. As soon as we will get to the camp, you will show me your skills”.
I glanced at him in confusion.
“Are you my dad or something?”
“Unfortunately, it seems I`ll have to be one… for now”
‘Wow. How nice. Maybe he could be my personal butler? That will save me a lot of trouble’.
…
…
We returned back to the camp. Since I had fallen from the tree, Goro had not uttered a word.
‘I suppose I have upset him quite badly. What a terrible start of the day’.
“Sit over there and give me your eggs!”
I watched him taking the eggs from me and planting them next to the extinguished campfire. I followed his order and sat down on a patch of grass just a few feet behind him.
For a while, we sat there glancing at each other when he finally asked:
“So?”
“What ‘so’?”
“You wanted to show me your survival skills. I’m waiting”.
“Oh, that happened? You totally misremember things”.
“So are giving up then?”
I took a glance at the campfire. It is completely dead and absolutely unfit for cooking.
“I need to gather the firewood”, - I finally said.
“What are you waiting for then? Go on and get on with it!”
I stood and made my way back to the forest.
“Oh, and while you here… please, stay away from trees”.
“You *do* know that we are in the middle of the forest, right?”
“You know what I mean”.
“…yeah”.
…
…
I was gathering the firewood until noon. By this time the sun had started to set and the sunset beautifully coloured the island in orange.
“Just like the old soviet song. I wish I had time to draw pictures. I could definitely capture the moment of the sunset against the forest backdrop...”
Finally, I returned to the camp.
“Hope I have gathered ones that looked dry enough to be burned”.
To my surprise, Goro wasn’t at the campfire yet again. Until he was. With the heap of firewood far much larger than mine.
“Hey human! Bring me those over here!”
I slowly walked near Goro and placed a bunch of dry branches next to the campfire. To tell you the truth, I still had an unsettling feeling just being near the green muscled giant, as I still didn’t know where this beast had come from, as well as what to expect from it next. The results showed that I should never let my guard down… although I never had much of a ‘guard’ to begin with.
As I was sitting next to him he suddenly glanced on me fixedly, which made me even more unsettling.
“So you said you know how to start a fire, human?”
“I need to check my survivor’s guide”.
“Go ahead”.
Upon drawing a book and studying it, I tried to make a fire. That didn’t happen. I kept wasting the fuel of my precious lighter but nothing came up. The wood either refused to burn, or the fire was getting extinguished as soon as it got lit on fire.
I had no idea what I was doing wrong.
“I give up”, - I finally said with a heavy sigh.
“Well, maybe it`s for the best. I don’t want you to burn the whole forest down”.
“Haha”.
I continue to sit here and watch his preparations. He picked up some branches I`d gathered and put them together, then started rubbing the stick frantically on his palm back and forth across the bark of the tree.
“Huh? Seriously?”
I couldn’t help but raise my brows. Goro glanced at me again with not the very pleasing glance of him.
“You don’t like something, human?”
“Do you always make bonfires by such an archaic method? Can’t you breathe fire or something?”
For a moment the expression on his face became surprised, then angry, and, finally, he returned to his classic tranquil state.
“You want to run away with a scorched tail dragging back on you?”
“I mean…”
“Then do me a favour and just sit there quietly. Or I gonna leave you all by yourself. Is that clear to you, human?”
I took a deep breath.
“You could have at least asked me for matches and a lighter. The civilization made a huge leap in progress over the last century or so”.
“Hmph, don’t look down on me. I don’t need your tools for an easy life. I’m not a weakling unlike you”.
‘Sheer. Fucking. Hubris’.
And so I just keep watching him doing his shtick. The tip of the stick began to chip away at the bark.
Continuing to build the fire, he suddenly began to speak.
“For a mere human, you are quite an insolent one. You are invading my island, insulting me, disobeying, and I haven’t heard any gratitude for me yet”.
“Are you turning this around???”
I could see the intensity of Goro’s stick-screwing process begin to increase while the expression of his face started to change to the negative side once again.
“Did you know that I could just get rid of you or let you die on your own?”
I started to feel the anger burning inside me once again.
“Goro, where have you risen?”
“Grr…”
He turned his face away from me for a moment, but then turned it back to me.
“What business is it of yours?”
“Well, have you been ever being taught or at least told about such things like ‘ethics’?’”
‘Wait, what the hell am I doing? This thing hasn’t heard about even basic human decency, let alone ethical norms!’
As expected, my sudden response caught him off guard, so much in fact that he slowed down his stick screwing. Suddenly I felt something off.
“W-what taught?”
“Goro… there is smoke is coming out…”
I could not believe somebody in this world could make a fire by such a method. But… as I said it the smoke suddenly disappeared again.
“Grr! Now I have to start all over again because of you!”
“Awwww, what a shaaaaame… such a bad, naughty human I am, aren’t I”.
“One more time you pull out something like this again and I`ll leave you all on your own!!!”
He glared at me with his ordinary scary sight, but I got used to it by this point. Maybe I wasn’t strong as a lion, but I was as proud as a lion.
“So, what taughts you were babbling about?” – he said during his another attempt to make a fire.
“Well, you see, dragon, there is a certain amount of rules this world follows. For example, one of the states that you should help those who are weaker than you are”.
He ignored me for a while and continued to screw his stick, pretending not to hear me, but then I noticed him speed up.
“Oh, I get it! So my help wasn’t enough for you, human?”
I was about to tell him everything I thought of him, but then I noticed that smoke started to appear again, so I decided not to step on the same trap twice and distract him. He began to put shaved bits of wood on it, then planted his face closer to the smoke and started blowing gently, making sure none of the shaved woods got blown away.
“Whoa!”
With admiration, I noticed how the tiny flame had sparked. After that, he started to throw some firewood bit by bit, and the fire started gradually getting stronger. Finally, the bonfire was ready.
I could not help but stare at it with my jaws dropped.
“So?”
He probably wanted to end our conversation, but by that time I`d already forgotten that we even had one.
“That… that was amazing!”
“What? Fire?”
All of sudden he blushed. That’s… actually… kinda cute.
“Do you…really think it was amazing?”
“Of course! I mean… for me, at least. The only time I`ve ever witnessed camping like that was in Jack London’s adventure books, so… to see like you had it done in real life was really amazing! Just like magic! Well, almost…”
‘Wait, since when I decided to flatter him?’
I just realized that there was no way he could know who Jack London as if he even knew what a “book” was, but it seemed like the “dragon” was pleased anyway.
“Heh… keep learning, human!”
‘What the hell? Did he… actually… smiled?’
I watched as he took a bunch of firewood and placed it on the edge of the fire, making sure that it didn’t come in contact with flames. He took some more sticks and set the tip burning. I was waiting in anticipation of what he was going to do next.
Then I noticed him dip the sticks he was holding in his hand with a bunch of firewood and set the rest burning too. The small flame was set up, completely separate from the big one in the centre of the campfire.
“Bring me that rock over there” – he ordered me.
I noticed a big flat rock nearby and hurried up to get it. Lifting it off the ground was a bit tiresome for me thanks to my muscles or lack thereof to be precise, but I was doing my best not to show it to him.
“There you go”.
He grabbed a large rock with one hand as if it was light as a feather, and placed it on the small flames he made on the side.
After a short period of time, he reached out for the eggs.
‘I wonder how this stuff can be cooked without a frying pan?’
He cracked the first egg and poured its content onto the heated stone.
“Oh, I see… so he heated up the rock and waited until it was hot enough to cook the egg on top of it… That’s certainly… old-fashioned”.
One’s the eggs are fully cooked he took the large looking leaf he had prepared and began scraping their bottom.
“Here…”
He handed me one of the leaves.
“T-thank you…”
“Don’t mention it”.
That smelled really good… he had even wrapped it up with a big leaf for me.
I was so dazed and astonished by his sudden change of behaviour that didn’t even realize how all of my hatred and anger started slowly fading away… for now, that is.
“There’s some fruit over there”.
By the time he mentioned it I didn’t really listen to him, as I was way too busy with the dinner that I’d already eaten.
“Hmm, that reminds me…”
I suddenly muttered without even knowing it. Again.
“What is?”
For a moment I was shocked and didn’t know what to be surprised more: why I had spoken my thoughts out loud again or why he got interested all of sudden, so I quickly rectified myself.
“Nothing. Forget”.
“Hmph. If you were going to tell something, you might as well just say it”.
“Nothing that will interest you”.
“Well, the choice is yours”.
‘Whatever… it’s not top-secret information or anything’.
“It’s just cheap nostalgia. When I was a little brat, I used to go on hiking with my dad, and so I was watching him making a bonfire, so, like… it feels a little nostalgic. That’s all”.
“And nothing’s changed since your days of a ‘little brat’, I see”.
“You really had to say it, didn’t you…”
He paused, probably searching for anything to say to me.
“Does he… miss you?
‘Now… that was a surprise question’.
I decided to act like everything was normal.
“Of course. He`s my dad after all. Even when he is trying to be a total ass… just like you”
“Hmph… for a human you can talk a lot…”
“I’m not sure I get the logic here…”
Suddenly he changed the topic.
“There is always enough food here… So, you may not be afraid to die of hunger anytime soon”.
“Oh, nice… Thanks for that, Gorinich”.
He glanced at me confused…
“Go…rinich?”
“Oh, that’s the dragon creature from our native mythology. Only it had three heads instead of one”.
“Oh…”
He paused and continued.
“Three heads, you say?”
“Yeah, what?”
“I wonder if I also had more… so while one of them would be watching a campfire, other would be dealing with you, human”.
“I think I definitely fed up with only one of yours. Maybe I’m a hardcore RPGamer, but fighting three of you at the same time would be a little bit too much even for me”.
“ ‘Hardcore’? ‘RP’-what? What the heck are all these?”
“Wow, you sure have fallen behind times, huh?”
As was expected all that I had said to him just now was a bunch of gibberish, so I started searching for words for him so he could understand me.
“Tell me, Goro, what are you doing when you are getting bored?”
“Well, I’m… carving on trees”.
‘Oh, right…’
“Okay. And we, um, humans… well actually there are lot of things we do when we`re bored, but one of them is called “videogames”. Say, have you ever seen a picture box that changes itself?”
He just stood there for a moment, confusingly remembering something, but then suddenly returned to his classic arrogant posture.
“Hmph… I’m not as stupid as you think, human. I know what you are talking about. It’s… TV, right?”
“Yup”.
“So, what the heck does it have to do with ‘vedeeeogames’?”
“Well, in videogames, you can… um… “control” the process of how pictures are changing themselves.
“’Control’? So you mean that… how pictures will change is up to you, right?”
“Yes, exactly”.
“Oh… And, what is… “hard” something?”
“Well, “hardcore RPGamer” means… actually let me rephrase that. RPG means a “role-playing” game. It’s a kind of a video game where you take on the role of some sort of protagonist on a mission to save the world… well, mostly. So your job is to make your virtual character stronger by killing virtual baddies until you are strong enough to face the ultimate danger.
I paused and watched him rubbing his Mohawk trying to grasp what I was saying.
“Grr, you are making no sense, human! Save the world? Where? Why? From whom? From baddies?”
“hmmm… this will take a while…”
…
…
Given that I wasn’t very good at explaining things and he wasn’t very good at understanding, our conversation moved in a very slow pace. I was forced to tell him about videogames in general, how they were created and a bit of history. The idea to take out my console or tablet for my bag and to actually show him things had somehow not crossed my mind. By the time we were speaking the darkness of the night started to warp the island once again, so the extinguishing campfire was the only source of light.
“Ung… wait, I… have to keep the fire”.
As soon as I saw him walking away, I was suddenly greatly relieved. I wouldn’t be even surprised if he was feeling the same. I lay down on the ground for a while and suddenly realized that I was doing stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with my situation. Actually, the situation itself was getting more stupid and surreal. But I was so tired and overwhelmed by the events of the last few days that didn’t really care about anything by that point.
‘After all, this all might as well be just my crazy dream. Well, if it is, then at least it’s fun. Somewhat. And thankfully, it seems like we aren’t so hostile to each other, so I guess it wasn’t a completely pointless conversation. Or even if it was, who cares!’
“This… doesn’t make much sense… For what do you humans … use this?”
“You mean videogames? Well… - I paused to think what say, but I was so tired to think about anything by this point, so decided to spit out anything that will come to my mind first – different ones. Mostly for fun”.
“You mean when you are getting bored, right?”
“Yeah, exactly. Well, there may be different purposes. Sometimes for education. Sometimes just to have topics to discuss with friends or relatives. Sometimes just to get the hell away from reality. Sometimes to relax…. wait, I have already mentioned it…”
“Hold on a sec…”
“Yeah?”
“Why do you even need to get away from reality?”
‘Holy hell… where do I even begin with this one…’
“You see, our everyday human life is full of events of different sorts, as well as problems, so sometimes you are getting tired of it and you need things to distract you. Speaking of… And by the way, do you know that not all humans can afford to live in luxury like you, Gorinich?”
Another of my weird line got him surprised for a few seconds… after he seemed to have gone deep in his thoughts.
“Are my life conditions that… luxurious?”
“Well… kinda… yeah. A couple of hours ago we were dining together. Do you remember what you said to me back then?
“I… said many things to you, human. So… which one of them?”
“There is always enough food here, warm or not. So, you may not be afraid to die of hunger anytime soon. remember?”
“Oh… And? So what?”
“Well, not all humans can allow themselves to have unlimited food around them, combined with fresh air and a comfy ocean nearby. Many of us struggle for survival each day, and some of us face the constant danger of losing our entire fortune and being left on the streets without home, food and any way to get it. It’s like… imagine one day someone picks you up, takes you off your island and locks you in a cage in a cold, dark place”.
Of course, I was exaggerating so it was easier for him to understand, but unfortunately, that wasn’t a hundred per cent wrong either.
At that moment I could witness him close his eyes, and the expression on his face started to change as if he were remembering some terrible nightmare.
“Gorinich…? Are you… all right?”
“Is this… really true?”
“Why would I lie to you?”
“But then what business “RPG”s are having with it? Do you humans have that bad life so you find nothing better else to do? And if you personally are so lucky, then why the hell you need to play, or whatever you are doing with them?”
“This is the only form of escapism we have, if not for that – the world would have gone mad a long time ago. Sometimes the problems we face are just… unbearable”.
“I… I didn’t know…”
Goro looked almost apologetic at that moment – an expression that I definitely didn’t expect from him.
‘Maybe… I didn’t have to bring up this topic? After all, he has nothing to do with it. What he even *could* do?’
“I… I thought that… after all this time, you humans managed to…”
I started to regret forever bringing up this topic, but then…
“No… no matter…”
… he returned to his usual indifferent state.
“I don’t care about all this. It’s none of my concern”.
‘Nope, never mind’.
“On a totally unrelated note, why do *you* care about all this?”
This question, somewhat, caught me off guard.
“Why shouldn’t I care? These are my… my… my kin, after all!”
“From what I’ve seen, you’re living a pretty lavish life yourself”.
“How did you even guess that!?”
“Because you’re acting like a spoiled rich kid”.
‘Thanks, I hate you’.
“…in any case, if that’s what’s bothering you, what were you doing so far from home anyway?”
I absolutely hated how he was managing to land such correct deductions so randomly.
“It was… an important business trip!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! You know… I… like… had to meet some important people with whom we would plan our next course of action and stuff!”
“An important people. You. On the ship, no less. Didn’t you humans have some sort of convenient transportation method that would allow you to travel much faster? Also what happened to all those communication devices that would allow you to talk to each other from the distance?”
“Well, in *this* particular case we most definitely need to meet in person”.
His expressive attitude told me that he didn’t absolutely buy my improvised lies.
“Who do you even work as?”
“I’m not obliged to sit through an interrogation with you, do I!?” – I snapped.
For a moment he was standing completely silent, after what he said:
“You’re right. It’s none of my business”.
…
…
For a moment we said absolutely nothing to each other again. I didn’t know exactly how to continue our conversation and whether or not I should do it at all. For a moment I was contemplating unpacking one of my gadgets and just lose contact with reality for a while, when, suddenly, I noticed quite a peculiar sight.
The moon had risen. Big, round and blood-red, it seemed to have emerged somewhere from the east. The creature and I were caught in the lacy shadow of the leaves as in a net. Shadows of clouds flashed over the island, pale and transparent from the blue moonlight.
For a moment I stared at the clouds. That was weird but they started to remind me something... for a moment I was just looking at them trying to remember what exactly they reminded me of.
“Beautiful night, isn’t it?”
At the moment, Goro looked confused, not sure how to respond.
“I didn’t know you appreciated nature, human”.
“I appreciate more than just that”.
“Oh? Care to explain?”
To be honest I had no idea what exactly I was trying to achieve here but decided to go with my impulsive stunt anyway.
“Can you take a look at the moon for a moment?”
I pointed him out the shadows from clouds that were flying under the camp. One of them was smaller than the others and flew as if at a distance from the others. Just what I needed.
“Guess what it is?”
“Hmph… A shadow from the clouds”.
“And this? The smallest one?”
“Another shadow. Just small”.
‘Welp here goes nothing'.
“No. It’s not a cloud, Gorinich. It’s Larra”.
“What? Who the heck is even that?”
“Oh, it’s human. Or should as I say… ex-human?”
I could see a look of angry impatience appear on his face.
“Grr, that’s just another one of your nonsense! There is no way a human can fly above the clouds!”
“What if I told you it was? Do you want me to tell you a little story about how he got to this point?
“Hmpgh… I`ve had enough of your stupid stories for today”.
‘Welp, it was worth a shot.
I was about to call it a day when he suddenly said:
“Whatever… I’m listening. Just be quick about it”.
“Are you in a hurry?”
“Yeah, I want to sleep”.
“You are quite a lazy bump, aren’t you?”
‘’…you are wasting my patience, human”.
Taking my chance while he hasn’t changed his mind yet again, I started to tell him our old native tale. Despite it being stuck with me when I heard it for the first time, I did start to forget some of the details, but I tried to do my best to tell it in such a way he would understand.
“Many ages ago, when mankind was in its infancy, there was a tribe living once upon a time. There was a beautiful woman living in it, and, one day she was kidnapped by a hawk. But she soon returned, as it turned out that she had become his wife. The hawk died by that time, but instead of him, the woman returned together with his son. Her son was very handsome and young, probably more handsome than any other young man in the tribe, and by the look of him, you could say that he was no different from the others, except his eyes were proud and cold.
This youth thought of himself as “special”. He thought so highly of himself that he did not notice anyone else. That’s why he allowed himself to be arrogant with everyone he wished, even his elders. And each day the relationship between a young man and the rest of the tribe were becoming worse and worse.
One day, he became so impudent, that allowed himself to confess his love to another woman of elder, and when she rejected him, he grabbed a knife and killed her.
After that, the tribe conceived to hate him and wanted to execute him, but in the end, they decided that this punishment was way too light for him, so they decided to punish him with solitude, and so they expelled him.
The youth was called “Larra” after that, which means “outcast”. He started to live all by himself, surviving alone and kidnapping cattle from time to time. Sometimes other people tried to kill him for that, but he was invincible. And so the years went by. And one day he came to people absolutely defenceless. They realised that he wanted to die, so they did not touch him. Then he took the knife and struck himself with it, but it broke. “He can’t die!” – the men said cheerfully, so they left him all out by himself once again. At that moment there was so much melancholy in his eyes that it would enough to poison everyone living human in the world. So he ended up being stuck in it… forever”.
I paused and looked at the dragon’s face. It seemed that it was at a loss. He was probably thinking about how to react, but couldn’t find how exactly.
“See?” – I finished as the cloud’s silhouette was slowly leaving the lit area – it was already starting to look like a shadow!
“Nmpgh…”
Goro closed his eyes.
I had no idea what was happening through his mind right now, or how he would react.
Finally, he opened his eyes and said:
“I knew that you aren’t just an ordinary human. You are some kind of… abnormality”.
“…You are the last person I want to hear it from”.
I expected something to follow, but to my disappointment, nothing followed. The only thing he said:
“Anyway, I’m going to bed”.
….
…
…The crazy events of the last crazy days were echoing in my mind, as I still couldn’t really believe that such events could happen in real life, and no matter how hard I tried to sleep, I knew that I could not.
I rose and for the first moment drew up my gadgets.
The fire was slowly going out, but there was enough light to see the snoring monstrosity that was sleeping on the other side of the campfire. Given that dragons can’t exist in real life, I decided to take my chance and draw a little bit of him in my digital sketchbook.
I opened my sketchbook and started drawing Goro. Luckily, his sleepy face was facing me.
I spent probably half an hour sketching him when suddenly I noticed that his face started to change his expression. First, he started to screw up his eyes, which suddenly turned in the other direction.
“Is he having nightmares?” I put all of my stuff aside and started to observe him.
For another minute he was sleeping calmly.
I was about to start drawing him from another side again, when he suddenly woke up and lifted his upper body with the palm of his hand holding his head.
“Um, Goro, are you okay?”
He made a deep breath.
“I’m… fine. It was just… your drivel stories”.
There was a slight possibility that my story affected him in some way given that he liked to keep most of the non-misanthropic stuff to himself, but I couldn’t say for sure.
“So, do they haunt you in your dreams right now?”
“Nmph, not at all. They were just too much to take in at once, that’s it… Hey, is that me?”
He glanced at my sketch.
‘Oh, crap!’
“I… - I suddenly began to realize that I was starting to blush like a rotten tomato – I just wanted to draw you while you were sleeping… - I said with stammer voice and made an awkward smirk”.
“Have I given you my permission to do that, human?”
“I thought I… uh… don’t really have to ask for it??”
For a moment we stared at each other. I – awkwardly, and he… honestly, it was really hard to say what exactly he was feeling.
“Never mind. I will delete it”.
“W-wait!”
I stopped.
“I said that I haven’t given you my permission, but… that doesn’t mean I haven’t liked it”
“Oh… okay”.
The next moment he just sat there, not really doing anything. The situation started to get really awkward, as we didn’t really know what to say to each other next.
“So…” – I said.
“So?”
“Are you, like, free right now?”
“What do you mean by free?”
“Well, if you don’t have anything to do right now then we can… may be… kill some time together?”
For a moment he stared at me in confusion.
“What do you mean by ‘together’?”
“Um… exactly what I mean?”
Surprised that he was unable to understand such a basic thing, I clarified.
“I just mean that there’s a certain game I need a partner for. So, like… may be you will want to be the player 2?”
I was expecting to be rejected, but, to my surprise, he answered:
“Well, since you are responsible for ruining my sleep, I suppose it would be a suitable apology for you”.
“Wow, you have a talent for blaming people, don’t you?”
“So, then… what’s your game?”
I opened my tablet. As he slowly sat down next to me, I started to feel myself very unsettling once again. Meanwhile, he looked absolutely unfazed.
I suddenly realized that his fingers were too big and his claws were really getting in the way as well. Luckily, I had a rather large stylus with me.
“So… what am I supposed to do?”
The game in question was air hockey. Assumingly he got fed up with my talk of “rpg’s” I guess that playing one of those would be a bad idea (and “Pokémon” would be outright suicidal), so I decided to try something simple instead.
“Oh, it’s easy. You move your blue thing with the stylus to hit the ball in the centre, and I move the red with your finger. The goal is to strike the ball so it will bounce right into the gates” – I showed him where the gates are.
“Sounds simple enough”.
And so the game started.
…
…
“So… did I do well?”
“I mean… Can’t you evaluate yourself?”
Honestly, I was really surprised. I hadn’t expected him to be as good as he was. At first, he started off a bit awkward, but as the game progressed, he was getting better and better. I still won, but not by much.
“It’s not like I'm into this stuff”.
“Actually its… quite astonishing for you to achieve such a result, considering you didn’t know about this technology until today.
“Hmph, it’s not like I’m unaware about it completely. Well, you said to me enough about it for today. And, I actually remember using this stuff before. Although, I remember there was a button… and a picture of apple or robot or something on the backward of this plank of yours”.
‘…Huh? Wait a minute…’
For an instant, I couldn’t really focus on whether I’d heard him correctly.
‘How is he even aware of this?...’
“Anyway, I suppose we had enough for today”.
“Um, Goro… may I… ask you something?”
“Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”
As soon as I asked this, I realized that current circumstances were not in my favour in order to get a clear-cut answer, so I use an opportunity to rectify myself:
“You`re right. I probably just got carried away”.
“…I need a rest, human. And you… probably need it too”.
As he said it, he returned to his side.
“Good night, human”.
“…right”.
…
…
There was something about this creature that was deeply unsettling to me. And it was not just his scary appearance or his condescending and intolerably insulting demeanour. There was… something more. He was definitely hiding something.
‘Should I try to weed out the truth out of him? Or just… let it all be handled to the authorities eventually?’
I couldn’t decide.
‘He said that he used technology like this before, but… I’m still not sure how old he is. If I were superstitious, I’d say he’s in his early forties. This means that – somehow – he was indeed risen “normally” before. It’s likely that it was around ’70s or ’80s because otherwise, I think he’d probably have been exposed via the all-seeing internet. But… touch screens had not yet been invented! Steve Jobs had only started his long-winded carrier, and there was no way he could have used “I”- devices before. (Not to mention, who would have given him such devices and why? Unless he was trained as a biological hacker, lol) Anyway, it can only mean that since his arrival on this island he’s already been in contact with human beings before… I have to find that out'.
As I fell, a few more thoughts occurred to me. They were very vague, weak and seemed to be totally unimportant, insignificant and simply untrue, but…
‘Maybe… just maybe… he isn’t that bad after all? Maybe I should keep him a secret when the rescue team finds me? I mean he hadn’t hurt anyone… right?’
ns 172.70.178.172da2