And the Trees Began to Dance

[Stan']

An island in the Pacific.  A lone man walks through the trees of an abandoned island, half-empty pistol in hand, watching carefully for any sign of life.  His clothing was torn, skin discoloured with bruises and dried mud.  Some blood tattooed his lower left arm, slowly dripping on to the green grass.

His companion was missing.  The young woman who had been so desperate to keep him company on this trip, now lost in the animal-infested wilderness.  The traveller had found her backpack hiding under a tree, everything in it except for the similar handgun he had given her for protection.  He had been hoping she was still carrying it, or at least, was safe.

An hour ago, pirates had appeared.  They were separated.  He shouted for her to meet him at the rocks on the south of the island, where the boat was docked, but whether she had heard, or the pirates intercepted the message, his young female friend was nowhere to be seen.  The man from Caledonia waited and waited, but soon was forced to abandon the location when a pair of unwanted pirates came in to view.

Looking to the sky in hopes that the answer to where she was would be there, he closed his eyes when the slight hint of rain began to form.  The traveller was close to the cave of secrets and valuables, but there was only one he was after.  And what brought on a faint smirk, was Morris was the only man who knew exactly where it was.

Then in unison with the rain, something rustled the leaves of the surroundings, the jungle whispered to life and the trees began to dance. The man from Caledonia had no time to move. His hand raised slightly, the metal pointed up.

The handgun coughed.

[[ Need a female travel companion.  Anyone? ]]

[Saku]

Why had she come with him in the boat to an island in the Pacific? Crystal had fallen in love with the Scottish man, his accent, his body, pretty much everything about him and when he'd said he was going off to check out an island she had begged for him to take her with him. Anything to be near him, to learn more about him. She was a young Asian woman of about twenty with long black hair that she wore plaited into one long braid and had sweet hazel eyes, standing at around 5'7".

Crystal didn't have much experience in fighting, she knew some martial arts but that was about it and had never touched a weapon before in her life unless you counted a staff a weapon because she learned how to use those in weapons class. Martial arts was quite fun and could always help you out in a bad situation. Due to her Asian culture, most children were expected to learn martial arts at a young age and although Crystal was adopted she wanted to get back to her roots.

She was Japanese but didn't know the language, English being her only one but despite that she wanted to learn more about her culture and that of other countries as well which was part of the reason why she had been attracted to this man. Scottish accents kind of made her swoon. Things had gone fine when they had docked at the island but then they had gotten separated when pirates arrived and she had heard him tell her to meet him somewhere but couldn't quite make out what he had said and then he was gone.

Crystal wanted to follow him but the pirates were already chasing after her man and she bit her lip and turned to run in the opposite direction as she made her way through the trees, intending to try and cut around and intercept him. However, when she got to where she thought he had gone there was no one there and she discovered that she was lost which was not a good thing and she hefted the backpack over her shoulder as she tried to figure out where to go now.

It was then that a heavy hand laid on her shoulder and she turned, thinking it was the Scottish man but saw herself looking up into a pirate's rugged smiling face and she blanched, reaching up to twist the pirate's hand. The martial arts technique worked and he let out a howl for obviously he hadn't expected her to resist so effectively and Crystal darted away, unfortunately letting the backpack fall to the ground by the pirate. She had put the handgun in her waistband for quick and easy use in case she needed it and was now glad that she had.

But where was she going? Crystal didn't have a good sense of direction, that was why she had stuck with her Scottish man but now that he was gone she had no clue where to go or which direction she was heading in. Where was he?! Didn't he remember she had told him on the boat ride up that she would stick close to him because she had no sense of direction? Crystal chewed on her lip as her braid swung back and forth and she felt her breathing slow for after that run from the pirate it had sped up until she couldn't even feel her heart beat.

It seemed to be getting better now though. She wandered around the forest until she picked a direction and started off to find out where it led to.

Meanwhile back where the Scottish man was, a young man was roaming about on the island at the same time as the newcomers and the pirates. He had been stuck here for a few months and was trying to find a way off this hunk of land in the middle of the ocean and had heard all the commotion. So he'd come to investigate and see if they had been stranded as well or if they had a way to get off the place. He spotted the Scottish man not too far away and crept closer as he parted the leaves of one of the bushes close by to spy on him.

The man jumped when the handgun coughed and stood up rather quickly for that shot had come a bit too close for comfort and he had no intention of getting killed. "Hold on now, don't shoot at me. I'm just like yourself. Who are you and how did you get here?" He asked as he gazed at the other waiting to hear what his explanation would be, judging from that he could tell whether he was stranded or had a means to escape the island. Of course he could always refuse to volunteer information as well but hopefully that wouldn't be the case.

[Stan']

The Caledonian narrowed his eyes, the metal object remaining firmly in his hand at the direction of the man now standing in front of him.  Was he another pirate?  He could be.  He had trouble trusting people, and right now he was contemplating the shoot option in his mind.

"Just like me?  An' what am I?"

His words were cold, his hands lowered the handgun an inch but it made no difference.  If his finger pulled back on the trigger - his tiring finger, for that matter - then it would still put a large lead hole in his torso.  No way he was going to survive from that in the middle of the ocean.  There was no hint of a hospital or medical centre.  Sure, he could crawl away but too much blood loss would be the killer.

His mind was wandering.  The Caledonian needed to keep his mind on current events, and not in to the fantasy worlds of what ifs and if only.  Morris' first priority was to find Crystal, not like the island was that big.  His only fear would be discovering her in a muddy pit with a trail of red trickling in to a nearby stream.  It was stupid, it was dangerous bringing her along on this trip, but she never took no as an answer.  Came up with a fresh excuse and reason for her appearance with him every day.  Maybe this experience would stop her from asking to return on any more trips, if that chance came up.

There he was, dreaming again.

"Where's your friends?  Where's the girl?"  He was going on the notion that this young guy was a pirate.  The idea that it was a stranded sailor or adventurer was too far fetched for his limited imagination, instead accusing him flat out of being one reason why Morris was here by himself, looking for his female companion.

((  Thanks for replying  ))

[Saku]

Robert originally had been a pirate before he'd run into a storm and gotten shipwrecked on this damned island. He'd been here for two months now without any way of getting off it or calling for help since no cell phones or any sort of electronic equipment worked. It had something to do with the island, it was like something was blocking signals that came from such devices and he wasn't entirely sure why or how it was doing that but he didn't really care now that someone had come.

He'd expected other pirates or those seeking treasure would have stumbled upon the place within days but no one had come and now two ships were docked at the island which was perfect for him since he only needed one. In his time here Robert had come across quite a bit of treasure, gold and jewels mostly and he needed a way to take it off island, this Caledonian or the ship the pirates were in was just perfect. But now he had to figure out how to bring it on board a ship and sail off without the owners.

Not something that was going to be easy. Robert shrugged at Morris's words. "I don't know, a guy that wants to find the treasure on this island?" He asked, acting as though he didn't know where the treasure was for it wouldn't be wise to enlighten the other when he didn't know who he was or what he was here for. Perhaps the treasure that Morris was after was something that Robert hadn't found but he wasn't greedy, all he wanted was what he had and a ship to take him off the island with his loot.

If there was more treasure that he didn't know of Morris was welcome to that, Robert would head off with his ship while Morris went in search of his treasure. Not that Robert knew what was going on in Morris's mind but if he had that would have been his reaction. "Hey, hold on there, easy on the trigger. I have no friends, I was shipwrecked here a few months back and been waiting for someone to come ever since. Thought I could barter my way onto a ship and gain passage."

Robert said with a shrug and frowned when Morris spoke of 'the girl' and he tilted his head to the side. "The girl? What girl?" He asked, wondering what this guy was on and shook his head. "I'm not interested in girls, I just want to get off this island. Been on here too long anyway. Found you and thought I'd ask if I could go back with you when you're ready." Robert said with a sigh and gave him a slight smile.

Crystal meanwhile had found herself at the mouth of a cave that looked big and dark and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to go in there. But a light in the back drew her attention to it. Could there be someone inside or was it just a tunnel that led to another section of the island? She had always been the curious girl and she made a quick decision, crouching down to crawl into the cave, using her hands to push away some dirt and make way for her body. It was a small cave at first but then it evened out and widened.

She got through and managed to actually stand up to look around. Obviously someone had been living here and she let her eyes flicker over the cave. There was a bedroll and a few rocks that were set in a circle which looked like some sort of fireplace, perhaps to cook things to eat. Crystal continued to look around and saw the sparkles in the distance and made her way towards it. It was a pile of gems that had drawn her attention, they were placed near some rocks that were located directly under a slight opening in the cave which led above ground.

The sunlight was hitting the gems and causing the sparkles. Crystal gathered the gems up into a little pouch that she carried on her belt and then crawled her way out of the cave-tunnel to reappear in the sunshine of the island once more. She had stumbled upon a nice little treasure and she couldn't wait to get back to Morris and show him what she had found but where the hell was he? She hadn't been able to make out his words when they had parted and then those pirates had chased her around so that she had no idea which direction she was in.

Crystal went over to a large tree and climbed it to see if she could see anything in the distance...