Captain Black Shadow

by Janina Franck

  For a few moments he stood still, listening intently for her movements, but other noises overwhelmed his senses. The birds in the trees sang as if their lives depended on it, and many other animals joined the concert with croaking, bleating, and buzzing. It was impossible for Griffin to focus on any single noise.

  Perhaps Selene had changed direction at some stage. Or maybe she had continued straight ahead? Uncertainly, Griffin turned in a circle. Which direction had he even come from?

  That large, pinkish leaf looked familiar; hadn’t he just brushed past that a moment ago? But no, the palm tree there would have been in the way on one side, and the boulder on the other. To the left, the ground rose slightly, but Griffin wasn’t sure whether he hadn’t taken a few steps down the gentle slope. There was a tiny brook, just the width of his hand, which flowed between several bromeliads that peeked out between the bushes and trees. He might have stepped over it; he couldn’t be certain. The forest looked green from any direction, with dots of color here and there, but in no distinguishable pattern. Not even the lianas and vines, hanging from the tall branches or curling around mossy tree trunks, served as indicators for the path he had taken. The leaves that littered the ground, crumbling into earth when he stepped on them, didn’t help, either, nor did the mushrooms growing on chunks of dead wood wherever he looked.

  Resigned, he sat on the ground. He was lost, there was no doubt about it. Selene had vanished, and now he didn’t know what to do. His stomach was in knots. Desperate, he looked up to the treetops, searching for an answer. A thrush suddenly took flight, whipping through the leaves. If Griffin were a bird, then he could fly over the canopy and see exactly where he was.

  Hold on, that’s it!

  Why fly if he could climb? He only needed to get to a higher point so he could look over the island. Determined, Griffin got up and began to climb up one of the trees. The lianas winding around the thick trunk provided him with decent foot- and handholds until he reached the first branches. As he climbed higher and higher, he thought about what Selene had said. She would come along… In the end she was the one who had left him behind.

  Forcing his way through the canopy turned out to be more difficult than he had expected.

  As he pushed through branches, twigs clawed at him, leaving cuts and scrapes along his skin, and, to add insult to injury, the branches whipped back to smack him in the face anytime he let go to reach for another. Small, unseen creatures, clung to his hair and crawled down along his neck into his shirt. He tried to wipe the bugs away, but whenever he got rid of one, three more seemed to appear in its place.

  Thoroughly unnerved, he continued his frantic ascent and eventually managed to break through the canopy. Looking around, he found himself disappointed with the view over the terrain. What he saw was only what he already knew – trees, the sea, the beach, and a hill. It was a small crescent-shaped island, but without Selene anywhere to be seen.

  Squinting, Griffin stared into the distance in hopes of spotting a ship. Shielding his eyes from the sun with one hand, he scanned the glittering horizon. He spent several minutes watching imaginary shapes, but when his eyes began to burn, he gave up.

  Sighing, he resigned himself to climbing back down again. He supposed he was stuck looking for Selene the old-fashioned way: walking around aimlessly and shouting. Just as he shifted his weight to move, his leg caught on something. Frowning, he tried to shake it free, but instead, something closed around his ankle and held him in a vise grip.

  A vision of red eyes and sharp teeth flashed across his mind – some kind of wild animal come to drag him to its lair and devour him. He roared and flailed, lashing out in all directions. He couldn’t see a thing through the leaves, but he felt a kick connect, and his leg came free. Before he even had time enough to register his relief, a blonde head rose into view and glared at him.

  “What is wrong with you? Come down, you idiot! I was looking for you.”

  Griffin was dumbfounded. “Selene?” he asked, a little embarrassed. “I thought you… uh…”

  Selene frowned impatiently. “What?”

  Griffin let his head hang. “Well, um, I thought you were a wild animal and were going to eat me…”

  Selene gave him another incredulous look, shook her head, and mumbled, “Idiot” while she climbed down again. Griffin followed. She marched off the moment her feet touched the ground. With hurt pride, he trotted after her like a beaten dog. Focusing only on following her closely, the forest around him faded into a green blur. When the girl finally stopped, he almost ran into her. She pointed toward some slim trees with many branches and large leaves to their left.

  “The fruits there are edible. Keep your fingers off anything else,” she explained curtly. Griffin yielded. It was no use arguing with her. He was familiar with all plants that grew on Kyalta, but out here, everything was strange and unknown. Selene, on the other hand, had undoubtedly visited countless islands like this, so Griffin had no choice but to defer to her judgement.

  He grabbed one of the fruits and eyed it suspiciously. The long, violet-blue cylinder had a fuzzy coat, red spots, and reminded Griffin a little of a squishy candle. Hesitantly, he lifted it to his lips and dared to take a bite. The skin burst open and the insides squirted into his mouth. The slimy, acrid flesh swished around his mouth, gliding across his teeth and tongue, while the unpleasant bitterness of the juice almost made him gag. Disgusted, Griffin spat the fruit onto the ground.

  “Are you sure these are edible?” he croaked.

  Selene only spared him a casual glance as she busied herself picking berries from a nearby bush. “Yes.”

  Gingerly, Griffin attempted another bite of his candle-fruit and forced himself to ignore the taste and swallow quickly. After a few more bites, Griffin put the half-eaten cylinder aside and watched Selene. She was calmly leaning against a tree, enjoying her berries.

  “How long do you think it’ll be until the Bat comes back for us?” Griffin asked anxiously, shifting his weight. “They will come, won’t they?”

  Selene shrugged. “The Bat might be damaged. It could take a few days, or weeks. But they will come.”

  If they haven’t sunk, Griffin thought to himself. Selene appeared to have unlimited faith in her ship and crew. Griffin envied her for that.

  Suddenly, he thought of something.

  “Maybe we should look for water and build a shelter!”

  Selene stared at him in confusion. “Why?” she asked, irritated.

  “Well, uh, we need fresh water to drink and shelter as protection against weather and wild animals…”

  “Nonsense,” snarled Selene. “We sleep in the cave, we drink from the brook. There’s fruit juice for variety.”

  Before Griffin could question what brook she was talking about, she was up again, waving for him to follow her. Surprised, he trotted after her. She seemed to know her way around the island pretty well. Fighting arduously through the undergrowth behind her, trying to keep pace, he asked, panting, “How do you know all that?”

  Selene shot him an annoyed look. After a few minutes, she stopped beside a steep rockface and pointed at a bush. Stepping closer, Griffin discovered that the plant was hiding the entrance to a cave. He turned around to Selene, but she had vanished.

  “Selene,” he shouted anxiously, scanning his surroundings. She wouldn’t just leave him here, would she?

  “Selene!” he shouted again, this time a little louder.

  “Here.” The answer came from behind some other bushes to his right. Griffin followed the voice and found Selene sitting beside a quietly gurgling brook. He laughed.

  “You’ve really thought of everything, haven’t you? Have you been here before?” he asked.

  Selene nodded. “Many years ago, with my parents.” She played with some pebbles in the water.

  Griffin couldn’t help but think she seemed sad. Was she remembering the time they had spent together on this island? He almost felt sorry
for having brought it up. A little embarrassed, he kicked a few stones. Did she miss her parents much? She had gotten her revenge after so many years, but that probably wouldn’t change anything about the feelings of a young girl.

  “We have spots like this on most uninhabited islands. It only makes sense to be prepared. It’s places like this where we pirates can relax for a little while. Sometimes we come across others.”

  “Others?” Griffin felt a shiver go down his spine.

  “Yes. Other pirates. The number has decreased since the Marine Corps got stronger, but they’re around.”

  Her long, blonde hair fell over her face and covered it almost completely. Griffin admired Selene’s ability to not show her emotions. He couldn’t identify whether she was sad, angry or completely passive. But he could imagine that a situation like hers would be incredibly difficult and depressing. Did she ever just want to scream out in desperation?

  “The Bat will come. It could be a few days, but they should be able to guess where we are,” Selene said, interrupting Griffin’s thoughts. “Balthasar is a skilled navigator and he’ll be able to use our previous coordinates to figure it out.”

  Apparently, she’d misunderstood his silence. She seemed to think that all he ever thought about was himself.

  A little hurt and bitter, Griffin turned away and decided to inspect the cave. Selene obviously didn’t have a good opinion of him and he didn’t get the feeling anything would change should he try to argue.

  He pushed his way through the bush to enter their shelter, only to be engulfed in almost absolute darkness. Waiting for a few moments to let his eyes get accustomed to the gloom, he realized that he could stand up straight. But only just. He breathed in the deep, musky scent, and sneezed because of the dust in the air. Once he felt confident that he could see well enough that he wouldn’t fall into a hidden crevice or walk into a wall, he edged in deeper. With every step, the ceiling rose higher until he couldn’t reach it anymore, even with an outstretched arm. The far wall had a small opening that led deeper into the mountain, but it wasn’t big enough for a person. Griffin could hear the distant sound of water when he put his ear close to it. The cave as such was surprisingly small, but still big enough for three to four people. The ground was smooth, and a small ledge had been cut into one of the walls, atop of which Griffin found a mixture of dried grass and moss.

  Carefully, Griffin perched himself on top of it. It was rather soft and comfortable. Sullenly, he propped up his face on his hands. On the Bat there had always been something to do, even if it was just playing cards with Skip and Ryo or spending time with Aestiva. But here on this island, Griffin didn’t know what to do with himself. Selene had it all figured out already. All he could do here was lie down and wait. On the ship he would at least have been able to cook something for her… Suddenly, he had an idea: there were plenty of fruits here and he had heard some birds as well. He should be able to make something with whatever he could find.

  Griffin jumped to his feet with renewed purpose. He would do the one thing he knew: cook.

  He rushed to the brook, to see what he had to work with. His eyes scanned the water fervently, taking in the gently swaying water-plants among which some small crabs and crayfish hid. Perhaps he could even find some seaweed on the shore. Either way, he realized with a joyful laugh, he could definitely make something edible.

  He only barely noticed Selene watching him from the other side of the brook. She was sitting on a boulder, carving pointed sticks with her knife, although she had paused to watch him. Griffin was sure she thought he had gone crazy, but he didn’t mind. He would show her what he could do.

  He walked along the water, eyes skimming over the rocks at the bottom of the stream, pausing to pick one up occasionally but always discarding it. Eventually, he found what he was looking for – a nicely thin but wide rock. Perfect.

  Next, he began to look for some dry sticks to start a fire with. It didn’t take too long – the jungle provided plenty of wood. While looking for sticks in the undergrowth, he also came across some herbs: cilantro and wood sorrel, among other things. As he was setting up the wood for the fire, Selene came over to him, a slight frown crossing her features.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  Griffin smiled up at her. “Dinner!”

  “Dinner… Like on the Bat?” she inquired. She seemed intrigued by the notion. Griffin nodded.

  “Probably not as good, but close enough.”

  A smile spread across Selene’s face.

  “What do you need?”

  He pointed at the sticks on the ground.

  “A little help with the fire would be nice.”

  She nodded and got to it.

  In the meantime, he walked back to the brook, pulling his shirt over his head along the way. He winced as the fabric scraped along where the rope on the Bat had struck him. He located a small pool that held plenty of crayfish and skimmed through the water with his shirt, using it like a net. He scooped it out again and saw with satisfaction that several crayfish had been caught, but not yet enough to make a meal. He placed his catch on the large rock and repeated the action to catch more of the small crustaceans. He saw some fish as well, but they were too fast for him and his shirt. After a few more skims, Griffin borrowed one of Selene’s sharpened sticks and impaled some crabs on it to add to the meal – one for him and one for Selene. He would give her the bigger one, he decided.

  When he returned to Selene, the fire was happily burning away. She had also added more wood to it, to add strength to the flame. Satisfied, Griffin poked at the embers with a stick. They wouldn’t need to wait much longer.

  “Are you any good at catching fish?” Griffin asked Selene. She granted him a faint smirk and took the sharpened stick out of his hands, walking past him toward the water. A light breeze reminded Griffin of his lack of shirt. He glanced down his body and realized that compared to the other men on the Bat, he was scrawny and unfit. His cheeks burning, he glanced over his shoulder at Selene. She was standing by the water with her back to him, and he sighed with relief. Embarrassed, he scrambled to pull his soaked shirt back over his head and hoped she hadn’t noticed.

  Just a few minutes later, Selene returned, a trout on the end of her stake.

  Delighted, Griffin accepted it, along with Selene’s knife, and set about cutting the fish open to gut it and remove the bones. She watched his preparations attentively, almost as if she was trying to analyze his actions.

  “Why did you take that out?” she asked, pointing at the innards he had just removed from the trout.

  “They’re the entrails,” he said, looking up.

  “Yeah?” she asked. “They look edible. Why did you take them out?”

  “They’d spoil the flavor,” Griffin explained, continuing to cut the fish into smaller pieces. She asked a few more questions as he continued, like why he cut off the fish’s head one way and not another, and why he didn’t open the crabs before cooking them. He patiently answered all of them.

  He wondered if Selene wanted to learn how to cook, but he didn’t dare to ask. With his luck, she would just close up again and stop speaking with him entirely.

  Finally, the embers seemed hot enough, so Griffin placed his large flat stone on top of them, still kindling the fire underneath. After another few moments, he let a drop of water fall on it to see if it would sizzle away. When it did, he dropped the meat on top of it, leaving them alone for the most part, but moving them this and that way occasionally to see how well they were cooking. Once they were mostly cooked, he added the herbs he had picked for flavor. It wasn’t ideal, but it was something.

  When he was finished, Griffin pushed the stone out of the fire with a stick and allowed it to cool down a little before picking the food off it. They sat down beside the fire, eating the food with their hands and drinking water straight from the brook.

  It tasted a lot better than Griffin had expected. The herbs
complemented the flavor of the fish and crabs quite well.

  The food was gone quickly – it had been a very long day. They hadn’t spoken while eating, but even after the stone was empty, they remained silent. The fire flickered and danced while the embers pulsated with an orange-golden glow. Occasionally, the wood would crack, and some sparks would soar up into the air, like fireflies.

  “I wonder,” Selene mumbled after a little while. She seemed to be speaking more to herself than him. “What’s a normal childhood like?”

  Griffin looked up at her in surprise. He had never expected Selene to think about that kind of thing. Her life had been so vastly different from his own, after all.

  “I can’t speak for anyone else,” he said after a moment of reflection. “But I could tell you about mine, if you want to know.”

  Selene nodded.

  “Well, it was quiet, I guess. I didn’t really have friends. Just… acquaintances. Children my age who were the sons of my father’s business partners, you know? We generally had nothing in common and, well, we didn’t exactly get along great. My mother homeschooled me, and since my father owns our island, the only other people living nearby were the workers. Most of them didn’t have families, so I was alone or with my mother most the time. I guess I mostly just spent my time reading and learning.” Griffin paused for a moment. He then chuckled, adding, “And dreaming, I suppose? I’ve barely ever been off our island, so I haven’t even been to any of the big cities or anything, but I’ve always dreamed about seeing the world.”

  “It sounds like you didn’t have a normal childhood, either,” Selene noted.

  Griffin laughed. “I guess not! But that’s okay. It got me here after all!”