~~~~~

I've been on this island for four years now. It wasn't my choice, but fate's to be here.

A friend and I were in an airplane for a bit of a tour of a few Caribbean islands, when

the pilot mentioned that there was one island below that he didn't recognize. And then the

trouble started. We were flying just off shore when something went wrong. I don't know

what, but we fell. Try as he might, the pilot couldn't get the plane up. My friend screamed, I

was too scared to so much as blink. The plane crashed on the beach. My friend and I were

miraculously unharmed, but the pilot had died.

We sat on the beach, shaking slightly, when we heard the sound of people coming. We

watched as about a dozen people came out to see what had happened. Their skin was mostly

white, but very tanned. They told us, in English, that the name of the island was Terra Dewa.

They seemed anxious to tell newcomers of the island's culture. They told us that they

kept the island's population low so that they could keep most of the rainforest alive. They also

told us that each of the island's occupants had a second name, an animal name. I became

Kara, or cat. My friend became Fretia, falcon.

We eventually learned to live off of what we could find around us. We made cloth from

cotton, flax, and animal wool. We used meat and tropical fruit for food, and learned the best

places to gather water. We, with the help of the others, we cleared a place for a house, and

used the wood that we cut down for the house. Extra branches became speared staffs, for

hunting.

After close to a year, my friend caught a tropical disease of some sort. She died a week

later. After that, I lost all hope or desire of rescue. It was a wound that never healed.

For her funeral, she was place on some sort of flat-bottomed boat with a large amount

of wood, set out in the bay, and burned. Everyone attended. A few could be heard muttering

"It is she"

Time passed quickly, and now that I look back, I think I gained more wisdom and

knowledge in the last four years than I've gained in my entire life. This island is my home, my

life, and I never want to leave it.

~~~~~