Molly's Pacific Adventure

The waves slammed against the shore, their white foam spraying everyone near it. To me, the water was not a blue as I had thought it to be; it was a dark glassy green that rippled like the surface of the sea on a windy day. The sun was low in the horizon and its rays were long, striking through my thick woolen cloak.

It had been an hour since my ship had landed here. I would have preferred to land in a better time but I did not have a choice. My ship is badly damaged from a storm we encountered during our voyage and we must make repairs at once if we are to continue on our journey. On hearing this, the captain had decided that we should find a safe place to make repairs and this island was one of them. The other candidate was some islands off the coast of Sumatra but he told us that those islands were dangerous; inhabited by cannibals. We had survived many storms and lived through many mishaps so he might have exaggerated his stories but we all believed him anyway.

I was cursing both him and my luck as I tried to gather some firewood for our campfire. Walking over the sandy beach made me wish I had worn any other kind of shoes than my English boots. They were too fine for traveling purposes but they were my favorite pair, given to me by my father when I left on this expedition. I could see that they were covered in sand now, which only increased my frustration.

"Miss! Please let me help you!"

I turned around to see an Asian man who looked slightly older than me standing behind me holding up his arms like he was holding a bow and arrow ready to shoot. He wore a black gown with red edges running down from his shoulder blades to his calves along with brown pants and shoes. His face was more round than mine and his hair was black with streaks of gray-white running through them; he looked very distinguished despite his young age and closely shaved beard. As for what looked like an arrow between his hands, it turned out to be one end of a wooden pole that held up a white rectangular cloth that flapped in the wind over our heads and stopped the heat from searing into our skin; making it much more bearable in this weather. He smiled widely at me and bowed deeply before extending his hand towards me so I could take it and be pulled towards him gently onto dry land where it was cooler.

"Oh! That's very kind of you!" I said as I took his hand gratefully and stood up again while brushing off my cloak lightly with one hand while fixing my bonnet with another hand before looking at him again: "Thank you."

"Anytime! These foreign devils are everywhere around here so you'd best watch your back!" He said with a serious look on his face as he rubbed one of his hands on his head nervously before walking away mumbling something about 'foreign devils'.

I watched him walk away for a moment before smiling slightly myself as I turned around and began searching for more wood to collect for our campfire again, now riding on an emotional high from meeting such a friendly person when I thought no one would be friendly at all since there were no other people around except for people dressed similarly to him who made their way into the jungle surrounding us after we landed on this island after circling around for hours waiting for someone or something that could guide us towards civilization but no one came into sight even after it became light outside so we had to set sail again using only half power because we simply didn't have enough power left otherwise we might not have found this island without any prior knowledge or maps leading us here.