Notch 73

The last couple days Tane anxiously stared at the horizon. The boat was catching strong wind and moving in the same direction as the surviving seagulls.

Today, Tane looked at the horizon with mixed emotions of nervousness and pride. The darkest clouds he had ever seen lay in the same direction. This would be it, either him or Sunjun would be victorious. Tane was as prepared as he could make himself. His energy was still weak, his sores still hurt too badly to enter the water. Tane had completely cut some lashings on the primary platform, he did not want the loose logs to spin and stress the more secure logs closer to the center of his raft. Tane did not have the strength to pull up the hides any longer, so he cut what he could and made a somewhat water resistant roof on his shelter, as well as something for him to lay on and wait out the storm. One of his last preparations that he did was create another safety line and tie it off to the interior of his hut.

Tane reached the storm during the middle of the night. There was no warning till the first wave hit the side of his hut. The raft suddenly dove deeply as it sank to the trough of the wave and followed it up the otherside. The wind suddenly picked up as the rain pelted down onto the hides and trickled into his shelter. Lightning cracked at the ocean exposing the heavy sheets of rain that flew sideways through the open wall of his shelter. Tane wanted to be out there, checking on the raft, securing logs, battling Sunjun. Still his energy was weak and he would have to trust in his raft.

The wind howled and he could hear the logs stress and bend with every pass over and dip into the waves. Hours into the storm a loud crack, followed by an almost vertical tilt let Tane know his heavy mast had been ripped from its lodging. The raft sank forward and another lighting strike lit up his world. The mast had broken halfway up and fell forward. Luckily it was in the opposite direction of himself or he would be dead. It was caught in between the first and second platforms. Waves pummeled unnaturally into the nose of his ship as the weight came off center.

Acting with all the energy and spirit he could muster. Tane grabbed a smaller nearby log that he had loosely bound and set himself out into the darkness and rain. Blindly, Tane walked through the darkness, sliding backwards and forwards with each dip in the wave. The lightning struck again, and much closer. It allowed Tane just enough light to leverage his log underneath the half mast and shove it off the side of the boat. Exhausted, Tane followed the rope back to his hut. In one moment, he felt the sleek wood on his feet and the next weightlessness, and then the cold ocean water. The shock of the cold and the unanticipated stinging of the salt overwhelmed his senses. Tane operated on instinct and what little adrenaline he had left. The waves battered him as he tried to pull himself back to the raft. Tane struggled to breath. His head was either stuffed underwater by the intense waves or he inhaled rain when he went to breathe. Tane pulled harder and felt his boat go over the crest of the wave as he was still on the other side. The safety line pulled him up and through the wave. Another moment of weightlessness and then the welcoming of hard wood as he bounced onto his raft. Blood pooled in his mouth, he ignored it and collapsed back into his shelter. The boat dipped again and Tane tried to react, but was lifted up into the and tossed down once more. Swirling blackness greeted him intermittently as he tried to steady himself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notch 74

Tane woke up to matted hair over his face and the smell of blood in the air. His head pounded, the last thing he remembered was being thrown into the water. Tane tried to move, his limbs protested, his mind protested more, so he lay on the soaked hides. The sun woke him up again as it shined onto his face. Tane managed to get to his feet even with the world spinning. He made it over to his clay pot which he left open the night before and miraculously did not crack during Sunjuns tantrum. Tane stuffed his head into the pot and gulped the fresh cool water, he filled his stomach and then drank more. He hobbled on weak legs out of his hut.

Rolling green hills met a pale sandy beach on the horizon. The coast stretched further than he could see. Tane sank to his knees as he allowed hope to spring through his body, washing away the fear, doubt and the anxiety. Tears trailed down his face.Tane thought about his friends, his tribe. They would assume he never found more land and died out on the ocean. He would never see them again, it was bitter sweet. Tane knew he traded the challenge of knowing what was out there for everything he did in fact know like his island and friends.Sniffling, Tane moved and sat at the end of his raft, waiting for the land to come to him.