Take your time, make it up after

@junesballoon

Toni plodded forward, large sack pulled behind her. The sack, like it’s many contents and carrier, was shabby, scavenged, but wholly serviceable. Even with her hard-scrabble lean muscles after years of climbing and caving in the wilderness it was unlikely that Toni herself could have carried so much without her accompanying earth-attunement. And it did accompany her as it usually did, like a trusted friend, the heavy sack being carried along by the gentle roll of sand and earth.

A low and soft rumble of earth following her before she stopped dead in front of her ‘target’ of the evening. She looked this June up and down, having never met her before but squaring her up from the descriptions she’s heard from other’s. 

“Yer the tinker what fell to the island, ain’t ya? Or a whatsit they’ll call it now. Tink-ess. I ain’t got a mind for new fangled names an’ such.” Without so much as an introduction Toni grunted and hefted the sack over her shoulder and dumped out loads of junk right at the other women’s feet. She sniffed up, peering past the tangled mass of her hair with an expression of disbelief that wasn’t entirely warranted. “Got a whole heap of mess fore ya’ just them odds and ends I done gathered up over all my years. Ain't’ got the heart to throw ‘em way but I ain’t got no use fer ‘em myself.”

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June watched with her chin resting on her bare, folded knees as a figure trudged across the beach, a small molehill of earth following after with a large sack on its crest. The mundanity of it still fascinated June. It was as if everyone here was flexing a muscle that June didn’t even have the headspace yet to perceive. She looked down at her hand, curling and uncurling her fist, and thought of synapsis and nerves. June wasn’t a biologist, but she couldn’t help but wonder if the island worked in the same way.

Her thoughts, however, were quickly dispersed like a flock of seagull as a shadow passed over her. June jumped to her feet immediately, staring back at the person talking to her. She was a little hard to understand, the words filtering through June’s brain slowly, making her feel as if she was running to catch up. June opened her mouth, trying to formulate a reply, but the other person was already dumping the contents of her bag as June’s feet.

“Oh, wow,” June exclaimed, immediately falling back to her knees so that she could delicately comb through the offerings, picking up bits and pieces of wire and burned, warped plastic. A sudden, nearly overwhelming nostalgia threatened to over take her as she remembered coming back home from the junkyard as a teenager with her dad and dumping the contents of their haul on the kitchen table. A treasure trove of mismatched puzzle pieces, lying dormant under her hands.

“This is all super cool.” June picked up a singed, circular wooden block that had a small copper crank at the bottom that was rusted in place. June thought it probably had once been the base of a snow globe, one with a small music box mechanism inside. “I wonder what song this plays.” Her voice trailed off, her fingers struggling uselessly to turn the small crank. Then her eyes darted up to the person before her, and she was grinning now. “Do you want to try making something with all this?”

It had been a pretty good day so far, all things considered. June was learning a lot from the people on the island, and the sense of wonder had completely overtaken the more horrifying aspects of the island. Islanders speaking of dark, labyrinthian paths within in the jungle, and faces in the trees near the lagoon were indeed very terrifying, but so far, the island also seemed to offer up a plethora of treasures. Like the very large and sturdy tree branch June had found and converted into a walking stick.

She hiked around the inhabited parts of the island, observing from afar as the islanders went about their days. There were so many amazing feats of human ingenuity here, especially at the farm and apothecary, that all pointed to the enduring survival instinct of June’s species. It was awe inspiring, and June couldn’t help but indulge in her more voyeuristic and observant nature. That is, until she stumbled on a small, otherwise abandoned stretch of beach on the east side of the island, hidden by a patch of trees. The sun was setting, dying the white sand fiery orange, but that wasn’t what captured June’s attention. A woman on the shore with her back turned to June, and before her, the fathomless ocean. Strems of water shot through the air at the command of her movements, creating dripping wet silhouettes in the air.  

June gasped, her walking stick slipping from her hand as she stumbled down towards the shore. She hadn’t spoken to many people that day, but now her voice rang out. “That’s incredible!” she called, skidding to a halt beside the woman. “Please, please don’t stop. I’m sorry I Interrupted, I just got kind of excited. This is all probably normal for you guys, but-“

♟

From the enthusiastic hug and open smiling face, the young newcomer then quieted down considerably, like a fire denied oxygen.  Joaquin fretted internally, knowing it was probably something he’d said…or not said, really.  He was worried about saying the wrong thing, upsetting them in a way there was no coming back.  

Of course, the risk in trying not to say the wrong thing, was…saying the wrong thing anyway, because you were trying not to say the wrong thing…oh, it was all very confusing.  Joaquin wished Aurélie was here.  Her straight-forward and authoritative approach usually made the young ones fall in line, obey without even realizing they were obeying.  Joaquin used to have trouble getting the sheep at the monastery to obey him.

But then again, didn’t he once have students?  Didn’t he once have novices and postulates to shepherd.  Wasn’t he finding that it was different on the island…and yet also the same, in many respects?

“What do you like to eat?  What fruits and vegetables,” he then specified, in case June started rattling off strange future-food.  “Do you like fish?  We have plenty of fish, very delicious.  I can roast…”  But Joaquin faded off then, snuffling into somewhat morose silence himself.  His fire-attunement.  It had been so easy, to just light a cookfire, prepare hot, delicious meals for himself no matter where he was.  Now powerless, he had to depend on others with fire.  

First Matthew’s death, then the jungle taking his attunement away.  Too many reasons to feel unhappy these days.

“I know, Madre,” he muttered with a glance to his right.  “If you say it will come back then I’ll just wait, but…no you’re right, I should have hope.”  He crossed himself, then smiled apologetically at June.  “My apologies, dear child.  I’m a monk - or I was a monk, um, once.  A Franciscan monk, from Chile.  And sometimes I speak to the Virgen María - Mary, Mother of God.  She’s…she’s like a constant companion for me, even if no one can see her but me.”

He smiled, trying to be encouraging, even though his expression just looked sympathetic and sad.  “Daniel’s Dream!  Oh, I like that, it sounds so lovely.  Your father’s dream was for his child to fly his hot air balloon?  I am so sorry you lost him.  I mean…I assume you lost him.”

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As they walked along the beach June tried not to look back at her balloon again, instead staring fixedly ahead. Panic still swam sluggishly through her bloodstream, born at the moment the storm had hit her balloon and then becoming her constant companion since June had woken up on the shore. She could ignore it for now, but without distraction, it would surely drown her. 

Because, well, this was all crazy, right? A dream or a nightmare that she couldn’t seem to wake up from. Even if she’d landed on a deserted island, this whole situation didn’t feel like it should have. Even ignoring the list of facts that didn’t make sense, there was something about the island, something about the very ground June walked on that felt foreign. It was like she was walking on the surface of Mars, that’s how far away from home she felt.

June’s gaze was drawn to Joaquin as he walked beside her speaking. Her expression grew even more somber and thoughtful as she took in his words, nodding as if what he was saying made sense. A Franciscan monk; that might as well happen, right? “Um. Yeah. I mean it was my dream first. When I was a kid, I told my dad I was going to jump off the roof so I could learn to fly. He told me if I waited, we would find a way to fly together. He was just kind of great that way. But uh, he never got to fly with me.” Humiliatingly, June could feel tears prickle at the edges of her eyes. She hadn’t cried since the funeral and yet here she was, fighting back a surge of sadness as it threatened to over take her. It was all just a little too much, at the moment.

Stopping in her tracks and furiously wiping at her eyes with her arms, June then planted herself in front of the man who’d introduced himself as Joaquin and glared. “Look dude, you have to tell me if this is like, some kind of fucked up Good Place situation. Am I dead? Because I can be fine with that, like I can deal, you don’t have to worry about me having a freak out, but you have to tell me right now if I’m dead and you’re a weird ghost angel.”

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She didn’t seem happy with his assessment of her balloon. Even with his added comment that she must have flown some distance. At this point James was used to pissing people off– though he didn’t want that to be all there was. Relationships were valuable, especially now where neither of them knew what could happen next. Sure, a hot air balloon crash was ridiculous but if she built it herself she clearly knew engineering to some degree. James wasn’t sure she could engineer much out of palm leaves and coconuts but perhaps the eccentric woman had something up her sleeve. 

“Cranebrook?” He repeated. “No, unfortunately not, it sounds lovely.” He’d always liked hiking. Getting away from it all, being surrounded by the sounds of nature. He could pretend like he didn’t get cell service (unfortunately nowadays it didn’t matter where he was he could still check his email with ease) and just be… just exist in nature the way things probably should have stayed thousands of years ago. “I’m from London. We aren’t exactly known for our trails.”

Watching June take a few strides he followed. “I agree. We shouldn’t be alone. No telling whats in that jungle,” he looked towards the tree-line, unable to see past the first line of trees and bushes. Despite the sun beating down on them the jungle looked dark. As if light was sucked out of it and hidden away. He grimaced as he found himself in the ocean again. “How is the water so bloody cold when it’s hotter than hell on land?”

He followed June up the side of the ship. “I hope you’re right about my wife… I know she’ll have people looking for me…” Would she? No, Liliana was smart. If she returned to their cabin without him it wouldn’t take long for his calls and emails to pile up and people wondering where he was. If would be suspicious if she didn’t go to police. “But I’m not sure… well, the climate here doesn’t scream British Isles. I fear I’m a long way from where I fell…”

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June’s movements paused as James confirmed he wasn’t from Cranbrook. London was a whole ocean away so even if the currents were just right, it should have been nearly impossible for them to wash up on the same shore. June looked back at James briefly, considering if she should tell him this. She doubted he knew that Cranbrook was in Canada, and she didn’t want to cause him further panic, though he seemed to be keeping a reasonably cool head for now.

Instead, June focused on another subject. “My father always taught me that there was no sense worrying about things you can’t change,” she said with a grunt as she pulled herself up one rusted and broken hand hold at a time. Splinters skewered the meat of her palms, making her wince and hiss underneath her breath as she spoke. “So, I don’t think we should worry about where we came from, for now. We’re here so-“

With a finale heave, June pulled herself up into the innards of the ship. The skin of her bare stomach raked painfully across the damp brown wood, scratching it with raw red lines, but June ignored the discomfort. She turned and offered James her hand to help pull him up alongside her, palm still riddled with splinters. “Let’s just worry about where we’ll be sleeping for the night. Then food and water, then fire. Trust me, I’ve binge watched four seasons of Survivor, so I think I know what I’m talking about.”

-0-0-0-

Humming ‘The Way You Do The Things You Do’ as he walked, Jamie was ostensibly headed for the farm to check in at the apothecary to see if he could be of any use, but when he heard the voice call from behind him he stopped where he stood and turned round to face them. “Hello June,” Jamie said with a smile, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Jamie. And you can ask as many questions as you like, love. I’ll do my best to answer them.” He leaned in in a faux conspiratorial way, still grinning. “And what I don’t know, we’ll bloody well find out, yeah? I’m still pretty new to the island myself.”

When she specified what it was that she was interested in though, Jamie nodded. “Attunements,” he said, “And I promise no one’s been fucking you about. They’re real. They’re just a bit… off at the moment.” 

“I’m earth attuned,” he explained, “Or I was… I’m still trying to get it back again. You see, you just missed some jungle fuckery of the highest degree and everything’s still a bit muddled up.”

“But welcome to Meridium, yeah? How else can I help?”

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It comforted June immensely to know that she wasn’t the only new person on the island. Relief flooded her features and posture and a pleasant smile returned to her face. She still felt an uneasiness in her stomach at the ease with which he used the vocabulary everyone else on the island was using though. Wasn’t that the first warning with cults, that they tried to teach you a whole new language in order to manipulate you?

“So, your powers are… off, right now?” June summarized, desperately wishing she had her notebook to scribble in. But that had all been lost to the waves and June was on her own. The prospect of Jamie’s powers being conveniently nonfunctioning right now didn’t surprise June. She’d seen some amazing things on the island up until now, but she still wasn’t sold on everything she’d been told.

“But they worked before, right? And you know that for certain?” A thoughtful expression crossed June’s face, her eyebrows furrowed in a mixture of confusion and disbelief. “You said you were earth attuned, and that means you could like-”

June waved her hands around, doing her best approximation of what she’d seen animated ‘earth-benders’ do on television. It all ended with her smacking her fist onto her open palm. “Do all that and a boulder would come and crush me to pieces?”

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Magnolia wandered. At first she had remained near her homestead in the East, staring blindly at her work in the distillery or fixing her eyes to the pages of her own story and the faces, untarnished with bark and blood, residing within. It had been as much as an unwillingness to face living as it had been to protect them; her rage crossed with uncontrollable power were a poor combination. A section of jungle that had encroached on her home had been, for lack of a better word, flattened in a moment of untempered rage. Roots had yanked up, branches snapped, and now trees lay in a heap. It was best to keep to herself. 

She told herself it would be easier to expand, now, with the easy-access lumber. Expand what she hadn’t decided, but it lent the point of destruction a sense of intentionality.

Now, however, back under control, she wandered. Down the beach, past the farm, and into the North where she used to be able to run into Matthew and see a familiar desolation in his kinder eyes. Instead Magnolia was met with a blob of color writhing around in the sand like a mouse had gotten stuck in a jellyfish. With slow, unbidden steps Magnolia approached and toed the fabric as the stranger called out to her. She could hear rabbit-quick heartbeats and the scrape of their fingers against the wet fabric. With their struggles she saw an opening and hooked her fingers in the hole and pulled up, the sodden fabric heavy and unruly. With a grumble she directed the wind into it, inflating the fabric like, well, what it appeared to be, until the space expanded and no longer clung to the being inside.

No ducked her head to scrutinize the damp and battered individual. “The fuck are you doing, kid?”

A crashing wave of light had June squinting as they turned their head in the direction it was coming from. They scrambled towards freedom, only to be hit in the face with a rush of air that had the tarp of their balloon expanding. June gasped in amazement, looking all around themself as wind carried the waves of fabric up until June was at the center of a small cavern. Shadows danced across the surface of the water and sand for a moment, filtering in muddled colors from the swirls of purple and yellow on the balloon’s fabric. Laughing with wonder, June spun around on their knees until she was facing the sound of a voice, the person just outside the balloon silhouetted in the light. “This is incredible!” June exclaimed, raising their arms up in triumph before quickly crawling towards the exit.

Once out again and in the sun, June’s clammy skin warmed immediately. They stood up, clapping their hands together until all the excess sand was out from between their fingers. They looked at the balloon, partially inflated on the beach, and then at the stranger. Then June looked for the high-powered fan that the stranger must have used to inflate the balloon— but there was nothing on the beach except the two of them. Could it really just have been a lucky wind? Everything had seemed so strange since June had crash-landed, maybe they’d hit their head and were having minor hallucinations. But as far as they knew, they weren’t exhibiting any other signs of a concussion.

Finally, they turned to the woman after looking around wildly. “Thanks for helping, dude. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along.” June grinned, taking in the woman’s stern expression and finding comfort in it. Stern and serious people usually had the most trustworthy information about any given subject, as they liked to get straight to the point. It was just a matter of getting answers out of them. “I was trying to find what my balloon was caught on, but I got a little stuck myself. I guess I should have come around from the outside…”

June looked out towards the water, squinting against the sunlight. Something out there was keeping the balloon from being carried away and sunk, but they hadn’t found it from inside the balloon so the blockage must be nearer to the basket. Tilting their head back towards the stranger they said, “What do you think?”

Location: The Farm, North Beach Time: Midmorning @junesballoon​

Piper, in the aftermath of the most recent jungle horrors that she had managed to avoid this time, had kept herself busy. The animal sector of the farm was running smoothly. She’d erected fences to keep all the four legged friends (save Maverick who could Houdini himself at will and who she had stopped trying to contain) in one place to graze contentedly. There was even a makeshift shelter for them that she’d put up with the help of the farmhands.

Now it was a matter of expanding. Wary of going into the jungle, now more so than ever, Pip had taken to walking the tree line to search for straggling animals. Thus far, she’d had middling success with the addition of a young buffalo with an attitude and a half-lame goat. With her latest excursion, she’d found another new and potential addition, only she needed a bit of help with its acquisition.

Rushing back to the farm, Piper cast about for any of her usual helpers, but Ulysses and Mandip were no where to be seen, as were Madi and Emre. Undeterred, Pip bounced into the path of a friendly looking stranger with a wide smile. “Hello!” she chirped. “Do you mind-Hi, I’m Piper—do you mind helping me with something? See, I take care of the animals, and there’s an animal, it’s a goat, that I need—it’s in a, well you’ll see—do you think you could help me for a minute?” At her feet pink and white blooms continued to migrate up through the soil to create an impenetrable carpet at their feet. It was a good thing they seemed to taste nice for the animals as they continued to form paths everywhere she stepped. “Sorry, sorry. I, uh, am the vet. And I need help to get a goat. And I can’t find anyone else to help me… It’s nice to meet you!”

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After June had scavenged all there was to find out of the tanged mess of her balloon, they found that most of their tool box had survived, though the same could not be said for June’s cellphone or radio, which were both smashed to pieces and were too waterlogged to prove worth repairing. But even more exciting was the fact that they’d found their sewing kit still intact at the bottom of their toolbox, and that the spools of thread were completely fine once they’d dried off in the sun. This wasn’t exactly a major step forward in the balloon department, since June couldn’t just sew the tarp with a needle and thread, but June was still willing to count it as a win.

They were just finishing up cleaning off their smallest wrench and fitting it back into its proper place, when a pair of sneakers stopped just at the of their vision, quickly blanketed by a canopy of flowers that sprouted up like Disney magic. June froze, staring at the flowers in wonder and awe for a mouth-agape moment. Then slowly June looked up to the figure in front of her. The bouncy woman was speaking, but June had only caught snippets of what she said, so surprised by her arrival.

“Sure, dude,” June said, wiping their grimy hands off on their jeans and plucking a twirling pink flower up at its stem, studying it intently as they stood up. “Missing goat, I can help with that. Uh, I’m June.” June hesitated for a second, then awkwardly offered the flower to Piper— it was technically hers, wasn’t it? Was it weird that June had plucked it? But curiosity quickly won over.

“Does it like, take energy for you to do that? Or is it just something that happens?”

♟

“You were in the balloon all by yourself, ahh, I see.  Tell me, are hot air balloons a common mode of transportation in the fut - um - where you come from?”  Joaquin said, correcting himself from asking ‘in the future’ just yet.  To him, anyone who arrived on the island after him was just ‘from the future’.  It was simply easiest to just refer to them that way, but.  This new arrival however, needed assistance and the proper briefing from Esther or Seamus, first.  They’d need a bit of time to adjust and process.   And Joaquin didn’t want to puzzle them further with his own way of speaking.

“Ahhhhh, well - that is not the Seamus I mean, no,” Joaquin said with a little giggle.  “But it sounds fairly similar to the Seamus I know.  I promise that won’t happen here, even if you do meet Seamus.  But let’s hope we run into Esther first, yes?”  He kept patting their back, gently trying to steer them away from the balloon for now.  They needed to find Esther or Seamus.

Until they did, Joaquin hoped he could remain vague and pleasant enough that this poor new arrival didn’t get scared and upset, while in his care.

“Let’s…how about we just leave the balloon for a little while, yes?  It doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere - and I promise no one is going to steal it.”  People might start to harvest it though…which would likely be upsetting, but there was nothing to be done about that.  Or the island might swallow the balloon up entirely - also upsetting, but again.  Nothing that either or them could do about that. Joaquin only glanced at the jungle, then quickly looked away.

“Ahaha!  No bad news.  Well, not from me anyway.  Well - what I mean is - it’s really just news, not really good or bad.  Um, depends on how you look at it?  Come - come along with me.  You probably need some water and food as well, yes?  We’ll find Esther or Seamus, you’ll meet them and they’ll have a nice chat with you, and everything will be fine. What’s your name, my dear?  I’m called Joaquin, or Sisco, for my first name.  I’m called both.”

Joaquin had no idea how his attempts to reassurance would sound, but…he hoped he was channeling a bit of Matthew’s old confidence and calmness.  

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Dread and uneasiness settled like stones in June’s stomach the more the man spoke. He seemed so pleasant and helpful, but his words hinted at something darker that he was hesitant to reveal to June out of some sense of pity. It made June tense, and they were sure he could feel the way their shoulders stiffened as he gently patted their back. Leave the balloon? It was… Well, June had just realized it was all they had. Everything left of their father and their life in Cranbrook lay in a heap on this beach. Even if it wasn’t going anywhere, how could they just leave it to the ocean’s whims? What if they came back and it was gone?

No. June couldn’t think that way. That would only lead to a dead end. June sighed, then nodded. “Okay,” they said quietly after a moment, and stepped further up the beach to show that they were being compliant. After all, even if the man was insane, it was better to do as he said for now and not risk any point of contention. Plus- their stomach gurgled loudly. “Water and food do sound nice.” The last food they’d had was a bagel for lunch at about 40,000 feet in the air, so their body was probably only sustaining itself on adrenaline at this point.

As they both started walking June took in their surroundings. Joaquin (or Sisco, which was funnier) likely had answers about where they were or what was going on, but June found themself unusually quiet and contemplative, only answering questions that were asked of them.

“I’m June. June Osman.” Their smile had dimmed now to only a polite curve. “And um. To answer your earlier question, no. Most people uh. Most people drive cars. The balloon is my father’s. He started it and I finished it and I named it after him. Daniel’s Dream is what it’s called.” They looked over their shoulder at the balloon, a pang of regret in the chest. “I was going to paint the name on it after my maiden voyage but-” Now their smile turned sad. “I guess I have other things to worry about, now.”

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Stuff was always happening on the North Beach. It was like the hub of the island, and when she first came out of the jungle, Becca learned that quickly. It was why she had decided to stake down claim elsewhere, away from the concentration of people. Still, islanders could always find themselves back on the North Beach for some reason or another, and this particular afternoon brought a different sort of surprise.

Rebecca stared at the large, deflated object in a combination of wonder and confusion, slowly approaching from further up the coast. What on earth was it? Had it come from the sky? It wasn’t like the plane, or the ship at all. She’d never seen anything like it. Couldn’t remember anything like it described to her by one of the other castaways.

She blurt out a scream, hand covering her mouth when the other voiced peeped out from beneath the thick tarp floating in the water. Becca hadn’t been expecting anyone in the wreckage. She hurried into the water, the cold sea water licking at her calves. She bent down to try and take a look at who was trapped. “Hello?” Rebecca repeated, hoisting up the thick fabric as best she could. She could see the slight movement and struggle, and called out again, “Are you ok? Um…” Becca narrowed her eyes at the water surrounding the area and backed up onto the sandy coastline again, “Hold onto something maybe?” She didn’t see exactly where anything was, Becca hadn’t taken the time, but she breathed steadily, easily tapping into her attunement and getting a hold on the small area of ocean. She pulled the tide higher and further so that the damaged air balloon lifted from its snag and washed ashore.

Now that there was more to see of the strange object, Becca was further intrigued, and rounded it in a rush, peeking under the canvas here and there. “Are you good?”

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“Oh, hi. Hey, it’s okay, I’m fine-” June said a little breathlessly, grinning despite their predicament. June had feared the worst after waking up on a beach with a wrecked hot air balloon, but things couldn’t be so bad if there was someone around to help them out. All they needed was to find a way out, then they could get back to the matter of rescuing Daniel’s Dream. June was about to try to instruct the stranger to find a hole in the tarp, but the stranger seemed to have other ideas.

Hold on to something? Why would they need to do that? June felt around in the dark water, blindly reaching for a hand hold, but there was nothing but the balloon itself to grab on to.  

Then the water moved. June yelped, bare feet slipping in the wet sand until their head plunged beneath the water and they ended up swept away, violently coughing up the salty taste from their lungs as they tried to keep their head above the waves. The water carried them helplessly in a tangle of their balloon up to the shore and then deposited them there in a heap. June gasped and pushed their way through the fabric, slightly panicked now even though they weren’t in the water any more. What had just happened? How had the water done that? That hadn’t felt like a normal tide and it had knocked the whole balloon loose.

A sliver of light cut through the shadows and June looked towards it to see a woman peering through. “I don’t know if good is the word I’d use, but I’m alive.” They staggered onto their hands and knees and crawled out from under the balloon, feeling dizzy and disoriented and a little nauseous. “What- what was that?” They looked around but the ocean seemed calm now. Then June looked at the woman from their kneeling position on the sand. “Did you see that? The water, it just moved like it was sentient!”

It wasn’t really like June to be shy about much, but suddenly being around so many new people, and in such a strange environment, was making June hesitant to approach people. She could hardly believe half the things these islanders were telling her, but maybe the hardest to believe was the whole elemental powers thing. It was straight out of that tv show she’d liked as a pre-teen. Maybe they had all just spent too much time in the sun and had gone crazy, that was a distinct possibility. Or maybe they were all in a weird cult. Some of them had even told her they were more than a hundred years old while still looking not a day over thirty-five. That seemed pretty culty to June.

With a sigh, June scanned the beach. She’d also been warned about not venturing into the jungle, and as unprepared as she was for that sort of expedition, she’d heeded the islanders’ words. But she still had a lot of questions so she went in search of someone who looked like they wouldn’t chew her out for annoying them.

Finally, she spotted a man by the tree line who didn’t look like he was too busy. June approached him from behind, stopping a few feet away to call out so she wouldn’t surprise him. “Uh hi. Hello,” she began, giving an awkward little wave. “I’m June. I’m new here. Can I ask you a couple questions?” God, she sounded like she was a newbie little intern. June straightened up and tried not to look so helpless. “Specifically, about the whole uh. Weird powers thing. That wasn’t someone fucking with me, right?”

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When he heard her yelp James jumped, more than he probably should have but he was on edge. When he noticed the woman’s fingers pinched around her elbow he huffed and shook his head– more in response to himself than her but it didn’t come off very flattering. He ruffled his hair, feeling the sand shake from his curls. He grimaced a little, feeling the coarse sand against his scalp but at least he hadn’t found any seaweed or crabs. “This feels like a joke,” he said to himself. “Someone’s idea of a fucked up joke.” James wasn’t sure who was laughing. Maybe a bunch of his colleagues who not-so-secretly hated his guts. James assumed everyone he worked with disliked him enough to throw him under the bus if given the opportunity. He didn’t take it personally. That was business. His own father would have done the same to him, and vise a versa.

James nodded along with the woman, agreeing that the beginning was the best place to start. Perhaps they could find similarities in their stories and piece together from there what had happened. He listened to her story with intent, ready to hang on every word, and then it was over. A single sentence that explained nothing. “June…” he repeated, memorizing the name. She was right. They weren’t alone and that was something. At least James wouldn’t end up talking to a coconut. “You built a hot air balloon and immediately crashed,” he said matter of factly. “Well, not immediately. Else you would probably know where we are.”

It was his turn to start at the beginning. “My name is James Crain. I remember hiking with my wife, on the moors. I…” His wife’s face, a look of disbelief at her own actions flashed in his head, the last thing he saw before feeling himself fall through the air. Before he accepted that this was his end. James didn’t like being wrong but this one time he would accept it. “I fell. Slipped.” A heavy sigh left his lips. “Then washed up on shore, saw this boat, met a lady with a hot air balloon…”

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June’s brow furrowed, insulted at the use of the term ‘immediately crashed.’ She’d been up in the air for hours and everything had been going well until the storm had hit. The clouds had come out of no where and moved as quickly as a descending dragon. Those factors were hardly her fault, how was she supposed to have known to prepare for that? She frowned, though she allowed the comment to pass by without argument. It was hardly the most important matter at hand right now. June listened to James’ side of the story, but it only made her frown deepen. Something was weird about this guy. He kind of made June’s skin itch unpleasantly, as if she was allergic to being in his presence.

And not only that, but his name stuck in the folds of her brain. “James Crain,” she said, turning the name over in her mouth to test it out. Yep, she’d definitely said it before, but when? “That sounds so familiar. Are you from Cranbrook too? We have a lot of hiking trails but none of them connect to the ocean.”

Sensing that she’d get no more clarification from James— or at least if she did it wouldn’t be useful to their current situation— June turned her attention to the ship again. It looked like it the inside might be accessible if they climbed through the broken half and the inside might make for better shelter than the raw elements of the beach.

“Come on, James.” She turned and gestured for him to follow as she waded into the shallow water. “Let’s walk and talk. Or well, climb and talk, I want to get up into the guts of this ship. If your wife knows you’re missing we might get rescued soon, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. I don’t wanna be alone out here when night starts to fall.”

♟

“Ah-ha!  There you are! I hope you’re not a seal or something,” Joaquin joked - and it was a very silly joke, considering he was grasping a hand and not a flipper.  It was easy to haul them out after that.  Joaquin was old but still pretty sturdy and strong enough, and they were a slight creature who wanted out as quickly as possible.  Momentum did what it did, bringing the young person colliding against Joaquin.  He chuckled, holding them steady.

“Ahhhh fantastique.  Are you okay?  Are you – oh!”  A flurry of arms wrapped arounf Joaquin, and he laughed again, heartily patting their back.  They were warm and thrumming with excitement, and it made Joaquin miss his attunement dearly.  But he was never one to say no to a friendly hug.

“Oh no, no dear child, it was no trouble. No troubles at all.  And I’ve saved bacon as well?   Well…that’s nice to hear.  We do get some boar occasionally but I suppose pork has its own taste…”  Not that Joaquin could recall the taste of bacon anymore.  (And not that he understood June’s idiom at all.)

“You crashed on the island with this,” Joaquin said, looking down at the balloon.  “Did you come with anyone else, dear, or were you alone?  And um…has anyone…you know.  Spoken to you yet?  About Meridium, and about. Um.  Well, about this island.  Have you met, um, Esther?  Or Seamus?”

He tried not to be sad, thinking about how it should’ve been Matthew Alphonsus.  Matthew had been acquainting people to the island for two hundred years.  Now gone, the responsibility fallen to others.  

And currently, Joaquin did paint a rather odd picture.  Since he’d lost his attunement, he no longer felt cold all the time.  Without the need to bundle into sweater and robes, the old monk now dressed for an existence in the tropical sun - but in his own way.  He wore a crop top - clearly a woman’s blouse - as well as a sarong knotted over a pair of shorts.  On his head, perched a wide-brimmed hat woven from coconut fronds; and his feet sprawled in old flip flops.    He was the picture of eccentricity, not that Joaquin realized this.

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Now that June was out again in the light of day, they could really look at the stranger that had saved them. The relieved, adrenaline fueled twinkle in their eyes dwindled to a low burning ember as June took in the man’s appearance. It was clear from one look at him that it had been a while since he’d seen civilization, the man looked half wild except for his exquisite taste in fashion-- the maroon blouse absolutely suited him. But the way he was speaking was only building towards an assumption June didn’t find very appealing at all.

“No, no it was just me,” June replied, trying to sort through the questions and extrapolate what the man could mean by asking them. They looked at the balloon, then at the basket still bobbing a few yards out in the water. It had been built for more than just a single passenger, and many concerned voices had warned June that flying alone would risk disaster, but they hadn’t listened. No one was going to take the hot air balloon out on its first voyage other than June or their father. And well, their father hadn’t really been around.

“I haven’t met anyone named Esther.” June jerked their head back towards the man, abandoning their train of thought for the matter at hand. They had to find out what was going on before they could begin to tackle the situation. “But I knew a guy named Seamus in grade school. He used to wipe boogers on girls he liked it. I hope he’s not here.” A shudder ran down June’s spine at the memory. Then their gaze was drawn to the distant jungle and the way it stretched endlessly into a blanketed shadow that seemed too heavy to focus on for very long.

“I had a map with me in my basket, but I don’t remember a place marked Meridium on my map and that seems… ominous. I kind of get the feeling that you’re about to give me some really bad news.”