#stream answer

Iseul stared dully at the horizon the sun blazing down on her and the warm wind rustling her hair. This was definitely not Maine. She would otherwise be standing shivering in the cold, soaked to the bone. No, this wasn’t Maine. But where was she exactly? There was a strikingly blue sea in front of her, and behind her, there was a thick rainforest. Those were the only two things she could see for miles. Looking at the sun Iseul guessed that it was past noon.

Her memories were not of much use to her, the last thing she could remember is gushing to her friend Joy about how excited she was to be finally going back home for the weekend. Armed with limited recollections, a splitting headache, and really a desire to have a bite to eat she headed out.

The soft sand made it difficult for Iseul to move, her heavy-set combat boots were only dragging her down. She had shed her thick fall coat a while ago, the heat making it nearly unbearable for her. The area where she inexplicably found herself reminded her of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The soft sand, the warm breeze, the lush green palm trees, and a thick bush that seemed impossible to navigate through.

Iseul could feel her head throbbing, and honestly panic started to set into her. She had no idea where she was, nothing to eat or to drink, even Bear Grylls wouldn’t know what to do. She trudged through the thick foliage of the forest, branches, and thorns scratching her arm and face. Iseul wondered if some might be poisonous. Dying of poison, not even a half-day at this strange place would be very embarrassing. She would roll up in the afterlife all dead and all, and other dead people would ask her how she died, and she’d have to say, ‘oh yeah I died because a strange plant scraped me’ and the rest would all laugh at her, that was worst case scenario though.

With every step Iseul took the forest seemed to get thicker, she seemed to be losing light. The thought of sleeping in this strange place scared her. How darker it got the more mosquitoes came alive, then the small rodents, and after the small rodents came the big animals. It wouldn’t surprise her if panthers lived in these woods.

Iseul climbed over branches and fallen logs. Many branches hung in her face and frankly it scared her every time a particularly big one cast a shadow. While ducking from a branch with needles Iseul tripped over a log. As she neared the ground, she felt a searing pain shoot through her right ankle. Iseul knew that pain all too well. As she sprained her ankle a few times while dancing, but this pain was the worst she’d ever experienced. The white-hot pain traveled up her leg. She saw stars. Her breathes became shorter. She could only croak a soft “Help.” As if that would be of much use, she was the only one there.

Iseul stared up at the treetops. Hoping, praying to a God she’d never met before for help. Even the smallest ounce of willpower would help. Her hands were shaking. This had to be a bad dream. Iseul mustered all her strength to stand up and find safety. The sun had set a long time ago. The moment she set weight on her right leg the pain shot up her leg. Her knees buckled, yet she didn’t fall. Iseul limped through the woods. Without a light, she barely could see her hand in front of her face.

Scampering she managed to climb up a small hill. The canopy was less dense up there. In the moonlight, she could see her surroundings. On top of the hill were a few trees and some shrubbery, but it was pretty barren. There wasn’t anything to eat or to drink. And she wasn’t going to go looking for it in the dark with her ankle. She’d have to do with what she had at the moment, which was nothing. 

Iseul made the decision to climb up one of the two trees and hope there weren’t any wild cats in the tree, it was that or sleep on the ground and Iseul knew which she preferred. The tree she climbed up had thick-looking branches at the top where she hoped she could at least rest. Climbing, though, proved difficult. Her ankle felt like it would fall off every time she put any weight on it. And her sturdy combat-boots weren't ideal for climbing

Iseul gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to cry when her right foot came stuck on a branch. She tried to free her foot with one hand while the other held on to the tree, she was like four feet off the ground. If she fell now, she would surely break her ribs, so practically dead. She was almost at the top, she couldn’t stop here. Her right arm started to cramp from the weight of her hanging on it, while her left foot also was slipping from the branch it was on. While trying to untie her boot with her left hand a falling branch hit her ankle, thank god it wasn’t her head, the pain caused her to jerk her leg and untangle her ankle. Iseul quickly grabbed the branch she was hanging from with both hands and hoisted herself up.

Iseul sat comfortably, well as comfortable as you can be on a branch, on one of the thick top branches. She carefully untied her boot and, damn, her ankle looked rough. Her ankle was completely red with deep purples peeking though. Iseul grabbed her sock and tied hit around her ankle as a sort of improvised compression wrap. She tied the laces of her boots together and hung them on the branch. Iseul tied her belt around her thighs and the tree-branch to prevent her from falling.

Once Iseul came down from the shock of it all she took a good look at the sky. And it was beautiful. The stars looked like it came straight out of a picture. And she felt like she could see every star that ever existed. Iseul felt terrifyingly small and insignificant, and she mostly felt lost. Both in the spiritual and literal sense. She heaved a sigh. The world felt like it was pressing down on her. And she was starving, the deep primal lust or food overcame her and she seriously debated on eating some of the tree bark. Soon Iseul fell into a restless sleep.

 Iseul woke to the bright song of some kind of bird in her ear. She supposes that the song could bee perceived as beautiful, all it did though was give Iseul a headache. That could also be just the thirst speaking though. The sun was starting to rise causing a yellow hue to be cast over the shoreline. Now that she looked at the shoreline from a different perspective, literally, she noticed that she’d hadn’t come very far. One-two miles tops. And, that a ship wasn't too far from the shoreline. The ship looked like one of those big European merchant ships. Like the ones, you see in documentaries about colonialism in the 17th century. But more importantly, ships had a crew, and a crew meant people, and people meant help. And honestly, with her ankle, Iseul would very much appreciate the help.

Carefully Iseul put her shoes on, untied herself, and climbed down the tree. Her mouth was swollen and dry from the lack of hydration and her lips were severely chapped. The pain in her ankle was still there but it had lessened from the day before. She knew that she couldn’t support her full weight on her bad ankle but she’d have to do with what she had. She knew that she’d have to look for water, mainly. Food would be an appreciated bonus but it wasn’t necessary for survival. In retrospect, she realized, it would be better is she had looked for a water source up in the tree. Now, though she wasn’t about to climb back in the tree.

Iseul saw a flock of birds flying overhead, the birds were flying parallel to the shoreline. The way the birds were flying was downhill so Iseul thought that would be her best shot. Seeing as the birds maybe were flocking to a water source, at least if her biology classes were correct. Iseul carefully scampered down the rocky hill. She kept nearly falling seeing as multiple rocks were loose. She didn’t understand how she climbed up that hill yesterday without failing, also with a weak ankle. Iseul nearly made it down the hill if not for that tree root that stuck out. For the second time in two days, Iseul tripped. She’s coming close to her old record of falling 5 times in two days.

The wounds from her fall weren’t that bad. She had a few scrapes here and there but that’ll heal. What was more concerning was the fact that the pain in her ankle came back with a vengeance. For what was only as throbbing pain not more than ten minutes ago was now full-on searing pain. Iseul let out small gasps of pain. Tears were streaming down her face, the shock of the whole situation had worn off. She was stuck in a strange land. No phone, no food, no water. She badly twisted her ankle. Some mean-spirited god seemed to have it out for her. She just wanted to go home. Have her mom’s homecooked meals while she sang along to the early 2000s songs with her brother. Iseul’s mind was spiraling out of control. Filled with what-ifs, and why’s. What if she never got home. Why her? Would she die here? What if she’d never see her mo-No! Iseul decided, she shall and will get home. Whatever it takes.

Whatever it takes, ran through her mind as she stood up despite the excruciating pain in her ankle. Whatever it takes, as she realized that the soft sound of water she’d been hearing wasn’t the white-noise from the sea but a small waterfall. Iseul carefully hiked to the waterfall. She avoided the thick roots in the ground growing from the trees that cast scary shadows in the dark. The shrubbery and foliage seemed to get greener as she neared the waterfall. As she neared the noise she realized that she’d have to climb up a cliff. The hill was dark brown with jagged rocks and mangled tree roots sticking out of it. Iseul comforted herself she’d clumb millions of walls before-- this is nothing different from the indoor rock-climbing facility that she frequents at home. Nothing different except she doesn’t have the use of one ankle, no safety harness and she’s not sure if the rocks won’t give in, she’ll be fine. 

Iseul carefully lifted her right foot and placed it on the nearest rock. Her left hand followed to the root that stuck out. She’s got this. Okay, now the challenging part, not passing out from pain every time she put the least pressure on her ankle. With an insane amount of control, she put her left foot on a stone parallel to her right. Iseul gritted her teeth and pushed herself up. Okay, next. Again she lifted her left foot and placed it on a root with her right-hand finding a rock. She pushed herself up and placed her left foot on a stone. She gasped from the pain but didn’t ’t let go. She would get that water goddammit. In a snails-pace, she carefully got to the top of the cliff. Now she could look down she noticed that it wasn’t that far up. She was just overreacting. 

Iseul comforted herself as she finally drank the ice-cold water from the waterfall. She felt like how her cacti feel when they get watered, hydrated and thriving basically. She also took a well-deserved bath. And honestly, if she didn’t feel so gross from sweat and dirt she really wouldn’t recommend taking a bath from a mountain river, it was fucking cold. She let herself dry in the sun and changed into her clothes again. Iseul sat for hours basking in the sun on a large rock near the waterfall. Like a lizard. Iseul felt a strange sense of calm wash over her. In stark juxtaposition to the absolute panic, she felt a few hours earlier, maybe that was the aftermath of her eventful day and a half, maybe it was the hunger.