This is a little story called The Blue Gale that i wrote, enjoy! blaugh This is a version that i updated on 4.04.2008
THE BLUE GALE by Teh Shadow Muffin
Prologue
Shadow pulled the rope hard making the flag push against the fierce winds. Shadow was the first mat on the ship The Blue Gale. The captain’s nickname was Rage. No one really knew what his full name was, but that is just because no one asked. One crewmember asked once and he was found 25 years later when his crippled, dead body washed up on the shore of the banks of California.
“Hoist the flag! Turn us against the waves!” Rage shouted over the high winds. Shadow turned the flag and signaled for everyone else to help turn them against the waves. One man hesitated. “We’ll never make it if we go against the current!” He shouted back. “Well it’s our only hope! Man the orders 2nd mate!” Shadow yelled. The second mates name was Ale. Ale could not hear Shadow so he just ran over to Shadow to hear him. “I said…” A horrible sight cut off shadow. The wheel had turned all the way to the right letting them flow with the waves. The ship moved fast, flowing down until it was hit by lightning and rain. The whole ship went down; the people below did not see the light of day again. Shadow blacked out after the ship went up in flames.
3 Months Later
Shadow was a very handsome young man at the age of 24. He was 6 feet 3 inches tall. He had black, spiky, short hair that went down to a little past his eyes. He liked to have one of his eyes covered by his hair. Shadow had gone to college for the regular amount of years. He had gotten a degree in animal/human surgery. Right after college he had joined the army and been sent to live at a training base for 1 ½ years. After he got out of the army, he was recruited by Rage as to be part of The Blue Gale crew. Shadow had thought about it and said yes. Rage gave Shadow the part of first mate because he was the first man to join, and had become a very good friend of Rage. Shadow had been on The Blue Gale ever since 3 months ago when they crashed. Shadow had floated all the way to an island five miles away, and woke up not knowing where he was; now he makes a living off the island.
Shadow woke up from the blinding light above him "Morning already? Aw man" Shadow said to himself. He put a hand on his forehead to block the sun light from going into his eyes. Shadow did his daily workout of 50 push-ups and 50 sit ups to stay in top shape for the dangers of this island. "1, 2,3,4,5...” Shadow counted aloud. When he was done, he grabbed his backpack and loaded it with a bottle of not clear, but stream water he had found searching one day for the others. "Another day...how long have I been here?" Shadow asked himself counting in his and trying to figure out how long he had been there for. "Oh well I'll find out later" Shadow looked at his watch, 10:30 am. He had to get moving. He opened his Swiss army knife that his father has given him when he was seven. He slashed a tree off its stump. He pushed the knife back into the oval like utensil. He treasured this knife because it was his father's knife before his father died and now it was passed down from generation to generation hoping to keep the tradition going.
Shadow started walking slowly until he heard a crinkle in the bushes. Shadow hit the dirt immediately, not knowing what could be there. He opened up his knife and squat-walked over to the bush. He opened up the bush to see an anteater. He stood up and let the animal be no need to harm a living animal. However, as Shadow was leaving he saw that the anteater had its foot caught on a twig from the bush and could not run away. Shadow could see that the animal was terrified so he cut the twig from the cute little animal’s foot and let it go. "There you go you poor thing," Shadow said softly, not wanting to harm or startle the anteater.
Shadow had a soft spot for animals, he never knew why, but when his Dad was alive, he used to tell Shadow that it was because Shadow wanted to be a vet when he was little; apparently, Shadow was an animal lover.
He followed the animal as it scurried over to open plain that Shadow had never seen before. Moreover, there, right before Shadow's eyes was a family of about 15 anteaters living on the ants and plants around them. The anteater stared at Shadow as if to follow him. Shadow obeyed the little cute creature and followed it over to a bush, the bush in fact was not just a normal bush, it was a blueberry bush filled with blueberries. "Thank-You little creature!" Shadow said amazed. He picked a meal full of berries off this bush and put them into his pack gently, not wanting to squish them. Shadow decided to stay with the anteaters for a while seeing that they had just saved him three hours of walking.
He sat down on a near by tree and took out a notebook, this book was Shadow's drawing book, Shadow loved the thought of drawing the things around him so whenever he went to a beautiful place he would sit down and draw it and save it forever.
Shadow sat down, pulled a berry out of his pocket, and put the berry on the dirt next to him. An ant came up and started to carry the berry back into its hole, but it did not get that far. The anteater gulped that ant and the berry right up and looked at Shadow funny, as if to smile and say "Thanks!”. Shadow drew that picture for a while and then patted the anteaters’ good-bye. Before he left, he promised that he would give a name to the anteater he had found. He thought about it for a bit and then named him George. Shadow said good-bye to George and left to finish his walk for survivors. At least Shadow had gotten one thing out of his way, getting lunch and dinner. Shadow decided that right after dinner today that he would come back and say hello to George and his family.
Shadow continued on his walk for firewood and something to build a better shelter with, he had woken up five times at night in the last week because of the night’s weather; he needed something to stop it. Shadow kept walking, after a while of swerving through trees and stuffing his bag wood Shadow felt thirsty so he sat down and rested for a bit. He took out his water bottle and looked at it, disgusted. “Oh well, it’s the best I have. I will just have to deal with it”. He swigged some and gulped it down. Shadow noticed that he was sitting on a tree. He jumped up immediately and saw that it was a birch tree. Shadow was over joyed. He dug through his pack and threw out all the branches and sticks that he had in there. He started ripping off pieces of birch from the dead birch tree for good firewood. Shadow knew that he was very lucky to find all of these things. Now he knew where to get food, where to draw, where to meet friends and where to get firewood. How much better could his days get?
Right as Shadow was packing up the birch and about to leave, he heard a voice near. “Hello? Anyone there?” someone had said. Shadow raced through the bushes and trees and found a figure in the dark. “Abigail!” Shadow shouted at his crewmate as he ran up to her and hugged her. “Shadow!” Abigail said as she hugged Shadow back. They were not just crewmates; they had been friends since they were four years of age. The two friends were so happy to see each other again.
“I thought for sure that you were dead,” Abigail said as soon as she let go of Shadow. “Me too!” laughed Shadow “well here I am if you still don’t believe me”. Abigail laughed; she always had loved Shadow’s sense of humor. Shadow and Abigail talked all the way back to Shadow’s camp, sense it was closer.
“You looked very pale” Shadow said, concerned about his friend. “Yeah, I bet I am, I have been looking for someone for hours without water” She replied. “I have water, here, drink,” Shadow said as he gave her the water bottle. “Thank-You” She said as she drank half of the water in the bottle. “Bah…that hit the spot. Thanks Shadow,” She said very tired. “It’s about 5:45; do you think we should start to eat dinner, even if it is early?” Shadow asked. “Sure….but what food do you have?” Abigail asked looked confused. “These...” Shadow said pulling out the blueberries that the George had found for him. “Oh my god! Where did you find these?” Abigail asked popping one in her mouth. “Wow! These taste great!”
“I didn’t find them” Shadow said, “George did” Shadow smiled. “Who is George?” Abigail asked curiously. “An anteater I found this morning before I found you” Shadow said “He led me to a blueberry bush and I took some, but not all of them”. “You’re a genius!” Abigail smiled when she said this.
Shadow and Abigail lit a candle over them and ate dinner. The moon was out, there were no clouds, and it was a beautiful night. After dinner, it was late. Shadow and Abigail hat talked for hours and now it was about 8:50. “I’m going to go off to bed now,” Abigail said. “Wait!” Shadow said, “There is something I have always wanted to tell you since we were young”. Shadow grabbed Abigail’s hand a held it with both hands under the moonlight. “I haven’t gotten much of a chance to say this before, but here goes. I like you. Not just as a friend. I do not want anything to ever happen to you. One of the reasons I spent five hours looking through the forest is to find you. I want you to feel the same way about me,” Shadow said. Abigail kissed Shadow gently on the cheek and went off to bed. “I do, Shadow” She said smiling as she got into her bed and went to sleep.
Shadow walked down to the beach in the moonlight and took off his shoes. He sat on the dune and watched the stars. “They sure are beautiful tonight,” Shadow said to himself. He lay on his back and watched ‘till his watch beeped. He looked at his watch it was 12:04. Shadow decided that he would go to bed now. Shadow went over to where Abigail was sleeping and laid out his sleeping bag right next to her.
The next morning Abigail woke up before Shadow. She had decided to do something nice for him, so it was not that awkward for him about what happened last night. There were many trees back home where they lived and Abigail loved to climb. I wonder if I can climb some trees Abigail thought. She tried to climb the tree, but the first time was not successful. They second time she rapped her sweatshirt around the tree and kept going up. When she got to the top, she noticed it was a coconut tree. She knocked down six coconuts from the tree before sliding back down to make breakfast out of them. When she plopped down from the tree, she started hacking a coconut open against a rock. When it opened, she flipped the coconut shell over so it would not drip out. She set up two coconuts on a rock and waited for Shadow to wake up.
“Aww” Shadow yawned as he got up. “Mornin’ Abby” Shadow said as he stretched. “I thought I told you never to call me that!” Abigail was steaming now. She hated being called Abby by anyone. “Here’s your breakfast,” Abigail said still clenching her fists in anger.Shadow looked down in disgust. “It’s not the best looking food I’ve ever seen, but….here goes” Shadow said as he tilted his coconut towards his mouth. His arms were wobbling. Shadow dumped it behind his head to make it look like he drank it. “See? Wasn’t that bad” Shadow said as his stomach rumbled, he gave Abigail a sign of reassurance. As soon as Abigail turned around to drink her coconut, Shadow wiped all the little drops off his tongue and gagged. Abigail turned around, “are you okay?” she worried, hearing Shadow gag like that. “Totally” Shadow said smiling “never been better. Well except for that time when I had a huge steak with a tall glass of orange juice and with a tiny little pudding on the side” Shadow laughed. Abigail giggled as she drank hers down.
Shadow went behind the little hut he had made with sticks and stones. Today his workout was thirty pushups, fifty jumping jacks, twenty-five sit-ups and ten pull-ups. Shadow loved the pull-ups the most because he has to use the trees around him. Abigail came around back and saw Shadow working out. Abigail started laughing slightly. “What’s so funny?” Shadow said stopping his work out. “You? Trying to be strong?” Abigail laughed so hard she almost fell over. Shadow held in his anger well as he picked up his stuff, “I’m going elsewhere. To somewhere where people don’t laugh at me for working out” Shadow said. Abigail was still laughing so hard when Shadow said that that she barely even noticed he left. Abigail was in tears now, “you go have fun…..working out” Abigail said about to die from laughter.
One hour later, Shadow was done with his workout. He walked back to camp just in time to hear a noise, it did not sound good. He looked around “Abby!” Shadow said worried for where she had gone. He followed the repeating sounds to a large rock. Shadow jumped over the rock just in time for something sticky to grab his foot. Shadow turned around all of a sudden to see Abigail coughing and throwing up into a ditch she had dug around the rock. Abigail kept wheezing while Shadow looked at his foot, he then realized that it was Abigail’s puke that had grazed his foot. He wiped the disgusting vomit on the closest plant. “I think I’m sick,” Abigail said as she turned her head to throw up again. “Really?” Shadow replied in a sarcastic voice, “well I’m no doctor, but it doesn’t look like your sick to me” Shadow said as he half-laughed and half-puked himself. “Let’s get you back to camp,” Shadow said as he helped her up.
Back at the camp, he gave Abigail some water and some wet leaves to put over her forehead as she slept. As Abigail slept, Shadow soaked his puked-on in the ocean and then dried it off on his dirty shirts. He would wash it off in the ocean later. “Oh my god I totally forgot!” Shadow said, “George! I’m coming!” He said as he grabbed his backpack and raced off.
Shadow followed his footsteps making sure to step over them all the way back to the plateau. George and the other anteaters were all asleep; they looked like little rocks when they all slept together. Shadow sat down by the same tree and took out his drawing pad from his bag. He started to draw all of them asleep when he felt something nudge up against his side. It was George; he had heard Shadow come in and wanted some company. Shadow smiled as he took a blueberry and put it in the sand before George. George’s long tongue swallowed the berry in one big bite. Shadow continued drawing as he fed George some blueberries. By the time Shadow was done George was full. Shadow said goodbye and stepped carefully over every little anteater on his way back to camp.
On the way back towards camp, Shadow stopped by the beach for a quick swim. Shadow stripped to his shorts and boxers and started running head first into the water. As soon as he was at the water’s edge, he dove into the depths of the ocean. Shadow plunged down deeper and further from the beach. When he came up for air, he flicked his hair out of his eyes and looked around. He was about 200 yards from the beach. I am fine. I’ll go back when we get into some real distance, Shadow thought. He felt something wrench at his foot. He tried to feel it with his hand, but could not reach. He dove down to see what had caught his leg. As his eyes opened, his hand felt around on something rocky. A piece of coral had trapped his foot. Shadow came up for air, gasping, he tugged and tugged with his foot trying to get away but the grasp around his foot was to much for his foot. Shadow started to tread water, it was the only thing that could keep him from drowning when he got tired and out of air. Shadow started to get worried, he dove back down to his foot in time to see a lobster climbing up the coral, slowly but surely. There were only two things he hated the most, those two things were his second grade teacher, Ms. Griffin, and lobsters. Shadow hated Ms. Griffin a little more than lobsters, but he was still afraid of them.
Meanwhile, back at camp, Abigail had woken up and was beginning to get worried. “Shadow? Where are you?” she called. She called him repeatedly.
Shadow was terrified right now. “Abby! Abby! ABBY!” Shadow yelled at the top of his lungs. He had no clue of knowing if she was awake or not, but it was worth a try.
Abigail could hear a little sound as if a mouse was calling her name, “Shadow?” she said, “Where are you?” Abigail followed the sound all the way down to the beach. She saw a little speck out in the water. “Oh my god!” Abigail yelled, “Don’t worry, I’ll get help!” Abigail started to run back to the camp but then realized that there was no one in miles of them, well at least no one that they had found. Abby dove into the ocean and started swimming as fast as she could towards Shadow.
“Yes!” Shadow said seeing Abigail swim towards him. He checked on the lobster seeing that it was about two feet away from his leg. “Faster Abby!” Shadow screamed. He could see her getting closer and closer. Finally, she was there in front of him.
“What happened?” She said. Shadow pointed towards his foot. Abigail dove down and looked at his foot. She could see everything. She came back up to the surface, “Just wait,” she said watching the lobster as it moved so it was five inches away. “The crab is going to rip my foot off!” Shadow screamed. “It’s a lobster!” Abigail yelled back. “I don’t care! Just get me out of-.” Shadow was cut off when he went under. When he came back up, he was crying. “It’s on my foot!” Shadow yelled. “I know! Just let it,” Abigail said. Shadow had no clue what Abigail was trying to tell him to do, but he trusted her…a little. The lobster climbed onto the bridge off coral that had trapped Shadow’s foot. In order to get to it, the lobster started chopping away at the coral. “Yesssss” Abigail said. “Yes?” Shadow said. “When I say three start swimming back to the beach,” Abigail said. Shadow nodded as if he understood. “One…..two…three!” Abigail said as Shadow burst out of half of the coral that was left. The lobster was knocked off balance and fell to the ocean floor. Shadow and Abigail swam back to shore.
When they arrived at the shore, Shadow was so tired from all the treading and swimming. “Well there is a workout for ya’ right there muscle boy” Abigail said as they both flopped onto the sand. Shadow could not even put a grim face on now when he was so tired. Shadow started walking back to camp with Abigail right behind him when she noticed something on the beach. “What is that?” Abigail pointed at a bright red flag-looking object. There was a blue and a grey one next to it. “I don’t know,” said Shadow “Let’s go check it out.”
When the two explorers got over to the flag-shaped object, they found that it was not a flag at all; it was a group of people passed out on the beach. “Oh my god!” Abigail said running over to the boy in the grey shirt, “Derek!” she shouted trying to wake him. “There survivors from the crash” Shadow said, “Let’s bring them back to camp.”
It took a couple of trips to take all of the bodies back to the camp,, but when they were all done Derek, Lila, and James were all safe.
An hour later, the wounded were still weakly getting up and sipping water from the coconut shells in front of them. “Shadow, this is my boyfriend Derek” Abigail said smiling at Derek, Shadow’s mouth dropped, he pulled Abigail behind the nearest tree. “Your boyfriend? I thought you liked me,” Shadow said. “I did, but I thought I would never see Derek again and I guess I kind of moved on, don’t take it personally…..I still like you as a friend” Abigail said. “Sure….whatever” Shadow said as he walked away in shame. Abigail’s words had hurt him really badly. “What’s wrong?” someone said. Shadow looked up to see Derek awake and looking at him, “Nothing, I’m fine” Shadow lied. Derek nodded and crept back into his sleeping bag very slowly as if not to get hurt. Shadow noticed an open gash on his leg; it went all the way through his jeans and into his leg. In Shadow’s perspective, it looked bad. Shadow decided not to do anything about it. He did not want to get involved with something that was not his business.
Shadow was sitting under the stars on the edge of the dunes thinking about what had happened earlier. Shadow looked at his watch, it was 12:41. Everyone else was asleep. He rubbed his hands together and thought hard. He likes her….she likes him…..but does she like me? Shadow had not even known Derek five minutes before he hated him. Shadow still thought he had a chance with Abigail even though she had a boyfriend. I really hope she does not hate me for trying to compete with Derek. “Don’t even tell me you’re trying to steal my girl.” The voice came from behind him. “Derek, it’s just-”, Shadow was cut off by Derek. “Don’t even need to tell me,” he said as he walked away. “Just stay away from her from now on or bad things happen,” he threatened. Both of the angry boys went to bed, thinking about what had happened.
As soon as Abigail woke up, Shadow rushed over to her. “Abigail! I have to tell you something!” he said running towards her. “Calm down! What is it?” she replied. “Derek. Last night. He…” Shadow stopped. Derek was behind Abigail about ten feet back shaking his finger reminding Shadow of the threat. “He what?” Abigail asked anxious. “He uhhh…he uhh…was uhh….was really nice last night with cleaning up!” Shadow said trying to come up with something. Derek gave him thumbs up and left. Abigail laughed and walked away. Shadow sighed and got ready for the day ahead of him.
Teh Shadow Muffin Community Member 
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