Free Encala by T.M. Nielsen

yacht, he had these cushions made
especially for her in her favorite color. He knew she was alive and
safe, he could feel that. He couldn’t, however, figure out where
she was, and that infuriated him.
    “ Are there any islands
around here?” Chevalier asked the Captain.
    The Captain pulled out a map and started
calculating their location, “Nothing close by. Maybe they are out
on a raft?”
    Chevalier couldn’t explain to him that they
weren’t on a raft. He knew that Emily was too content to be hungry
or thirsty, which she would be if they were still out on the
water.
    “ Head for the closest
island. I want to check all of them in this area,” he said to the
Captain. The captain was getting paid well enough, that he just
nodded and headed east toward the closest island.
    “ We should be there
tomorrow afternoon.”
    Chevalier nodded.
    ***
    “ It’s worth a shot, it
can’t hurt, right?” Kyle asked, gathering the coconut milk into the
empty husk.
    “ Yeah I guess,” Emily said,
and slipped her shirt off. The burns were painful and she was
getting a fever and a body ache.
    Kyle slowly poured the coconut milk over the
back of her neck, arms, and legs. He wanted so badly to reach out
and hold her as she gasped in pain. He noticed her color was off
and he knew she was running a fever. He felt extremely helpless as
he watched her slowly getting sicker.
    “ That does feel good,” she
said, shutting her eyes.
    “ Get more,” Kyle ordered
one of the guards, who began refilling the husk.
    After Kyle poured more milk on the blistered
burns, Emily could finally lay down without so much intense pain.
The guards had piled palm leaves in the corner of the room and then
layered their shirts on it for a bed. She fell fast asleep, aided
by the fever. Kyle sat by her and watched her sleep, no longer
caring what the guards told Chevalier about their time on the
island.
    Allen tried to wake her a few times, but the
guards stopped him and eventually took him out to the fresh water
pond for a swim. Kyle was now alone in the small cave with Emily.
He gently pulled a shirt over her, and then sat back again.
    “ Stop,” she whispered in
her sleep, jerking slightly.
    Kyle put his hand against her shoulder to
try to calm down the nightmare.
    “ Don’t please,” she
mumbled.
    “ Shhhhh,” he whispered, and
kissed her forehead lightly. He was worried about how hot her skin
felt against his lips.
    Kyle got up and soaked a shirt in the cold
water, and then put it against her forehead. When the guards
returned with Allen, they kept him busy while Kyle took care of
Emily. She stopped stirring and fell into a fever induced sleep. He
kept a cool rag on her forehead and held her hand through the
night. Allen fell asleep curled up with Kralen, one of the guards
he had become attached to. The night air turned cold as it began to
rain. The cave kept them dry, but the wind was coming in from the
opening. Emily shivered slightly and Kyle pulled another shirt over
her.
    The rain stopped just as morning came and
the cave began to warm up. Kyle changed out Emily’s cold rag and
began to get more concerned when she didn’t wake up. Even when
Allen started to cry after falling and scraping his knee, she
didn’t move.
    “ Is this because of the
burn?” one of the guards asked.
    “ I don’t know enough about
burns to know, but I’m assuming it is,” Kyle said, watching her
breathe.
    “ Want more coconut
milk?”
    “ Yes, let’s try that
again.”
    The guard returned a few minutes later with
a husk full of coconut milk. Kyle dipped the shirt into it and
gently ran it across the burns on her legs, then moved to her arms.
She groaned softly when he touched her neck, and he pulled his hand
back quickly.
    “ Can mortals survive off of
bananas and coconut?” he asked Kyle.
    Kyle shrugged, “I don’t know that
either.”
    “ I could try to catch a
fish.”
    “ That’s a good idea. Take a
shirt to use as a net,” Kyle suggested.
    “