Lizard Island

My ship had crashed on a small island. The only bit of food that was still good were the beets, and I hated beets. Since I couldn't bring myself to eat those nasty beets that left me with one choice. I had to go out and hunt and gather what little the island provided. My first day scouting the island provided me with a few cocoanuts. It also provided me with a chance to get an understanding about the island I was on. The island had mountains at its center, on the east side there were cliffs and on its west side there were white sand beaches. The north and south sides were covered in trees, some of which where tall and had been growing there for a long time. My ship had crashed on the west side, running aground on the white sands. When I first crashed I thought that the beach looked very lovely and that it wasn't such a bad thing at all. Within a few days my opinion had changed. On the second day I gathered drift wood and piled it up in to the letters S.O.S. in the event that a plane where to file over they wound see the contrasted letters against the sands. I didn't know exactly where I was, maybe somewhere off the coast of Australia. I had been sailing by myself and hadn't giving anyone a reason to come looking for me. Looking back on it I should have told someone that I had planned to sail my boat for a few days, but the thought never dawned on me that I would ship wreck on a deserted island.

I spent a day looking at the horrible beets, wondering who had put them in my food supply. I finally came to the conclusion that they probably came with the ship when I bought it, that was a year ago. After my first time at gathering food from the wild I became more familiar with the island. I was lucky enough to have fresh water that flowed down from the mountains and the cocoanut trees where plentiful. But after a week on mountain water and cocoanuts you start getting a real hunger for meat. This hunger started to grind at me until it filled my every thought. It even took over the thought of being rescued, which after a week I had given up the idea of. I spent my time making a spear so I could catch some food. I thought maybe I could catch some fish in the shallow water, but this turned out to be impossible. I only sea life that I did catch was a sort of eel that when cooked tasted like a moldy sock. My hunger for meat was never strong enough to get a second bite of moldy sock eel down I never caught any more eels after that. At night when the moon was out the island would come alive with the sounds of creatures. For weeks I stayed on the boat, to afraid of what could be out in the dark. The night of moldy sock feast I was determined to find out what creatures where in the forest, and the crate of beets strengthened my will to set off the next night to scout the island in search of something to eat. The following day I got my spear ready and made some torches out of some old rags and cocoanut oil. After I got the supplies ready I gathered up a few cocoanut and eat them, thinking to myself that those cocoanuts would be the last ones I eat, I really believed that I was going to come back that night with a boar or some animal like that. The sun started going down and I started a small fire in the pit I had close to the ship. I took some charcoal from the pit and rubbed it on my face just like a primitive hunter would have. My blood was pumping hard and my primal instincts where coming to the surface. With the my torch lighted and my face darkened I grabbed my spear and walked to the edge of the forest. As I neared the forest the sounds died down, and as I stepped into the forest the sounds died completely. There I was with a spear in one hand and a torch in the other, and both of them were shaking uncontrollably. I walked further into the darkened deep and with each foot step I went deeper into the unknown. The only should was my footsteps, my heavy breath, and the roar of the torch that I held over my head. The silence was unnerving. I pushed myself on, even with the voice in my mind screaming out to go back. I walked until I got at the base of the mountain and still I seen nothing, not even the eyes of any beast. Then I started having doubts that any beast lived on this island except for me. I was so in depth with my thoughts that I wasn't focused on where I was stepping and suddenly I tripped over a large stone and as I tried to recover from the trip my torch flew from my hand and landed in the ground and went out in a hiss as it landed in the fresh water stream that flowed from the mountain. I cursed myself as I got up. Then I noticed it, the sounds of leaves rustling and little feet moving and little mouths clicking. I started to panic and rushed to start a small fire with the tinder bundle I had in my pack. My shaking hands refused to work properly and the sparks flew in every direction. I started to cry as the sounds advanced on my in the darkness. At last I got the tender to light and plunged my remaining torch into the flame, it quickly caught on fire and pushed back the darkness. What I saw next made me scream aloud. There surrounding me were the makers of the noises that I had been hearing all those nights. The owners of the little feet and clicking mouths, lizards. Their where big ones, small ones, green and brown ones. There were some with thick scales and some that were smooth and stripped, and they were all advancing on me as I held my torch as one would hold a beacon of protection. The lizards were no longer afraid of the light, they had been discovered and I realized they were just as hungry as I. One lizard that must have been the leader for he was the biggest and ugliest crept out of the shadows of the undergrowth. It had big curved claws and yellow glistening eyes and flicked out a long forked tongue. The other lizards cowered back as the boss scaled its way towards me, flicking its tongue and whipping its tail. I was paralyzed with fear and my feet refused to move. I just stood they waiting for the giant reptile to bite my legs off. Then it made its move and everything happened very fast. First it leaped at me and my primal instinct took over once more. I pushed the torch in its face and it let out a horrible cry and fell back, that's when I made my move, I took the spear and with all my might I rammed it into the beast. The giant lizard whipped back and forth with my spear bobbing out of its side. I regained the spear and with another strike delivered a blow to its neck and caused it to lash out, whipping my with his mighty tail that sent me to the ground. I held tight to my torch and again pulled my spear from the beast. It came at me once more, this time jumping at me with jaws a gape. I pulled a small boating knife from a scabbard on my leg and sank it deep into its head. At once the lizard fell limp on top of me. The other lizards scattered and went back to their hiding places, leaving me with my giant prize. I got back up on my feet after having rolled the lizard off the top of me. I spent the rest of that night dragging the lizard through the forest, across the beach, back to safety of my ship. As the sun made its way first appearance on the eastern horizon I set with a fire ablaze eating the best meal I had ever had. And I can tell you this, it sure beat the taste of moldy socks.