A.N.- okay so im coming to you guys with an all new story, this will be very different from my Tested series. Im going to tell you right not I got the main idea of this from a dream, a very weird one in fact that I just simply expanded on. I hope to make the storyline on this extremely in depth and I guess you could say…different from most other stories. While my last stories were from a third person perspective I am making this one first person through the eyes of the main character, Daniel. I hope you enjoy it and idk if I will actually finish writing this but I feel like I just need to get these thoughts and ideas on paper.

Growing up I was always the different kid, the outcast, the ugly duckling. The first and biggest thing I noticed on how I was different was I never had a father. I never experienced that father to son relationship that every other child on the small island of Saratoga had the honor of having. My mother always told me my father was a brave man who left to "save the world" from all the bad things. But when I began attending public school, a small school house no bigger than 20 by 20 feet, the kids shunned me for not having a father. Calling me a bastard child (keep in mind we are only 9 years old here) saying my father was a deserter, a thug, a piece of shit. And like father to son I was also called those names and many other ones that one would not dare to think would pass along the tongues of ones so young.

The only thing that seemed to keep me sane, the place I would go to cry, adventure, and daydream and even sometimes sleep was the jungle. Saratoga was not a very well-known island, right smack dab in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, the only use for it seemed was for sailors to stop in and refill their rum and get drunk as a skunk. The geography of this island, my home, was mostly just a flat boring jungle with our small town on the outskirts of the sandy beach. About ninety percent of the two or three square mile island was jungle, left unexplored by anyone but me.

I guess that I'll begin my story the day when everything I guess you could say, changed for the better at seventeen. The people of this island relied on each other for supplies and food. Money was worth almost nothing and was reserved to buy emergency supplies if needed. Most people traded one good for another and everyone had their own job. Me? I was the apprentice blacksmith, an easy job to say the least. The only use Jag, the blacksmith and my mentor, and I had was to replace horses shoes and replace or mend broken plows and other farm tools. Most days were spent with me drawing or writing in my journal and on a rare occasion having a conversation with Jag.

Jag was a tall well-built man with the strength of an ox. While I was a tall and lanky boy with hardly, if any, strength in my pathetic excuse for muscles. His voice was deep and echoed throughout a room whenever he spoke, which was seldom. It took nearly a week before he actually said something to me, which was the simple words "No and Yes". But after nearly two years of working under his wing the two of us became no so much friends but acquaintances. Still I liked to be in the company of Jag more than anyone else, he was the closest thing I ever had to a friend. It was a quiet day; I sat in the back of the shop on an open window sill drawing.

"Daniel." I heard from behind, slightly making me jump.

"Yes Jag?" I asked turning my head.

"You can go on home now," he motioned with his hand towards the exit, "It's a slow day."

"When is it not?" I laughed jumping down to the ground.

"Just get home to your mama and tell I said hello." Jag smiled.

I waved goodbye to Jag and headed off through the town to my house, on the outskirts next to the barrier of the jungle. I was admiring my picture of the small finch I sketched back at the shop when I was suddenly shoved to the ground. After spitting the mud out of my mouth I looked up to see who my attacker was, and as usual it was Jack.

"Afternoon Daniel," Jack sarcastically greeted, "what is this?" he said as he reached down for my journal. I immediately attempted to snatch my journal but Jack stomped onto my hand and dug in his heel causing me to yelp.

He examined the picture of the small bird and laughed, "This is pretty good." He said, and for a second I was foolish enough to believe that his sincerity was actually legit. "Shame I'm going have to ruin it."

Jack tore out the page and threw it to the ground and proceeded to do the same with the rest of the pages, years' worth of work was being destroyed right before me, and every tear was a knife to my heart. Finally Jack released my foot and dropped the mutilated notebook after making sure to spit in my face. I didn't even bother to pick up the scattered pages or avenge myself. Instead I ran, right through town where everyone could see my shame and how weak I was. I ran to the only place I wanted to be at a time like this, no not my home, but the jungle.

I stood at the edge of a sea side cliff, wiping the tears from my eyes I looked over the edge and wondered if it would be a quick and painless death. There have been more times that I can count where I come to the same cliff and contemplate whether or not to jump. And I was getting sick of it, it was time to either do it or not. Why should I even stay? Everyone in the town disrespects me for a reason I'm not sure of. My mother always told me it was because they were jealous of me, she would say I was special and just like dad I would leave this place and do amazing things. That was when I was a kid, an ignorant stupid kid. I was seventeen now, a man nearly, no not a man. I was far from a man, I was a pathetic excuse for life, just a waste and was about to relieve this world of such a pathetic being.

I slowly shuffled towards the edge with my eyes shut. I had one foot floating over the edge; I peeked my eye open and looked down. I felt my heart beat race tenfold.

"Do it!" I yelled aloud and began to take that final step when a sudden uproar of wind from below sent me falling back onto the edge of the cliff. I felt my head hit the hard surface of stone and soon the world faded away.

AN- okay I know that as of now this may not seem like a rio fan fic but don't worry, it will all make sense in the next chapter. Also on this story I plan on making the chapters shorter than my other stories. Also just to clarify the time this all takes place is in the 1600s-1700s.