AN: This is a one-shot I have been requested to do. This follows up on the fanfiction created by Barbacar, titled "The Escape Plan", along with some assistance from him to this story.
Okay, so maybe a rocket wasn't the best idea to escape this world and discover any civilization, but there were always substitutes.
Once returning to her home, she took out the paper that contained potential ideas of getting out of the island. The idea for a rocket didn't work out so well, so she tore off a section of the paper containing the rocket idea, letting the ripped piece float down onto the ground, forever forgotten.
And so, the other ideas that could remain potential ways to escape this damned island: a boat, a cannon, crafting a flare to receive any attention from the sky travelers, getting eaten by a sea monster…
She might not have any other brilliant ideas, after all. The resources provided to her in this world wasn't enough to craft something as strong as a cannon… however, there was regular stone. It might not have been as strong as the metal bars that the usual cannon was made out of, but it would be sufficient enough for a one-time use.
Willow did realize that there were stones scattered around a nearby desert. And she could gather some gunpowder for having the cannon blast one time. Gather some rope to slowly light itself to the gunpowder. And even use the wood to have the cannon stand in place, and change its direction vertically, so she would be sent flying high into the sky, or low to the floor… which was the most foolish decision to make.
And of course, she needed no cannonball, because she would possibly be killed or have her spine crack if she planned on being sent by a cannonball. No, she would be the cannonball, even if it came to the risk of her clothes burning off upon the explosion. There was no need to worry about her clothing, anyway… unless, she came to civilization, in the bare, which was a rare chance.
After a few hours of thinking out the next escape plan, she had to hit the hay for tonight, all ready and set to gather the materials she needed for her cannon tomorrow. Her only hopes was to aim correctly, or else she would still end up on the same island… but, who knows how far she'll be sent?
The following morning, Willow woke up with a start, digging through her belongings to pull out certain materials to build an ax, and a pickaxe. After a couple of minutes being taken up to craft them correctly, she now had her pickaxe wrapped around her left hand, and her ax wrapped around her right.
First off, the trees. Using the ax first, she began chopping down as many trees as she could find, although she began with the biggest ones first. Urges to pull her lighter out and burn these trees down made her hesitate on chopping for some moments, but the woman managed to hold those urges back, until she knew she chopped down enough trees to have enough wood made for the stand of the cannon.
Once her ax became useless, the next location became a travel to the desert. It made for many miles, but by following multiple dirt paths on the island, the center was reached: the desert. Packed with buzzards, hounds, and a multitude of rocks and tumbleweed, this area was considered a risky source of useful material.
However, Willow was only here for the rocks, to try and construct her cannon.
She held the pickaxe close to her body, only swinging it whenever a rock was nearby. The only purpose for holding the lighter in the ax's place was in case she encounters any hounds. With every bit of strength she had left in her, she swung her pickaxe with such grace amongst the rocks, which caused a few to break a bit earlier than expected. Of course, she had to go for some different rocks in order to gather flint and sticks to craft one pickaxe after the other.
And by the point she was finished, there was a whole lug of rocks stuffed into her pockets, making her movement speed awfully sluggish. It was totally worth getting all of those rocks for the cannon, though, but the night was closing in rapidly. She had to rest for another night in order to either discover or craft some gunpowder and one roll of rope to light.
But, instead of sleeping for the night, Willow began to use the rest of her time to craft the base of the cannon, forging it to be strong enough for just this one shot, and a small area to fill with gunpowder in order to shoot herself far and across the ocean, hoping that the blast would send her halfway across the world… although, that still would send her towards the ocean.
By the time she had finished the cannon, it was already dawn. Willow was completely deprived of her sleep, her eyes barely shutting as the woman struggled to stay awake. She had everything prepared, but gunpowder. She needed some gunpowder to suddenly appear somewhere, but she was apparently too tired to begin searching for it by herself. It would be too much and too long to get one simple material…
All she could remember was passing out. By the time she woke up, it was nearing the evening. As if a force from the heavens had answered her, she found herself covered in gunpowder, starting from torso and down to her feet. After some time trying to struggle through the pile, she managed to pull herself out of the gunpowder, just in time to fill one opening with a handful into the cannon. Once that was finished, she stuffed some rope inside of the hole and immediately ran back into the house.
She only needed one little thing before she took off to her next journey.
She began searching throughout her drawer once again, pulling out a rather fat stick out and into her hands. This didn't look like any regular stick, though… this must have been a cigar, and a real fat one. Either she crafted this by herself, or she managed to spot one out from the ground. There was often trails of footsteps that occasionally led to abandoned, unlit cigars…
Willow returned outside, using her lighter to spark the scent of the cigar. Slowly, the fumes were rising into the air, inhaling the scent of those fumes into her lungs… oh, how she yearned for that scent. It's been days since she last had one, but it felt like years.
As a matter of fact, the woman needed to set off with a blast, so after she lit the cigar in her hand, she perked the flame of the lighter close to the rope, closing it immediately as the flame sparked on the very tip of the rope. The lighter was suddenly dropped to the ground without her noticing.
The fire would soon be decimating the rope, and it was burning up quickly. Willow ran over to the open end of the cannon, slipping her entire body in by closing her legs and keeping them close, then the rest of her body would slip in, with her arms barely sticking out of the cannon. That meant no smoking until the launch into the air.
The excitement of the blast was getting raised like the roof during a party. She could hear the fuse of the rope, slowly reaching towards the area of the gunpowder. The night sky was barely reaching. She needed to launch now, or else something would interfere with her progress of getting out of this hell…
And ever so suddenly, a loud blast had temporarily deafened her hearing, but the sight of her being launched into the beautiful night sky was one of the most pleasurable things to ever catch in her sight, and possibly, her entire life. In other words, she went far. She didn't go the distance of a rock tumbling down a steep mountain, this was more like being catapulted across the United States of America far.
Well, that was her initial idea of being sent so far. Unfortunately, at halfway, she was declining. Slowly, her body made it past the clouds, the ocean skidding across her sights, many other islands being spotted for one moment, and the next they were no longer in sight. The only thing the woman didn't keep an eye on was the sea monster diving right out of the water, maw open and fangs bared, swallowing her whole once she was in range.
A few hours later, she was getting rather bored in the stomach of the monster. It wasn't such a pleasant sight to be, since all she spotted around was just… pink. At least the only things she had to entertain herself with was her cigar… and her clothes, which was now tainted with monster saliva and remains of gunpowder.
Lost in her own thoughts, she completely forgot about the cigar in her hand. Once she regained consciousness to reality, she felt nothing in between her fingers. Her head lowered down to notice her cigar laying down on the stomach of the monster. Staring at it now, she didn't bother picking it back up. No need for more disgusting things to get all over her.
Suddenly, the mysterious popping noise that echoed throughout the belly. It was sort of like stepping your foot on a pile of crackers, hearing the satisfying crunch of it under your foot. The only difference between that and this was the volume. It got louder and louder, slowly but surely.
Willow got close to her cigar, noticing the popping coming from the lit stick. The cigar itself was interfering with the stomach gasses, which meant…
An explosion!
She didn't have any time to act, though. Moments after the explosion thought popped into her head, the entire body of the sea monster became nothing but chunks of meat, which also sent her flying across the air once again, towards a rather similar piece of land. The landing was much rougher than the explosion, feeling the pain of the rocks being sent all over her body, but nothing penetrated her skin like a honed knife.
After shrugging off the pain sent throughout her body, she noticed the flaming chunks of meat raining from the sky. It was extremely similar to a fireworks show, but with even more fire… which made her laugh hysterically, joy unleashed within her, and into her voice. Now, she had to search around and collect whatever meat that dropped onto the land.
Yet, the only thing that displeased her was the fact that she had already returned to her initial firing spot, sitting in the shattered pile of rocks that was once the cannon.
"On to the next plan, I suppose." Willow said, letting out a sigh.