Chapter 1: Shipwrecked!
The sounds were deafening. The ocean swelled up around him and the waves crashed on his head with bone-shattering force. The seagulls in the air flew in a flurried, frenzied manner, sending feathers up into the sky. The poor man didn't dare look down at what horrors might be coming to feast on him. Suddenly, he felt himself being pulled backwards. An enormous wave stole him into it's girth and brought him speeding toward a huge crag that jutted up sharply from the sea floor. He couldn't get out. The twisting waters held him in with enough force to keep him even from moving. Suddenly, as the wave gained speed, he began to twist and turn. His eyes closed. Everything blacked out.
When he woke up, he was lying face-up on a small sandbar underneath the huge rock. Aching, he managed to move his head to look up. He saw that the rock had a long streak of bright red blood marking it's surface, along with thin strings of flesh sticking to the rock's rough surface. Crumbling stones from the huge crag sprinkled down on him; he supposed that the wave had hit with enough force to crack the boulder. Suddenly coming about himself, he screamed in pain as his muscles began to twitch and ache. The sand against his back began to sting the wounds and he twisted and writhed. Painfully, he managed to sit up, his throbbing back up against the stone. He looked around to see if he might be able to survive on the sandbar. Not even the seagulls were in sight anymore, and there was no plant life to be seen. The blazing sun burned his eyes, and his skin felt as if it were boiling. He then took this moment to examine himself. His arm was broken in, as far as he could tell, two places, although he felt no pain. His ankle was torn to shreds and was lying bloody on the sand, stinging and twinging. He gritted his teeth as he tore a piece of his shirt and used it as a tourniquet around his ankle, to stop the bleeding.
Sighing heavily, he lay against the boulder, shutting his eyes to rest.
He awoke with a shock. A cormorant was standing over him, pecking tentatively at the burning flesh around his ankle. "Aye!" He barked, shooing the seabird. "...Damn." He growled, clutching at his stomache. He cursed silently under his breath, wishing he had killed it. He sighed angrily. He couldn't go on like this; with no food or water he would die. His head screaming in pain, he managed to hoist himself up using a nook at the foot of the rock. Standing dizzily, he walked towards the water's edge. 'Do I dare..?' He thought to himself, first looking back at the stone pillar marked with red. His eye twitched involuntarily. He gasped in a quick breath, and then tried his best to dive in without agitating his wounds. Once he hit the water, blood began to seep from the gashes. He immediatly began to regret this decision. The high current quickly swept him away from the safety of the tiny island. Knowing the blood would attract predators, he desperately skimmed the surface of the water for something to hold onto. Nothing.
The warm waters offered him nothing but a swift current. The man began looking about below him. There were few fish, but the murky and rough sea made it hard to see clearly, though he saw no evidence of any sharks. He turned so that his back was to the sky, dunking his head beneath the water. He carefully opened his eyes, as to not let the saline water rush in too quickly. Gritting his teeth in pain, he tried to focus on the dark object below him that looked as if it were coming closer. Startled, he quickly darted towards the shoreline, hopefully out of danger. He waited a moment, the water still undisturbed. Suddenly, a bubble floated to the surface, followed by a near-black flat object that floated awkwardly in the waves. "Hrm!" He grunted, rushing back into the water and taking hold of the object. He dragged it to shore, huffing slightly. He groaned as he tried his best to carefully set the heavy board on the sand. "Okay.." He panted, shuffling about on the sand, eyeing over the plank. "Alright..." He waded back into the water, hoping more wood might surface. He looked about, spying a length of rope tied around a piece of what looked like his mast. He dragged it on shore and stood for a moment, contemplating his escape. He tied the rope about the plank of wood, then proceding to string the two boards together. After making sure the rope had been tightened as much as possible, he carefully tested it in the waters. It floated.