Chapter Two: Welcome to Accident Island, kid.

By the time my fire was burning bright the human was dry and his eyes started opening. "W-where am I?" He asked in a cracking voice that hurt my sensitive ears a little. "Don't worry lad, you're safe." I took a baked cod off the fire and handed to him as he started to sit up, "Go on, you've got to be starving." The boy took the fish and I stirred the fire once more. I heard half a crunch of crisp fish scales, and then started talking in a slightly irritating voice, "Wow friend!" Guess he's never seen a weasel man before, be cause he started poking this and that all over my body "Where'd ya get all this neat fur? And look at these ears, and this little nose of yours, and those tiny paws, and wow! A tail!"

"Would you kindly get the heck off?" I pulled my tail out of his hands and snarled a little. That only got him to how big my teeth are. "The better to snap mackerel up with!" I pulled my fish off its stick, tossed into the air with my mouth and swallowed it easily, "I'm a Mustelian, a weasel-man. And just for the record, I know you're a human; I've read about them. But who are you? And for that matter, what's wrong with your voice?"

"Call me Flapjack friend! My voice is acting all weird because I'm going through puberty, Bubby said so!"

"Puberty? Bubby? FLAPJACK?" where'd this weird kid come from, anyway? I sat there while he ate his cod. I was annoyed and I was tired. Then he started babbling about weird, unsettling things that only happen to humans. "Ok, forget I asked. What about this 'Bubby' person?"

"Oh, she raised me. She's a whale . . . literally." I was then subjected to the most annoying laugh a Mustelian could ever hope to hear. "Can she talk?"

"Yeah! Wait, how'd you know?"

"She's a Cetacean, a whale-woman. There are pods full of her kind where I come from."

"Where you come from?"

"Yup, the animal archipelago."

"Animal archipelago?" he looked dumbfounded as I pulled out a map of the world- my world at least. "See, all these islands are controlled by, or at least contain, various animal-people. Whales and other sea creatures can talk and such, but only lay claim to the sea."

"What're all these red islands?"

"Mustelian islands; we're some of the best conquerors on the sea!"

"Can I go there some day?" I sighed,

"Kid, I don't even know if I can go back."

"Why?"

"Look around you kid," I waved a paw to the island, "This is accident island, theirs only one way on and off: by accident."

"WHAT!" he got up and panicked "Did anyone else wash up with me? A guy with a blue face and a big nose, or a whale."

"Nope. Only you."

"Oh, cannonballs! They don't even know I'm here! Now how will I get to candied island?" I laughed despite his fear, "You're looking for candied island?"

"Yeah!"

"This island has another nickname, one it's famous for:

Candied island." For a moment he sat in shock before shouting and running into the jungle, but I let him go, since nothing else lives here. After a few minutes I heard a loud "Bleck" and he came back. "That candy tasted awful."

"You're tellin' me. Licorice scrub grass, mint-gum trees, boulders made of that caramel-peanut butter junk; the only candy worth eating on this island are these round pebble-ones, and even then they'll cut your mouth open if you eat too many of them." Flapjack looked disappointed, "At least I'm not alone. What's your name, friend?" I let out a slow breath, "It's Kipp. Kipp Redbend."

The kid slept in my bed while I took up my hammock. I guess I'm sharing this island with him. Great. Hope he's good at catching fish, 'cause he's gonna be doing it for a long time. Eh, he'll learn how it's done. In the mean time, I'll teach him how we Mustelians live and work, that Bubbie whale'll be proud!

"Alright snapper, come to Kippy!" I readied my wooden spear over my fish and flawlessly stabbed it, a clean death. "What is going on here?" Flapjack waded out to where I was stabbing fish. "Getting our food, go get a spear and help me." He returned with a black spear and started stabbing to no avail. "Why can't I catch these fish?"

"Let me take a look at that spear." I sniffed it carefully and then took a bite out of it, only to spit it into the water. "Well, no wonder! This is licorice, when the fish smell this they turn tail and swim for their lives!"

"Cannonballs!" I smiled, despite the burning sun on our backs, "The Mustelians have a saying: The sword wins the war. Try this one." Even with my spear he could not complete the task. "The trick is to wait till the fish turns it's back, then stab!"

"STAB! I was trying to knock it out of the water, I don't want to hurt it." Are all humans this weak? "Trust me, the fish don't feel a thing if you do it right!" Flapjack closed his eyes and randomly tossed the spear into the water, hitting two fish at once. "Not bad. A lot better than I did on the first few days. I actually resorted to eating licorice!"

"Wha- I caught one!"

"Two, just look." He opened his eyes to two dead fish on the spear, "Hey, they don't look alive anymore!"

"Now that's Mustelian mentality! Let's haul 'em in!"

"Ok Captain." Captain? Did this kid know I worked in the marines? How's that even possible?

A few hours later, as the sun was setting, I asked him what he meant. "Oh, well . . . I guess you remind me a bit of captain K'nuckles!"

"Captain K'nuckles? He's your mentor, right?"

"I guess. He's the one who sent me to come here."

"Wait, he did what?"

"Well, a few weeks ago Captain K'nuckles got banned from the candy barrel and we finally went searching for Candied Island. Eventually he told us to split up on to two separate rafts to cover more sea, isn't he a genius?" Wow. Just wow. Anyone who knows anything about sailing knows that splitting up is the exact opposite of what you want to do while searching for something. Even jack wouldn't do something that dumb, and he's the one who chose a course of disaster home! Either K'nuckles is an idiot or he's a jerk "Uh-huh." That's all I managed to say for a while. It's funny, after all this time away from people; I forgot how awkward silences are. "Tell me about your adventures, Kipp. Captain K'nuckles always would." Well, idiot jerk or not, Flapjack cared about him, "Ok, but no interruptions, I need silence to tell It." I started the fire and went back in my mind to a time before Accident Island, before the Gephian war, before my mother died.