Are those birds crying? Where am I? Did I…die? How…when. Were those arms around me…my waist? Dark figure…kill Denny. Was it Denny? Who…

Pain…my head….

Dark figure….

Chelsea suddenly felt sun blazing down upon her, warming her dampened face and focusing her attention to the rush of pain in the side of her head. Due to primary impulse, she reached a swift hand to the source of pain, a bump quite large in size. Upon feeling its immense size, Chelsea groaned in frustration and pain. She willed herself to rise, but went back upon the thought, thinking that it was best to see her surroundings before sitting up.

At first, her vision was blurry and excessively bright-Chelsea assumed this was due to the sun. Once it cleared and her eyes adjusted, she came to see a clear blue sky, just as her vision had left it. But there was something else, and, after a few passing moments, her blue eyes came to see something she never expected.

The face of a tanned boy staring down at her, with the most curious look showering upon her features, his spiky ruffled brown hair dripping wet. In fact, the drops were lightly tapping her chin at that moment. He looked at her as if he had never seen anything like her before. With every second that passed, Chelsea could have sworn her face turned a shade of deeper pink, and it didn't make matters worse that the boy was obviously not wearing a top, because Chelsea could see bare tan shoulders.

"H-hello," Chelsea gently greeted, slightly fumbling her words from embarrassment.

As if she couldn't be any more flustered, the boy adorably cocked his head, widening his chocolate-brown eyes in question.

"You…human?" the boy inquired.

Chelsea smiled and sat up, slightly amused by the boy's sentence structure. Not in a rude or condescending way, she just thought of the many conditions under which he would be uneducated in speaking or language. Now that she had a better view of the boy, she made a quick observation of his appearance, which was quite curious indeed. The boy was quite tan, and had dominant features- dark eyes, skin, and hair- but that didn't take away from his boyish looks, although it was obvious that he was older than Chelsea, due to his muscular definition, height, and broad shoulders. His clothes were out of the ordinary- in fact, they reminded Chelsea of one of her favorite childhood movies, Tarzan. There was nothing covering his strong and toned chest-mind you, not that of a body builder-but he wore a decent-sized loincloth sort of garment, which covered him so that nothing of profanity was showing, nor coming close to that. The material that made up the loincloth was tiger fur, as were the long arm coverings he wore, covering both of his forearms completely. Upon his legs and feet were shoes made of the same fur, which extended up to his knees. Around his broad chest and back there was a strap of leather, which held a pouch, inside of which was a knife. It was now that she noticed that she and her clothes were rather damp, as was the boy and his clothing.

"Yes," Chelsea smiled, "My name," she said, placing her hand on her chest, "is Chelsea. What's yours?"

"Name…My name is Shea," he replied. Shea reached out his hand and briefly touched her head and hair, tracing her cheekbones and chin, asking, "Why…you so different?" Really, Chelsea didn't mind; she knew he was just being curious. Besides, it looked like he had never seen a girl before. The way he uneasily glanced at her waist and chest area before blushing slightly and turning away told her that much.

"Oh…well, Shea…that's because I'm a girl. Do you know what a girl…or female is?" Chelsea explained.

Shea was clearly amused that he knew something he was supposed to by this new person. "Yes! Wada tell me all about boys and girls. Just don't know what girl looked before." He had the most b boyish smile on his face, it was absolutely adorable. Shea had pure white teeth; it complimented his tan skin.

Chelsea suddenly became aware of soft sand brushing against her legs and hands; she hadn't before due to this new interesting experience. To her right was the sea, gently lapping upon the white-sand shore, and crashing upon the rocks in the shallow and deeper sectors of the water. To her left was a steep shoe cliff, the top of which the tropical forest loomed, the sounds of exotic flora and fauna cawing and humming.

"Um…Shea?" Chelsea said, touching Shea's shoulder, because he was looking everywhere Chelsea had looked, wondering what was the matter.

"Chelsea? Something bad?"

"Oh, no, Shea…Just…what happened?" Chelsea pondered.

Shea moved his stare to the sky, as if looking back in time to properly recollect the events.

"You fell in water…hit shoulder on rocks," he explained, motioning to the rocks of the ocean, where she fell (which was now a sizeable hole in the side of the cliff, pieces of rubble still rolling into the steep ocean), and to her shoulder, which Chelsea realized was bandaged with leaves. Surprisingly, no pain pulsed from the wound. "Then you stayed under…I swim after you, bring you here. You coughed up much. Then you woke up." Chelsea looked at him in wonder, in gratitude. It was amazing to her that somebody could save the life of somebody they never knew, especially since he risked his own life in the process.

"How can I ever thank you?" Chelsea partially gasped.

He looked down and fumbled with his thumbs for a few moments, wondering what to request. At last the thought came to him. "Will you be…friend?" he requested.

Smiling warmly, she answered, "Of course, Shea."

"Visit?"

"Yep."

"See hand?"

"What?"

"Please," Shea requested, smiling that adorable boy smile that Chelsea found she couldn't resist. Chelsea put out her right hand, spreading her fingers toward the skies and having her palm facing Shea, slightly below his eye level.

"Er…Like this?" she wondered. Shea nodded, a questioning look on his face.

He softly placed his hand next to hers, both of their palms and fingers facing each other. Chelsea took note of the rather different skin colors; she hadn't quite yet acquired the tan she desired, because she hadn't been on the island for long. Of course, Shea's hands and fingers were longer and obviously more strong than Chelsea's. Honestly, she really expected his hands to be hard and calloused, but they were decently soft, slightly hardened by the no doubt strenuous work that had to be performed daily in Chelsea's mind-set of Shea's life-hunting and foraging for food, as his lingual skills and clothing suggested.

"You have small hands than me!" Shea mused, "But they same in way."

"Yeah? I've always thought I had really big hands, kinda because everybody said so," Chelsea responded, withdrawing her hand, reminiscing the taunting of her above-average height, and, consequently, bigger hands and feet. Mind you, she wasn't rail-thin either (but never overweight or in danger of becoming so), and that ever helped matters.

"No. They perfect," Shea told her, smiling. Chelsea almost blushed at his sweetness.

Deciding to change the subject, she asked, "Uh, Shea? How are we gonna get up back into the jungle?"

"I never here, only when you fell. I jump in water to you. I don't know way up," he said, a contemplative look on his face. He then pointed to a strip of sand that seemed to surround the curve of the island and sea-side cliff that separated the jungle from the water. "We try that way? Maybe find way up?" Shea stood up, offering his hand to help Chelsea off of her knees. Naturally, she accepted his hand and he gracefully lifted her with ease.

And so, they followed the trail, unbeknownst of where it would lead or how long it would be until they made it back to the jungle. The sun was now eking toward the horizon, and the time before Denny began to worry about Chelsea's whereabouts was running thin.

~.~

Wow! It has been a lonnnngggggg time! Between internet turning off, the holidays, and schoolwork, I had no time to write. Either that or I was struck with writers block! I hope everybody keeps on reading.

Funny thing is, I postponed it for a long time, then tonight I just started typing, and the words just flowed out. I feel accomplished now! However, it being 11:10, I should go get some sleep before I wake up at 6:00. Thanks again to all my reviewers! I hope you haven't forgotten about me in my absence!