Yaaay it's time for some good ol' flashbacks. This is where things start changing around a bit.

XD Oddly I'm having fun writing this. I don't know why, since I usually hate writing survival stuff. (Probably not doing so good with it, either.) Last year I completely rewrote the entire Hunger Games series using GiroNatsu. WHY. WHY DID I DO THAT WITH MY LIFE.

Anyway, wow I talk too much in these author's notes, we've got a chapter here.

He didn't mean to go to sleep so early, nor did he ever expect it to happen. This was the first time on the island that he actually remembered having drifted off.

He couldn't move from that spot anyway. He didn't know why. His body just seemed to freeze up, and all he could do was stare into the hues of the fire, while Fuyuki coolly walked off to the shelter.

There was nothing he could really do. So he just lay there, gazing at the stars.

"What do you think of when you look up at the stars?"

"I wish I could go to those stars."

"That would be nice. Why can't you?"

"Spirits can't leave. That's why I have to stay here…."

"Someday, we can go to the stars together."

"Promise?"

"I…."

That was when he went to sleep.

Suddenly he was in a crib, standing on short legs as he used his arms to grip the edges of the structure to help him stand.

His mother was looming above him, her face hidden by a shadow that was created from the angle of the light fixture, which was placed in the middle of the room. She reached out her arms to pick him up, and Kululu, terrified, fell against the back side of the crib. It was to no avail. The woman's enormous arms were coming for him, and there was no escape. As if he could do nothing of it, her arms enveloped his small body, and he was being pulled up into the air, into her arms.

His mother carried him out of the room and down a set of stairs, where she set the tiny blue tadpole into a playpen. She pat him on the head, saying, "Now you have fun playing in there, Kulu-chan!"

Kululu watched spitefully as his mother walked away. Foolish woman. It had been almost a year, three months, and seventeen days since the day of his hatching, and yet she still treated him like he was some sort of baby! Well, he wasn't, and he knew this. But did she? Probably not.

The playpen towered over him like a restricting prison, but Kululu had been in it long enough to know all of the tricks the place had for him. He knew how to get past its defenses. Pitiful, too, since it was only a mere playpen, something made for the joy of baby Keronians, which he was certainly NOT.

Crawling over to the far side of the colorful object, he stuck his hand through one of the diamond-sized openings, reaching for the switch he had attached to the wall. But his mother must have seen this the last time he did so, and she must have moved the playpen closer away from the wall, wedging it between two pieces of furniture so it couldn't be moved. Blast it. Kululu reached forward some more, but his hand was just too tiny to even graze the big red lever of the switch. His cheek pressed painfully against the bending poles of the pen. Yet, if only he could just reach it…. A little more…. A little more….

Finally, the small tadpole slipped, and in performing this action, his hand pulled down the lever that opened the compartment hidden in the wall. The compartment pressed toward him, something else he'd programmed it to do. Now it was close enough for him to tinker with the parts inside. Kululu selected his favorite toys for the playpen, Mr. Wrench, Mr. Electronic-Screwdriver, and Mr. Pliers.

If he could've, he would have crossed his fingers, in the hopes that his parents wouldn't hear him make his escape. They usually didn't, so for the most part, this was a safe thing to do. With his three favorite toys for the playpen, Kululu tore apart the bindings of his prison, slipped out, pieced it back together, then put his tools back in the hidden compartment and closed it. Finally, he was out. Now he was free to do as he pleased, as long as he was able to avoid the other four….

He looked to both sides around him. There was no one there. The coast was clear; if he wanted to run, now was the time.

He made his way as quick as he could to the other side of the room, crawling like a wounded animal. Occasionally he stood up and tried to walk, but always ended up falling down in the process. He came at last upon the stairway. That freakish, leviathan-looking stairway…. Kululu gulped, but he knew that this was his only chance. Slowly, he crawled up the steps, treating each step as if it were some great accomplishment. There were twenty-seven steps, and the last one was always the steepest. Right now he was only on number 11, and he was already out of breath. He knew he must take a break—but he couldn't, not when he had come this far, with just a little ways to go.

Twenty-five… twenty-six… twenty-seven! he thought in his head with triumph, finally coming upon the last step. He glanced behind him at his great feat. He felt so proud of himself. He always felt pretty amazing after getting up the stairs.

His room wasn't that far away, so it wasn't all that difficult to get to. The knob might've been pretty high, and perhaps he could reach it if he actually tried, but Kululu had other methods instead. He stuck his hand toward the door frame, fumbling about till he found the tiny scanner he had slipped in. He pressed his thumb against it, waited as it was scanned, and then the door opened wide to let him in. After he had gotten into the room, he pushed the door closed behind him.

At last, he was alone now…. Kululu crawled to the corner of the room where all his stuffed animals were placed. Pitiful children's toys… he had no use for them. What was hidden behind them, however, was what was more important. His mother knew nothing about this. It was a lucky thing that there were so many of the children's playthings, too, or else his secret storage for his devices might not have been able to be kept hidden.

Kululu pushed past the piles of fluffy useless junk and hid under them so as not to be seen if someone came into the room. The night light on the wall provided lighting for his secret cove. While his mother presumed for him to be in the playpen, he was actually here, fascinating himself with scientific doohickeys and tiny metallic parts, all of which he combined and assembled into new material, new inventions, and new things which had never been thought of, and could probably never be used. But they were fun to make anyway. If only he just had enough… materials.

The door opened. A shiver went up Kululu's spine. Into the room his mother poked her head. "Kulu-chan!" she called. "Are you in here?"

What does that idiot expect? Does she think I'll answer? thought Kululu. It was true that he looked down upon his mother because she treated him like a baby, but even he could not deny the sad fact that he still could not talk. It was quite an inconvenience. But he was still trying his hardest.

Thinking of this, he foolishly attempted just then to replicate the sounds which she had uttered, only resulting in the pitiful babbling of an infant. His mother heard this. Kululu's eyes widened, realizing what he'd just done. And now she would find him. Now it would all be over. No more experimenting, no more creating anything…. He would be forced to fill out her low, low, low expectations for him.

The stuffed animal covering his head was lifted up, and light flooded into his hiding spot. He winced, feeling almost certain that his skin should dissolve. Instead his mother only lifted him up into her arms.

"Oh, Kulu-chan! So here's where you were!" She tossed the stuffed animal back into the pile. Kululu relaxed his shoulders. If she had glanced down, who'd have known what would've happened. "How did you get out of your playpen?" she asked the child, squeezing his little cheeks. He swatted her hand away. He was not a toy! What made this woman think that he didn't care for whatever she did to him?

But fine. Right now, do what you will with me, since you're not going to be staying for long anyway, he thought, glaring up at her. I don't even care if you leave again.

"Well, time to take you back, you siwwy widdo Kululu." She rubbed her hand over his head and back headed downstairs, into the same room, where she placed the child back at his starting point. And then she walked off, not turning around once to see the tiny hands that were helplessly reaching out toward her.

The world around Fuyuki was spinning. He didn't know what had happened, but suddenly he was extremely dizzy. All his attempts at sleeping were in vain. All he could do now was just pace about on the beach aimlessly, waiting for the moment when his drowsiness would take its toll on him. But nothing happened, no matter how much he paced. He was tired, and yet he couldn't sleep, or rather, he wouldn't. Something was telling him that he shouldn't sleep. Something ominous.

The beach, illuminated by the moonlight, seemed welcoming and yet somehow haunting. When he'd first awoken, his eyes were sore and wanted to shut again, but now they were wide open. He probably couldn't go back to sleep now if he tried. Secretly he also hoped that staying awake would enable him to catch a glimpse of the white spirit again, and see her floating on the sands as the moonlight shone through her, casting glowing shadows onto the pale sand.

But there was none of that. Only torture, from himself, and how he was awake when he shouldn't be. His whole body was shaking uncontrollably, as if it was cold, and yet he knew that it wasn't. His teeth chattered together, and he gripped both his elbows, clenching the skin tighter and tighter until he thought it would burst. Giving in to the silent agony, he fell down on his rear against the sand, chin pointed upward at the sky. He could see the moon pretty well, and a few constellations, too.

The moon calmed him. It reminded him of home, of when he sometimes would look up at the moon from his balcony when he found he could not sleep. He wondered if there was anyone else looking at the same moon. Who were they? Where did they live? What did they know that he had yet to learn? What had they seen that he might never witness?

It was such a strange sight. The moon, hanging above them all, controlling the waves that crashed beneath it, the waves that were almost coming close enough to tickle Fuyuki's feet. A sudden thought occurred to him. I wonder if I can see where we landed on the moon from here. He tried squinting. No use. I should have brought a telescope with me. And then he remembered that, even if he did, it would have all been lost in the ship when the engine failed and they fell into the sea.

The rabbit in the moon squirmed, squealing in fright as it was stripped of its skin. Its insides were scooped out and replaced with the mochi it had been pounding, and was then roasted on a fire. It sounded good at first, but then the thought made Fuyuki rather nauseous.

He let himself fall so that he was now laying on his back. Glancing over across the beach at Kululu, who seemed to be sleeping just fine, Fuyuki almost felt jealous.

"Why can't I just go to sleep…" he said to himself.

A voice happened to answer for him.

"It's all right, Fuyuki. Just shut your eyes and before you know it you'll wake back up again and it will be morning."

Without questioning, he did as the voice asked, and it was only after he had fallen asleep that he realized that it had been the voice of his father.

…I feel as though parts of this are rather uninteresting. If something feels weird to you guys, please do tell me…. I'd also like to know if I'm getting stuff inaccurate, if people are out-of-character, or if something just plain doesn't make sense.

Anyway, it should be getting a bit more interesting from here on out. The first nine chapters were kinda slow, soo…. Sorry about that. XD

Anyone mind telling me their favorite chapter thus far, and why? I'd love to see what you guys as readers enjoy in stories, just to get a sense of what I'm doing right…. :)