"Again?"

I had to ask this question without trying to sound too whiny about it, but I did know that Ralph made me do fire watch yesterday...with Roger of all people, and now he wanted me to do it again toady? Wasn't there like thirty others on the island that could do it, instead? What about Jack of all people, what if he stopped hunting for one blasted second and-?

"Piggy?"

Oh. I was lost in my thoughts again. I sighed and nodded, running my hand through my hair in frustration.

"Well, who was going to be the person I would have to watch it with?"

Please let it be someone I actually can talk to without being made fun of.

"I was going to have Jack-."

"No." I firmly stated I did not want Jack as my fire-watching buddy. Jack himself was bad enough as it is, but knowing him, he would leave me with the responsibility within the first ten minutes of us being there. Also, he would probably hurt me, knowing him.

Ralph looked at with surprise in his eyes, but nevertheless, he still thought about who I should be assigned with. There was the twins, for starters, but they were just like Jack in the way they would leave. Simon? No, nobody even knew where he was anyway. There was Bill, Robert, Maurice, Henry...but wouldn't they be with Jack hunting? Obviously, Roger wasn't a good suggestion, as I have had personal experiences with him myself, and there weren't many other ideas for other boys considering the rest were littluns' and had the attention span of a fly on the wall. Ralph sighed before sitting down and trying to think, and I was going to laugh. Maybe he would just call the entire thing off, but before I could even start to walk away to watch the fire myself, I saw a light flash into my friend's dark blue eyes. This always happened when the older boy had an idea, so he shot up from where he was sitting and smiled.

"What about Harold? He will watch it with you!"

Harold? Who was Harold, again? Wasn't he one of the shorter of the big kids, with the sandy brown hair and the hazel eyes? The one who got the most sunburnt, besides Jack, and the one who I see hang out with Henry and Bill all the time? Did he even talk? Well, I knew anybody at this point would be better than nobody, so I sighed while reluctantly nodding at the suggestion.

Ralph nodded back approvingly before he ran off to find the boy, and I had to wait until they both returned when Harold walked over to me and looked at me, as though in disgust. Well, I never did ask for his opinion, although since I had been on the island, I guess I couldn't say I was really surprised by it. The younger boy and I walked over to the mountain once Ralph gave us permission to leave, and once we arrived by the fire, the twins left. I was actually surprised the twins watched the fire for this long, but whatever. I guess they had nothing better to do.

So, we sat down and I must admit that this time, it felt a lot better than what it would have been like due to Roger, since Roger creeped me out with that...absurd question. This kid felt a lot more easygoing, but I could sense he was far too involved in his daydreaming rather than to pay attention to the fire, so I knew I would have to snap him out of it a few times while we were here. He seemed good-natured...even though Simon obviously wins in that category, and he didn't seem as fierce as the rest of the hunters. I had a feeling I could strangely sympathize with this boy, and for whatever reason, I surely didn't know. I decided a light conversation would be most appropriate.

"So...Harold, tell me. What kind of stuff are you into?"

The other boy seemed dazed, as I had said before, so I snapped to get his attention before repeating my question. Harold simply looked at me with confusion in his eyes before responding.

"Why do you need to know?"

"Oh, I was just wondering. I wanted to get to know you better, I suppose."

The silence that came afterward made me want to barf, honestly, but I knew that I couldn't give up on the conversation. I sighed before leaning back on the log I was sitting on and trying hard to not stare too far up the sky. The sun would blind me, even though one side of my glasses were already shattered and I was already blind anyway, but I honestly couldn't care. Anything now would be better than watching the fire.

Harold was poking the fire with a nearby stick, and a instinctive part of me wanted to yell at him and tell him to stop. I mean, I wouldn't want either of us to have the fire completely collapse. However, as I was watching Harold do all these things, I couldn't help but notice he was muttering some words beneath his breath. Now, I was the type to be awfully secluded due to my...unfortunate physical problems, but I did not know that Harold talked to himself. I wasn't going to remind him of this, since there was enough nutcases on this island anyways, and reminding Harold would only make him feel uncomfortable.

"I am into reading," Harold responded, after mumbling the words to himself, and I had to practically snap myself out of the trance.

"Reading?" I questioned. Finally, somebody who seemed to have the same interests as me. "What kind of reading?"

"I like reading things...learning new things...stuff like that." Harold whispered, before using the twig he was playing with earlier and throwing it into the fire. Reading things and learning new things? Well, I suppose he was into documentary reading? Oh well. I was going to bring it back up again but Harold was mumbling those weird words again, so I sighed and continued to watch the fire, which was strangely getting higher and higher as the seconds passed by.

We had another feast tonight. It was random, of course, considering that whenever Jack and the other hunters went out they usually got the meat they wanted to get, but the feeling of the Beast was among us again. Simon and I stayed in the back, and we watched as the savages themselves grabbed any meat they could find and devour in whole, but I looked around and noticed that Harold was nowhere to be seen. I turned towards my friend and sighed as a question popped into my head.

"Simon...Harold's in the choir isn't he? Is he often secluded from the other choirsters?"

The black-haired boy looked back at me with a simple smile before shrugging, picking up a rock and analyzing it.

"I have not the faintest idea about Harold, even though we're both in choir and everything, but what I do know is that Harold has a tendency of believing he could perform certain..spells."

Spells? As in, wizardry and witchcraft? That was completely irrational, though! As if anybody could do something like that. I sent a bizarre look of confusion towards the other boy..but then again Simon was rather batty himself. He could possibly just be saying this just to say something.

"You don't mean that Harold as the ability...the magical ability of-."

The other boy nodded, almost hysterically, as I brought it back up, I glanced towards the jungle as the nearby thunderstorm was brewing, and I figured he would be somewhere in there. I also knew that we would have to go find him, considering I wouldn't another incident to happen like it did with that one boy a long time ago and the chaotic fire and the running of firewood and the...

I forced myself to not think of the mulberry-scarred boy in this kind of situation, but instead I faced towards Simon and smirked at the adventure in mind.

"Well, Simon, let's go try to find Harold and see whether or not he really does have, er, magical properties.

Simon nodded in response, and we started to walk through the forest to find Harold and figure this out once and for all.

The night was beginning to gradually peak over us, and the chill of the air made it awfully uncomfortable to be walking through these parts of the woods. However, Simon reminded me that he walks through this part of the woods all the time, so I guess I had to trust him with a certain extent. The moonlight stretched over us, and the owls hooted with a mysterious intent in mind, so I shivered as the fear traveled within me. Simon smiled at noticing and strangely enough grabbed my hand to keep me from being too fearful, and we continued to walk into the clearing.

I could sense something burning coming from not too far, and because the night wasn't fully here yet, I could see smoke from not to far away. However, we were walking from the opposite side of the bonfire that the hunters made,and the signal fire was out due to nighttime arriving, so how could there be smoke? Unless somebody wanted to make their own fire? Simon and I stopped within the clearing, behind some rather tall bushes, to find that we could hear something chanting and...singing? I exchanged a look of sheer confusion towards the slimmer boy as we opened the bushes slightly to find what we did not expect to be there.

It was none other than Harold himself, his face covered in paint and his sandy brown hair crumpled into a mess. Sweat was dripping off his face, and his arms were flying everywhere as he danced around the fire. He was speaking foreign words, it seemed, and there were strangely enough, more colors than red and blue that were engulfed within the flames. It took all I had not to gasp in surprise. Simon was right, Harold really does know how to perform magic! However, whether this magic was good or not, that was completely beyond my comprehension. The thunderstorm cracked above us again, and Simon squealed lightly at the sound, trying to curl himself into a ball to avoid the rain. I sighed before realizing I was actually with two kids that had their own set of problems, and I let my hand massage Simon's back for support.

"Simon," I whispered as the other boy seemed to relax at the sudden contact of my hand, "Harold is a wizard, it seems. However, it's only a matter of time before something dangerous happens with his crafting. We have to stop him and confront the problem."

Simon looked back, biting his lower lip, before nodding in response. We both stood to where we were before, nodding as though in cue, before running out of the bushes and grabbing Harold as our hostage. The boy noticed us arriving and screamed quite loudly, kicking his feet out and trying to escape our grasp, but Simon and I were actually pretty strong against the younger boy. As he tried to release himself, we could only watch as the rain didn't get rid of the fire, but only made it stronger. What is with all this madness?

"Do you really think you would corrupt my plan?" The savage screamed, his voice sounding completely without barrier and more-or-less of the urge of breaking our eardrums. "My plan to burn down the entire island? Well, too late! I have spent all day conjuring this spell, just for me to burn down everything and everyone off of this island, once and for all!" The boy was now screaming hysterically, and Simon and I exchanged looks of not knowing whether to take this seriously or just pretend like he really meant it. I glanced over to where Harold was before sighing and pressing my hand against my face, when an idea quickly popped into my head and I smirked.

"If you don't quit doing this, I will get Roger to give you...the proper punishment."

Now, Roger and I weren't really good friends, but it was good to scare the living crap out of boys such as him with the thought of the other boy. In this case, it was certainly no exception. Harold began shuddering at the thought of knowing what Roger could do to him, and he faced his fire and sighed before nodding. We let him go and watched as he let the fire go out with a snap of his fingers, but strangely enough, he snickered almost evilly before leaving the clearing. We sighed and walked back towards the beach.

When we arrived back on the beach, we noticed that Ralph was waiting for us by the trees, with a concerned look on his face.

"Where have you guys been? We're been looking for you two for the last thirty minutes, we thought the Beast came in!" Simon and I began to open our mouths to explain the situation, but we figured that Harold wouldn't want us to exploit his magical traits, so we figured out something else to say. However, I was opened my mouth to speak, and a rather squeaky voice came out instead of my normal voice.

"Er, we were just walking around since we didn't want to participate in the feasting."

My eyes widened as this voice came out, and I covered my mouth. Why did I sound like Simon, rather than myself? Simon and Ralph noticed this too, and Ralph gave the expression of absolute bafflement. Simon gasped as he began speaking almost crazily. "Piggy, are you okay?"

My voice came out from his body, and the black-haired boy and I watched as nearby us, a certain boy laughed with an evil smirk on his face. Well, this could be very unfortunate, wouldn't it?

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