Prologue

Mother, I'm sorry I'm travelling so far away. You always told me to follow my dreams; make a life that even Dad would be proud of. As soon as this opportunity arose, I had to take it. There's too many thoughts I need to lay rest here and other things that need my time to work on. On the plus side, I can finally prove to you and myself how independent the world has made me. Even though I do have worries about leaving the nest so early, I won't be completely alone. Others had already signed up before I even got the chance. Hopefully I'll have the chance to meet them as soon as the flight lands, but for now I need to go. As soon as I can, I'll write to you. Love you Mum.

For most of the flight there, all I could think about was how I'd been brave enough to leave my old life behind; all the memories it gave me. However, my mind had been made a long time ago; there was no way I was missing another chance to set things straight. I couldn't quite believe my luck when Nook & Co accepted my application to move to their newly discovered island, and let me only pay for my flight there too! Honestly could be dreaming. Hopefully they've got this amazing hotel waiting for us; with the amount of people I saw interested in this whole ordeal they surely can't afford to turn down people. My only concern is that my flight currently seems kind of... empty.

The sun was starting to set when we begun our descend. It was hard not to be mesmerised by the rays hitting the waves of the ocean; how it always shimmered with every movement. The sky had this pinkish orange tinge to it, reminding me of those late summer nights out in the park, picnic blanket in tow. There weren't even clouds in the sky to ruin this perfect view. How have I waited twenty years to see something this amazing? Made me really excited to see what my new home was going to be like, even if I was slightly anxious about potentially being alone. I could have sworn I heard someone earlier complain about the lack of sports entertainment the flight offered. That could have been a dream though; wasn't really focused on anything but trying to keep family off my mind.

That was when I saw the island, and my heart completely froze. It looked uninhabited, minus a crooked looking pier. Weeds and plants of all shapes and sizes littered the ground and trees stole what little land was left. Surely it was a mistake that my flight was heading here; lowering by the second. Alas, I was wrong. All I could think about was what I had done and how, sadly, living here was my only option. How would I ever gain the money to leave? All I could do was sit and wait until we finally came to a stop. Until I finally took my first steps on this new land.

Oddly, as I had stepped out from the makeshift airport, I couldn't have prepared myself for who I was greeted by. There stood a bulky blue elephant who had the widest, optimistic grin across his face and a small, well dressed purple frog with the prettiest blue eye shadow I had ever seen. It wasn't like I hadn't seen animals around before, they had started to migrate into cities when I was still a child. There just hadn't been an opportunity before for me to have spoken to one. I can't even remember if they work common jobs like we do; have only seen them as customers.

I gingerly waved at them both, though before I could even open my mouth, there were two little almost raccoons walking towards us. Could they actually be Tanuki?

"Welcome, welcome. Hope you had a safe and pleasant trip." One of them began, the other one nervously copying every word his partner was saying.

"It seems all of you are with us, so lets make our way to camp. Hurry now." And with that, they were off. We quickly grabbed our rucksacks from the Dodos (Yes, Dodos) that I could only assume were the ones who flew us here in the first place, and ran after the young boys.

The elephant had no trouble keeping up, striding away from me and the frog. However, she seemed a little puffed out, so I slowed myself down not to leave her behind. For someone as small as she was, I was surprised we hadn't left her behind already, however I knew it wasn't fair to leave her. I'm glad I waited. I could see she was grateful and a small, apologetic smile crept to her face.

"Thanks. You really didn't have to, ya know?" She said sheepishly, just as we could see an outline of a tent. Her breathing sounding almost normal again now.

"Don't mention it. I don't think this is what either of us expected." I answered, smiling back at her. She shook her head in agreement. How could anyone think this was normal? There was me on the flight thinking we would have a taxi to the hotel. How wrong was I. We could vaguely make out the silhouette of our elephant companion, doing cheeky little cool down stretches as if he'd run a marathon in record time. Was he trying to mock us?

"Come on girls; there's no time to waste." Echoed a voice I barely remembered from my telephone application months ago. This was Tom Nook... only I had expected him to be human, like myself. The mascot he used on the massive billboards everywhere were actually him? I felt the red hot colour hit my face in humiliation. What on earth had I gotten myself into? Tom Nook, the property genius that was well renown in my city, was an old Tanuki.

"Right, now that we're all finally here, time to do a register." What? Were we suddenly back at school? Honestly, he needed to get his priorities straight, like where we were actually going to be sleeping tonight. There was no way I was prepared to sleep outside in the dirt on an island with nothing but nature. If there was even a chance I saw an eight-legged demon, I was gone. Couldn't stand them at home, let alone a place I'd never been before.

"Axel?"

"Right here and clear, WHONK." The elephant responded. I wasn't sure if I would get along with him; something about the way he carried himself. Was almost as if everything to him was a game. Could he no see the severity of the situation?

"Alright. Diva?"

"Here." Answered the frog. I could sense she values loyalty, like myself. I knew I didn't have to wait for her back then; could have easily caught up with Axel and ruined his little "game", there was just something inside of me telling me to not leave her behind. If both of them hadn't of waited for me if I needed them to, there wouldn't have been anyone on this island I could rely on. Best to make friends and not enemies.

"And by default, you must be Leigh, mam?" Mam? That was new for me. But yes, my name was Leigh. The woman that fled the city for a hopeful life of luxury in a bid to escape her troubled past back home. Instead, my troubles continue because instead of luxury, this place was a total bomb. A bomb I couldn't escape even if I wanted to. I sighed.

"That's me, sir. Thanks for having me." I replied quietly. I wish I hadn't been so polite; guess having a Mum that drilled manners into me whilst I grew up kind of caused that to slip out. Deep down though, I was raging with myself. I should have been straight with him; if there wasn't a home to go to, why are the three of us here? Was it only me expecting to start a life out here? Please tell me this wasn't some kind of boot-camp I signed up to; I didn't need boot-camp!

"You're very welcome. Now, welcome to our new island over the horizon. As you can see, it's not much to look at b-"

"You've got that right, WHONK."

"Let me finish, Axel." Tom Nook said sternly, giving him a look of sudden frustration. I could hear Diva sniggering next to me and couldn't agree more. If there was anyone here that was going to be punished for their attitude, it was going to be Axel, and we had only known him for a few minutes.

"As I was saying, this island is nothing to look at...yet. If we can all work together as a community, I'm sure we can turn this place from the jungle is seems, to a very functional town." Tom boasted, clearly letting his dreams get the better of him. Diva and I were stood almost speechless; gazing at each other in disbelief. Axel however could be seen almost bounding about with excitement. His cheesy smile even bigger than before as he pumped his arm in the air.

"Yeah! Lets make this happen!" He shouted in response. I couldn't help rolling my eyes. I guess it was settled; if we wanted some amazing place to live, we were going to have to put the work in first. I had given up my life savings to get to a town making boot-camp on an neglected isle. Could my day get any worse if it tried?

"That all sounds well and good, Mr Nook, but will we have a place to stay? Surely we're not roughing it out until we clear this place up!" Diva spoke up, clearly as anxious as I was about the whole situation. What we had been sold back home about this "paradise" was a lie. We're in the middle of the ocean on an island so small, I bet no one else has ever discovered it. And we're homeless! There's not a single building I can see, unless there's magically one over the river in the far distance. Even then, I couldn't see a bridge. I needed answers, and soon.

The sun had continued to set, and the air grew colder.

"Timmy. Tommy. If you could hand out the camping sets I asked you to pack." Nook responded calming. The two boys almost jumped at the mention of their name and quickly scurried into the tent behind them. When they returned, there were three camping kits bundled awkwardly in their arms. Carefully, we each took one of the bags from them and bowed our heads to thank them. This was when alarm bells began to ring.

"Now, does everyone here know how to set up a tent? Raise your hand if you do." The other two raised their hands, obviously. Of course they knew how to make a tent, their families would have taken them when they lived in the countryside. I could only shake my head; no one in my family had ever taken me camping before, not even when I was a child. Mainly because my parents were always caught up with their city jobs to think about roughing it for a weekend. This had honestly been the first time I'd ever acquired a tent. Axel looked almost shocked I hadn't raised my hand with him.

"That's alright, Leigh. Tommy can help you. After all, he's the one who taught an old man like myself." Tom laughed, motioning Tommy to come with me. At least Tom Nook was willing to aid me in whatever way he could, even if it was by sending a child with me. As long as I wasn't responsible for him, we'd be quite alright.

"So, time to setup. Try not to take too long as it'll be dark very soon and we need to get a fire sorted."

And that was it. We all split up quickly to explore. As I walked, I could see Tommy taking notes on what looked like a smartphone. How could they even get signal out here? We had decided to go west from camp, away from the others, all so I could have sufficient space to myself. I'd hoped there was a way to cross the river to get to this snug patch of land on the other side, but it was no use. There wasn't a bridge yet. Then I heard the crash of the waves and eagerly wanted to find them. After a few more metres of walking, I was met with the purest beach I had ever seen. It reminded me of something from a dream, or from those television adverts that showed those stunning, overpriced holidays. I couldn't help but stand on the edge and take it all in; this is what I had signed up for.

"This is amazing." I muttered under my breath. Maybe there was a chance I could make something work here after all. It wasn't exactly a cliff-side view, but it would surely do for a temporary home. Even if it was only for tonight.

It was settled. This evening, I had found my new home under the forming stars. Now I just had to survive the other challenges being here was going to provide.