p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Whumptober 2022 Prompt No. 4: Waking Up Disoriented/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f; min-height: 18px;" /p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Alexander startled awake as cold, salty water filled his mouth and nose. Sputtering, he attempted to push himself up, but his aching muscles protested. He did, at least, manage to flip over to a sitting position as he tried to remember where he was and why he was soaking wet./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Another wave tugged at his legs as he looked around the small beach. Broken boards of various sizes littered the sand. A crow's nest, snapped from its mast, lay half submerged in the water a small distance from the shore./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Looking to the right, Alexander could see the rest of the mast - which had until recently been part of his ship - behind a small, bush-covered cliff. He pushed himself to his feet as the memories of the night before returned, memories of towering waves and the sharp crack of wood as the ship slammed into jutting rocks./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Alexander scrambled over boulders and pushed through the surrounding vegetation until he could see the rest of the ship, which was skewed heavily to one side. What remained of it, anyway. He called out, scanning the wreckage for any of his crew, but no one answered. The last thing Alexander could remember was helping the final crew member aboard the life rafts and starting to board himself. Then a wave had hit and washed him overboard./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Seeing no sign of the life rafts, he could only hope they had gotten to safety./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"He returned to the little beach where he had washed ashore and sat on a thick wooden plank to rest and get his bearings. He wasn't sure how long he'd been laying in the sun and sand before the tide had woken him, but it was long enough that his head was complaining rather insistently about it./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Something glinted among the sand in front of him - his insignia ring. In his disorientation, he hadn't even realized it was missing. He picked it up and held it in his hands to look at it. The outside showed the Daventry Crest and read Prince Alexander Of Daventry along with his birth date. Flipping it over, he traced the date inscribed on the inside of the band. The date he'd returned to Daventry at last./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Thankfully, the ring seemed undamaged; he slipped it back on before starting to search among the wreckage for any of his other possessions. He found his money chest underneath the plank he'd been sitting on, but it was empty save for one lone coin. The rest of his money, his papers, his clothes - all were lost to the sea. Still, at least he was alive, even if the loss of the rather sizable stack of books he'd brought with him was sure to annoy the library staff back in Daventry. Assuming he ever made it back to Daventry./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Which brought his current predicament back into focus. He still had no idea where he was or how much further he had to go until he reached the Land of The Green Isles. No idea if he could reach Cassima in time or if she even truly required his assistance./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Time to find out./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f; min-height: 18px;" /p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Alexander startled awake as cold, salty water filled his mouth and nose. Sputtering, he attempted to push himself up, but his aching muscles protested. He did, at least, manage to flip over to a sitting position as he tried to remember where he was and why he was soaking wet./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Another wave tugged at his legs as he looked around the small beach. Broken boards of various sizes littered the sand. A crow's nest, snapped from its mast, lay half submerged in the water a small distance from the shore./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Looking to the right, Alexander could see the rest of the mast - which had until recently been part of his ship - behind a small, bush-covered cliff. He pushed himself to his feet as the memories of the night before returned, memories of towering waves and the sharp crack of wood as the ship slammed into jutting rocks./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Alexander scrambled over boulders and pushed through the surrounding vegetation until he could see the rest of the ship, which was skewed heavily to one side. What remained of it, anyway. He called out, scanning the wreckage for any of his crew, but no one answered. The last thing Alexander could remember was helping the final crew member aboard the life rafts and starting to board himself. Then a wave had hit and washed him overboard./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Seeing no sign of the life rafts, he could only hope they had gotten to safety./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"He returned to the little beach where he had washed ashore and sat on a thick wooden plank to rest and get his bearings. He wasn't sure how long he'd been laying in the sun and sand before the tide had woken him, but it was long enough that his head was complaining rather insistently about it./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Something glinted among the sand in front of him - his insignia ring. In his disorientation, he hadn't even realized it was missing. He picked it up and held it in his hands to look at it. The outside showed the Daventry Crest and read Prince Alexander Of Daventry along with his birth date. Flipping it over, he traced the date inscribed on the inside of the band. The date he'd returned to Daventry at last./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Thankfully, the ring seemed undamaged; he slipped it back on before starting to search among the wreckage for any of his other possessions. He found his money chest underneath the plank he'd been sitting on, but it was empty save for one lone coin. The rest of his money, his papers, his clothes - all were lost to the sea. Still, at least he was alive, even if the loss of the rather sizable stack of books he'd brought with him was sure to annoy the library staff back in Daventry. Assuming he ever made it back to Daventry./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Which brought his current predicament back into focus. He still had no idea where he was or how much further he had to go until he reached the Land of The Green Isles. No idea if he could reach Cassima in time or if she even truly required his assistance./span/p
p class="p3" style="margin: 0px 0px 19.4px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 15.1px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; color: #1f1f1f; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1f1f1f;"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Time to find out./span/p
