The Island

The sound of waves lapping softly against the shore brought Ravenna back into the world. He found himself blinking against a blood-red sky, the sun was setting. He sat up, cursing the aches in his body and looked around.

There were other people on the beach, members of the ship's crew. Some were still lying unconscious, others were up and moving about, either helping others up the beach or salvaging some items that had washed up. A young man was farther up the shore, not too far away from Ravenna. He was starting a fire, and was just getting it going when the old warrior walked up to him.

"You alright, old man?" asked the young man.

Ravenna growled. "Watch who you're calling old, boy. Where's Hayreddin?"

"Him? He's been diving in and out of the sea all day, rescuing people."

Ravenna stared. "How long have we been here?"

"I just said, all day. He fished me out of the water not long after you, I think. There were only four of us on the beach then."

Ravenna turned to survey the beach, noting that there were now nearly twenty people on it. "You're saying Hayreddin rescued all of us?"

The young man nodded, looking awed. "All of us here. I've never seen anything like it."

Ravenna looked around at the survivors but saw no sign of Hayreddin. He was about to ask for his whereabouts when he noticed a disturbance in the water. The others had seen it too and many of them made for it, wading through the lapping surf and shouting words that he was too far away to hear.

Moments later, Ravenna saw why.

Hayreddin emerged from the water, carrying two sailors under each arm. His clothes were soaked and tattered from being in the water for too long, but he himself seemed none the worse for it.

The others retrieved the rescued sailors from Hayreddin and he let them go without a word. He made his way up the beach, seawater dripping down his long brown hair, obscuring his face. Ravenna went to him.

"Are you well, Ravenna?" Hayreddin asked quietly, not looking at him.

"I'm fine," answered the older man. "Hayreddin, are you –"

"That's good, that's good," murmured Hayreddin, cutting off Ravenna. "I need to go dry off…"

"Hayreddin," began Ravenna but he stopped as the younger man passed close enough for him to see his face.

Hayreddin's expression was as cold as ice. His eyes, normally the gentle brown of the waters found in a desert oasis, had turned to the colour of blazing sand. He stared ahead as he walked passed Ravenna, not really seeing his friend.

Ravenna had seen that look before; the months that had followed the murder of Hayreddin's parents. Hayreddin had spent those months looking deep into the past, trying to figure out where he went wrong, what he could have, should have done to prevent the terrible incident from happening.

As the young man sat himself down by the fire, Ravenna knew that Hayreddin was blaming himself for what had happened to the ship and the crew.

XI XI XI

The night was cold, and the sailors huddled around the fires in groups, shivering and hungry as they tried to keep warm. Having just been through their ordeal, none had the strength to hunt, and Hayreddin was too wrapped up in his misery to notice.

The last time this had happened, Ravenna and Isan had continued Hayreddin's work, giving time to reconcile with his grief. The young man had eventually rejoined them, giving no indication of his internal turmoil.

Ravenna had long known that for all his gifts and talents, Hayreddin was unable to compartmentalize his emotions. Everything was personal for him. He held himself accountable for every failure and took too little credit for himself. While it was a good trait most of the time, it could also be a hindrance.

And in the present circumstances, it could be a fatal hindrance.

Ravenna climbed his way up the rock where Hayreddin had sat brooding ever since he emerged from the sea. His muscles were screaming and he cursed every single year on his aging body. With dogged determination, the old man finally reached the top, winded.

Hayreddin sat as still as stone, facing the ocean where the crescent moon hung low, its reflection shimmering on the surface. He did not stir when Ravenna sat right next to him and when the older man looked into his face, he said later it was as though Hayreddin was far away, as though his spirit had temporarily left behind his body to explore unknown places.

Only when Ravenna touched him on the arm did Hayreddin stir, as though waking from a dream.

"Ravenna," said Hayreddin vaguely, almost sleepily. Then he blinked and concerned filled his face. "Ravenna, did you climb all the way up here? You shouldn't strain yourself…"

"The only person straining himself is you, Hayreddin," interrupted Ravenna irritably, though the aches in his body agreed readily with the young man's statement. "Why are you up here tormenting yourself with what could have been, instead of leading the men down there who need you?"

"Those men who died, Ravenna, they needed me too," said Hayreddin quietly. "I failed them. They're all dead because of me."

"What, you were somehow responsible for the storm?" snapped Ravenna. "Bad things happen; you did the best you could in a bad situation. You did better than most."

"But I failed them, Ravenna. Just like…like how I failed my parents…"

Ravenna slapped him.

Despite his delicate appearance, Ravenna knew just how strong Hayreddin was, as his throbbing hand attested to that fact. But the look on the young man's face was one of profound shock. It was likely that in his entire life, despite the battles he had been through, nobody had ever actually struck Hayreddin before.

"Now you listen, and listen to me well, Hayreddin," growled Ravenna. "What happened at Nuba was terrible, it was a terrible way for anyone to lose their loved ones. But it was not your fault."

"But…"

"Listen! What happened here was not your fault either. You didn't cause the storm, you didn't sink the ship. Look down there."

Ravenna pointed towards the beach below, where the fires were burning as the survivors huddled around them. "That is what you did. You ensured the survival of those men, Hayreddin."

"But others died," said Hayreddin quietly.

"Yes, but you did the best you could. No one could have done more. Thanks to you, we have twenty survivors instead of twenty more corpses floating in the sea."

Hayreddin said nothing, looking down at the beach. After a moment Ravenna clicked his teeth impatiently.

"Hayreddin, if you want to try to save everyone then you're going to be bitterly disappointed. You can't save everyone. You can only do the best you can."

"I hate that, I hate it when people tell me that I can't," said Hayreddin quietly.

"You can hate the truth, but it won't make it any less true," snapped Ravenna. He softened his tone. "Hayreddin, remember what Isan and I always say?"

Hayreddin nodded. "Focus on the problems you can solve."

Ravenna nodded and pointed to the coastline below. "Then help those men down there, most of them are only barely alive, and they'll be dead soon enough without help. You can't do anything for the ones who are already gone, so don't go neglecting the ones who are still here in your grief."

Hayreddin looked ashamed as he shook his head. "You're right, Ravenna. Thank you."

He got up and made to descend the rock, but Ravenna hesitated, his body aching as he looked down the steep path.

"Hayreddin, I might need some help…"

XI XI XI

In the weeks that followed, it became apparent that, once the initial danger to their health had passed, that surviving the island was a relatively simple affair. Game was plentiful, plump fowls, fat pigs, a huge herd of jungle-cows. The animals were unafraid of humans so hunting was laughably effortless, though Hayreddin preached restraint lest they exhaust the animals' numbers. Almost every tree bore fruit, sweet, juicy and refreshing. As for water, they found a stream not far from the coast, cool and clear. As for shelter, after exploring for a bit, they found abandoned settlements just a few miles west from where they washed up, big enough to take them all.

It was most ideal.

The island wasn't particularly big, it took barely half a day to go around it. Inland was a lush forest, teeming with many of the aforementioned animals and trees. However, at the centre of the island loomed a mountain that seemed at odds with the surrounding forest; grey and forbidding. Hayreddin had thought to raise a fire at its peak to signal passing ships, but the mountain was steep and tall; ascending and descending it on a daily basis was far too difficult.

In any case, as they got healthier, the men were disinclined to head too far inland when everything they needed was so close at hand. In fact, as time wore on, Hayreddin and Ravenna noticed they seemed to be gradually losing interest in getting off the island at all, content to idle their day away rather than work on the raft that they had all agreed to build.

One day, as Hayreddin emerged from the forest carrying an armload of foliage he meant to convert into rope, he found the men gathered, with an especially angry-looking Ravenna at their head.

"Ravenna?" asked Hayreddin, stopping short.

Ravenna gestured to the men, looking disgusted. "They've got something to say to you."

One of the men, Porto, Hayreddin recalled his name being stepped forward.

"Sir, we…we decided that we'd like to stay here."

Hayreddin blinked, looking around at the twenty-odd people gathered before him. They were all murmuring and nodding in agreement, except for Ravenna, whose scowl deepened.

"I tried to tell them otherwise, but these louts all want to stay…"

"Please, Ravenna," said Hayreddin gently, putting down the load he had been carrying. He took a step closer to Porto, easily towering over the shorter man who bowed his head, unable to meet Hayreddin's eyes.

"Don't you have family waiting for you?" asked Hayreddin.

"All of us here don't have any, sir," answered Porto, and the men around him nodded in agreement. "We've all been living on the sea, didn't have much time to put down roots anywhere."

"Friends?" prompted Hayreddin.

"Either drowned in the storm or here," replied Porto. "We've never had much before, sir. Just the sea and each other. We got nothing to go back to; just more back-breaking work for hard-assed captains if we're unlucky, taxes…like as not we'd probably get knifed in an alley if we go back or set on by pirates at sea."

The others were nodding their agreement more emphatically as Porto spoke.

As Hayreddin looked into their faces; he saw that they meant it: none of them wanted to leave.

"Very well then," said Hayreddin. "If none of you want to, you don't have to follow me." He ignored the look of surprise on Ravenna's face. "However, all I ask is that you continue to help me build the raft."

"You don't have to go, sir," said one of the men.

"Yes, stay with us," urged another.

Hayreddin smiled. "Thank you, but Ravenna and I have friends and family to return to. We must go. Will you please help us?"

The men looked a little unhappy at that, but Porto silenced them. "Alright, you heard him! He and the old man got people to go back to! Let's get cracking!"

As the men scattered to their duties, Ravenna edged up to Hayreddin, his scowl worse than ever.

"Why did you do that?" the older man asked in a lowered voice.

"They wanted to stay,' answered Hayreddin evenly. "Who am I to deny them if that's what they truly want?"

"Hayreddin, have you ever thought that sometimes what people want may not necessarily be what they need?" asked Ravenna.

"Does it matter? They'll still help us get off this island."

Ravenna shook his head. "That's not the point. You compromised. You always do. In hard situations, you can't always do that. It could be seen as weakness. It may make the men you lead think that they can walk all over you."

Hayreddin felt a flash of anger. "If I insisted that we all leave, they may have gotten angry enough to mutiny. Is that strong leadership? Is that wise?"

Ravenna stared at Hayreddin for a long moment and bowed his head. "Perhaps, perhaps not. All I say is you can't always compromise as a leader. I've been telling you that for years. I just hope the men don't think they can walk all over you now."

Before Hayreddin could answer, Ravenna turned and walked away.