Hello, readers! This is my first story that I will ever post on this wonderful fanfiction site! I recently decided to try my hand at this stuff, and I hope that all my years of grammar will have paid off! Also review, please! It could help me find errors or nonsensical sentences in my writing that I missed.
Enjoy!
The first thing that Calvin felt was cold water, lapping against his legs.
His eyes fluttering like butterflies, he looked up, his brain expecting to be residing with Hobbes in their treehouse, a pile of water balloons and comic books by their side. He winced slightly at the sudden glare of the sun, its rays contrasting against the blue sky.
But something was…wrong. The ground felt like sand. His back and arms seemed to be numb. And, wait a minute! Where's the oak tree?
A jolt went to his brain as he realized that the green canopy of the giant oak that the treehouse was situated in was nowhere to be seen!
Everything was still blurry. Blinking tiredly, he managed to flip himself over onto his belly, and slowly propped himself up on his elbows. As his vision finally cleared, he recognized the familiar cry of seagulls, saw a line of palm trees swaying in the salty breeze, and felt tiny little wavelets wash over him.
Hol' up! His mind blared.
His senses now fully alert, Calvin looked behind him and his eyes widened at seeing an ocean behind him. Images of the movie, Cast Away came up in his mind and he scurried away in a touch of panic, removing his feet from the vast body of water behind him with a yelp.
An ocean? There are no oceans near Ohio! He realized. Ten feet inland, he stopped, realizing that he might be overreacting a bit.
No! A part of his brain argued. You're overreacting exactly the right amount!
Still, he stopped and looked around, still on his (rather sore) elbows.
He was on a beach. No, scratch that. A huge beach! There were palm trees everywhere, with a large, sandy expanse in front of them. Rocks, driftwood, and strands of stringy seaweed were scattered around everywhere, and a few dozen yards behind the stands of palm trees was a thick forest of large, dark-leaved elms or oaks. He even thought he spied some bamboo shoots.
He tried to get up to look around more, but the best that he could do was kneel unsteadily. And even then he fell back down to just his hands. His legs were still numb from the water, and as Calvin made sure that the rest of his body was in order, he made a startling discovery.
What the heck?! Why am I wearing nothing but underwear?!
He blinked a few times, but it was true. All that he was wearing was an itchy pair of gray boxer underwear! Puzzled and a bit embarrassed about the fact, Calvin eventually decided to deal with that later. He resumed his lookabout.
Some bushes, boulders… Calvin's gaze once again fell on the forest beyond the line of palm trees. It looked dark and impenetrable, and off in the distance he suddenly heard a faraway roar, echoing through the sky.
"Definitely not going in there," he muttered quietly to himself. "At least for the time being."
As he continued scanning the area, he tried to remember what had happened.
C'mon, Calvin, think! How did you get here? He thought, trying to goad his brain into remembering. But despite concentrating as hard as he could, his muddled mind came up with nothing. He sighed, shivering slightly from the breeze, and then he saw the dodo.
It was a bluish-white-feathered bird, with a pudgy body, a large, orange bill, and two cute little wings on its sides that definitely couldn't make it fly. It looked exactly like some of the colorings in his prehistoric animals book… and it was about two feet away from his face.
"AAAUUGH!"
Calvin kicked away from the dodo, frightened by its sudden appearance. After scurrying more than ten feet backwards, he stopped, realizing that the bird was not following him. In fact, it had not moved at all, slightly jumping away at his sudden movement but now just standing there. It tilted its head to one side in a curious manner.
After a couple of tense seconds, he relaxed a smidgen. Then he frowned, tilting his own head in befuddlement.
Wait, weren't the dodos supposed to have gone extinct during the American Revolution? Wait, no. World war one? The thirteenth century?
He eventually gave up, reasoning that the only important thing was that that bird was supposed to have been extinct a while ago. Where was he?
He watched the bird waddle off, apparently not interested in him anymore.
After a minute or two of trying to make sense of his predicament, Calvin realized that he could feel his legs from all of the movement he had done. The sluggish blood in them had begun pumping again.
"Well," he decided, "that takes care of that problem."
As he watched the bird waddle through a cluster of young palm trees, he went to run his fingers through his wild, straw-colored hair. As he did so his left wrist caught his attention, and his eyes widened to see a green, diamond-shaped metal object embedded in it.
What?! He thought. Where'd this come from?!
He slowly touched it with his right hand, brushing his fingers over it and probing its surface. He tried to see if it would come off, carefully prying at the futuristic looking device with his fingers.
The response was immediate. Miniscule strands of green electricity crawled across his wrist, making him yelp in pain and surprise. He tore his hand away from the object, grimacing at the excruciating tingling feeling in his arm.
"I guess that won't work," he concluded, and turned to look around for the dodo again. He was surprised at seeing the bluish-white dodo bird waddling around near some driftwood with two others!
He started to walk over, intending to investigate the discovery of more of the flightless birds when he was hit by a chilling wind that, in his weakened state, almost made him stumble. He wrapped his arms close around his chest, and his teeth started to chatter as another gust worsened his condition.
Calvin tried to collect his thoughts. What did he need? Warmth. How would he get warmth?
A fire! He realized. That was what he needed: A fire.
So, with absolutely nothing left to lose, he started collecting sticks from the beach's debris.
After about ten minutes, Calvin felt pretty good. In front of him lay a neat campfire, with sticks, kindling, and a dozen rocks surrounding it.
Gotta thank dad when I find him, he noted to himself. After all, he was the one who told me to do this on our camping trips.
The problem was that he could find no way to light it, and his strength was still dwindling at a rapid pace. He needed to think of something. He needed to find a way to light that kindling, and fast.
After a dozen tries of smashing two rocks together, he had a flash of inspiration.
Without a second thought, Calvin thrust his left hand inside of the cone shaped arrangement of sticks that he had created, so that his wrist was brushing against the crude ball of dry, crushed leaves and stringy bark. Then, using his other arm (and gritting his teeth as an afterthought), he pried furiously at the diamond shaped object on his wrist. Electric threads once again flashed across his arm, and only after a few seconds of endurance he had to pull back his hand, crying out in excruciating pain.
Breathing heavily, he looked up again, and hope filled him.
Deep inside of the kindling, several little slivers had been touched by the electricity and were now glowing red. Lowering himself onto his belly, he applied just the slightest touch of breath, and smiled as several more strands began to glow.
Continuing to nurse the glow with utmost precision, his smile turned into a full grin as the glowing kindling suddenly transformed into several small, energetic young flames. Smoke started to rise from the middle of the campfire, and then flames started to latch on to the sticks surrounding the kindling.
"Woohoo!" he hollered in victory. "Once again, Calvin the Bold prevails in the face of doom!"
Unfortunately, his celebration was cut short, for when he looked back down at the flames he had created, he quickly realized that they were ravenous, consuming the sticks and bark shavings in no time flat.
Panicking, he gathered up some nearby sticks, adding them to the fire, and ran off for bigger branches, absolutely determined to keep his precious creation from dying. He continued to add branches and gather a wood supply for around half an hour, until he was certain that he had enough to last him for a while.