Chapter 5

The sun had barely risen that following morning. At least, that sight of the partial sun was what Gwen's eyes spyed upon as she hid, crouched behind the reeds of the lagoon.

The lagoon had been a discovery of hers quite early on after reaching the island. Of course, Ben had seen and noticed it, too, but he hadn't noticed it quite to the extent that his cousin had, for she had a more ethereal quality about her which he simply did not possess himself. To Ben, the lagoon was what it was - a lagoon; it was full of very pretty, very deep blue water, and it was fun to wade into and jump into and splash about in at times. However, to Gwen, the lagoon may very well have been an ancient home to a waterborne goddess, one who reigned with all authority over the entire island. It was possibly a very sacred, very holy place. Who was she but a mere straggler by on this goddess's property? It was certainly more than a swimming pool to her, at any rate.

Still, she was not above accepting the uses of the lagoon for her own good, if need be. In fact, mere days after she and Ben had found themselves beached there upon the island, she'd buried something quite important beneath the more shallow part of the water at low tide. It was a secret to be kept betwixt herself and the imaginary lagoon goddess, for she feared that a beauty she'd yet to fully discover would come to an end before it even had a chance to be born in the first place if Ben knew just what she had buried there.

Now it was at this lagoon that Gwen was currently stationed, peeking betwixt the tall reeds as she attempted to get a glance at wherever her cousin might be. It had been a whole night since she'd both smacked and kissed him, and she wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation that she'd brought upon them both. As with her early reveries, she'd noted often how Ben had indeed had a reason to kiss her in the first place. He was saving their lives, so long ago. What about her though? She simply had no excuses, and it was this loss of words that kept her tongue-tied and hidden behind the reeds.

Ben was lying flat on his back, the sun - now much higher in the sky - beaming down and reddening the cheeks of his face. After quite a few hours of tossing and turning and writhing in confusion the night before, he'd managed to pass out at long last. His trouble sleeping was due to the fact that Gwen had kissed him. Gwen had kissed him and he still wasn't certain whether or not it was a dream, a hallucination, or the result of both, brought on by a poorly cooked fish dinner. Either way, he was sleeping quite soundly now that it was morning, snoring even, and it was this sight that Gwen now kept her eyes on, even as she continued to keep her post just on the other side of the reeds.

It was after a few minutes more of keeping her vigil that something different caught the redhead's eye. At first she wasn't clear on what it was, but once it began to make a strange sort of hissing sound, she thought she quite knew for sure what it was. Slinking up more closely to her sleeping cousin, her eyes widened in fear as she watched the creature coil up, its head rising back, jaws opening widely. It was a snake, and it was about to strike her cousin.

"Ben! Look out!" Rushing ahead and throwing herself atop Ben, Gwen cried out as she felt the snake sink its fangs into her hip, which was showing between her flannel skirt and Ben's borrowed undershirt.

"What happened? What is it?" Ben exclaimed, jerking awake to find his cousin's body draped over him; he then noticed the snake.

Reaching over for a nearby rock, he took to bashing and smashing the snake's head over and over again, until he felt quite sure the thing was dead. It was only once he was sure of this that he put his hands at Gwen's sides, rolling her over as he sat up straighter. Her head in his lap, her eyes staring up at him, wide and fearful, she said to him, "It bit me on my hip. Ben, help me, please…"

Ben, being certainly no expert on these sorts of situations, still managed to conjure up a tiny piece of information that he had either heard on a television documentary, or else read in a scouting magazine from some time in the distant past. Suck the venom out, then spit it out, he thought to himself, before gently moving to lay Gwen's body down to the ground, away and off his own.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, breathing shallowly as Ben situtated his body so that his head was near to her hip, his mouth opening.

Not answering her, Ben wasted no time in placing his lips over the snake bite, sucking as hard as he could to gather all venom that he could manage to from it, before turning his face to the side and spitting it out to the ground. Over and over he did this, until he was nearly out of breath from the effort of it. Glancing over to Gwen's face, he saw that she had turned a pale shade, and he crawled over to her, placing his forehead against hers. "Come on, now, don't give up on me. I think I got all of the poison out."

"I hope so. Thank you, Ben," she said to him, closing her eyes.

"Thank you…" he whispered back, before placing a hand over the snake bite. "You'll be okay soon. I promise."

"Ben, there's something you should know. In the lagoon over there, there's-"

"Shhh, just rest. Just rest, Gwen," he said, interrupting her as he placed his other hand against her cheek, his thumb resting at the corner of her lips; she still looked too pale for his liking, but all he could he do now was to hope that he managed to remove most all of the venom in time. And only time would tell.