A/N:

Thank you to everyone who reads this story! I realize that the beginning is a bit slow, and I hope to hurry up and get to the good and exciting parts soon! Enjoy!

Last chapter:

I closed my fingers around the straps before hearing the loudest crack of thunder and lightning. Then…

Nothing.

As Told By Chelsea

Chapter two: Sunny Island

My head hurt; I felt it pulsing, like when I cut myself on something sharp, and days afterward I could feel it pulsing.

"…H…..! …H-…! …Hey!…" A voice called.

"Hey, are you alright?!" it continued.

I opened my eyes, and was greeted by a very bright sun. I groaned, but got to my feet. Once standing, I shook my head, and it got rid of some of the pulsing feeling. I was facing the sea, and turned around to be greeted by an old man who was bald and carried an old walking stick.

"Ah, you've come to!" he said, looking at me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I answered, my voice raspy.

"That's good." He paused and looked at me, and then around. "…It looks like the ship went down in the storm…" he mused.

Dread washed over me. "Oh, Goddess, no!"

He looked at my concerned face and immediately tried to reassure me. "Don't worry, though. It looked like everyone made it to the lifeboats in time."

Now relief washed over me. "Thank the Goddess," I whispered.

He nodded. "Thank the Goddess," he repeated.

"I'm sure they'll get rescued now that the storm has died down," he continued.

"I hope they do."

The old bald man looked around, taking in the scene. "Looks like we've landed ourselves on a nice little island, though!" he exclaimed.

I stayed quiet. Did we really?

"By the way, my name is Taro. What's yours?"

Oh, I thought. His name is Taro.

"My name's Chelsea," I told him.

"Ah, Chelsea, is it?"

I nodded.

"Looks like it's just you, me, and my family here, Chelsea…" he realized.

So there are more people? That's good.

I stayed quiet, though.

"Follow me. I'll introduce you to the rest of my family."

I compensated, and let Taro lead me up the shore until we reached a part where two walls of rock stood. There stood a lady with red hair. She turned to us and said, "Oh hello, Father." Then her gaze shifted toward me standing next to Taro, and exclaimed, "Oh! You found another person from the ship!"

Taro turned toward the lady. "Yup. This is Chelsea." He pointed to me. "Chelsea, meet my daughter."

I looked at the lady. She looked nothing like her father.

The woman smiled at me. "Hello, Chelsea. I'm Felicia."

"Hello, Felicia," I greeted, followed with my own smile.

"It's very nice to meet you, despite the…unusual…circumstances," she said.

I laughed lightly. "Yes," I agreed.

Taro once more looked around, then said, "Where'd Elliot and Natalie run off to?"

I wondered who Natalie and Elliot were.

As soon as Taro said those words, two people about my age came walked toward us. They both had Felicia's red hair. One was a boy, while the other a girl.

"We found some old abandoned buildings, but otherwise this island looks deserted," the girl said. Her hair was short, and she wore a red headband in her head.

"This island is in shambles," spoke the boy, who looked downcast. "It's not impossible to live here, but it'd be rough…" The boy wore glasses, and his red hair was tussled lightly.

Yes, I agreed with him internally. If we were to live here, it would be very rough.

I assumed the girl was Natalie, and the boy Elliot.

Then Elliot's face brightened, as if lit by a spark of hope.

"We didn't have time to check the rest of the island, though," he said, as if trying to reassure himself that other parts of the island might be either populated or easier to live in.

Taro, suddenly, freaked.

"What?! You were wandering around this island by yourselves?!" he shouted at them.

Felicia's face dropped, as did Elliot's and Natalie's. I guess this wasn't the first time Taro yelled at them.

"Oh, calm down, Gramps," said Natalie, who looked down at the ground. "We just took a little look around. What's the big deal?"

I could tell Taro grew angrier at Natalie's words, but stayed silent, fuming internally.

Felicia spoke up to end the awkwardness.

"Chelsea, this is my son, Elliot, and my daughter, Natalie," she introduced.

"Hello, Elliot. Hello, Natalie," I greeted them also with a smile.

"Elliot, Natalie, this is Chelsea," Felicia said to her children.

"Wow! Another pioneer, huh? That's great!" Elliot exclaimed, smiling at me.

Pioneer?

"Yo, Chelsea," responded Natalie. After a moment, she said, "So…The five of us are the only ones on the island, then…"

We all fell silent at Natalie's words as the hard, cold truth suddenly passed over us. Five people all alone on a deserted island…

"Don't look so grim, everyone!" shouted Taro. He was trying to be optimistic, I realized. "We've all still got our health, right?"

"I guess so, but…" Elliot began.

Taro ignored his grandson. "Besides, we wanted to find an under-populated island to settle on, right?"

We all nodded slowly.

"Well," Taro said, "islands don't come much more under-populated than this one!"

The old man tried to make light of a grim situation. It didn't help, though.

However, I saw a small smile light Felicia's face.

"You're right!" she announced, happy. "With a little work, I'm sure this will be a lovely place to live!"

Felicia's happiness must have passed along to her kids, as Elliot said, with a smile, "Yeah! Let's work to fix this place back up!"

Which was then followed by Natalie: "Sure! As long as we all help each other, we can do it!" Then she looked over at me. "You in, Chelsea?"

I looked around at the people that I would be living on the island with. A smile slowly spread across my face.

"Definitely!"

"That's the spirit!" encouraged Taro. "Now let's have a look at those buildings…"

He led the way, and I followed along with everyone else. We approached three or four depressed-looking buildings, or rather, shacks. Taro went on ahead to look for things, so it was just down to Natalie, Elliot, Felicia, and me. Then, as if the Goddess were willing it, Felicia and Elliot and Natalie all stopped in front of a certain shack, which had boards nailed all around it. I looked at it, and felt depressed.

Apparently, Felicia didn't think so. "This building isn't so bad," she crooned. "It won't take much work to turn into a lovely home!"

Natalie, however, observed, "Dang. I dunno…It doesn't look too stable to me." Internally, I agreed. The shack looked as if it could collapse any minute.

Just then, Taro waltzed toward us. "Hey, Chelsea!" he called. I looked up. "Come here for a second."

I left Natalie and Elliot, who were then in an argument about whether or not the house being stable enough, and came up to Taro.

"Yeah?"

"I think I found a perfect home for you." He looked pretty proud of himself, and I felt hope begin to bloom inside of me. A home?

Then Taro walked up, and I followed him to where I would be hopefully living from now on.

Did you like it? Thanks so much for reading! I'm sorry that it's really slow right now…I have all the exciting parts in my head, waiting to be written/typed down…but I have to have an intro, first.

Please review! I'll try to update soon!

*Shadowed-Wolfe*