The movements of the seat felt unnatural at first, but the moment they got their sea legs, it took them little time to get settled. While excitement initially ran high though, the longer the hours stretched with no sight of land, the more the peculiars got restless, especially as day began to melt into night.
"I don't think we're going to make it there before nightfall." Emma finally voiced out everyone's main concern, to which Enoch scoffed and tersely retorted "We're going to drown."
"Shut your trap, Enoch." Jacob lashed back, a little more tightly than he'd like. He couldn't help it though, seeing the flash of minute panic cross Emma's features. "We don't have a choice, we'll sail through the night, but we'll take turns keeping watch so we don't run aground. Anyone want to take first shift?"
Emma was about to raise a hand, but surprisingly Enoch beat her to the punch and took the spot, much to everyone's surprise. They left the matter without a question however, and Imogen drew up a lamp which Emma lighted, before everyone settled in corners of their small boat while Enoch took up his position at the hull.
The corpse animator wasn't in the best of moods, really. He was frustrated, both with the situation they were stuck in, and the conflicts within him. Oh, don't get him wrong, it had nothing to do with the little journey they were on. If anything, despite his consistently dark mood, Enoch wouldn't want Miss Peregrine to be in any harm, and had jumped at the chance when Emma asked him to come along. It was just that he was frustrated that he hadn't been able to be of greater help… and something to do with a certain friend of his as well. Sitting on the hull of the small boat, his amber eyes glanced thoughtfully across the moonlit surface of the rolling waves, almost not paying attention to what he saw until a flicker of shadow flashed across the corner of his eyes.
Alert by then, Enoch moved over to kick Jacob, his foot about to flash out when the elder male doubled over halfway in his sleep, jolting Emma who was next to him awake. Almost instantaneously, Emma gave a loud cry of "Hollow!", and the whole boat jolted to action. Grabbing their oars, they began paddling through bleary eyes as fast as they could, but at the same time they all knew as well that there was fat chance that they were going to outpaddle a hollow in pursuit.
Making a decision, Emma dropped her oars and began throwing fireballs at the chasing hollow, but with the water surrounding her, her attacks left little damage. Realizing the difficulty Emma faced, Jacob scrambled to join Emma at the back, reaching deep within him to seek for that language he had long left alone. But while the words came easily enough, the barrier between his conscious and the hollow was as thick as the Berlin Wall.
"Stop. Stop."
"Jacob!"
"I'm trying!" He muttered, giving it another try, but only managing to confuse the hollow for awhile. Realizing the futility of it, Millard finally threw the oar and loudly shouted "Grab your stuff, we're going down and everyone stay down beneath the boat!"
Grabbing the sides of it, Millard toppled the boat, everyone taking gulps of water and air mixed together, just as the hollow made contact with the bottom of the boat, it's sharp tongue lashing out and smashing the wood to splinters everywhere and exposing where they all hid under the capsized to the surface, Horace's eyes widened as he shouted "Jacob!"
But the other was quick to task, noticing the hollow doing a turnaround to dive for them again. It's three tongues lashing wildly everywhere, Jacob stared at it, willing it to slow down as it neared just enough. At the last second, the hollow-speaker drove a sharp stake right in its mouth, pinning it's throat as black liquid poured out and the hollow gave a dying gargle and fell in the sea with a great splash. The peculiars were heaving by than, heavy breathes they tried to catch up with whilst they clung along the wreckage of their boat, the pieces of wood served as their salvation through their disorientation.
It felt like an age before Millard finally spoke up to break their deathly silence. "Keep together. With how choppy the waves are, we may drift away if we don't hold- Imogen?" As if he suddenly realized the lack of one person, Millard's began to whip around, hoping it was just the black of the night preventing him from spotting her dark head. "Imogen?"
By then, everyone had noticed and began scanning the water too. Emma even tried to light up the area, feeble a flame as she could manage with her whole body shivering. It was Horace however, who eventually alerted everyone to a figure struggling to cling on to a piece of wood. Millard immediately launched towards the area, relieved when he reached and identified that it was indeed a bedraggled but alive Imogen struggling alone. His relief was cut short however, replaced by a bark of surprise at Imogen's confession.
"You can't swim?!"
"I didn't want to cause more trouble?"
Emma rolled her eyes, and Jacob couldn't decide if he wanted to laugh or splutter, but Millard straight out glared along with Horace's frustrated growl before the invisible male grabbed her hands and made sure she was firmly attached to the driftwood he held, before turning to the rest of them. "Now what?"
"Now… we swim, I guess?" Emma finished, thoroughly out of ideas by now. Even Imogen had no suggestion to give. Her satchel was deerskin and waterproof, but she couldn't open it in the middle of the ocean.
They tried swimming, but peculiars still had the stamina of their age and kind and as such tired easily. Jacob insisted Emma sleep, Enoch grumbled as he carried the weight of a sleeping Horace on their shared piece of wood, but Imogen was a stubborn girl, much to Millard's consternation. It was only when daylight streaked the sky, and the faint outline of an island showed up in the breaking daylight and fog, did Imogen finally conceded and rested, and even then she didn't get any shut eye until their feet finally touched sandy beach an hour or so later.
"Where are we?" Weariness was clear in Enoch and Horace's voice as they trudged on shore, dragging their soaking wet bodies and clothes with them. "Somewhere. We'll figure it out later. Right now, I think all of us need to warm up before we catch hypothermia. Think you can manage it Emma?"
Their lips were all but blue, sopping locks hanging limply around their heads. Emma's teeth chattered, lips pale even as she shrugged whilst shivering. "I can try." She replied Jacob, hugging herself as they all headed towards a patch of green, letting their bodies fall to the ground out of pure exhaustion. Every cell of their bodies wanted to roll over and give in to sleep and rest, but Jacob was adamant about drying up, knowing that if they slept now, they'd all just wake up more susceptible to illness and getting sick, which would get them worse off.
"Emma, sorry love but you've gotta try." Jacob tried to soothe, rubbing his equally cold hands against Emma's arms. And the blonde haired firestarter knew, but with how cold she was, she could manage no more than a spark that did not serve to light any fire at all. Their hearts sank as they realized even Emma couldn't muster up the energy needed to at least dry them off, but Jacob wasn't easily disheartened, and instead started instructing all of them to strip off to as bare as they could without being indecent.
"Millard, everything off. At least if you warm up first, you'd be able to help us all. The sun is rising, so soon it's heat will definitely help."
"S-strip?"
"What's the matter? You used to defy Miss P to prance around naked all day. Now strip." Jacob huffed, easily agitated with how worried he was. Millard gaped, but could do little else but comply. The truth was, ever since he began to fancy Imogen, he was more and more self conscious about actually wearing clothes. It just seemed extra indecent to be around a girl you liked without a stitch of clothing on. Nevertheless, he saw the wisdom in Jacob's words and did as he told, draping his wet shorts and shirt on a branch nearby.
Turning back to the huddled group of his friends was a mistake however. Enoch and Horace were in their shorts, for once not squabbling but instead sleeping back to back, weariness winning triumphing over everything else. Emma was holding Imogen, with Jacob hanging their clothes out, but while Emma was in a camisole and a pair of boy shorts, Imogen had only a thin chemise, made almost see through from the wet.
"I-I'll try and go find s-some firewood." Millard announced, and didn't even wait for any of their replies before he darted off. While he was twenty and had technically just met Imogen, he was, at the base of it, still a guy who's never even had his first girlfriend yet.
By the time Millard got back, it was a good half an hour later, and they had dried off somewhat, with the rising sun warming up the cool night air. Horace and Enoch still slumbered, but the two girls just felt entirely too uncomfortable to be sleeping unclothed, and Jacob just felt too great a sense of responsibility to go to sleep yet.
"Ems, you up to it yet?" Millard asked, as he poured the minimal amount of wood he's managed to find on the ground, and intentionally averted his eyes from Imogen. Emma gave a feeble nod, leaning forward to touch one of the dry wood he's found. Luckily for them, a small flame sparked. It wasn't enough to get a fire going, but Millard stoked it for a little until it caught on, before he grabbed all of their drying clothes and started arranging them around the fire. "I-I think you girls can put on your clothes and go to sleep now. They should be dry enough."
Jacob blinked in surprise, for while the girls were too out of it to notice Millard's hesitant tone, Jacob has known Millard long enough to question it when he heard it. Luckily enough, Jacob had enough sense to let the girls settle down and fall into their slumber before he nudged Millard (or guessed his way, he almost fell on his side because he 'nudged' thin air, before he noticed Millard's footprints and got it right the third time) with his shoulder, and raised a brow. "What's the matter? And don't try and lie, Emma's told me what she noticed."
"Tattle." Millard muttered.
"She's only concerned, Mill. And you obviously care way more for Imogen then you let on. Why aren't you doing anything about it?"
"What can I do? It's not like I have anything to offer her in return."
"How about your care and devotion?"
Millard fell silent, and then the sound of scratching dirt informed Jacob that the invisible boy was getting up, and he made a last ditch attempt at driving some information home to Millard. "I had to choose between my parents and Emma. And just before you guys showed up on my driveway, I was regretting ever walking away from a place I knew very well I belonged. I think I should have it on full authority to tell you - don't walk away from your gut feeling."
Jacob had no clue if Millard actually stuck around listening to him, considering he had no way to locate him with his peculiarity, and as such just assumed he did, and returned to stoking the fire and fighting closing eyelids.
Much later, when the sun was right on top of their heads and the heat had definitely dried most of their clothes, Horace and Enoch had stirred, heading to a nearby pool inlet to see if they had any fish to catch for food. Most of their food had sunk, an eerie deja vu of their first time off the island, but luckily this time Millard was smart to strap the tins to his bag, and strapped the bag to himself. The two younger male's boisterous excitement over trying to catch the slippery fishes though, eventually stirred Emma and Imogen awake.
Jacob immediately grabbed their clothes and tossed it at them, before asking a question on all of their minds. "What now?"
"What I would give to stop hearing that question." Emma muttered, pulling on her shirt and shorts, while Imogen buttoned her yellow sundress. Before anyone could come up with a solution though, the loud rush of someone running through the nearby forest brush had them all tense, Emma lighting a spark on fire before a familiar voice called out to them. "Calm down guys, it's just me!"
"Millard?"
"Yes, come with me! I found something!"
Wasting no time, they quickly summoned the other two (with lots of whining, because they apparently had almost got one) before following the floating shirt and rather forlorn looking pants (Millard had hurriedly tossed on his clothes again. Jacob tried his best to resist looking amused and smug, but received a hurried, warning jab from Millard anyway. Emma was quite confused as to why Jacob was extra jumpy that day). "Millard, what is it?"
"I don't think we have that far to go anymore, c'mon!" Millard's voice conveyed more excitement than fear, which served to fan every else's, trudging along with adrenaline forgotten. After what seemed like a long time of making through the brush of the forest, the sunlight began to shine clearer through, breaking through the network of leaves as they neared the edge. The next thing they heard was the sound of waves, before they broke through the last of the forest, and on the other side of what appeared to be the rather small island they were on, just in front of their eyes lay another island.
But while the one they were on seemed fairly flat, rounded with only trees and forest in the middle, the other seemed to be made largely of rock and craigs, barely any sand and one tiny inlet. "Is that the one?"
"Radi mentioned having to climb, and little else. And look, at the top!" Following Millard's instructions, their eyes swung upwards to make out the small structure, what appeared to be wooden and almost hidden by a rolling fog. "He said that the healer was right on top, alone because he was a hermit. It's fitting!"
"So what are we waiting for, can we go now?" Horace's face was now bright with excitement, a vast difference from the weary look he wore just 10 minutes ago.
"Not a good idea, look." Emma cut in, just as Enoch and Jacob began to chime in with agreements that they should set off now,now, now. But when Emma spoke up, all of them turned up, and smiles turned upside down at the sight of dark clouds coming in. "I don't think we should risk a storm right now. What are we going to travel with anyway?"
"I can make another-"
"We don't have enough paper any longer, Imogen." Enoch piped up, and it was only then that the dark-haired girl began to notice that the only thing she had left in her satchel was her sketchbook and her chalks. The rolls of paper she had packed with her were either used, or eaten by the sea. Immediately, Imogen's face fell at Enoch's blunt truth, which only served to irk Millard, while his mind raced to find a solution.
"Is the distance possible for us to swim?"
"We'll all die drowning before we make it."
"We have wood on the island, don't we?" Millard suddenly spoke, leading to Horace nodding, and the invisible boy addressed the green eyed girl next "Can you make string?"
"I can try twine? Not string, I don't remember the composition well enough." Imogen offered, to which the boy considered for a bit, before saying it'll do. "We'll make a raft. Means we can't travel till tomorrow, but it'll do. Who knows, maybe by nightfall tomorrow, we'd be back at home and helping Miss Peregrine!"
That announcement brought a whoop of delight from all parties, before everyone dispersed to try and find enough wood to build the raft, and before the rain begins to fall in earnest.