Of Love And Lords
Disclaimer: I own no characters or the plot of which William Golding created. Though I do own Emma Sinclair and her family, not really though…technically.
Summary: A girl's uncle offers to take her flying as a present for her fifteenth birthday. Though her uncle would be on the job, and would be transporting an umpteen amount of boys to their destination, nothing could shatter Emma's dream of finally being able to fly. During the flight, the plane encounters a horrible tropical storm, sending the fiery plane, crashing down into the ocean. Emma Sinclair awakes on the sandy beach, only to be surprised at having two boys confusedly starring at her. And so the battles of love and lords begin.
Chapter Three: Berries In The Underbrush
After long hours of building, collecting, sorting, and caring for the littluns, Emma collapsed onto the warm white sand of the beach. The tide tickled her toes as she listened to the other boys still at work. Gleeful yelps of littluns splashing around in the water could be heard. She sat up and turned to watch them. While Jack and Roger were busy sharpening the tips of long, spear-like branches they found, Ralph, Simon, and the twins very busy trying to build shelter. They had gathered the large fallen leaves from coconut trees along with long and thick branches. Earlier, Piggy suggested they tie them together using peeling bark from surrounding trees. The bark was strong enough to hold the branches together, and flexible enough to tie knots in. Emma shivered as the sun began to set. They had to devise a way to make fire, or they'd have to spend the night seeking each other for warmth, and that was something she was not prepared to resort to, at least with Roger or Jack.
Emma looked on as Ralph easily picked up a large bundle of branches. He turned and saw her watching him. Just as soon, the bundle of branches crashed down to the sand, with Ralph tripping over the scattered branches. He was a golden blur on his way down, and even harder to see as he fumbled to get to his feet and on with his work.
Emma, with a smile still plastered on her face from Ralph's boyish conduct, decided to do something useful and started toward the woods. Before it got too dark, she hoped to find some sort of food other than coconuts. Emma heard voices behind her. She quickly concealed herself behind a bush near to her. The voices were coming closer.
"She'll be alone with us sooner or later. Ralph's not always gonna' be around to protect her. He won't always be able to interrupt" said Roger to who Emma presumed was Jack. "She won't be so smitten with him once she knows what real men are like."
"Yeah-yeah...that's right! There'll be no escape. I mean, it's not like Ralph's more ideal then we are. We're the oldest here, so we should get her for ourselves." said Jack, his ego gaining momentum as Roger fueled it.
Emma's eyes grew wide. Thoughts interrupted one another in her mind. Though, they all franticly understood each other. She had to get out of the forest. If they found her alone, leave aside eavesdropping, she wouldn't know what they'd do to her exactly.
Emma; while waiting a moment or two longer before running out of the forest noticed that her left arm was bleeding. She then realized it had been from the rush of hiding from Jack and Roger. The thorns in the bush had torn open her skin. She then realized right in front of her was exactly what she was looking for. Luscious, juicy, red berries. She gathered as many as she could and carried them out hastily in the fold of her skirt. Emma ran out of the forest only to smell smoke. She ran out onto the beach only to find Ralph steadily holding Piggy's glasses over a nest of branches, leaves, and some moss surrounded by small stones. Emma noticed a slim ray of concentrated light coming out of a lens in Piggy's glasses was the cause of the wood beginning to ignite. After an almost unbearable amount of smoke, burst of orange, yellow, and red finally appeared. Everyone began to cheer. Piggy, after a moment of blindness was very happy to have his seeing-glasses back on his pudgy face. All the boys soon turned to her. They stared at her strangely; some even began to giggle. Ralph turned bright red. Had they not see berries before? She glanced down to see that she was holding her dress a little too high. She let her skirt down and the berries fell onto the beach floor.
She cleared her throat. "Berries, anyone?"
Ralph ran over to the pile. "I'm famished!" he said, trying to end the awkward silence, and began shoveling them down into his mouth. He glanced down at her arm, swallowed, wiping his lips from berry juice and then said "You're hurt…let me patch it up for you."
Emma shyly sat down beside Ralph. She was surprised to see the cut was more serious then it seemed. Blood spilled down her arm to the tips of her fingers. Her body began to grow cold as it seeped into the creases in her skin. Ralph timidly attempted to brush the blood of with his own hand, but then thought otherwise, reaching into a back pocket of his red shorts, pulling out a slightly dirty handkerchief. He tore it in two, wiping of the remaining blood with one, and dressing it with the other.
"I thought it best to save the thing incase of injuries, you know." said Ralph, tying the finishing knot.
He must've passed his first aid course with flying colours. Thought Emma sheepishly.
When Emma boarded the plane with her Uncle, if she knew boys from a Military Academy were on board, she would've left right away. She didn't believe in senseless violence, nor teaching young boys to continue the trend. It made her sick that a boy as special and kind as Ralph had been corrupted by this. War was sick. No matter the good and evil represented on either sides. People died. She hated it when people died. Highest in the ranks, lowest in living life. Ralph had so much, yet so little.
"Why are you here?" asked Emma, interrupting the content silence that surrounded then.
"What'chu mean?" replied Ralph in bewilderment, turning to face her.
"What were you doing on that plane?" Emma asked boldly.
"We were coming home from the Academy." Ralph said, still confused at her peculiar questions.
"Yes, but why were you there?" she continued.
"I've been attending that school for years. It's a family tradition. One my Grandfather followed along with my Father. I would be in the war right now…if I wasn't so young. It was also partly because of the danger. My Mum wanted me out of England." said Ralph, hoping that his answer would quell her curiosity.
"Ralph, why would your Father ever think that they needed a Military Academy to define you? You're so special…" Emma said.
"Emma, if this is about Jack and Roger, somehow, I won't let them hurt you," He said, looking into her eyes. "This isn't about why we ended up here. It's about how we're all going to leave here, alive. I took upon more then you think, becoming chief."
Ralph got to his feet and began to walk back towards the fire. Emma stared sullenly at his retreating back. Ralph stopped in his tracks for a moment. He swayed slightly where he was standing, and then fell to his knees.
"Ralph?" Emma called after him, starting to run toward him. "Ralph!"
Ralph keeled over, his face in the sand. Emma reached him and crouched down to turn him over. She put two fingers on the left side of his neck. She began to breathe heavily as she searched for his pulse.
Alive. Emma thought with relief.
He had broken out in a cold sweat. She rested her palm on his forehead; he definitely had a fever. She walked around him and took his hands in her own, attempting to half-drag-half-carry him to safety. Her arm throbbed as she moved him. She knew she would not be able to do it on her own. She turned to see Simon loitering by the fire.
"Simon! Simon!" she could see him turn his head to her direction straining his eyes to see where she stood.
"Ralph's hurt! Get Help!" she called out to him, her voice echoed many times after her initial yell.
A moment or two later, Roger and Jack appeared. It seemed they had used the last of her berries for face paint. There were strange tribal-like markings under their eyes and around their faces. Hopefully the other boys wouldn't follow their barbaric example.
Jack took Ralph from under the arms while Roger carried his legs.
"Fainted, eh? Maybe she blew him to hard." Emma heard Roger mutter under his breath, while Jack sniggered.
Emma shook her head in disgust, restraining herself as best she could, from spitting in both of their faces.
Emma had stayed beside Ralph for the past two hours, Roger and Jack never ceasing to admire. She felt so unclean with their loitering eyes continuously planted on her. She was forced to tear off another piece of her dress in order to make a cloth to help cool down Ralph's fever. He moaned slightly as she took it off his forehead to soak it. She ran over to the Ocean and dampened it, squeezing out the access gently. The natural salts in the water would help to cure his fever, it was a fact her Mother had taught her incase Michael ever fell sick when she wasn't around. Emma remembered her Mother's words distinctively.
"One teaspoon of salt, and one cup of boiled water, alright love?" her Mother had flashed her a smile when she said this.
Emma wished Ralph was awake. His vomiting had seemed to pass. He has thrown up twice in a delusional state. All he had to do was get the sickness out of his system. Ralph was always able to chase away her worries with just a smile. She laid the moist cloth across his forehead, slowly smoothening out the creases. Ralph started to breath heavily. He lips parted as he began to speak.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" he gasped out, turning as he said it.
Emma realized that it must've been his Father that he was speaking to.
"I'll try harder, I'll get better," he continued, turning again, laying flat on his back once more. "I will." He scrunched up his face in an attempt not to cry.
Silence.
Emma looked back to where Jack and Roger had been sitting. They were gone. Instead, she saw Simon sitting where they had been. He came over to her.
"Where did they run off to?" Emma asked.
"They're planning out tomorrows hunt," He replied quietly.
Embers from the fire blew dreamily into the air.
"They want to get a pig."
"You know Simon, though we don't speak much, I think we understand each other." Emma said, looking on at Ralph as the fire bounced shadows onto his body.
Simon stood up and looked into Emma's eyes with an all knowing glance. He nodded his head slightly at her, and walked away.
Emma recalled the song her Mother sang her to sleep every night. She sang it quietly, under her breath.
Come Josephine in my flying machine
And it's up she goes
Up she goes
Balance yourself like a bird on a beam
In the air she goes
There she goes
Up, up, a little bit higher
Oh, my, the moon is on fire
Come Josephine in my flying machine
Going up
All on
Good-bye.
Oh, say, let us fly girl
Where dear? To the sky girl
Oh you flying machine
Come please, please Josephine
Come Josephine in my flying machine
Going up
All on
Good-bye.
She looked on at the fire flies in the darkened, velvety sky, until the pinks and purples emerged above.
A/N: Hey Readers, Thank-you for all your fabulous reviews! Okay, you may encounter some confusion, as you probably already have from the first chapter. In my story, all the boys are attending a British Military Academy. The plane is taken down by a storm. This way, the war is still involved. I know it may be a little far fetched, but it is what it is. Almost all facts from the book will remain unchanged, except for these. Thanks!