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 Four: The Flying-Machine

Emma awoke with a start. All she could remember before dozing off was her singing herself to sleep with the lull her mother used to sing to her…

She suddenly became aware of the state she was in; sleeping with her back to Ralph, his arms wrapped protectively around her. She could feel the quite familiar hue of red creeping up her cheeks. Embarrassment somehow always found her. She guessed that barely an hour or two had passed, so none of the other boys would have been awake to encounter her predicament.

Good Lord! How am I going to get out of this one? Emma thought. Her eyes widened as he tightened his grip.

Emma slowly unlatched Ralph's reluctant arms, and sat up to check his temperature. It seemed to have improved since the pervious night. She rubbed her eyes of their want for sleep and went to re-soak the cloth on his forehead; hopefully his temperature would be down by noon. She soon wondered if it was her who had the temperature; she fanned herself slightly with her hand as it had suddenly grown a bit hot.

Of course it's hot, you're in a bloody tropical climate you silly girl! Emma thought to herself.

Once she returned, she noticed that Ralph had proceeded to wrap his arms around himself, either from the lack of warmth, or the lack of her. She laughed to herself and she crouched down and smoothed out the damp cloth onto his forehead for the umpteenth time. She combed her fingers through his wild blonde hair and rubbed his cheek. She was so happy that he'd be alright. She glanced down at his eyes only to find two smiling blue orbs starring back at her. She gasped and pulled her hand back.

"You can keep petting me if you want, I don't mind," said Ralph smiling.

Emma felt herself turn redder, if it was possible to do so.

"How long have I been out?" He looked deep into her eyes, she turned away breaking his gaze.

"Oh, about…a day? …Maybe more." She stood in a fluster, picking up the moist cloth. She began wringing it nervously in-between her fingers.

"Well it may have been worse if you didn't take care of me…and-er; well thank-you." said Ralph, avoiding eye-contact with her, she could tell-she had done the exact same thing more than once.

At that moment Emma began to feel quite sick. She felt flushed, and a bit sweaty. He stomach did back flips as she found her eyes planted on Ralph's lips.

I feel like a fifty-year-old woman with menopause! Idiot, idiot, idiot. Emma thought as she tried to quell the butterflies and other annoying things in her stomach.

"Yeah you were out cold! I mean–" She cleared her throat. "First I thought that all you needed was a bit of sleep, I mean you've been working really hard keeping Jack and Roger and the rest of the boys in line –it must've been exhausting by the way, and then I found it was much, much more serious! So I decided to use the tepid sponging method–" Emma began breathing quickly, in short gasps that barely fulfilled her need for oxygen

–to the brain especially. "And of course it was convenient to be out in the middle of the tropics, lots and lots of salt water, you know and my God, you were burning up–"

"Can you–" Ralph interrupted her putting his fingers on her lips. "Shut up?" he finished as he leaned in and kissed her.

My God. He's kissing me, He's kissing me! Thought Emma with her eyes wide open, still in shock, she closed her eyes unwillingly as she felt the kiss deepen. Ralph's gentle lips persuaded hers not to pull back.

"If you feel like you'd rather be in that spot than anywhere else in the world, you'll know that it's right." Emma recalled her Mother saying.

Emma also recalled her twelve-year-old self screeching with disgust at just the thought of boys.

Her Mother spoke of when she had met her Father. He had delivered both the morning and afternoon papers to her house. Her Mother had rambled on about how they'd stare at each other through her living room window, her on one side and him on the other, and how childishly romantic it was. Her Mother even woke up two hours earlier just to get a glimpse of Emma's Father pedaling up her street. Her Father of course, reduced his speed a great deal just to be able to look at her Mother a few seconds longer. After about a year of this daily ritual, one morning Emma's mother ran over to snatch the newspaper from her porch –she had taken to reading it. She hastily broke the string binds that seized it shut. It rolled open to reveal the front page; something about the King. The only unusual thing that day was that there was a note attached to it.

Would you like to grab a soda some time?

-The Newspaper delivery boy

Emma recalled hearing this story at least once a week. Every time Emma summoned this story up in her mind, her eyes prickled with tears, before it was because of her desire to be in the same circumstance, but besides that, her Mother was dead and gone.

"Remember Emma, 'Love is friendship set on fire.'" Her Mother always lulled after telling Emma this story time after time.

"But Mum, you were never friends, were you?" she had enquired once.

"Well if your father wasn't such a bloody coward –a note in the newspaper for God's sake." Emma's Mother replied, before returning to starring at the fridge with a dreamy look in her eyes.

Emma and Ralph broke away after their need for breath defeated their need to do other things. They both stared at each other for a few moments, their faces barely an inch or two apart. Emma felt the air pulse as Ralph began to lean in again, but paused. Both Emma and Ralph turned to look up at the sky where the sun had fully risen. Their ears were not mistaken –it was a plane. Ralph's head shot up towards the cliff where someone should have been watching the signal fire, it had been his idea to keep one on the upper and lower parts of the Island. He jumped up and began running at full speed to where all the boys were sleeping. Emma jumped up and ran after him. Ralph reached the camp before Emma and grabbed something clenched in Piggy's hands. He than ran towards the woods. Emma saw the thing of Piggy's that Ralph was now carrying reflect light from the sun as he shot through the forest. She believed it was Piggy's glasses. Emma watched Ralph as he jumped over something, though she had too much momentum going to do the same. Her right foot got lodged within a cluster of roots from a nearby tree. After hearing a thud from behind as Emma fell, Ralph stopped and turned around.

"Emma!" he gasped with concern.

"Ralph! Go light the fire, I'll wait here." Emma yelled.

He nodded slightly and continued on without her. The bursting sounds of the plane's engine began to grow louder.

As Emma watched Ralph's retreating back, she prayed he would reach there in time. She breathed heavily, though she tried to sustain silence, so she could hear if the plane had begun to slow down. Emma looked around as she waited in the silence. The forest was so alive. Bird's circled tall trees above her, while insects flew past trying to avoid any webs from preying spiders. The sounds of the forest and the sounds of the plane's engine were disturbed by approaching feet. Emma turned to see Jack and Roger in the distance; she didn't think they could see her. Emma under duress, wedged her foot out of the less than pristine white shoe her Mother had given her. Pain engulfed her foot, most likely because of the awkward position it had been in. She limped over to a nearby thick-trunked tree and stood behind it, all her weight on one foot. She heard Jack and Roger coming closer.

"You didn't tell me we were supposed to be watching the signal fire!" said a voice that Emma believed it to be Roger's.

"We don't even need a bloody signal fie. We're safer from the Germans here than anyone else. Fuck, the plane may well be a German one." said Jack.

"Stop with the bullocks already. We all know you were having too good a wet-dream about that Emma to remember you duties." said Roger, laughing uncontrollably.

Emma felt the tree she was at shake as Jack pinned Roger against it. She threw her hands to her mouth to stop herself from gasping, almost loosing her balance. Leaves and other debris began to fall into her hair. Emma held her breath.

"Learn to keep your fucking mouth shut or you won't be getting off this Island alive." said Jack, letting go of Roger.

While Jack walked ahead, Roger was left breathing heavily.

"That bitch is going to get what's coming to her sooner of later." said Roger to himself, running to catch up with Jack.

"What's this?" said Jack faintly, stopping at something.

Emma held her breath.

"Isn't that Emma's shoe?" asked Roger.

"You're right; you think she's around here?" replied Jack.

"Well she wasn't back with the others…" said Roger trailing off.

"She's probably with that fucker Ralph-y-poo." said Jack continuing on towards the cliff.

"She better hope she is." said Roger, his voice fading as he and Jack walked on.

Emma waited a few moments before attempting to dash out of the forest. She failed miserably and instead hopped on one foot as quickly as she could, falling countless times before reaching near the entrance. She heard Ralph's, and Jack's, and Roger's voices behind her, far to close for comfort. She hopped as double the speed, ignoring the pain as best she could. She finally reached the safe-haven of the white sands. Emma plopped down onto the sand and called over some of the littluns. She covered both her feet in sand and awaited the boys' arrival. They soon came bounding through on cue. Roger and Jack looked over at her suspiciously, and walked over to her.

"We found your shoe in the forest. Why was it there?" asked Roger quickly.

"Oh, ha-ha! Well the boys here thought it would be amusing to throw them in there. They thought my shoes to be evil, along with my feet." She said, without a hint of nerve in her voice, pointing as her sand fashioned feet.

They simply grunted in reply, and stalked off into the forest.

Emma looked on to Ralph, never having seen him paler. He turned to her slowly, and it struck her.

"We're going to be here for the rest of out lives, Emma. We're never going to get of this Island. We're going to live here, and we're going to die here." He said frailly, with a pained look on his face. Emma had never seen his so vulnerable before.

"All we can do is wait," Said Emma, pausing to look into Ralph's eyes. "Wait."

With that he grabbed her hand and held it in his. They sat together in silence watching the littluns play with tiny boats made of sticks and leaves.

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream…

A/N: Wow, Honestly guys, thank-you so, so much for all of your kind and inspiring reviews. I'm so sorry for the lateness. I've been really busy with school and other matters, but I finally managed to finish it! I hope you enjoyed it, and please review!

Here is a notice of appreciation to all my reviewers, both random and faithful!

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