Chapter 2: Not so Friendly Neighbors

I took another swing at the tree and watched it fall down swiftly towards the ground.

I heard a faint noise yelling, as I wiped the sweat out of my eyes.

"Bo! Bo!" it said.

It took me a while to recognize their voice. It was Ariella!

I dropped my ax and began in a dead run, straight for her.

"Ariella! Are you okay?!" I asked franticly once I got there. I quickly scanned over her to check for bruises or wounds.

"R-read this." she said, choking on her own tears. She handed me a wrinkled note with a whole in the center.

I quickly read it, then felt my blood boil with anger.

Someone was trying to scare us off the island! AND THEY TRIED TO HURT ARIELLA!!!

I slammed my fist on the cold, hard stone wall.

Ariella started crying uncontrollably. I quickly knelt down and tried to comfort her.

"We're gonna be okay." I said. Though I wasn't sure if I believed myself.

"I know..." she said through sobs. I gently kissed her on her head.

"What are we going to do?" she asked once she stopped crying.

"I don't know. We can't do anything until the boat is fixed." I said.

"No." she said, pushing her fist into the ground. "I'm not laving the island. This is my island! If the Harvest Goddess didn't want us to be here, we wouldn't be here!"

Her eyes burned with rage and her word sang with confidence.

I love it when she's fired up. She looks even more beautiful than when she's calm.

"I know." I said as I gave her a hug. "But promise to be careful. Okay?"

"Okay." she said happily. Then she gave me a kiss and I felt my heart soar.

"I gotta get back to work." I said, pulling myself away.

"Okay. I love you." she said.

"I love you, too." I said. And I meant it; with all my heart.

I went back to where I had been keeping the lumber and stone and quickly checked over it.

I still had 75 pieces of wood, and 60 pieces of material stone.

I was only 15 pieces of wood, and 20 pieces of stone away.

I began chopping down more trees, and by sundown, had more wood and stone than I needed.

"That should be it for today." I said as I wiped the sweat off my forehead.

I put all the stone and wood in my material box I had made after lunch.

Then I locked it and hid it, so that only I could find it.

Even if they had been watching me, they couldn't find it.

They wouldn't of seen the box unless they stood exactly opposite of where I was standing. I made sure of it.

I grabbed a few coconuts, some bananas, and a pineapple, then headed back towards the cave.

Ariella and Pascal were already cooking fish over the fire when I got there.

"Hey Bo! Just in time!" Ariella said happily. "Dinner's almost ready."

"Smells good." I said as I sat down in front of the fire.

"How much longer till we start construction?" Pascal asked.

"Tomorrow." I said as I began to cut open one of the coconuts.

"Ariella..." I said quietly as I quickly looked around. "You uh.... Haven't run into anymore trouble have you?"

"No." she whispered back as she flipped the fish.

"Good." I said as she handed me my plate.

We ate in silence. By the time we were done, it was about 8.

"Well." Pascal said as he stretched. "We better be hitting the hay."

Pascal laid against one of the cave walls, and Ariella and I laid against the one opposite from it.

"Night." I said, felling my eyes grow heavy.

"Night." she said as she put her head on my shoulder.

Then we both drifted off to sleep.

***

I woke up later that night and saw a blurry face that I did not recognize.

The figure became afraid, and quickly ran out before my vision could focus.

I felt something scratching my throat and looked down to see what it was.

It was a rope!

Our mystery guest had been trying to strangle me!