I wrestled with myself for a long time as to whether or not this chapter was a good idea or not. Sorry about the wait for this one but I'm sure you'll understand why it took so long for me to write.
Ma-Ti had decided to take a walk this afternoon. It wasn't particularly hot today but it was sunny with a very refreshing cool breeze. He threw on his hat and he'd already applied sunscreen. He pushed open his door before rushing back inside to grab his water bottle and then made his way down the path into the trees. The forest wasn't particularly dense, nothing like what he was used to in the Amazon, as plenty of sunlight reached the ground to illuminate the shrubbery and the path before him. It had rained the morning before so there was a saturated, dewy smell in the air that Ma-Ti always loved. He reached his hand out and ran it through the leaves of a fern tree as he walked by. They felt soft on his palm and the sensation calmed him for some reason. Everything about this Island calmed Ma-Ti down, except the Planeteers of course. Every emotion that they felt, he could feel. Most of the time it was pleasant but whenever there was an argument, Ma-Ti would always be able to feel everyone's pain amplified. He got chronic headaches from the stress. He had spoken to Gaia about it and she said that it was a side-effect of the gift he'd been given. The only remedy, she said, was to make everybody think happy thoughts instead of unhappy ones. Well, Gaia might not spent that much time personally with the Planeteers but surely she knew that making them all harmonious was no easy task.
He started humming to himself, a childhood tune that just jumped out at him. His mother used to lull him to sleep to the sound and it was almost like a form of soothing whenever Ma-Ti needed time to think. Before long, Ma-Ti encountered the familiar waterfall. He would often come here to relax. He wasn't sure if any other Planeteers knew about it but he'd never seen any of them so he just assumed this was his secret. There was a rock just in front of the waterfall that was a short jump away from the river bank. The waterfall wasn't that large, but the sound of the water splashing down behind him was enough to make anyone happy. Ma-Ti rested his head back and closed his eyes, still humming his lullaby to himself. He could feel sleep taking him and fully embraced it.
Wheeler lowered his magazine. He'd been reading it for twenty minutes but he couldn't remember anything that he'd read. He sighed and threw it on to the pillow next to him, rolling himself away and wriggling until he felt comfortable. Wheeler had been thinking about the upcoming party, knowing that whilst everything would get done eventually, as Gi would have it no other way, he felt like he should do something extra special for them. Ideas kept floating into and out of his head and nothing seemed right. He closed his eyes and tried to catch some sleep. The time off Planeteering had made him feel lethargic. Saving the planet had kept him busy for most of the time and now that that was taken away from him, he had a lot of time to just think to himself and all he could think about was Linka and the upcoming party.
He rolled back over and shook his head, trying to clear it from his thoughts but a few seconds later they returned and all he could see on the inside of his eyelids was Linka in her bikini this morning. The way the panties clung to her and rode up as she walked. The lack of coverage they provided to her cleavage. The feeling of his hands running over her flawless skin. He realised the effect his thoughts would soon have on his body and soon after his erection began pushing ruthlessly against his shorts. He thought about relieving himself but just turned on to his back and for some reason he thought about Ma-Ti. He opened his eyes and hoped that he wasn't about to fantasise about him but a different feeling started to take hold of him. For some reason, Ma-Ti was in danger and Wheeler could only spectate as the fear and concern built in him.
Quickly, Wheeler stood up from sleep, thankful that his manhood had diminished substantially. He threw a shirt on and started walking toward the forest. He didn't know why he went there but he trusted his instincts and listened to his heart. As the feelings kept growing, his movements started becoming more anxious. What kind of trouble could the little squirt be in?
"Ma-Ti!" Wheeler called out. No-one responded. Maybe he was losing his mind a little? He called out again and again nothing happened. He increased his pace to almost a run. He felt sure that Ma-Ti was in danger but he had no idea why he felt that way. All he knew was that he was running out of time to save his friend.
He kept following the path and he could hear water flowing in the distance. He took a left and starting walking through the forest. He pushed the trees and bushes out of his way and tripped on the uneven ground a few times before he encountered the river. It was probably only a couple metres across but the water was flowing quite quickly and he didn't feel safe to walk through it. He followed the bank upstream and a few minutes later he came across a large lake.
He'd never known about this lake before, you couldn't see it while flying above on the geo-cruiser and he rarely ventured off the paths through the woods enough to find this place. He took a quick look around and saw that the water was all coming from a waterfall on the other side of the lake. He squinted a bit and saw Ma-Ti lying down against a rock that was just beside the waterfall.
"Ma-Ti!" Wheeler cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled. There was no response so Wheeler quickly started making his way around the lake, fearful of going straight in the water and getting dragged down the river. He didn't know the condition of his friend so he went as fast as he could, for all he knew Ma-Ti might already have been dead. About a minute later, he'd got as close to Ma-Ti as he could get. He'd noticed that the water level was almost at Ma-Ti's feet now and he didn't know how the little Planeteer had made it to the rock in the first place. It was a good 6-7 metres away from him.
"Ma-Ti!" Wheeler yelled again, as loud as he could. He saw his friends head move and yelled again. Wheeler was relieved to see that Ma-Ti was still alive, any fear that he was dead left him but was replaced by the new fear that if he didn't get off that rock then he might well be dead soon. Ma-Ti lifted his head and shook it in tiredness.
"Wheeler?" He asked back groggily and turned his head.
"Ma-Ti! You gotta get off that rock buddy," Wheeler called out. Ma-Ti looked around a bit and quickly stood up. He was a long way from his friend and all the little rocks he'd used to jump onto his favourite rock were all submerged. The water level must have risen about a metre since he'd closed his eyes. The water was almost like a torrent now and the waterfall was about 3 times wider than usual. He thought back to the night before last and remembered how terrible the storm had been. Several trees near the main lodge had been blown over from the intense winds. That must have been the downpour that just now was finding its way down the mountain.
"The water has risen so high, Wheeler, I can't make it back!" Ma-Ti started to get worried. The water didn't show any signs of slowing down and within minutes he would be swept down river and surely to his death.
"Don't worry, little man, I'll get you out of this," Wheeler reassured Ma-Ti and quickly started looking around for any overhanging branches. He saw plenty but they were all too small to support a persons weight. He scrambled up and around the hill to stand next to the mouth of the waterfall. Looking around, he noticed a large log that was leaning up against another tree on his side of the river. He made his way over to it and tried to push it across the river. He could only manage to budge it slightly and his arm was too sore to push it properly.
"Wheeler, where are you!" he heard Ma-Ti call out to him, his tone suggesting that he was scared.
"I'm still here! I'll get you out of there in just a moment," he finished talking and threw his entire body into the log, causing it to roll away from the tree. He started rolling it towards the waterfall, luckily it was downhill. He pushed it until it was visible to Ma-Ti down below. "Is that going to make it to you?" he called down to Ma-Ti.
"Yes, but I won't be able to hold on to it," Ma-Ti yelled back. He was right. The log would just smash into the rock and continue on down the river, probably taking Ma-Ti with it. Wheeler desperately tried to push the log sideways so that it might bridge the gap between the rock and the bank where he'd been previously standing. After considerable strain and pain in order to do so, he managed to get it on a proper line but it was now wedged against another log jutting out at the cliff-face. He pushed it so that it was resting mostly on the smaller log and ran down to where he was, closest to Ma-Ti.
"Are you ready, Ma-Ti?" Wheeler eyed the little Planeteer and he could see the terror staring back at him, "don't worry, it'll be fine, just grab hold of the log like I will to keep it from flowing on down the river. Trust me, it'll work." The fear was still there but due to Wheeler's encouragement, he could see the courage on Ma-Ti's face as well.
"Ready when you are," Ma-Ti yelled out as he could feel the water reaching the bottom of his sandals, touching his heels and making him shiver from how cold the water was. Wheeler hoped that this worked. He'd acted confident but he wasn't so sure that the log would work to save Ma-Ti but he had no other ideas and they were out of time and this was the best he could come up with.
"FIRE!" he yelled, causing the smaller log to start burning and shortly after it was incinerating. The larger log provided significant pressure on the small log and once the integrity of the log collapsed, the large log started to fall straight down. Wheeler had hoped that it didn't fall one side first because that would just cause it to start down a path he didn't want it to. It fell under the water temporarily, popping back up and slowly made its way towards Ma-Ti and Wheeler. Ma-Ti made himself ready on the rock to make sure that it was secure and all Wheeler could do was to brace himself for impact. He had to make sure that the log didn't continue past the small landing that there was on his side of the river. It would take everything he had, especially considering that he was injured, to stop the log but he had to do it if he was going to save Ma-Ti.
In what seemed to take forever, the log made its way towards them and it impacted the rock Ma-Ti was on first. Ma-Ti threw his body on to the log and held on as hard as he could. Luckily, there was a branch sticking up which he could latch onto. The log, stopped by the rock, whipped around towards Wheeler now as it thundered into the landing. Wheeler threw his body up against it and cried out when he felt a pop in his shoulder. He must have dislocated or broken it but he couldn't stop as the log had bounced away from him but was not secure. He threw his body back against the log, wedging the log up against the roots of a nearby willow tree and winced in pain when his shoulder re-impacted. It hurt so badly that he couldn't even bring himself to cry out and simply endured the pain in silence.
"Hurry!" Wheeler managed, as loudly as he could and it must have been loud enough for Ma-Ti as he could see as he hurriedly scrambled his way up the log and straddled himself atop. He pushed forward and slowly started shimmying his way across it. The log was beginning to crumble under the pressure of the water behind it and it started giving way on the far side, slipping towards the two Planeteers.
Ma-Ti's short snagged on a branch about half way along. Wheeler could feel the log rotate and knew that Ma-Ti wouldn't be able to make it at this rate. He quickly used his good arm to pull himself up the log and started to stand up. He walked forward while balancing as fast as he dared. He could feel he was unsteady but had to save little Ma-Ti. He reached the young man and went down to his knees. He reached forward and yanked roughly on his shorts, ripping them but also freeing him from the bondage. He stood and lifted Ma-Ti up with him, almost too easily, as if he was lifting a set of weights. He turned as safely as he could and started walking back toward the bank with Ma-Ti right behind him.
Suddenly, he felt the entire log lurch downstream before stopping again. He turned his head and saw that the log was about to give way on the rock, it was only a matter of seconds. He quickly grabbed Ma-Ti by the shirt and threw him as hard as he could toward the landing. It was about a metre away and the adrenaline rush in his body was enough to get Ma-Ti there. He stepped back and was about to make the jump himself but just as he moved his foot back, the log gave way and he lost his balance. He started falling backwards and he was hit with the realisation that he'd never be able to hold Linka in his arms again as his head and back smashed against the water, pulling him under the surface.
Ma-Ti had never been thrown like that in his life and it took him by so much surprise that it took him a moment to realise what had happened. He turned his head and saw that the huge log was starting to travel down the river with the water current and Wheeler was nowhere to be seen. He stood immediately and went into a panic, fearing that Wheeler had fallen in to the water.
"No! Wheeler!" he yelled out, unable to do anything to help if he had fallen. He grabbed at the log in vain, trying to stop it from its inevitable destination but he was nowhere near strong enough to hold it back against these kinds of forces. He sank to his knees in the mud and smashed his fists against the water before him, yelling and crying and screaming. He could no longer sense Wheeler with his ring and knew that he was gone.