Castaway Island

Chapter 4: Beach Hunt

-DAY 3-

It was three days since they had landed on the island and things were slowly progressing. They had gotten a lot of supplies from the hotel complex, at least on the first floor. They had also explored a lot more of the resort buildings. They had a stock of clothing that they could use, the cupboards were as filled as they could make them with all the cans, they were able to find.

They had explored the Recreation building and it indeed had an indoor pool in case of bad weather it seemed. The building was mostly intact, so no animals had gotten in to use it as a pond. They didn't find much of anything of use, Jaune did grab a bunch of board games in a rec room, saying they had to have something to keep them busy. She was fine with that as they played Grimm and Ladders that night.

She did take one of the basketballs she found in the ballroom, if they were stuck here for some time she might as well get in some exercise on that ballcourt they passed by.

Their little 'home' was starting to come together. The closet was filled with items for the day, the garbage was in a bag outside, they weren't sure what to do with all that yet, but they had time before it was filled up. Thankfully the water supply was still going strong although one day they were worried the toilet might not refill.

Apparently whatever water and power station this island had wasn't in view, most likely because the designers didn't want their guests to think about such things. Still, that meant miles of water in the pipes.

Yang had experimented with the ice dust they got from the walk-in freezer. She took two old cans they had used and broke one third of the crystal with her mechanical hand so her real one wouldn't be in danger of frost bite with what she had planned. Dust had certain energy stored inside of it and you could release that energy certain ways, one was the break it down like she was doing.

It made the dust more unstable but what she had planned, well she wasn't going to use it in combat. She crushed the dust into two jars, the smaller among she put into the fridge and the larger into the freezer part. After a day they noticed that both were now working like old school ice boxes, the fridge was good, but Yang had to empty out some of the ice dust out of the freezer as it was too much and was nearly frozen shut.

The leftover she put into a container which turned it into basically a giant ice cube. Not sure what to do with it, they stored it in the fridge of the next house for safety until they could figure out what to do with it.

They also took the time and effort to go back and drag the raft back to their living area. They weren't sure what to do with it and it was slowly losing air, but one idea was to cut it up as a marker since it was bright orange, anyone passing close enough by might notice it and investigate.

Jaune had found a nice grassy area that he thought could be converted into a garden, he just needed to find the right tools to dig up the soil.

Today however was different, they were going to try and find different food source so their canned food would last longer. They also were in more lighter clothing, Jaune was in cargo pants and a black t-shirt under his armor as Yang had shorts, she found that fit well enough with her orange top on. She had on her bathing suit under it as they were heading to the beach, she figured maybe she could go into the water to cool off. Both had replaced their boots with shoes they managed to find and sunhats. Yang had her aviator sunglasses she thankfully still had on her as they had been in her jacket pocket and miraculously hadn't been smashed in the crash.

Jaune had found some plastique pales and a shovel, most likely left by children yesterday and he figured they would be useful, the one Yang carried had a few of the knives she hoped to use for an idea. She wanted to make a few spears for fishing or even hunting if it came down to it. Her ammo was limited and so she needed an alternative weapon.

They had one of the bags with water and snacks in case they needed it and suntan lotion so neither of them got burned. They had no idea how long this would take, Yang even cut a strip out of an extra pillowcase to tie up her hair into a ponytail.

They checked the signs that pointed towards the beach area and soon found a walking path.

"Oh, sweat a couple of banana trees," Yang pointed out. They looked like they were placed there on purpose to spruce up the path. Well, whoever had that idea when they built this place, she was thankful for it.

"Nice, that will be helpful," Jaune nodded. "We can grab some on the way back."

"I wonder what else grows around here," Yang looked around but didn't see anything new. Just a couple more banana trees and a couple of coconut ones further down. The path was soon swallowed by sand when they found the beach.

"Looks like the rest got buried by sand." Jaune couldn't even see the path anymore and wondered just how much sand was covering it.

"Hey, is that a stream?" Yang pointing off in the distance as she could just make out a line going into the ocean.

"Let's check it out," Jaune told her as they walked over to it. As they came to it, they saw it was a decent sized one that led from a thicker part of the forest. "I wonder if this leads to a pond or something?"

"Well one more item to add to the 'let's find out later' pile." Yang put down her stuff. "I'm going to try and find some branches or break something off to see if I can make a spear or something."

"Alright, I'm going to look more at the beach, I see some rocks over there and see if I can find some crabs or something."

"I could go for some crab meat right about now." Yang sighed or any real food that wasn't nuts or came from a can.

Yang went into the wooded area, she had to go a bit further in to find any kind of tree with branches on it and even more time to find ones she could use. It wasn't easy as she had to climb up a tree and then awkwardly take a few of the thinner branches off by literally tearing them off. She nearly fell at one point and was glad no one was around to see her almost fall and break her ass or something.

With her branches she returned to the beach and saw Jaune was still walking and looking around. She got to work, using the cleaver and knife she picked out for this to try and whittle down the wood. It wasn't easy as these weren't meant for wood cutting but it was the only ones, she thought they could use as they were thick and sturdy blades that wouldn't easily break on her.

By the time Jaune came back she had two carved spears ready for action and working on a thinner stick.

"I'm not sure that one will make a good spear," he commented on the one she's working on.

"Yeah, I know, it's going to be a fishing rod, as soon as we can find something to use as a wire." She figured if spear fishing didn't work then they could at least try a different type of fishing.

"Oh nice, well look what I found," He placed the bucket as she looked in to see the crab he caught.

"Yum, can't wait to eat you up," Yang grinned.

"I think I might have seen some bubbles in the sand," Jaune told her as he started to remove his armor. "So, there might be some clams or oysters down there, I'm going into the water to take a look."

"Yeah, I might want to get more comfortable too," She said pulling off her top.

"Yang!" Jaune blushed at the sudden action of stripping right in front of him.

"Oh relax, I put on a bathing suit before we left." She grinned at him.

"Oh," He breathed. For a moment he actually thought she was going to strip in front of him. He knew logically she would never do that, but he couldn't help it. He thought she was just wearing a bra under her top.

Speaking of Yang, he really did try not to look as she took off her outer layer, but he couldn't help but take a side look at her. Now he was in no means completely unaware that Yang was an attractive woman. But seeing her strip out of her clothing leaving her in only a two-piece bikini was just a very erotic sight to him. He couldn't help but look when she bent over to slip out of her shorts and saw how little the bathing suit covered up her ass.

And boy it was a nice ass, very firm looking. He blushed at that thought and tried to stop thinking about it. Then just to make it even worse, she started to use the suntan lotion on herself, and he swore she was doing it extra slow just to torture him.

Truth was, she was doing just that. She had noticed him looking but she knew Jaune well enough that he wasn't going to be a creep to her about it. She saw him blushing and trying not to look, but she knew she was hot. Ever since puberty hit her, she learned early on how she effected people.

Jaune at least was trying not to stare at her like she was piece of meat, hell they had shared a bed for a few nights now and nothing happened. She felt comfortable in his presence, so she figured to give him a little show. Maybe in part to help make up for the guilt she felt about getting them into this mess in the first place. Also, it was just so fun to tease him like this as her hands made slow exaggerated motions of making sure she was covered up from head to toe.

She made a show of slowly caressing her legs bending down just right to show off her impressive cleavage, using the lotion on her stomach, on each arm. She even gave a larger amount on her chest making a show of putting it everywhere and even running her hands under the bikini.

Maybe she was going a little too far but seeing Jaune trying in vain to not look but obviously spellbound by her, well she would be lying if some part of her didn't enjoy it. At least he was a nice guy and not some creep looking at her like a sex toy.

Jaune had never been with a girl in such an intimate moment like this and he wasn't sure what to do. He was thankful for the cargo pants as they hid his growing erection to his embarrassment. This was by far the sexiest thing he had seen in person as he felt hot right now and it wasn't just the sun's doing.

'This is so wrong, this is Yang,' Jaune thought to himself. 'This is Ruby's sister; you should be having these thoughts…god this is torture.' He really wanted to look away, but Yang looked like some beach pin up sports model now with what she was doing. He couldn't help but notice her toned her legs where, her wide birthing hips and slim waist, her flat toned stomach or her…larger than average breasts.

He finally managed to look away as he focused on setting up his armor and weapons in case, he needed to get them quickly. Sticking the sword and sheath straight up in the sand next to his armor.

"Hey you want some?" Yang asked when she was finished.

"Oh, uh sure, yes," Jaune gulped. She tossed to him as he took off his t-shirt and placing it on his sword. His sward and shield were buried in the sand by this point standing straight up so in case something happened he could easily pick them up. He felt the cool cream in his hand as he then started to put on the protective layer.

Yang raised an eyebrow when Jaune took his shirt off, she had only seen a little before but seeing him totally shirtless she had to admit, she was liking what she saw. He had this lean but muscular look to him that she liked on a man. All the training and wearing heavy armor and traveling really had done a number on the blonde male. As Jaune got to work a part of her drank in the sight of him putting on the lotion.

She liked his broad shoulders and back, she had to admit a broad back always appealed to her in a man. Also, what appealed were abs and Jaune had some nice ones growing on him now. They weren't overly extreme, just right for his frame.

'Oh, this is getting dangerous,' Yang thought to herself. 'He's a friend Yang, don't start going down a dangerous path. There's just the two of us and do you really want to start something like that in this kind of situation?'

She looked back to those abs and a moment one of her fantasies of licking chocolate off a someone's abs entered her mind. She flushed as she looked away.

'Okay that was a bit much…but god I could kill for some chocolate right now.' She thought but mentally frowned at how all the chocolate they found were pretty much ruined. Her mind shifted back to Jaune and wondering when did he start to get so physically attractive?

Granted they were only alone for a few days now but what happens in a week from now? A month? A year? She pushed those thoughts away. 'Just think of survival and focus on that.'

With that done both went their separate ways, Yang decided to get a little distance as Jaune went into the ocean looking for sighs of oysters or anything else he could cook up.

Yang found a nice spot and decided to get in some practice since she had never thrown a spear before. She made a little target in the sand and moved some paces away as she readied herself. She took aim and threw the wooden spear…and missed the target completely.

The spear wasn't totally straight, so it flew a little off course but also, she apparently hadn't aimed it well. Taking her other spear, she tried to adjust and while she got closer, it was still a miss.

"How did Pyrrha make this look easy?" Yang sighed as she went to retrieve her new weapons and started again. "Good thing I oiled up because this is going to take some time."

Jaune was walking hip deep through the water trying to find the signs of something buried under the sand. Thankfully it was semi-clear water so he could see the sand but not too well.

"OW!" His foot landed on something sharp as he looked down to see a small shell. He checked his foot thankful he pulled back when he felt the pain, so it didn't impale his foot. Getting an infection on this island could prove just as dangerous as hunger if they weren't careful. He picked up the shell hoping maybe something was inside but looked like it was long abandoned like the rest of the island.

"Even the sea creatures are leaving this place," He commented to himself and threw it onto the beach, it might make for a good decoration or something. Over time he found more shells and threw them onto the same area finding a bunch of different types. During this he did find some bubbles and when he started digging found the oysters. Placing them in the small plastique bucket he had with him using the small toy shovel he found with it.

After that he decided to try and go deeper as he dove under the waves searching for something. There was some seaweed, and he knew that was editable, but he never tried to prepare that before now. He found more bubbles in the sand a lot more the deeper he was and after a good amount of time he found a decent supply of oysters to cook. He was starting to wonder how Yang was doing with the fishing. Rising to the surface again he easily got back to the beach, not wanting to swim too far out in case the current dragged him off.

Just when he was a few feet away from the sand an explosion happened in Yang's direction. He was startled by that and went to get his sword and shield, dropping the bucket and leaving the shirt in the sand he rushed over.

While Jaune had been doing his search, Yang was slowly getting better with her spears. She did however resolve to find better tools and make better ones eventually, so they at least flew straighter. When she was confident, she had figured out how to properly aim and throw it better she went on her own little hunt.

She found some large rocks to perch on looking down at a about waist deep water. She could see some fishes already in there, the lack of humans on this island most likely meant the fish were no longer scared of coming this close to the shore. They were swimming amongst some seaweed as she took aim and thrust down. Again, she missed and scared off the fish.

So, she grabbed the end that was sticking out of the water and waited for them to return. It was a good thing fish were either really dumb or had short memories as they swam back after a few minutes. So, she tried again, and again, and again…and again.

Each failure was just adding to her frustration, she wanted to eat fish tonight damn it and she wanted it now. It got to the point that her temper flared, her eyes turned red as her hair started to glow. While she hadn't taken any damage recently that didn't mean her semblance needed it, it just needed it to get the full potential out. Her own aura could fill it in to a certain point so when she felt the heat filling her veins as the super charged energy built up, she couldn't stop herself.

With a scream of fury and frustration she leapt off the rock and literally punched down into the water. Now, normally a person doing this wouldn't make a big of a splash, however someone with aura and a semblance geared for combat was a different story. Yang's punch was so powerful a small geyser came up making a small shockwave into the water stunning any fish within a three-foot radius.

Yang stood there panting her hair back to normal but her eyes still red as she started to calm down. She blinked a few times as her eyes returned to normal and looked around. She saw two fish just floating on the surface.

"Screw it, a win is a win," She took the fish and impaled them onto one of her spears.

"Yang! Are you okay!" Jaune rushed over.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Yang saw her hat floating in the water and put it back on. "Just lost my temper, but look, caught some fish."

"With what, a bomb?" Jaune asked her to just stare at the girl.

"I got mad!" Yang defended herself. "Besides it got results, got two fish and with the fridge kind of working we can preserve some food and make it last."

Jaune had to admit she had a point. "Okay, I got some oysters too so between us we got lunch and dinner."

"Sounds good, I'm starting to get a little crisp out here," Yang stated as they walked back to gather their things. The next part was preparing the food, they followed the river to see where it led and it wasn't too far away from the resort housing, they even found a bridge going over it with a path leading back to the homes.

Apparently, they used the river as part of the resort ambience, they would explore where the path led later. The path led to behind the living area with a gate, this one unlocked much to Yang's disappointment. She was starting to like using her metal hand to break into places. After leaving the oysters back at their place they grabbed a cutting board from one of the other houses as they planned for it to be used only for cleaning and gutting. The one inside their place would be for meal preparation.

After getting a few knives and one of those small coolers you took on vacation they found on their second day, they walked back to the river. They had talked about it and felt that using the river to wash away all the blood and guts would be best to let it run out into the ocean. Maybe it would even attract more fish up stream eventually.

Another reason was because they didn't want to start attracting predators to the place where they lived. Having blood and guts just sitting around near where they lived was just asking for trouble. It turned out both of them had some skills with how to prepare fish. Tai had made sure his girls could survive in the wilderness given both wanted to be huntresses.

Jaune, it turned out, his family had done camping and fishing trips.

They actually got started comparing notes on their respective family outings growing up.

"I swear my little sister Aurelia was so scared of snakes every time we went into the forests for camping." Jaune grinned at the memory. "My other sister Daisy didn't care and would always find one and torment her with them."

Yang started laughing at the mental image. "Reminds me of when Ruby was a kid, she could always try and bring strange things home when she was young. She tried to bring a turtle, a few snakes, somehow a bat home. Dad wasn't happy with that last one. It was shortly after that dad got us a dog, so she stopped bringing in other animals for pets."

Jaune couldn't help but laugh in return. "We never got to have any pets, with so many family members to take care of money was sometimes tight and I don't think our parents had the energy to keep up with all of us and pets on top of it."

Yang felt a bit sorry, growing up with her dog had a lot of fun memories but given how large Jaune's family came from maybe she could see his parents point. A pet was a lot of work after all and now their dad was the only one home taking care of him.

"While I'm glad the ice dust so far seems to be working for the fridge and the salt, I grabbed the last time we were back in the dinning room, I'm starting to wonder if there's a way to make a smoker." Jaune had been thinking about how to preserver their food. He had found a box half filled with bags of salt and took a couple for both seasoning and planning to use it as a preservative.

But he was also trying to think of other ways in case the salt ran out or the ice dust stopped cooling the inside of the fridge. Sure, maybe they could get some of the salt water and dry it out and try and get salt that way. At least it was a guess, he wasn't sure if anything special needed to be done to get that working other than let the water evaporate.

"Do you even know how to make a smoker?" Yang asked him raising an eyebrow.

"Kind of," Jaune shrugged as he explained. "My uncle made one at his place, he loves to cook and would have huge family barbeques at this place. He liked to teach all the kids how to do it. It was basically this oil drum he put a door on with hooks inside with a case iron stove connected to it."

"That sounds very Do-It-Yourself," Yang told him.

"He liked to do things like that," he said. "He would always make stuff or modify things. He often said that 'if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy'. He made a lot of stuff himself and they would work pretty well too. My dad said he was always like that growing up, making things, or taking them apart and then putting them back together with added pieces."

"Reminds me when Ruby was trying to make her weapon," Yang lamented thinking back to her family. "She went through so many different versions of Crimson Rose before she got it just right."

"She is a perfectionist," Jaune pulled his sword and scabbard as he activated the broadsword mode to it. "She spent over a month on designing this upgrade."

"That's my sis alright," Yang smiled and then lost her smile. "I'm worried about them, they got to be worried sick by now."

"They won't stop looking for us," Jaune told her as he wanted to place a hand on her shoulder, but it was kind of messy with the fish they were preparing.

"I know," Yang nodded. "I just really worry about them I just hope we're not stuck here for years or something because they have to call off the search at some point."

Jaune was silent at that, he knew it as well. If any rescue plane or ship didn't show up, they would have to try and get off this island themselves. Even if they had to build a boat and sail off, which was easier said then done. They had no idea where the island was and which way the mainland was either. If they sailed off into deeper sea, they would die out there when their supplies ran out or huge waves wrecked whatever boat they made.

"Well, we still have plenty to explore," Jaune told her. "This place is larger than I thought, and we still haven't found where the communications center is or where they store the water and other utilities for the island. Maybe we'll get lucky and there was a boat left behind we can repair and sail out of here."

Yang knew he was just trying to keep their spirits up he wasn't totally wrong either. They still had plenty to look for and they had no idea what they might find. It was a long shot but at this point even long shots you had to take. "Most likely they were put out of sight of the resort complex. Ruins the atmosphere for the guests if they see where all their crap gets flushed to for instance."

That made Jaune pause. "Wait where would it all go?"

"Most likely they got a septic tank system under the ground," Yang shrugged they had one at her home after all as they weren't on the cities sewer system as their water came from a well. "Those don't require power so at least that should still be working just fine."

"Ohhh, okay that makes sense," Jaune looked at his fish. "Well, mine is done."

"Same here," Yang put it into the cooler as she started to clean off her tools. "Let's wash these off and head on back."

With that out of the way they made it back and they got to work. Jaune prepared the food as Yang put away everything else. She put the spears up against the wall near the hot tub and buckets on the ground by the door. She then got to work getting a little busy cleaning up a little, it was their agreement for everyone to share in the work. Sometimes Yang would cook and Jaune would take care of chores and then they would switch.

Honestly though, Yang preferred Jaune's cooking, they didn't have much but what they did have he seemed to make it work. She cleaned out some of the stuff in the hot tub as until they found something else to clear their clothing in this was needed. They had found two poles that looked like might have been used for volleyball, but the net had been blown off.

It didn't matter to them they used some rope from the dock that Jaune cut up and they made a little cloths line to dry out their clothing. They were using those office clips as clothespins. She checked the laundry, and they were nice and dry as she took then off the line and into one of the gift shop bags. She was thinking of going to get one of those abandoned suitcases or something to put the clothing into in the future. If only for the clothing to stay a little neater.

By the time she got back into the house she could smell the cooking fish and she was getting hungry just by the smell of it.

"Hey Yang, this is nearly ready." Jaune told her.

"It smells great," she was starting to feel her mouth water in anticipation.

"Well, I cooked the crab, and we'll have one of the fish, I salted the other and put it away, so I hope it keeps. I'm adding a few of the oysters as a side." Jaune was placing the meal onto two dishes for them.

"Great," Yang did wish they had more options for drinking. With the fridge they were using coconut milk saved in washed out plastique soda bottles they had drunk before. It was a time-consuming process to get enough to fill them but at least now they had the option of that or water.

"At least with the river our water situation is looking better," Yang commented. "Even if we still have to boil it."

"We might want to make an outdoor campfire or something for that," Jaune finished with the meal preparations. "Don't want to use up all the gas in this tank for water purification."

"Good point, we'll add that to the to-do-list I suppose." They were adding in a lot to that list, but it was a good thing they did. It kept them busy and made the day go by. She didn't want to think how much cabin fever would set in if they had nothing to do here. Of course, once they explored everything and set everything up then she would worry about that. Maybe they could take up tennis? They had the courts and the equipment they found locked up in the Recreation building. Hell, she could even take a basketball out to that court if she needed it, they just needed to brush away all the leaves and stuff out of the way.

There was even a small gym that had survived, of course survival game first but she was at least going to try and keep her figure if possible.

"Dinner's up," Jaune said placing two plates on their little table by the fireplace.

"I'm starving," Yang looked and smiled at the half crab meal with cooked fish with some oysters and coconut meat lightly off to the side and its milk in a glass. She couldn't help but noticed the slight use of spices he picked up from the hotel's kitchen. She hadn't been sure at first to take it, but it certainly helped to make the food much tastier.

Yang took her first bit of the fish and moaned slightly at the taste. "After what we have been eating for the past few days, this is a treat."

"I never knew how much I missed fish until this moment," Jaune ate another piece.

"I sweat Jaune, you'll make some lucky lady happy with your cooking, did your mom teach you?" She asked trying the crab next.

"Actually, my dad," he chuckled. "He said one of the ways he got my mom was through his cooking."

"Well, he knew what he was talking about this time," Yang remembered how Jaune had tried to 'be confident with girls' like his dad had told him that first day in the locker rooms back in Beacon. Apparently, his mom hadn't explained the difference between confidence and overconfidence.

"Well, if we got the time I can show you a few things," he offered.

Yang wasn't shy about learning to cook her dad had been a good cook too but maybe that was because he had to take on all the chores of a parent. There wasn't anyone else he could relay on for help, when she was old enough to understand that she wanted to learn how to help out to take off the burden from her dad.

"Sure, why not, I could use it myself. When we're fully licensed and going on missions I might want to know how to cook better if I'm stuck in the wilds for long periods of time."

"Trust me, it's helpful," Jaune nodded knowing fully well because of the trip he and the others made on foot meant a lot of meals out in the wilderness.

And so, they continued on talking and eating, the last few days this was slowly becoming almost normal for them as they got to know each other better and had to trust and rely on the other more and more as the days went on.

TBC…