🌴🦈🌴🦀🌴🌟🌴

It was nearly dark when he woke up, at last the sun decided to stop terrorizing his miserable existence. He’s still thirsty and hungry though, but at least it’s no longer that scorching heat that burns his skin.

He had a dream, of the stars, of a name.

He was shown; he was a part of it, a birth of a star unfolding in his very eyes, of a million droplets that filled the ocean, of the dust that builds the entire universe, of a thousand year journey of a weary wanderer.

Weary, not in his body but in his spirit

Hungry, not for food but for knowledge

He planted himself into the sand and feels the remaining warmth soothes his body as he stare aimlessly into the slowly changing canvass above him.

It was a nice dream, he said to himself, though I don’t really remember it.

For a stretch of time he relishes in silence about a dream he could not remember. And for the first time since being stuck in the island, he felt joy.

Idiot, he said to himself with a smile.

He watched the sky as the faint orange glow slowly diffuse into the horizon, giving way for a new spectacle of speckled lights scattered unevenly across the void.

Looking at the stars he felt neither hunger nor thirst, staring at them makes him at ease, maybe it’s the unspoken realization of the human soul that somehow in some ways it is one with the stars, that by looking at it one realizes the solitary existence of a human being. It gives great joy to grasp an idea that man is one with the stars, yet a boundless sorrow thinking that it cannot be with it.

Is it the first time? Have I already run out of reasons to hate them?

Yeah, I should hate them; I made that promise that I shall despise them for all of eternity.

But tonight they look beautiful, wonderful even.

Perhaps tonight I could admire them, yes, but only tonight.

Finally, he gave himself permission to admire the stars. He raises his hand in the air while skimming at the constellations trying to recall their names.

That one is the little bear, a constellation that is considered most important among sailors for it contains the northern star that is said to always point due north wherever an observer is.

If I ever made it out of this island, I should follow that star and travel all the way to the north. Perhaps I should travel beyond it. Definitely should.

He continues to gaze until he found the ‘Hunter’, a giant spawn of the god of the sea that was sent to the void after being killed by the scorpion. One of the stars from that constellation is the Betelgeuse, and the other one is…

A sudden realization hits him, as he remembers fragments of his dream, although just the hazy details of what remains of it. A voice calling a name, the same name as that star he was looking at. And he knows that somewhere he came across that name before.

“That’s it!” He exclaimed. That’s the same name as the one he saw at the blueprint of a machine that is in a bag.

He searched for the bag; he knows he tossed it somewhere out of anger and many other irrational reasons.

He found it stuck on a crevice of a rock along the shore. He was mildly startled when a crab emerges from the crevice as he tried to take the bag.

“Sorry, Mr. Crab, I just have to get this bag.”

It answers by raising its two arms with a set of powerful looking pincers that could deliver a painful strike.

“No! We don't need to resort to that do we?”

He didn't wait for it to response and instead pull the bag as quickly as he can and dash away from the angry crustacean.

He took the paper from the bag, and lays it on the sand. It’s a roughly drawn aircraft blueprint. He recalls that somewhere here he came across a word. He runs his fingers through the drawings and exclaimed.

At the bottom right of the paper it was written.

~Designed and built by: Arcane Rigel~

After he reads that, he looks at the plane scraps that was semi submerge to the water, most of its body is under water, but a small portion of the tail can be seen.

The water near the shore is not yet too deep; it is evident because of its lighter shade of blue compared to that of the distant dark waters.

I could make it.

The water is warm; it calms his body and mind. At the bottom lies the plane wreck, it’s nose dives in the sand, and algae started forming on it, which makes him wonder just how long has it been here.

Other shellfish creatures make their home at the wrecks of the ship and schools of fishes swim in and out of the cockpit.

While it is nighttime, the light from the moon and the starry skies provides enough illumination for him to view the ship; after all it was just a few feet from the surface.

He removes the algae formation near the nose of the aircraft, as his fingers run through the cold steel of the plane he felt a familiar feeling. And there he saw painted on it the word 'Rigel'.

There is no doubt about it; this is the same mechanism that was in the blueprint.

He notices something else on top of the engine that was mounted in the forward side of the craft. A box embedded with four crystals on its sides.

Just as he tries to examine it, fishes rush out frantically from the plane’s cockpit and behind it a creature of magnificent grayish color emerges.

The surprise causes him to exhale and lose the air he is holding in his lungs.

A shark!

He attempted to grab the box but he could no longer hold his breath.

Cold wind greets his face as he resurfaces his head. Trying to float with his head tilted upward looking back into the stars as he struggles to regulate his breathing.

That star I am staring at right now, and the plane of the same name below, there is no way it is just a coincidence.

The curiosity seemed to overcomes all the fear that he was about to face below.

I need to go back there. I need to get that box.

And so he did.

He took the box out of it's casing, like he knew exactly how to remove it.

Have I done this before?

Until a bull shark passes just above him. The glow that is coming from the crystals probably caught its attention.

Bubbles formed around his face as air escapes his mouth and terror envelops him, he tried to give a downward kick to the ground to thrust himself upward, but the momentum was broken when his trouser was trapped by a protruding metal from the plane wreck, his right arm was slightly cut by the sharp metal and blood oozes out.

Realizing his situation makes his heart race faster. He makes another attempt to remove his trouser from being stuck, and when it seems useless, he realizes it would be better to just remove it, and so he does. But he cannot hold his breath any longer; he had swallowed a little bit of water because of his body’s urge to inhale air. He is starting to lose his vision, thinking that this could be he’s end makes his heart aches.

Well what worst that could happen then, maybe it is the end, there were probably no one looking for me. No one to care……

He’s fading

“Rigel…”

That voice again, that woman…he does not remembers his name, but it feels like he is the one that she is calling.

Just about when I am starting to get a hint of who am I? No, I am not going to die in here, not in the bottom of these forsaken seas.

With what is left of his strength and consciousness, he fights for his life. He musters all his power to give a one last kick.

🌴🦈🌴🦀🌟🌴

Kew! kew! kew!

The mewing of the seagulls and the stinging pain of his wound being exposed to seawater woke him up.

He remembers that he lost consciousness and landed on the sand just as he emerges from the water. The sleepless nights, lack of proper food and water finally take its toll on him.

He saw the cut he got from the wreck, and as wind blows he shivers and realizes that he is almost completely naked.

Well, not bad. I woke up on this island without a memory of myself and any idea of what happened. But now I know what my name probably is, probably... and that I am in a small deserted island in the middle of nowhere surrounded by an endless ocean that is infested by hungry sharks, and on top of that, I am hungry, thirsty, naked, wet and cold. He thought to himself in a semi sarcastic, semi optimistic manner.

Not bad.

He started a fire from the husk of the coconut shell, dried leaves and sticks, and a flint that he found inside a bag.

He sat at the base of the coconut tree, trying to recall all the things happening to him. There is just too much thing to think about, so many questions to answer, so much puzzle to be solve.

How did I get here? Why did I get here? And who is that woman?

His head began to hurt. Seconds, minutes and hours had passed, yet he still couldn’t fathom the meaning of his dream. He is looking at the same star for hours and when he was about to fall asleep in the sand, something caught his eyes. He jumps up, his eye widens and his jaws drop.

“That is…A light!” he screamed.

It’s a light in the horizon, at first it was just a tiny light just a little above the horizon, might be just a star yet to rise. But as moments passed it become bigger.

” It could be, no it must be, it should be!”

Moments later, from the horizon emerge a gigantic silhouette of a being not of flesh but of metal, from the horizon it crawls, its massive body generates waves as it cuts through the ocean like a knife cuts through butter with ease. Like a titan dominating the seas as it passes, magnificent would be an understatement to describe it. It is a gigantic metal ship.

Excitement run through his spine like thunderbolts, his hearts racing fast that it feels like it’s going to burst, his eyes were teary with the mere thought of the ship. He took one piece of wood from the bonfire he had created and waves it in the air to signal to the passing ship.

He jumps

He waves

He shouted

Excitement runs through his veins, almost too overwhelming that his head began to feel lighter that he soon landed unconscious into the sand.