The current was going to carry us past the island, although according to my new friend it would bring us quite near the shoals. We began propelling our ungainly treetrunk craft in the direction of the shore, rather than trying to swim the distance. We resolved to take this difficult and fatiguing course of action because Shann did not know how to swim. There was nothing odd about this, of course; the treetop cities, such as Kamadhong, are built at a height of a mile or two in the air. This being the case, their inhabitants seldom have either reason or opportunity to learn the art of swimming.
We “rowed” our lumbering log through the simple expedient of sliding over into the waves, Shann at one side of the trunk and I on the other; both of us grasped the log firmly in our arms, and kicked out with our legs. It proved about as clumsy and tiring a task as perhaps it sounds, but it had one transcendent merit in that it worked.
Eventually the treetrunk wedged itself between the rocks that formed shoals, sheltering a deep lagoon that would have made a perfect harbor for a port city. From this point on we had to attempt the rest of the distance on our own. The taller of the two, I found that my toes could just barely touch bottom. So I instructed Shann to lock his arms about my neck from behind, letting his body float as best he could; I floundered grimly into shore. I was still worn out from my long immersion in the sea and did not feel capable of swimming in, burdened by the boy’s weight. Therefore, while he clung to my back I struggled through the shallows until we reached the shore; at which point he let go and waded in by himself.
By the time we got far enough up the beach so as to be beyond the reach of the retreating waves, which tried to suck us back into the lagoon, we were both so bone-weary we collapsed on the wet sand. We just lay there for a time, letting the hot sunlight warm and dry us.
When we recovered our strength, we moved further up the strand to the edge of the jungle. We were both famished, so the first and most urgent necessity on the agenda was to find food. In this I would be more than useless; while Shann scampered about the edges of the jungle, searching for edible fruit or nuts or berries, I attempted to put my person to rights. All I had on was my loin-cloth by this time, my other rags of garments having perished in the sea; but these were exceedingly uncomfortable, being clammy and wet and scratchy with sand. So I stripped it from my loins, rinsed it clean at the edge of the lagoon, and stretched it out on a branch to dry in the sun while I let the sun perform a similar task on the rest of my person.
I was apprised of the return of my little friend a while later, when I heard a shocked gasp and the thud of fruits suddenly let fall from his hands. I had been dozing, stretched out in the sun, and did not understand at first what had wrung that startled gasp from his lips. Then it came to me that I was stark naked. Now the denizens of Kamadhong, like those of the other Laonese cities, customarily go clothed, of course; but the temperature of the air is such that they generally wear as little as custom allows; while they are not nudists, neither are they prudes. Prepubescent boys customarily bathe together in the nude, and frequently wrestle or race together naked. Hence, I could not understand Shann’s shock at discovering me in my nudity. Surely, he had brothers, or playmates; surely he had seen other lads without clothing, even older boys such as myself.
I confess to feeling just a little irritated by his delicacy. However, he made no comment, and busied himself with gathering up the fruits he had let fallen. I rose and wrapped the length of cloth, now thoroughly dry, about my loins again. And we ate together the foods he had found, although there seemed to be a touch of constraint and awkwardness in his manner.
I made no remark on this unwonted daintiness of his; but I resolved that if we were going to have to be together on this jungle isle, he was going to have to accustom himself to such things. Survival in a savage wilderness demands certain sacrifices; and among the first things to go are most of the amenities of civilized life.
It certainly seemed strange to be eating fruit of ordinary size again. The elfin inhabitants of the jewelbox cities aloft in the mighty trees cultivate many fruits and berries in their crystal-roofed gardens; but these grow to a size commensurate with that of the gargantuan trees in which the cities themselves are built. I had been accustomed, then, to eating one lobe of a juicy berry, about the size of a slice of watermelon back on Earth; and to eating portions cut from a fruit like segments cut from a pie, the fruits themselves being five or six times as huge as pumpkins.
But here on our nameless island, Shann and I breakfasted on fruit of more normal size. There were pear-shaped fruits the size of your fist, that tasted like ripe mangoes; and elongated, banana-like fruits as rich and sweet as pomegranates; and small tart berries, and others succulent as cherries.
Besides these, Shann had found something as chewy and delicious as coconut, but in a hard shell like huge walnuts. And several kinds of ordinary nuts, of which only one variety proved bitter and inedible. We ate a very good meal, all in all.
It was obvious that, whatever else happened to us on the isle, we were not going to starve to death.
While searching for something to eat, Shann had found a woodland pool and after our breakfast, he led me there to drink. He had come upon no sign of wild beasts during his brief exploration of the jungle; but of course, he had confined himself to the edge of the brush, not daring to venture too deeply within, lest he lose his way.
We debated the problem of shelter. If there were savage predators in the jungle depths, they were most likely to confine their hunting to the hours of darkness. We should probably take refuge aloft in the branches of the trees. This, however, proved difficult if not impossible; for as Shann described the trees in our vicinity, they were on the order of palms and devoid of branches.
At length, we discovered a thorny thicket whose wicked barbs and intertangled boughs should serve to discourage any beasts on the prowl, with the possible exception of giant reptiles clothed in an armor of tough scales. There, we found an open space; we spent the declined hours of day heaping thick dried grasses into a comfortable bed, and building the skeleton of a lean-to out of fallen sticks, which we roofed over with palm leaves.
Our edifice, when completed, lacked most of the civilized amenities, I am sure. But at least it would afford us considerable protection from the elements, should the weather that night prove inclement. We had both been soaked in the sea to such a point that we were heartily determined not to permit ourselves to be drenched in a downpour.
The night, however, proved calm and clear.
We dined, early that evening, on a repast precisely similar to that on which we had breakfasted. I resolved that, on the morrow, I should see what could be done to procure a bit of fresh meat for our diet. Fruits, nuts and berries were all very well. They filled the belly; but I hungered mightily for meat; hot, scorched and dripping with steaming juices.
We retired early, still weary from our exposure to the elements, as well as from the extraordinary exertions of the day. The little boy curled up in a far corner of the lean-to, and fell asleep promptly.
I remained wakeful for some time, staring into the unbroken darkness of my sightlessness. They pained me a bit, my eyes, for sea-water had inflamed my burns, which were only half-healed; and the flesh about my sockets was swollen and tender.
But that is not what kept me awake.
I had remembered something which I had noticed, but forgotten. It served to explain the odd shock with which Shann had reacted to my nakedness; and his curious reluctance to share my bed for mutual warmth. But, even while answering one question, it opened up yet a deeper mystery.