It’s been another whole week since they’ve been stranded. That day was dark and gloomy. It looked as if it was going to rain but nothing fell from the sky. The sky was somber, making everything look dead. There was no wind, no sound and calm waters. Amber walks out of her tent, her side still throbbing and her head pounding, but at least she can walk without assistance. Then she suddenly sensed something strange. Key walks out of his tent, stretching his arms, reaching in all directions. Amber walked around the island but stayed within her tent range, looking out to the sea and squinting her eyes.

“What’s going on?” Key asked worriedly, running up to her. “Is there someone else on this island?”

“No. But something’s strange. There’s no wind and the water is calm. Yet there’s movement in the water.” she stated, keeping her eyes glued to the sea. He squints his eyes and tries to see and hear what she can but it was hopeless. His senses weren’t as sensitive as Amber’s so he gave up and let Amber do all the work. As Key walks away, Amber glares at him. ‘Leaving me to be the cautious one again huh? You’ll never change.’ Amber scolded him in her head. She looks back to the vast sea squinting her eyes really hard. Then, she sees a figure. It’s really far away, but she can clearly make out that that’s a ship.

“Key! Get a fire going! We’re saved!” Amber shouted. Key stands up and runs to go gather the supplies. Once the fire started, they both kept running back and forth to get more leaves and branches. The goal was to build a huge fire to create a smoke signal for the ship to notice. Slowly, the fire grew and grew as the ship drew closer and closer. When she looked at the ship, she noticed that there was a black flag with a skull and cross bones printed on it. She has made a huge mistake. That wasn’t the search team. The search team would’ve had white sails on it, but this one had black ones. She took off her two shoes, filled them up with water and threw the water onto the fire to stop the fire from continuing.

“Amber! What the heck are you doing?!” Key asked, freaking out. “All my hard work! That was the second time I was able to get a fire going!”

“Well, your hard work needs to go down the drain and we must demolish EVERYTHING.” she ordered.

“Why?” Key asked. “Weren’t we going home?”

“No. I was wrong.” Amber admitted, taking apart her tipi and carrying the branches back into the forest, scattering them around.

“What? What about the ship? Isn’t that the-” then Amber cut him off.

“Pirates. They’re pirates.” Amber said, huffing and puffing, trying her best to ignore the throbbing pain. She took the fire wood, rocks and leaves, tossing them into the sea.

“What? Pirates? They still exist? I thought they were all executed centuries ago!” Key exclaimed, following her lead and taking down his own tipi.

“You can never really completely get rid of something.” Amber said, trying to catch her breath. “I’m assuming that these pirates were in hiding for quite sometime. There has been reports a couple years back, saying that civilians has spotted pirates out at sea. Of course, knowing the consequences, regular people thought the ones reporting pirates were fibbing. Then again, even if they did execute all the pirates centuries ago, walking the path of a pirate is a choice that you make on your own. One generation of pirates may have ended centuries ago, but it won’t be long until a new generation starts.”

“Umm… Amber?” Key asks.

“What?” Amber asks back, still trying to regulate her breaths.

“Are you okay?” But once he asks that, she collapses on the ground, tired and lightheaded. “Amber!” Key yells running towards her. He touches her forehead and it’s burning hot. She clearly has a fever.

“I-I… think… that… the wound… is infected.” Amber managed.

“What?!” Key screams. Then she lies on the ground, her elbows barely holding her up. She’s in a terrible condition. Her face is turning green, her lips turning pale, lightheaded and about to black out any minute now. He tries to support her but her weight is leaning forward, refusing to balance. “Amber. You can’t black out. If you black out, we’re-”

“Dead meat.” she says under her breath. “I’m trying to fight it. But every time I try, my whole body goes numb.” The ship is getting closer and closer now which means their time is running short. He heaves a breath and piggybacks her. Her whole body is like an oven to him but Key tries his best to ignore it. “Aren’t you afraid that you’re going to catch my fever?” she asked, trying not to rest her head on his shoulder.

“What’s more important now is that we need to find a place to hide out until the pirates leave the island’s radar.” he says, heading into the forest. ‘I guess I was wrong.’ Amber thought to herself, looking at him. ‘He really is maturing.’

They’re in the middle of the forest, which is where the waterfall is located, not knowing where to go next.

“We’re not getting anywhere.” Key states. “We’ve been on this island for two weeks now so we know pretty well that there’s really no place that we can hide in this place.”

“That’s when you’re wrong Key.” Amber says weakly. Then she points to the waterfall. “There’s actually a cave behind that waterfall.”

“How did you-?”

“I found it when it was rinsing myself off here one day.” Amber says.

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?!” Key asks in frustration. Amber shrugged and then voices were heard at the end of the island.

“They’re here. We have to hurry.” Amber whispers. Then Key rushes into the waterfall. Surely enough, there was a cave in there. From outside, there is no way that you’ll ever notice that there’s a cave in here unless you found it by accident. The waterfall acts like a complete barricade which hides the cave’s entrance completely no matter how you look at it and the loudness of the pounding waterfall can muffle their voices well enough so that even if they were yelling off the top of their lungs, no one would be able to hear them. Key went further into the cave before carefully setting Amber down on the ground. Amber moans in pain and leans against the inner cave walls. A little more further down, the cave had two passages that lead in separate directions.

“Rest here. I’m going to go adventuring.” Key says, heading for the passage on the left.

“Wait!” Amber shouts in a weak voice. “It’s dangerous.”

“But if we don’t find a safer place to hide, we’ll be found out eventually.” Key explains. “And, you need the rest anyways. Even if I don’t find any other safe places to hide us, at least I need to find another source of food without leaving the cave.” She was speechless for a minute, realizing what Key has just said. He was right but it was a surprisingly weird kind of right. He’s actually using his head this time and that caused Amber to stare at him in awe. Then she snapped herself out of it and nodded accordingly. Afterwards, she leaned her head against the wall and dozed off. Smiling, Key headed off into the left side of the cave. It was small and dark, but not dark enough so that he won’t be able to see anything. Walked through the endless tunnel, jumping over ledges, and through spider webs. The path winded and twisted, leading into more passageways. Then, something shined into his eyes. There was light on the other end. He stepped into the light, filled with grassy fields, a light breeze that ruffled his hair and fresh air. In the distance, there was a farm. Happily, he went back into the tunnel to go get Amber. Then he stopped in his tracks, just at the entrance of the tunnel. ‘Why am I doing this?’ he asked himself. ‘Really, I could just leave her there, runoff  and be free.’ Deep in thought, a farmer with a hoe  sitting on his shoulder startled Key.

“Ello young lad. You’re not from around here are you?” the man asked.

“How’d you know?” Key asked him.

“I know ev’ry villager in town, of course I can tell if someone looks like the odd one out.” he states happily. “You lost?”

“Quite opposite actually. We’re being hunted down, and we’re trying to hide. That when I found this tunnel that lead me here.” Key responded.

“We huh? Who’s we?” the man asked.

“Me and my friend who currently has a really high fever.” Key says depressingly. “She has an infection from a wound that was caused when she was trying to protect me.”

“Oi. A lass eh? Tell you what, I live in that farm just up ahead and I’ll be glad to help you and your lassy out.” Farmer smiled. The farmer looked really nice and friendly. ‘Well, he doesn’t look like a threat. But you can never be too cautious. Then again, Amber is desperate for attention. I guess I don’t really have a choice do I?’ Key thought. He heaved a sigh and headed back into the tunnel. “Wait lad!” the farmer called after.

“What?” Key asked turning around.

“There are lots of winding roads in that tunnel. It’s easy to head back but hard to come back in. I suggest you make a trail for yer’self so you have something to help trail you back. Rocks will probably do the trick. But just in case, once you make your way back, kick the rocks out of the way in random directions to avoid being followed. You say that you’re being hunted down aye?” The farmer suggests.

“Thanks. Helps a lot.” Key smiled and disappeared into the tunnel.

Without wasting anytime, he rushed back to Amber, making sure to make himself a trail every now and then, just like the farmer said. When he made it back, Amber’s fever has gotten worse. He piggybacked her and followed his trial back to the grassy place, kicking the rocks that helped him back, off into random directions. When made it back to the same place, he headed for the farm. The farmer spotted him from afar and waved Key to his location. Key spotted the farmer as well at that point and made his way over.

“Pretty lass you’ve got there.” The farmer teased.

“Yeah yeah.” Key said, slightly blushing. Then the farmer reached over to touch Amber’s forehead.

“Oi. She’s hot eh? C’mon. I know a good doctor that can help ‘er out.” The farmer said. He signalled Key to follow him and they headed for the nearby village. It’s a small village so the local doctor wasn’t very far from the farm. “Aye! Sam! Gotta a minute?!” the farmer shouted into the little shop.

“Yes?” a man in a lab coat asked, stepping out of a small room in the back, escorting an old couple out of his shop with a smile. The place was rigid and old, made of wood and concrete that are cracking.

“This little lad said that ‘is little lass has an infection. Can you help?” the farmer asked.

“Of course.” The man named Sam says. “May I have your name young man?”

“Kim Ki-bum. But everyone calls me Key.” Key responds.

“And the girl?” Sam asks.

“Liu Amber Josephine.” Key answers.

“Bring her in.” the man says, escorting them to one of the back rooms. Using a stethoscope, Sam listening to her beating heart and felt her head. “She is definitely weakening. Where’s the wound?” Key pointed to her side and Sam lifted her shirt up a bit to see the wrapped up wound. Sam grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the shirt that wrapped around her wound off, to see how badly it was. The wound was slowly yellowing, clear sign that it is infected. “She’s very lucky Mr. Kim.” Sam said after examination. “The wound isn’t too bad, neither is the infection. After a thorough wash with salt water and a couple of stitches, she’ll be fine.” Sam smiled. Key heaved a sigh of relief.

“Thank god.” he said under his breath. Then he spoke up, “How much is the medical bill going to be?”

“No charge.” Sam smiled. Key raised an eyebrow.

“No charge?” Key repeated in a question.

“I’m a local doctor who only cares about his patients. Also, judging from your torn clothes, you two are probably form the city. These villagers are poor and cannot afford what you can afford, therefore, I opened my shop here, hoping to help the people in need. I became a doctor not because of money, but because I enjoy seeing my patients happy and healthy.” Sam explains.

“You sure?” Key insists. “Once I get home, I can offer you riches and high rank on the hierarchy. Just say the word and it’s yours. Of course, you’re rank cannot exceed royal helpers.”

“I’m sure.” Sam said shaking his head, declining the request.

“If you say so. And, thank you. A lot.” Key smiled.

“If you’d please, wait outside. This shouldn’t take longer than half an hour.” Sam said. Key sat on the bench offered to him and waited patiently outside. He rested his forehead on his hands, fingers laced together and elbows digging into his knees, replaying the same sentence in his head over and over again. ‘Amber, please be okay.’