Stranded

A radiant light burst through Emma's eyelids and a warm veil delicately brushed over her skin. Emma twitched.

She raised her hand to cover her eyes, then rolled over away from the light. And then she remembered there shouldn't be a sun.

Emma exploded up. She summoned her spear and got in a defensive position.

But no one was there. Surrounded by an overhead curved wall and an oddly bright, yet gray sky, Emma was alone.

Her adrenaline subsided and her aching body returned to torment her. She slumped over, her spear shattered into an array of light as she leaned her back against the stone wall.

"F***."

A helpless smile formed across her face.

"I can't believe I got thrashed around in a whirlpool twice."

"I shouldn't be in another world at least…"

"God I hope."

Emma slowly picked herself up. She walked around the perimeter of the crater reminiscing on the past.

After discovering nothing important, she activated Boost and hopped out of the crater. Although, contrary to her expectations, she landed on a bed of overgrown grass and weeds.

Palm trees flourished around her, broken coconuts littered the ground, and tens of different kinds of crabs shuffled between the grass.

For a sliver of a moment, Emma felt overwhelmed. The sharp and vibrant green from the environment, the sound of critters living and moving around her, it was perfect.

"Oh s*** oh f***!"

Tears quickly flooded Emma's eyes as an insatiable sense of longing overwhelmed her.

"Am I back?"

Emma reached her hand forward into a pool of white sparks and brought forth her Soldiers Spontoon. She fiddled with her weapon; spun it a few times, threw it across the air and then called it back.

And finally, she stepped towards one of the crabs caught in the brush. She stabbed the tip of her spear through the crabs shell and waited.

No announcement. It didn't even turn into essence afterwards.

Emma raised her spear and brought the red crab close to her face.

"It seems like a crab…"

Emma pushed her head towards the sky and began looking around.

"but the sky is still gray and my Gift still works."

"That isn't to say my Gift wouldn't work on Earth—it might, I don't know—but the sky'd be blue."

"So where the f*** am I?!"

Emma organized her thoughts. She needed information more than anything.

She looked around. Behind her was the crater, yes, but behind the crater was the sea; black, empty, and lifeless, exactly the same as the first time she saw it on the shore.

She walked towards it and stopped just beyond the reach of the tide. And for the next few hours she walked along the beach.

Palm trees, moss, sand crabs, coconuts, grass, and weeds, it all looked so familiar. During her walk she grabbed a fallen coconut, an unopened one.

Using the hilt of her spear she cracked it open and greedily gulped down the liquid within. And again, for the next few hours she continued walking while snacking on bits and pieces of coconut.

After about half a day, Emma found herself standing on the edge of the crater again. The punctured crabs corpse still sat nearby, although some other creature ravaged it while she was gone.

Emma was lost and confused, stranded on an unknown island, in an unknown ocean, on a planet she didn't know the map of.

"I'm so f*****."

"Maybe I should stop talking to myself."

"Maybe I'm manifesting nothing but bad things."

Emma tiredly released a sigh and shook her head. She summoned her spear and tipped it up, resting the shaft on her shoulder then proceeded to walk into the tree line.

She was already here, she might as well explore.

Using her spear, Emma cut down the overgrown grass and vines that blocked her path. During this time she remained extremely vigilant.

She had been trained by Fallen Sky, taught in an environment where anything that wasn't human was an enemy. And even that rule wasn't absolute.

Yet now she was encountering crabs and lizards, multiple little critters that ruffled the bushes and shook the branches. Emma's radar was constantly firing. Her anxiety exploded through the roof.

Logically she knew, she knew the crabs wouldn't hurt her. She knew that the lizards and rabbits, the flying squirrels above her would never hurt her, could never hurt her.

But one of the ruffles could be a monster, one of them could be something capable of attacking her. She'd never been to this island, she's never even heard of an island near Fallen Sky.

After aimlessly hacking and slashing through the greenery, Emma stumbled upon a towering cliff. The light brown stone wall traveled a hundred feet high, a height Emma wasn't confident in scaling.

Instead she decided to take a break. She leaned against the wall, her spear in hand, and waited. She didn't know what she was waiting for, but she waited nonetheless.