1.2 An Abrupt End, and an Unforeseen Beginning

EPISODE 1.2

An Abrupt End, and an Unforeseen Beginning

Months passed, and the young man and the little girl continued to live on that small island. From where they stood, they could see another island nearby, but it looked a few kilometers away. The only way to go there is by boat or intense swimming. They would just probably drown anyway before they could reach the other side.

For several days, they camped under that tree. He built a makeshift tent for them using twigs and large leaves. But as it soon proved to be impractical with all the unpredictable weather, he decided to find a better place.

Thankfully, they found a small cave in the island.

It's also on a higher ground, which is perfect as it won't be affected by the tides. It's a small cave, though, so mostly they just stayed at the entrance where they built their makeshift home.

However, he continued to eye the opposite shore from afar. They wouldn't last long in that island all by themselves.

He started building a raft, but soon discovered that he had no talent in carpentry. The raft would immediately break as soon as it reached the reefs.

He would eventually sigh and tore his eyes off on the far away shore.

Thankfully, though, he was making progress on something else. Now, instead of just gathering wild fruits, they could now also fish and catch crabs from around the island. He was getting good at it, too. At first, he could barely catch a fish in one day.

And when he did, the fish was too small for both of them, so he would end up giving it to Aleph. He would often sleep with a grumbling stomach.

But now, with the use of his improvised spear he fashioned from a sharpened stick, he could catch as many fish as he could in just one strike. The water surrounding that island has plenty of fish, given that it also has filled with corals and seaweed.

With nothing to do in the island, he taught himself necessary survival skills: fishing, climbing, and making tools out of primitive materials.

Through a gruelling trial and error, he also found out which mushrooms and plants were edible, by making a taste test himself with small amounts. It often ended up him having to get sick for days. That made Aleph worried, but he forbade her to test the food herself. Or even go too far away from the camp.

She would still go out of her way to collect fruits and herbs anyway.

And while they struggled to survive on that little island, he would glance at the far shore, then continued on his work.

Aleph, not knowing why he would suddenly stop midway and look at the other island, copied him. She would also suddenly stop and look at the island for minutes, with that very serious look on her face, and then went on with her way.

Strangely, the child was quite knowledgeable in some aspects. Though he perfectly understood everything she said, he soon found out they were using a different alphabet and language. The little kid happily taught her about those, and although he was only a little interested, he thought that knowledge will come in handy if they ever got out of the island.

Every time she would write letters on the sand, he would sometimes look at the far shore ahead. At night, he could see some lights at the distance. Whether those were from human civilization or not, still that gave him a little hope that they could get out of there.

Using some coconut trees around, he was able to make a lot of stuff. Mats and tents from the leaves. Bowls, cups, and other types of containers from its shells. Of course, food and juice from its fruits.

Water and fire were also two main concerns for them. At first, they had to drink coconut water which was becoming less ideal as time passes by. Fortunately, he found a clean spring inland a few days later.

Probably the most annoying thing he had to learn was creating a bonfire. It took him a long time to do so, and even until now he was still struggling at it. And they needed fire every night to keep themselves warm and also cook their food.

And while he does all of these, he still attempted to build a raft. But even after twenty-two rafts, none of them made it out of the ring of sand.

Scratch what he said about the fire. Building rafts was definitely more complicated and a whole lot more annoying.

But still, he continued to gaze at the far shore from time to time. As was Aleph.

Back in his past life, he wasn't a survivalist. He knew a thing or two, like a little first aid taught in school. Everytime either of them have scrapes and burns, he would tend to them using the herbs around. Thankfully, a lot of them were familiar to him.

But being an introverted individual in his previous existence, he mostly kept to himself and indoors.

Speaking of which, he now remembered most of his previous life. He remembered his friends. His family. Did they cry when he died? He wasn't sure. He wasn't that close with them, even though they lived in the same house. He also remembered his hobbies and interests. His job as a salesman selling food supplements. Welp, that was a boring life, but at least he rememebered everything now.

Well, almost. Because after so many weeks of trying to remember everything, there were still blank patches in his memory, including his name.

Aleph tried to help him recall his name by suggesting names that might have been familiar to him. Just like that day.

"Lee?"

He shook his head.

"Markus?"

"Nope."

"Damien?"

"Not even close."

"Harry?"

"Nah."

"D-dodo—bird?" she asked.

"What even was that?" he asked her back.

"Well, you can't blame Aleph. We're almost running out of names!" she remarked. "Maybe your name is too complicated, that's why none of Aleph's suggestions were correct."

"Huh," he said. "Now that I think about it, I'm probably one of those kids with four or five names for no reason. That sounds like what my parents would do."

The kid shrugged. "Aleph's name is short and easy to remember, which is works great. But, why are you so intent on remembering your name?"

"For one, it sucks not being able to remember one's own name. It's like having a sneeze that you can't get out," he said. "What would you do if you can't remember what your name was?"

She shrugged. "Well, that sucks, Aleph agrees. But maybe Aleph would just get another cool name for herself, like 'Great Almighty Dragon' or something."

He eyed her, suppressing a smile. "You mean, 'Tiny Dwarfling' or something?"

Aleph crossed her arms. "What do you mean 'Tiny Dwarfling'? Aleph isn't even that small! And that's like calling me smaller than small!"

He laughed, which made her pout.

"Anyway," she said. "Aleph doesn't really see the need of you having a name. Things have worked out even though Aleph doesn't know your name, right? Well, it's also mainly because there's no one around here except for us, so Aleph doesn't need to call you anything."

He thought about that for a while.

"Yeah, but we're not staying here forever, right?" he said. "In other places, I need to have a name so people can use it to call me."

To his surprise, Aleph frowned.

"Y-you aren't staying here?" she asked.

He nodded. "Of course. There's not enough food here, there's no even a place to call home," he said. "One way or another, we need to find a way to get out of here."

"W-we?" she said. "You're taking Aleph with you?!"

He looked at her, confused. "Why, don't you wanna? Do you want to stay here?" he said. Aleph shook her head immediately. He smiled. "Then, good. As soon as we find a way to cross the sea, we will go to the that island over. But you're right, though."

She looked at him quizically. "Right about what? Aleph knows she is right about plenty of things, but which, specifically?"

"About my name," he said.

"What do you mean?" Aleph asked slowly.

"That things still worked out even though I couldn't remember what my name used to be," he said, looking into the sea. Aleph just looked at him.

And maybe not remembering my name was some sort of a punishment for not living my life I just had so casually thrown away and then regretted in the very last moments.

Maybe that's why I couldn't recall some parts of my previous life, he said to himself. Because I had no right to hold on to it when I thrown most of it away when I had it.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Aleph said.

"What else? Get a new name," he said with a smile. "A name…that will symbolize my creed to live a new life."

"A c-creed? What's that?"

"It's like something to believe in, that I could make this life better than the previous one," he said. "A kind of life worth living."

He continued gazing at the sea, now with a whole lot of confidence with his decision. Aleph's bright deep blue eyes stared at him for a while, and then she smiled.

"Have you already thought of a name?" she said enthusiastically. "Aleph could give you one!"

He crossed his arms. "Oh? Let's hear it then."

"Hmmm," she said thoughtfully and put her small hands under her chin. "How about 'Creed'?"

His eyebrows knit. "You just got that from the thing I said!"

"But it sounds cool," she argued. "And it suits you! Just like how Aleph's name suits Aleph!"

He gave that a long thought.

"Huh," he said. "Alright then, since you gave me that name, from now on I will have others call me 'Creed'."

Creed, he said in his mind. It does have a nice ring to it.

She pumped her fists into the air. "Yes! You finally took one of Aleph's suggestions! We should have a feast to celebrate! Hey, Creed!"

"Nah," he said. "You're just making an excuse to empty our stocked food, aren't you?"

"No, Aleph is not!" she defended. "Why would you always accuse Aleph of being a glutton?"

"I never said you were," he said. "And you're the one who said that, not me."

"Hmph!" Aleph crossed her arms. "Now Aleph is a little mad. Aleph is reconsidering the name she gave you."

"Oh. Maybe you should name me Aleph instead," he said jokingly.

She pushed him. "Y-you! You really are starting to—argh! Whatever. Aleph will just celebrate alone!"

Creed laughed and shook his head. "I'm only saying that we probably need to prepare. I mean, like I said earlier, we need to get out of here to find a new place to stay. We can't sustain ourselves here forever."

"You couldn't even build a raft yet. How would we get to the other shore?" she said. But when Creed continued looking out into the sea, Aleph tried to block his view by jumping in front of him.

"I think there's another way, but we have to test it out first," he said. His eyes were focusing on the ring of sand several meters away from where they stood. When Aleph noticed that, she too looked at the sand, but her face was still visibly confused. "So, we should start preparing for a long journey."