Chapter Eight

Kyra didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to act, how to be anymore. Nothing was the same; the world was shattered and there was nothing she could do to fix it. She looked at Rune as he led her through the forest, never letting go of her hand. When they finally got to the base, Rune ignored the people crowding around and immediately took her to his cave. He looked at her face, tracing the scar Sokan gave her. His eyes filled with tears before he pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Kyra, I thought I had lost you. I didn't think that I'd ever see you again. I'm so, so sorry I couldn't get to you sooner. I don't know what to say." Rune let her go as Chaiia, Ryuu and Jade walked into the cave. Ryuu ran to Kyra immediately.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you. I should have been there, should have been more careful." She hugged her, not wanting to let her go. "I'll never let you leave my life again, you hear me? Never."

Ryuu looked at Kyra again, carefully looking at her expression. "I'm going to say this once and once only: y'all need to give Kyra some space right now. That includes you, Rune. And me. When I say all of us, I mean all of us. Let her rest for a bit before we crowd her or ask her too many questions."

Everyone but Rune slowly walked out. He looked at Kyra sadly before turning to leave. Kyra turned and stared at the wall, the sparkle completely gone from her eyes. She stared until Rune walked back in, sitting down next to her. He looked at her silently when she started crying, sobbing, letting all her emotions out. Rune slowly embraced her, letting her cry into his chest while he gently rocked her. Her shirt was torn from all the times Sokan and Lucas had cut her, and Rune quietly cried with her. She cried and cried until she finally fell asleep, her body relaxing and finally peaceful for once. Rune took her to a smaller offshoot of his cave, one that was perfectly set up for another person. He laid her down on a small bed, going to cover her with a blanket before he saw the burn on her back. He felt bile rise in his throat as he looked at the raven falling from the sky with a broken wing, a sign Sokan obviously meant to break all hope for Kyra. He shook his head angrily before covering her up and leaving the room, staying in his part of the cave. Chaiia and Ryuu walked in, looking at Rune.

"She's sleeping. I put her in the side cave in here, just to be a sort of protection. So if some Boka decides to try and sneak into camp and find her, he wouldn't be able to get to her unnoticed. I don't know how much longer she could have stayed there. I mean, for one, Sokan seems to have gotten so much worse mentally and physically. For two," Rune's voice broke as he said the next part. "There's a reason none of the scouts have found Jayson's body. They hung it on their fort for all to see, to gloat about taking a life. They had also moved Kyra so she would have been forced to see him all day every day."

Rune took a deep breath in before continuing. "I won't allow them to disrespect him like that. He died a hero and deserves a hero's memorial. Ryuu, get a few of the others in the tribe to start making a boat or a raft. I'm going to get Timber and Shiblon or someone to help me later tonight."

The trio of friends sat quietly in the cave before Chaiia and Ryuu left. All Rune had to do now was think, something he had proven wasn't always his strong suit.

* * *

Lucas was walking along the beach, far away from the Boka base. Sokan had made it pretty clear that unless Lucas returned with both Kyra and Tiffany, he wasn't welcome back into the Boka tribe. He also knew that the Mora would never let him in, not after everything that had happened. He looked at this weird outcropping of rock, near the water's edge enough that it would be wet but far enough away that it would remain untouched by the tides. It seemed like the perfect place for him to stay, at least until he had a bigger game plan. He ran to it, looking inside, shocked to see Tiffany bound and gagged.

"Fancy seeing you here, Tiff. Sokan honestly didn't care too much when you left, just so you know. I'm going to keep you here for a bit, at least until I get Kyra back so then I can return with both of you. You see, Jayson is dead and Sokan hung his body from the fort. Before he revealed it, he had me bring Kyra out of my room and tie her to the railing. Well, he immediately tried to attack her again. I had an epiphany a while before this where I promised myself to never let anyone hurt her again. We got into a small fight, and he knocked me out. When I came to, I heard Kyra screaming and then saw Sokan force her to kiss him. I freaked out, freed her, then got into another fight with Sokan."

Lucas sighed. "Well, the Mora got away with Kyra, since they were there as well. Timber and Rune, I mean, not all of the Mora. After Sokan had recovered a bit, he kicked me out until I returned with you and Kyra. So, as I don't know how I'm going to be getting Kyra back, I have to keep you here with me until I do. Not because I want to keep you prisoner, but because I want to get back to my tribe."

Lucas walked over to Tiffany and took off her gag. She took a few deep breaths in before looking up at Lucas.

"What made you change your mind? I mean, do you still have feelings for her?" Tiffany coughed a bit before looking back up at him. "I'll help you get her if you want. I'm honestly pretty mad at Sokan right now."

"What do you mean you're mad at Sokan?" Lucas gave her a curious look.

"Well, when Jayson was running off with me, he did come close to us when you guys were first starting out the chase. I was about to scream when I heard Sokan say that I didn't matter as much as Kyra did, and that she was the first priority. I figured if she mattered so much, then he didn't need any help finding me. Now I find out that he didn't even bother looking for me himself, he just sent some pawn out to find me. I'm completely done with the Boka tribe. You can bring me back, but I'd leave instantly."

Lucas looked at her. "You mean, you'd start your own tribe?"

"Yeah, I would. You'd be welcome to join. First objective would be to get Kyra and keep her away from both the Mora and the Boka. She could be like your little pet of sorts, if you wanted. Oh, also, we would get your knives back, and maybe try and recruit Neptune. You purposely let him escape, didn't you?" Tiff tilted her head.

"Yeah, I did. I watched Rune as he untied him and ran off with him. I just couldn't bring myself to hurt him, especially because he had been one of my closest friends. Sokan is cruel, and doesn't deserve to live. He prefers to torture and maim rather than take the higher road. Also, another fun fact, your boyfriend is dead."

Tiffany's face fell. "Carsan's… Dead?"

Lucas nodded. "Jayson killed him when he was trying to help Ryuu and Jade escape. It was a quick, painless one. Better than how Sokan killed Jayson."

Tiffany started crying. "I-I told him he would get himself killed one of these days, always helping out Sokan in the way that he did. I didn't expect it t-to come true." Lucas held her, letting her cry into him. "How did Sokan kill Jayson?"

"Threw a knife at him. Went almost all the way through. Sokan didn't know I was still there. They threw Carsan's body in the sea and drug Jayson's back to the fort. Honestly, I'm kind of with you at this point, but I think I have a better plan. We're going to return to the Boka with Kyra, and we're going to take them down from the inside. You with me?"

Tiffany wiped her eyes, looking up at him. "I'm with you. Let's take down those-" She started standing up, and Lucas stopped her.

"Woah, I didn't say we were going to right now. We still need to make a plan and everything. You're smart enough to know that if we left right now, we'd most likely fail. Heck, if we left right now, I wouldn't be surprised if Sokan killed me. That is, if he could even beat me in a fight." He shook his head. "He's gotten even crazier since being abandoned here."

"He was never crazy before, so why are you saying crazier? That would imply that he was already at least mildly concerning before."

"He hid it from you. Never wanted you to realize just who he was. There was always something off about him, and if I said anything to him about it, he would give me a look that made me fear for my life." Lucas sliced through the ropes holding Tiffany back and leaned against the cave wall. "I don't know what to do now. I've burned about every bridge there is left to burn at this point, and no one has done more damage to anything than me."

"Hey, we'll take down both the Boka and the Mora, as well as get you Kyra as your own. You'll see, I promise." Tiffany stretched out a bit, massaging her wrists and looking at him. "We'll get our revenge on all of them."

* * *

When Kyra woke up, she stared at the wall hopelessly. The light seemed to be gone from the world, and everything she used to care about was shattered. She jumped at the slightest sound, sure that it was Sokan coming back for her. She thought about what Lucas had done. Was he really telling the truth about never wanting to hurt her again? He did attack Sokan to save her, as well as release her. She couldn't really truly understand him.

She was still trapped in her thoughts when Ryuu walked in, holding a cup full of some sort of liquid.

"How are you feeling, Kyra?" Ryuu rarely addressed Kyra by her actual name, which showed just how fragile she felt. "You've been sleeping for a while."

Kyra shook her head, and Ryuu continued talking. "You're going to have to leave this cave eventually. I have some medicine for you. Please take it."

"What's the point?" Kyra's voice was fragile, a broken piece of porcelain. "Why should I try to heal when I know that it'll amount to nothing in the end."

"Kyra, don't talk like that." Ryuu was trying not to cry, staying as strong as she could for her cousin. "You have to keep fighting."

"I did. And look at me now." Kyra turned to face Ryuu, the scars covering the majority of her face. "What's the purpose of fighting if I will just get hurt and if more of my friends die for me?"

Ryuu said nothing, placing the cup on the floor and standing up. "The medicine's there if you change your mind. Let me know if you're feeling better."

Kyra continued staring at the wall as Ryuu left, leaving the medicine where it was. She felt a calloused hand touch her back, and she felt the tears well up in her eyes again.

"Kyra. Please just try." Rune's eyes showed the emotions he was feeling, all the stress and worry leaking through his wall. "Things will be better eventually. Just try and hold on for one more day, okay? You'll see, I promise."

"How can you know that? Jayson's dead, and it's my fault he's gone. If I had just listened to Sokan when he offered my freedom, none of this would have happened." Tears were running down her face. "Everything is my fault."

"What do you mean, he offered you your freedom? Why didn't you take it?"

"He said I just had to trust him. That was something he had already proved to me would end up costing more than I would gain. Now I see what a fool I was."

"Kyra, if anyone's the fool it's me. I pushed Sokan, intimidated him, not knowing what would come of it. None of this is your fault, I promise. Please, I'm begging you, just try and heal." He picked up the cup of medicine, taking her hand and pressing the soft surface of the cup into her broken skin. "Please."

Kyra stayed still for a moment before struggling to sit up. Rune quickly helped her, and she leaned into his chest. She slowly tipped back the medicine, drinking every last drop. Rune smiled in relief as she did so, taking the cup from her when she was done. He softly wrapped his arms around her, and they sat together like that until she fell asleep again. He pulled the skin he had been using as a blanket in from his part of the cave, covering her completely. He didn't notice when Jade walked in.

"You really care about her, don't you?" Jade was leaning against the wall, having silently entered a few minutes prior. "You know, I thought at one point you cared about me that way too."

"Jade, leave the past in the past. I thought we had both chosen to move on from that and just be friends." Rune slowly laid Kyra back down, walking out of the smaller cave and into his larger one. "Besides, you were the one who left me."

"Only because you stopped putting the effort in. How long will it take for you to hurt Kyra the same way you hurt me? Most of her pain has been on a physical level. I don't want you to be the one to hurt her emotionally." Jade's eyes welled up with tears. "There's been too much of that recently."

"You're talking about losing him, aren't you?" Rune looked away as she nodded. "He won't be there any longer. He's finally going to be able to rest."

"I just want to ask you for one favor: When you go to get his body tonight, I want you to bring me with you." Jade's expression was deadly.

"No. I can't have you making any rash decisions. If you go, there's no telling what you might do." Rune placed a hand on her shoulder. "Look after Kyra for a bit, okay? I need to talk to someone."

Jade nodded, and Rune left the cave. He walked through the camp for a little while before finding Kyron, Corianton, and Timber sitting in the entrance to a cave.

"Kyron, I have a favor to ask of you. I told you once to keep Jade from leaving. I need you to guard her again tonight, when we go to retrieve Jayson. Corianton, Timber, I need you two to come with me. You two are going with me." Rune looked each of them in the eyes. "If we get this right tonight, we'll have just one small advantage over the Boka."

The three boys nodded, and Kyron walked over to the entrance of the cave Jade was in. Rune began walking along a path, the path that led to the mountain lake just a quarter mile away from their main camp.

"We're going to have to camouflage ourselves. Otherwise, we'll be spotted in an instant." Rune poked the mud on the ground by the edge of the lake. "This will get a little messy."

They took their time, making sure that they would be incredibly hard to see in the night. The sun slowly set, and they began their journey towards the Boka territory. They crept their way through the forest, being sure to listen for any signs of enemies or wildlife. They slowed as they heard the sound of voices, and the light of a torch began to trickle through the trees. Corianton, Timber, and Rune hit the deck, laying near ferns and bushes.

"... Couldn't believe he would do that! Sokan has never even shown any signs of aggression towards Lucas before, so that fight was even worse than what I would have expected." Coron's voice reached their ears, and they stayed silent. "I just hope we can find Lucas before the Mora can. Who knows what they'll do to him."

"Coron, be quiet. You don't know if any of them are close." Lemon's voice was uncharacteristically quiet as she walked hand in hand with Coron.

"Please. It's not like any of them are coming this soon. There's too many guards." Coron laughed. "We could take them if they came after us anyway. They're too scared of you and your height."

The voices slowly grew quieter and quieter and the three boys knew that the coast was clear. They took their time as they proceeded closer and closer to the treetop fortress. The light from the torches surrounding the base grew brighter and brighter until Rune stopped.

"We're going to have to climb. They'll see us if we try to make a ground approach." Rune's voice was barely a whisper. "If there's someone in the tree you climb, throw them out of it. No mercy."

With that cheerful thought, he picked the tree closest to him and began ascending the branches quietly. The other two followed suit, the bark beneath their hands digging into their skin roughly. When they got to the level of the roof, they waited to see what Rune would do. He slowly crept out on a branch, gently lowering himself onto the roof and getting onto all fours. As he quietly and carefully progressed towards the balcony where they had Jayson's body hanging. He didn't need to look back to know that both Corianton and Timber had followed. It took them a while before they reached the other side of the fort, as they knew they could not afford to make one small noise. They fingered the cords that kept Jayson bound to the fort, nodding at each other before slowly undoing them.

"This is so boring." The three froze when they heard the voice of Sokan, cold and harsh. "I would have thought they'd have come by now."

Corianton started to make a move towards the source of Sokan's voice, but Rune stopped him with a harsh look.

"So they didn't take the bait. Man, it would have been so much more fun if you had exposed yourselves rather than forcing me to actually look. I know you're up there. I'll admit, you did a pretty good job staying out of sight. Your one mistake was the fact that the board that you're on right now shifts ever so slightly when weight is placed on it." Sokan climbed up to face them on the roof. "A shame. I thought Jade would be with you."

"Don't speak her name." Rune's voice was dangerously low, and for a second a small glimpse of fear could be seen on Sokan's face. "You've already caused her enough pain. I wasn't going to bring her to the one place where she would lose all control."

"Take him. I have no use for the corpse. I just wanted to bait her here." Sokan walked away, sitting on the edge of the roof. "One more thing: If you show your face here again, I won't hesitate in killing you."

"Wait," Timber stepped forward as Sokan started to swing himself off of the roof. "Why are you just letting us walk away with exactly what we wanted? That's a bit unlike you, isn't it?"

"Well, you proved that you have a surprisingly good strategy. Laila and Rune both are incredibly book smart. I also don't want the stench of him attracting more wildlife."

Sokan left into the fort, and the three finished untying their friend and started off into the woods.

"We need to split up. They'd be idiots if they didn't send someone after us. Besides, it's getting light. We're going to be a lot easier to see." Rune stared at the forest floor, not wanting to bring himself to see the image of his best friend, lifeless and cold. "We shouldn't need to worry about wolves or anything."

"I'll take Jayson." Corianton took the body and started off in one direction, not waiting to get approval from anyone.

"I'll go along the beach. You head through the mountain range. Those will be the hardest places to track." Timber looked Rune in the eyes. "At least things went better than we planned."

Rune nodded, and walked away from Timber. He knew the path to the mountains better than anyone, and he knew the precarious but quick route through the range that would cut off over a day of travel. He started the journey, not knowing how soon he'd return.

* * *

Jade was fuming. This wasn't the first, but the second time that Rune had stationed Kyron outside of the cave she was in to prevent her from leaving. Why wouldn't he take her with him? Does he not trust her abilities? Was she too weak? She didn't know, nor did she want to take the time needed to figure it out. She walked into the area where he had Kyra, sitting on the floor near her. Kyra's face was tense, and tears were leaking out of her eyes.

"Kyra… I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what you had to go through. I promise it'll get better one day, okay? Just hang on for now." She brushed a hair out of her friend's face before gently pulling Kyra into a hug without waking her. Kyra inhaled deeply before relaxing, the tears slowly stopping. Jade cried softly for a few minutes, still holding Kyra in a soft hug. After about thirty minutes, Kyra woke up.

"You smell like a lake, right after it rains." Kyra looked up at her friend. "It's not a bad thing, trust me."

Jade laughed softly. "I don't know what else I expected you to say. That's by far the most random thing that's come out of your mouth recently."

"What can I say? I live to surprise." Kyra laughed halfheartedly. "But I'm not kidding. You smell like a fresh mountain lake, away from the world. There's hints of deer and other animals, just like the ones here. Is there a lake around?"

"I mean, yeah. I spend a lot of my time there, not usually to swim but just to think. It's incredibly peaceful there." Jade smiled softly at her friend. "Here. Let me braid my hair for you. That way it'll be out of your face."

Kyra nodded, and Jade slowly began working out the tangles in her hair. While she braided her friend's hair, Ryuu walked in.

"I have some more medicine, and some salve to put on your wounds." Ryuu put a bowl full of paste on the floor and knelt next to Kyra, holding out a cup. "Drink this."

Kyra nodded, taking the cup and slowly drank it. Jade tied off the end of the long french braid with a thick piece of chord. Ryuu and Jade then worked together to carefully remove the ripped shreds of clothing, smear the paste onto the different cuts and burns, and then cover it up with clean pieces of cloth that had been recovered from the plane crash.

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you guys all still have somewhat clean clothes?" Kyra was rather perplexed.

"We found quite a few suitcases floating in the water when we got here. We took as many supplies from inside of them as we could, including clothing." Jade carefully placed one last bandage onto Kyra's arm before helping her into a loose shirt. "It was honestly a stroke of real good luck that we got as much as we did. It also helps that Ryuu has a lot of survival knowledge, and that some of the people at our camp have some sense of shop knowledge."

"That makes sense. I guess I assumed that a lot of them sank to the ocean floor, I suppose." Kyra sat with her back to the cave wall. "This place is weird."

"You aren't wrong, Kyra, you aren't wrong…" Ryuu nodded softly in agreement. "Sometimes it seems as if the basic laws of nature and life don't apply."

"What do you mean by that?" Kyra looked at the two others with a weird look in her eyes. "What basic laws?"

"Like, there's some things that should have killed all of us by now. Rune falling out of a tree. You should have bled out a long time ago, and I was bound to mess up with plant identification and accidentally poisoned someone by now. It's as if the island draws people in, and then refuses to let those that are here die on their own. The only people that have died here while we have been stuck were that old man and… And Jayson." Ryuu took a breath before continuing. "The man was at least 55 when his party left. There's no way that he should have lived to 95, but he did. It's almost as if the island is… sentient, in a way, and it provides for its inhabitants until they're freed. For instance, the old man said that his party that was here was particularly violent towards each other, just like ours has been, but all the others that have been stuck here haven't been nearly as bad as we have. Actually, all the others were only stuck here for about a month before being rescued. Yet, the old man said that it wasn't until they had a month of communication and unity between the party before a boat came and rescued them.

"I think that there's something more to this island than we realize." Ryuu looked away as realization dawned on her face. "We're stuck here until we can work together."