7. Cannibals and Schoolchildren

Marcel lost his balance and tumbled back onto the sand. How could it have been 1870? He distinctly remembered setting sail in 1688 and was halfway to Vulcano in 1689 when- "The storm..." he breathed. Dan looked at him, curiously. "I beg your pardon?" He quickly turned to her. "The storm." He repeated, louder this time. "What was it like when you were wrecked?" Dan thought for a moment. She had been keeping record of how long it had been since the wreck. "It seems so long ago." "Think hard! It's important!" demanded Marcel. Dan remembered. "I've got it. It was a year and half ago. I remember now. Jasmine was hardly a few months old when we found her, and we had only just begun our journey." Marcel was starting to become impatient. "But what about the storm?" Dan calmly replied, "A hurricane. But nothing like we had ever seen before. The winds blew so hard that it broke the mainmast in two." Marcel thought back to his encounter. The mainmast of his ship had also broke in two and he was also headed for Italy. Could this have been the same storm? Dan continued. "I remember grabbing the baby as we all ran for the dinghy. Only a few members of the crew survived." "What happened to them?" Asked Marcel, more gently this time. He noticed tears beginning to form.

"Cannibals." She said, shakily. "They live on the opposite side of this island. The grown ups were going hunting for food one day and they never came back." She motioned to a dark area of trees and brush far down the beach. "Over there," she said, "was where Marianne found a scrap. The stench of burning flesh was present-" her voice caught. Marcel awkwardly put his hand on her shoulder. He had never been in a situation like this before. Dan recovered herself. "Marianne became ill not long after that. She wouldn't eat for days. We were all afraid she wouldn't make it and we were all afraid for our lives, but they never came for us. I don't think they know we're here at all."

Marcel was silent for a moment. Then, a look of alarm appeared in his eyes. "Don't be too sure, kid." Dan whirled around, panicked. "There!" He grabbed her shoulders from behind, causing her to yelp. He leaned back, cackling. Dan was not the least bit amused. "Why you ancient, mollusk-covered creep!" She kicked the sand in his direction. Marcel choked and spat sand and bits of shell, still laughing at his merciless prank. Dan huffed and returned to her hut. Miraculously, not one moment of her encounter had stirred the others.

Marcel finally calmed down and got up. He brushed excess sand from his clothes, picked up his sword and the lantern and made his way towards possible dinner for himself. He headed straight for the area where young Marianne had found some crew member leftovers. He didn't have anything to worry about. If there were cannibals, they would have run at the sight of him. To the cannibals, he thought, he was as unpleasant to them as a crabapple is to the living. He made his way through brush and vines. He found a fruit tree. Poisonous? Only one way to find out. If he could survive the equivalent of Caesar's end, he could handle a piece of fruit with questionable effects. He took a bite. Sweet. Almost honey-like, but not too bad. He waited a moment for any ill-effects. Nothing. Not poisonous. He took another bite while picking a few more with his sword. By the time he returned to the beach, he had devoured the last fruit. He walked along the shoreline for a while till he found his ship. "Right where I left it." He climbed up the ropes and stumbled to his cabin. He was too tired care about the dust and collapsed on his bed and fell fast asleep.