Chapter 2 Scene 1

With everyone safe at the village, they finish building the shelters, and make and have a good dinner together. Then the castaways go to sleep in one shelter and the native children in the other, where they tell each other all the bizarre events that happened to them. Keruka retires to her own hut.

The next morning, everybody is assembled at the village. Keruka speaks.

"You have all done well. These strangers have proved that they are good people and can be trusted, but there may be others around. Children, you have conducted yourselves well in response to the Spirits' testing of you. But there are more tests ahead.

There are twelve golden statues that have been lost and scattered throughout this island. The Spirits will not let the strangers leave until they are all recovered and returned to our Sanctuary. Furthermore, if they are not all found in the next few days, the plants and animals on this island will all die, and the island itself will be consumed in fire.

However, the Spirits will be pleased at the collection of all the rarities that can be found. The more that are found the more time you will have to find all the statues. As you find them, you may put them in that box over there. All the tools will be kept in that shed; you can come back here any time you need them, but must return them when you are done.

To show their gratitude, the Spirits will reward us with trophies when you accomplish certain tasks. They will appear in this storehouse. We have one gold trophy already."

Keruka shows the glimmering gold trophy of a native child standing proudly, the reward for finding all the children.

"If you achieve all the gold trophies, the Spirits will see to it that our island will always have excellent harvests and hunts."

"You have been in the forest and at the beach, and did not find any of the statues. Some must be located by and in the caves to the northwest, past the abandoned village, and others in the Swampy Forest to the north. Beware, there are bats and spiders in the caves, and quicksand in and to the east of the Swampy Forest. There is an underground river beneath this island that causes the quicksand to form, and much of the section north of this village is quicksand.

I promised Tom I would tell him about the Protective Potion. This is hard to make, but it will protect you against all the wild animals on the island, including boars, snakes, bats, and spiders. It must be brewed in a special pot that is found in the abandoned village. You need five rosemary, four tickseed, three sesame, two fish, and one crab. Cook this for fifteen minutes, and there will be a liquid that you can drink. Its effect lasts for ten minutes."

"We need to be able to hunt the boars and snakes," remarks Bukela.

Keruka thinks it over. "I'm not sure you are ready, but under the circumstances you may be right." She goes over to a shed and produces a bow and a quiver with twenty arrows. "It takes two arrows to kill a snake and three for a boar. If you can kill two snakes and two boars before running out of arrows, you will have proved yourself worthy of this. But be careful. While you are stalking an animal, another animal may be stalking you." She gives the bow and quiver to Bukela, who slings it over her shoulder.

"Can we make more arrows?" asks Mike.

"Yes, there are workshops here and in the abandoned village where you can make more arrows. Of course you need wood. Driftwood works but logs from chopping trees produces many more usable arrows."

"Now about quicksand: if you notice you stepped into it and have not sunk past your knees, lean back quickly. You should be able to reach back to the solid ground you came from. If you find yourself sinking past your knees, remain calm and don't struggle. That will make you sink faster and deeper. If you are carrying anything, throw it away. If you keep calm, you will stop sinking when you have sunk to the bottom of your loincloth. If you struggle, you could sink up to your chests. A person wearing more than a loincloth or carrying something, even not too heavy, would sink deeper."

Stefi giggles.

Keruka notices, and continues, "Strangers, with all those clothes and especially those shoes, you would sink deeper, well past your waists. That is why it is better that the strangers explore the Northwestern Forest and the Caves, the coldest part of our island, and our children wearing only loincloths the Swampy Forest. Should one of you fall into the quicksand it will be much easier to pull out a child less than waist deep than someone much larger and heavier. I fear that you must all spread out because we do not have a lot of time. I must continue to attend to the elders. Go now, and good luck! Meet back here in four hours for lunch."

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