Eseth collapsed on her pallet. She glared at Kaza, who had been asleep the moment Eseth had set her on the ground. She stared at the trees overhead, when she suddenly realized she wasn't tired. She felt like she should be, after traveling what must have been hundreds of miles by ice raft and carrying Kaza and all their baggage into the forest, but she wasn't.

She glanced at Kaza, who was out cold, breathing softly as she slept. Eseth stared at the sky again, then sat up. There was no way she was going to be able to get to sleep. Maybe she could later, but it didn't seem to be working right now.

Eseth stood up, and put on her boots. If she wasn't going to spend this time sleeping, she might as well spend it doing something useful. With another glance at Kaza, she left the clearing where they she had decided to spend the night.

Eseth scowled. A clearing was a terrible shelter. They needed to find somewhere else to live, for the moment, anyway. She wandered back down to the beach where they had landed, and looked along it to see if there were any caved or cliff sides that they could stay in. There weren't.

She sighed in frustration, and tromped back into the forest. Eseth walked back to their clearing, and found Kaza sitting against a tree, eating a plum.

Eseth blinked. "I thought you wouldn't be up for days!" Kaza smiled sleepily at Eseth and said "I'm not up. Not really. I was just really hungry."

"You should probably go back to bed soon."

"Yeah, I know. Oh, by the way, you might want this." Kaza tossed a rolled-up scroll of paper at Eseth's head. It landed about three yards short of its destination. Kaza threw her head up and moaned half-heartedly.

Eseth picked up the piece of paper, which was revealed to be the map of Ocean's Flame, and walked across the clearing to help Kaza back to her sleeping bag.

"Dear Everflame, Kaza, you'd think you wouldn't want to get better." Eseth muttered as she half-dragged Kaza across the clearing.

Kaza's only response was to grin tiredly. When she had gotten Kaza back into her bed, Eseth went tramping around the forest again to see what she could see.

She tried to walk as loudly as she could, in an attempt to scare anything that might think she was good to eat off. She knew that most animals wouldn't eat elves, but she didn't know anything about the wildlife here.

She unfurled the map of Ocean's Flame. According to it, she was in the Shadowed Emerald Forest. Eseth wondered if anyone lived on this island. It was small, maybe about twenty miles across at the widest part, and possibly fifty or so miles long. She wondered how she and Kaza were going to live here, and tried to guess who could have possibly made the map with such accuracy without living here.

Maybe there was something about her mother she hadn't known. Eseth snorted. Her mother had probably inherited the map from her father, who had died years ago. Her mother would never come to a place such as this, no matter how amazing it was.

Eseth glanced up at the trees, then back at her map. She'd have to relabel the forest later. Shadowed Emerald Forest was a terrible name. Maybe she'd just name it Eseth's Forest or something. Unfortunately, that constituted a complete lack of imagination.

She sighed and moved on, trudging through the forest, map in hand. She checked the map every so often, making notes of streams and ponds. She noticed that as she walked on, the forest seemed to get narrower and narrower. Eseth supposed it was the structure of the island. The farther east you got, the narrower the island got.

Every so often she stopped for a break, knowing that she couldn't walk forever. Eventually, she saw the sea. It was a silvery strip that shone between the trees, and she stared incredulously at it. She couldn't possibly have walked across the entire island in a few hours!

According to the map, she had. Right now she was at Soul's End, a place that eventually tapered down to a point a few feet across. Eseth walked a little farther, and the trees began to thin somewhat. The forest took up most of the island, and she and Kaza had somehow landed on one of its borders. The rest of the island was taken up with plains and beaches, though there was nothing on the map that suggested inhabitants.

The possibility that no one inhabited this island was unlikely, but it was possible.

Just then, she heard a leaf rustle slightly. She jumped and turned at the sound, just in time see to a miniature, slim, blue figure dart into the wide leaves of a shrub.

Eseth sighed. Fairies. Just what she needed. She scowled at the hidden creatures and moved on. Maybe she and Kaza should start a notebook about this place and all its oddities.

She trudged on, wincing as the fairies giggled shrilly pulled at her hair. Eseth made no attempt to swat them away, as they were ridiculously fast and had sharp teeth.

I'd better get back to Kaza, thought Eseth Just to make sure she doesn't try any more magic, because she'll probably be awake by now.

She hiked quickly back acrooss the island until she got to the clearing where they were staying. When she returned, Kaza was sitting up, sleepily rummaging through her bag. She saw Eseth and asked, "Where you been?" in a drowsy sort of way. "Exploring the island." Eseth replied, "I've concluded that there are annoying fairies here, there are no caves and that we should so rename this forest."

Kaza laughed and said, "I'll get right on it."

Eseth asked "What are looking for?" as Kaza rifled through the bag some more. "Well, I know I've got a boom or something in here somewhere," she said, "I can't just sit around sleeping all day, now can I?"

Just then they heard the unmistakable sound of soft footsteps in the forest behind them. Both started and turned swiftly towards the sound, regardless of fatigue.

The footsteps passed them by, and faded in the distance. Kaza shivered and said, "Well, now we know there's people here."

"Or monkeys..." Eseth mumbled, even though she was pretty sure it was a person of some sort.

Kaza glanced at her. "Monkeys?" she asked. "Why monkeys?"

"I don't know...I just like monkeys."

"You're crazy." said Kaza, though she was grinning.

"Well at least I didn't stay in bed half the day," retorted Eseth.

"By the way, did you find any better shelter than here?" asked Kaza curiously.

"No. Of course, it would have been nice if we'd brought tents."

"Oh, didn't I tell you? Isobel gave me a canvas for a tent. I don't know where she got it. She gave it to me when you were hunting for something, I think. It's in my bag."

"Well, get it out. Anything is better than sleeping in the open like this."

Kaza frowned. "You get it out," she said, tossing the bag to Eseth, but having it fall pitifully short. "I'm bedridden."

Eseth rolled her eyes but consented and opened the bag to find a tan colored canvas folded neatly inside.
"Well, here it is,"said Eseth, "But how do we set it up? I mean, we don't have tent-pegs or anything."

Kaza frowned for a moment then said "You could find a place you could drape it over. I don't know what'd keep us from getting wet, though."

"Good enough." replied Eseth, who was now walking round trying to find a place to drape it over so at the very least they'd have a moderate shelter.

"Maybe, in a few days, I could make a better shelter...sometimes you can manipulate trees with water magic." said Kaza.

"Don't worry about it now, you need your rest." said Eseth gruffly. "If I have to take care of you for another week, I will be very upset."

Kaza smiled at her friend and dozed off again. It took Eseth at least an hour to get the canvas adjusted so it could actually be considered a tent.

Eseth shook Kaza gently awake, and said "I'm gonna move you under the tree." in response to Kaza'a sleepy question.

She picked up Kaza's light, somewhat fragile body, and moved her under the canvas. Eseth took all of their supplies and moved it under the canvas, taking extra blankets and making a makeshift floor with them.

Eseth fiddled with their shelter for a while more, but when the light began to dim as the sun set, she decided to stop. She lay down next to the still-asleep Kaza, and attempted to sleep herself.

She was asleep almost as soon as she lay down.

END