Shipwrecked

You drift ashore onto a beach on nothing but a piece of driftwood. You have a splitting headache and are unsure of what just happened. Looking around, you see nothing but a vast ocean and a beach that seems to go on for miles. You pull yourself up onto your feet and walk around, looking for any clue of where you are.  To no avail, it seems you are stranded so you must take action.

You push into the jungle, striding through the brush until you stumble across a path. Although it does not appear to be a man made path, it seems that creatures have created it through walking over time. You continue through the path, ducking under leaves and vines. After twenty minutes of walking you stumble across a totem like object on the ground. It is a combination of stone, wood, and a twine like object. It appears to be a ape-like creature.

You pick up the totem and start to inspect it. It seems to be a normal doll-like object except for its green gemstone eyes. You feel an urge to stare into them….

The eyes start to glow but you shake your head around to break your gaze with it and refocus. Even though you broke your gaze, you feel it pulling on you. You can’t help but succumb to it.

As you realign your gaze into the gemstone eyes, they start glowing once again. A flash of white blinds your eyes and your eyes start to glow the same as the totems. Your vision blurs from white and you see a quick flash of a family on a boat, one by one being thrown off into the ocean due to the boat seemingly exploding on the side. This vision is interrupted by another image of a volcano erupting and throwing gigantic molten rocks and ash into the atmosphere.

You flash back into reality and the glowing eyes fade away. Your memory starts to come back to you after seeing the visions.  Your memory starts to come back in pieces.  That family you saw being thrown off the boat was your own.

You continue across the path until you reach a clearing where the jungle trees fade. You look off into the distance and see an incredibly large mountain. It is pitch black like it is made of obsidian at the top and the bottom seems to be swallowed by the thick jungle forest.

The flash of the volcano bursts into your vision again and you quickly realize this is the same volcano. You brush it off as a coincidence and keep walking.

You continue for another twenty minutes deeper into the jungle until the ground starts to rumble. You brace yourself to a nearby tree but the rumbling stops after a brief moment. You stay still for a few moments to listen for more rumbles but nothing happens. With no luck with listening you continue on the pathway once again.

After walking for what seems like hours, you come across another clearing. This time, reaching a small lake with a village surrounding it. You shake your head to try and clear the vision you appear to be having but the image stays. There really is a village that appears to be quite advanced for living on a deserted island. You see people in nomadic type robes walking around, laughing, chatting, carrying their food and materials around between houses. You lock eyes with a village woman off in the distance. Her face turns white when she realizes what she is looking at.

You become concerned and start to run back to where you came but you are quickly pushed to the ground. You land face first into the dirt and when you pick yourself back up you are surrounded by villagers, all pointing their palms at you. You are concerned but also curious. You start to pick yourself back up to a standing position until one of the villagers crystal stone bracelets starts to glow a similar green to the totem’s eyes. You are entranced until the villager’s hand also starts to glow and you are blasted by a flash of light, knocked down to your feet once again.

You start yelling and pleading to not be hurt but they seem to not understand you. Out of desperation you reach into your pocket and pull out the totem. The villagers are startled, all backing up cautiously. There is a flash of its eyes once again and you feel a burning sensation in your chest. After the burn fades one of the villagers say

“This strange man has one of our relics, get the chieftain, hurry!”

In a strange language he say back

“I’m sorry I didn’t know this was yours, I found it in the jungle, I am stranded here.”

You quickly realize what you just did. You spoke in their language without knowing it. You look at the totem once again and its eyes fade away once again.

A middle aged man, fit, dressed up in lots of beads, gems, with an exotic purple robe quickly approaches you by pushing away the village warriors who are in the way.

“Come with me boy” the man says as he grabs your hand and helps you to your feet.

You follow the man into the heart of the village where he shows you all about it and its people. They are a centuries old tribe who has lived here undisturbed from society. He shows you how peaceful and thriving their civilization is. He brings you all around showing you the women and children playing pretend and with balls, the schools where the children are taught, the farms, and the houses. You are blown away by how advanced this untouched civilization is. You ask him how this is all possible.

“You are the first outsider who has been let into our village. This is usually strictly forbidden, but you have shown you are special. Follow me.” The chief says.

He brings you down into a small pathway where no other villagers are. You follow him for ten minutes down this path until you reach the mouth of a cave. The two of you walk inside where two fully armed guards await. They look weary of you but they let you pass with the chieftain. As you go deeper into the cave, the walls lit by strange, green glowing gems, you come to a dark end. You get a glimpse of two small glowing orbs in the shadows.

“What is it?” you say.

“This is your source of energy, fuel, and power. This is how we are able to thrive.” The chief replies.

“UP!” The chief yells into the cave.

The two glowing orbs slowly start to rise and as the shadows start to fade away, you see a large ape like creature with glowing green eyes chained to the cave walls. You recognize this creature immediately to be the same ape from the totem you have. The chief explains to you how long ago the villagers found this magical creature in this cave. They fought for many years over the land. After many years of fighting they were finally able to over power the creature. However, instead of killing it, the priests were able to harness his magical abilities and use them to advance their civilization.

You recall the glowing crystal bands the warriors had on and the glowing crystal eyes the totem has. You stare into the creatures eyes and you feel a sense of hatred as he fought and killed so many of the kind villagers. However, as your gaze parts you feel a sense of sadness a hurt for this creature.

The chieftain takes you from the cave and gives you a place to stay for the night. On your way back to the center of the village you tell the chief how you became stuck here. Your family was killed in an accident out on the ocean and you drifted for miles. The chieftain mentions how he sensed a great storm brewing.

As you reach your hut to stay in, the chief says how sorry he is about your spouse and your two daughters being killed and wishes you a good night’s rest. You lay down on the mat and start to drift asleep until you realize that you never told the chief any specifics about your family. How did he know that you had a spouse and two daughters. You believe you may just be paranoid and it may have slipped out as you are extremely tired. As you close your eyes again you feel the calling of the totem once more. You reach into your pocket and pull it out, eyes already glowing.

You can’t help but gaze into them, almost like you are being forced this time. You see the same vision of the boat wreck, but much clearer. As the card game your daughters were playing is coming to an end the ship explodes, the same as the last time he saw it. However, the explosion is caused by a green flash of light. The same type as when the villager blasted him with.

The vision abruptly stops and reality sets back in. You are drenched in sweat, realizing what had truly happened. It was the villagers who had attacked you and destroyed your boat. They were trying to keep anyone away from the island and away from the creature. You get up, and creep out of your hut making your way back to the cave.

As you approach the entrance with the two guards you are unsure of how to get past. Yet the totem glows within your coat pocket and you pull it out. You stare into its eyes and your vision is obscured by a flash of green light. Within a split second you are standing over the unconscious bodies of the guards and you are already inside the entrance of the cave.

You make your way deeper and deeper until you reach the chained creature. You say to it

“You called me here didn’t you? You are controlling this totem. You wanted me to find you.”

In a deep and thunderous voice the creatures mutters:

“Yes I did, what these people have done to this island, to me, I can’t take it anymore. They have destroyed my home, the other animals’ homes and they are now extorting my power for their own good. They don’t even realize the consequences of using this much power.”

“The volcano…” you reply.

“Yes, in the coming days the volcano is set to erupt. All of the energy they have been tapping into through me has upset the balance of this island and the volcano erupting will cleanse it. The only way to stop it from happening is to free me and put an end to their abuse.” The creatures explain.

You reach to the totem to use it to break the chains. As you are about to pull it out many guards break into the room alongside the chief. He explains to you how the creature is manipulating you into doing its bidding and breaking itself free. You are unsure who to believe as the villagers have only shown kindness to you.

A vision flashes into your head of the villagers using their crystals and power to destroy your boat and follow you on your trek through the jungle. They only backed off once they saw you pick up the totem.

Before they can say anything else you grab the totem and aim it at the chains, breaking them off and setting the ape free. He leaps up and starts attacking the villagers. One by one throwing them around and pushing past them. The chief aims his hand as the ape and flashes at it, blinding him. The ape pushes through and grabs the chief and picks him up by the arm. He is about to crush him until the chief starts chanting.

The ape slowing starts to fall and is in great anguish, writhing on the floor. He looks back at you, his glowing eyes starting to fade. You act quickly and let the totem take you over. You have allowed the creature to take you over and use his power completely from within you. You feel him tug and your limbs and control you, moving over to the chief who is deep in chant. With incredible strength you pick him up with one arm and toss him deep into the cave. You clamber over to him, still possessed and you attach the chains to his unconscious body. As you finish, your vision fades and you feel control coming back over you.

The ape rises to his feet and thanks you for freeing him and putting a stop to the chieftains’ abuse of nature. You tell him that it was only the right thing to do, but you are now hopeless as you are still stranded here. Without hesitation, the ape puts his hand over yours that is clutching the totem. Another flash overcomes your vision and when it returns you are back onto the beach.

You look around and see a small boat on the shore. The creature tells you the boat was from the village and that there is still hope out there for you.

“What do you mean?” you say.

The ape explains that he can sense your family still alive. He hands you the totem.

“Once you leave this island, the power I share with this totem will be broken. But before you go, follow the direction it points and you may just find your family.” The creature says.

You take the totem and the eyes start to glow once pointed out into the sea. You climb into the boat, start the engine, and begin to sail out following the totem. You look back to the beach and see nothing but the beach and jungle.