The water was rough, cold, and wild. It pushed them around like a hurricane, threatening to break the wee boat apart, but the island was right there. If they could just get to the island...

The little boat had two occupants, a boy and a girl, both drenched from the rain. The girl looked miserable but unharmed, but the boy had an arrow in his right leg

The girl had drenched brown hair, so wet it looked black. She had blue eyes, similar colour to that of the ocean on a calm day. She was tall, and the only muscles she had were ones she'd developed over the harsh, lonely years bestowed upon her.

The boy had blonde hair and dark forest green eyes, he wasn't as muscular or tall as a normal person, he was a bit thinner and a few inches shorter, but years on the ocean had hardened his muscles and taught him many things.

"I don't think this piece of junk is gonna last much longer." said the boy.

"It was your idea to jump on this piece of junk." The girl replied.

"The ship wasn't gonna last much longer, especially with most of the crew dead and the number of holes in the hull."

"Yeah, good point. I don't want my last breath to be anywhere near that ship."

"I know one thing, this freaking arrow hurts." gesturing toward the arrow in his right leg.

"The sea spray wouldn't be helping much, but you could at least pull it out." She points to it.

"If I pull it out, and it cuts something important, I bleed out. I'm waiting till we get to that stupid island."

"Alright, suit yourself. Just don't come crying to me if it gets infected, or something."

"I just need a fire and a knife, You still got that knife you stole from the captain right?"

"Of course, it's not like I was going to throw it away."

"Just make sure we wash the guys guts off it."

"Nah, I was gonna cook and eat 'em." she gives a deadpan look, flinging the disgusting stuff into the ocean.

"I'm gonna die to this woman." he mutters under his breath.

"There, keep it on you, in case you decide to end your suffering early." she jokes, tossing it over.

Dusty catches the knife and puts it in his belt.

"I think the boat might actually hold together." he says, pulling the ropes holding the boat together tighter.

"Yeah, if we're lucky."

Lightning cracks overhead, illuminating something in front of them.

"Watch out!"

"For the love of!"

Dusty slammed the rudder as far over as he could, but they couldn't avoid the rock.

Wood splitting could be heard as they collided, the force throwing them off balance, and splitting the boat in two.

"Oh come on!" Thyra yells at the sky's above, just before she's launched into the water.

Dusty clings onto the rock as his leg laced with pain from the arrow wound.

"Thyra! You alright?" he yells over the wind.

"Yeah," she replies, latching onto a bit of floating debris. "You?"

"Could be better!" He yelled back, "How far to the island?"

Thyra squints against the weather, making out the shape. "Well it's not far, but it certainly isn't close! It might take us an hour of swimming, at the least."

"Longer for me since my leg is shot up!" He yelled back

"Well, we can't stay here, we'll die!" she shouts over the water, trying to keep afloat. "I hope you can swim!"

"Can you?" he yelled back

"Thankfully!" she replies.

"Listen! Swim over to me!" He yelled over the wind

She takes a second to judge the distance, before pushing off against the debris, and swimming over to Dusty at the rock. She grabs on.

Dusty pulls her into a small dip in the rock

"Listen, The storm isn't gonna last much longer, if we try to make it to the island, we'll exhaust ourselves and drown. We gotta wait till the storm dies down, alright?"

"Alright. That's true," She studies the weather around them. "I just hope nothing tries to hunt us. Do you still have the knife?"

"No, I dropped it."

"Well then we'll have to make do, I guess."

Dusty pulls the knife out of his belt

"Oh, I forgot I put it there."

"You little..."

Thyra punches Dusty on his shoulder.

"What's with you and punching?"

"It's how I voice my displeasure." she replies smugly.

"Well at least choose my other shoulder at some point." he asked rubbing his right shoulder.

Thyra pauses to think. "Nah!" She punches him again, lighter this time.

"At this rate I'm gonna have another dislocated shoulder, I don't want to deal with that again."

"Yeah, then you'd really be screwed."

Dusty looked out at the storm, as it slowly started to lighten up.

"We might be getting a break here."

"I think the world owes us that."

"It owes us a whole lot more than that. Now when I say go, swim like there's a pack of changewings chasing you."

"Alright." Thyra agrees, steadying herself against the rock and eying the island.

Dusty kept his eyes on the sky, "Ready?"

"Yeah, hurry up before we freeze to death!"

"Go!" Dusty and Thyra push off the rock and swim toward the island, as the weather started to worsen again. They push against the water as much as they can, knowing if they can just get to the island, they'll be somewhat safe. Dusty kept wincing in pain as he strained his wound. The wind started picking up again as they were halfway to the island, the waves increased in height, and swimming became even more tiring. There was no turning back now, they just had to hope they had enough energy to get them to the island, or they would drown in the middle of the ocean. They kept pushing and pushing, desperately trying to make it. Just as they thought they weren't going to make it, a piece of wood from the lifeboat they took floated by, they both grabbed onto it to stay afloat.

"The current might take us in!" Thyra shouted over the wind.

"Could you yell any louder? I'm not deaf yet! I'm right next to you!" He yelled back.

"No, but I could try!" She yells teasingly, turning to eye the island.

"And the current should take us in. Less there's a rip current." Dusty yelled back

"Well, we will just have to hope there isn't one, then." Thyra exclaims, quieter this time.

"See, I knew you could be quieter." he says back

"Haha, congratulations on your discovery." She sarcastically exclaims, drawing her hands back to clap a few times, before hanging on again.

"Now when did you become the queen of sarcasm? I would have attended the crowning ceremony." Dusty says sarcastically while giving what little of a bow he could.

"There wasn't one, I don't need to be crowned to be the queen. Everyone already knows!" she jokes.

"Now I know why the Romans took you, they didn't have enough sarcasm in their empire." Dusty says jokingly.

"Yeah, that's why." She laughs, rolling her eyes. "Well, now they don't know what they're missing out on."

"And now I have to put up with ya, lucky me." he says with a bit of annoyance.

"Yep, lucky you!" She laughs.

"What the?"

Dusty looks down to see sand below them, and looks up to see that they are a few feet from the beach.

"Thyra, we made it."

"Finally!" she cheers, falling onto the sand below them gratefully. "What did I tell you?" She smirks at Dusty.

"Um, could you help me here? Arrow, leg, am I ringing a bell?" He says with a small smile on his face.

She playfully rolls her eyes but wrenches him along with her, keeping them both stumbling until they are well out of the water.

"Alright, just set me down here." Thyra set Dusty down next to a tree,"Now, just find some wood for a fire, and see if you can find any flint, ok?"

"Alright," she goes to run off, but pasues. "And don't die, or I'll resort to eating your corpse!" she jokes, taking off into the underbrush before he can say a word.