Anywhere can be home (M/M)

The man shocked me when he sat down in the sand and crossed his legs, setting his spear down and warming up his hands. I finally found the courage to speak.

”Hello. ”

He looked up at me, his eyes scanning me in the darkness.

”You speak English? ”

I nodded fastly.

”Yes! ”

”How long have you been here? How did you get here? ” He asked.

”A few days, I think. I woke up on the beach, and my plane crashed. ”

He nodded, looking around at all the things in the sand. He spotted the mushrooms by him and used his spear end to flick them in the fire.

”Hey! I was going to eat those! ”

”You would be dead. ”

I settled back down; He saved my life. He stood up and started kicking sand into my fire. Casting us both in the darkness. I was in so much shock by his action, I could only try to look at him in the dark, wanting to cry.

”Come along. ” He said.

”Along with you? ”

”Yes. ”

”Into the jungle in the dark? ”

”Yes. ”

”No, thank you. I will die in there! ”

”You will die out here. ”

He grabbed my hand suddenly, dragging me behind him into the jungle. He didn let me go, even when I struggled with him to get free.

”Let me go! ”

”No, and be quiet. Youll wake the others. ”

”Others? ”

”Yes, the other people who are sleeping. ”

”You lie! ”

”I do not! ” He snapped angrily, pulling me behind him even rougher now.

I didn say another word and even ask where we were going. He pulled me through the darkness. I wasn sure how I had missed the other people. His hands were chilly on my skin and thought about the gloves in the suitcase. They might be useful to him.

He pulled me through an opening in the trees and in the dark I could see it was some kind of fence or barrier separating the inside of the place from the jungle. From what I could see in the dark, there were huts. They looked to be made out of dirt, mud, and rocks. So thats where all the rocks went.

There was a large fire in the centre of the village, if thats what you called this place, and I tried to get a good look as he yanked me through the soft mud of the ground. He made it nearly impossible to look around, and even then I really couldn because it was dark.

He pulled me to a hut and pushed the fabric covering the door away with the end of his spear. I didn understand even in the slightest what he was doing with me. He had pulled me all the way from the beach to this hut for what reason?

He set his spear down against the stone and mud wall of the hut. It was larger on the inside than it looked. There was a fire pit built right into the wall and the smoke went out of a hole in the top. The rest of the space had all kinds of strange odds and ends. There was a pile of furs and cloth against the farthest wall. He wandered to the pile and moved it around until he had the thing stretched out enough he could fold it in half. He brought the bottom over the top of it and made what I would describe as a fur sleeping bag.

”Go to sleep. Ill be back shortly. Then we can see the chief. ”

I said nothing as he grabbed his spear again and headed out of the hut. My brain told me to run, run away now before they ate me or something, and honestly, it seemed like a really reasonable idea. But there was a problem with that. I had no shoes, my flip-flops were back at the fire and I was beyond exhausted.

The man seemed to speak proper English, but he hadn even given me a single hint of an explanation for why I was here. If they were going to kill me, I could have started alone on the beach. Yet here I was, wondering why he wanted me to sleep in his pile of fur. If I was going to die, well, at the very least, I could be well-rested.

Dragging myself to the furs, I sat down before laying down. I expected the furs to have a disgusting smell, but they didn . They didn have a smell at all. The fur felt strange to my bare toes, but it was so far softer than the leaves.

I would not fall asleep though, I shouldn in case he tried to kill me.

Birds chirping woke me up. I sat right up and looked for him, but he wasn around. His spear was against the wall where it had been last night when we entered the hut. The light from the fire kept the hut pretty light. There also seemed to be a spot with another cloth over it that was opened to let some more light in.

The furs had kept me nice and warm. I felt bad though, that man hadn slept, and that was probably because I had stolen his bed. Sitting there still, I listened to the sounds outside the hut, and though they were muffled, I could hear people speaking English. I don know if the fact that they spoke English was the most shocking part of this whole thing. My stomach growled angrily as I sat there. Looking around the hut again, I realised there were a couple of clay pots over by the fire. They had clay pots; they made clay pots.

The hut got colder, abruptly making me shiver, and I looked up. He stood in the doorway with something in his hands; I didn know what it was, but I could smell the savoury scent coming off of it.

”I figured you would be hungry, but I wasn sure if you would be awake yet. ”

My stomach growled in response and he came closer, holding a folded up leaf in his hand. I wrinkled my nose at the sight of the leaf. Did he want me to eat the leaf?

”Stick out your hands, but be careful. It is still warm. ”

I stuck out my hands, but he frowned at the sight of them. Looking down, my hands were filthy. I had mud caked under my fingernails and a brown tint to them. He set the bundle on a small clay table that had legs made from sticks. Walking softly to the fire, he grabbed one of the clay pots. Sticking his hand right down in the pot, he pulled out a scrap of what looked to be a towel. He sat down on the floor and grabbed one of my hands and scrubbed it, making sure it was clean before doing the same with the other one.

He moved to get the bindle off the table and he handed it to me now that my hands were clean. I inspected the bundle, lifting the flap of the leaf. Inside, it looked like rice and shreds of meat. It had been compressed, so it was easier to eat. But I was still unsure how.

”Fold the seaweed back. It will go cold and be messy if you pick it apart. ”

I folded the seaweed back and bit down into the bundle. It was good. You could taste that they sweetened it with something. The meat was tender, and it filled my belly as I barely chewed it, just rushing to swallow it all down. He grabbed a different shaped pot and a clay bowl, and he poured some water into it. He held out the clay bowl to me.

”Drink, ”

I carefully took the bowl and swallowed it down until I had to stop drinking to breathe. He poured me a little more, and I brought it to my lips again, swallowing it down.

”Thank you. ”

He looked a little taken aback that I thanked him.

”Come now, we need to visit the Chief. I told her of your arrival last night. She is excited to meet you. ”

”Wait! ”

He stopped getting up off the ground and looked at me.

”Your name? What is your name? ”

”My name? ”

”Yes, Mine is Alder. ”

I swore I saw him smile just slightly as he spoke.

”Wilder. ”

”Wilder. ”

He nodded.

”Thank you, Wilder. ”

He nodded again.

”I was going to eat those mushrooms last night. I thought about it several times. ”

”You would have died. ”

”I figured that. I really did. ”

”Then why? ”

”I thought I was alone here, to starve to death. Why not? ”

He hummed, before getting up fully and looking at me.

”Lets go. ”

Getting out of the furs, the air was chillier than it had been before, and I wasn sure why? We were further on land than before. Sticking my hands in the pockets of the sweater, Wilder led me out of the hut and back closer to the fire, to another hut, this one even larger than his.

Inside, two women talked peacefully to each other, hands together. They looked at each other with the love you could see in their eyes. That look passed onto Wilder when they saw him. I looked down, not because I felt like it was wrong, but because it seemed like such an intimate moment.

”This is him? ”

”Yes, the one I found on the beach last night. ”

”Bring him closer. ”

My stomach dropped, and I tried to back up out of fear, but I found I couldn . Wilders hand was on my back, and he was pushing me closer. The woman who had been the one to speak got closer and her arms opened. She wrapped me in them and hugged me. Even though I panicked, she didn let go of me until I calmed down.

”Have you let it all out now? ”

I nodded. And she let me go. I felt awkward, but more comfortable now.

”I know how hard it is to survive something so scary. I was just like you many years ago. I sure hope Wilder has been nothing but kind. Though he is of my body, he isn always the gentlest man. ”

Looking at them, you could see all the same traits that they shared after she pointed it out, the same hair colour and texture, and almost the same eyes, but his far more silver than hers.