Tirka Erotavlas's Story

Tirka opened her eyes, her vision blurry. She dimly remembered her head smashing against something, smashing her glasses. Damn. She opened her eyes fully, and tried to sit up, putting both hands against the ground and pushing, but a bolt of pain shot through her left arm, and she fell back to the ground. She tried again, with her right hand, and managed, but barely. She held her left arm close to her body, and looked around. Green. In the distance, she could hear the slap of waves against the shore. "No way," she muttered "Let me guess, we're trapped on a remote island" She laughed bitterly, and stood up. She saw her satchel, hanging on a branch, and carefully picked her way throught the broken branches and foilage towards it. She reached up to grab it, but her fingers just fell short of one of the handles. She decided not to risk further injury to her arm by jumping up, and checked her pockets for something useful. She found her spare glasses, and put them on. She blinked twice, then looked up at her satchel again. giving up, she grabbed a thick branch and started beating her satchel reapeatedly, until it fell. She grabbed it up, and breathed a sigh of relief seeing her books weren't too beaten. She could give up on the laptop, though. She pulled it out, and almost cried as she threw it away. She put her satchel on her back, and made her way through the forest, heading towards the sound of the ocean, and listening for signs of her classmates.

back

hello?

(sorry about the last two posts!)
The sky was dark, and the stars were out by the time Tirka stumbled and fell onto the edge of the beach, too tired to even wipe the sand out of her face. In the distance she saw the flicker of a campfire. She cried out, "Help!" and then her eyes fluttered shut, and she gave way to sleep

-the next day-
Tirka woke up, groaning, and opened her eyes. Big mistake. sand flew into her eyes, and she sat bolt upright, swearing. Once the sand had been cleared, she looked around. There was no sign of a campfire, or of any of her classmates. She stood up, groaning, her arm less sore, the sharp pains reduced to a dull throb now. She tore a strip of cloth off the bottom of her shirt, and used it as a sling. She took one lastlook over the beach, and walked into the forest.

-that evening-
Tirka had been walking all day, and still hadn't seen any sign of anyone else. "The days here kinda seem longer than the days....." she mused quietly to herself "does that mean we're close to the Equator? Hmmmm..." She lit a torch, as a signal for anyone, lay down, and watched the stars.

Tirka woke up suddenly, and sat bolt upright. She was sure she heard some voices....... The torch was out, and it seemed darker. Damn, she must've fell asleep. She looked to her right, and saw her bag, and something wriggled in it. Her eyes widened, and she slowly pulled the flap up, and a little shrewlike thing peered at her. She cautiously moved her hand into the satchel, and picked up the clingfilmed blob the shrew thing had been clawing at. "Oh. My sandwich. That's good." she unwrapped it, and was about to take a bite, when she saw the mouse peering at her, it's tiny dark eyes almost pleading. She looked at it, sighed, and split the sandwich in half. "Enjoy, Shorty" she smiled weakly, and bit into her half, finishing it in three bites. She stood up, rabbed her satchel, fished the mouse out, getting bitten a fair bit in the process, and started walking through the woods, calling out constantly, "hello?" and singing a few Irish and french songs as she went, mixed with a little Bon Jovi.

Max looked at Diana and Saphire. They, along with himself, seemed extremely dehydrated. They needed something to drink and soon. A person could only last a matter of time without water, and their time was running out. "Hey, I'm going to go get some water," said Max. "I'll find something to carry it in." He walked off from the camp and headed in to the woods silently, watching movement all around him, waiting for something to jump out.

As he walked deeper in to the woods, he began to hear faint singing from close by. At first he thought it might be a sound from the mysterious man, but then could see a female silouhette about ten yards away. She was singing quietly to herself and calling for anyone around. "Hey!" He ran to her direction and stopped once he reached her. "Hi, I'm Max, another survivor of the crash." He waited for her to reply, but then decided to just say, "We have shelter back on the beach. I'm with two others. You're welcome to join us."

Tirka was close to giving up, when she heard a shout from behind her. She span around, A guy had found her! "Hi, I'm Max, another survivor of the crash, we have shelter back on the beach. I'm with two others. You're welcome to join us.", he said. She relaxed, and smiles slightly at him "I'm Tirka. umm, just a sec, i have to get a few things..." She doubled back for a few metres, reached into a hollow tree, and pulled out three large pear shaped fruit things about the size of her head. She jogged back to him, and said "I found a treeful of these an hour ago." she held them up triumphantly "Lagenaria siceraria. or the Cucuzzi gourd. Extremely useful you can make them into pots, bottle, flasks, bowls, everything!" She put two of them into her satchel, and tucked the third under one arm. She adjusted her glasses, and looked up at Max."So um, shelter?"

((Muahaha, she is already extremely useful, Team Max ftw))

Max stared at the gourds, and listened to what she said. He didn't understand some of the things she said, since many of the words had more that three syllables. But he did hear her say that you could make them into bottles and pots. "Wow, I already like you alot," he said. He was already thinking about getting back to camp and hollowing them out to fill with water for everyone. "You don't know how much I needed something to keep water in. We've been trying to find a way to transport water to out shelter."

"So um, shelter," she said to him. Max looked up from the large gourds. "Uh, ya," he said. "Follow me, Tirka you said, that's a cool name." Max walked back torwards camp. He couldn't wait to hollow the fruit out. When they reached the camp, he saw Diana but not Saphire. "Hey, this is Tirka, Tirka, this is Diana." Max looked around but couldn't find Saphire anywhere. "Diana, where's Saphire," he asked.

Tirka smiled nervously at Diana, and turns to Max, and murmurs "I'm not useful, I just read a lot.....Ummm, is that Stephanie?" She pointed out to a figure running towards them. While they looked at the figure, Tirka knelt down, her arm barely hurting now, and pull the other two gourds out of her satchel, along with twelve books, a disposable camera, and a sketchpad. She would lay them out on the sand, and stand back up again.

Saphire saw another girl and Max. She kept running near them. She stopped and looked at the girl. Her hand raised up. "Hi!" She said smiling. She was in a good mood, despite her night. She looked at Max. "I found shell fish!" She said looking at him. She walked past him and near the shelter where she left her shoes. She scrambled them on before walking back over to them. She looked at what the girl had. It was a satchel that had two buldges in it. "Whats in there?" She pointed towards the satchel.

He smiles meekly at the new girl, and said quietly "You must be stephanie. My name is Tirka" she crouched down, and starting taking several textbooks outta her satchel, muttering each one's title in turn, "The Complete Volume of Italian Plants and Fruit, Jameson's Guide to Survival, Speaking Italian, Latin for Beginners, Rustic Cooking, Latin for Intermediate Learners, History of Italy Vol 1, Survival for Idiots, Simple Survival, Famous Italians through the Ages,Healing and Mending : A Simple Guide to Herbs and Italy: Mob Country or Culture Capital? jeez, remind me never to let my Anna pack my book bag again....." Tirka reached back inside her bag, and pulled out two gourds, and laid them next to the third one on the sand "Max? Can you put them in water? It softens the skin, making them easier to cut" Pulls out a sketchpad and a camera "jeez louise, Anna, we both know i can't draw!"
Stands up straight again, and looks at Max, Diana and Stephanie "Ummmm, did you guys hear that?" blushes, and puts all her books in her back again.

Picks up one of the fruit, and takes out a large penknife, about the length of my hand, folded. Cuts a hole in the narrower top of the gourd, and reaches for the string of rough crystals around my neck. undoes it, and drops all the crystals into the gourd. Starts shaking the gourd really hard, the crystals banging around inside it, rattling and banging. Keeps shaking the gourd for a while, occaisionally peering into the hole and shaking her head, then resuming the shaking

Day 2: 11:14 AM: Beach

"Mmm, shellfish," said Max. "Well we know what's for dinner tonight." said Max, licking his lips, thinking of oysters, crawfish, and clams. Whatever it was, he liked all kinds. "Actually, do you want to hollow out the gourds, Terka," asked Max. "I don't really know how to do it properly. I'll go fill them up when you're done," he said. "I'm going to go for a swim, maybe check out the wreckage and see if anything survived the crash." Max started to walk over to the rocks. When he finally reached them, he walked up to the the very end and looked down into the the clear water. He could see to the bottom floor of the ocean, so he knew there weren't any rocks or plane parts. He dove in and felt the water cover his burnt skin. It felt great, as if he was washing off the burns with the warm salt water.

He swam around and then finally decided to check out the plane. Luckily there was an easy way to get in. The plane had crashed next to the rocks, and the water only went about four feet deep, and he could see an opening into the largest part of the plane. He readied himself to see the unimaginable sight he was about to experience, and crawled under the plane and inside.

((Btw, Angelika, her name is Saphire, not Stephanie, just so ya know :) ))

She lloked at Max's burns, and yelled out across the sea "Max, c'mere, i think i know what'll help them permanently, so you dont have to go mermaid on us! *finishes hollowing out the gourds, by tipping all the crystals and the flesh (edible, btw) through the hole and onto a largish leaf. Looks out to see Max still swimming, rolls her eyes, takes off her top and jeans, and dives in after him

When Saphire heard he was going to check out the plane, she grew quiet. She ran towards the shore and thought for a moment. Should she asked if Sam was in there? What if she was? What if Sam was dead? Would it be all her fault for not holding onto her arm while the plane was going down? She crouched down, deciding to stay quiet for now, not wanting to find out yet, even though the guilt was killing her. Obivously, there where tons and tons of survivors, maybe Sam was one of them... though Saphire didn't know much about if there is really any survivors. She got up, deciding to take a small walk into the woods for something to carry the shell fish and some fruits.
She walked through the forest, grabbing big leaves. She couldn't stop thinking of it much, her mind was blocked by it. Sam had short boyish blonde hair, blue eye and was taller but more muscular than Saphire. She had on a blue shirt and some capris. Saphire grabbed some rocks, big ones, sharp ones, small ones, dull ones, all kinds. Not to mention some woods for the fire. She walked back to the camp, her arms full as she looked at Tirka. "Im going to get the shell fish." She said smiling as she dropped most of the stuff exept a sharp rock and a giant leaf, knowing that it won't hold the shell fish for much long. Thats when she looked back at Tirka who was now in her underwhere diving into the sea after Max. "NAH!" Was the only thing she could force out of her mouth. Saphire would never had done that. She was shocked to see it and quickly turned and ran up the hill acting like it was nothing.

Diana smiled " it's nice to meet you Hallie " Diana said as she lead her up to the camp where Max Saphire and another girl stood. Diana handed max the water and nodded at Hallie " Max,Saphire this is Hallie,Hallie this is Max and Saphire...and your..? " Diana looked at Tirka (( I was not there when Max brought her ))
Diana pointed to the water she had handed to Max in the wood carved bowl and said "I found some clean water and so..i thought i would bring some..we can drink it or use it to clean wounds. which ever works best. "

*grabs Max's hand "come with me" and swims back to the beach, tugging him along with every powerful kick of her legs. Walks back onto the beach, and sits him down. "I'll be right back.......aha!" takes a spiny green stem out of her satchel, and snaps it in half, and clear gelly stuff oozes out "Give me the burns"

Smiles at Hallie "Relax. I know how to make rope from wood. Can you read? And, I'd rather you didn't just me just yet.... I'm Tirka.

Diana turned to Hallie and said " i'll be right back! " before turning around and running out into the water. Diana stripped down to her underwear but left her tank top on and swam out to Max and Tirka " hey what are you guys looking for? you know they mid have a..first..aid-kit..in..there..." Diana said staring up at the plan that had almost got her killed. shaking her head Diana followed Max into the plane the only thing she could do is stare at the inside of the plane unsure of what to say..really she was waiting for one of the others to say something first.