Stranded

Chapter 8

"This will take all of today and most of tomorrow. I'm sorry, Sam. But hey, you and I can have some fun right?"

Yeah, Mom. Just what I wanted. Of course I was happy to be with my mother, but I didn't like the way she treated Max. Maybe she was just angry at him then, maybe they are on good terms now. That's all I could hope for.

~~~

Mom and I had our day planned out in under 10 minutes. Since I already had a grand tour of the island, Mom decided to show me a secret spot that only she knew about.

"I haven't shown anyone this place, not even my top troops. I was saving to share it with someone special," Mom said, smiling at me as we walked along a trail that was behind her house.

We walked on for about an hour or so, catching up on what happened in the lost years. Mom told me how she found the Island and kind of adopted it, promising to take care of it. She built her house with the help of some of the Night Crawlers who befriended her.

I gasped when she told me that they helped her, but she went on to explain that they were nice before others showed up, then became angry that they were taking over the island. Mom told me more adventures and hard times that happened, until she got up to the present when I came back in her life.

I proceeded to tell Mom that all Dad and I had done was catch fish and live in the boat still. We laughed and finally made it to our destination. It took us roughly 2 hours, which was very surprising.

"Well, this is it," Mom said, pulling back a huge branch and motioning me to go through.

I walked through to find cave entrance. I looked back at Mom but she told me to go on as she followed closely behind.

I trudged farther through, placing my hand on one side of the cave so I wouldn't get lost since there was no light.

"Does this cave ever end?" I asked Mom jokingly.

"Yes, Sam. Of course it does. It's straight ahead you're almost there."

As soon as Mom said that I started to see a light beaming in the distance. I started to walk faster, wanting to see what was so special up ahead.

I finally made it to the end of the cave tunnel, but I was not out of the cave. I was confused and looked up to see where the light was coming from. There was a hole in the ceiling which allowed light to seep through.

There was also a huge pool of water on the ground, which looked pretty deep.

"What is this place? Is it another hot spring? Like in the volcano?"

"No, not exactly, " Mom said. "It is a pool though. I come here to relax and bathe and just think stuff through. It's a very calming place to be."

The pool was not the only fascinating thing this cave had to offer. The walls that made the cave were not made of stone, but of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires.

"Wow...this cave is amazing! Am I allowed to come here?"

"Of course you can, sweetie. That's why I showed it to you. And also to have time to talk without distractions. Would you like to go back to the house?"

I was too in awe at all the jewels to hear what Mom said right off the bat, but finally I heard her. "Oh, um yes we can go."

We walked back, talking most of the way about more of Mom's adventures until I mentioned Max.

"Mom?"

"Yes, Sam?"

"I was wondering...when is the next time I get to hang out with Max."

Mom didn't look at me and it took her a while to come up with an answer. "Why do you want to see him?"

"He's the only friend I have really had. And he's super funny and nice to me. I just wanna get to know him more so we can be better friends."

"I'm sorry, but you can't Sam. Not for awhile. He will be very busy with his duties I'm afraid."

Wow. What a lie. I wanted to tell her that I heard the real reason why but I decided not to. I couldn't think of really anything to say, so I just replied with one word. "Okay."

We walked the rest of the way back in silence and I returned to my room and shut the door. Too angry to speak with anyone at the moment.

As I turned around to face my room, I saw that someone was sitting on my bed. I was about to scream until I saw it was Max.

He was staring down at his hands which were placed on his lap holding something.

"Max! What in the world are you doing here?! Aren't you suppose to be finding food?"

Max stood up, still clutching the item in his hand. "I-I just wanted to give you this. I found it and wanted to give it to you. I thought you would like it." He reached out his hand and dropped the item in my hand.

I grabbed the item and looked at it. It was a flower. A bright pink rose, but with all the thorns off of its stem. "Oh Max. This is beautiful, but where are all the thorns?" I looked from the rose to Max.

"Well I didn't want it to hurt you. So I took all of the thorns off. It took awhile and it did hurt, but I got them off for you." He smiled and showed me his hands. They were cut up and stained with blood.

"Max! You're hurt!" I placed the rose on my bed and grabbed his wrists to look at his hands. "You didn't have to take the thorns off. I would have been fine."

Max looked at me. "Yes I did have to take them off. I don't want you pricking your finger on one and making your hands bleed."

"But yours are bleeding."

Max squirmed away from my grasp on his wrists. "Oh don't you worry about me. I'm completely fine. The cuts will heal. I just wanted you to be okay when you held the flower."

"You're so sweet. Thank you, Max." I gave him a hug so he would know how much I appreciated it.

"You're welcome. Listen, I should probably go before your mum catches me in here. She'd kill me if she found out I wasn't hunting." Max made his way to the window and started to climb out.

"I don't understand, " I said.

Max stopped and looked at me. "What don't you understand?"

"I don't understand why we can't hang out and be friends anymore."

"Because I took you to see the volcano. I was being stupid and shouldn't have. It isn't our territory but I really wanted to show you. That's why." He continued to make his way out.

"Will we be able to talk again?" I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to have a friend.

"Yes. I'll come back tomorrow," Max said with a smile. "I really gotta go now. Goodbye Samantha-wait. What's your middle name?"

"Marie."

"Goodbye Samantha Marie."

"Goodbye-wait what's yours?"

"Brett."

"Well, goodbye Maxon Brett," I said and smiled at him.

Max smiled back and with that he left.