What they didn't realize is that Stella had been spying on them from the bushes and heard Louis and Noa's conversation, she felt really guilty for what she was about to do, but did it anyway
She dug a tunnel and made her way towards a small cliff near the ocean that had a long, unstable bridge reaching the other side. Down there, many, many vines were hanging and could serve as a home to many creatures. Stella carefully climbed down to the center, where there was a huge ball tangled and knotted by vines, where someone might be living in there
With a little luck, she got there without falling down and stood in front of the entrance. It was dark, but she knew he was in there
"S-Sir?" Stella stuttered as the creature hummed lowly with a growl in his throat
"Who dares to disturb my slumber? Do you want to perish this desperately?" He asked in a whisper, along with a threatening tone in his voice
"I-I'm sorry for disturbing you, but-but I've encountered a group of animals while I went fruit hunting for you. Some of them are the ones you told me about" Stella replied as the creature almost jumped out of his nest
"What? They're here?! Who exactly?" The creature asked as he extended his hand and lifted Stella's chin with his claw
"There's a teenage girl mammoth, a sloth, a female saber, a molehog and a... human" Stella gulped as the thing removed his hand from her face
Then he chuckled lowly as shivers went down Stella's spine and held onto the vine while slowly backing away
"That fat mammoth might not be there, but trust me. He will pay for it once his family is gone. And you are going to help me with that"
"What?! Sir, I can't do that, they-"
Stella was silenced as he grabbed her and picked her up with one hand and squeezed her very tight, making her choke and have difficulty breathing
"Remember when those humans you told me about destroyed your family and you had to fend for your own? Well, I gladly took you in and cared for you and I might as well get rid of the dead weight. Is that what you want?"
"N-No" Stella choked as the thing finally released her and could breathe again, gasping for air while the creature started chuckling again
"You will do anything what it takes to either get them right here or find a way for me to get out of this trench"
Throughout the whole night, Stella hasn't been able to get some sleep at all. She felt guilty and everything, but she had no other protection other than the large ape. The only decent amount of sleep she got was at least 4 hours
It was still early as the sky was still pink and everyone was still asleep around the campfire, which the fire has already been gone by now. Everything was calm, until one of them was abruptly awoken by Stella gently shaking them awake
Louis
He was still drowsy as she peeled his eyes open and saw Stella
"Ah! Stella!" Louis gasped as Stella shushed him by covering his mouth
Stella gestured for him to follow her as he did, she brought him to the forest just close to where the others were sleeping and kept her voice low
"You wanna see where all the good wood is? For the boat?" Stella asked as Louis nodded
"Yes, but I can't go without telling them first"
"Don't worry, we'll be back. At least, before they'll wake up. It's still early" Stella quickly assured him as Louis thought for a moment, before agreeing
"Ok"
Several hours passed when Louis left with Stella as the sun was already shining on top of the sleeping herd members, just sleeping peacefully. Sid was talking and tossing and turning in his sleep while the others weren't aware of anything
Out of reflex, Sid kicked Noa in her side and got startled awake
"Ow!" She yelled, but not hard enough to wake everyone up
She groaned as she yawned and stretched herself out, rubbing the eye boogers out of her eyes. Noa scanned around her and noticed Louis was gone, a weird gut feeling told her something was going on
"Guys, wake up!" Noa half-whispered and half-shouted, but they didn't wake up
She snorted and sighed as she stood up and walked straight into the woods, looking for Louis
"Louis?... Louis?" Noa called as she climbed to the top of a small hill and scanned the field beneath her, seeing nobody
Shrugging, she climbed down and went to look for a creek to drink. Climbing up a tree and gazing down, not being too high in the tree. As Noa spotted a small creek and was about to climb down, Ricky popped his head out of the leaves and greeted her abruptly
"Hello?"
Noa yelled as she lost the grip on the tree and fell flat on her back with a loud thud, groaning in pain as she tried to get up while Ricky flew down
"Why'd you jump? You trying to fly like me?" Ricky cackled
"I didn't jump, I fell! All because you can't approach me like any other normal person" Noa sneered as she got up and put her hand on her lower back while walking towards the creek
"And you're normal? I gotta admit, there's nothing normal about you either" Ricky admitted as he followed her and watched her take a few sips from the creek
"Well, I meant 'normal' as in not scaring people out of their fur"
"Yeah, you don't have that much fur, so you won't jump out of it" Ricky mumbled as he jumped into the creek and took a bath, making it now impossible for Noa to drink any more water
"And again, thank you. Thank you for making the water filthy and undrinkable" Noa thanked him sarcastically as Ricky stuck his beak into the water and drank
"You think it's filthy, but I find it refreshing"
Meanwhile, Stella has led Louis to a pile of fallen trees and they were in fact seaworthy. But the pile was close to the cliff Stella had been that night, meaning the thing was close as well
While Louis was busy collecting wood, Stella stepped closer to the cliff and peered down, hoping he wouldn't come out and he didn't
Just as she was about to step back, a large hand grabbed her and pulled her towards him
"Gutt!" Stella gasped as she then immediately covered her mouth, praying Louis didn't hear that
"Are they here? Because they will be-"
"No, only the molehog! B-But give me more time and I'll get them all together right here" Stella promised as Gutt growled and released her
"I'd stick to my words if I were you, otherwise you'll be the chef's special" Gutt chuckled evilly as he disappeared into the cliff once again, back into the thick vines
Stella then went back to Louis and helped him with a few twigs
"Is that gonna be your boat?" Stella asked, trying to create a light mood
"Hey, my friends are big and need more wood, I'm small"
"You have a few twigs" Stella pointed out
"Yeah, but they think I can't be independent. So, I've been thinking of making my own raft and sailing after them once were away from here" Louis explained as Stella chuckled
"Don't think you'll catch up with them if I'm gonna be honest"
Noa and Ricky were heading back to the beach and saw that the others have already woken up and were looking around, trying to look for someone
And she too noticed that Louis wasn't there with them
"Oh, Noa. Do you know where Louis is? We just woke up and he wasn't here" Peaches asked worriedly as Noa just shrugged
"He just might be looking for some stuff for our boat, that dude doesn't talk about anything else anymore"
"Still, it's not like him to just randomly wander off"
After they'd all come to an agreement to skip breakfast, they made their way on the island and searched for Louis. Shira and Noa had their faces close to the ground as they tried to sniff up Louis' scent and follow it
While Noa kept bumping into trees and Ricky a few times, Shira found the trail of Louis and followed it
Then they've found them at the pile of wood and they were still chatting like two doves while holding branches and twigs
"Louis!" Sid called out as Louis gasped and turned to them
"Ah! Guys, I just, uh, I was just collecting some material for the boat" Louis chuckled
"While holding Stella's paw?" Shira asked
Louis glanced at his paw and immediately realized that he was indeed holding Stella's paw as well, which made him pull his paw back instantly and chuckle awkwardly
"She tripped" Louis lied with a grin
After they've made a compromise, they all decided to get started right away and began building a boat for them to leave the Hopeless Island. The whole time, Stella was anxiously fiddling with her claws and sweating
She didn't know what to do as she nearly put her own life in danger by helping the group to get off the island and not leading them straight to Gutt, who she had made a promise to and even promised him her service in return of protection
It was wrong, she knew, after all the kindness Louis had showed her. Stella didn't deserve this and even when she didn't feel it, she could feel Noa's eyes burning on her back, already suspecting something fishy going on and Stella couldn't really blame her for that
"So, Louis really likes you that much, huh?"
Stella snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Noa from behind her while she was busy braiding vines, turning around and seeing Noa stand there with her arms crossed and a cocked eyebrow
"He does? I mean, of course he wouldn't. We're just buddies and I'm helping him and you get home" Stella chuckled
"By making him wander off with you without telling us first right after the early sunrise? What were you two discussing anyway?" Noa asked as the corner of her lip formed into a small grin
Making Stella stutter and stumble over her words and resulting it of her being a blabbering blushing mess
At the beach, Sid and Peaches were just adding the special touch to the now bigger boat. The deck was wider and had much more space for Peaches than before and they've even made small storage rooms for their food
They only needed some large banana leaves to make a big sail for the boat, everything else was already finished and was sitting in the beach, pretty close to the tide, but not for it to be taken by it and drift into open sea
"Almost finished. I can't believe it, we're finally going home" Peaches smiled happily as everyone agreed with her
"Me neither, all we need is some giant banana leaves and we'll sail back home like there's no tomorrow" Noa said as she turned to Stella and Louis
"You two, stay here. We can't have our boat be taken by the tide and lose our only way back to home"
They both nodded as she, Shira, Peaches and Sid went back into the forest to look for banana trees. When they arrived, Noa took a sharp rock and climbed into the tree with Sid behind her, only for him to lose grip and fall o to the ground
"I think you should let Noa do the climbing, Sid" Shira chuckled as Sid scowled at her
"Her? I'm a sloth, we live in trees and climbing is sort of our daily activity"
But he got a huge lead tossed at his head and pouted
"You should keep your eyes open and catch some of 'em" Noa advised as she continued cutting the leaves off the stem
Their peace and quiet soon got interrupted when Ricky was flying above them in circles and laughed while lowering down to the ground
"Him again?!" Noa shouted, making some of the others either chuckle or shaking their heads in disbelief
Ricky landed on Peaches' head and looked around him
"Hey, how's that possible? You call me nuts and you eat the leaves instead of the bananas self?" Ricky laughed as Noa rolled her eyes and climbed down
"These are for the sail, smart guy"
"For sale? Who would wanna have that?" Ricky asked
"For the boat! And we're pretty close to going home now" Sid said as the group walked back to the beach with Ricky behind them
"I personally wouldn't leave my boat unattended when there's these thieves on this island, pretty reckless of you" Ricky said as he sat on Noa's shoulder
"Our boat sis not left unattended, Stella and Louis are keeping an eye on it" Shira explained as Ricky giggled and shook his head
"Those two doves? Nah, they're near that cliff right next to the volcano and doing what it is that teenage couples do"
"WHAT?!" They all shouted in unison
Meanwhile, Stella and Louis were near the cliff and were looking down below. Under all the vines that were hanging there, there was a tide wide enough for a boat to fit and sail through it
"This is what I call a shortcut and it might not look like it, but it really is" Stella spoke
"So, we take that current and we'll be home a lot faster than at sea?" Louis asked skeptical
"Believe me, it is" Stella promised as Louis nodded and followed her into the woods, only to stumble across the others
"Oh, hey!" Louis waved awkwardly at them
"Guys, what're you doing here? You two were supposed to stay at the beach. Anything could happen with our boat!" Shira shouted
"Yeah, but Stella took me to the cliff and was showing me something useful" Louis explained
"Useful?" Noa asked as she grunted and just shooed Louis towards the beach
"What are you getting so heated about?" Louis asked as he got irritated by Noa's "jealousy"
"Heated? It would've been nice if you listened to me for once. You're not the tough guy just because you got yourself a new friend in your side!"
As they kept bickering back and forth, they arrived at the beach and froze. Their boat was gone, no trace of it left. Noa slowly rotated her head to Louis with an angry look
"Well, I hope you're delighted"