This definitely isn't Kansas... (closed for Kuu and me)

The head hurt like a bad hangover. His ears heard a sound that rushed through his mind like static on the radio, making his thoughts stumble and lumber around heavily.

"I'm never drinking again." Jack opened his green eyes.

He was a young carpenter - well built, firm and muscular, looking in every way his twenty five years. The brown hair was messed up, sand threatening to stay in it for a while now.

"Where the hell am I?" Jack thought.

He looked around. The sounds that were scrambling his mind turned out to be a mixture of waves and the soft rustling of palm treetops. Fresh wind breathed over his face, bringing life. His head still hurt, but now it wasn't quite as bad.

"I'm never drinking again," he repeated with a quiet curse, getting his tan body up. Swaying slightly, he took a few steps and looked around, trying hard to remember how he got from the cold and rainy streets of Buffalo, New York onto this tropical beach.

The place looked wild and secluded, but after searching it with his eyes a bit, he finally found a figure on the sand. Jack walked towards it, his tan chest shining in the sun and wind playing with his shorts. He was confident that it was all an elaborate joke and that he would now find out his buddies got him drunk and shipped him off on an unplanned vacation.

"Hey," Jack greeted the woman, who seemed to be sun-tanning. At least she was laying on her back. Just like he just was.

"Excuse me, miss?" He tried again, in a firmer voice now.

He shook her by the shoulder, finally seeing some signs of life.

Snapping her eyes open and jumping up with a growl, Nightengale Weston whirled around flashing bright violet eyes on the one who had disturbed her. For a moment she was ready to do battle but quickly shot that idea down when her legs gave way and she toppled face first into the sand.

For about 20 seconds it seemed like she wasn't going to get back up. It could be possible that she would suffocate in the sand if the stranger with her didn't lift her head. But before he would get the chance she shot back up again spitting sand out of her mouth the whole way.

"W-where...?" she opened her eyes, shaking sand from her curly shoulder length brown hair. Her mocha tanned skin glistened in the bright light given off by the sun. Sounds of water crashing on shore alerted her attention to the vast ocean and its endless horrizon. She sat on her hunches looking forlornly at the distance before speaking, "W-where....where the hell... is this..." she looked up at the man with a snarl. "Who the hell are you?" she asked.

Standing to her feet she shook sand from her bikini but that proved unventful as the sand clung to her skin. Rolling her eyes with a deep sigh she shifted her bikini bottom and more sand escaped. Man...this just got better and better.

She was suppose to have been in California, at a damn baseball game...then suddenly she was on a beach with some strange guy oogling her. She sneered... "I swear to god if this is a joke...." she growled and walked striaht up to the man before her poking his chest with purpose. "Well what's going on? Where are we...who are you...how'd I get here?" Each question was shot off like a bullet no breath in between.

"Aw, damn..." Jack's face displayed obvious disappoitment at her first words.

A moment ago he was sure everything was fine, and the 'local' over here would give him directions, but with that one phrase things took on a whole new look. She didn't know where she was either. That ment two people were alone on a secluded beach, not knowing where they are or how they got there. It couldn't have been a coinsidence. Could it?

The finger poking into his firm chest with some force got him out of his thoughts. It was annoying, if nothing more than that. He caught her lovely slender wrist in midflight, then slid his palm down to hers, taking her hand into his.

"I'm Jack," he introduced himself, shaking her hand. "And I was hoping you will tell me all you just asked."

He watched her pretty face, looking at changes on it as she obviously must have had the same thoughts he did. While she stood still, only wind played mischievously with her hair, throwing it onto her face. Finally, he nodded towards the trees, which rose up after the sandy beach ended.

"Let's go find someone with answers." Jack offered.

OOC : bastards.. lol.. carry on, pretend I'm not here

Gale blinked, okay so he didn't know anything either...just great. Sighing she shook his hand when he took it in his and blinked a few times, mostly because sand was abundant around here.

"Yeah well..." she had been about to speak but just didn't see what she could say. Oh yeah...name. "I'm Nightengale Weston...Gale for short." She fell silent after that following Jack into the canopy of trees.

"You have any clue how we might have gotten here?" she asked curiously. It was a bit soothing to find that he was lost too and she wasn't alone. More importantly now was finding some locals. Hopefully it wasn't a deserted island, and there were some sign of life.

Nightengale. Jack bit his tongue as he was about to comment on that. None of his business, he thought. Gale was quite easy to remember, and that's all he needed to know for now.

"No idea," he said, responding to her question. "I went to bed back in Buffalo, and woke up here. I don't even remember drinking or anything." He paused for a moment.

"Where' you from, Gale?" He asked over his shoulder.

They walked in single file, minimizing the amount of branches they had to push out of the way. So far the forest wasn't very thick; Jack could see ahead what he thought was about seventy five feet. It was nothing like Indiana Jones movies, certainly.

A few minutes of walking in this fashion, chatting, Jack suddenly stopped. He moved aside a little, to let Gale see that the came across a small, old path. There were branches across it here and there, vegetation on the ground, but it was definite that many feet, wheels, hooves, or paws once stepped here. He crouched and examined it further.

"Looks like it hasn't been used in a while," he said, looking back at the bikini-clad woman. It was rather difficult to focus on her face and ignore than firm, tan body underneath, but he knew now was not the time nor the place.

"Left or right?" He asked, then smirked. "Pick a number."

They knew nothing at all, and so the best decision would be a random one. If she picked odd, he'd say they should go right, and even would mean left.

Gale walked leisurely with Jack, chatting him up though he seemed to do most of the talking while she explored. Her first time away from the city, it was...different to say the least.

"I'm from California. LA actually..." yeah it was the typical place. Nothing fancy in her opinion but it mostly depended on the person. Stopping to look at the trail she sniffed the air, something catching her nose. "Mmm.. wonder if that's food up ahead." she commented. "Twenty-three..." she said. Though wasn't sure why she picked that number to begin with. It just came up...

"So where are you from?" She returned volley on his question figuring they were companions in this little trip, might as well get the pleasantries out the way. "Married, kids...you know the usual.." she chuckled a bit kicking at a rock.

Jack took the right path with determination. It was so much easier to tread now. The ground was more firm, the branches that painfully lashed away at his naked chest and lower legs were fewer and farther between.

"No, none of those," he said. "You?"

The track was slowly growing larger and larger. New tracks merged into it - not merely connected, but actually merged, like a stream would merge into a river. It was obvious that people only turned from those paths in one direction - the direction where they were going. Whatever was there must have been pretty important.

It took a good half an hour, at which point Jack's throat was begining to feel like it could use a little water, but eventually they arrived at that something.

For a few moments, Jack stood in confusion. He was expecting anything - a massive ancient temple, an abandoned village, a lush field, or something like that. Instead, they were standing before a nearly solid mass of thick vegetation, with only a tiny lake before them. It was no more than ten meters in width, and perhaps twice as long.

"Well, at least we found water." He commented.

Stupidly, perhaps, he came to the edge of the water and brought up a palm full of it. Jack took a sip of the clear liquid, then hungrily fetched more and more. It tasted normal and looked clean.

"No." she replied in return looking around her caustiously. they took the path in silence, not saying much as the natural music around them seemed to sing out in chorus. Waves hitting upon the rocks, various creatures chirping, cawing or yowling their presence.

The sound of sand under their feet mixed with a little hard soil, twigs, and bushes. When they got to the clearing, Gale watched Jake go to sample some water or at least for a moment before he started scooping up more.

She figured there wasn't nothing wrong with it, but wasn't thristy as she was hungry. She went to scoop up some water anyway, after all that sand in her mouth earlier she was still grinding on the little bits of rock and pebble. After rinsing her mouth out and drinking a decent amount of water she thought about rinsing herself off. Still there was sand in her bikini and in places she didn't even want to begin to think.

ooc: Drained of ideas for the moment, but I have to head off to bed. I'll post in the morning.

Jack closed his eyes for a moment, moaning out a delightful groan as he drank. This water seemed by far the best thing he had tasted in quite some time. Having satisfied his thurst and rested for a minute, he began pondering aloud the next step. As pleasant as the rustling of palms overhead, and the singing of exotic birds was, it was going to become very annoying very soon unless they find something to eat and a place to sleep.

"Alright," he said, "now..." the whistling sound, scewed by the Doppler effect, flew out as an odd-looking dart hit the ground just a foot from Jack and exactly where he was just a moment ago.

"What the fuck!" He groaned out, after instinctively jumping back and crouching down, trying to minimize his profile.

The roar that came from the same direction as the dart sounded powerful. So much so that Jack, although neither a small nor cowardly man, had no desire at all to see what exactly it was there.

"Run," he grabbed his companion's wrist with one hand, while fetching the dart with the other, and moved ahead as quickly as possible, straight into the jungle, directly away from the pond and the roar. It took a good ten minutes of running, being slashed across the nearly-naked bodies with branches, until they could finally stop and catch their breath. They stayed very quiet for a while, trying to hear if there was a pursuit, but the jungle was rather quiet aside for the normal sounds they were now getting used to.

"OK," Jack looked quite a bit phased by the encounter and didn't worry too much about showing it. "What the fuck was that?"

With a squeak and barely a word else, Gale was unceremoniously taken by the wrist and halfway dragged along for the ride. She managed to catch her feet under her and keep her pace with Jake as they darted into the thicket of trees and bush, each one slapping across her bare skin.

When they finally slowed down she took in a deep breath, panting for air and looking just as confused as her compaion. "That is the question of the day now isn't it..." she said looking behind them to see if they had been chased.

She walked up to Jake, checking his bare skin for anything out of the ordinary. Aside from a few scraps from the branches during their run he seemed no worse for wear. "Are you okay.. you're not hurt?" she asked and then looked in his hand at the dart.

"You think those were the locals warning us?" Sighing, Gale slumped to the ground her legs tired from the short jaunt. "Even if they are, its obvious they aren't very friendly. Still we haven't eaten and we need to find shelter before dark. Should we risk going back?"

"I'm fine. I think." Jack ran his hands over his body, trying to make sure there wasn't a serious wound anywhere. He only found small scratches. Then he slowly looked Gale up and down, turned her around and did the same with her back. He found nothing there but a bit of arousal for himself, which he again tried to suppress.

"I don't know about you," he finally said, "but I somehow don't think those guys, whoever they are, will roll out the welcome mat for us if we meet them again. Maybe we'll get to dinner, but not as eaters." He frowned at his own dark joke.

"We're in the jungle," he said. "There's bound to be food somewhere around - bananas, papayas, something. We can survive for a while on that, just need to find it. If monkeys can live here, so can we. Let's walk and keep our eyes open."

Sure enough, not too far away, they found a tall tree with some rotten bananas on the ground near its base. They weren't anything like the kind Jack was used to seeing on supermarket shelves. These bananas were much smaller. Still, it was food, even if it was about twenty feet away from them vertically.

"Tell me you're an amateur rock climber," he grinned hopefully at the girl next to him.

"I've swung on poles before but I don't think that qualifies me for swinging on trees." she said. Though she figured it was the same thing. Squeeze your thigh and use the muscles to climb. Sighing she slipped Jake to the side, looking the tree over. It had areas where she could easily plant her feet places that might not be so easy to climb but she could give it a try. At least the tree was of a moderate height.

Reaching up she gave Jake a wink although nervous and began her ascent. Much to her delight it was similar to climbing poles. Then again she had always been a tomboy at heart and had climbed a few trees in her day, none like this but a tree was a tree to her.

By this time she was halfway up the tree, she could feel her legs giving way to the strain. Fighting it she managed to get all the way up before realizing some of the bananas were out of reach. Trying to kick at them proved uneventful and almost costed her life as she slipped scrapping her leg against the tree's rough bark. "Bad idea..." she whispered and tried reaching for them, no avail. Shaking the tree was a little more ideal as the top of the tree seemed flimpsy and weak compared to the bottom. After a little swaying back and forth few stalks of bananas fell to the ground. One of them looking to fall right on Jake's head. "Uh...Jack look out!"

There was quite a sequence of circumstances, which ended with Jack on the ground. First, as Gale just started climbing the tree, he watched with a stupid smile on his face at her shaply legs and ass, covered only by a tiny bikini, like any warm-blooded male would in his place. Then, he very nearly got caught when she looked down. Figuring that pissing her off wasn't the best thing he could do, especially given their situation, Jack put quite a bit of effort into looking down at the ground and suppressing his growing erection. So, when the bananas fell down, gaining quite a bit of speed from such a long fall, Jack didn't see them, and only looked up after her cautionary yell.

He looked up just in time to see the big stack of heavy fruit speeting at him. It was too late to dodge, or even turn his head away, and Jack caught the bananas he so looked forward to eating right in the forehead. He got thrown on his back, and after a few moments the world turned dark, as he lost consciousness for the second time that day.

Karma had a way of getting back at a person, Gale had caught the way he was looking at her, but then that couldn't be helped. Still it was unnerving to see. At any rate the fruit fallen on the head was a reasonable punishment for him until she could return to the ground.

Once she was on steady land she went to make sure their fruit selection hadn't been destroyed by the big head that Jake had. She chuckled a bit, this incident reminded her so much of those cartoons she had watched when little. She could almost see the birds floating over Jake's head.

Setting the bananas aside she went to check on Jake, craddling him in her arms while she tried waking him. She could go back to the small lake and get some water but that would be risky with those people and their darts. The bananas were useless until he woke up to eat them himself so she ventured to keep him craddled and warm. He would eventually wake she was sure but to be on the safe side she slide him off the path and into a thicket of bushes where they were hidden away from any stray dart throwers.

Snatching up the bananas, she set back against a bolder, craddling Jake in her arms. While she couldn't wait for him to wake she peeled one of the bananas biting it the soft texture. She was never one for bananas, but food was food and she couldn't be picky this time around. Watching Jake in silence he did look quite handsome, a bit rugged but no worse for ware considering their circumstances.

Poking him in the stomach to make sure he wasnt' faking it, he didnt budge. "Hmm..." she muttered something under her breath and poked a little lower past his stomach. Still no response. Smiling she went to grab his waist band quite curious to what was underneath it was only fair...he'd gotten plenty to look at while she was busy climbing that tree. When she went to grabe the waistband of his trunks strong hands snaked out to hold her back, and that's when she saw Jake coming too. Damn!

The feeling of being undressed got Jack back into consciousness. He opened his eyes to see the cutely curious expression on Gale's face. And, he himself wasn't exactly left with nothing to look at, as she had to lean forward to start pulling down his shorts, which made her cleavage look fantastic in the bikini. If his head wasn't hurting, he would've said something sassy and tried to get things developed further, but because of the pain, the first thing he did was moan, which lost him a great opportunity. Finally, when he came around enough to talk, he grinned.

"You don't have to stop, you know."

He gave her a cheering up chuckle as much as he could, given his condition.

"When we make it out of here, I know a great restaurant I'll take you to."



The food was great, even if it consisted solely of bananas, which tasted oddly salty, unlike what they were used to as well. Hunger, however, made the best sauce, and Jack felt fantastic to be able to savour the taste on his tongue. Finally, with their bellies full and moods lifted quite a bit, they could move on. The question was where they could move to.

This island was completely foreign to both of them, but after climbing a palm tree, Jack could see which way the ocean was. They should, he said, go back to the shore and walk along it. Sooner or later they would come upon a stream or a river, and then going up the river would, hopefully, be able to find something akin to civilization. Maybe this civilization would be different from the dart-throwers that ambushed them earlier.

The dart-throwers themselves were constantly on Jack's mind. He couldn't see any of them for sure, but he thought he got a glimpse of the attacker's figure. He could almost swear that the figure wasn't human - it was too large and somewhat differently shaped, reminding him of a gorilla, perhaps, but to admit that to Gale would be to assure her that the banana hit him on the head harder than it first appeared. And so Jack kept quiet for now.