Chapter 1: The Legend

“Do you ever wonder what's out there?” Fayd asked one lazy day as they leaned against their favorite boulder. “Beyond our little island?”

Bayli, Fayd's eighteen year old cousin who was four years her senior and much more mature, simply shrugged. “There isn't anything.” She said confidently. “The world just ends. We're it.”

Fayd had trouble believing this. She trusted her cousin, respected and looked up to her, but she couldn't believe that they were it. How could the world be so tiny? There had to be more to it. More than their three mile long stretch of sand and jungle.

“What makes you so sure?” Fayd asked. “Have you ever been the edge of the world?”

“No.” Bayli admitted tiredly. She loved her cousin, but Fayd's never ending flow of questions often annoyed her. It was her curiosity that had gotten them banished from their home in the village. Well, not them. Fayd had been banished, Bayli had willingly left. She felt responsible for Fayd. She couldn't let her go off on her own unprotected. Although the island was absent of animals, Fayd and Bayli didn't even know what they were, there was always the danger of starvation or dehydration. Salt water pools for swimming (a favorite activity of the girls) were plentiful, but fresh water for drinking was much more scarce and harder to find. Many of the trees in the jungle where they resided bore fruit, but not all of it was safe for eating. Some of it was poisonous. Bayli had learned young in life where to find water, what fruits were safe for consumption, how to start fires, and how to build shelters. The elders of the village had taught her that. She had all the necessarily survival skills, Fayd didn't. Fayd had been uneducated.

“But another has.” Bayli added. She'd never told Fayd this particular legend. Fayd loved stories, but Bayli always had to be careful about which ones to tell her and how much to tell her. Fayd tended to get carried away. Bayli didn't want to fill her head with any more dangerous ideas. She'd never told her this one for that very reason. But now she thought that perhaps telling it would actually do some good. Maybe if she could finally get it through Fayd's thick skull that there was nothing else, just them, just the island, then she would stop asking questions. Perhaps she would finally accept the truth.

“Who?” Fayd asked. Her bright blue eyes shone with that troublesome curiosity that Bayli had begun to loath.

“No one knows his name.” Bayli told her. “Or at least they don't remember it.”

“Will you tell me?” Fayd pleaded. Bayli nodded.

“It happened a long, long time ago...” She began. “The boy was about your age. He was actually a lot like you, Fayd.” Bayli smiled lovingly at her. “He was curious too. He too thought that there must be more to the world than just our island. So he decided to travel to the edge of the island to find out for himself. He left the village and walked for two weeks straight until he reached the edge. There he found what is known as the Big Blue. Lying in front of him was an endless expanse of nothing but blue. Dark blue that glimmered with the sunlight. It went on as far as his eyes could see, never once broken. There was nothing else. Just the Blue. It appeared to be some kind of liquid like water. Fresh, because he couldn't smell the salt. Naturally, he wanted to touch it to be sure.” Bayli paused and Fayd's eyes widened with excitement.

“Well, what was it?” She demanded anxiously. “Was it water?”

“Well,” Bayli said patiently. “When the boy reached out to touch it, he was sent flying backwards into the jungle. It was as though he'd been pushed or thrown by some unseen force. He got up and tried again but the same thing happened. He was quite shaken and rather than try again he ran all the way back to the village. By the time he arrived he was delirious. He wasn't even punished for leaving the village. Everyone thought he'd lost his mind and it wasn't fair to punish a crazy man. So instead they put him to bed and had the Doctor examine him.

“The boy told the doctor about what he'd experienced and later recalled something else. He said it felt a strange sensation pass through his body. It stunned him for a moment, but also gave him a sense of power and strength afterward. He didn't have the words to properly describe it. He'd never experienced anything remotely like it before. It was completely knew. He felt both frightened and empowered by it. Of course after hearing all this the Doctor declared him a lunatic. Because there was no cure for his condition, they waited days and he never returned to normal, and because he was deemed dangerous by the Doctor, he was killed by an arrow through the brain. His head was cut off and burned to rid the island of his infection. That's what the Doctor said it was; he'd caught an infection that made him crazy and dangerous to everyone.”

“Let's go!” Fayd said when Bayli was done telling the story. Bayli stared at her in confusion. “Go where?” She asked.

“To the edge of the island, of course!” Fayd cried. “Where else?”

“No.” Bayli bristled. “There is no way we are going there, Fayd, not ever. It’s too dangerous. Didn't you hear anything I just said?”

“Don't tell me you're not curious? Not even a little bit? Doesn't it make you suspicious? Why would there be something barring us from reaching this Big Blue? There's someone who's trying to keep us in the dark. That's the only answer. Someone is hiding something from us. There is more out there. I bet you can cross the Big Blue. But they don't want you to. They want to keep us here.”

Bayli groaned. She was angry with herself for putting more ridiculous ideas in the girl's head.

“Fayd, there is no they, whoever they are. Stop it right now with your conspiracies! The Big Blue is the end. That's why the boy couldn't pass. There's nothing else there. He reached the end of the world and could go no farther.”

“I'm going.” Fayd said, and she stood up. “Whether you come or not is your own choice. But I'm going. I need to see it for myself. How do you know that the legend isn't just completely made-up in order to discourage us from exploring ourselves? It is just a legend. I want the truth.”

“Fayd.” Bayli stood up as well. “Are you truly set on going no matter what I say?” Fayd nodded. Bayli sighed. She knew Fayd was serious. It would be next to impossible to deter her from her goal. But if Bayli couldn't convince her to stay, then she would at least have to go with her. She certainly couldn't let Fayd go alone. She was going to get herself killed. She was too curious for her own good.

“Then I'm coming with you.” Bayli said. Fayd grinned. “We'd better get started.” She said, beaming. She almost always got her way with Bayli. “The sun goes down in two hours.” Fayd added.

“At least let us wait until tomorrow!” Bayli begged. Fayd pouted but reluctantly agreed. “Then we leave for the edge of the island first thing tomorrow morning.” She said. Then she added. “What do we have to lose?”Bayli knew what Fayd was thinking. They were already banished, so how much worse could it get. Bayli internally answered fayd's question although she didn't say it aloud. What do we have to lose? She thought. Our lives.

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

Quite an interesting first chapter--it held my interest well. In order to write well, one must have story-telling ability plus skill with words. You have both, but of the young kind, it seems. We all start that way, irregardless of age, and only through practice and learning do we advance. Without going into great detail, I'll say that your writing can improve by utilizing a greater economy of words. For example--look at your second sentence. Is it important to know at this time that Bayli is four years older than Fayd? You may bring that out later if you wish, but here in the beginning, you want to pull the reader into the story quickly and not burden them with non-esential details. So, you might change it thusly: "Bayli, Fayd's older, more mature cousin simply shrugged."