Novi

I wake up to Will’s back turned towards me. I frown. I push him to see if he's awake. No response. I sit up on one arm and lean over. His eyes are open, he’s just ignoring me. “You ok?” I ask softly. 

“Fine.” 

I wait, then get up. “Don’t know what his problem is.” I mumble to myself. I walk into the forest to relieve myself. When I come back Will is sitting at the edge of the shelter eating a mango. “Any plans for today?” I crouch next to him. 

“No.”

“Oooh…. kay. Im going to grab more fruit. See what else is out there.”

“Don’t go too far.” Will mumbles to me without looking at me. I nod my head and stand up. I grab the bowl and head into the forest. 

It’s another sunny day, hot of course. I didn't forget to put on the hat today. “I guess Will deserves a day to himself. I got to cry everything out, its time he takes a day to mourn.” I say reassuringly to myself. My goal is to be more understanding and keep the peace between Will and I. I reach up and grab a bunch of bananas off of a tree. I smile as Banana Pancakes, a song by Jack Johnson comes into my head. What I wouldn't give for some banana pancakes right now. I start to hum it, singing a few words here and there. I get distracted singing and enjoying my surroundings as I walk through the forest. I come across a clearing I haven’t seen before. I can see it past a few trees. Ive got great eyesight so I squint a little and can see little round yellow fruit on the trees on the other side. The clearing doesn't look too big so I decide to go across. 

Making my way I trip not paying attention. It wasn't just a stumble though, It was a full blown trip over a root, sprawl out on the ground, with an unattractive grunt. “Embarrassing,” I whisper to myself. “Thank god Im alone in a forest and not on a busy street back home.” I think about that and laugh. I reach to grab the bowl and bananas I dropped when Im hit with a pounding headache. Its at the front in between my eyes. I squeeze my eyes shut and sit back. “Goddamn!” I grunt. “What the hell.” I cup my face in my hands. I sit and breath for several minutes until it subsides. It doesn't fully go away though, but remains a small throbbing. 

I slowly stand up, with the bowl in my hand, dusting myself off as I carefully walk towards the clearing. I pass the last trees when I look up. Right in front of me, between myself and the other set of trees is the large black cat. I freeze. The cat was not there before, and it is waiting for me, staring at me with its large green eyes. When I notice it, it gets up and slowly, very slowly begins to circle me. It doesn't make a sound when it walks. I look behind me and around to see if there are any possible escape routes though I highly doubt I can outrun this large beast. The panther growls, I snap back to attention watching it. It gets closer to me and I start to panic. Im dead. Will was right. I should've stayed on the beach. There was no need to venture out here. I choke on a quick sob. The panther slowly comes straight for my face. I slowly put my hands up and fall to my knees on the ground as if I was being searched by the po po. I guess they're not all that different, this giant cat and the police. Gotta get into the defensive position to show that Im not dangerous. 

He sniffs at me as I put my head down afraid to look at it. “Thats right boy, Im not dangerous and I don’t taste good.” I whisper. The panther circles around my back. 

“I am NOT a boy!” It growls. I snap my head up as it circles to my front and sits baring its teeth. I stare for a moment and then crack out in a manic laugh. 

“You’ve got to be f*****g kidding me.” I say to no one in particular. “Ok. Im dead. Im dreaming. Cats cant talk. It must be this heat.” I laugh again not quite sure why. I’d think I was dreaming but everything is so clear, and come to think of it, my headaches gone away. Theres nothing fuzzy about my thought process right now. 

“I am not a cat, I am a panther.” It hisses at me. I stare at it, or her. “Why does the Tamer bark like a mad woman?” She c***s her head at me. 

“Excuse me?” I ask her, lowering my hands but still kneeling. 

“You are the Tamer?” She asks me. 

“What are you talking about?”

“You are speaking to me are you not?” She asks me in a clipped mature tone. 

“I… I don’t know. Animals cant talk. I cant be talking to you.” Maybe this island has made me crazy. I thought that only happened to people stranded for months and people who were alone. I have Will. Its only been several days. 

She stares at me without saying anything else and I stare back. I see her long black tail flash behind her. She gets up and moves closer to me. I flinch. 

“I am not going to hurt you Tamer.” 

“Why do you keep calling me that?” I ask confused. 

“You are the one who speaks to me. So you are the Tamer.” 

“What the hell is a Tamer?” 

“The one who speaks to me.” She says looking at me as if Im stupid. This conversation is going nowhere. Her lips move almost as if she were human when she speaks but not quite. Remaining parted every time she says something. 

“Can I stand up” I ask her timidly. 

“I did not tell you that you had to sit.” I stand and she stands too. I take a step back and she takes a step closer. I stop. She walks up to me taking a sniff at my black capris. She reaches my thigh, and she's about five feet long with a long black tail whipping behind her. Her muscles are ridiculous and her teeth terrifying. I slowly reach my hand out. She looks at it then bumps her head against my palm. I have a cat at home so I know this is a form of acceptance or affection or whatever. You never know with cats, they’re a******s. 

“How…. how can I speak to you?” I ask still afraid of the giant beast in front of me. 

“I do not know.” She yawns. How is she not surprised to be talking to a human?!   

“Are you not surprised that you can speak to me?” 

“No, we have spoken to Tamers before.” She lays back down in front of me. 

“Where?”

“Here.”
“There are people here on this island?” 

“No, there were Tamers.” She responds to me as a matter of factly.

“Ok what are Tamers?” I ask again getting slightly frustrated but afraid to raise my tone. 

“Tamers are the ones who rule over the beasts.” 

“Ok, Im going to assume they are human if I am supposedly one.” 

“I guess so.” She says to me. I slowly pick up the bowl of bananas as she watches me. 

“I uh…. I need to get back to camp.” 

“Ok.” She doesn't move. I take a step backwards. 

“It was… nice talking to you.” I say slowly backing into the forest. “If that conversation was even real.” I mutter under my breath. 

“Why would this not be real?” She asks behind me. I turn around to look at her sitting in the same spot. 

“Never mind.” I say and rush away. Damn cats and their hearing. 

Once I get far enough away from her I run. I burst from the trees out of breath and red faced. Will hasn't spotted me yet so I take a moment to get myself together and decide wether to tell him what happened or not. “He’ll think Im crazy.” I pant to myself. I walk around to the front of the shelter to see Will in the same spot I left him. “Hey!” I smile at him. 

He looks at me and gives me a faint smile and turns back towards the ocean. I take the chance and sit next to him. We sit in silence for a while. Im thinking of what I should say to him about what happened. “Does the word “”Tamers”” mean anything to you.” 

It takes him a second to register Ive said something. “What?” 

“Have you ever heard of Tamers?” I ask again.

“What are Tamers?” He turns and gives me a look as if Im crazy and Im annoying him. 

“Uh… never mind.” Will sighs and gets up. He walks down towards the water and takes a seat staring out. “Well excuse me, sorry to bother you.” I say to myself. I try to stop myself from getting upset with him for totally dissing me. He’s having rough day and he needs time just like I had time. I watch him for a little while. Staring at his toned back. He’s still wearing his grey tank top thats ripped on the side. He has crazy hairs sticking out of his bun everywhere. I sigh and crawl into the shelter. Nothing to do but take a nap.

I wake up to shouting. Will shouting and cursing. Don’t think Ive heard him curse before. Not important! I run out to see Will holding the knife pointing it at something ahead. 

“Shoo! Run!” I look. Its the panther from before. Well I hope its the same one. She’s staring at him circling with her large green eyes. She stops when she sees me. “Get back inside the shelter Dina!” 

“Will its ok.” I say stepping closer to him. He gives me a look as if Im mad. I look between him and the panther. The panther sits watching us, her tail swaying behind her. 

“This is your human, Tamer?” She asks me, then growls at him. 

“He is with me.” I tell her. “Are you going hurt us?” 

She looks at me. “I will not hurt you Tamer.” 

“Him neither.” I say to her slowly. She stares at him and opens her mouth to show her teeth. 

“Dina what the f**k are you talking about? Get inside.” 

“Will its ok.” I say. 

“The hell its ok! Theres a giant cat in front of us about to tear our heads off and your talking to yourself!”

“Im not talking to myself.”

“Then who the hell are you talking to?!” He looks from me, to the panther. Afraid to take his eyes off of her. Knife still raised. She takes a step towards him expressing a low growl. 

“Please, don’t hurt him.” I ask trying to get between Will and the panther. She regards me for a second then walks a couple feet away from us. Will drops his arm staring at me with confusion and fear. 

“He is your human?” The panther asks me, head cocked to the side.

“Yes.” She roars at him and Will jumps  but grabs my arm ready to pull me back. Then the panther disappears into the forest. 

I stand there staring at the forest for a while until I hear Will behind me. “Are you f*****g kidding me?” 

I turn to look at him. “It’s ok now.”

“Like hell its ok! Theres a giant panther that knows we’re here and is going to come back and kill us!”

“No she's not.”

“So its a she?!”

“I asked her to leave us alone.” 

“No you didn’t. You cant talk to animals.”

I stare at him in amazement. “Did you not just see what happened?! I spoke to her! And she left!” I shout at him pointing my hand towards the spot where the panther was. 

“Your f*****g crazy. Thats what happened Dina. You tried to speak to an animal. It threatened us, and decided to leave on its own!” I cant believe this. He just watched me talk to her. How can he not believe me?! I stare at him open mouthed not believing this right now. “Im not doing this right now. I cant believe your acting like this Dina. Find a better way to cope instead of pretending like your nature girl and Eliza f*****g Thornberry.” He turns away from me and heads to the edge of the trees. 

“I just saved your life and your calling me crazy.” I say to myself as he gathers wood and grass. Not only did I talk to a panther today, but I talked to it twice and saved this guys life and he doesn't believe me. Im already having a hard time believing it myself. But the fact that we are still here after confronting a panther means its true. I can speak to animals. I head towards the shelter and lay down trying to figure all of this out. Will proceeds to make a fire in front of the shelter mumbling something about “Cats don’t like fire.” 

I wake up to see Will sitting at the edge of the shelter with the knife in his hand, and the fires still going. “You never went to sleep?” I ask. He doesn't answer me. So this is how it’s going to be. Over the next few days Will doesn't talk to me. I try several times to talk to him about what happened but he doesn't listen. All he says to me is, “I don’t have time to worry about you going crazy and thinking you can talk to dangerous animals when Im trying to survive here.” It hurts me that he’s so stand offish. I give him his space, he’ll see.

I spend the days gathering fruit and hoping I run into the panther again. I don’t see any other animals. Not saying I fully believe I have magical powers or anything but it would've been nice to experiment and see if what happened was real or not. “Maybe that panther was a robot sent here to mess with me. Maybe we were sent to this island as an experiment. Oh god I am going crazy!” I say to myself. 

One day I see a large caterpillar. I look at it. Think about talking to it then decide otherwise. Im being stupid. I walk away then… “Hey little caterpillar. How are you doing today?” It ignores me and inches along. I wait a little while. Still no response. “Will was right. I am acting crazy.” 

The next morning I wake up and Will is gone. I walk out from under the shelter and see that the net is gone too. He went fishing then. I wait around with nothing to really do all day. Its hot and muggy. I grab some wood and grass from the forest. I haven’t had any headaches since that afternoon with the panther that can supposedly speak. I take a swim in the ocean but Im afraid to go too far so I kind of wallow in the shallow area. After a while I head back to the shelter. Between the heat and that swim which drained me, Im ready for a nap. 

I wake up with a start. It’s later than I thought. Not quite sunset but its getting late I can tell. I stumble out from the shelter and stop. The panther is laying next to my shelter cleaning herself. “Uum… Hi.” She doesn't look at me. 

“Your human is hurt.”

“Excuse me?”
“He is laying in the sand down the beach.” She says without looking at me. As if she doesn't care.

“Are you sure he’s not sleeping?” I ask slowly not sure how to take this information. Not even sure if the panther knows what she's talking about. 

“I watched the human slip on rocks and drag himself onto the sand. He is hurt.”  She finally stops cleaning herself and looks at me. 

“Well why didn't you wake me up!” 

“Your awake now aren't you.” I roll my eyes. Stupid panther, what is wrong with her? 

“Can you take me to him?” She stares at me, then rises with a shake and stretch of her back. Then she heads down the beach expecting me to follow. Ive never actually wandered too far down the beach. We walk for a while, the soft sand turning into small rocks then larger ones. The beach goes far, and we travel around a bend. My camp way out of site. I spot the net first half in the water, half stuck on a giant rock. I run and grab it, then look around for Will. I spot his messy blond hair in the sand. He’s laying down moaning. I run to him.

“Will?” 

“I give up. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

I chuckle trying to lighten the situation. “I don’t know about you but I didn't want to be here in the beginning.” He looks at me confused. 

“How’d you find me.” I get nervous afraid that he’s going to flip out. I look behind me and Will follows my gaze. The panther is about twelve feet away playing with a fish in the water. “Like I said, I give up.” Will lays his head back on the sand. 

“Is anything broken?” I ask nervous. If he broke something then we’re out of luck because I have no medical knowledge, and I doubt he does either. 

“No,” He groans. “Just badly sprained. My ankle.” He points towards his right ankle. I snort. 

“Funny, I sprained that same ankle in basketball years ago. I know how you feel. Take off your shirt.” I demand him. He struggles to do so and I help. I try not to get distracted by his bare chest. “The guy is hurt for goodness sakes Dina!” I mentally scold myself. I rip his tank top, which was rather easy since it was already ripped, and I attempt to wrap it around his ankle and foot like an ace bandage. After Ive finished I look around. Behind me is a large stick that was not there before. Its big enough for Will to use as a walking stick. I look at the panther who is laying down eating her fish barely regarding us. “Thanks.” She looks up, nods and turns her attention back to her meal she caught oh so quickly. Will watches my interaction with her without a word. I give him a shy look then focus on helping him up. I hope he doesn't yell at me again. 

We hobble back to the camp right before sundown. We barely speak as I set Will up at the edge of the shelter and begin to start a fire. “Thank you.” He says to me. 

“No problem.” I don’t look at him. 

“I realized today… that we need each other to survive here.”

“Yea, we need to be able to cooperate.”

“Yea cooperate…” He starts off slowly. “And, I also don’t want to lose you as a friend. We need to be able to have a good relationship. Why don’t you… tell me about what happened?”

“What do you mean?” I know what he means but Im afraid to start off for fear that he cant handle it and will call me crazy again. 

“With the panther?” I can tell he’s still so skeptical but after what happened today I think he’ll be more open minded. I tell him about the day in the clearing. And what was said when he was confronted by the panther. I even tell him about the caterpillar I tried to speak to. He laughs at that.

“Yes I know. I thought I was crazy too Will. I still might be. But… this is weird for me and I need you to believe me. I need your help trying to figure this out.”

He nods slowly. “I can try Dina. It’s just really weird.”

“Yea I know. Tell me about it.”

“Don’t you have a cat at home? Why hasn't she ever talked to you?”

“Your right! I don’t know. I was thinking maybe the panther is a robot, and maybe we’re here for an experiment.”

“Now that sounds crazy.” He chuckles and grins his beautiful grin but it disappears just as soon as it arrives as he looks at something behind me. 

“What is… a robot?” I turn around to see the panther drop something small, round and furry on the other side of our fire. “Dinner.” She states. 

“What is that?” I ask.

“Boar piglet.” 

“Well thank you.” I say surprised. “Why did you bring us this?”

“You have not eaten meat in days. I don’t understand how Tamers can eat trees. I will not hurt you Tamer. I am your friend.”

Will taps me on the shoulder. “What is she saying?” He whispers to me.

I turn and look at him. “She is our friend. 

“Your friend.” She corrects me. I don’t interpret. 

“I don’t really know how to cook a boar.” I say to her apologetically. She looks at me confused. 

“Cook? I brought meat for you to eat.” She nudges the piglet. 

“Yes thank you but I don’t know how to cook it. I don’t eat it all bloody and raw.” I point towards the fire. 

“Aah.” she says. “I heard of the Tamers doing such things.” She lays on a part on the piglet then rips apart its stomach with a throaty growl. Will and I watch her in horror. Then she nudges some torn meat towards us. I grab some long sticks, pierce the meat and hold it over the fire. 

“Thanks.” When the meat starts to look burned I give a piece to Will. He devours it. I do the same to some more pieces and Will and I feast on meat for the first time since arriving here while the panther eats the other half of the piglet. 

When we’re done the panther gets rid of the remains of the piglet into the forest. “What is your pets name?” Will asks me, leaning against a tree rubbing his injured ankle. 

“I am not a pet!” The panther growls from behind making Will jump. I look at her then him, too exhausted from the day to translate what she said. Ill just let Will fear her. “Novi.” 

“What?” I ask her to repeat. 

“My name is Novi. Friend.” She says to me laying down with her paws in front of her and tail swaying behind. Reminds me of my cat, Tinsey at home. 

“Im Dina.” I smile at her. She stares back without expression. 

“Such an odd name. What does it mean?” She asks me.

“I uh… I have no idea.” 

Will watches my interaction and drags himself back into the shelter. “Over this.” He mumbles to himself thinking I cant hear. I sigh. 

“Well we’re going to sleep.” I say to Novi. She doesn't respond. “Soo goodnight.” She begins to clean her paws. I wait for a moment then head into the shelter. Im too exhausted and Ive missed Will, barely talking to him for the past couple of days. I lift the blanket and snuggle right up to his back. It’s been a long day. I fall straight to sleep.