anneoftheisland | upon returning home

Entry tags:

ariel,
in-game

upon returning home

Anne supposed that they weren't so very far from the compound now, but after it had gotten dark none of them had wanted to continue on, particularly after the close call with Joe. So pulling together some fallen branches and leaves and clearing a spot on the ground, they made themselves quite the cozy little campsite for the night. Joe had fallen asleep quickly, probably exhausted from his ordeal, but Anne found she couldn't sleep so easily. She had found Ariel, which was a great relief, but Billy was still out there somewhere. At least she could take some comfort in the fact that she'd been right, and that they hadn't vanished altogether.

"Was it terribly frightening out there?" Anne asked her, as they lay side by side in the lean-to. "I can only just imagine what it must have been like."

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Ariel laid on her side facing Anne and reluctantly gave a small nod. "We were attacked by dinosaurs," she admitted, feeling her face heat up because she had been so scared by it.

"Oh my goodness!" said Anne, wide-eyed. "Oh, I'd imagined the dinosaurs to be great, terrible beasts. Were they as large and terrible as I'd imagined? Oh, I'm so glad that you're all right!"

"They were," she whispered, twisting a blade of grass between her fingers. "Like a shark on land, just as someone had described to me. There were several of them, and one came at Gaius and me, so I hit it in the face with my walking stick..."

Anne gasped. "You fought the dinosaur?" she said. "By yourself? Now I'm especially glad that you're all right!"

"I tried, I hit it and then River...she chopped it up," Ariel said, wincing a little at the memory of so much blood. "It splattered on me," she added, pulling at the front of her nightgown where there were some blood stains. "And Spike shot them with his gun."

Anne brought her hand to her mouth this time, squinting at the bloodstains in the dim light. She hadn't realised before that they had been blood, and not just mud.

"Oh, Ariel," she said, clutching her new friend closely. "Oh, I'm so very glad we set out to find you. I can't imagine having left you in such a place, where dinosaurs could attack you."

Ariel felt a few tears well up in her eyes, one fell and puddled against the bridge of her nose. She didn't know why, she was safe now on a part of the island where dinosaurs couldn't go, and Anne was here and she was warm and a friend. Ariel wasn't scared any more and she hadn't been scared enough even during the attack to cry, so why now? "I'm glad you found me," she managed to murmur.

"I was so terribly worried when I woke up and you weren't there anymore," said Anne. "I... I lost someone before, and I didn't think I could bear to lose anyone else, especially since there seemed to be so many people missing."

Ariel squeezed Anne's hand, and then her mouth parted in surprise before she could reply. "Who did you lose?"

Anne had mourned so openly, it was a bit of a surprise to have to start at the beginning again. And when she did, she realised the pain was not so sharp as it once had been. She was beginning to heal.

"Constable Renfield Turnbull," she said, with a little smile. "We were... close. But one day he vanished."

"That must have been awful. Was he your boyfriend?" Ariel asked, frowning in sympathy. She had been heart broken when Captain Jack had disappeared, and then Veronica...

"Yes, I think so," said Anne softly. "He had begun courting me. Or rather, I think we had begun courting each other, as that's how things seem to work here. There are so many things we planned to do that we'll never have a chance to, now."

Ariel was quiet for a long while, until she finally replied, "He might come back. I had a friend...Captain Jack. He disappeared. Now he's on the island again, only he doesn't remember being here before. But if your Constable Renfield liked you before I'm sure he would like you again if he came back," she said, trying to be optimistic for Anne.

Anne wasn't sure if it would be wonderful or horrible to have Constable Turnbull come back and not remember her, for it was her one comfort that wherever he was now, he did remember her.

"I just hope that he's happy, wherever she is," she said finally, rather than confess all of that. "One eventually does get over heartbreak, if one just waits long enough."

"I'm sure he is," she replied, even though she hadn't known Renfield.

Ariel smiled encouragingly. "Yes, and friends are a great at helping with that," she said softly, thinking in particular of Jim. She was glad that she had Anne for a friend, too.

"I can't imagine where I would be right now without mine," agreed Anne fervently. "I made some terrible mistakes, in my sadness, but I learned I could rely on my friends through anything. I'm so glad we were able to find you, Ariel, though I wish we'd found Billy as well. I hate to think of him still out there somewhere."

Ariel hated to, too. She wasn't as close of a friend with him as Anne, but she did like him and felt very bad for Joe. "We could look for him again tomorrow after we get Joe back to the Compound," she suggested.

"Or maybe he'll already be back," said Anne hopefully. "Maybe he ended up someplace else, and somebody's already found him. Maybe he'll be waiting for us when we get there."

"That would be perfect," Ariel said with a small, sleepy smile. It was quiet and she reached up and pushed some of Anne's rather wild looking hair back, out of her face. "I want to sleep, but I'm not sure if I can."

"Me too," admitted Anne, stifling a yawn. "My body's stopped by I can't stop my mind from thinking things that keep me awake. I find that's always the way, don't you? I truly do mean to sleep, but I find it impossible to clear my mind."

"All the time?" Ariel asked. "Well, I suppose if I'm upset or anxious, yes. I just think and think and think..."

"But eventually the body will always become tired enough to go to sleep, no matter how active the mind is. Or sometimes it's the mind that's tired. I find it much easier to sleep when my mind is tired, though sometimes I suspect it might be too much sleep."

"All this talk of being tired is making me tired," Ariel said with a soft giggle. "We should try to get sleep or we'll be too worn out to help Joe the rest of the way," she added.

"Okay," said Anne, curling closer to Ariel for warmth, as they had only their clothes and no blankets. "I'm sure you're very tired after everything you've endured."

"I'm okay," Ariel murmured, blushing a little. She wanted to lay with Anne the way she had with Jim, but Anne was facing her and their bodies wouldn't fit together the right way. "Here, turn on your other side, away from me..."

"Okay," said Anne, not giving it another thought, and turned, fitting their bodies together more easily. She could keep an eye on Joe this way too, which was nice.

Ariel thought it was one of the best feelings in the world, to hold another person or be held by them in bed, and it had been one of the things she had sorely missed after Jim and Chris had made up. She wrapped an arm around Anne's stomach and snuggled against her back, closing her eyes and trying to let her mind clear so it could rest. "Good night, Anne," she whispered.

Anne felt comfortable too, in the circle of Ariel's arms, though she wasn't sure why she felt her cheeks heat up a little. They hadn't when she'd lay with Billy like this, but then she'd been very tired when she'd slept with Billy and had fallen asleep almost immediately.

"Good night, Ariel," she whispered back, and closed her eyes.

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upon returning home

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