Survival Island

Meekly, Wisp nodded, still a little unused to straight kindness. Then she looked to the fish and gingerly reached out for the prepared food. Bringing it up, she tentatively sniffed it before nibbling a little of the meat off. She gave it a couple chews before her expression turned grim.

Fighting off her first reaction, Wisp glumly continued to chew the small piece before swallowing it down, and then a second time when it threatened to come back up. A little more sure that it wouldn't try to come back a third time, Wisp forced a smile at Dusk. "I-it's uh... good?" she stammered in something of a pathetic lie that was nearly comical. She didn't however bring the fish back to her mouth for a second bite, and in fact set the stick it was on in the sand so the fish wouldn't get dirty but it was out of her grasp.

Dusk simply chuckled a bit and said, "You don't have to worry about hurting my feelings. I don't like fish very much either, but I can eat it. I guess it's a good thing you don't really need food, or am I mistaken about that?"

Wisp shook her head no with slight hesitation. "I-I didn't even know I could eat until a few weeks ago in Ponyville," she explained letting out a sigh. "Have you ever had a, cupcake, I think?" Wisp asked as her excitement over the memory of her first pastry only a few days ago happened. "It's this wonderful tiny cake that tastes amazing. It's sweet, and fluffy, and this pink pony makes so many of them," she went on with happiness dominating her features over the happy thoughts.

Dusk again chuckled. Seeing her so excited about a simple thing like a cupcake brightened his spirits. "I will admit that cupcakes are amazing. A nice, chocolate cupcake would be very nice right about now. I can wait until I get home though. Or, you could introduce me to this pink pony and we can both have cupcakes together."

Wisp nodded with blatant eagerness at the prospect of not only having more cupcakes but also enjoying them with Dusk, and this obviously propelled her next action. She leaned over and wrapped her hooves around him in a tight embrace. "Ye-yeah, we can go there and have cupcakes and maybe even try some of the other things they had behind the counter. Those...cookies? looked really good too," she said before realizing just how much more comfortable the pony she was leaning on was in comparison to the leaves they'd all slept on the prior night.

Snuggling and nuzzling her way into a more comfortable position (or possibly more awkward from another's perspective) against Dusk's side, Wisp let out a content sigh. Her eyes once more watched the fire, lids starting to droop as the hypnotic flames danced about in her vision and reflected in her eyes. While she was content and happy to be next to the warm stallion, Wisp herself would feel cold to the touch aside from the warmth she was gathering from both Dusk and the fire in front of them.

Dusk found himself blushing very heavily when Wisp embraced him, and even more so when she snuggled up against his side. After the first few embarrassing moments though, he relaxed a little bit, although his mind was trying to decide what to do.

Okay, she's snuggled up against me and likely will fall asleep soon. I don't plan on moving so... His thoughts were interrupted when he realized Wisp wasn't warm. She felt cool to the touch. Must be a result of her fake body, Dusk thought, I hope somepony can change that when we get back. ...Blast it all, I really want to love her, don't I. But will I?

He then found himself staring at her face as she watched the flames, catching the reflaction of the flames in her eyes. He wrapped a foreleg around her, and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. Only after that did his mind actually catch up. He felt a little guilty, but only because he lost control for a moment there. Well, no going back now I suppose.

Wisp was either too tired or too distracted to truly notice the gentle gesture of the kiss, but it wasn't completely lost on her. In silent response, she snuggled up a little closer, causing Dusk's hoof to fall through her ethereal wings in a sort of gentle pet down her side and back. Wisp's head gently pushed against Dusk's chest as she angled herself a little differently so she wasn't having to hold her head up as much and her eyes continued to watch the fire, but they were drooping even more. Even slipping shut for relatively short periods of time now.

Dusk held her a bit tighter after Wisp snuggled closer to him, and he positioned himself so Wisp would be more comfortable. Dusk was comfortable enough as is.

Then, with his magic, he put a few more pieces of wood on the fire so it would last through a good portion of the night. The part of him that would tell him to stay up and keep watch was preoccupied with the mare in his hooves. Since he figured Wisp would be falling asleep soon, he softly said, "Goodnight Wisp."

Wisp mumbled out something that might have been a reply, but it was to muffled to really be understandable. The reply was accented though with another nuzzle as she curled up next to Dusk, her eyes finally drifting shut. Soon she was sleeping softly in the radiating warmth of both the fire and Dusk.

Dusk then placed another gentle kiss on her forehead before lying his head down so he too could get some sleep. He had to wonder what things would be like in the morning between them.He also wondered what the others would say if they returned before they woke up. He didn't expect anything insulting, but there certainly would be teasing.

He soon closed his eyes and let himself fall asleep. Even though Wisp wasn't warm, being near her made him feel warmer anyway.

When morning came, Dusk woke up with a fairly quiet yawn. The fire was out, as he expected it would be, and Wisp was still asleep, snuggled up next to him.

Dusk found himself blushing with a smile on his face. The thought that he slept with a mare was hard to believe for him, but he wasn't going to complain. He then chuckled a bit, considering he was probably the only stallion to have slept with a ghost. He then snuggled a bit to her, while trying not to disturb her. She seemed so peaceful as she slept, and he didn't want to ruin that.

Soon after that, a tiger shark jumped out of the water and onto the beach and laid there for a bit, looking at Wisp and Dusk. The shark visibly grinned before disappearing in a puff of smoke, and after the smoke was gone, Griff was standing there. "Had a good night?" he asked and stretched.

Dusk was actually rather startled by the Griff jumping out of the water, not enough to make him spring into action, but enough that his head sprang up. When he saw it was actually Griff, he relaxed a bit. He was certain Griff had his ideas about what had occurred last night.

"Yes, we had a good night. Although some of it was wondering where the Hay everypony was. Speaking of which, where did everypony else go?" Dusk asked. He still didn't move from Wisp's side. He figured he'd have too eventually, but the longer he could draw it out the better.

Wearily, Wisp stirred to the voices speaking around her. Slowly, and only with several attempts, her eye fluttered open, but only for a moment before they once again started to drift shut as she snuggled back into Dusk a little more. But now that she'd been stirred once, sleep continued to elude her and Wisp surrendered to the sunlight that so easily pierced her shut lids.

With a quiet yawn and a slight stretch, Wisp slowly raised herself to a sitting position and sleepily looked at the two ponies around the camp. Throwing on a pleasant and content smile, she said "good morning." Then her eyes opened a bit more and actually gained some focus, and she realized that the majority of the others were still missing. Questioningly, she looked over to Dusk. "Did nopony else show up last night?" she asked with some concern.

Griff simply shrugged. "Dunno, when did you come back even? I know that as soon as I woke up, at around noon, I was already alone, so I decided to go for a little swim. I barely just returned, and discovered an old ship wreck not far from the coast. How about you, what were you doing yesterday while I was sleeping and then gone?" Griff said as he approached them and sat down, attempting to start a campfire.

Dusk first answered Wisp's question, since it was the quickest to answer. "I guess nopony else has. If they did, they're gone again."

Dusk then turned his attention to Griff's question. "A few of us went to check on that abandoned village. Oliver, Scroll, Wisp and I went. In the end only Wisp and I made it to the village. Scroll kinda vanished on us, but Oliver is out there somewhere. He said he wouldn't be far behind us but... Anyway, we got back as the sun was beginning to set. I made a spear and caught some fish for my first meal on this island, then we went to bed," Dusk said. He knew he was going to ask for detail about what happened last night, although he'd be disappointed if he was expecting anything... steamy.

Dusk then remembered he was missing an important detail. "Oh, we also found a hot spring with drinkable water. Not the ideal water source, but it works."

"That's.. perfect for you, I suppose." Griff said. "At least you will be able to survive easier now, if nothing else. Did you have any plans for setting up shelter and where?" Griff asked and looked towards the jungle. "I guess you could either set it up next to the spring for easier access to water or here on the beach, so the oncoming boats.. if there will be any.. would spot us easier."

"I think on the beach would be best, since the goal is to get off this island at some point. Besides, this is already our home base, so everypony else should be coming back here at some point. Now that I think about it-" Dusk then turned to Wisp, "-Wisp, could you mark a path to the hot spring? It'll make it easier for everypony to get there."

Wisp cocked her head to the side at Dusk's request. "How do I make a path?" she asked completely clueless about it. Though she turned her head towards the direction of the hot springs and then back again to Dusk, her expression still questioning.

"Um... I never really thought of how," Dusk replied. He took some time to think of how a path could be marked. He did have a couple ideas, but he thought he'd run them by everyony else first.

"Okay, I have a couple ideas. I could use my knife to mark trees to show the path, or perhaps you, Griff, could scratch up trees in your tiger form. Or, we could use sticks and vines to actually lay out a path. Marking the trees won't take too much time, and if I'm the one doing it I can do it by myself. For making an actual path, we'd need Wisp to get us vines, and make runs for water as we work, while Griff and I pound sticks in the ground as posts. That might take most of the day, although the path will be much more clear. Thoughts?"

Griff grins "Sounds good, but.. I don't know where that spring is, I'm afraid. I couldn't spot it with my eagle form from above, the trees are too dense." he says and starts walking towards the forest, transforming into his sabretooth tiger while walking. "Mind showing me the way?"

With a little reluctance, Wisp nodded and then nodded again. First to Dusk to show her approval over the suggestion, and then to Griff to show she'd agree to acting as a guide. Slowly standing up, Wisp shakily got to her hooves and began to lead Griff through the foliage. She waited from time to time so that Griff could mark the trees as they went.

Dusk wasn't too sure he wanted to be at the camp by himself. Seeing Wisp leave made him feel a slight pain in his chest. He wanted to go with her, but he also felt somepony needed to stay behind just in case anypony else came back, and unfortunately that feeling was stronger. It perhaps was the first time he's cursed his sense of duty.

Once Griff and Wisp were out of sight, Dusk angrily kicked sand up as he walked to the water, angry at himself for a number of reasons. The main reason was that he neglected to give Wisp the attention she deserved once she woke up.

When he go to the ocean water, he went far enough in to where he could submerge himself entirely in the water, and dunked himself in, quickly coming back up. The water was nice, but it wasn't helping his mood. He soon went to a nearby large rock to sun dry on since he didn't want sand caked in his wet coat. He let his mind wander to many different issues. How they all were going to get home, what his family was doing right now, and, most importantly, what he'd do with Wisp.

When they reached the pool, Wisp turned back to look at Griff. "We found some containers yesterday, but we already filled them with water and they're on the beach. Do you want to head back now?" Wisp asked curiously.

Griff was just finishing marking the last tree by making two scratch marks crossing each other in an X style. "Huh? Oh, uhm, yeah, sure, we could go back.." He said and nodded, turning around and waiting Wisp to continue. "So, what exactly happened yesterday.. when I was sleeping and gone?"