The old chief then pointed off to the side at a path that led off into the jungle. I said my thanks and quickly got to my feet and left the clearing filled with smoking torches and the shifting hips of island girls keeping time to the rhythmic drum beats.
*****
Colt was standing with his face to the sea.
I stepped up beside him and took his hand. He glanced down at me somberly and I said, "Thank you for not staying to watch."
He nodded and glanced back out to sea.
I looked around the beach only to see that it was clear and with the feast going on it wasn't likely to be visited soon.
I wanted him. He was faithful to me and I would be his for life.
Gathering my courage I stepped in front of Colt ready to take the next and final step. I was nervous, but I was also beyond excited. Life had suddenly become exciting at the prospect of being with this man.
He wasn't even looking at me!
Oh how I hated being short!
"Colt I……"
"Those lights?" Colt breathed out in a mystery of meaning.
Those lights?
"Colt I……"
"Get down!!!"
The next thing I knew I was thrown flat onto the sands of the beach with Colt over top of me. What was going on?
I was about to protest, when the ground shook beneath me repeatedly. Oh God, what was happening?
Trees were falling and the sand of the beach was flying up into the air everywhere. I couldn't see anything and my ears echoed with the sound of explosions.
"It's that cursed scroll! I should've left it!" Colt said in a self-deprecating monologue as he screamed out his fury directly into my ear, but despite comprehension of his words I was completely in the dark as to what was going on.
"What's going on Colt?" I screamed.
"It's that bloody scroll! I think they're tracking it. We led them right to us!"
The blown up sand all around us cleared enough for me to see the blinking lights further out to sea. The Japanese Navy from a bygone war was firing on us from offshore. Why would they want to destroy something that could be of such great technological value?
Off to the east of the blinking lights there was a sudden flurry of more lights on the distant horizon. We were so dead!
Strangely though the heavy barrage upon the island abruptly ceased. Colt got up and helped me up to my feet. The entire horizon was now lit up with the blinking lights of what appeared to be two navies at war with each other.