Rainy Day (2)
Chester and Monia sat together in Chester's shelter, watching the rain pour from the sky. The sky, which had been clear just moments ago, was now choked with pitch-black storm clouds, and the oppressive rumble of thunder, sounding like the wrath of an angry god, made them tremble. The light drizzle had quickly thickened into heavy drops that stung when they pelted the skin.
"Rain, all of a sudden," Chester muttered.
"...It won't get any worse than this, will it?" Monia asked.
"Who knows. Weather in the mountains or out at sea is highly unpredictable. It might clear up just as suddenly."
"I see." Monia offered a bright smile at the hopeful thought, but Chester suddenly realized he hadn't seen a single animal in the forest today. The beasts must have sensed this weather and sought shelter beforehand. And the howling of the wind, growing colder and harsher by the second, warned Chester that this rain would last for quite a while.
We don't have any preserved food.
He had planned to start making tools in earnest today, gather food, make preserves, and get everything sorted step by step. Starting today. But of all days, the rain was pouring down today. Chester knew from experience that a forest on a clear day and a forest on a rainy day, even if they were the same forest, showed completely different faces. In this kind of weather, it was best to stay put and not enter the woods. That was why the moment Chester realized it was going to rain, he had stopped everything to reinforce the roof. But it seemed it was far from enough.
"Eek!" As the waves grew rougher along with the wind, Monia flinched and curled inward.
The sea is terrifying. Whenever Chester had visited coastal cities, the weather had always been pleasant. Thus, this was his first time seeing the ocean so violent. Though he had seen it in paintings and heard of it in stories, the sight of that once calm and beautiful sea in a rage was truly like a demonic beast. It felt as if the moment he stepped close, those wild waves would swallow him whole and kill him.
...It's getting dark. As his vision darkened in an instant due to the storm clouds, Chester decided to build a fire.
"A fire? Where? In this weather?"
"Yeah. I'm going to build a wall out of bamboo to block the wind and rain."
"Do you really have to do it in this weather?"
"I have to. We're already getting wet. It's cold out, and if we just sit here, we'll die of hypothermia."
Chester brought over some bamboo and struck the top with his axe. Once the bamboo split, he wedged a branch into the crack and pushed it all the way down. The bamboo split cleanly in half with a satisfying crack. After repeating this process several times to make multiple long, halved bamboo pieces, he wove and bound them together with vines to construct a wall on one side. Unlike his usual meticulous craftsmanship, this was a rushed, slapdash job. After stacking some wet branches near the newly built bamboo wall, Chester tried to connect more bamboo to build a wall on the opposite side, but unfortunately, he didn't have enough.
"The water containers."
"What?"
"Bring me the water containers!"
"Y-yes!"
Chester even split and connected the water containers to use as wall materials. Unlike the long, sturdy bamboo stalks, these chopped-up pieces shook unstably in the wind, but he forced them into place by wrapping vines around the entire structure. However...
"This is precarious." Although the bamboo wall shielded them from the worst of the wind and rain, it was shaking violently.
"W-won't it collapse?"
"We need to get a fire going first before we worry about that."
To prevent the shelter from catching fire, Chester brought in some wet soil and spread it in the center of his home. He placed tinder on top of it, then pulled out the fire-starting materials he always kept on his person.
"They're a bit damp." These were two wooden sticks he always kept close to his body, drying them with his own body heat to prevent them from getting wet in case of an emergency. They were his favorite sticks, used since his very first day on this island. Chester carved a new groove into the stick, which already had several holes in it, pressed the other stick against it, and began to rub them together furiously.
"...! Damn it, this stupid rain!" But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get a spark as easily as usual.
"Hey, get closer."
"What?"
"We have to block the wind with our bodies." Chester pulled Monia close, pressing her tight against him, and resumed rubbing the sticks together with all his might.
If only the bamboo weren't wet, I would have used that. Bamboo shavings caught fire easily.
"Move your hair. Water is dripping from it."
"O-oh, yes." Monia hurriedly gathered her hair and tucked it away. After that, Chester struggled desperately against the damp wood to catch a spark.
"Catch, catch, catch, catch... Yes! Yes! Yes! Ha! I got it!!" After shaving off the damp outer layer and rubbing the stick against the dry inner core, a spark finally caught. Chester pumped his fist, carefully transferring the glowing ember from the groove to the tinder. He cradled the precious tinder and blew on it gently but firmly. Meeting the air and fuel, the fire instantly billowed smoke and rapidly spread throughout the tinder.
"Yes!"
"Wow!" Monia was deeply moved. In the midst of the howling storm that drowned out all sound and the pitch-black darkness that blinded them, the sight of a beautiful flame finally rising to illuminate their world was truly touching.
Unlike Monia, who was lost in awe, Chester had no time to appreciate the moment and immediately moved on to the next step. He stacked the least-damp small twigs onto the tinder, and as the flames devoured them and grew, he fed them larger branches. Though he had been tense even after the fire caught, seeing a stable campfire finally burning allowed Chester to drop to his knees and let out a long sigh of relief.
"...Whew." Feeling relieved, Chester brought over the firewood he had stacked in the corner and placed it near the campfire to dry.
"This is our lifeline from now on."
"What?"
"Got it? We must keep this fire from going out at all costs." As he spoke, Chester repeatedly clenched his fists to keep his blood circulating, rubbing his hands together to raise his body temperature. Before he knew it, his fingertips and toes had become ice-cold.
"A-achoo!" And Monia was no different. "Cough! Cough!"
"...Let's take off our clothes."
"What?"
"If we keep wearing wet clothes, they'll sap our body heat." Chester stripped off his own clothes as he spoke. "Now that the fire is lit, we need to strip down and dry both our clothes and our bodies."
"Huh?! Eek!" As his butler uniform came off, Chester's body, which had been hidden beneath the fabric, was revealed.
"Wh-what?! Oh?! Oh my!" Unlike when he wore the uniform, Chester's bare body was remarkably solid. His long limbs and broad shoulders formed a masculine, inverted triangle, and droplets of water ran down his skin, highlighting his sharply defined muscles.
"Oh, oh my... Eek!" For Monia, who had been raised under strict family supervision and had never even read the scandalous romance novels popular among noble ladies, this was the first "obscene" thing she had ever laid eyes on. Yes. To Monia, Chester's body looked incredibly obscene. An ordinary person might have stared at his chest, abs, or collarbone, but what caught Monia's gaze was Chester's arm. A thick, large, masculine hand with bulging veins, leading into his arm—specifically, his forearms. His thick arms, boasting prominent veins and clearly defined muscles, flexed and shifted shape with even the slightest movement of his hands.
"Heh, heheh..." Watching it, Monia felt her head grow strangely hot.
"What are you doing?"
"H-huh?!"
"What's wrong with you?"
"N-nothing? It's nothing at all?" Even as she stammered, Monia couldn't tear her eyes away from Chester's arms.
"M-more importantly, you! Have you no shame?! How can you just strip in front of someone else...!"
"I hate dying more than I hate being embarrassed." Chester grabbed a vine, tied it across the shelter to make a clothesline, and hung his wet clothes on it. He stripped off everything, down to his underwear and socks, exposing his completely naked body in front of Monia.
...!! Apparently, seeing a shirtless man was one thing, but a completely naked man was far too much. Monia had squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in her knees the moment Chester started taking off his trousers.
"Well... whatever. If you don't want to strip, don't. But if that's the case, stay as close to the fire as possible. Keep your body temperature up as much as you can."
"Y-yes. I got it..." Monia huddled closer to the campfire just as Chester said. Though she shivered from the cold wind and her wet clothes, being near the fire seemed to help a little. Watching her, Chester also warmed himself by the fire while staring at the pile of firewood.
...It's not enough. He didn't know how long this rain would last, but their current supply of firewood wouldn't be enough. The problem was that after gathering a massive amount of branches to build the shelter, he had grown complacent, thinking he wouldn't need to gather firewood for a while.
I should have prepared everything in advance. He never expected the weather to turn into a raging storm overnight. Chester furrowed his brow.
I knew the weather in the forest changed quickly. Moreover, he had often heard from people in coastal cities that ocean weather was highly unpredictable. But hearing about it and experiencing it were two entirely different things. Despite knowing this, Chester hadn't prepared for a change in weather at all. In truth, there was one more reason for this.
Is this the nature of the Floating Island? I didn't sense the rain coming at all. The unique nature of the island drifting across the sea had played a part. The rain clouds had been moving from the opposite direction of the island's path. As these two forces collided, the island was plunged into a sudden downpour.
Is Monia okay? Chester looked at Monia, who was shivering violently from the cold. Though she was warming herself by the fire, she still couldn't seem to overcome her wet body and the freezing wind.
"S-so cold..." Before he knew it, Monia's lips had turned a pale shade of blue.