skerrick
[sker-ik]
1. a small piece or quantity; a bit: Not even a skerrick of cake was left.
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Lance wearily dumped the small number of tiny berries onto a
leaf and collapsed onto the sand. The
sun beat down on him, but he had long since stopped caring. It wasn’t like he had any sun block.
“That’s
it?” Wendy asked, looking at the tiny bit of food.
“Yeah,
that’s it.”
“Please
tell me you’re joking. Please, please
tell me you’ve got something else hidden somewhere?”
“Nope,
sorry. That’s it.”
Wendy
groaned. The way things were going for
them, they wouldn’t last much longer.
The island looked so lush and green, they had thought there wouldn’t be
any problems finding food. And yet, they
had quickly found that most of what they saw was inedible.
“Can’t
you go fishing or something?”
“There
aren’t any. Not unless we go back out
there.”
Wendy
looked out onto the ocean. It looked
calm and peaceful, but she knew otherwise.
After the number of storms the two of them had been through, she had no
desire to head back out unless it was something much larger and more stable
than their small life raft.
“Are
you sure?” She asked.
“I’ve
looking in all the ponds I could find.
There aren’t any fish in any of them.
Maybe we could try and comb the beach for shellfish, but that’s about
it.”
“Great. Tiny bits of crab, or tiny bits of
berries. Yay.”
“It’s
better than nothing.” Lance said.
He didn’t believe his own
words. The tiny portions wouldn’t even
be enough for a child, let alone two adults.
The tiny number of berries wouldn’t be nearly enough to hold back starvation. In fact, it was almost worse than having no
food at all, since all it did was remind them of how hungry they were.
“Uh huh.”
They sat in silence, more out of
some misguided attempt to conserve energy than anything else. Neither of them wanted to be out in the hot
sun, but they lacked the energy needed to move.
It was a wonder Lance had managed to gather as much as he had.
“You know, I read somewhere that
ants and grasshoppers and stuff are edible.” He said eventually.
“Oh god, you’re not seriously
suggesting we eat bugs, are you?”
“It’s food. And it’s just about the only source of it
that we know is plentiful. So yeah, I am
suggesting we eat bugs. We can gather
them up and cook them or something.”
“We are not eating bugs.”
“We have to eat something.”
“There has to be something on this
island other than bugs and berries to eat.
I mean, there’s got to be birds or something at the very least.”
“I haven’t seen or heard any birds
since we got here. And even if there
were, how would we catch them?”
Wendy didn’t answer. She knew he was right. They hadn’t seen any wildlife that had less
than six legs since they washed up on the island. It was unsettling who quiet the place
was.
“Okay, fine, we can try it.” She said with a sigh.
Lance did not look happy with his
victory. They might have had a source of
food, but that didn’t mean it would be pleasant. Plus, the small size of their new food source
made them only slightly better than the berries. But, it was indeed something. Something that would hopefully see them to
their rescue, if it ever came.
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Getting stuck on an island sounds terrible, especially if there's no food. With food, it would at least be tolerable for a while, but even then, it'd suck. Even if you prefer being alone, it'd get to you sooner or later.
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