Eventually the pools grew more shallow and then petered out. The narrow beach beyond the pools was a mixture of gray sand and rocks. Just past the beach, a wall of huge trees rose. It looked almost impenetrable.

Where was I?

Shock gave way to anger.

Graham. I’d gone out of my way to be nice to him. I’d felt sorry for him. I’d invented excuses for him. And all the while, he’d been plotting to send Justine to this place. Why?

I looked around, half-expecting Limu to show up and roast me alive, but I was alone.

After a while, I took my clothes off and wrung them out as best I could, then put them back on. After I’d done that, I sat down on the sand with my back against a rock and waited for someone to come get me.

It took me too long to admit that no one was coming.

I huddled on the beach, getting rained on, for the rest of that day and the whole night. By the middle of the night, I was so cold I had to get up and jog in place.

As the wee hours of the morning ticked by, my anger at Graham was replaced by fear. Fear became terror. Then I succumbed to despair. Finally, having run through all my emotions, I went numb.

Near dawn, the demands of my cold, thirsty body forced themselves front and center. The numbness receded, replaced by pragmatism. Clearly, I couldn’t stay where I was. I needed water, I needed shelter, and I needed help. In comparison, my emotional life didn’t matter.

I’d already seen that walking along the beach would be impossible. The cove lay between two rocky promontories, and I sure wasn’t going to try climbing one of them. It would have to be the forest. Hopefully, I’d find a road quickly.

At first light, I gathered some dead wood and made an arrow pointing toward the trees. They’d probably send a tracker after me. If they didn’t, at least there’d be some sign I’d been here. Then I headed in.

The forest was like nothing I’d seen before. Huge pine trees shot straight up to a canopy far above. All the branches below the canopy were needleless and coated in hanging moss. The trees grew very close together, so that the dead, mossy branches intertwined. Many of the trunks hosted brightly colored lichens. The ground was covered in moss and dense ferns. There were insects everywhere. Some were startlingly large. Several times, a massive dragonfly hovered in front of me, as though checking me out. Lizards, snails, and frogs were also abundant.

Almost immediately, I found rainwater that had collected in a pocket between two roots. I kept moving uphill and was rewarded with more fresh water. In fact, there were pools and rivulets everywhere. Check one necessity off the list.