“Not today,” I said, reluctantly pulling out of her and dragging us both into the water to rinse off. “I need to find us a little more dietary variety, so I’m hiking today. You wanted to finish your weaving.”
We walked hand in hand up the beach to the shelter. I kissed her forehead before getting ready to head off. I grabbed the plastic bags from the raft and Raine’s swimsuit-turned-net and shoved them in the pockets of my cargo shorts. I reminded Raine to stay the fuck out of the sun because her skin was still really dry. I didn’t care how much she liked to tan; I wasn’t taking a chance on her burning. If I had to warn her again about how dangerous sunburn could be, I was going to lose it. She rolled her eyes at me and claimed she was the wrong skin type to burn that easily, which drove me nuts, but at least she agreed to stay near the shelter. She was working on weaving some mats to sit on and was talking about trying to make plates as well.
“Be back soon?”
“Three hours,” I said. “Maybe more. When I clocked it, the walk across the island west to east was about fifty minutes. I think north to south is closer to an hour and a half, and I’m heading south. I’ll be back before supper, though.”
“There’s plenty of fish,” Raine nodded towards the drying racks I had constructed. The hanging strips of fish had become our primary food source.
“Yeah, that’s why I’m going to look for something else.”
I kissed her once more on her lips, forcing myself away before I became too involved. If I lingered for even a couple extra ones, I’d have her naked on her back again within a few minutes and I’d never get her something better to eat. I didn’t care so much about my own nutrition, but I had to think about what she needed. Even though I had taken her in the sand less than an hour ago, I always seemed to be ready for more.
The jungle south of the cliff was still unexplored, and I was hoping I'd find something else to eat there. She hadn't actually said anything, but I could still tell Raine was as sick of seafood and coconuts as I was. I hadn't mentioned it, but we were also in serious need of some more dietary diversity. There wasn't enough nutrition in what we had been eating. We needed some plant variety, and I was hoping to find that as well. I marched my way into the jungle, turning south and marking my path with notches in the trunks of trees I passed.
I lucked out pretty quickly on the first find – sweet almonds. Fat and protein were definite plusses, though these were still under-ripe. In a few weeks they would taste a lot better, but I wasn’t about to wait that long, though, so I collected a couple handfuls. Later, I found a large stand of canna lilies and dug up the root stalks. They could be mashed into meal, combined with water, and boiled to make something kind of like oatmeal that would at least fill up your stomach. There were a ton of them, too. We were going to need the carbs, so I dug up a lot of them before moving a little deeper into the jungle.
“Oh yeah!” I actually yelled out loud, frightening a small group of colorful birds from their perches up above my head. I had to stop myself from performing an actual John Paul-style fist pump. I ran the last few steps and dropped to my knees next to a vine covered in light green, three-pronged leaves that reminded me of spearheads. I ran my hand down the thick, prickly stalk until I found where it went into the ground and immediately started to dig. Within a few minutes of digging in the soft sand, my hands were full of thin, somewhat underdeveloped tubers – tropical sweet potatoes.