After being led through dense forest and up into a small cove of stone. They arrived at what looked like a village. Long, raised huts made from various plants woven together filled up the stone-walled cove. In the center of the cove was a large pit filled with charred wood and above it was metal rods for hanging things on. People of various looking backgrounds were lazing around the village as we entered, paying us no mind.

Eli led them up to one of the huts which had some smoke coming through a makeshift chimney in the center of it. Letting Last resort inside through a fabric door into a large room with several bunk beds made from wood and topped with various furs and fabrics. Others had woven beds that looked like wicker and there were even some woven rope hammocks. 

“Wait here for a second, Last.” Eli said before walking through another fabric door towards the center of the hut. As Last waited he heard what sounded like arguing in Portuguese followed by a loud crash.

   “Alright, you can come in.” Eli said after the crash took place.

Walking through the fabric door he saw that the room was like a kitchen of sorts. A poorly made stone chimney sat in the center of the area away from everything else. Unlike the other room, this one had a stone floor and a few pots and pans were hung around the edge of the room. Sitting on the floor next to Eli was the source of the crash. A clay pot that was shattered into several pieces and covered in steamy fragrant water. Looking past Eli and the crash was a man sitting on a stone bench with a tired look on his face. 

   “Last, this man here is the luckiest or perhaps unluckiest man on the island. Though, that depends on who you ask, Antonio Santo’s. He’s our leader.” Eli said in a nonchalant way.

   “Nice to meet you.” Last said, extending my hand out to him. As soon as I did his face twisted a bit in disgust and he refused to shake Last Resort’s hand. Eli thought this was a bit funny and let out a small chuckle.

   “What’s so funny?” Last asked him.

   “Whenever he touches someone he can take their luck from them in return for his bad luck. He can also do the opposite. However, he hates doing it because if he is having a bad luck streak like he is now then it will transfer to you. He’s a very caring guy but it usually costs him.” Eli said.

   “Okay, then why didn’t he say that?” I asked.

   “Because he only speaks some English. He’s from Brazil and mainly speaks Portuguese. I can speak a little bit but his translator is currently trading with another faction on the island. So until then all I can do is give an introduction.” Eli said with a carefree tone. Just as he said this, Antonio grabbed Eli’s hand with a wry smile. 

   “W-wait, no… I swear I wasn’t making fun of you!” Eli sputtered out as he pulled his hand away. Though, it was too late. Eli instantly stubbed his toe against the doorway in his attempt to escape and fell on his face in pain. 

Without saying anything else Antonio stood up, gave Last Resort a nod, and left the hut. Eli on the other hand laid on the floor with a pained look on his face. After a few seconds, he rolled over onto his back only to slam his elbow into the stone chimney. Letting out a mix of pained moans before eventually getting over it and sitting up. 

   “Just to explain, he took my luck and gave me his bad luck. It doesn’t look like I’m going anywhere for a while so you might as well get comfortable.” Eli said.

   “Why exactly do I have to hang around with you?” Last Resort asked with a bit of concern in his voice.

   “Because I was supposed to show you around. If I’m not with you then people will think that you're a spy or worse. They would most likely kill you, or at the very least, torture you.” Eli said as he tried to relax on the floor.

   “What the hell kind of place is this?” Last asked with a somewhat terrified tone.

   “Despite what I just said, this place is probably the most peaceful on this God-forsaken island. A lot of the other factions are run with power being the key factor in who runs them. Unlike us, who voted in our leader based on talent, brains, and willpower.” Eli replied casually.

   “Is he really that great?” Last asked.

   “In terms of talent, he happens to be a great strategist but unlike a good part of the island who doesn’t trust anyone, he gathers the wisest among us to make plans with him. I guess that ties into brains. His other talents are mainly leadership skills. As for his willpower, would you want to take on the bad luck of others onto yourself so that others may succeed? Probably not. He doesn’t even think twice about it and now we are getting an abundance of fish.” Eli explained as he thought. 

After that, they sat around without saying anything. The quiet nature of it made it a little uncomfortable but Last didn’t mind it. After the whole incident with the drone, he didn’t want anything exciting to happen. Eli on the other hand was starting to lose it. He didn’t enjoy it being quiet. Because quiet meant something was wrong. It was never quiet on the island, not even for a few seconds. It wasn’t that anything bad was happening at the moment but it did cause a sense of unease. 

   “Damn it! I’m sick of this! Screw this bad luck, I’ve got to do something! Follow me.” Eli spouted before getting up and walking carefully through the fabric door, through the rows of bunks, and outside. Surprisingly, he didn’t hurt himself through all of this. It was only after he made it outside that he caught his shoe on basically nothing and fell into the sand.

   “I feel like Antonio’s power isn’t that great.” Last said as he watched Eli lie in the sand with a defeated look.

   “You would think that but Antonio is a long stronger than people give him credit for.” Eli said as a large man wearing an apron and a straw hat came up to Eli.

He looked to be twice our age with a long grey beard and incredibly tan skin. Some parts of him were so tanned that his skin was cracking. He was wearing leather overalls without a shirt and flip-flops which made his muscles look even bigger than if he was wearing a shirt. 

   “I see that Antonio gave you some bad luck. What did you do this time?” the old man asked Eli. This time? Last order thought to himself.

   “Nothing. I think he misinterpreted something. Though, I wanted to ask you if you could make a trigger and firing system for this gun?” Eli asked as he pulled the gun he got off the drone out of his backpack and threw it in front of him. 

   “Probably, but it’s gonna cost you some. Also, you probably shouldn’t even be touching this thing until your bad luck wears off.” the old man said as he looked over the gun.

   “Yeah, you mind holding onto it for me until then? I’ll pay you however you want after the firing mechanism is made.”  Eli said as he got up.

   “Sure, though who is the kid?” the old man asked as he gave Last order a look.

   “Oh, Last, he’s some fresh meat that I picked up. Don’t worry, I think the boss likes him.” Eli said. The old man looked me up and down before holding his hand out to me.

   “Welcome to the island, kid. The name is James Turner. I hope you don’t die too soon.” the old man said with an enthusiastic smile as if that was supposed to make Last Resort feel better. 

   “Anyways, I gotta get back to work. It seems the boar haven’t been breeding as much as they should this season and so The Cells have been charging double the trade value for boar meat. I need to make more pots and pans to trade with them if I want any boar meat.” James said before walking off. 

   “Please try and get that firing mechanism made.” Eli said as he started to walk away. Though James only gave a wave that didn’t indicate whether he was going to work on it or not. 

After that introduction, Eli led Last Resort over to another long hut. Like the one before it had several bunks made from various different materials. The only thing that was different was that the room had a clay bath. Water came in through a clay fixture on the top of the wall into a small pool surrounded by several crude cups. The pool would overflow into a decent-sized bath with a small hole in the wall to prevent it from overflowing onto the floor. Attached to the bath was a chimney so that it could be used to heat the water. Although it was a crude design, it seemed functional.

   “As you can tell the top pool is for drinking and the tub is for bathing. It’s a communal bath though so don’t take your time in here. Other people need to bathe too. Also, your bed will be in that room.” Eli said as he pointed through the door to the room on the other side of the hut. We don’t have enough supplies to make a room for everyone so everything is pretty communal. Thankfully, this hut is fairly new so no one has really claimed a bed in there other than myself. Though I won a bed in there by drawing straws.” Eli said as he sat against the side of the tub… or at least, that’s what he thought he was doing. With bad luck came clumsiness so he ended up falling back into the tub with a look of “oh, so this is how I die”. 

Last Resort quickly pulled him out of the tub and onto the floor. Eli, unable to deal with this anymore laid on the floor sopping wet with a tired look. To fix this Eli let out a slight chuckle.

   “I guess you made me wet?” Eli said before his chuckle turned into laughter. Last Resort just stood there with a look of bitterness.

   “Well, at least you can joke about this. Can’t Antonio just take the bad luck back now? This is starting to get annoying.” Last Resort asked.

   “He could but I don’t mind too much. He takes on bad luck nearly every day so it’s about time someone else here did as well. Now I need to get to my bed so I can get out of these clothes.” Eli said before getting up and walking through the doorway to the next room. 

This room was no different from any of the other bunk rooms. The only problem was that it was barren. Only one bed had anything on it, which Last Resort assumed was Eli’s. What looked to be a woven mat and a thin cloth blanket covered the bunk. Hanging from the side of the bunk was a sack that looked like it had seen its fair share of use. As soon as he got to his bunk, Eli reached into the sack and pulled out a white tee shirt and some shorts.

   “Do you mind?” Eli asked as he noticed that Last Resort was still standing there oblivious to the fact that he was about to strip.

   “Oh, right. Sorry.” Last Resort said apologetically before going back into the bathroom.  

After a few minutes, Eli emerged from the room wearing the tee tied on the side to expose his stomach. Without the military pants, he exposed his calves to be pasty white in comparison to his tanned upper body. The exception being his feet which only emphasized how untanned his legs were. They were almost blinding. Last Resort did his best to not look directly at them but it didn’t matter. Eli saw his gaze for a millisecond and realized exactly what he was looking at.

   “Oh, let me fix that.” Eli said right before his pasty legs turned the same tanned color as the rest of his body.

   “What, the, fu-” Last Resort began saying in shock before Eli interrupted him. 

   “My ability is called Mimic. That explain it enough?”

   “Not really. Does this mean that you can mimic other people?” 

   “Look, most people on the island would kill someone for asking them what their ability is. I told you Antonio’s because most of the island already knows what it is anyways. He doesn’t exactly care anyways. I, on the other hand, do.” Eli said with an almost threatening glare.

   “I get it. Better to keep those sort of things to yourself.” Last replied apologetically. 

   “Well, we should get going anyways. Dinner should be arriving soon and those who don’t fish prepare it. You ever cook before?” Eli asked.

   “I don’t know. Maybe?” Last Resort replied while raising his arms in an I don’t know gesture.

   “Well get ready to learn.” Eli said before walking through the hut and back outside.

As the two walked outside Eli bumped into an older black woman in her early fifties wearing a flowing shirt and long thin baggie pants. Her hair was dreaded and bound into a ponytail that draped over her shoulder. 

   “Sorry about that Adimu. Antonio gave me some bad luck and it hasn’t worn off yet.” Eli said with a bow. Adimu nodded before looking over at Last Resort with a questionable look.

   “Who is this?” Adimu asked.

   “This is Last resort. He was just released onto the island and I figured he could join us. I already introduced him to Antonio.” Eli replied. Adimu eyed Last Resort up and down before turning back to Eli.

   “I see. Speaking of Antonio. Do you know where he is? He promised me a massage when I got back and I intend to enjoy every second of it.” Adimu asked with a little too much information.

   “I have not. He gave me his bad luck and left.” 

   “Alright then. He’s probably at the beach making sure that the fish gets brought in properly.” Adimu said with a sigh. “Anyways, I’ll see you two later. I’m pretty sure that Antonio would like to talk to you about this newcomer in a language you can understand as soon as possible.” with that Adimu headed off towards the beach.

   “Who was that?” Last Resort asked.

   “That was Adimu, our translator. She’s also Antonio’s lover.” Eli said.

   “That makes sense. Now, where do we go to prepare the food?” Last Resort asked.

   “Oh, right. We’ll just wait over here for them to bring the fish.” Eli replied before leading him over to a canopy-covered cabana or sorts. Several tables sat under it with various knives and a washbasin for fish cleaning.