ISLE: Hermitage (Act I, Part VII)

Marlowe builds a proper home-base & goes a little loopy

1000 words, ~5 minute read
Recommended listening while you read: The Lighthouse by Daniel Herskedal
Day 2 on the island, evening

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The afternoon clouded over, and everything went still. The tide settled into a slow, gentle lapping against the beach. Further out in the water, the waves had all but disappeared. Everything went silent again. Even the breeze had stopped. It was as if someone had hit pause on the entire world.

A part of me wanted to explore. I might find something that could help with building a more reliable shelter. Maybe I could even find an existing cave. If I came up short though, I risked sleeping in the cramped lean-to again. I needed a stable home-base before I started wandering into uncharted territory...

I went to work pulling apart last night’s shelter. There was a hint of sadness as I did. It had kept me dry, but if another storm like that rolled in tonight, I needed something more durable. And more comfortable.

I was forced to rely on my intuition. All that time drawing maps as a kid, not a lot of fort-building for wee Marlowe... Only one way to figure it out. I started by expanding my work area. After disassembling the old shelter and piling the fronds off to one side, I used my axe, which was in pretty rough shape, to clear the brush from an area between four larger trees. This took time, and according to the pack, my axe was down to its last sliver of durability once I finished.

I found another long, flat rock, got down on all fours, and scraped the ground with it. This turned the soil so that I had a nice clearing. With the area bare, I went back and forth between the beach and the shelter, collecting as many rocks as I could find. Each trek to the beach was easy. Easy trek back, with a backpack loaded up, was a slog. It felt like I was being dragged downward, as though gravity got stronger, when I had the backpack full. I lined the perimeter with stones. Keep the critters out. Still had seen no critters, though...

I walked back to the Kehra trees that I’d chopped down. I carried both of the skinny trees back to my ‘yard‘. I lashed the first horizontally between two of the larger palm trees. The first I tied as high as possible, on my tiptoes, which was awkward. Holding up one side of a tree, even a skinny one, with one arm fully extended, and trying to tie a tight knot with the other hand wasn’t easy. I got it done. The second Kehra tree went up parallel to the first, between the opposite palm trees. I didn’t strain so much this time because I wanted the roof to have a slope to this side. I lashed it a few inches lower than the first.

That’d do. With two rails hung between the trees, it was just a matter of putting down layer after layer of palm fronds across them to create a roof. For durability’s sake, I tied the fronds down on the higher side, so that storm winds couldn’t blow them away. I found long sticks to use for the short sides, and then hung fronds down from the rails to make walls on all sides. I left a small gap in the hanging palm fronds on one short side to use as a doorway. By the end of the afternoon, I had a pretty fancy-looking shelter. I stood back and admired my handiwork.

“Not bad for an indoor kid.”

{+5 Base-building}
{+3 Comfort}

“Hey, can I see the totals of all my points?!...”

The bag slumped in the evening sun. Its vents clicked shut. Nope. I spent the rest of the day braiding twine and half-successfully weaving it into a hammock that hung diagonally across the middle of the shelter, between two corner trees. I also tied a hooked stick to a tree to hang the backpack on. It had all really come together. I climbed into the hammock, tensed & unsure that it was strong enough to hold my weight. When it did, my entire body relaxed. I had a hammock. Inside a shelter! I could feel my nerves going still for the first time since I’d landed. My mind went blank as I rested my head back. Today held no more tasks to be done. I tensed every muscle one by one just to release them all and feel the stress leave.

“Aughhh yeuuuhh.”

The lapping waves had stopped entirely. The sky was a placid gray curtain. My body was quiet. Absolute calm. Just the slow swinging of my hammock against the tree bark.

And then it grew. Involuntarily. All that energy that I’d released came rushing back and burst out of my lungs as maniacal laughter. I couldn’t stop it. The levee broke and euphoria poured in.

“I’ve got a house! Ahahaha!”

For five good minutes, I belted it out into the quiet of the island. Drunk on laughter. Wheezing in between the outbursts.

“I built a house, backpack!”

The sun set over the water, and the world turned orange. Still I chortled until my stomach hurt. It rang out across the open water. The laughter got so out of control that I started to cough.

“I’m gonna sleep so good tonight!”

I almost wanted it to rain as I lay in the shelter. I wanted to put it to the test. The evening remained eerily calm. The sun disappeared over the ocean. I tried for a long while to make fire by rubbing two sticks together, but I got nowhere with it. I decided it was best to conserve my energy and enjoy my hammock. Just as I began to drift off, I heard the thuds again. One, two, and three. This time I was quick. I was on my feet and out the ‘door‘ as soon as I heard the first sky message land.

[LEFT]

[DAYS]

[22]

“Ha!” I said triumphantly. “Gotcha!”

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Thanks for reading.

Next instalment to be published June 18th, 2026.

Author Notes

I hope that this instalment is able to enamour readers to Marlowe a little. It’s often a hard balance to strike, charming versus insane. The outburst of laughter at the end is something I’ve done, and I feel like it’s an honest reaction when the stress of a situation wanes for a moment. You either fall apart or you get a little manic. I hope it comes through.

Another part of my goal here was to really paint a picture for readers. I want them to feel like they’ve built Marlowe’s shelter in there own minds. It will be our a touchstone for the course of the book, so it was important for me to describe how it’s built in a tangible, imaginable way.

Your thoughts on any of the above are much appreciated! See you in the comments.