I would love to expand on this story, adding much more detail and hone in on the different voices of Lisa and David. I think I fell a little flat this week and I am going to blame it on procrastination AND the parameters of the assignment needing to be two pages max! I can do better than this 🫣 Instead of keeping this story to myself and trying to “make it better” before I publish on this blog, I am going to go ahead and share as is. My professor already graded it, gave me full credit and valuable feedback. So here is a story from two different points of view. Who should the land pirates actually be? What kind of relationship should be happening between Lisa and David, who are they? Why are they there and why are they not afraid?

Lisa and David

                                  Lisa
	We hadn’t encountered anyone at all since we began our trek five days ago. We had been told by several people from different villages to watch out for them, that they would try and rob us and maybe even worse. For some reason the warnings didn’t scare David, maybe because he is 6 foot 5 inches tall and has a hard time finding shirts that fit his arms. The false sense of security I had while being with him became clear that evening. 
	I made an amateur mistake of rolling my ankle trying to quickly hop over some slick boulders. It felt like there was a break or two somewhere in the tiny bones of my foot. I tried continuing on but the pain and swelling kept getting worse. We decided to make camp at the edge of the forest where we could see the vast grassy hillside we would climb the next day to get to the village that was below. David said it didn’t look too far. He wanted to run to the top of the hill and get a better look at what we had ahead of us. I asked him not to leave me but he insisted that it would be ok because we would have a line of sight to one another the whole time. He just wanted to go look. Nothing about this backpacking trip has felt right to me.
	He said he would be back before sunset and we would eat dinner. I watched as he jogged away. Two hours passed and although I could still see him, he was now so far that he looked like an ant on the hill. I don’t think either of us realized how far and how large that hillside was. 
	As I watched David through my binoculars, I heard the snap of twigs and footsteps behind me.  I held still, nervous for what was making the noise. I watched David stop, he held his binoculars up to look back at me. Suddenly he dropped them and started to jump up and down waving his arms in the air. I could tell he was yelling but he was so far I couldn’t hear him. I was still frozen, listening to the quiet footsteps approaching me.


                               David
       I couldn’t believe Lisa rolled her ankle. She is the most capable and physically fit woman I know. It seemed like the villagers stories of the land pirates got to her. I told her those were myths, tall tales, and that we were more in danger in the actual village than we would be in the wilderness. I could tell she was doubting me and doubting herself. 
       We went as far as we could with her limping through the pain. I could see her ankle and foot blowing up. I knew we would be approaching the edge of the forest soon so I suggested we rest there. As the trees cleared, the view of the meadow sweeping up the steep hillside was breathtaking. I knew the next village was just beyond the crest and I wanted to see if there would be more bouldering on the way down. 
       She didn’t want me to go. I asked her what she thought would happen? There was no one out there. I wanted her to have confidence in me again, I wanted her to feel like we were safe and that I was taking care of her. It wasn’t that far and we would be able to see each other the whole time. I really didn’t think it would be a big deal so I told her I would be back in time for us to eat dinner and I took off running. 
       It had been maybe an hour of running and I was barely even halfway up the hillside. I kept stopping to look back at Lisa and at a certain point I had to start using my binoculars to see her. I felt kind of stupid for underestimating the distance of the hilltop. 
       The sun was lowering and she was almost in the shadow of the hillside now. Catching my breath, I watched her through my binoculars and wondered if I should turn back. I had the feeling she was not happy, I could see her lips scrunched up into a scowl. Then I noticed flashes of light behind her, the sun was reflecting off of something moving. Scanning with the binoculars I could see three people moving slowly towards Lisa. They were dressed unlike anything I have ever seen, they blended into the forest except for the little flashes of lights dangling from their tasseled cloaks. The way they moved towards her scared me, almost like an animal sneaking up on it’s prey. I dropped my binoculars and frantically jumped up and down waving my arms shouting her name, yelling for her to turn around, to get up, to do something. There was no way I could get to her before they did. 

Thanks for reading,
Jen

OkayestJen’s quadruple shot of espresso on ice, sugar free vanilla syrup – topped off with a Nurri protein shake. Is this what writers drink?