Xhemin's slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw were blurred images. Her head was hurting severely and so was every part of his body. Her left arm too was pinned to her body, tied with a soft clothing. She was lying on a hard bed and the place smelt like a mixture of different kinds of leaves and smoke.

She tried to move even though she was in pain. It took her extra effort before she managed to sit up on the bed. Her head was so heavy and was throbbing that she had to rub her hands on to soothe the pain a little.

​​

A minute later and she heard something moved. Moving her head toward the direction of the sound, she saw a blurred image of a person moving toward her slowly.

"You are awake …." Somebody blurted out, the person's voice was familiar to Xhemin. She tried to find out who it was but her focus was fixated on her head that made her feel like she was spinning around.

"Here drink this…" The same person said and helped her drink something that only made her want to puke. The taste was so disgustingly bitter that Xhemin's face grimaced terribly.

"Don't spit it…" The person warned.

Xhemin thought she was going to feel worst with what she had drank but instead it stopped her head from hurting and gave her throat a cooling effect that felt like she had been refreshed. Few minutes from that, her blurred eyesight become clearer and she felt a little better.

"Professor Owens?" Xhemin blurted out when the old professor's face appeared in her line of sight.

"Silly child," The old man smirked and let out a little chuckle. He was glad that the girl woke up since he was starting to doubt her condition previously.

"Where am I?" She asked as she surveyed the place. The wall on the room where she was were made out of sticks put in together and the roof was made out of dried bamboo leaves. There was a window on the far left where a wind chime created from sea shells hung. She also noticed the cap where she drank the liquid professor Owen's gave her and realized it was a coconut shell cut in half.

"Where did you want to go?" Professor Owens answered her question with another question. Truth was he was testing the girl's sanity since few days ago she woke up in a not so good state of mind. Last night too, when her fever run high, she was screaming a boy's name.

"Am I in the Island?" She asked looking straight to her professor hoping that she will be answered with a yes. "In the Manggan Island…. Am I not?"

Professor Owens studied her reaction but didn't heed her question, instead he asked "Did your grandfather knew that you came here?"

"Grandfather?" hearing the words, Xhemin let go of a guilty look. He avoided the professor's eye and turned to fix her gaze at the window.

"Aih o!…" Professor's Owens eyebrows creased as she looked the girl as if she grew another arm. He already suspected that this escapade of her was something she did without parental consent "Don't tell me you left without your grandfather's permission?"

Xhemin didn't say a word.

"Why did you come here then? It must be for a very important that you have to risk your life just to get here" The professor started flooding her with questions, more like interrogating Xhemin's unruly actions "I had to treat you for six months and I already though that perhaps the next time we go an voyage with the Baruk to see your grandfather, I will already be carrying your dead body."

"Six months? Did you say six months?" Xhemin's eyes widened and her heart jolted.

"You heard it right"

"I was here for six months already?" The shock hit Xhemin like a rolling soccer ball hit her head. "How did you find me?"

"The Baruk sent you to me. The Gunta brought your body to him when they saw the sunstone hanging on your neck" he explained as he sit next to Xhemin. He realized that their conversation will probably take hours—they need a lot of catching up to do—provided with the fact that the girl had been unconscious for quite some time.

"What happened to me? What's with my arm" She asked as she looked at her bandaged arm.

"An arrow hit your left arm and your back. You were hit on the water so the wounds were not deep. However the arrows had poison so I had hard time treating you. I already asked the central village's doctor to help but…. " His last words reminded the professor of something so he paused and then continued his statement by changing the topic to something more important "By the way why are you here again?

Xhemin suddenly remembered her errand, "Where's my book?"

"What book?"

"The one that you gave me…"

"Ai oh! that one…." Professor Owen's stood on his knees and went to get something on the pile of boxes just few meters from Xhemin's bed.

"….It's right here. It was soaking wet when they handed it me. I let dry for few days and this is what's left of it. Still readable though but some pages were lost," He added and handed the book to the girl carefully.

Xhemin scanned through the pages using her unbandage arm and she was glad that the page she needed was still there. Some of the drawings were erased but the drawing of the plant she sought survived. She pointed at it "I'm looking for this plant"

"That plant…" Professor Owen's looked to the same page curious as to what the girl had for him.

"It looked like the Acamilla Apparaus," Xhemin blurted out explaining the matter to her professor "That's what I came here for"

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Gunta – Tribe warriors

Baruk – village leaders/ voyage leaders