I stood there defiantly, dick flapping in the wind. The rain poured down around me by the bucket full. Every droplet was heavy and painful. It splattered against my reddened skin and dripped off my body.

The waves stood tall and chaotic, having been whipped into a frenzy by the incoming storm. If I had been swimming in this a week ago, I would be dead, it was simply too choppy. The darkened clouds hung overhead like a blanket that covered the sky, black and filled with lightning.

In the distance, I could see a tube connecting the sea and sky, spinning clockwise as it sucked up millions of liters of water. Lightning crackled around the sky, unable to find purchase on land, bouncing around the clouds and casting strange shadows.

Totally a hurricane, but who cares?

"Come at me you windy bitch!"

My small makeshift shack creaked in disapproval of such ferocious wind. The hastily erected walls were poorly built; what did I look like, an engineer? It didn't help that my material of choice was rotting wood. That hadn't helped at all to foster its integrity. It was a crap home, but it was shelter.

Turtley sat safe and sound in a secure rock hut I had built him behind the waterfall. It turned out that there was a small cave behind it, going back a dozen meters or so. I gave him his own space, willing to live outside in the elements for him. I had made sure he had housing and safety before I. He nibbled on some leaves I gathered and relaxed, unperturbed by the chaos outside.

He totally caused this. He's a turtle, and they are agents of chaos!

I turned my attention back to the storm. The air was ripe with salt, bringing with it that beachy smell. I perched myself on the tallest rock by the shore, waves slamming against them, feeling like Simba overlooking his kingdom. This island was MINE and Turtley's. I can't let nature think I'm a wuss.

As if hearing my affirmation, lightning struck the beach a hundred meters from me. The sand exploded upwards from such ferocious electricity. The sand around the impact turned into fulgurites tubes, standing a meter and a half tall.

300 million volts and 30 thousand amps. Powerful shit.

I wouldn't let some static electricity and a bit of falling water push me around. Wind on the other hand... A gust of wind nearly knocked me off the rock, sending me to the very edge of stable ground.

I can take this. Anything else? Nature?

I cracked a smile as a bolt of lightning struck 30 meters from me. The shockwave blew out my eardrums and sent blood trickling down my neck. With the lightning this close, I could feel the ground current running underneath my feet. It was a numb feeling, physically locking my muscles before quickly dispersing.

My ear had stabbing pains going through them and everything was just a constant ringing.

Cool! A ruptured eardrum; it'll heal.

It hurt, but so breaking an arm and dislocating a shoulder; the physical pain wasn't that bad. I stood back up after falling and continued my screaming into the wind. It was freeing. I had always wanted to do this, but DAD said no every single time.

I held onto the rock and stood tall all night long, passing through the eye of the storm at one point. The inside of the tube was like nowhere else. In the very center of one of the most destructive forces nature can produce, it was perfectly calm. It was a small section of the world undisturbed by the fury of nature as it passed through.

Obviously, once the storm moved more, that same area would be exposed to the worse the hurricane had to offer, but still, at the moment it was beautiful and relaxing. A moment of peace.

I stood defiantly for a day and a half; my muscles completely drained and my mind tired. The storm had only been category 1, but even that was the very limit of what a human could withstand and not be killed without shelter of some kind.

I groggily trudged into Turtley's cave with a massive headache, sore muscles, and a shit-eating grin on my face. My ears still hadn't stopped ringing, but the noise died down a bit. I found my way over to my little buddy and rubbed my shaking hands over his shell.

"I did it; suck it, nature."

I snuggled up with my reptilian friend and took a nap. It was one of the best naps ever, just shy of every falling-asleep-in-the-car naps.

I woke up the next morning, starving from my insane activity. My first day on the island had been full of screaming and building. Other than my fairly shitty hut, I managed to build a fish catcher, after 6 iterations, with nothing but sticks. Thank you internet, I will be eternally grateful.

I strode over to it and plucked out a fish, still having two more stuck in my ingenious trap. I never built a fire, unable to get the spark necessary, so I could only eat the fish raw. I sat down on a rock and bit into the side of the still struggling fish. Blood gushed into my mouth along with a decent helping of scales.

I have grown to hate fish scales. They get stuck in my teeth like popcorn kernels. Otherwise, the fish was really tasty. It was the freshest sashimi I have ever eaten, earning it bonus points in that category.

I managed to only stab myself on a dozen fish bones before tossing the remaining carcass into the ocean. Circle of life. Some scavengers will probably take care of it for me.

On my walk back to the cave, I collected some healthy green leaves for Turtley to eat. Almost every plant I had seen on this island had massive foliage. I found out quickly that Turtley especially likes the leaves from higher up, seeing them like gold.

Turtley had woken up and walked out of his little rock hut. He seemed more and more intelligent ever since our little sand-laden tunnel tour. It was awesome to watch. Turtley, all on his own, walked up to me and rubbed his head against my bare feet.

In response, I laid down the prime leaves and watched his eyes glow in excitement. Leaves didn't particularly excite me, but I was happy for him nevertheless. We sat together and simply enjoyed each other's company.

The tunnel-sucking changed many things for me, and I loved every little difference. Especially the sky. That night, I looked up at the stars and moon. They shone brightly in the pollution-less sky; every cloud sucked away by the storm

"I wonder if this sky is actually from somewhere or if it's entirely fake."

Regardless, the night sky was amazing. It really showed how beautiful nature can get when left undisturbed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some smoke on my little island.

What is that?

I climbed up onto my Simba rock and looked towards the source of the smoke. It was a fire.

It's a campfire.

I jumped down from atop my rock and rolled to disperse to the force. I made sure Turtely stayed put while I ran towards the campfire. Why was there a fire on my island?

I knew the answers to my question and ran faster. I jumped over fallen logs and pushed through the endless leaves. The smoke in the sky helped me keep direction. I anticipated my arrival. Fire meant people, and people meant ships, and ships meant civilization.

I peered through the bushes at the edge of the campfire glow, looking at my guests.

In front of me, shivering around a campfire, were people. Dark Blue haired, tanned, muscular people. Men mostly, all looking fairly roughed up. Further beyond them was a beached ship, the hull having a large hole in it and the mast snapped in half.

The people that crashed were obviously sailors, wrecked here by the hurricane. The fact that they got a campfire going with all this wet wood was interesting. I definitely needed to ask about that later.

I watched from the bushes, silently grabbing a nice-sized pointy rock and preparing to greet the guests.

I stood as still as wood. The sailors seemed shook, not even thinking about sleep until all of them collapsed from exhaustion one after the other. They must have been trying to keep the boat from collapsing in on itself on the water for at least a day. I'm surprised they lasted long enough once beached to make a fire.

With them all asleep, I made my way over to their makeshift camp. I stood over them, my blue eyes shining in the light of the fire; my rock in hand, white-knuckled from the tight grip on it. My face was blank, uncaring for the action that would come next.