2 Exploring The Island And Part One Of The First Challenge

Aoife was currently walking through the woods, creating a mental map of the island as he went along. (Image here.)

He took notice of any regions that could come in handy as he explored. Before leaving the camp, Aoife had heard the grumblings of the other contestants as they talked about the camp's food.

So, Aoife decided he'd set up some traps along his exploration in areas near water sources as well as where groups of animal tracks seemed to meet up.

He put some simple snare traps around the dens of squirrels and other small creatures.

While also placing some deadfall traps around areas that animal tracks could be seen to frequently visit. Now all Aoife had to do was wait and prey that a bear didn't decide to ruin his traps, or at least not all of them.

As Aoife explored the island, he seemed to be picking up a rather strange list of objects and placing them in a clearing he found, those being: Large rocks that weighed from five-twenty pounds, rather wide sticks that were around 8 feet long (244cm), some small pointed rocks, some string-like fiber he had collected from dead trees, as well as a small boulder that weighed around 60 pounds.

Feeling he had managed to explore a decent chunk of the island, Aoife finally stopped his exploration and returned to the clearing. "I've probably only got a little bit of time left 'till the first competition starts, so I'll work on the easiest of my projects!" Aoife said, exhilarated at the freedom he currently had.

Wasting no time, Aoife grabbed one of the large sticks he had brought, it was around 8 feet in length with a width of about 5 inches. Grabbing one of the sharp rocks he had, Aoife began to hollow out one end of the stick.

After around what felt like five minutes, Aoife felt he had created a big enough hole, Aoife grabbed another of his pointed rocks before placing the non-pointed side in, creating a make-shift spear. Grabbing some of the fiber, Aoife tied the rock and stick together tightly, giving the spear a few thrusts to ensure its stability, before nodding in satisfaction.

Realizing he still had time left, Aoife decided to check over his traps to see if any had caught anything. The first four traps he checked showed no results, but upon checking the fifth trap, Aoife noticed that the rock he had placed for his deadfall trap had fallen.

Rushing over, Aoife picked up the stone to reveal a squirrel which had been crushed to death by the stone. Eyes shining in excitement, Aoife picked up the squirrel, rushing over to his clearing where he started a fire and cooked the squirrel before eating it.

~~15 Minutes Later~~

Aoife could currently be seen lounging in his clearing, a look of satisfaction on his face. Before him, a fire could be seen along with a pile of bones; Aoife had decided to keep the bones, thinking he may be able to make something useful out of them.

Just then, a loud siren could be heard along with Chris' voice, something that instantly snapped Aoife to attention.

Aoife snapped to his feet, rushing at his fastest speed back toward camp. Along the way, he had made cuts every ten or so trees so he could find his way back but other people wouldn't be able to easily find his location.

In about three minutes, Aoife was with the other group of competitors, standing before Chris as he began to lead them somewhere. Aoife could feel the gazes of a few people on his figure as they scrutinized him, clearly noticing his previous absence.

Still, Aoife pretended not to notice these gazes, staying completely middle of the pack as he followed Chris up a mountain he had yet to explore.

Aoife had already decided, he didn't want to stand out until he was at least out of the cabins, only then could he feel secure enough to completely show off. However, while Aoife didn't plan to show off, he also wouldn't put up a weak front.

Along the way up, Aoife examined the tracks as well as the environment they passed by, trying to memorize as much as possible. While doing this, he noticed that he wasn't alone in his thoughts; Aoife could see the figure of the ginger Amazoness who was on the opposite team as she seemed to be examining the forest as well.

Izzy seemed to notice his gaze as she turned around to look at him, the expression she was making only describable as that of a predator meeting another.

This caused Aoife to look away, trying to seem cowed by Izzy's rather forceful attitude.

At this point, Chris had lead them to the top of the mountain as he began to tell them the challenge they would be faced with.

"Your first task is to jump off this 1000 foot high cliff into the lake. If you look below, you'll notice two areas. In the wider area represents the part of the lake we have stocked with psychotic, man-eating sharks." Chris said, laughing, before he continued on.

"Inside that area is a safe zone, that's your target area, which we're pretty sure is shark free."

The end of Chris' sentence seemed to cause a wave of outrage among the contestants, the less athletic of the bunch seeming quite worried of the uncertainty in Chris' words.

Aoife on the other hand, just raised an eyebrow in astonishment at the incompetence of this shows host.

"With each member of your team that actually jumps and," at this point, Chris held a dramatic pause before continuing, "survives. There will be a crate of supplies waiting below." Chris said as he seemingly pointed in a random direction, where Aoife assumed the supplies to be.

Chris continued on, "Inside each crate are supplies that you'll need for the second part of the challenge, building a hot tub. The team with the best one gets to have a wicked, hot tub party tonight. The losers," Here, Chris took another half-second pause to build up suspension.

"Will be sending someone home." Chris finished, laughingly.

Let's see, Killer Bass, you're up first." Chris said, looking toward the team opposite Aoife's own.

Aoife was happy the other team went first, feeling this would put as little lime-light on himself as possible.

After a little internal struggle, the first of the opposing team to go was the blonde surfer Bridgette. Their nerves seemingly lessening from Bridgette's jump, the rest of her team soon followed.

There were now a total of four figures from the other team still atop the mountain, DJ, Ezekiel, Harold, and Courtney. The closest figure to the edge was DJ, who after a brief moment of staring over it, decided to give up.

Chris introduced the chicken feature afterwards, having DJ wear a chicken hat to showcase his cowardice. Afterwards, both Harold and Ezekiel jumped. All that was left was Courtney, who seemed almost thrilled to give her answer of chickening out, but not before insulting the Screaming Gophers.

This was when Chris realized another member had still yet to jump, this namely being Sadie. Looking over, Aoife could see her and her friend Katie holding hands, arguing for them to be on the same team.

Eventually, the only other orangette within the competition offered to swap places with Katie, joining the Screaming Gophers.

(Re-watching this scene, it doesn't actually make much sense. Chris says that there's one more person on the Killer Bass who has yet to jump, but if that's the case then how is Izzy still on the mountain?)

Aoife felt a chill run down his spine as he turned to see Izzy staring at him, giving off a rather predatory look.

Both Sadie and Katie happily jumped over the edge of the cliff together.

It was now the turn of the Screaming Gophers, an argument ensued between Lashawna and Heather, arguing on whether Heather would jump or not.

Rolling his eyes in annoyance, Aoife decided to avoid the argument entirely by brusquely walking to the cliffs edge, and jumping down it.

What Aoife didn't see with his back turned, was Izzy jumping after him, her eyes shining with glee.

Aoife managed to easily hit the direct center of the circle, feeling no need to hide his accuracy considering his team was busy arguing. Raising up out of the water, Aoife was surprised to see a rather crazy-looking face staring back at him.

Giving her a deep look, the expression on Aoife's face changed from a neutral one to a scowl of annoyance, the look in his eyes changing to hold a manic look within. With her previous actions as well as his own feelings surrounding her, Aoife could already guess that she must know him from somewhere.

Giving her a look of irritation, Aoife climbed onto the yacht before reaching his hand out to help her up. With her previous actions, Aoife assumed she must want to talk to him about something alone. "So, what is it that you want to know about me so badly you've been practically stalking me for the past day?"

Aoife asked, his tone not even attempting to conceal his annoyance at her insistent irritating behavior. Izzy seemed to see through his attitude, her look becoming one that was a bit more serious. The look in her eyes gradually changed, coming to match Aoife's own.

"I saw you." She said, continuing on, "Exploring the forest and creating traps. You're not as average as you're letting on." She said, her tone a calm one.

Aoife raised a brow, as if asking her 'So?', something she seemed to easily pick up on. Eyes lighting up in clear amusement, Izzy continued on, "You feel familiar, and I like that look in your eye. I was wondering if you and I knew each other, but it seems that you don't know either."

Izzy said, her tone confident, as if her answer couldn't possibly be wrong.

The annoyance Aoife was feeling dissipated upon noticing that she wasn't trying to blackmail him or anything of the such. And along with his dissipated annoyance, Aoife had to admit that the confident smirk on her face as well as the crazed look in her eyes seemed to set his hormones ablaze, finding her to be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Aoife couldn't tell if this feeling was coming from himself or from the craziness within him; but frankly, he didn't care.

Izzy seemed to pick up on this change in his emotions, the confident smirk on her face widening to one of amusement. However, receiving that look, Aoife didn't seem perturbed, his eyes raking over her figure in unconcealed lust, as if he were an animal.

This seemed to cause Izzy to be taken aback, her figure shuddering in uncontrolled pleasure. The look within Izzy's eyes slowly became more animalistic, a sort of magnetism drawing the two together.

Yet, it was at this moment that a splash in the water next to them seemed to draw their attention. Looking over, they could see Heather was now within the ring, her voice ringing out in unconcealed annoyance as she seemingly cursed Lashawna who was currently looking down from above.

Both Izzy and Aoife decided to put their matter on hold, though the look in both of their eyes told that this incident was far from over. Right before Heather managed to climb into the boat, Izzy leaned over and whispered,

"We'll continue this 'conversation later, over at that clearing you found." The way she said conversation seemed to imply anything but, causing Aoife's figure to shiver in anticipation.

Heather slowly climbed into the yacht, giving the two a raised eyebrow before she opened her mouth to ask, "How did you two get down here?" her tone demanding, making the question seem more an order than a request.

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Author here: I hope you've enjoyed this chapter!

So, I've already decided that the MC will be with Izzy, but I still don't know whether or not to make it a harem. So, I'll make a poll here, yes means a harem, no means just with Izzy.

Yes

No