BLIND

THE ISLAND

Arriving on the island wasn't as difficult as it seemed for them, but ordinary people would need to go by boat since the island was in the middle of nowhere.

After the first foot was put, on the ground of the island, with the early sight of the place, they could see how it was, submerged with corpses of the people who once lived there, and, because of the strong smell of bodies, putrefaction, they couldn't breathe.

The contagious disease that caused death to people on the island was transmissible, either by physical contact with the infected person or by casual contact with their secretions or objects touched by them or even through the air. Contagiousness varies among diseases. These dreadful natural disasters leave nothing but dead bodies.

" I imagined this place different..." Laurent thought aloud.

" What do you mean with different, brother?" Leander asked him, while the curiosity took place in his mind.

With his hands behind his head, he took a deep breath and explained to his brother," I didn't think that the story of this disease, which caused so many gruesome deaths on the island, would be that recent. I felt that they were talking about ten years ago. I didn't realize that it was so last, DAMMIT." Laurent cursed.

Leander was thinking of how to soothe his brother's anger.

"You have to calm down, Laurent, we are already here, we can't give up! Be hopeful."

"Give up? NEVER, brother, you know me well. I'll build a new place where people will want to come and live. Besides, since we have to always disappear from their villages, for fear that they could kill us, it won't be like that here in our land ". Laurent's words were full of pride. He feels a dreadful sense of disgust by looking once more around him. They can also see a vast forest for afar. " We have to see how big this island can be. I need to understand what we can start first and see if they died on the whole island or only in the part where this small village exists. I want to see if there are any survivors ". Laurent said to his brother.  

"If there any survivors? What will we do?". Leander had many questions to ask his brother, but the fear of getting him angry stopped him.

"If they are any survivors, my little brother, we have what to eat," Laurent answers, laughing while starting to walk away into the woods.

" Why are you laughing ?". Leander was surprised by seeing him laugh so loudly.

"Because you're asking stupid questions. Move faster! We must reach the other side of the island sooner ".

While they were looking around, they saw that in the middle of the woods, there was a waterfall.

After slowly discovering the whole island, they did not find survivors. As a result, they could explore this place more freely. Furthermore, the island there was only a small tiled filed, and they discovered that humans had lived there before. The rest of the island was wild nature.

The moon started to appear in the middle of the sky; Laurent began to make a fire to have some light. At the same time, Leander thought about how this place could be a source of income for them. How can this island become theirs forever home?

"Brother, what will we do now? What is your plan? I know I've always sworn to trust you, and I don't want you to get angry. As you said before, you didn't think that the situation would be this serious, and I don't see so much future on this island. There is no source of income to attract people to live here ." With these words, Leander looked to his brother's face to read his expression, but he saw nothing, not anger, not deluded. It was impossible to read his appearance.

"As I told you, you must check the surroundings well to learn what you can profit from Leander, you are right. I know you are disappointed after looking around. But if you look better, you can still see that this island has something you can't find elsewhere ." Laurent explains this very carefully. From his trouser pocket, he took some stones in his hand, pointing them to his brother.

Leander looked in amazement at his brother's hand, where he had the stones, astonished by how beautiful these stones are. He had never seen anything like that. They were so shiny and sparkly, but at the same time so profound and mysterious that you could've seen your entire soul in them. You'd love the idea of having one.

"Brother, where did you find these marvelous stones? I'm so attracted to them. It seems like they have magic in them! It's like I desire to have one by myself. They are so perfect, transparent, but at the same time, you can see all the colors in these stones, so fascinating! I'm pleasantly speechless." The words that Leander submitted were not intended to flatter his brother or to exaggerate the situation. As shown, those stones were stunning as they were never seen anywhere before. Because of that, Laurent already had a plan.

"Brother, you saw the waterfall before. See how long you were looking for survivors. After I told you that they are all dead and that you can't find anyone alive, I discovered that behind the waterfall, there is a cave full of these stones in all shapes and all sizes. With these stones, you can do anything from ornaments to jewelry, to decore the house as you want to, especially since after those stupid fuckers, rich people will see the beauty that shines from these stones, they will want more and more. We can sell them to merchants at an alow price for the first time, and, after we see that they will want larger quantities again, we will raise the price more and more until we'll make them think that it is such a rare stone and that it is so hard to find. This way, we will make them expensive, only to hear that it is infrequent and that only the rotten rich could have it. We'll immediately raise the ego of all barons, dukes, and rich people. They will desire it so much that they would sell everything they could to obtain it."

Laurent said while walking back and forth in the light of the fire and explaining to Leander his enthusiastic plan.

" This is the only way we can make money to build such a beautiful and splendorous kingdom on this island, a kingdom for us brother, a kingdom that produces this splendid stones ." He stopped for a moment to look at his brother, and, with a strict face, Laurent continued.

"That's why we have to set everything on fire to clean this land so that we can start the construction well. You have the task of going through other larger villages where you can find merchants to start selling stones, you understand ?." With his harsh expression, Laurent was already prepared to use Leander to do business.

Leander aside, he couldn't find anything wrong with what his brother was saying . With many emotions inside him, and his eyes shining with happiness, with a big smile on his face, he got up to accept this privilege of being able to help Laurent with such an important task.