• I feel the wind hitting my face, the smell of a cool salty breeze, and nothing but ocean on the horizon and the bright sun in the sky.

    I think about the long war that I just fought in, and about my family that I was returning to via the sea. I can't wait to get back to them, my wife and son. I take a look at a shining golden locket that my wife gave to me before I departed to go to war. I've kept this small charm on my person for ten long years, and it hasn't even begun to lose its luster.

    I notice the sky has been turning from light blue to a grayish color, and I look at the horizon to see an orange setting sun. With a glance at the calm ocean water, I lower the sail of my small boat, and lay down, pulling a rough blanket over my body. I quickly drift off to sleep.

    As I wake up to the morning sun, I look around to find a small island in the distance. I stand up and raise the sail again, the wind was blowing strong, and right in the direction of the island. I knew I would be able to find something to eat to refill my diminished food supply today.

    The sun had made its way up to the center of the sky. I neared the shore of the island. When I was finally close enough, I jumped out and pulled the boat up onto the shore. I was standing right before a large wooded area, so I carefully entered.

    I stepped through the forest, looking around for any source of food, either an animal, or a tree bearing fruit. The trees and ground are lined with many lotus plants with their flowers in bloom. I come across a partial clearing with fewer trees and a couple of small man-made huts. Before I could leave, not wanting to disturb any natives that could possibly be hostile to strangers, a man suddenly appeared out of one of the homes in front of me.

    He greeted me with a friendly tone. He seems to have no desire to do me harm, he also sounds and looks very relaxed. The man suggested I stay a while, as he plucked a lotus from a nearby plant and started eating it. He offered me a lotus to eat, but I turned it down, I was eager to find some real food.

    The man lazily led me to another clearing with even fewer trees, but many more lotus plants, blooming with beautiful flowers, there were more man-made huts where more people must be living. The man I first met let out a signal, and more people, men and women, came out of the huts, to greet me with more lotus flowers to offer. Flower after flower, I refused each until the natives would leave me alone. There must be some animals or fruit on this island.

    Since I had seen no other islands nearby, and I'm growing hungrier, I decide to stay on this island until I could find some food other than lotus flowers. I quickly got to work on a shelter, similar to these Lotus-Eaters' huts, but smaller and not as sturdy, I wasn't planning on staying on this island forever. By the time I finished my shelter and brought my things up from my boat, the sun had set, so I fell asleep on a bed of soft materials I made within the shelter, the golden locket in my hand, and I dream about my family.

    It's the next day and I wake up late in the morning, since I had been shielded from the sun that had been waking me so many times before today. I started exploring the forest right away for some form of food. Nearby the Lotus-Eaters' groups of huts, there was a lake, obviously their source of water, and for now, mine. Around the lake, I found no fruit trees or bushes of any kind, and no wild animals to hunt, only blooming lotus flowers covering the forest. As I return to my hut later that day, more of the Lotus-Eaters greet me again with offerings of lotuses to eat, which I refuse just like the day before. I sleep again tonight, hungry, though certain I'll find food the next day.

    While I search the island the day after, I become frustrated, and curse however on earth these Lotus-Eaters could survive on just lotus flowers and water. All I can find on the whole island is the lake, and bloom after bloom of lotuses everywhere, it feels like these lotuses are driving me crazy! As I return again to my temporary home on this island, I refuse another offering of lotuses from the Lotus-Eaters. I can't sleep all night tonight, I hold the golden charm in my hand, appologizing in my mind to my family that I can't continue on my journey home just yet, not until I find food, but I fear that if I leave this island with no food, that I'd die of starvation before I could reach land again.

    The fourth day I'll be spending on the island has come. I haven't eaten for at least a week, I barely have enough energy to get up and search for food today, but my determination to reach my family is driving me up out of my bed and into the forest, but only for another day of searching and no results. Today is the day that I finally accept the offer of a lotus, I'm so desperate that I'll eat anything now, what harm could these lotuses bring anyway? I can just take a bunch of lotuses with me once I finally cure my hunger, and I'll be back on my way to my family in no time! I hold the brilliantly shining golden locket close to me, as well as a lotus in my hand.

    As I finally bite off the petal of a lotus, the honeyed taste covers my tongue, and it feels like a miracle that I'm finally eating something. I'm even happy that I'm eating a lotus since I'm so desperate for food, I feel like I'm finally making progress.

    As soon as I finish the first lotus, I start craving more, it must just be I'm still so hungry, a single flower can't provide enough nutrients for my body, so I go to the nearest lotus plant and pick off several lotuses. I quickly eat them, I must be so happy, I forgot why I came to this island, why I was even at sea, and where I was going. What's this golden locket around my neck? Maybe it will come back to me later, for now I'll just stay here and eat lotuses.

    The next day, as I wake up, I eat several more lotuses, then I look at my shelter and ponder why it's so weak, and decide that I should make it stronger. So I practically rebuild my hut, it much more resembles the other Lotus-Eaters' huts now, it's more of a permanent home.

    As soon as I'm done, I relax in my new home, and look again at the locket around my neck, wondering where I got it. I decide to get up and explore a little, I walk to the beach and find a small ugly boat. With no clue of what a boat was doing here, I just push it out into the ocean, it's not like I'm ever leaving this place.

    I return again to outside my hut, I grab a few more lotuses and have lunch. I sit down, holding the locket up to the sun, and look at it. It looks dull and almost gray. It's probably pretty worthless. Finding no practical use for it, I throw it out into the ocean, all I need are my lotuses.