Ramone slowly opened his eyes, as the sunlight streamed into the living room. He put a hand over his face, to block the sun out for a few more minutes. As time passed, he could feel a presence watching him.
He opened his eyes to find Jake's giant head staring down at him. "Morning, Ramone," he said, smiling. "Ready for breakfast?"
"Only if you don't carry me this time," he replied, a slight grin on his tired face. Ramone sat up on the couch, as he tried to get as awake as possible before putting his feet on the floor.
He walked into the kitchen, Jake following close behind. He sat down and looked at what was being served. Breakfast consisted of a few dozen fish, some fruit picked from somewhere on the island, and a loaf of bread, made from scratch.
After everyone had eaten, Jake practically dragged Ramone outside, anxious to play with his new friend.
"Come on, Jake," the man protested. "Can't I go back to bed for a few more hours?"
"No," the child responded, not slowing down. "It's a beautiful day; we're going to play today."
They stopped roughly in the middle of the island. "So, what do you want to play?" Jake asked.
Ramone thought for a moment, an idea forming. "What about hide and seek?"
"Okay!" the kid said cheerily. "You go hide." Jake then turned around and covered his eyes, as he began counting.
Ramone ran off, hiding behind a cluster of large trees. He didn't really care if he was found or not; he only cared about being "it" in a few minutes so he could try to make it to his canoe and hopefully escape.
"One-hundred!" he heard Jake call out. "Ready or not, here I come!" Ramone could feel the tremors being set off with Jake's every step. As time passed, he could feel the tremors becoming louder and the ground shaking more and more as the child approached.
Off in the distance, Jake could see Ramone's head sticking out from behind the trees. He rushed over, bending a few of the trees over with his bare hands.
"Found you!" Jake said triumphantly. "Okay, your turn." Jake turned and ran off, as Ramone started counting. As soon as Jake was out of sight, Ramone started heading towards the shore, in the hopes that his boat was salvageable.
Halfway there, however, he could hear a rustling in the foliage on either side of him. He stopped, waiting for whatever it was to show itself, but it never showed. Ramone continued walking, and the sound returned, along with a low growl from whatever was following him.
Ramone started getting nervous, looking side to side, in hopes of seeing whichever creature had thoughts of making him into breakfast. Suddenly, it emerged: a pack of hyenas, three in all, circling slowly around him.
They bared their teeth, ready to lunge. Ramone picked up a piece of wood of some kind off the ground, ready to defend himself.
One of the creatures lunged at him and Ramone caught the animals teeth on the piece of wood. The hyena bit down hard, trying to shake the wood from the prey's hands, but it was no use; he let go and walked back over to his pack, ready to strike again.
Without warning, all three hyenas lunged into the air and Ramone knew he had no way of defending against all of them. He closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate.
Just then, Jake appears from behind a large tree. He shoves Ramone out of the way, as the hyenas latch onto him. Their bites cause nothing more than superficial wounds however and the massive child easily plucks them from his body, like someone removing leeches after swimming in leech-infested waters.
Jake removes the animals and tosses them safely, but forcefully enough, into the brush ahead of him. All three slink back into the darkness of the jungle-like island, defeated.
Ramone walks over to his giant protector. "Thank you," he says. "Are you okay?"
"Flesh wounds," the child responds simply, inspecting himself. "I'll be okay." He takes a deep breath. "We should head back home."
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