Confined With a Goddess

Jake sat and watched the fire crackling in front of him. He and Celestia had finished eating almost an hour ago, and the sun was setting. They hadn't said much more, and Jake wasn't about to change that. She'd said she had a lot on her mind, and he was going to let her think. He didn't want to interrupt her and make her start from scratch.

"Do you want to go back?" she finally asked, after enough of the log had burned away that it split in two.

"What?"

Celestia looked up at Jake. "I'm asking if you want to return home."

Jake lowered his head. "I mean, I have my dad, my apartment, my xbox... There's my job, I guess. I don't know a lot about you, but if I were to guess, I think you'd be disappointed if I were to just... not do my job."

"Ah, but even you said it wasn't a great job. Surely someone else can do it?"

"My manager used to do it in addition to her other duties. It's not hard, she's just going to have to work a little bit harder until she can find a replacement, if she hasn't already. I was supposed to be back two days ago. If I showed up now, I'd probably just be fired. I guess I don't have a job anymore."

"And spending a few weeks to build a boat that can take you back isn't going to make those days disappear."

Jake shook his head. "It's likely that I'd already be replaced when I arrived. Then there's the debt. I owe eight hundred dollars to my coworkers. Twenty each for not catching a fish, plus seven hundred for the boat rental loan. Oh, gods, the boat, too... How the Hells am I ever going to pay that off?"

"I'm certainly not going to build you anything that big," smirked Celestia. "So, it sounds like things aren't going to go well for you if you cross the barrier."

Jake looked up. "Oh, right, the barrier. That hurt a lot, too."

Celestia gave an unimpressed look.

"Right, sorry."

Celestia placed her hands on her knees. "Of course, I'd like to go to your world. But as we demonstrated today, I still can't leave the island. I'm stuck here."

"Well, here's not such a bad place to be stuck," offered Jake. "I mean, it's a pretty big island. There's food, shelter, you somehow managed to find fresh water... It could be worse."

"You like this place?"

He shrugged. "I mean, if I were to pick between living here and being stuck in a stone room the size of your bed that I can never leave, being sold for a cigarette to perform sexual favours for someone I've never met because my owner decided that I should, I'd rather be here."

Celestia nodded. "Would you rather be here, or back home?"

Now that was a question. If she'd asked him this morning, he'd have said he wanted to go home, but now that he was thinking on what was waiting for him back home, and how he'd rather be here than in a prison cell, he wasn't sure.

"You don't have to answer right away," she said, standing up and walking toward the hut. "I took several hours to think it over. It's only fair I give you the same luxury. Take all the time you need. And put the fire out before you come to bed."

It honestly wasn't a lot to think about. He loved his dad, sure, and it would suck to not ever play another match in Battlefield, but if he was being honest, he didn't really have a great life. If ever there was a time that he was going to change who he was, this was that time. Plus, if he changed his mind later and sailed back home after having been here for several years, he could come up with an impressive story to tell. Some of it would even be true. He went out on a rented boat, a storm broke it and stranded him on an island, and he lived there for a fairly long time before figuring out how to come back. It would be like that Tom Hanks movie that he couldn't remember the name of.

Only problem was, he would be unable to return to this place if ever he left. At least, he was pretty sure that he'd never be able to return. He'd not been able to track his pathway to the island, and he'd be unable to track his path back without a GPS. He'd just be going as east as he possibly could, hoping that he'd find the west coast again. And that's assuming that he could manage to keep going the right direction. Even with her help, there wasn't even a guarantee that he would make it back. Another storm, and he could just die out on the waves.

It was many reasons for which he made his decision. It was the damage already done to him by the system he'd put his faith in. It was the damage it was going to do when he showed up again at the end of the day. It was the cowardice that he would die or mortally injure himself out there. But more than anything else, it was the thought that Celestia had been alone here for so long that made up his mind. This was her prison cell. He couldn't set her free, but maybe if he stayed here with her, this place would feel a bit less like a prison.

He poured some water over the fire. Not freshwater, but seawater. There was plenty of that to go around. He'd been out here for what felt like an hour, but there was still a light in Celestia's hut. He walked in to find her horn still glowing as she set out some things on the table, likely for tomorrow.

"Calling it a night?" she asked, barely looking up as he entered.

"I've made up my mind," he answered. "If I go back now, nothing changes. I'll have had the pleasure of meeting you, but everything in my old life will either be the same or worse. If I go back later, I'll have a stronger foothold on trying to rebuild my life. And if I just stay here... I'm pretty sure you won't dispose of me if I can be useful."

"That I will not," nodded Celestia.

"So, I guess, for awhile, anyway, I should stay. I should work on improving myself. I think that's a good idea."

"Okay." Celestia lay down on the bed and opened her arms. "Climb on in, then."