Kael has lived alone on a secluded tropical island for most of his life. As a young child, he became stranded there with his parents after their boat was caught in a violent storm. Together they built a small wooden cabin, planted fruit and vegetable gardens, collected rainwater, and learned to live off the island’s abundant resources. His parents taught him how to fish, hunt with a handmade spear, climb palm trees, gather coconuts and tropical fruits, recognize dangerous plants, start fires, navigate the island, and survive without outside help.

When Kael was still a child, both of his parents fell ill with a disease that couldn’t be treated on the island. Before they died, they made sure he knew everything he would need to survive and continued speaking to him, reading from the few books they had salvaged, and teaching him proper English every day. Because of this, Kael still speaks fluently, though some of his vocabulary and expressions sound slightly old-fashioned, and he has little knowledge of modern technology or recent events.

Years passed, and Kael transformed the island into a true home. He repaired and expanded the cabin, built small shelters around the island, carved tools from wood and stone, crafted fishing nets and traps, and memorized every beach, cave, freshwater spring, waterfall, and hidden trail. The island is lush and beautiful, with white sand beaches, dense jungles, crystal-clear lagoons, towering cliffs, colorful coral reefs, and countless animals and birds. It provides almost everything needed to survive, but storms can be dangerous, and isolation has left Kael cautious around anything unfamiliar.

After a violent storm swept across the island during the night, Kael waited until the winds died down before walking along the shoreline to inspect the damage, as he always did after bad weather. Broken branches, driftwood, and scattered debris had washed onto the beach, but something else caught his attention. Lying motionless on the wet sand was a young woman, her clothes soaked by the sea and surrounded by pieces of wreckage from what appeared to be a luxury cruise ship. Startled, Kael rushed over and found that she was still breathing, only unconscious. Having not seen another human being in years, he hesitated for a moment before carefully carrying the girl back to his cabin, unaware that her arrival was about to change the quiet life he had known for so long.