Three pairs of eyes stared intently at the teen boy, Echo, who was tasked with making sure they didn't get into trouble. Echo was currently leaning against the edge of the ship, watching the three children with mild interest. He'd told them only to be careful, as the deck of the ship was slippery and he didn't want any accidents to occur.

Maybe he should have been thinking of himself as well when he told them that. As fate would have it, Echo was the one who didn't heed his own warning. He stomped around the ship, yelling at the children who had, coincidentally, been following his orders, but he had mistakenly thought otherwise.

As he stormed around the ship with the children watching him intently, he made one wrong move that would change his life forever. A small, unfortunate, misstep. He stepped down hard onto the ship's deck, the creaking floorboards told him so. But that wasn't the problem.

When he stepped down hard onto the deck, he slipped on a puddle. If he had been paying attention how close he had been to the rail, it would have never have happened. But he hadn't been. When he slipped, he fell over the railing.

He fell into the water. At that moment he could have thanked his father a thousand times for the expensive swimming lessons he had gotten. But this wasn't the time. If he knew anything in that terrifying moment, it was to get away from the ship, lest it run him over. So he swam as quickly as his arms and legs would allow, getting himself out of the way of the ship. But when he looked back, the ship was going the opposite direction.

After realizing this, he did the only thing he could. He yelled for help, over and over until his voice was lost in the wind. "Can't anyone hear me?" he yelled, but by now the ship was so far away that even if someone had heard him, his voice would have just sounded like the wind.

Echo knew his chances were now very slim. But if anything, he needed to find land or at least something that would keep him from drowning when he became too tired. He swam in a direction chosen at random, because he had forgotten the direction the ship had gone.

He swam and swam until he could barely hold himself above the water. Just when he was nearly giving up hope, he spotted a small stretch of land in the distance. Joyously, and with newfound strength, he swam to it. When he reached the shore, he collapsed, exhausted.