“Is it much
farther, Cap’n?”, the stranger asked as he leaned out over the
railing.
“Not much longer
now”. Corsair examined the worn map in front of him. Much of it
was faded or tattered, but the large red X was unmistakable.
“Then we'll have
the greatest treasure in all the seven seas!” the stranger beamed,
practically salivating at the thought of it.
“Aye, if it is to
be so easy. Ready the cannons, I want us to be prepared for
anything!”
“Aye Captain!”,
replied his gunner, and Sabre eagerly set about to loading their
cannons, no doubt hoping they'd run into trouble sooner or later.
“Land ahoy!”
came a call from the crow's nest. Corsair pulled out his telescope,
and sure enough, an island with a large mountain on it appeared in
the distance.
“Mr Navigator”,
he called, “take us in to the shore, but watch out for all those
rocks.”
“Aye Captain!”,
replied Cross, taking the helm. Corsair examined the map once more,
but apart from the X he could make out very little. They would just
have to be ready for whatever might come.
As they pulled up on the
beach and climbed down the rope ladder, Corsair surveyed the mountain
before them. It was steep and perilous, with few solid footholds.
“It will be a difficult climb to reach the top”, he mused. As if
to echo his thoughts, a rock tumbled down the face of the cliff and
thudded into the sand below.
“I suppose we have
no choice”, said the stranger, walking towards the near face of the
cliff and looking for a handhold.
“On the contrary,
a rather superior option presents itself”, said a well-dressed
sailor. “I've already scouted out this area and there's a cave
running right through the mountain over on this side. There's a path
inside leading up, I have little doubt it will take us to the top.”
“Well, that sounds
much better”, Corsair said, heading towards the man, but the
stranger tugged upon his coat.
“Cap'n”, he
whispered, “Can we really trust this man? Where did he come from?
And if we take him with us, he'll be wanting a share of the
treasure!”
“If that treasure
is half what it's supposed to be”, he whispered back, “there'll
be more than enough for us all to be rich men. And it's not as
though we really have another choice”. Another rock fell down from
above, a larger one this time, landing nearby and showering them all
in sand.
“Perhaps not”,
the stranger conceded, following along.
Sure enough, they found a
small cave entrance where the man had said, hidden behind some trees
where one might easily miss it. The man's companion, a female
sailor, was waiting for them to make sure they didn't walk past it.
She waved to them energetically, as if they might somehow have
trouble spotting her.
“Another one?”
The stranger asked, incredulously.
Corsair shrugged.
“We're making progress, aren't we?”
“It's so pretty!”
Lapse exclaimed as they entered the cave. Brightly colored rocks
hung from the ceiling and jutted out from the floor, bathing the
cavern in a faint white glow. The light shimmered off a silent
underground lake whose stillness was only briefly interrupted by a
single droplet of water falling from above.
“Watch your step,
everyone”, Pack cautioned them, but Lapse paid no attention to him,
whirling about and taking in all the sights while still managing not
to trip or fall. She picked up a small glowing rock where it had
broken off one of the outcroppings. As she raised it to her face, it
cast its light upon her and her mismatched eyes twinkled with
excitement.
“Is this the
treasure?” she asked, admiring it.
“I don't think
so”, said Corsair, “the real treasure is supposed to be beyond
anything you could imagine.”
“You should have
told her that it was”, the stranger tugged at his coat again.
“More for us.”
She slipped the glowing
rock into the pocket of her jacket anyway, causing a little light to
radiate out until she closed it.
Just as Pack had said,
towards the back of the cave the path did lead upwards, through a
sequence of flat rock surfaces that might almost have been crude
stairs. The steps were uneven and some of them rose quite high, but
the group pressed onward, gradually leaving the light of the cavern
behind them. Corsair lit a torch to light their way. Soon they came
upon a small clearing.
“We've come up
quite a long way”, Pack said, gasping for breath. “We must be
nearly there.”
“I can't see which
way we're supposed to go from here”, the stranger said.
He was right, there didn't
seem to be any way to go but back the way they came. Corsair walked
around the edge of the room with the torch, but sure enough, the
walls of the cavern went all the way around.
“A dead end?” he
wondered aloud.
“Sure seems that way”, said a
sultry female voice.
“Who- who's there?” demanded the
stranger.
Corsair cast the torch upon the new
arrival, who was dressed in a vest, shorts, and short boots, and had
long hair barely restrained by a bandana. “I came ahead of you”,
she said, flicking her hair out of her face, “but my torch burnt
out. “There doesn't seem to be a way to continue on.”
“Hey!”, Lapse called, “there's
something over here!”
They all gathered around. There were 4
metal bars sticking out of the ground, of different lengths. Upon
further inspection, each bar was actually split into two partway
towards the top.
“Someone must have put these here”,
she noted.
TING!
A ringing noise filled the cavern for a
moment, then fell silent. Lay had borrowed Corsair's sword and was
holding it next to one of the bars.
“I knew I'd seen this shape before”,
she said, and she hit the next one with the flat part of the blad.
TING!
It let off a very similar sound, though
it was a little different somehow.
TONG!
A much deeper, louder noise resonated
through the cave.
TOHNG!
She hit the last one, and the last two
sounds combined to make different, warbling sound, that kind of
bothered Corsair's ears. “What are you doing?!” he demanded of
her.
“They're not right!” Lapse
exclaimed.
“That's right”, Lay said, brushing
her hair aside. “The first two are close to each other, but the
last two are much farther apart.”
“So what?” asked the stranger.
“So it means there's one missing”,
said Pack. “The first two are there to give us the pattern, then
we have to find the missing one.”
“I don't see another one.” Lapse
offered.
“I think we have to provide the other
note ourselves.” Lay said. “Unfortunately, I'm no singer. Do
you think you can hit the missing note?”
“I can try.” Lapse said,
cautiously. “Can you give me the other two again.”
TONG! TOHNG!
Lapse attempted to replicate the
missing note. “Aauuuuuhhhhhh”
“I don't think that's quite right”,
Lay said, shaking her head. “Listen to the notes again”.
TONG! TOHNG!
But Lapse didn't stop singing the note,
and the three tones resonated together, making a horrible racket.
Corsair covered his ears with his hands, and the entire cave began to
shake.
“Make it stop!!” he shouted, but
sound flooded the entire cavern, and the shaking grew more and more
violent. He heard an awful cracking from above, and part of the
ceiling gave way, collapsing with a mighty crash. They all dove out
of the way, but the cave-in blocked the entrance they had came from,
trapping them in the round clearing.
“Great”, the stranger snarked.
“Now we're stuck.”
“We'd better try to unblock the
opening,” Corsair said, digging at the rocks with his hands.
“It's pointless”, Pack told him, “a
huge segment of the cave must have collapsed or it'd have slid down
those stairs and into the lake. You'll never get through it all.”
“Ugh, look at my pants”, Lay
protested, “they're ruined!”
“They seem fine to me” Lapse
offered. “Hey, how come we can still see?”
It hadn't occurred to him until now,
but sure enough, when Corsair had dived for the ground, the torch
fell the the floor and went out. And yet, there was still a little
light coming in from somewhere. He looked upwards, and a tiny slit
of light was peeking in from beyond a rock.
“Look”, he said, “that must be
the top!”
“But how do we get to it?” the
stranger asked. “It must be thirty feet up.”
Corsair picked up a pebble and threw it
towards the opening. It bounced off, pointlessly.
“Hey!” they suddenly heard a
muffled voice from above. “Is someone down there?”
“Yes!” Pack called back. “We're
trapped! We can see sunlight but we can't reach it!”
“Just a moment”, called the voice,
then it was silent for a while.
“I'm going to try to knock out the
ceiling, get out of the way”, the voice finally replied.
They all moved to the far corner, away
from the place where the light was coming through. “Okay!”
Corsair shouted back.
There was a tapping sound, and then it
grew louder, and then it started to rumble, and then finally a big
piece of rock fell straight down and shattered on the floor of the
clearing, and light flooded the area. A woman's head peered down the
hole.
“Are you all okay?” Sister asked.
“I'm going to throw you a rope.”
“How did you get up there?” Corsair
wanted to know.
“I was climbing up the mountain, but
I couldn't go any farther because it was too steep, but then a big
piece of the mountain gave way and I was able to pick my way across
on top of the fallen rocks”.
One by one they all made their way out
of the hole and to the top of the mountain.
“I suppose you know there's treasure
here”, the stranger said, glumly.
“Oh yes”, she replied, “I hear
it's going to be great!”
“Well, I guess we owe you one for
getting us out, so let's all try to find it together.”
The sun was starting to go down a bit
in the sky as they searched the plateau.
“Where do you suppose it could be?”
Lapse asked.
Corsair pulled out the map again. “It
doesn't really say, there's just a big X on top of an island with a
mountain on it”.
“Well, it's not in plain sight”
Pack noted, “and there's nothing it could be hidden behind, “it
must be buried somewhere.”
“There's a bush over here!” Lapse
ran towards it. “Bushes need soil, soil for digging!”
Lay scraped the soil gingerly with her
hand. “It's hard. If it is buried here, it'd take ages to dig it
up.”
Behind her, another rock toppled off
the cliff and down to the beach below. Hearing it, she backed away
from the edge. “And it's much too unstable”.
Corsair's mouth twisted into a wide
smile. “You know, that gives me a great idea. Everyone, get to
the other side of the mountain. That treasure will be ours sooner
than you think.”
“You can't be serious”, Cross
cautioned him after he climbed back down the newly made path to his
ship.
“I'm all for it”, Sabre said,
readying the cannons. “I've been so bored waiting here.”
“Do you think you can hit it from
here?” He asked her.
“Of course I can.” She said,
angling the cannon barrel higher. “Just give the signal.”
“Let me get a head start” Corsair
told her. “I want to see it from closer up.”
With a mighty explosion, the cannonball
tore into the cliff below the plateau and the rock face gave way,
causing a massive rock slide to crash down the beach. After it
stopped, the others made their way back down to the bottom.
“Well, here's the remains of the
bush”, Corsair said, picking through the rubble. If there was
something buried under it, it must be here.
“I see something!” the stranger
cried, frantically heaving little rocks out of the way. Sure enough,
something deep brown was buried under some rocks. Everyone joined in
to help dig it out, until finally they were able to pull it out. It
was a small iron chest, light enough to be carried by one person, but
there was no mistaking that it was the treasure.
“Open it!” the stranger cried
eagerly as they all crowded around the box.
“It's locked”, Corsair said as he
tried to pry it open. “I can't open this without some tools.
We'll have to take it back to the ship and open it there.” They
all proceeded back to his ship to find out what was inside the box.
“Is that it?” Sabre asked as
Corsair boarded the ship with the box in his arms.
“Yes, but it won't open. We'll need
something to get it open.”
She returned with a hammer and a
chisel, and Corsair set to breaking the lock as everyone crowded
around, except for Cross, who was surveying the rocks to figure out
how to get out of there. Suddenly, he spotted a strange ripple in
the water.
Corsair struck the lock again, and
there was another, larger ripple in the water.
He had almost broken the lock now, and
the water was starting to turn dark.
“Stop!” Cross yelled, but it was
too late. As Corsair struck the lock one final time, something
erupted from the water, sending a massive fountain into the sky. The
water plummeted back down like a downpour, drenching them all, and
then a horrible, bloodcurdling screech filled the air. Corsair
turned his head to find himself staring at an enormous sea serpent,
easily three times the size of his ship.
“What is that thing?!” the stranger
screamed.
“The guardian of the treasure!”
Sabre cried, grabbing her sword. “Pull us around!” she yelled.
“Let's blast it!”
“We're still on the beach!” Cross
reminded them, but they weren't there for long. The serpent sunk its
enormous teeth jaw into the side of the boat, and pulled them out to
sea, dragging the ship right across the rocks. The hull splintered
and broke, water rushing inside at a fearsome rate as the ship began
to sink. Sabre stabbed the creature above its jaw and it let go of
the ship momentarily. She quickly wheeled one of the cannons around
and pointed it at the creature, but with a single strike of its
enormous tail it took out more than half of the ship, sending the
cannon, the chest, and most of the people onboard into the water.
The chest quickly sank beneath the waves, never to be seen again.
“Guys!” Corsair cried, looking
over the railing at his friends as they frantically tried to swim to
the shore and away from the serpent, which screeched at them again.
“We're doomed!” The stranger cried,
dropping to his knees and burying his head in his elbows.
But just then there was a massive
explosion that shook what remained of the boat and the serpent let
out a pained howl. Another ship was firing upon the serpent, its
pitch-black sails shrouded in black smoke from its cannons. “The
Black Ship!” Corsair exclaimed. It's come to rescue us!”
The Black Ship fired again, and the
force of the blast knocked the serpent forward, its massive head
slamming into the deck just in front of him. It broke the top layer
of the deck, and Corsair fell through to the hallway below, which was
rapidly filling with water. Worse yet, the serpent's head was
blocking the ladder, preventing him from climbing back up.
“Now's your chance!” he yelled to
the stranger. “He's dazed, stab him between the eyes!”
He tossed his sword up through the hole
in the deck.
“But... he's huge! I'm scared!”
The stranger protested, nervously.
“Only you can do it!” he said, as
the water level approached his waist. “There's no time, hurry!”
Corsair reached frantically for a
handhold to pull himself up to the deck, but he couldn't get to it,
he would have to wait until the water level was higher and he could
float up to it.
He couldn't even see what was going on
above deck, all he could do was listen.
It was suddenly quiet, the explosions,
the thrashing of the serpent, the screams of those thrown overboard,
all of them faded away. Then he heard the sound of footsteps on the
deck above, the sound of metal scraping against wood, and then
finally, the serpent let out of horrible, pained cry, and its head
slid off the broken ship in into the water, where it landed with a
final mighty splash as the serpent met its watery grave. He breathed
a deep sigh of relief and climbed up the ladder just before the
rising water reached his coat.
“I can't believe it”, Pegleg
remarked incredulously after they were all safely aboard the other
ship. “I never thought in a thousand nights that I would be
rescued by the Black Ship.”
“Don't get used to it”, said the
ship's dark-skinned captain.
Everyone except Karma and the stranger
laughed.
“That was some adventure!”, Corsair
said, stretching his arms.
The stranger peered over the railing
sadly. “But we lost the treasure... All of that was for nothing.”
“Don't be so sure.” Corsair told
him. “The real treasure is within all of us. It's the courage to
trust others and work together. We solved the mystery of a hidden
island and defeated a giant serpent. Together, there's nothing we
can't do!”
He didn't seem impressed. Lapse
approached him, reached into her pocket, and handed him her glowing
rock, which shone brilliantly in the now darkened sky.
“Here”, she said, “you can have
this. I think it's a treasure.”
Her gesture must have gotten through to
him, because his attitude quickly changed. “You don't have to-”
he said, embarrassed.
“It's okay”, she said, happily, “I
had fun! I don't need it anymore.”
“Thanks”, he said, gratefully
accepting it. “I guess we made a pretty good team after all.”
“Yep!” she smiled.
“Well, captain”, the stranger said,
extending his hand, “thank you for a wonderful adventure.”
Corsair put his hands behind his back
for a moment, then shook his hand. “Safe travels to you”.
And with that, the ship pulled into
port and the stranger disembarked from the ship. Corsair waved to
him with his free hand, and he waved back before disappearing into
the town.
“I think that went well.” Corsair
said, after he had gone.
“You did a great job, Lapse”,
Sister praised her, “I think you really got through to him.”
She blushed. “I wasn't sure it would
work.”
“It just goes to show that treasure
is what you make of it” Pack offered.
“Speaking of which, that wouldn't
happen to be the real treasure you have in your hand there?” Lay
asked, coyly.
“What, this?” Corsair uncoiled the
fist he had been hiding behind his back to reveal a large red stone
that glittered magnificently. He shook his head, “Nah, this is
nothing”. As if on cue, the red stone crumbled to dust and blew
away in the wind. “You can't take something like that with you.
Real treasure lies beyond what you see on the surface.”
“Well”, Sister said, “are we
going again tomorrow morning?”
“You'll have to go on your own”,
Karma said, turning away from them. “I have some other business I
need to attend to.”
“Oh come on”, Lay poked at him,
“you know you had fun.”
“The night calls”, he said,
regaining his feline appearance, “there is still much to be done
before the sun can rise again.”


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