The Pirate Vortex

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 12: WE LEAVE

I don't exactly remember how we got the chest back on the ship. I hope you'll excuse me if I don't. Somehow we must have lifted it back to the shore, onto the boat. Somehow the boat must have floated with all the weight, and somehow we rowed it back. Somehow we levered the chest up onto the deck of the ship. Somehow. I'm buggered if I know how.
The next moment I remembered clearly, we were in Dad's room, and the chest was in a corner, its lid open. The gold inside gleamed a shiny yellow-brown. It felt like a soft, smooth metal.
Dad was in an unstoppable mood. He was euphoric, more so than either of us. He grinned from ear to ear.
Like I might have said before, each of us had come on this voyage for different reasons, seeking different results. Wendy came for the thrill of discovery, for the possibility of finding new species of plant, bird, animal, for the thrill of locating a new piece of land on the world atlas. I came because Dad suckered me into the thrill of adventure, of high pursuits, of the romantic life of the sea. Dad had come because he wanted to get rich.
Up until today, I don't think he believed he ever would get rich. Even when we'd discovered the island, part of him had remained cynical. But seeing the lid of that chest open had completely unhinged him. It was so unexpected.
And so Dad danced around his room, while we watched on, half concerned, half amused.
Suddenly Dad came to a decision. "We won't need this!" he announced grandly, pulling a huge chest open. Wendy got up, her mouth open.
Dad was pulling out stacks of paper and piling them on the floor. Before Wendy could shout out, Dad had flicked on his lighter, and was touching a flame to the mass.
It was all of the cartography Wendy and Dad had done on the island. Now it was going up in flames.
"No!" cried Wendy.
"It doesn't matter," said Dad confidently. "We don't need it any more! Who would have paid us for finding an island anyway? We've got the treasure!"
Wendy was near tears. Abruptly she turned and ran out of the room, across the deck and down the trapdoor. Dad stopped dancing around, and I thought he'd come to some kind of sense, but he hadn't.
"We've got no time to lose, Matt," he said. "Let's sail for home!" And he ran out to the deck. Of course, I had to follow him. We spent the next several hours, unfurling the sails, pulling in the anchor, and readying our ship to go. By the time the sun set we were well on our way, the island already disappearing in the distance.
Dad hummed merrily as he worked. I was pretty upset. It seemed unfair to have to leave the island, just like that. Weren't we supposed to explore it further?
It was well after dark when Dad finally let me go. As I trudged back to our bedroom, I realised it was the first time since this whole business had begun that he'd forgotten to get our dinner.

I didn't actually see the next part of the story, and only found out about it later. This is as near as I can guess as to what happened.
It all began while we were still on the island. That speck of land which I'd seen from the mountain and then forgotten about as we discovered the treasure, wasn't land.
It was a ship. A ship sailing for our island. It was called the Quo Vadis.
At the helm was Raw Throat Hugo, the fearsomest pirate of the high seas. At his side stood his faithful first mate, Bats Murphy.
They stared fixedly at the island, growing steadily larger in their sight. "Aye," said Raw Throat Hugo at last, "we live in troubled times."
"That we do," agreed Bats Murphy.
"To run short of treasure so quickly!" Hugo spat. "I'm beginning to wonder if we never should have made that pact with the Old High One. It's brought us nothing but trouble."
"And yet," said Bats Murphy, "it's brought us many rewards, as well. The last pirate ships died out centuries ago, but we sail on, outlasting everybody."
"True," said Hugo, "but she demands a hellish price in treasure. And her demands keep rising. Aye, I ask you, what sort of a pirate life is this? No ships to scuttle, no loot to gather, and all the while our stock of treasure slowly dwindling as she grows ever hungrier."
"A Faustian bargain," agreed Bats Murphy, "but one we had to make. If not for her, every single pirate on this ship, even you and me, would be dead."
"I'm not sure immortality is worth the price," growled Dead Throat Hugo.
They passed the rest of the journey in silence. When anchor was finally weighed, it was sunset. Hugo yelled out orders to his crew, gathered them together on the lower deck, and then Hugo and Bats, followed by ten crew members, got into the longboat.
They rowed in to shore, the pirates heaving and shouting. The boat was pulled up and all the pirates leapt out, holding flaming torches in their hands. Two groups of two ran away either side, along the beach. Another two ran forward. Four waited on the beach for Bats and Hugo, then they marched on.
The pirates passed up ridges and down valleys. Soon they stopped, in a grassy clearing. The group of pirates in front of Bats and Hugo suddenly gasped. Angrily, Hugo thrust them aside.
A hole in the ground, recently dug, was at his feet. Someone had stolen both chests. Hugo growled. "Thieves!" he yelled. "Traitors! Usurpers!" He spat and kicked at the ground.
Two pirates came running in from the shore. Rapidly, they told Hugo what they had seen - there was a ship out on the ocean, drawing away from the island. And they told him something else which made Hugo's face turn purple.
"THE Que Sera?" he roared. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GET AFTER THEM! FIND THEM! KILL THEM!"

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