Sons of the Tide (mlm)

Chapter 10: The Jungle Pirates

Joseph

Joseph and Cecelia were on the quarter deck, looking over a map she'd won in a card game back at the lagoon. "Are you sure this is real? I mean look at it, it looks like it was drawn by a two-year-old."

"Oh, come on, Joseph." She grinned and put her hands on her hips. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

He stared at her, unimpressed. "We'd be risking out ship going into that cove. We could hit a coral reef, there's just nothing on the map telling us what's there."

She tapped her finger on the center of the island, where the big red 'X' marked the spot. "The pirate I won it from bet it will all of his money. Which wasn't a lot, but still. You know pirates value their maps if they think they're real. Besides, we wouldn't be pirates if we didn't hunt for treasure."

"You just want to rub it in my face if you're right."

"Well, that too." She grinned and rolled up the map. "So?"

He sighed. "Fine. But I'm coming with you and we're bringing someone as backup. We don't know what's on that island."

She nodded and bounced off to tell the helmsmen where to steer. Joseph sighed again and looked out at the sea. They'd made it far from the lagoon in the few hours they'd been sailing until nightfall, and even further the next two days. Without a plan, though, they were sailing with no destination.

Well, until Cecelia convinced him to sail towards an island rumored to have a shipwreck full of gold. With all the repairs and supplies they'd needed, their funds were dangerously low. They hadn't don't some good pillaging in a while, anyway.

The island wasn't far from them, which was probably why Cecelia even bothered bringing it up. It took nearly half a day of sailing until Joseph spotted a tiny spec on the horizon through his spyglass. The reached the end of the cove by daybreak.

Joseph peered over the edge of his ship, squinting into the water. "I don't think it's safe to sail into the cove."

Cecelia tried to look into the water but her luck was about as good as his own. "We should take the rowboat. We can leave it on the beach and travel on foot from there."

He nodded. "Get it ready. I'm going to go get someone else to come with us."

To his disappointment, none of the crew saw the point in Cecelia's wild goose chase, and they made it very clear. Rather than have some bored pirate trudging along in the tropical jungle of the island, he decided he might as well give Caleb a chance.

He took the key to Caleb's chains as he walked to the mast. "You're joining us."

Caleb stood up quickly, surprised. "Really?"

Joseph started to unlock the chains around his ankles. "Yes. Behave yourself or you die."

Caleb nodded. "We're looking for gold, right?"

"Yes." Joseph stood back up, leaving his chains on the floor as he unlocked the ones on his wrists. "There's an old shipwreck in the middle of the island. Apparently it sailed in on the river before it dried up or something and got stuck there."

"Sounds dangerous." He smiled. "And fun."

Joseph rolled his eyes and handed him a sword. "Just come on."

Cecelia was already in the water with the rowboat by the time Caleb was unchained. Joseph slid down the rope ladder, and Caleb came after him.

All three of them rowed to the beach, fighting some particularly strong tides once they entered the cove. The beach wasn't too far, so they made it rather quickly. Cecelia had Caleb pull the boat onto the sand, away from the waves, and they looked at the dense jungle mere feet away.