The Legend Of The Five Queens : Arabella's tale

Chapter 29: The Island

The island is merely 10 miles away from the ship. Arabella smiles as she watches the island. That sword must be hers no matter what. They have traveled so far for this moment.
   The wind picks up drastically which helps push the boat faster to the island. The crewman all stops their movements and looks up at the huge trees and tower them. The island is completely covered in huge palm trees with coconut trees spread out on the edge of the island.
"The is beautiful. I have never seen such a sight," Arabella says as she looks at the island in awe. The journey is nearly over.
"Are you men going to continue gazing or are you going to prepare to dock?" Captain Kraton calls out from above. The crew acknowledged the command of their and head to their stations.
Captain Kraton guides the ship slowly to the edge of the island and into the sand. The ship comes to a dead stop when it comes into contact with the island. Egore throws down the anchor into the sea. Adrain and Aiden work together to bring the ramp thus connecting the ship to the island. Arabella quickly makes her way down the ramp and steps onto the sand. She quickly pulls off her shoes allowing her bare feet to feel warm sand. The grains of sands make their way through her toes.
Arabella smiles as she allows her feet to slowly sink into the ground. It has been years since the young Queen has felt sand on her feet. The crew slowly make their way onto the sandy ground thus breaking Arabella from her trace.
"Wow, this is a nice island. I wonder if any natives live here? Adrain asks as he looks all around them.
"Let's just find this sword and leave as soon as we can. We do not want to cause any trouble," Captain Kraton says as he walks past the crew. Arabella quickly puts her shoes back on and catches up to him.
"From the information that I have gathered- there should be a sanctuary that leads to an underground cave. That cave is where we should find the sword," Arabella says as she pulls out a basic map of the island. Captain Kraton looks down at the map as they walk.
"I see, I do not believe there is anyone that lives here," He says with a grumpy tired voice.
The Captain finds a path that leads them through the woods towards the sanctuary. Arabella notices Egore grunt as he continuously swats flies away from his face.
"Ugh, these damn flies will not leave me alone. Say Why don't you just conjure up a fire these get rid of these buggers?" Egore continues to swat away the flies as he looks at Arabella.
"If I create a fire then I risk wasting my age just because you cannot handle some flies," Arabella keeps her eyes forward as they walk. Egore scoffs as he continues to walk.
As the group walks they see the sanctuary slowly come into view. The sanctuary itself is a tall building made entirely of brick. Arabella notices the ancient look at the Sanctuary gives off.
"Oh wow, I mean I have seen various constructions of my life by this one is just magnificent," Adrian says with a huge smile as he looks at the structure.
"This sanctuary was build roughly 200 years ago. This place is has a history of being used for practicing various religions. Of course, now it has been abandoned for the last 25 years possibly due to the sword being there," Arabella responds and she looks at the vines that have devoured a large portion of the front of the sanctuary.
   The sanctuary itself is 50 feet tall with an almost brittle-like wooden roof. Two stone crosses stand on both sides of the front door. A stone triangle that contains a cross sits above the door. The small flight of stairs that lead to the front door is overgrown by plant life and destroyed.
"It appears that you are right Arabella, this place is abandoned. This place is spooky," Adrain says with a shiver of fear. Egore smacks Adrain hard on the back.
   "Fear not boy! If there is any danger, I will fight it off!" Egore proudly yells with a child-like smile on his face. Arabella lets out a quiet laugh as she hears Egore.
Arabella makes her way up the broken steps and softly touches the door. Her hand makes its way to the small door handle that has certainly seen better days.
"Do I need to have Egore break open the door? I am sure that he would love it," Captain Kraton says as he makes his way up the steps and stands next to Arabella. Arabella turns the knob and pushes the door open enough to allow the smell from inside the sanctuary to bleed out into the open.
"Sadly, I do not believe that he will be needed. Although, I am sure that he would have enjoyed beating this door down," Arabella smiles softly as she fully opens the door.
   The opening reveals a small circular room with a ritual table at the center of it. The whole room is made of thick cobblestone.
   "Well, what a nice cozy place to practice religion. I would say it is safe to assume that satanic worship was done here," Egore says as he inspects the rooms with his eyes. Arabella's eyes raise as she hears Egore's words.
   "I believe that statement has some truth to it given the layout,'' Arabella says as she looks around at any signs of a sword being in the room. His eyes make their way to a wooden hatch on the floor close to the wall. She walks over to the hatch and slowly lifts it revealing a stairway that leads underground. The young Queen stands up and looks at the other guys.
    "I suppose that if you wanted to hide a sword that it would be a good idea to hide it underground," She tells them as she looks back down at the hatch from the guys. Arabella does not wait for another second and walks down the stairway. Captain Kraton looks over at Egore and Adrain and says, "Well, what are we waiting for? Follow the Queen,"
   As she makes her way down the stairway- Arabella feels the cold air come off of the stone walls. She follows the thick vines that travel along the walls and lead down the corridor.
   "Somebody should have brought a torch 'cause I cannot see a damn thing!" Egore complains as they step onto the stone ground.
   Arabella pauses in her place and mentally agrees that light would be a good idea. The stone in her chest slowly glows to a full brightness thus illuminating the path in front of them. Arabella turns her head back to look at the guys.
    "Will this suffice?" She asks as she tries to keep the stone from blinding them.
     "Er yeah, that works. I guess," Captain Kraton awkwardly says before he and the others continue to walk. They follow the path as it curves to the right. The end of the hallway leads to an open room.
"Hopefully the sword is down here. I would prefer to be here as little as possible. I do not know how long it will be before this tunnel collapse," Arabella says as she makes her way into the room.
The room is small and circular with a stone slab with a slit meant for a sword. Arabella's heart sinks as realizes that the sword she has been looking for is gone.
"What? where is the sword?" Aiden frantically asks.
   "Don't tell me that we went all this way just for someone else to beat us to it," Egore says with anger and frustration.
"With the sword being so well known I am not surprised that someone else took it," Captain Kraton speaks up as he looks around.
   Arabella's heart slowly breaks as she feels as though her journey has been a waste. Whoever wields that sword is now a threat to anyone they encounter.
   "Maybe we went to the wrong location. I mean this sword could have been hidden everywhere," Adrian puts his hands on the back of his head as he panics. Arabella stares at the ground as tears well up in her eyes.
   "My mother spent years looking for that sword. All of her research lead to this location, "Arabella continues to stand on her knees as she speaks.
   The men take a moment to stay silent for the Queen as she rubs her eyes and sobs. After a few moments, the young Queen pulls herself together. She slowly stands up and turns around facing the men with a saddened yet angry look plastered on her face.
   "As sad as this moment is guys, we have to move on. I must return home and start fulling my role as Queen. Eventually, that sword will be mine," She tells them.
   "But what if the owner of the sword is here? What is the-" Aiden begins to speak before getting cut off by Captain Kraton.
   "Then we will battle that person if need be. Right now Arabella wants to go home and that is where we shall take her," Captain Kraton looks from Aiden back at Arabella.
   Arabella slowly walks past the guys and out of the room. The guys follow Arabella back to the ship.
Arabella is the first to step onto the ship with Captain Kraton following behind him. Egore and Adrain lift the bridge and pull up the anchor.
"It's about time you all got back here! I was half tempted to just leave you all here and go on my journey," Ronald shouts from the forecastle deck.
   "Very funny boy, but I will remind you that if we encounter any monsters from the Deat sea, I will gladly feed you to them," Captain Kraton slowly makes his way up the stairs towards Ronald. Arabella shakes her head at the Captains statement.
The men detach the ship from the islands and slowly move it away. A large gust of wind picks up and pushes the boat along the ocean waters. Arabella stands at the edge of the ship and looks out at the water. She knows that the sword will one day be hers.