Rendezvous: A Lost Chapter of Sam Drake

Chapter 16: Shipwrecked

The sun was beaming down on us as the boat sped through the water. Sam was our helmsman for the day. The wind blew his dark brown hair back. He was happy to be on the water and on our way to the infamous pirate colony of Libertalia. "Hey, Land Ho!" Sam said with a smile. Nate and I got up and made our way to Sam. "How about that, huh?" Sam said smiling at the open sea. "Pretty cool" Nate said. He was still sorta shellshocked after last night. Sam looks thoughtfully at Nate seeing the same thing I see. Nate's just not completely here. He gives Nate a small smile "take the wheel for a second.." Nate does as Sam says. Sam walks over to a cooler in the back of the boat. He took out three beers. He handed me one and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. His biceps were looking especially good today. His shirt was tight around them which only made them look bigger. He handed Nate a beer "I don't think we've actually taken a moment just to step back and appreciate just how far we've come.." He pats Nate on the back "All of us.." He says turning around and holding his arm out to me. I moved up beside him and rested my head on his shoulder. He wrapped his free hand around my waist. Sam holds his beer up "Sic parvis magna" he says. Nate and I repeat him and clink our bottles. We each take a sip and enjoy the view of the open water. Sam looks at me and nods his head towards the back of the boat. I nod and move towards the back to give them privacy. Sam does his best to cheer Nate up and to encourage him about the fight with Elena last night. 

Sam takes over the wheel again and Nate comes to sit beside me. "Uhm.. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for uh.. yelling at you last night. I know that you're sensitive to that sort of thing. I just lost my temper with everyone last night. And I didn't mean what I said. I said it because when you got shot, I was worried I had lost you too. I had already lost a brother and I had just gotten him back. I didn't wanna lose you too. It just scared me. Scared the hell outta him to." He says nodding towards Sam. "I just wanted to say sorry." I smiled at Nate "Honey, I'm not mad at you. I know tensions were running high. Did it hurt my feelings a little? yeah. Did I truly think that you meant it? no. I'm sorry that you and 'lana are fighting. I think once you start telling her stuff like this, she'll trust you again. It'll take time, it always does. But she loves you, brother. She really does. I don't think it's too late to fix things." I smile and hold his hand. "I dunno. I think I've done this one too many times.." I shake my head "I don't think so. I just think you two need to air some things out." Nate smiles and gives me a hug. 

Sam spots a tower on the island. He parks the boat in the sand, so it won't drift, and we all hop out to go explore Libertalia. The only way I could describe the island was "dream vacation". It had beautiful clear blue waters. The island itself was warm and green with tropical plants and vines that spread across old stones and cliffs. The island was truly a beautiful place. We climbed up some stairs and walked across a bridge. The tower seemed to be used as a lookout spot. Nate climbed up to the top of the tower and then out of the window. We followed his lead and began to climb on the outside of the tower. There was a wooden landing that led into a hallow room at the top of the tower. Nate was looking at something on the wall, so Sam and I joined him. It was this gold chevron or an arrow of sorts. "It looks like a compass arrow" Sam said. He walked over and pushed the arrow into the wall. It acted as a button and as soon as Sam pressed it, the wall began to move apart and open up almost like a window. I noticed the same symbol at the bottom by our boat. "Look, it's another arrow. I say we get back in the boat and follow them. I bet it leads us to the part of the island we're looking for." The boys nodded and we all ran down to the boat. 

We began to follow the arrows around various parts of the beach. Nate wiped the boat around to follow the arrows. "Heyyy! Look, a dolphin!" Sam said pointing at the water. "What?! Where?!" I smiled looking over the boat. "You two have seen a dolphin, right?" Nate says still following the arrow. "Yeah, but not in person!!!" Nate sighs and stops the boat. "Go on, it's worth the wait. There's no better place to meet a dolphin" I smile and take my shirt off. I slide my jeans off as well. Sam was looking me up and down, but I tried not to notice. I jumped into the water and swam to the dolphin. It immediately swam up to me. I pet the top of the dolphin and laughed. It kept nuzzling its head under my arms and playing with me. I swam away and it followed me. It caught up with me and swam under my legs. I held on to the dolphin by its fin, but I was careful to not put too much pressure on its fins. The dolphin swam to the side of the boat and Sam beamed at me. He was genuinely smiling and laughing. Nate was even smiling. Sam took a picture on a disposable camera he had on the boat with him. I laughed and got off the dolphin. It popped its head out of the water and it played with my arms. "I have to go, buddy!! Bye!!!!" I kissed the dolphin's head and Sam helped me back on the boat. "That looked like fun!" He said smiling. "Ugh, Nate you were sooo right!! Definitely worth it!" Nate laughed and continued on the track. I dried off and put my clothes back on. 

The path led to a cave, and we all got out the boat to search and investigate. We climbed up the pillar in the middle of the cave. "you gotta admitt, this is pretty cool" Sam said climbing up. "What? Climbing in a cave?" Nate said just above us. "Uh yeah! We're climbing in a big ass secrete pirate island cave! I mean c'monnnn!!!!" I laugh "Yeah, its pretty fucking cool!" I said climbing just above Sam. I was right in the middle of them. Nate swung over to the other side of the cave and we both followed him. The main entrance was blocked so we found a way around. Some of the pillars had fallen so the boys took turns holding it up for each other. I went in last while Sam held the pillar up for me to crawl under. We made a jump and scaled some cliffs. 

We climbed many cliffs and and swung back and forth to other sides of the island. We got to these huge statues that looked a little weathered. Even so, they were all still intact and still beautiful. "That is the second biggest cistern I've ever seen" Nate said climbing down. "Where's the first?" Sam said following close behind.  

We roamed around the island a little more and found ourselves the first puzzle of Libertalia. The puzzle was matching symbols and lights, but it's much harder because the angles of the moving parts need to be just right. It took me a minute, but I finally solved it. Solving different levels of the puzzle lifted statues of the founders of Libertalia. Like Richard Want, Thomas Tew, and many others. All of them appeared except Avery. A staircase appeared and led us up to the top of the building. A huge statue of Henry Avery appeared across the island. We all piled into the boat once again as we sailed across to the statue. We stopped and made our way back onto dry land, but a storm was brewing. Nate climbed up the statue of Henry Avery and looked through his telescope. It pointed to another island across the way, but the storm was getting bad. This island was huge. The island we were on now was just an intro to Libertalia. The island that the statue was looking at is where the pirate colonies are going to be, in other words, the other island is the real heart of Libertalia. Shoreline had finally caught up to us. 

We were in the heart of the storm. The waves were huge, and it swayed the boat like crazy. A shoreline boat rammed right into us and completely destroyed our boat. The three of us flew overboard and into the sea.