Treasure of the Heart

Ch 1. - A Journey Begins

I could feel myself running out of breath, my legs were growing tired, and my throat and lungs were beginning to burn, but the voices of the guards not far off behind me were enough of a reason to keep me from stopping. I was always stealing little things, trinkets and food from stalls on the streets, but today was my big score, of course if I managed to avoid imprisonment before the payout. There was a galleria in town, and an extraordinary piece had been on exhibit. A supposed treasure map, from the old times, that according to legend, would lead you to a famous treasure trove known as Flint's Treasure Planet. Now, I myself didn't believe in such things. I was simply hired to retrieve it and gain my reward once delivered. Sure, the pay for it was nothing in exchange to the idea of a whole planet filled with gold, but the reality, I knew, was that no such things existed. So if a mad man wanted to throw a couple bags of coins my way in exchange for chasing a fairytale, so be it. That's just another meal for me.

I continued to run, around corners, down alleyways, across bridges, and stairs. I just had to get away. I ran down one last alleyway that led out onto what I knew to be a busy street where many vendors and crowds of people gathered. Yes. My exit. I ran full force, as much as my body had left in it. As I rounded the corner though, I wasn't expecting to be stopped by anything. Well, I suppose I guessed wrong. I collided with something, and the force knocked both of us to the ground with a loud thud. Feeling in a bit of a daze, I winced as I clutched the back of my head. I gradually opened my eyes and as the haze of the impact faded, my vision cleared to see a boy who looked to be around my age. He as well looked frazzled by the sudden impact, but he didn't appear too mad. He started a sentence along the lines of, watch where you're going, but when his eyes met mine he went silent momentarily. He started to collect himself off the ground. Then once on his feet, extended an arm to me. I instinctively grabbed the bag I had been haling all up and down the streets.

"Hey, sorry about that. You okay?" He asked me with his hand still extended out to me. I didn't make a response, and ignored his hand as I started to lift myself back up off the ground. Suddenly I could hear the guards again. Their hollers were not far off, and my eyes widened as I remembered my predicament. I looked to the boy one last time, taking in his features, just for a second. He had brown hair, with choppy long bangs on both sides of his face. His eyes were blue, and he wore loose, earthy clothing. He didn't seem to be one of the wealthy, that was for sure. The sounds of the guards grew closer, and I knew I couldn't stick around any longer. Before he could say another word to me, I began to bolt in the opposite direction, and soon I was lost to the crowd. 

"Hey! Boy! Have you seen a thief run through here!? A female, around your age and height?" The guards surrounded the boy, hoping to get solid answers for a lead. He was quiet for a moment, then said, "no, sorry," before putting his hands in his pockets and walking away himself. "Damn!" One of the guards shouted. They had lost her.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I looked over my shoulder and saw no guards following after me. I proceeded to walk into an old, rundown bar. I took a look around, searching for my hirer. Suddenly a hand grabbed my shoulder, and a large alien man huffed in my face, "the boss'll see ya in the back." With that I was led through a back door, into an even shantier looking room. A group of pirates sat at a round table with swords sticking out of it, and a few gold pieces strewn about. I looked at each one, making stern eye contact, showing I was here for business. Suddenly a shadowy figure spoke from behind a disheveled curtain, hanging in the back of the room. "Did you bring it?" His voice was deep, but somehow jovial at the same time. "Yeah, got it right here." I responded as I pulled the strange map out of my knapsack. It was a round orb, bronzish in color, and weighted. A robotic arm reached from behind the curtain. I tossed the orb to him and as it landed in his palm, his fingers locked around it, slowly pulling it back in behind the curtain, out of my view. A moment of silence passed. I could feel my nerves tencing, then he spoke. "It's a fake." The pirates in the room began to banter, clearly growing angry with this discovery. "Are ye trying to make a fool of me, las?" The man spoke behind the curtain. "No!," I objected, "this was the exact one at the exhibit! If it's a fake then it's on them, not me!" "Still doesn't change the fact that it's a fake." He proclaimed lowley. "How do you even know for sure it's a fake!?" I exclaimed, now furious. I nearly got caught trying to bring this damn thing all the way here, and now its genuineness is on me!? "The symbols are wrong," was all he said, "take her out of here." Two large pirates grabbed at my arms, and began to carry me out. "Hey! What about my payment! We had a deal!" I shouted back to the still mysterious man behind the curtain. "The deal was if it was genuine, and it's not." I continued kicking and shouting, enraged by it all. The two pirates tossed me harshly out onto the streets, and for the second time today, my head slammed into the dusty ground. "Damn it!" I cried, clutching my head again before rushing to my feet, and back to the door, slamming on it. "We had a deal, damn it!" The door was locked now though, and all was silent. I banged my fist against the front a few more times, before turning and realizing the scene that had played out in front of the civilians across the street. A couple of fishermen staired my way, and a few passerbyers avoided eye contact with me. I looked back to the door, then to the ground and huffed a sigh of defeat. "Well...this is just great." I said under my breath as I turned to pick my knapsack up off the ground and wander off in disappointment and annoyance. 

Meanwhile, at an inn elsewhere, a certain young boy was getting a scolding from his mother. "You're lucky they didn't think you stole it, Jim!" The concerned parent yelled. "Mom, I didn't do anything wrong! I'm just telling you what happened!" The boy known as Jim retorted. "Well, why didn't you tell the guards what you saw?" A man who had an appearance similar to a dog questioned. "I don't know, there was probably a reason she stole something. Plenty of people have it rough these days." Jim leaned into his chair with his arms crossed. "Well, take this as a lesson. Don't be like that. Make a good, honest living!" His mother told him, "Yeah...alright, mom." Was his only response as he rolled his eyes before lifting himself from his seat and making his way up the stairs.

He went to the roof of their inn to toss pebbles. Something he always did when he needed some time alone, and a place to think. He could hear through the window, his mother and the doctor Delbert Doppler talking about him. His mother's voice was wavering as she spoke on how much he had changed since his father had left them. He sighed and sank into himself. He didn't want to be like his oldman, but people often saw him becoming him. As he pondered, he became distracted by a light shining through the sky. A meteor he wondered, but then it all became clear. A sky ship was crashing down. It hit the ground in a fiery impact, and slid just luckily at the end of a dock overlooking the cliff. Jim rushed down off the roof and made his way hastily to the ship. Just as he arrived, a turtle-like alien man emerged, coughing and hacking. Jim tried to aid him, but the man grabbed his shirt, insisting that they were coming. "You must have hit your head pretty hard there mister," was all Jim could think to say. "Here, give me your arm," he offered as he helped lift the alien-man up and began to carry him to the inn. "Mom's gonna love this..." he said jokingly under his breath.

"I just wish I could go back to the days where Jim would come home with an animal he found, begging me to keep it," Jim's mother recalled, looking into a holographic pendant of pictures of Jim's younger self. Suddenly, Jim rushes through the door with the injured man. "Jim!" His mother shouts. "Mom, he's hurt." Jim lays the man down on the floor, as the turtle-alien begins to reach for the chest. "Me chest boy, me chest." Jim pushes it to him, and he begins to put a code into the lock. Once open, he hands Jim a bag, saying. "You can't let him have this," as he proceeds to grip onto his shirt. "Beware...the cyborg! Be..ware..the...cyborg!" The man insists on his last dying breath. His mother covers her mouth, and Dr. Doppler stands silently, just as shocked. In the silence though grew voices approaching the house. Jim goes to peek through the window in time to see shadowy figures of men approaching the inn, and in that same moment, Molotov's were thrown through the window, immediately lighting the inn up in a blaze. The three rush up the stairs and nervously jump from the window, into the doctor's carriage, escaping with their lives, but losing their home in the process. Jim looked to his mother, feeling the weight of his actions as he watched her cry. Looking down he remembered the sack the alien-man handed him before he passed. He opened it slowly, then his eyes widened with disbelief as to what was sitting in his lap. The map to Treasure Planet.