Lost At Sea (Rough Draft)

Part 02

With the scientific tool, the Captain could measure the distance and use the light of the blood moon to reveal a hidden script written on an old piece of wood that floated onto shore that belonged to a ship that had rumored to disappear into thin air. The captain yelled in excitement as the message was revealed to him of the next clue and the protagonist joined him and saw the revealed riddle and the location of the amulet. The protagonist gasped in awe at the iridescent ink on the piece of wood and read them in their head and tried to solve the riddle, thinking through all their stories about treasure and pirates. Later in the evening, the captain was in his private quarters with his closest confidants trying to unravel the riddle while the rest of the crew went back to their duties or resting, while the protagonist was up on the ropes staring up at the night sky searching for the constellations. The young teen sighed at the gentle breeze thoughts filled with tales of the stars when the riddle came into a connection. The protagonist carefully untangled themselves out of the rope and climbed down in a hurry and ran over to the captain's cabin and burst in, exclaiming that they solved the riddle. The captain waved them in and they weaved through the men and women to get to the desk and began to explain how the constellations worked in with the riddle and the amulet's location. Everybody around them was shocked that the young teen was able to solve the complicated riddle so quickly while the captain yelled in joy and grasped the protagonist in a side hug. With the new coordinates to follow, the captain ordered his crew to set sail in that direction and his crew jumped to action with a new found energy. The protagonist smiled proudly as they went back onto the deck to help the crew who did their best to congratulate the young teen with finding the location of the amulet, who blushed and smiled bashfully. Early morning work paid off and as the sun rose above the horizon, everybody on the ship could see the hazy outline of the island that should hold the mysterious and powerful amulet. The crew cheered and celebrated for a couple moments before they were ordered back to work while the captain pulled the protagonist away to speak privately on the second deck with a calloused hand on their shoulder. He told the young teen his plan; that two small groups would take two smaller boats to shore and would search the island for the amulet while the rest of the crew waited back on the ship and before he could finish, the protagonist interrupted. Stubbornly, they exclaimed that they would be going on the trip to shore and that no matter what he says will change that but calmed down when he started laughing and smiling. The teen stopped and asked why he was laughing, the captain tried to calm down and chuckled that he wasn't going to make them stay and that he was about to ask the teen to come with him to the island, still chuckling under his breath making the protagonist blush and storm off in a fuss. A couple hours later when the ship got closer to shore and was anchored to its spot, when the captain, some of his crew and the protagonist got lowered onto small rowing boats and rowed to the island. The young teen helped row joking around with the men and women glancing over at the captain in the other boat smiling at him before focusing back on the rowing. They pulled the ships onto the sand and anchored them before the group entered the forest and began trekking through the reeds following the makeshift map to locate the amulet when they came upon a stone building that was falling apart. It looked like an abandoned civilization to the protagonist and they wandered around gazing with awe at the mysterious buildings with strange etchings and markings. For some reason those carvings reminded the protagonist of something but they couldn't pinpoint it, deep in thought staring at one in particular, when the teen was shaken out of their thoughts by the captain yelling that he found something and quickly ran over to where he was. The captain was standing in an alcove covered by vines and moss, cutting them away and revealing a strange yet intricate mosaic that was carved and painted in a stone wall, the imagery also recalling memories that were too cloudy to fully see right. With the piece of wood in hand, the captain used the inscription and used the designs in the mural to move pieces to form another images before the whole wall began to shake and a circular opening opened and revealed a staircase leading into the ground. A crewmate lit a torch and handed it to the captain who was ready to start going into the cavern while a couple others lit a couple other torches to follow him down the stairs and the protagonist was excited yet scared to go into the dark cavern. A couple stayed at the entrance to watch their backs while the rest of them went down the never ending stairs to a wet platform of dry mud and earth when the passage opened to a diamond shaped room and they came to a stop. The protagonist pushed to the front of the group and stood next to the captain and looked in wonder at the tiled room, each tile with a carving and holes covering the side walls and the young teen came to a realization. The protagonist knelt down to pick up a rock and tossed it into the room, it landed on a tile and a dozen arrows shot out of the walls causing a couple crew mates to gasp and stumble back slightly. The captain knelt down to look closer at the tiles with the torch and said that the tiles were carved with english letters and said aloud that they would have to find a word to cross the tiled floor, any misstep they would get killed instantly. He began to think aloud, mumbling what words could possibly work based on the riddle and the myth off in his own world while the protagonist was also thinking to themselves when the word popped in their head. Before anybody could stop the young teen, they took a confident step forward on a tile, yells came quickly trying to stop them but nothing happened when the young teen fully stepped on the tile.