Shadow yelled out, gripping the map so tightly that he might've ripped it if he hadn't been careful. Something didn't make sense. He followed the map to the letter, to every last detail, yet for some reason, they were nowhere near where the map said they were . And why, for god's sake, was there supposed to be a lighthouse nearby?
Goldheart sneered, glaring at the map in the captain's hands. He was just as confused as the black hedgehog was. The map said they would be close to the tropics, and the island with the hidden treasure should be directly ahead of them. Yet the ship was caught in ocean fog, freezing temperatures and an oncoming storm in the night sky. Goldheart snatched the map out of Shadow's hands, studying it. Maybe they read it upside down?
While Goldheart was turning the map around in his hands—upside down, eastwards, sideways, whatever—Shadow squinted, staring into the fog.
"Arr!" Tails called from the crow-nest, also squinting his eyes as he tried to see through the fog. "This fog is damned, captain! I can't see a thing up here!"
Shadow growled in response. He had half the heart to yell at the kid— "I can't see shit down here either!" — but ultimately decided against it. Tails was trying his best, and it wasn't his fault the fog was in the way.
Goldheart sighed, pulling the black hedgehog to the helm.
"We should be passing by a kelp forest." He said, pointing to the clearly marked symbol for kelp. Shadow raised an eyebrow.
It was too bloody cold for that.
"CAPTAIN!" Tails shouted in a panic, his voice echoing through the frosty fog.
Shadow looked up at the fox, seeing the kid's tails puffing up with fear. Goosebumps. What did he see?
"LOOK!" Tails pointed ahead, his blue eyes wide with terror.
Shadow ran to the bow of the ship, leaning over the railing. Through the icy air and fog, red ruby eyes burned through and spotted a mountain. A mountain of ice.
"OH FUCK!" Knuckles, the quartermaster, screamed. "ALL HANDS ON DECK! HARD TO STARBOARD!"
Shadow leapt from his stance, racing to the helm. He gripped the wheel, tightly, and swung it to the right. The crew was not helping the ship in the slightest as they panicked on the ARK 's deck, some sobbing in hopelessness while others tried to save the ship. Keyword; tried .
Shadow held the wheel down. The ARK swung to the right as a big gust of wind pushed her forward, past the iceberg.
"HARD TO PORT!" Goldheart yelled, tucking the map into his armpits.
Shadow swung the wheel the other way, the ARK 's stern spinning away from the berg. She missed the iceberg, only by an inch, as her mast scrapped the berg slight, sending tiny pieces of ice onto the deck. The entire crew let out a sigh of relief.
Shadow handed the helm to Rouge and marched down the stairs, glaring daggers laced with poison at Goldheart.
"What happened?!" He yelled, coming face-to-face with the blue hedgehog. Goldheart gulped. "You said we'd pass a kelp forest!"
"That's what the map said!" Goldanswer answered, shoving the map into the captain's hands. Shadow snatched it back, opening it and reading it closely. He growled, indeed seeing that the map had said there would be a kelp forest. But it made zero sense.
Shadow's eyes, however, suddenly identified the problem.
In the corner of the map was the legend—a key, symbols that identified what was on the map. What was normally the symbol for kelp is now labelled as the symbol for ice, and the symbol for mountain was used for rough waves. And this explains the lighthouse problem; this legend says that the symbol for lighthouse is the symbol for treasure.
Shadow growled lowly.
"This legend is fucking wrong!" He shouted, showing the map to Goldheart.
Goldheart checked the map for himself, and soon enough, he spotted the error himself. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in disappointment. How did he not notice sooner?
Shadow scrunched up the map, his body growing hot from anger. He stomped to the side of his ship and tossed the map into the frozen ocean below, watching it soak and sink into the endless abyss. The black hedgehog sighed, calming himself down now that the useless map is now at the bottom of the sea.
"We're leaving," he said, "now."
The crew immediately went to their stations. Goldheart shook his head softly, now standing beside his captain.
Neither hedgehog spoke a word, but the emotions and thoughts were carried through the chilly air.
They were complete idiots.
With a chuckle, the both of them returned to their stations—Goldheart with the crew, Shadow at the helm—and the ARK made her way out of the ice field.
