Skye's Lure

Chapter 5: Caught

Vince pushed my tank around the boat for a while. The sloshing water felt unstable, but I was too busy taking everything in to pay it much mind.

The ship was enormous. It had several rooms, a kitchen, and an upper deck, which was where I had seen the partiers the first night. At my request, Vince carried me there and turned on the party lights. Mesmerized, I watched the swirling colors and shimmering reflections. It was beautiful. I almost didn't want to leave, but the land's call was stronger.

The last stop on our tour was the media room. The room didn't hold the same dazzle as the upper deck, but the television and computer were incredible devices, despite their simplistic exterior.

Click. The television made a soft buzzing noise, the black screen filling with moving images. The colorful pictures reminded me of the scene on the boat when I first encountered it, but smaller and more focused. There were women dancing to a thumping beat while wearing tiny pieces of flashy clothing.

"Oh, sorry," Vince murmured. He fumbled with the black bar in his hands, his face turning red. He hit some buttons and the image on the screen changed, revealing a curious creature. "I meant to change that to the National Geographic Channel before you came."

"What's that?" I asked, pointing at the new image. The creature yawned. Its large mouth seemed like it could swallow me whole.

"That's a lion. Basically, it's a big cat."

"There are smaller ones?"

"Sort of. Cats are usually pets, but a lion is wild."

"What an odd creature." My eyes widened. The screen showed the lion running across a field of golden vegetation, pouncing on another creature.

"There's this, too," Vince said from the other side of the room. I ripped my eyes away to see what he was talking about. There was another screen there displaying a field of flowers.

"It's a computer. It's kind of like the TV, but you have more control over what you see. You type in words, and then you can click on the different images and videos that come up. Here, let me show you." Vince pushed me toward the table, handing me a plush cloth. "You'll have to keep your hands dry with this towel. These devices don't take too kindly to getting wet."

Leaning over me, he clicked the mouse, and a white screen with the word GOOGLE came up. Pecking at the board of buttons, words appeared at the top. With another click, the screen filled with pictures. Clicking again, one picture got bigger and began moving.

An image of a large fortress filled the screen, and it looked like we were floating around it. The land was full of emerald green vegetation and jagged stones. Many of the stones were dappled with deeper greens and rich browns.

Vince pointed to the pictures that lined the side of the screen. "You can use the mouse to click on any of these videos. Just make sure you click the left button, not the right one. Roll this piece in the center to scroll up and down."

"What happens if I click the right button?"

"Nothing much. It just comes up with a table of options. They don't really get you anywhere, unless you need them for something, but you won't need them."

"Okay."

Vince stood up, scratching his head. "Yeah . . . so the hotdogs. I didn't start them in case you decided not to come, plus I wanted them to be hot. Cold hotdogs are kinda gross."

"That's fine." I scrolled through the pictures, the colorful video images making my head swirl. I wanted to click them all, but when I clicked one, more appeared.