Pirate's Treasure

Chapter 11

I stayed in my room as much as possible until we hit land. It wasn't until a week later, but once we were all looking out at the place, we were so excited when it wasn't an island. The land stretched from horizon to horizon, the perfect place to fix the ship. Which was good, because I know the ship was completely falling apart.

"We'll land and half of us will fix the ship, half of us will look for the item." Val told us as he steered the ship into a higher area, and the Englishmen steadied the plank so we could walk across. Once the ship was steady we filed onto land, one by one until we were all there.

"Who's doing what?" Caesar asked, looking at all the crew.

"Jim, John, Will, Richard, Benito, Roberto and Anton." Val listed all the names as he was pointing at them. "Help rebuild the ship. There's wood all over the place in these trees." He pointed to the rest of us, and the rebuilders all got into a group. "Caesar, O'Malley, Johan, Aras, Lila, Colin, Christian, Dinah and Elisa." Then he clenched his teeth, and shook his head. "Caesar, O'Malley, go with the builders." He ordered, and they groaned, slumped over and went with them. "The rest of you are with me. Johan and Aras-" He cut off, keeping his eyes on Dinah. "Watch her."

"Hey!"Dinah whined as they grabbed her arms, sandwiching her in. "I can take care of myself."

"I know." Val replied, approaching her, twirling a strand of her hair around his finger. "That's the problem."

"Leave her alone." I ordered, and Val drew his sword, and it was pointed at my face.

"Do not talk to me like that." He shot back as I backed far enough away to be out of its each. "I'm the only one who gives orders around here."

"Don't talk to my best friend like that." I mocked, and there was a huge crash behind us. We all turned and saw that the trees acted as dominoes, and there were at least a dozen on the ground.

"What did you do!?" Val shot at them, and they all started pointing fingers at each other. "I don't care who did, get it fixed!"

I took the opportunity to run the opposite direction.

There were too many trees, way more than any other place we've been. I had to slow to a walk to avoid them all, but I could still hear them chopping down the trees. I pulled out my scroll and took another look at it. 'Health'. It still read 'Health'. Then I guess I'd have to find what it meant.

Once I made sure nobody was following me, I kept going. There had to be something around here, right? Something that would tell me where it is or what it is. But with all the trees, it was so easy to get lost. But maybe that was a good thing.

"Who are they!? What are they doing!?" I gasped as I heard the strong but kinda high pitched and fast voice. I jerked around, my head flying in all directions, but I couldn't see anyone.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" I ordered, but my voice cracked as the leaves in the trees rustled.

"Who is chopping down all the trees!?" It asked again, and I saw a squirrel appear, rather dark-furred and large but then, and it scurried down the tree, stopping two feet in front of my feet.

"Oh, hello little squirrel." I greeted, but still looked around for the voice. "Where was it-"

"Do you know what is going on?" I shot back as the squirrel- yes, the squirrel- talked. "We were all so peaceful and we heard the noise of tree-chopping and knew something was wrong."

"You… you can talk!" I exclaimed in astonishment. This is happening. This is really happening!

"Of course we can talk! Did you think we were stupid?" He shot back, offended and coming even closer. "We are one of the smartest animal kingdoms in the world. Did you know the earth was round?"