In Love with a Pirate

Uninvited Guest

Once they were on the planet, Claire and Silver pulled their boats into the cave..

They both anchored their boats and hopped out, and Silver nodded his head as he looked around the cave.

"'Tis a nice little cave I suppose."

Claire just laughed at him. "You haven't even seen the best part yet, Silver!"

She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the back of the cave. She then walked to a small rock in the wall that was slightly different in color from the rest of the cave and pressed it until it sunk into the wall. Suddenly, a piece of the back wall slid away to reveal an entirely new section of the cave.

As they went in, Silver quietly gasped at the beauty of what he was seeing, and Claire let out a relaxed sigh, as she recalled all the memories of this place. The ceiling of the cave was hundreds of feet high, and the walls were hundreds of feet wide. The cave had a completely different ecosystem than the rest of the planet. The air around them was crisp and clean, and there was a very gentle and calm breeze that passed through. The ground was a rich brown soil that gave off an amazing earthy scent compared to the dry desert-like environment of the rest of Montressor. There were ferns, moss, and wild grass that covered most of the cave floor and colossal red-oak trees that stretched towards the ceiling. On the left side of the cavern was a fracture in the wall where clean clear water pooled from, and cascaded down the rocks. The waterfall collected at the bottom and released into a river that traveled all across the cave. Starting by the river bed and expanding out from there was a small field of wildflowers that gradually shifted in color from purple to light blue, to silver, it was truly a stunning sight.

"C-ster...'dis is...incredible..." Silver gasped as he took it all in.

Claire was sitting in the meadow by the river running her hand through the water.

"I know. I just found it like this when I was little. I have no idea how long it's been here, or who set up that door, but I'm so grateful for it. This amazing place is one of the only things that kept me sane when I was little...it was a peaceful quiet place I could go to whenever I wanted...where I knew I would be left alone. But...you still haven't even seen the BEST part yet."

Claire stood up, walked over to the wall, and pulled on a rope that hung from it. The rope activated shutters that blocked all the holes that let in natural light, and the room was engulfed in darkness. One by one, little specks on the ceiling of the cave began to glow in whites, yellows, and blues. They were different sizes and distances from the floor. Soon the entire cave was lit up by the glowing dots.

"'Tis beautiful, lass." He whispered as they both stared in awe.

Claire leaned into Silver, who in turn, wrapped his arms around her.

"It's like my own personal little star map. This is one of the things that made me want to visit the space when I was little. It's so stunning...and I knew it must be even better in real life."

After a few minutes of just taking everything in, Silver leaned in close to Claire and kissed her cheek. "Alright, lass, we better unload 'da treasure and finish up." Claire took in one last breath of fresh air and started off towards the boats. 

They finished unloading, and after a few hours, they made four more trips back and forth to unload more treasure. They had a massive pile of loot in the cave and planned to make a few more trips. As soon as they got back, they changed the map from Montressor to Treasure Planet.

They were about to step inside...when the hair on the back of her neck stood up.

"Well, well, well...what do we have here?"