Vuela

Chapter 1

Her eyes flicker open at twelve fifteen in the morning, the exact moment her high-pitched watch that sits on her crowded nightstand. Within the three seconds of that alarm going off, Vuela grabs the watch and presses the top right button as hard as she can. She immediately jumps out of bed, dressed in a loose red shirt, above-the-knee shorts, black socks, and fake silver earrings. The fifteen-year-old girl jumps into her black boots with the tightest buckles, so they can't make a sound. She snatches her latest invention, tosses it out of her open window, jumps after it, and hits the engine before it hits the water alleyway.

The tourist district is dark, but the small light on the front of the sailboard she's riding is enough for Vuela to navigate her way through the side alleys and avoid the police-infested main water roads. She knows those alleys like the back of her hand since she's been living there for the past five years.

"The innovation of sky and ocean travel rises to a new high when the oceans rise above sea level in the fourth millennium," Vuela Marie Hawkins remembers her Year 7 Technical Science teacher reading off the presentation hologram during class. Ever since that day, the fifteen-year-old girl takes that phrase and implies it to her favorite hobby, which was perfect for the middle of nowhere island city of Bottle-Nose Coast.

In her mind, she was born to take to the skies. At least, that is what her dad used to say as far back as Vuela can remember. Vuela's been a fan of travel tech since the ripe age of six. What child who's from her generation wouldn't have any human interest in the freedom of the air? On the other hand, Vuela believes that her dad meant something more than something so trivial.

Everyone is free to either soar over the rooftops of their own cities, jetski through alleyways, and dive through secret passages. There are boards that skim on surfaces of the water and cut the space of the air. There are more boats used for motion and real estate. There are jetpacks and rocket shoes. Rocketboards have become the popular means of transportation and entertainment for the young adult generation. The dream of every human being to touch the sky and swim through the sea without risk is finally possible.

No. Vuela Marie Hawkins doesn't believe that she's as normal as the other kids. Her dad made a name for himself from her home island. She has been told countless times that she's meant to do something as extraordinary or more than he ever accomplished. Perhaps it's not what her father used to do, but other than travel tech, Vuela has another interest that's plagued her mind since her childhood days playing adventure games with her brother.

Tales of treasure hunters appear from all over the world. Because of the power of free flight and sea travel, it is possible to explore mountain ranges and the depths of the great blue, where special goods could be hidden and rediscovered again.

However, professional trips to retrieve treasure, whether true or based on fairy tales, are expensive. Pirated treasure hunting also rises, which gives rise to the most infamous, yet successful, treasure hunting pirate in history: Rodrigo San Martín.

Vuela and everyone she grows up with believe his story has the ability to change a person's life if it were real like the Dragon Shark, a terrible beast a quarter of the planet away.

He is the type of man who always gets what he desires even if it means destroying every stagnant, or living, obstacle in his path. Many people remember him as the man who conquers the world by stealing treasure from the world's strongest and richest powers. But where he stores it all, not even the greatest of police can track it down.

Two hundred years ago, San Martín vanished from the public eye, never to be heard from or seen again.

Many of his followers try to find the very place where he stored it all for "safety." Every intelligent pirate knows that just leaving it on their ships is a calling to other pirates to rob them dead. Legend says that San Martín's retirement is living in his treasure hull for the rest of his life. But so far, the feat of finding that hull has not been declared successful by any police, treasure hunter, nor underground pirate.