I really don't know how I ended up like this. All I remember is going to board the Papillion with my fellow seatmates; well most are my mates and now in the middle of the Atlantic with know map or compass. I've been rowing for about three days and I was lucky to have fresh water on board with me but honestly I have not a clue where I am. Yesterday I thought I saw my ship the Indefatigable but it was actually a French frigate so I had to pretend I was a fisherman. I am so glad that my father made me take French with a private tutor otherwise I would have been stuck and probably now half way to a French prison or to my death. The only way I am able to record these events is because a notebook and quill were left in these small rowing boat obviously for a captains log but as I am alone it is only proper that I use it to record my private events for when I hope I eventually return to England.
Archie Kennedy had been left in a rowing boat after an attack on a French frigate called the Papillion. He had become indisposed before going into battle and so had been left. For reason that were at the moment unknown to Archie the small rowing boat had broken lose from its rope and had drifted away. He thought that it was very strange that his ship had not come to look for him and he'd hoped that it wasn't because his fellow crewmates had not been able to capture the Papillion. But Archie was a very optimistic person and tried not to think of the terrible things that might have happened to them. He wondered now why he had become ill and it suddenly hit him why he constantly became unwell even when he wasn't about to go into battle.
It's because of him! That horrible creature of a man. Jack Simpson. Even his name sounds like a parasite. It's always when he is around I don't even have the confidence to speak and what can he really do to me a part from beat me and he's done that so many times I've lost count. When he was not on board I was fine. As fit as a fiddle and then he comes and I become frightened again. I wish I were more like Horatio. He said that we should stand up to him and how much I would love to. To tell him what I really thought of him. I now realize what he really is. He's nothing but a bully. Probably afraid that if he didn't beat people down then he would become weak and frail. Now I understand it seems so simple. Once people start to talk him down he will no longer be the bully he is.
I wonder what that is at bearings north-northeast to southwest. It looks a bit like land but not a land we have ever come across on these bearings before I think I shall leave the log and go and explore.
What Archie didn't know is that he was coming across a land no one could have discovered unless by a freak accident. This was a land affectionately known as Terra Incognito, which in English means unknown land. This was truly a land where all of the sailor's superstitious stories came from, like about sea beasts and strange creatures that where unknown to us and had strange inhumanly powers. A land like this had its on protection to keep us (well people who really didn't understand about that sort of thing) away but Archie as a boy and even now had very much believed in everything that people said were fairy stories of course he didn't want to be classed as insane and so never told anyone of his beliefs except Horatio and his late friend Mr Clayton. They of course laughed at the idea but still supported Archie. It was by him believing very strongly in this that he was able to see this land and for this accident to occur. At first though he thought he may have made a mistaken the bearings and had drifted further than he had expected.
He grounded the ship and started to walk around this new land. He was pleased to see that there were fruit around which he had now started to collect to eat. He was just about to take a bite of the strange red-fleshed fruit when a girl came out from behind the bushes,
"I wouldn't eat that if I were you."
"Why?" asked Archie who could see her figure but could not see her face as she was shaded by other bushes and trees.
"Because that is the fruit that makes you see things you do not wish to see. They show your greatest fears."
"Thank you for telling me. Please step out. I cannot see you properly."
"I can't. You're one of them. The unbelieving ones."
"I promise I won't yell."
"OK then as long as you promise."
"I promise."
She stepped out and her skin had a blue tinge and her hair was also blue but it also glistened in the sunlight as if it had sparkles of silver though it but the most bedazzling thing about her was her eyes. They were rather like cats eyes only they were dark blue slits in the middle of a purple background. Her eyelashes were very long and were silver and her ears were pointed like an elf's. Her clothes were very long and flowing and she wore a tiara that was silver and red. She also had a necklace that was a ring around her neck. That was also silver.
"I've seen you before but I can't think where."
"You have! I mean you have? How could that be?"
"I'm not sure."
Suddenly a huge petrifying scream came that shock the ground and pierced your ears at the same time.
The girl suddenly grabbed Archie's hand and tore away pulling Archie behind her. She through him into a tree and hid underneath a bush herself. She put her finger to her lips and hushed Archie to stay quiet. About a dozen horses then rode past. They were black and ferocious and even the very sound of there hooves hitting the earth chilled you to the bone. They paced and although it was within seconds it felt like an eternity of fear to Archie, but unlike he used to go into uncontrollable fits he tried to stay calm.
"What were they?" asked Archie now getting up from the ground as cautiously as possible.
"Things that should never find you" she replied.
"Do you always speak riddles?"
"Mostly. It is easier not to give information that way. What is your name?"
"Will you tell me yours if I give you mine?"
"Yes, I will"
"It is Midshipman Archie Kennedy of the Indefatigable"
"Oh so your one of those sea people. They come and are always so offal but your not. I'm Hayley."
"Just Hayley"
"Well I can't really tell you my last name"
"All right. Can you tell me were I am?"
"Your in the forbidden land. Years ago there was a terrible war between your kind and mine. Men wanted to destroy this land and use for things that to my people are unspeakable so we made them leave and we hid this land so that they couldn't come back."
"How did your people beat us? We have no record of any events like that."
"Well you wouldn't to make sure we made everyone forget and it is only the old warriors that remember from that time."
"How is that possible?"
"Because we're immortal"