Chapter 10: Shipwreck!

A haze surrounded Will. He recognized a building of some kind. It was his house. Not only that, he was upstairs. Why was he in his house, upstairs? Looking out the window, it appeared to be a cloudy, hazy day. The sky was a bright orange. Perhaps it was late in the afternoon. He looked at the wall, remembering the spot where the Jackal had written his note. It was no longer there, replaced by a picture of his mother and father. A voice called to Will from downstairs. It sounded like the same voice that called to him in the Incan Ruins. It was the sound of his mother. Will went downstairs, and sure enough his mother Shira was standing in the kitchen. She appeared to be preparing a meal of some kind.

She turned to speak to him. "Everywhere you look, the stars in the sky shine brightly. The sky is said to be filled with the light of a comet. Some say that the comet is an unlucky star, others say that it is a lucky star. Will, what do you think?"

Will thought for a moment, remembering the conversation with the Moon Tribe about how the comet's light was speeding up evolution. "I think it is unlucky."

"Okay, then hope that bad luck doesn't come." Shira said. "Will, remember that I will always watch over you."

As his mother said this, his vision was starting to cloud. "Were you calling out to me in the Inca Ruins?" he asked quickly. Before he could get a response, she was gone, and his house faded to black.

"Will! Wake up!" a voice shouted.

Will rubbed his eyes and looked over the side of the bunk bed. To his surprise, Lance and Lilly were standing next to the bunk. "How did you two find me?" Will asked them.

"Will, you were gone for so long." Lilly said. "We had the Elder read your fortune. He said you were floating alone on the sea. I was so surprised."

"We traveled from South Cape to a strange village." Lance said.

"Wait, don't call it strange." Lilly interjected. "I was born there."

"It was invisible." Lance continued. "I'd call that pretty strange. Will, since we're friends, we have to stick together, during good times and bad."

Wondering how Lance and Lilly were able to find the Gold Ship, Will scurried down the bunk and out to the deck. As he moved out toward the deck, he noticed a human skeleton on the wooden planks. The sight of the skeleton coupled with his friends' sudden emergence had Will a bit on the edgy side. Seth and Erik were out on the deck, Seth near the bottom of the crow's nest, Erik near the ladder to the second deck. Erik was surprised to see Will. "Oh, its you Will. Don't scare me like that!" he said as Will passed by him. Shrugging Erik off, Will went over to Seth.

"I found this in one of the cargo holds. I think you'll find good use for it." Seth handed Will a red jewel, his 10th of the journey. Will looked incredulously at Seth, then returned below deck. If all his friends from South Cape, plus Lilly were here, that meant that Kara was probably there as well. He went down to the Inca throne room. As soon as he entered the room, he spotted Kara standing in front of several more skeletons, including the partially mummified remains of the Inca Queen still sitting in the chair. Now Will wanted answers, and he didn't care if he had to press Kara to get them. "What's going on here?" Will asked her.

"The Queen's mummy sleeps silently. She has a light blue ring on her cold, bony finger." Kara said.

Lilly walked into the room from the right. "The Inca must have passed away waiting for the King's return. That ring on the Queen's finger must be a great Incan treasure."

"The ring looks so pretty and shiny, I really must have it." Kara said as she grabbed it from the Queen's skeleton.

"Have you no shame!" Lilly shouted. "You could be cursed!"

As soon as Lilly finished her sentence, there was a great bang on the starboard side of the ship. Lilly started shouting at Kara as the banging got louder and stronger. The three quickly moved back up to deck to find out what was going on. Will ran out onto the deck and quickly found Lance and Erik near the bottom of the crow's nest.

"What is that banging?" Will asked Erik.

"I don't see Seth. Where's Seth?" Lance asked anxiously.

"Aaah! It's Seth!" Erik yelled. "A huge gigantic fish ran into the side of the ship. Seth fell into the water! He was swallowed!" Erik had tears coming from his eyes and he was on the verge of hyperventilating. As Will attempted to console Erik, there was another strong bang against the port side of the ship. "Aaah! It's that fish again. We'll all be dessert!" Erik yelled.

"Hurry up and grab this!" Lance yelled as he tossed Erik a padded life preserver. Will attempted to grab another preserver on the wall of port side, but the banging and shaking became so strong that Will was knocked to the ground. Pieces of the ship were falling off. As Will attempted to get to his feet, a big wooden plank knocked him in the head, knocking him senseless.

Day 11 -

When he came to, Will was lying on a small wooden raft with a small sail. On the other side of the raft was Kara. He had a big headache, just staying conscious was a struggle. "Good to see you've come to. How are you feeling?" Kara said.

"I'm still really stiff." Will said.

"Of course, that shipwreck knocked you out for almost a day." Kara said. "We're adrift on the sea." Will didn't think much about his surroundings, and passed out again a few minutes later. He was too tired to think about the predicament they were now in.

Day 12 -

"I'm hungry." Kara said. "How about we eat the meat we brought from Edward Castle."

Will reached into his sack, which miraculously survived the shipwreck. He found the two remaining legs of meat that he had saved from their castle escape. As they ate, Will finally felt good again. He could tell Kara was really enjoying the food as well. "That was the best meat I've ever had." Will said. "I think so too." Kara responded.

Day 14 -

It was their fourth day adrift at sea. Food was starting to run a bit short, as was water. Will's strength, which had returned just a few days ago, was starting to seep away from him yet again. Across the raft, Kara seemed to be much more entertained with watching the schools of fish swim by. "Beautiful. Every time I look at the fish, the more beautiful they look. Come and sit, let's watch the fish together Will." Will sat down, but as he continued to watch the fish swim by, he couldn't help but notice how hungry he was getting. He took his flute and smacked one of the fish as it was swimming by in an attempt to catch it. "What are you doing! The poor fish!" Kara shouted in response. Will was exasperated at Kara's behavior.

Day 16 -

It was near sunset. The days were long and the nights were even longer. Will wondered if they would ever survive the monotony, much less the threat of starvation and death at sea.

Suddenly, something perked Kara's attention. "Look! Will, over there!" she shouted. Will looked out to the north where Kara was pointing and noticed a jar floating in the water. The jar floated over to their raft. Inspecting the jar, Will found a note inside. The note read, "My name is Sam. We natives are being forced to work as laborers in an unknown land. If anybody reads this, please save us. Sam."

"Such a terrible note. I'm hungry." Kara said.

"You should have caught that fish back there!" Will shouted.

"I can't hurt such a pretty fish." Kara said.

Now Will was angry. "Are you saying its better to starve?" he shouted.

"I can't help it." she responded. "Fish feel pain! Have you ever thought about how the fish feels? I'm going to sit over there by myself."

Kara didn't say a word the rest of the day. Clearly, Kara's actions were very selfish, and yet Will wondered privately if she was just as hungry as he was.

Day 18 -

Will was losing strength very quickly. He hadn't eaten in two whole days, and the sun was especially strong. It was wearing on him. Taking his flute, he skewered a fish through the mouth. Without thinking about anything, he took a bite out of the raw fish and chewed. It didn't taste very good, but Will didn't care. He was to the point where he would eat anything. Taking his flute again, he grabbed another fish. Then another. A whole school continued to swim through the area, and Will continued to catch and eat. Before long, he had many fish flopping around on the raft. Kara turned to Will, seeing the fish he had caught. "Sorry about the way I talked to you yesterday. I'll eat the fish. I don't want to eat it, but I'll do anything not to starve."

"Let's catch a fish, a big one." Will said.

Kara took Will's flute, then handed it back to him, preferring to use her bare hands. Will, half expecting her to fall off the raft into the water, was surprised to see her grab a fish and raise it from the water. The move was pleasingly uncharacteristic of her. As she started to eat, Will realized that he was starting to develop feelings for Kara.

Day 22 -

It was a dark starry night. Will and Kara stood together underneath the stars.

"The stars are so beautiful." Kara said. "I wish I could reach out and touch them. See that one over there, the bright red one? It's a special star. We should make a wish upon that star."

Will thought for a minute, then looked up at the bright red star amid all the standard white ones. "I wish for everybody's safety, and for my father." Will said. Kara looked into Will's eyes as she made her wish.

Day 28 -

Nearly three weeks had passed since the shipwreck of the Incan Gold Ship. It was another beautiful day. But over to the east, Kara spotted trouble. "What, Will come quick!" Shark fins began to surround their raft. Kara started to freak out as Will quickly threatened her to stay quiet. The sharks continued to surround their raft for several minutes, during which Will and Kara pondered their situation.

"I get it! They're not hungry." Kara said excitedly. "Sharks aren't like humans. Humans tend to attack living things when they're not hungry."

Will looked at Kara incredulously. "Then what we've been doing is not normal human behavior. We didn't eat any fish until we were starving!"

Kara looked back at the pack of sharks. "That's it, they're leaving! Good bye sharks!" she shouted.

Day 31 -

It was nearly sunset. "When I was in the castle." Kara said. "I would always watch the sun set. The sunset was so beautiful from the corner of the castle. But now I've come to hate it. Everything I used to love about the castle I cannot stand any longer. But at least with you I get to see a beautiful sunrise every day."

Kara turned away from Will to the left. She noticed something interesting, part of the sun was getting covered up by the horizon, yet it wasn't touching the water yet that she could see. Could it be?

"Land!" she shouted. "Oh Will, there's land out there. We're going to be saved!"

Kara heard a mumbling behind her, followed by a loud thud on the other side of the raft. Will had fallen down. Worse yet, he didn't respond to her asking him if he was all right. "Will! Will wake up! Will we've almost reached land, don't leave me here alone!"