Chapter 3 – The pirates

An hour passed. Trunks and Goten were hopping up and down on the bowsprit (while some sharks were getting nervous breakdowns right under their feet because although once in a while the boys lost the balance and fell down, they always flew back up before the sharks could get them.). They were both more excited than ever. "A real pirate ship! Wow, this is so coooooool!!!!" Finally the two ships confronted and the crew of the clipper came to the upper deck to see the pirates. Trunks and Goten practically fainted.

It was really a pirate ship. Old, tattered and with some suspicious-looking brownish spots on the deck and boards. The crew of the other ship had also gathered to the deck and they were obviously real pirates, with golden earrings, wooden legs and scarred faces. But they didn't seem hostile – maybe because of Videl's Jolly Roger in the clipper's main mast.

"Arr mateys," one pirate with a big brown beard shouted. "You be pirates too?"

"What is this language?" Goku asked with surprise while Gohan shouted back: "We're more like treasure hunters."

The pirates grinned. "Aye, it be a nice way for puttin' it… Who be yer captain?"

"That's me," Vegeta announced, stepping forward. "Who's yours?"

"Arr, that be me," the pirate with the brown beard replied. "Black Captain of the Southern Seas thay be callin' me… and what be yer name, lad?"

Vegeta frowned at the 'lad' part but still said: "Vegeta. The prince of the Saiyans."

"A prince, aye?" Black Captain grinned, then his eyes examined the crew of the clipper. "Arr, women and young lads aboard… old Black Captain's eyes not be seein' this often."

"My crew is my business," Vegeta stated. "Listen, have you been seeing dragons flying around lately?"

The pirate nodded. "Aye… thar be many of 'em ugly creatures over there on the seas." He pointed at the direction where they had been coming from and where the clipper was heading to. "Tis be strange, I be tellin' ye that… thar be no islands yet the dragons be flyin' around there like crazy."

"No islands?" Bulma asked with great surprise. "But there has to be an island right on our course, about five days' sailing from here."

The pirate looked at her with a grin. "Lookin' for ol' Bloody Star treasure, aye lady?"

Bulma blinked with surprise. "Bloody Star…?" Suddenly she gasped and dashed away. Seconds later she returned with the old treasure map. "Vegeta, look!"

"Do you really have to run around like that all the time?" Vegeta asked. "What?"

"Look at the map!" Bulma stuck the map under her husband's nose. "We didn't look at it correctly! It's not an X marking the spot, it's a small star! And it's not made with ink, but…"

"Blood," Black Captain nodded. "Ye not be knowin' the story of tis map, do ye? Well, me may be tellin' ye tis story... if me get something back for it."

Vegeta was about to snap something when Gohan bowed down, opened a small trapdoor next to the steering wheel and took a bottle from a hold under it. He threw it to the captain. "There. Will you tell us the story?"

Black Captain caught the bottle and looked at it with a slight grin. "Arr, tis be good rum… you be a smart lad. Aye, Captain will be tellin' you the story of the Bloody Star now, so be listenin' carefully.

The Bloody Star be a beautiful barkentine back on the days when the pirates still be sailin' the Southern Seas. Tis captain be Ironleg, the fiercest pirate of all times. He be sailin' for long years, aye, long years full of blood and fights and he be collectin' a huge treasure during that time. One day he be captured and imprisoned but nothing was to be found in the Bloody Star. Nobody be knowin' where Ironleg hid the treasure.

But Ironleg be smart, aye, very smart… he be drawin' three maps for the treasure. On the day that he be executin', he be askin' permission to sayin' goodbye to his three best friends: the first mate, the boatswain and the coxswain of the Bloody Star. Then he be givin' them the maps.

"You be me best friends," he be tellin' them. "You be tryin' to find the treasure. Me not be trustin' anyone else with it. Whoever may find it, may keep it. But remember mateys, tis not be an easy thing findin' the treasure."

Then he be leavin' the room and executed on the afternoon. But his three mateys be tryin' hard to find the treasure. They be getting' their own ships and crew and sailin' here to the Southern Seas. But they never be findin' the treasure. Old Ironleg really be very smart, aye. The boatswain be killed in a bar fight in a harbor and his map be buried with him, 'cause no man be knowin' 'bout it. The first mate be me grandfather, he be leavin' the map to my father and father be leavin' it to me. Me be not knowin' what happened to the coxswain but somehow ye got the ol' treasure map too so he must've be related to one of ye," the old captain finished his story and took a gulp from the rum bottle.

"But me can be tellin' ye, there be no treasure," he added. "Me just be there a week ago and there be no island out there. The ol' Ironleg just be foolin' his ol' mateys." He looked at the clipper. "So if yer lookin' for the Bloody Star treasure, ye won't be findin' it. Ye have a nice clipper, really nice… but it be not helpin' you out with this treasure, aye."

"Now what do we do?" Bulma asked Vegeta. "There is no treasure."

Vegeta had been listening to the whole story with a frown. Not a big surprise because pirate talk isn't easy to understand and besides, as we know, Vegeta frowns most of the time. But this time it seemed like he had something more important in mind.

"We'll keep going," he said. "There are some things I wanna settle out there, treasure or not." He turned around and went to the steering wheel. "Brats, to the sails and Kakarot, make yourself useful and get some of those sharks for dinner instead of poking them."

The two kids flew up and started hoisting the sails, everyone else ran back to their positions. Bulma turned to the pirates and said: "Thank you for the story and have a safe sailing."

"Same back to ye, lady," the old captain replied and sent his men back to work. "Little lads flyin' around like seagulls… now me be seein' everything," he remarked to his first mate.

"Arr captain, ye better be seein' tis," the first mate replied and pointed to the clipper that was now moving along.

Because Vegeta had just shouted out: "Trunks, get up there behind the main sail and push that ship on a little… we'll never get to that non-existing island with that tempo." Trunks had flown behind the sail and blasted a bit of energy in it; the clipper bolted for a second and then boomed towards the distance.

"Well, now me be seein' everything," the captain said. His first mate nodded.

"That was the worst Scottish accent I've ever heard," Bulma remarked in the navigator's cabin. "Gohan, how did you know about that bottle of rum?"

"The old log book," Gohan replied. "Say Bulma, has anyone from your family ever been a pirate or something?"

"I don't know… but I doubt it," the woman replied. "At least the card that we have is from my grandpa who won it in a poker game in some… harbor tavern." Her eyes turned big. "Hey Vegeta!" she shouted, running outside.

Vegeta grunted. "I'm gonna tie you to the front of the ship as a bow statue if you don't stop running around like that all the time," he announced. "Now what?"

"Remember the story Black Captain told us? Where he said that the boatswain was killed in a bar fight and buried with the map? Well, I just remembered that my grandpa once told me that he had won some little piece of map from a stranger in a harbor bar. It must be the same map! I had completely forgotten about that part!" Bulma explained and took a deep breath.

Vegeta raised a brow. "Okay… so now we know where this map comes from. And?"

Bulma gasped. "Don't you see? Black Captain had one of the maps, we have another one… so who has the third?"

Vegeta seemed surprised but then he grinned. "Don't worry about that one. We'll go there and I'll see if I guessed  right." He looked up at Trunks. "I'd say that we will make it there in… three hours, approximately. Enough time to have dinner."