Chapter 23: Island of Mayhem
It did not take long for Creighton and Izzy to arrive at the supposedly uninhabited island on a small boat given to them by the crew of Montalban's ship. The ship itself was located offshore in visible sight, the intent being that Creighton and Izzy would find Matt, retrieve his compass medallion from him, and return to the ship in due time. The two knew though that intention was far from the truth of the matter. They beached the boat next to a much larger vessel, made of dark wood and tied down at various parts of the beach to prevent the tide from taking it. The name on the side of the ship read out Poseidon.
"It's Matt's ship alright," Creighton mused. Izzy looked around as Creighton began shouting out, "Matt! Matt Zero!"
There was no reply, no response of any kind from the ship. Izzy noted some small footprints, faded and headed towards the jungle as Creighton continued shouting out for Matt and a couple of the other crew members. He eventually gave up and joined Izzy.
"Well I'm all out of ideas," he shrugged. Izzy moved over towards the path created by the footprints, heading off into the jungle. Creighton, not eager to stick around in full view of Montalban's goons, even if they were a good ways off the coast, quickly ran after her through the dense foliage. As they moved deeper into the jungle, the two came across a parrot that flew down onto one of the nearby cut-down tree trunks.
"Hey, I know that parrot!" Creighton said. "Didn't that old codger have one just like it?"
"Woolly did have a parrot like that," Izzy noted, "and that parrot is in fact Woolly's parrot."
The parrot squawked, "Don't eat me!"
The two gave each other a look before Creighton turned back to the parrot and reassured him, "We're not going to eat you."
"Come on, let's go find the others," Izzy said, moving further into the jungle. Creighton followed her despite the parrot continuing to cry out, "Don't eat me! Don't eat me!"
The two ventured deeper into the jungle and eventually stumbled upon a curiously small flask. Izzy sniffed the flask's opening and flinched. "Willaby."
"That strong, huh?" Creighton noted, and then he looked curiously over a small string attached to the neck of the flask. He reached out for it but had his hand slapped by Izzy. He looked up at her with annoyance as she shook her head and pointed. The string led deeper into the jungle, and so the two traced it back carefully to a curious tree trunk.
"There's nothing here," Creighton complained. Izzy looked around carefully and-
"Duck!" she shouted as a camouflaged native popped out of the shadow of the tree and swung a club at Creighton's head, swiftly knocking him out. Izzy attempted to run but found she had been caught in another trap, one that grasped her foot and dragged her up into the air as a number of other natives appeared from the brush. Most only had loincloths on, and there were numerous tattoos and facial piercings on each one. Izzy struggled in the trap and brought out a small dagger from her pocket.
"Get back!" she shouted. "I have a weapon, and I'm not afraid to use it!"
The natives looked over at each other, and then a rushing wind sounded through a pipe as Izzy felt a tiny prick in her neck. Her head ached, her eyes blurred, she began to feel very fatigued and dropped her dagger just before blacking out.
Izzy awoke to find herself upside down and tied to a long pole, being carried up a large mountain with the sound of drums thumping rhythmically. She looked around her to find the same natives that had gathered around her to now be carrying her up the mountain, along with Creighton on another pole just in front of her. She sighed and waited for the natives to carry them wherever they were all going.
Eventually they reached the summit and crossed a long bridge to get to the tribal area, where they appeared to be even more natives around. The leader of the small group of natives that had captured Izzy and Creighton spoke up to a central figure on a large throne-like chair as the others turned Creighton and Izzy to be presented to it. Izzy looked over and immediately recognized that the figure in question was none other than Matt, guised in some kind of ceremonial markings. As Matt looked down at Izzy and Creighton, Creighton finally woke up from getting knocked out and looked at Matt.
"Oh good," he slurred shakily. "I can honestly say I'm glad to see ya, Matt!"
Matt stood up and walked over to the leader of the hunting pack. Izzy watched as Matt began conversing with the leader in their tongue, a remarkable spectacle for anyone who hadn't known Matt for as long as she had known him. Creighton watched this as well, but he spoke up, "Matt, it's us! We're your friends!"
Matt continued to talk with the leader, gesturing at Creighton and Izzy and giving disapproving looks. Izzy was sure that Matt recognized them, but with no knowledge of what the language the natives were speaking was, she couldn't expect to know what he was talking about. Then Matt finally began to walk back to his throne, allowing for the compass medallion to swing by his side such that Creighton and Izzy could see it.
"Matt, the medallion, we need it!" Creighton said. "Shannon's still trapped by Montalban in one of his jails! She's going to die!"
Matt stopped his pace for a moment and paused before turning back around and walking right back to the pack leader. He then began to hurriedly talk in their language before finally giving a dismissive command, one that the leader shouted out to the other natives much to their cheer. Matt walked up to Creighton and Izzy and whispered, "Save me!" before walking back to his throne.
"Matt, what did you tell them?" Creighton yelled out as the natives carried him and Izzy away again. He continued shouting out at Matt for an explanation that would not come. He finally gave up after a while, and the natives carried them off to a large canyon. The leader gave some orders, and the two watched as a large cage was lifted up, containing several of Matt's crew in them. The cage was opened, the two were cut from their ties, and then they were both tossed into the cage which was then let down gently back into the canyon again alongside another cage with some other crewmen inside of it.
"Well now what?" Creighton asked as he stood up on the oddly discolored bars of this peculiarly cracky cage. Izzy looked over and saw Willaby.
"What's going on?" she asked him.
"I should think that much is obvious at the moment," Willaby replied. "We're stuck in these cages until they get around to eating us."
"These people are cannibals?!" Creighton yelped.
Izzy then said, "But if Matt's their chief-"
"Aye, if chief's the word you want to use, he be their chief," Willaby interrupted. "More appropriately, he's their idol. The village chief holds the belief that Matt is a god in human form, and so the villagers plan on releasing him from his fleshy prison."
Creighton made a gagging noise and sat down on the bottom of the cage. "I think I'm gonna be sick," he moaned. Izzy looked back at Willaby and asked, "And what happened to the rest of the crew that was on that ship?"
"These cages we're in? They weren't made until after we got here," Willaby replied, and Creighton suddenly puked out of the side of the cage.
"Try not to get it all over us!" one of the other crewmen yelled out, backing away from Creighton.
"They'll roast him and eat him," Willaby continued. "Matt's life will end when the drums stop."
Izzy listened and heard the sound of the beating drums again. She looked around the cage and finally resolved, "Well we shouldn't just stand here doing nothing then."
She took a good grasp of the side of the cage and leaned back and forth, to and fro. Willaby caught on and followed suit, mimicking Izzy's movements, and sure enough the cage began to rock back and forth itself. The other crewmen began to follow suit, and the cage swung even more. The other crewmen in the other cage noticed this and began working on their own cage. Creighton remained motionless for a bit, the movement not seeming to help his gut.
"Come on, Creighton, you want to get out of here, right?" Izzy ordered at him, and this seemed to prompt Creighton to stand and join in the swinging of the cage. Eventually the momentum began to increase, and the movement the captives were performing began to swing from one end of the cage to the other, forcing the cages to swing vastly from one side of the canyon to the other.
"Reach out for the vines on the other side of the canyon!" Izzy shouted as they got closer to the walls. The swinging cages were now almost hitting the sides, and after several attempts to reach for the vines, the crewmen finally managed to snag onto the vines on the side.
"Put your legs through and start to climb!" Willaby shouted out, prompting the other crewmen to do so, and soon enough both cages were steadily walking up the side of the cliff up to the top.
"We're going to need everyone if we're going to crew the Poseidon," Izzy exclaimed.
"Actually, you wouldn't need everyone," one of the crew members from the other cage called out. "About six will do."
Then everyone suddenly stopped. They listened for the sound of the drums, but what they had all feared was true: the drums had stopped.
"Ohhhh dear..."
"Move!" Izzy shouted, and the pace of the cages began to quicken as both tried to scale the cliff in order to reach the top. Meanwhile on a nearby bridge, one of the natives began walking across. Izzy saw the native out of the corner of her eye and whispered loudly, "Stop moving!"
The others ceased their movement quickly and hushed each other as the guard continued across the bridge. Only a few seconds passed before one of the crew members in the other cage signaled quietly to sneak up the wall.
"What are you doing!" Izzy whispered sternly, with Willaby, Creighton, and some of the others also whispering to stop the other crewmen. And then-
"SNAKE!"
One of the crew members had grabbed onto a snake while climbing, and everyone in the cage suddenly let go of the wall. This caused the cage to go hurtling down back to where it was, only to have the rope snap and cause the cage and everyone in it to go hurtling, screaming down into the misty depths of the canyon below. The guard noticed this, and Izzy shouted out, "MOVE!"
The guard hustled away as Izzy and the others began to climb up the wall again.
Matt watched in detest as more of the natives continued to build the fire to roast him alive higher and higher. It's hard to watch your captors preparing for your death, but at the same time they made him their chief. It couldn't be that bad, right? But then again, this was being cooked to be eaten.
"Oi!" Matt called out and stood up from his throne. He spoke out to the natives and waved his arms. "Big fire, big fire! I'm chief! Want big fire!"
The natives weren't sure of these words, but Matt managed to speak to them in such a way that they understood. He looked back at the chief - the real chief - who simply nodded his head in affirmation as he came back to his seat.
Had it not been for Bonesman's warning, he thought to himself, they might have managed to make much more headway in terms of avoiding the terrible beast that was tracking him. Then again, it was going to be a hard enough endeavor reaching the one person who might be able to give a lead on their journey, and he knew it was going to be hard enough to deal with getting away from the natives. If only there was some means of distraction.
Suddenly, a native guard came by and began shouting out to the others, pointing in the direction where Matt had seen them take Creighton and Izzy and Willaby and all of his crew. The natives listened to this guard as he gestured climbing up a wall and trying to escape from behind bars, probably to signify that the others were attempting to escape. The guard finally finished his explanation, and the natives turned to look at Matt.
"Well go on, go get them!" Matt called out, and he gave them a command he remembered was in their language. The natives took up this command as another chant and ran off. The chief merely nodded his head and sat back, turning to look at Matt.
"Ey wakka tun tun yucka sang song sibby," he said.
"Waya walka long sevvy, tully sung soon, savvy?" Matt replied.
The chief just laughed at that.
"Finally, we made it!"
"Quick, find a rock and cut it loose!"
Creighton, Izzy, Willaby, and the others inside the cage sought out from the surrounding rocks ones that were sharp enough to hack their way through the rope that was still attached to the cage. Quickly the rope was severed, the cage no longer bound to it.
"Uh-oh, we've got company!" Creighton called out, pointing towards the bridge. The others looked up and saw a large group of natives starting to cross the bridge towards them.
"Roll the cage!" Izzy shouted, prompting everyone to push the cage and start rolling it across the ground for a short distance. Short in that they found they had started to roll the cage down a very steep slope.
"Oh no, not the spinning," Creighton groaned, but it was far too late for that. As the natives pursued them, the cage began to pick up speed, and soon it was rolling down hill at a very high velocity! The group began screaming as the cage rolled down past trees and rocks, throwing them about inside the cage as it tumbled across the jungle landscape.
"Somebody stop this thing!" Creighton called out, and it seemed some higher power heard his call, as the cage then rolled up a pair of trees. This forced the cage to slow down and roll back down to the ground in front of the trees. The crew landed at the bottom of the cage, piled up and moaning.
"Well that wasn't fun," Willaby remarked, turning over in the cage.
"I think I'm gonna be sick again," Creighton moaned wearily, prompting everyone around him to get up all the faster.
"We're not out of this mess yet," Izzy called out. "Come on, lift the cage!"
The crew then slipped through the holes in the cage and lifted it up, much to Creighton's discomfort due to his height. The crew then began running off into the jungle again, but they only got so far when they all fell into a large crevice. The cage plummeted into the ravine along with the crew inside, breaking apart in the waters below. Everyone came up from the waters, glad to be out of the cage.
"Quickly, over here!" Izzy yelled out, signaling for the others to follow her behind a rock shelf. They began to swim over to her as the cliffside began to swarm with natives again. The natives fired off rounds of darts and arrows at the crew as they swam away to protect themselves, avoiding all of what they could. Eventually, the crew managed to get behind the rock and duck down to avoid the oncoming onslaught.
Then suddenly the arrows and darts stopped. Izzy put a finger to her lips to tell the others to be quiet as she listened in. It sounded like one of the natives was speaking urgently to the others. Did something happen elsewhere? Izzy poked her head out around the corner and saw the natives looking over at one brandishing a fork. The native gestured back from where they had come from, probably towards the village.
The village where Matt was.
After the fork-wielding native was done, the entire tribe hustled away from the cliffside, and everything was quiet again.
"Come on," Izzy whispered to the others, "let's get to the ship."
"What say you to a small little game?"
The chief looked over at Matt as he made the suggestion. Matt reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. He opened it to reveal his Duel Monsters deck. The chief looked back and forth between Matt and the deck of cards, a confused look on his face.
"Very simple game," Matt said, lifting up one of the cards to show a card. "If you draw the card with the highest stars, you win the game!" He pointed to the monster's Level on the card. "And if you don't, you lose. Simple!"
Matt offered the deck to the chief for a moment as the latter looked at the cards. Matt fanned them out in front of him like a card dealer would, inviting the chief to try his luck. The chief reached over and pulled out one of the cards - the Dragonic Knight, a Level 8 monster. Matt then reached over and pulled out a card himself - this time, the tiny Decoy Dragon. Matt smiled and declared, "Gari bari!"
The chief laughed at that. Matt indicated for the card to return to the deck, which the chief obliged before Matt shuffled the cards around. He then fanned them out again, letting the chief draw once more. This time, he pulled out Gandora, the Dragon of Destruction, while Matt only managed to pull out a Troop Dragon. Matt once again declared, "Gari bari!" to the chief again, much to the chief's delight.
"Alright then," he said as he collected his card again. "You seem to have the gist of the game down. Now let's put a little wager on it."
The chief raised an expectant eyebrow as Matt continued, "You win a third time, and I'll be your dinner for sure. But if I win three times in a row, then you'll have to let me go. Sounds fair?"
The chief laughed with a nod. Matt just smiled back at him as he fanned out the cards again. The chief drew a card - the Curse of Dragon. Matt then drew his next card - Tyrant Dragon. The chief's eyes grew wide as he looked back at Matt. Matt simply shrugged his shoulders, saying, "Gurri burri!"
The chief snorted and returned the card back, letting Matt shuffle and extend the cards back to him again. The chief drew his next card - Des Voltsgalph. Matt reached around for a moment and pulled out another card - Felgrand Dragon. The chief growled with some discontent, readjusting himself to face more towards Matt as the latter shuffled the deck once more and fanned out the cards. The chief then drew one last card - a dragon with spread wings and a pair of arms, looking triumphantly out towards the player.
"Saving Drake, a Level 8 card," Matt said. Then he reached carefully and drew his next card - and the chief's eyes widened with surprise! A large red serpentine dragon with two mouths now showed up in front of him, Level 10.
"Shame," Matt declared. "Gurri burri! And I win."
The chief's face contorted with rage as he yelled at Matt angrily, picking up his staff and slamming it into the ground multiple times, causing the decorations adorning the top of it to rattle in place and make a loud racket. Matt watched the display for a moment before starting to back away. Seeing as the chief was more preoccupied with his temper tantrum than with doing anything against him, he decided now was probably a good time to leave and never come back.
And he ran for his life.
"Haul loose the mooring line! The mooring line!"
"Which line is that supposed to be?"
"It's the mooring line, the rope tied up to that boulder over there!"
A quick hustle and bustle of the crew, and the Poseidon was finally hitting the water again. They moved ropes, tied knots, untied knots, opened sails, pushed hard, and everything was now in place to get the ship off this godforsaken island.
"Come on, step lively! We leave immediately!" Willaby shouted out.
"Wait, what about Matt? We can't leave without him!" Creighton called back.
"Oi!"
Everyone to look out over the beach and saw Matt scampering across the beach. The group smiled and were about to cheer when they realized why Matt was running: the natives had finally caught up with him.
"Time to go," Creighton murmured.
"Cast off and set sail!" Willaby shouted, prompting an even quicker movement on board the ship to get them out of here. Matt ran as fast as he could across the beach towards the Poseidon, the natives in hot pursuit. The ship finally managed to hit the water, and Matt managed to grab hold of one of the ropes. And before the natives could get to him, Matt and the Poseidon were off to sea at last.
"Alas, my children," Matt called back triumphantly, "this is the day that you'll always remember as the day you almo-"
SPLASH
A giant wave crashed into Matt, interrupting his somewhat brief speech. He muttered, "Captain Matt Zero," and climbed on board the ship at last, with the welcome of his surviving crew members.
"How many do we have on board?" Matt asked Willaby.
"By my count, fourteen," Willaby answered, "including these two."
He pointed out Creighton and Izzy, and Matt smiled and hugged them.
"It's good to see the two of you are safe," Matt consoled the two, releasing them from the hug. "I trust that you'll be able to work as needed while you're onboard this vessel."
Izzy gave a firm nod. "Andrew helped pull us out of Montalban's grasp," she caught him up to speed. "Shannon's still captured, but I think he'll get her out in no time."
Matt nodded. "She'll be alright where she is for now," he responded as he turned around and headed off towards his cabin. "In the meantime, we've got some work of our own to do."
"Are you sure we should just leave Andrew to free Shannon?" Creighton asked. "Not to put any doubt in your brother, but-"
"Andrew and Shannon will be able to work together to escape Montalban," Matt interrupted. "I assure you, my brother's not so helpless in these matters."
Creighton huffed. "It doesn't seem right letting Montalban have any kind of control over us. If we go back there at least-"
"And what exactly would you propose we do?" Matt asked, turning to face Creighton. "If we go back there charging in to break her out, Montalban will be just as ready to..."
Matt's eyes caught sight of the ship that Creighton and Izzy had taken over, one of Montalban's ships. He slowly turned to look at the two.
"...you didn't take up any dealings with Montalban to get here, did you?"
Creighton looked away sheepishly as Izzy replied, "We were brought aside and spoken to about some dealings, yes. He wants the compass medallion."
"Of course he does..."
"And he sent us over here to retrieve you." Izzy reached into her pocket and pulled out a small crumpled device, broken into pieces. "I figured there's no way he wouldn't have tried to slip one on us."
Matt sighed with relief. "Then at least he can't keep track of you guys. We'll be able to lose their ship where we're going."
"And where exactly is it that we're going?" Creighton asked.
A long pause pervaded the air as the crew looked towards Matt, desperate for the answer as much as anyone. Matt smiled and turned to Willaby at the wheel.
"Willaby, I believe we seem to have a need to go upriver," he called out.
Willaby looked back, spooked by this remark. "By a need you mean a trifling need, a fleeting need say like a passing fancy?" he asked hesitantly.
"Hmm, no, more like a resolute and unyielding need," Matt responded immediately, turning back to head into his quarters. Creighton, realizing what Matt was talking about, rushed after him.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, we are not going to see that...that...woman, are we?" he asked, desperately.
Matt looked over his shoulder, his confident smile unwavering. "Oh yes," he replied. "We're going to see our witch."
AUTHOR'S NOTES
See? I try to make it work! It's gotta make sense in some context! *er-hem*
Montalban reprises the role of rich bastard that Cutler Beckett holds in the Pirates movies...is the simplistic way of putting it. The more elaborate and developed Montalban character description is to say that he's a ruthless megalomaniac hellbent on taking over the modern-day world by assimilating all other companies into his own company, the Montalban International Alliance of Corporations (MontalbanCorp for short). Most of Montalban's ambitions are outlined within Chapter 23, and these play into Montalban's character through such attributes as overwhelming pride and a cocky attitude. His design is based off of the Marquis de la Montalban (whose name he has reprised as well) from Sid Meier's Pirates!, a game that both my brother and I enjoyed around the time of his inclusion into the story arc. Now is the Trinity Montalban a Spanish nobleman? Well, I wouldn't say he's Spanish, but he's loaded enough to be a king and determined enough to take over the world.
Next time: Matt Zero, his brother, and his friends
