Lizzie's POV
Harry steered the ship out past the shattered lighthouse and through the fog, I stared off the side of the ship seeing the barrier in the distance and the waters surrounding it but at least we had room to move and when we reached the Strait of Ursula the wind blew and the sails plumped at last but the ocean waves were choppy and high slamming against the ship's hull sending a spray of water onto the deck and I got slightly wet glaring over at Harry when I heard his laughter but let it slide focusing on the fact that we were off but clearly the contentment for Uma didn't last long.
"Um Harry, is this as fast as we can go?" she asked him looking back to see the Lost Revenge had only sailed a few yards and the dock was still in view, we had inched up the archipelago but were still miles from where we needed to be and Uma paced the deck of the ship impatiently wanting to get her mother's necklace and the trident as fast as we possibly could.
"It only goes as fast as the wind will take it" Harry replied and I looked up towards the sails. "Sorry" he apologized.
"Right, I get it the wind catches the sails and off we go" Uma nodded following my eyes to the bellowing white cloth, a single swatch of linen fluttered in the wind held there by four ropes and tied to the foremast but just behind it was not just one but two others. "What do you call other masts?" Uma suddenly asked looking at Harry acting coy.
"Oh yes" Harry replied a bit sheepish. "That's the mainmast just behind the foremast and the one in the back is called the mizzen" he explained and I looked taking in the facts since Harry knew a lot more about sailing then Uma and I ever cared to know but needed to.
"I see and these masts have sails as well?" Uma asked still acting coy and I had a feeling she was asking as if questioning his statement on knowing how to sail.
"Yes I mean technically we do have three masts" he replied.
"And each one has a sail or two?" Uma continued to question.
"Three actually" Harry nodded.
"So why in the world arent we using them all!" she yelled.
"Well it's the waves you see, with all of this rocking it would be quite difficult...no dangerous to go up there and unfurl the rest of the sails" Harry argued and I looked up at the tied sails since it didn't look that dangerous.
"So you're telling me we could be going two, three times this speed-"
"And all we have to do is climb up there and unroll the rest of the sails?" I asked cutting Uma off before she could get worked up since that never ended well for anyone.
"Something like that" Harry replied turning to look at me with a look. "It's not as easy as it sounds, try climbing 50 feet into the air while the boat is pitching to and fro and see if you can hold on" he added and I gazed at him at the challenge. "These things–"
"I think I will" I stated heading towards the second mast before he could make any further attempt to dissuade me from climbing it and wrestling with the sails since honestly how hard could it be when all I had to do was climb the mast, untie the ropes and it's done.
I turned to Harry with disdain before I turned back to the mast and raised a foot catching hold of the first peg before I grabbed one and then another before I found myself seven, eight feet in the air but right as I thought I'd be fine the ship rolled and my face promptly collided with the mast before my foot slipped and I reeled with a slight shriek of shock.
Were it not for my shirt catching on yet another one of the pegs I would have fallen onto the deck or worse into the ocean and that would've been 'A' life threatening since I couldn't swim and 'B' embarrassing for the fact that the crew would know that their captain couldn't swim, I heard Harry snicker below making me glare down at the sound.
"I supposed this is the moment when you mutter 'I told you so'?" I spat at him.
"I might have" he replied, a cocky tone to his voice. "But now you've gone and ruined it, I suppose I'll have to come up and help you out it does take two to unfurl a sail, you know that don't you?" he asked and I frowned since obviously I didn't.
I hadn't the faintest idea of how any of this worked but I knew we had to get the trident as quickly as possible and if that meant a bit of mast-climbing then I'd do it and besides I'd already made it past the hard part right...the ship leaned again answering my question but this time I was ready and I gripped the mast tight in order not to fall off hearing Harry snickering again and I made a mental note to stab him once he reached me.
"You're going to squeeze that mast in two if you hold onto it any tighter" he suddenly said balancing himself beside me and I immediately released my grip and regained my composure.
"So tell me how all this works?" I ordered as we continued to climb up the mast with him slightly beneath me and every time the ship rocked the mast swayed wildly, hurtling us through the air like being launched from a slingshot and a few more pegs the ship rocked once again and the peg I'd stepped on snapped off and I started to fall but suddenly felt a hand grab my waist to steady me against the mast stopping me from falling.
"You good?" he asked and I breathed in deeply since his hand inched higher on my waist as he pushed me back up so I could get another foothold on a new peg but his hand brushed over the skin of my waist having raised my shirt a little and it made my heart pick up its natural pace a little. "You alrite?" he asked again when I hadn't answered him.
"Yeah I'm fine" I replied breathlessly and continued to climb my hands gripping the pegs a bit more tightly but the higher we got I saw there were rope ladders and a great number of ropes running back and forth between the masts various arms which meant more to grab hold of in the likely case I slipped again which meant this altitude was a little safer but who knew.
"See that rope?" Harry asked once we were balancing on the horizontal beam and I followed his direction seeing a tightly wound bit of cord so I nodded my head heading towards it as he went the opposite way still explaining what I had to do. "Unwrap it on your side and I'll do the same on mine, just hold the last little bit don't let the whole thing loose-" before I contemplated his words I yanked the cord pulling it from the sail and cast it off before he'd even started to unfurl his end of the sail so the end I had set free caught the wind jerking the ship towards the starboard side which was a boating term Harry would not stop using even though it'd be easier just to call it the right side would it not but now the term was in my head and I was using it myself. "This would have been a bit easier if you had waited" Harry spat grumpily.
"Got that" I replied as the ship was turning rapidly to one side threatening to pull us off course but luckily Harry was quick, his fingers nimble despite the sail pulling the ropes tightening them but he managed to get the rope unwound and the entire sail billowed gorgeously into the air and the ship righted itself.
"Next time we do it together" Harry exclaimed and I nodded giving him no argument, I knew Uma was eager to get the necklace and the trident and so was I but I was quickly seeing that my over eagerness was a risk not worth the cause given I've nearly fallen into the drink which was another pirating term for the sea and had also already driven us off course so it was time to listen to directions despite hating being told what to do.
Harry and I climbed to the next sail, this time a lot more cautiously and safer as Harry directed and luckily this one had a plank behind it and a rail so it was easier to balance as we undid the ropes.
"Wait" Harry ordered and I rolled my eyes.
"I know I'm not an idiot" I spat at him and he raised an eyebrow as if questioning that statement.
"Now!" he cried over the wind and we both let loose the next sail, this one blossomed into a perfect half circle snapping tight in the wind, we continued to undo one more then moved to the rear where there were more sails to unfurl and in the end it was a lot of work but each time a sail caught the wind I felt our speed increase and by the time we'd unfurled the last of them we were moving at quite a clip, the ship dashing across the waves sometimes almost skipping from peak to peak.
"See that wasn't so bad" I said as we climbed down the last mast, the mizzenmast as he'd called it.
"You nearly did fall into the ocean" Harry reminded me. "Twice" he added when I dismissed him and the ship rocked once more as if it too was reminding me of what happened, it swung back in the other direction and both of us spun catching each other and holding on to the mast to avoid falling to the deck given the increased speed had also added a bit more instability to our ride making it slightly more dangerous and the ship pitched again and even Harry was fumbling for something to hold on catching one or two ropes to steady himself and I snickered.
"Lost your sea legs?" I asked with a satisfied smirk.
"Even a good sailor needs a handhold every now and then" he remarked and I nodded even though I didn't believe a word of it. "Oh stop it, don't we have a treasure chest to find" he pointed out after seeing my look and I nodded raising my gaze to look out over the ocean knowing the trident was out there and the fact that we weren't the only ones looking for it but at least we were moving faster now and I had hope that we were the ones that were going to find it first.
"That's all the sails?" I asked looking around to make sure.
"That's it, I can throw an oar in the water if you want to paddle?" Harry replied and I turned to him.
"I'll let you do that" I argued.
"I'm sailing this ship" he argued right back and indeed he was moving back and forth checking all of the ropes that wound from the gunwake to the masts, from mast to mast and from mast to sail and all while he had to make certain the rudder was set in the right direction, he'd fastened it in place with a lash but it needed constant direction. "If you don't head straight into these waves they can knock you over leaving you on your side and then you're done" he continued to explain. "The sea is growing rougher, the waves are certainly higher and the winds stronger, I hope this tridents of yours is worth all this effort" he said looking at Uma since we'd joined back up with her and Harry was of course back at the wheel.
"It is, trust me" Uma replied straight away. "With that trident, we can buy our ticket out of here" she added and Harry shrugged.
"I hope so, we're all counting on it" he replied and I nodded my head agreeing with him, I walked to the side of the ship and not long Uma followed me and we both leaned against the ships railings looking out at the sea.
"Did you have fun up there?" Uma suddenly asked her voice low into a whisper and my eyes widened quickly looking over my shoulder in case Harry heard her but his eyes were focused on the horizon and steering the ship.
"Oh yeah, getting thrown head first into the mast or falling into the ocean was downright exhilarating"
"No I'm talking about you and Harry...up there...alone"
"What are you talking about?"
"Please Liz, you can't hide from me" she smirked looking over at me before her eyes moved between me and Harry rapidly clearly insinuating something.
"No" I remarked catching onto what she was gesturing to.
"Yes"
"No" I replied with a hard glare. "I do not, nor will I ever have a crush on Harry Hook"
"You're lying to yourself" she remarked and I rolled my eyes.
"Whatever you want to believe Uma" I spat before I walked off.
"Foggy" Harry spoke up as he steered the ship away from the Isle of the Lost and toward the Isle of the Doomed, where the treasure chest containing Ursula's necklace was supposed to be buried according to the Sorcerer's Apprentice Sophie. "I don't recall ever seeing this much fog in the bay"
"Do you think it's a bad sign?" Uma asked still perched against the rail, gazing out at the bowsprit where a gorgeously carved mermaid adorned the long wooden pole, it had been sculpted with an almost lifelike detail and it was clearly painted in shades of teal and coral, the colors of the sea but the paint was chipped and faded from years of neglect on the Isle of the Lost.
"I don't think it's any sign at all, sometimes a fog is just a fog" Harry shrugged.
"I'm sure you're right but it still gives me the chills, I know there's no magic here but it's not much of a start, how we will navigate through all this fog?" Uma asked, we had sailed into a dense patch of grey that was all around us, on our arms and in our noses which left a cool, damp feeling on my face, like cold perspiration.
"I don't mind and there are many ways to sail in the fog, leave the navigation to me," Harry continued and I rolled my eyes at him. "There are far worse things in the sea than a grey sky, try sailing through ten-foot waves or one-hundred-mile-an-hour winds" I gulped since I definitely wouldn't like that especially since I'd no doubt end up overboard.
"I see your point" I muttered sighing as I focused on the view in front of us knowing that our destination 'The Isle of the Doomed' wasn't exactly a paradise but that was probably why Yen Sid had hidden the Ursula's broken necklace in a treasure chest on the smaller island in the first place.
No one from the Isle of the Lost ever visited the Isle of the Doomed, at least not if they could help it since it was rumored to be haunted and the fact that Maleficent's fortress loomed, tall and forbidding over its desolate landscape which suited the island's only inhabitants which were the descendants of goblins loyal to the evil fairy.
Even with the fog we were sailing smoothly, the winds were light but the ship was moving at a respectable clip, cutting through the waves, edging ever closer to the shore.
"I wish the fog weren't so dense, I'd like to get a better sense of the beach before we set anchor there could be rocks or…" Harry suddenly said but then he stopped.
"What?" Uma asked him.
"I don't know, this is a forbidden place there could be anything hiding in those waters and this fog isn't helping, there could be spikes, iron ones submerged below the waterline, obstacles to keep boats from landing on the island, this might not be as easy as we expect, Uma" Harry explained and I frowned thinking about all the other things that could be out there, Goblins swarming over that beach, or traps, or who knows what since literally anything could be hiding in a fog this thick. "Let's stop here" Harry announced. "We'll drop anchor and row out in small boats, we'll make a smaller target, harder to spy on and if there's anything in the water we'll be able to see it more easily" I nodded my head agreeing with him but Uma protested at first not liking his suggestion since it would only slow things down but she went along with Harry, for now.
"Fine" she said at last. "We'll do it your way"
We rowed out with the crew in small wooden boats, hugging the sea, creeping toward the dark beach, the hulls grinding against the sand as we made shore and Uma was the first out of the boat, her feet falling into the cold water, it drenched her up to the knees so I waited until we were a bit closer to the shore before I followed her my boots landing on the grey sand which matched the sky and the fog that still choked the air, Goblin Beach was dark and deserted, ghostly under the moonlight but at least it didn't live up to its name and there wasn't a goblin in sight.
"At least it's empty, no goblins" I spoke up.
"Not yet" Harry reminded me and I frowned since that wasn't a happy thought.
"All right, Sophie said Yen Sid left some sort of clue, a trail" Uma said getting down to the reason we were here, her mind locked on the mission.
"Like a path?" Harry asked.
"Maybe but I don't think it's anything that obvious" Uma argued. "I'm certain it's as hidden as the chest itself" she added eyeing the distant fortress, which stood tall and dark, its black stones wreathed in angry thorns and if you looked at it careful you'd swear it glowed a strange color something like purple but at times it shifted, turning to shades of green but the colors were gone as soon as you glanced at it, vanishing as if they had never been there at all. "Let's head toward the castle" I froze since I hadn't signed up for that.
"Are you sure?" I asked hesitantly since I did not want to go anywhere near that castle.
"That place is filled with goblins, we don't want those little guys to find out we're looking for something valuable or they're bound to try and steal it" Harry added.
"We're only heading toward it dummies, I didn't say anything about crossing the moat" Uma argued.
"Good, as I'm more of a seafaring adventurer, less of an evil-castle explorer" Harry replied and I couldn't help smirk a little.
"We all are" I mumbled nudging his shoulder with mine.
The pale sand of the fog-shrouded beach gave way to a forest of grey thorn-infested trees their trunks wound every which way, growing in seemingly unnatural patterns, curling in upon themselves or twisting into odd spirals, as if some mad gardener had tortured them, forcing their limbs to twist into tangled bunches and it made for slow going process and more than once Harry was forced to draw his cutlass and hack through the thorns and the trees, even the ferns were dense and he hacked at those as well creating a small path through the dense foliage.
"At least there's no goblins" Harry pointed out again as he slashed at a thorn tree, slicing clear through its base, sending it tumbling to the side, the dense forest at the shoreline thinned as we drove deeper into it and it soon cleared meaning we were walking around in low grass so Harry sheathed his blade.
"Now that Harry has graciously led us through the thorns, I think we can spread out" Uma suggested and although I disliked the idea to split up it would be the faster option.
"What do we do if we find anything?" Harry asked.
"Just yell" Uma replied, brazen as ever.
"But that might draw the attention of you-know-what" Harry argued eyeing the imposing fortress.
"Live a little" Uma argued. "And quit your worrying, we've come this far, haven't we?" Gil hmphed and Harry rolled his eyes before the crew dispersed, fanning out in all directions eager to search for treasure, I walked around kicking at the underbrush in hope I'd see what ever path we were supposed to be looking for but always remained aware of the fortress, which seemed to watch over us, its tower looming in the distance.
It started to get a little thicker so I pulled out my cutlass and hacked away at the thick branches and thorn vines pushing them away with my arm feeling a few of the thorns cut through my skin but it wasn't painful so I continued on my way looking for that path but each time I cleared a patch of ferns or some other jungle plant, there was nothing resting beneath it, nothing that looked like a path at least, I turned to see if Uma, Gil and Harry had made any progress but they had disappeared from view the jungle was too dense and I felt like we'd never find a trail here and that maybe we needed a new strategy, I decided to turn back and followed the path that I'd had already cut through the forest, hoping to find the others.
"I've found something!" Harry suddenly called out, loudly so I quickly headed in that direction running into Uma on the way finally coming upon him in the middle of a clearing.
"Tell me you've found the trail" Uma said straight away with Gil right behind us.
"Nope, nothing like that" Harry replied and I frowned confused.
"Oh, so you got bored and gave up, did you?" Uma accused.
"Stop grouching, follow me" Harry led us to what he'd found and there carved into the bark was a symbol glimmering in the evening light.
"What is it?" Uma asked.
"A crescent" Harry replied.
"Or maybe it's a moon" Gil added making me laugh a little.
"A crescent is a moon" I explained to him as Harry traced the mark with his finger.
"The professor didn't make a map, Sophie said because he thought it would be too dangerous to leave around but he had to have some way to figure out where he'd kept it" Harry pointed out.
"You think this is it, this mark?" Uma asked him.
"Shall I grab the shovels?" Gil asked.
"I don't think this symbol marks the treasure, remember we're looking for a trail the path isn't on the ground it's written on trees, if I'm right there are more of these markings follow them and we'll find the treasure" Harry said and I frowned since it could just be a coincidence.
"Or we'll find out where two lovers carved a heart in some tree" I argued
"Are you trying to tell me something?" Harry joked, I glared at him.
"That she'll cut you if you don't find the treasure chest?" Uma snorted with a smirk towards me as I rolled my eyes. "There's nothing here that says trail to me"
"Fine, you've got a better idea on how to find this thing?" Harry said and Uma shook her head reluctantly.
"It's just there are a lot of trees and it's not exactly easy to get a look at their bark"
"I know, I had to hack off a branch to find this one but I think that's the point, the trail is hidden it's not supposed to be easy to find" Harry argued and it definitely wasn't, we searched trees and shrubs, rocks and moss, we even cut aside branches and sheared the leaves off of bushes.
"I'm beginning to feel like a lumberjack" Gil whined after about 30 minutes of searching.
"And I'm-" Uma began to say but then stopped.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"About to give up, that was what I was going to say but look here" she said as we all walked over seeing her toe had hit a rock and a small sun, a rough circle ringed by radiating lines graced its surface. "I think our professor had a chisel" she added. "It's a sun and I think that last one was a moon, this might be a trail after all" I could tell her spirits were lifted as the impossible suddenly seemed a tad more possible, though we had found only two symbols it wasn't exactly a trail but it was a good enough start.
"Two points make a line, so let's look this way and that and see if there is another marker that aligns with these first two" I added standing at a spot midway between the two marks and pointed in either direction, all of us going a different way, hacking our way into the jungle as we went to clear away some of the trees in hopes we could find another symbol and luckily for us the third mark was easier to find than the second, it wasn't exactly in line with the first two but it was close enough and Harry had found it relatively quickly.
"It's a star" Uma said when she caught up to him.
"We're on the right path" Harry said "Three marks: the sun, the moon and a star, just like the symbols on the wizard's hat, it cannot be a coincidence"
As the crew drove deeper into the jungle, the marks were more difficult to unearth, hidden as they were among tangled branches or scratched on stones half covered by clumps of moss and the trail bent in every direction, not following a straight line but instead it was curving to and fro, making it difficult for us to judge where they might find the next mark, we made a royal mess of the island but there was no one there to complain about it and I doubted the goblins would mind, although I'm sure we all still hoped they wouldn't notice all the noise.
We continued to follow the celestial markers, finding stars of all different types and even a couple of constellations carved into the trees and rocks but at last one symbol stood apart from the rest.
"This is it!" Harry called outs kneeling in a clearing, brushing away some scattered leaves from the earth as Uma and I approached looking over his shoulder reading the words 'TOPS EHT SKRAM X' which was deeply scrawled into the hard-packed dirt.
"Is it telling us to scram?" Harry asked reading the text. "I do feel like getting out of here, that fortress gives me the creeps" Uma shushed him.
"It must be here, this is the spot there's an X!" Uma exclaimed. "Pirates love them, it's highly piratical."
"Yen Sid is a sorcerer, not a pirate and this is a bit clichéd, if you ask me," Harry argued.
"I didn't ask you" Uma replied, looking around clearly trying to discern what import the message held as Harry stood and put away his sword while Gil wandered over from the other side of the clearing and looked at the message.
"...'X MARKS THE SPOT'!..." he declared reading it backwards and my eyes widened when I saw that he was right.
"You're a genius!" I exclaimed patting him on the back.
"Let's not go that far" Uma replied and I rolled my eyes, Gil deserved the credit. "It's written backward, even brats can figure out this code"
"But you guys didn't" Gil pointed out making me smile a little.
"Who cares, it was hard enough just finding this thing let's start digging" Harry quickly said removing the shovel that he'd strapped to his back then whistled for the rest of the crew, who came running, clanking through the jungle, picks and shovels at the ready. "We found it!" he told them pointing to the sight. "Dig!"
"Where?" Gil asked.
"On the X, just like it says" Harry replied rolling his eyes. "Makes sense, right?" I shook my head at him as they all began to dig, shoveling dirt and stone and the pit grew larger and deeper with Harry and Gil standing in the hole as it grew in width as well as depth but they didn't find a treasure chest.
"I knew this was too easy" Harry complained as he climbed his way out of the hole, they had dug exactly on the spot the X had marked but they'd found nothing.
"There must be more to it, I mean, any random goblin could wander through the forest, find the X and dig this thing up" I suggested with a sigh, we'd taken the 'X' to literal.
"You're right" Uma acknowledged. "The professor would never have done something so obvious, he hid his symbols well so clearly he hid the chest just as well" she looked down at the symbol. "Wonder why he wrote the words backward, I mean it's not much of a code"
"What if it's not a code?" Harry offered.
"What do you mean?" I pressed.
"I mean, what if it's a direction of some sort" Harry replied but my attention went to Gil as he had turned around backward and walked to a place where two trees grew at strange angles, one tipped to the right and the other to the left and my eyes widened since together they formed an X.
"There it is!" Uma yelled clearly seeing the X formed by the trees, if we turned so the hole was at our backs, this tree was exactly in line with where the carving had been so once more we drew shovels and thrust them into the earth, digging as fast as we could with Harry digging furiously by the X-shaped trees, forming a pit that was too small for anyone else to stand in when the sound of steel striking wood echoed in the hole.
"I think I found it!" he crowed, his entire body covered with mud, I ran to the edge of the pit, Gil and Uma at my shoulder.
"You found it?" Uma asked, sounding as if she didn't quite believe it.
"I did!" he said, hitting the shovel on the ground again, this time with an extra-strong wallop but that was when the ground gave way underneath his feet and he tumbled down into the darkness.
"HARRY!" I yelled in shock leaning over the hole which is right when I felt my foot slip on the mud and I felt myself falling into the hole.
"LIZZIE!" I heard Uma and Gil yell out as I fell but was quickly surrounded by darkness before I felt myself hit a body of water.