Chapter 3
Before I continue, I would like to weave you a little history about the island the Baudelaires were to visit.
There once, long ago, was an island off in the far distant realms of the sea where no one lived. This island had nothing on it except several fruit trees, and one great apple tree at its centre. This tree was so alarmingly massive, that from miles away, an onlooker could stare out at the island and see the tree and its fruit stretching towards the sun. No-one however, had been to this legendary tree, for whenever they tried, a nasty tributary in the see would always carry them away. Time after time explorers would try to fight the current of the tributary, but all would fail, and end up swept away to the Lachrymose Lake. The explorers of the time of course, had not yet learned of a thing called 'common sense', and always assumed you could only reach the island from its North Side, while the south side had no obvious obstacles.
On one fateful day however, a band women set out to sail around the world in 79 days, came across the Tree and its tedious tributary. They had all heard of the mythical-eske tree, and as they were at least twelve days ahead of schedule, they figured it might be a good place to have a cup of tea. They swerved their boat near the island, and as suspected, began to be pulled by the tributary. The women were ready though, and with the aim and skill of an excellent archer, one of the women named Lottie shot a harpoon into one of the island's orange trees. The women then set out to tie the harpoon's string to the boat, using the strongest knot they knew, the Devil's Tongue knot. The Tributary tried to pull the group of women down its swift waters, but for the first time ever, it had been outsmarted. The women fought against the current with the rope at the head, and reached the shores of the island.
They were instantly mesmerized but the land around them. The soil was rich, the shores white, and the fruit- delicious. Not one of the women could see reason to leave the beautiful island ever.
So these women settled on the island and built wonderfully crude homes with the strong durable twigs and sticks lying around the island, and for many years lived in peace. The women also tended to the great Tree in the centre of their little oasis, and in affection named the tree Beatrice, which was the name of the woman who had funded their trip around the globe, who at that moment was probably cursing herself for spending so much money on a band of flaky ungrateful women. They only ate one apple each of Beatrice's plentiful harvest, and vowed never to violate the riches it gave.
On another fateful day however, several men, who had used their brains for once and took the Southern path to the island, landed on the women's shore, and decided to claim the island for themselves. The women weren't going to have any of this and promptly told the men to leave their paradise. The men however refused, and as the laidies were peaceful, they grudgingly allowed the group of strong men to stay. They did implore their rules on Beatrice however, and the men agreed to only take enough apples to feed them each one a day. For several more years they lived separately, but peacefully.
Now there happens to be a power in the world, one that has caused as many wars as its solved, that began to waft over the Isle of the Tree of Beatrice (which is the only name I have been able to find for the place.). The women of the isle began to fall one by one for their male islemates, as did the men. No one did anything though, until one day a woman named Georgina met a man name Oliver on her way to Beatrice. Both were in their early twenties, and both knew little about the woes of love. They instantly fell for one another, and from then on met each other at Beatrice each day, sharing as many apples as they liked. For a while, no one caught them, but one day they fell asleep under Beatrice, and elders from both the villages of the men and women found the pair with nearly twelve apple cores strewn around them. The elders were shocked and spread the news to their respective people. The tribes marched back to Beatrice and immediately blamed each other for such an over indulgence of the fruit of Beatrice. The lovesick pair tried to console their respective genders, but only a few of their people believed or even cared. The sad truth was that the men and women had become jealous of the other and wanted the fruit of Beatrice to themselves. They fought each other for days, while Georgina, Oliver and the others who wished for peace were just forced to watch. Neither side backed down though, and finally on one final fateful day, one of the sides, it was never clear which, burned the side of Beatrice that belonged to the other. The hidden peaceful watched in horror as their beloved Beatrice went up in hideous red flames. The flames quickly spread to the other side however, and soon the whole tree was a burning inferno.
After the fire had finally been stopped, and the smoke cleared, Beatrice was revealed to the inhabitants. In was nothing but a burnt corpse, an ugly black thing of death, covered for the first time, birds. Murder upon murder of crows had flocked to Beatrice, and highlighted even more the sad excuse for a tree.
The men and women of the island became furious with themselves and their counterparts, and both genders decided to leave the island. The women left in their vast beached ship, and set out to get back at the world for their fallen paradise. They named themselves the Female Finnish Pirates (for they were in fact Finnish), and began to burn the world around them. The same went for the men, though they didn't give themselves such a catchy title. They too began to turn to arson to console their grievance for the loss of Beatrice.
Only Georgina, Oliver and five others; Charles, Louise, Mariotte, Nelson and the ten-year-old Olivia remained on the smoky island. The once white sand was dark from the ash, and fish that once were abundant around the shores all had disappeared. They realized that they would be forced to leave the island, and make a life for themselves somewhere else. As they passed the remains of Beatrice though, Georgina said,
"We cannot just let our friends destroy the peace we once had. We have to stop them, and put out the fires they have started."
Oliver nodded and said,
"We must band together and put out the fires they have started or else the world will end up a vast fiery desert."
Olivia looked up and said quietly,
"We want the world quiet again, like it had been on the island for so long."
All agreed, and with the little wood left from the dead Beatrice, and some of the trees that still stood and had not been caught in the blaze, they built a boat, and called it in remembrance of their lost oasis, Beatrice.
And many years past, with no more incredibly intelligent people managing to land on the island. Finally however, after the feud had long sensed been erased from each of their minds, and only the never ending want for arson remaining, the two arsonist groups returned to the island, and united under one common goal, to fight fire with fire. The island they had learned of from their elders had changed however. In the centre, where there had been said to be the smoldering mass of a tree, stood another tremendous one, that produced bright red apples too. The women and men rushed the tree and greedily devoured the apples. Something was different though. The apples were no longer sweet, but devilishly smoky and bitter. They all spat the fruit out, and through their apple to the ground. The tree was no longer pure, but a thing of both good and bad, a tree that the people aptly named, A Tree of Morale Uncertainty. The people of fire then in turn turned the island into a city for which they could base their deeds upon, and in turn turned the island into a thing of morale uncertainty as well.
