~THIRD PERSON~
Fierce Fox was undoubtedly courageous. Compared to Alice, she was a fully-dressed warrior. But even she had fears. She had gone quiet for a few days because of these fears. These fears were she didn't want anyone to know how weak she could be - not even Alice. Especially after what had happened with her family. She didn't want anything to do with them. Not anymore. Fighting monsters seemed easier than making amends with her parents.
Fierce Fox hoped Alice would forget all about the fashion show incident. Alice wasn't the most pressing person, so Fierce Fox had high hopes. Still, Alice had been suspicious. Fierce Fox hoped she didn't ask any questions. Their relationship was a strained friendship. They worked together well as a team, but as friends… they were odd. Fierce Fox wondered if she should've been nicer when she first met Alice. But then her fears kicked in again. Alice was a human. One from that world.
She had taken everything away from Fierce Fox. How could the Poptropican like such a creature? Yet, she was connected. Alice was strange. Fierce Fox felt angry yet loyal to the blonde-haired girl. Maybe she should talk about… no. Not yet. Fear was building up again. Not just yet.
~ALICE~
Mystery of the Map Island is sort of an advertisement island. Sort of not, since it's based off Poptropica merchandise. I've read the Mystery of the Map comics on FunBrain (good old Funbrain). I quite enjoy them. The island is good too (even though Mya is not in the comics). Anyway, we landed on said island. There's a sandy beach beneath our feet and grass and trees growing everywhere. Grass is growing over a small, rocky cave. It's set in the times of the vikings, so there's not a whole lot of civilization.
Fierce Fox and I walked right, passing a bird sitting on some tall, grass-covered stones. A hot air balloon was sitting in a tree. The base of the tree was loose; it easily could be broken with an axe. A guy was in the hot air balloon. He has dark hair and tan skin. He's wearing a light blue shirt under a dark blue scarf and black jacket. This guy is called Octavian. He's not exactly the good guy.
"You two!" Octavian shouted, staring at us. "Look up here!"
"What are you doing up there?" Fierce Fox asked, squinting at him.
"Never mind why I'm up here - just get me down!" Octavian shouted back.
"How do we do that?" Fierce Fox asked.
"There must be something on this island that you can use," Octavian replied. "This map will help you find it." He dropped a map from his spot in the tree. I picked it up. I grabbed Fierce Fox's arm and led her away from Octavian. Once we were a fair distance away, I began to speak.
"Octavian - the guy in the tree - is not really the hero," I told her. "Quite the opposite, actually. However, we sort of have to go along with the ideal that he can be trusted because of the story-"
"No, we don't," Fierce Fox interrupted. She folded her arms. "We don't always have to go with the story." She gave me a look. "Don't be afraid to go out of your comfort zone, Alice. If Octavian is really evil, we can put a stop to that if we try something else. We can capture him."
"Capture him…?" I asked, frowning. "Fierce Fox, I don't know about that. How do we capture him?"
"It's easy," Fierce Fox replied, a grin forming on her face. The word 'fox' pounded in my head. My stomach clenched. "We'll surprise attack him. Knock him out when he's not ready for it. That's the best tactic, right?"
"I suppose," I said, biting my lip. "But what will we do with… hey, I've got an idea! We'll take him to the vikings. Yeah, there are vikings. They'll deal with him." Though, honestly, I didn't really want to hurt him too badly. I was meant to be a hero, after all. But I didn't think the vikings would be too harsh on him. Besides, the kids - Mya, Jorge and Oliver - would be safe. So I agreed with the plan. We were going to capture Octavian.
The first thing we needed was an axe to chop the tree down. Luckily, there was an axe nearby. To the right of Octavian's tree is a beach. Flipped upside-down and dunked in the sand is a wooden viking ship. Piles of sand surround it. With a shovel Fierce Fox and I found at a campsite, we dug the sand away. Left behind was an axe. Perfect. I picked it up and put it in my inventory. Now we needed a few more things.
Fierce Fox suggested using the axe to knock out Octavian, but… to me, it seemed a little too gruesome. So instead I said we should use a goblet. This goblet is nearby the fortress of the vikings: a building made of wood poles placed together, standing on a platform. A ditch is underneath the platform. So is waste. However, in that pile of waste is the goblet. It belongs to the vikings, but they threw it out by mistake. Convenient for us. We grabbed it.
There was one last thing. It was at the campsite where we had retrieved the shovel. It was an abandoned tent, made of beige fabric. It was going to be the object we carried Octavian in. Picturing it in my head honestly creeped me out. Well, it was better than simply carrying him. So, walking across the sandy yet grass covered beach, Fierce Fox and I grabbed the abandoned tent. Then we ran.
Fierce Fox and I returned to Octavian's tree. I was too nervous to actually knock Octavian out, so Fierce Fox would have that responsibility. I stood at the bottom of the tree and held out the axe. I had never cut down a tree before - nor did I have any desire to. But this was Poptropica. I swung; the tree fell down. Octavian spilled out of the hot air balloon. Before he could do anything, Fierce Fox knocked him out with the goblet. Only Fierce Fox could knock someone out with a goblet.
"Come on," I said. "We should probably rescue the kids, too."
However, we couldn't exactly reach the entrance of the fortress just yet. We had to fill the ditch with water, then create a wooden log bridge. To do that, I left Fierce Fox to guard Octavian. I headed off to do what I needed to. I caught a fish with the goblet, underneath a beautiful waterfall. I headed over to a dodo nest and lured the dodos away from said nest. Inside their nest was a piece of glass; I grabbed it.
I returned to the campsite and stole some gunpowder. We were raiding that poor camp quite a lot. When we had chopped Octavian's tree down, rope from the hot air balloon had also come down. I had grabbed the rope. Now it would come in use. I headed back to the waterfall. It was quite large. Fresh, blue water poured down from rocky caves. Grassy platforms were sitting in the water. Above the waterfall were piles of black rocks.
Carefully, I jumped up the grassy platforms. When I reached the rocks, I placed the rope down and connected it to the gunpowder. I held out the glass lens and pointed the burning light onto the rope. It caught on fire. Fear tingled through my senses. I hid behind a ledge, kneeling down. I didn't want to die in an explosion. A boom sounded behind me and the ground rumbled. The rocks exploded and went skyrocketing, crash-landing in the cool, blue water.
"Wow, what a rockslide." I commented, grinning silently. I left the rocky area and gazed at the new river the explosion had created. I followed it and returned to the fortress. I didn't have to go through the waste because of the water that now filled the ditch. Fierce Fox and the knocked-out Octavian were still there. Fierce Fox looked a little bored.
"Hey," I climbed onto the ledge she was standing on. "We can go in now." This time, I let her use the axe. She cut down a weak tree that was on the ledge. Now we had a path to the fortress.
"Let's do this." Fierce Fox said, smiling at me. We picked up Octavian and brought him inside through the trash chute. It still felt a little weird. I was happy it was over.
"You there!" the chef was the first one that noticed us. The fortress is wooden inside with a hay roof, stick windows, stone floors and wooden tables covered in meat. The chimney is made out of rocks. "Stop loafing around and…" He noticed Octavian. "What's that supposed to be?"
"A prisoner," I answered, taking a deep breath. "He stole the king's goblet." My memory sometimes came in at the most useful times. Sneakily, I put the goblet in Octavian's hand, so he would look guilty. "And he tried to kill us."
"A prisoner indeed!" the chef exclaimed. "I will tell the king about this. You two put him in the pig's pen. Then get back to work." He raced off. I gave Fierce Fox a wink, then we picked up Octavian. We carried him across the large dining hall, which must've looked pretty strange - two girls carrying a knocked out guy on tent fabric. The men and women sitting at the long, wooden table gave us strange looks, but didn't ask.
We brought Octavian to the next room, which is where the prisoners are stored, including the kids - they were at the end of the room. The pig pen is before that - it's full of mud, a little shed and hey. And pigs, obviously. We dragged Octavian over to it. Suddenly, he wiggled and broke free. He whacked Fierce Fox over the head with the goblet, temporarily dazing her. She fell back. I gulped and took a step backwards.
"You two are idiots," he grumbled. "Did you really think that would work?" He glared at me, holding out the goblet. "I know who you are. You're the prophesied hero! Forget the map - you've got more secrets than even my guidebooks!" He tried to grab me. In fright, I jumped out of the way. I landed beside the pig pen.
"Don't hurt them, Octavian!" the kids cried from the cage. They were watching the battle with eager eyes. Fierce Fox was sitting up, rubbing her head. Her eyes were still dizzy.
"Don't think about moving," Octavian threatened, pulling out a knife from his belt. Fantastic. "You're coming with me."
"Uh… help?" I croaked at Fierce Fox. I backed up against the pig pen. Sweat made my skin sticky. Suddenly, Fierce Fox got up. She leaped into the air and gave Octavian a head-shot with her heel. He whipped around, holding out his knife. I pointed at the cage, eyeing Fierce Fox. I was giving her a message with my eyes: free the kids. Fierce Fox nodded, before gritting her teeth. Octavian tried to hit her, but she dodged his attack. In retaliation, she raised her clenched fist and launched it towards the villain. He cocked his head and avoided it.
Fierce Fox suddenly raced off, holding out the axe. She was headed towards the cage. Now I had to deal with Octavian again. He gave me a dark grin, holding out the knife. He swung it. It cut me on the cheek; pain exploded like a bonfire. I held in my breath, trying to ignore it the best I could. I had fought a god. I had the courage to fight back against a treasure-obsessed Poptropican.
Suddenly, Fierce Fox - with the kids following her - raced past me. Fierce Fox grabbed my wrist, pulling me along. We raced through the viking fortress. Everything was a blur. Wind raced past my ears. The kids were near us, fear expressed on their faces. The vikings and Octavian were chasing us. We exited using the chute.
We jumped onto the log that we had used to reach the fortress before. It raced across the river, carrying the five of us. The vikings and Octavian were still following us. The river, unfortunately, was full of rocks and other obstacles. Worse news, the vikings were throwing rocks. Even more worse news, Octavian had his knife out. And his aim was pretty good.
Somehow I got in charge of driving the log, even though I was insanely freaked out. I avoided the rocks in the river and avoided the boulders flying over my head. One hit Oliver, knocking him out. I gritted my teeth in shame and continued racing forward. The log swerved around more rocks. My hands trembled. From the corner of my eye, I could see Octavian, holding out that gleaming knife. Not as gleaming as his smile.
We were reaching the end of the river. I had a near miss with the river rocks. The kids were screaming. Fierce Fox looked angry. My heart was racing. And Octavian was aiming. The end was so close, I could see it. Then Octavian threw his knife…
...but he missed because we went down a waterfall.
My vision was covered in water. My lungs were gasping for air. I waved my arms around; small bubbles clung to my pale skin. With the little strength I had, I forced myself to the surface. The beach was there. I grabbed onto it, sinking my tired fingers into the soft sand. Relief flooded through me. Fierce Fox and the kids were there, too. I grinned. A viking boat, for some reason, was waiting for us. Then I saw who was standing on it.
"Well well well," Octavian grinned at us. "Look who's here." He held out his knife. "Come with me and no one gets hurt."
I gazed at the dodos dancing around on the sandy beach. They were pretty funny. Suddenly I knew what to do. "Jorge, give me your candy bar."
"How do you know I have a…?" Jorge shook his head. "Okay, here you go." He handed me a chocolate bar; I grinned. I threw it at Octavian. He caught it with surprise in his eyes. Then all of the dodos jumped onto the boat and began chasing after him, reaching for that delectable goodness that was the candy bar.
"Get away! Shoo!" Octavian yelled, racing down the beach. "Aieeee!" The dodos were in hot pursuit. He left behind his boat. The kids smiled at each other (well, except for Jorge who was upset about losing his candy bar).
"Here, have this," I told the kids, handing them the map that Octavian had given us. "You'll need it to go home." Something I wanted to do.
"Thanks," Jorge replied, accepting the map. "Will you come with us?"
"We've got our own adventures in store." Fierce Fox answered. I gave her a nod of approval.
"In case we never see you again, take this." Mya said. She handed us the island medallion. Then the kids left on their boat, waving goodbye to us. I waved goodbye back. I'm not the biggest kid fan, but in a way, I can kind of relate to those kids. I had been trying to find my own way back 'home' after the events of the car crash. The place I lived at wasn't really my 'home' - it was just my house. My home, despite everything, seemed to be Poptropica, a place full of adventures. The place where I could be me. The place where I was important.
It felt good to be home again.