Chapter Five

"Ha ha ha! There it is! Feast eyes and click heels if you got 'em," exclaimed the look-out pointing out towards an island that was covered in jungle.

Wanting a better look, Silver reached for his spyglass, but it wasn't in his coat pocket. "Where the devil's me glass?"

I crawled out of the barrel and stood next to a table with a spyglass on it. A part of me wanted to cry, but another part was thinking of a way to get out of here. I raced towards the door, but right as I got there, John Silver stood in my path. I gasped and took a step back.

The pirate seemed just as surprised to see me and said, "Lynnie. Playing games, are we?" He advanced towards me, and I backed up until I bumped into a table.

"Yeah. Yeah, we're playing games," I muttered glaring up at him.

"Oh, l see. Well, l was never much good at games. Always hated to lose," he said putting his robotic arm behind his back. I heard it whir and then click.

I slowly reached behind me for a weapon, and to my luck, I ended up grasping a knife. "Me, too!" I retaliated suddenly stabbing his robotic leg and bolting for the door.

"Oh, blast it all," Silver growled when Aralyne ran across the ship, not being noticed by his crew. He whistled, grabbing their attention and turning his hand into a sword. "Change in plan, lads! We move now!"

The crew cheered and ran about getting ready.

I had managed to get a gun one of the idiots had left lying around, and checked my pocket for the map. It was still there, as it had been for the past few weeks. Morph suddenly appeared by my side, and dove into my pocket producing the map in his mouth.

"Morph! Give me that!" I shouted, stowing the gun in the waist band of my pants and running after him. "Morph! No! Morph, here! Morph!" He kept dodging me and swerving out of my grasp.

"Morph!" another voice called out and I saw Silver motioning for the blob. "Morphy, come here." He whistled as if to a dog.

I couldn't let him get the map! Putting on a cheery tone, I called out to shapeshifter, "Morph. Morph, bring it here. Morph, come here."

"Come here. Come here, boy."

Morph looked back and forth between us, confusion etched upon his face.

"Come to your dad."

"Come here, boy. Morph!"

"Come on!"

"Morph! Morph, here!"

"Morphy!"

"Morph!"

The pink blob dove into a coil of rope, and I rushed forward, getting there before Silver did. Keeping my eyes on the pirate, I grabbed a sphere and ran off, not looking back. I didn't have time to get a long boat, not with the pirates now after me. Instead, I climbed up onto the bowsprit, stuffed the sphere into my pocket, and dove headfirst into the water.

When I made it back to the surface, I swam towards shore, hearing gunshots behind me. All around, the ocean was struck with bullets.

From behind me, I heard Silver shout, "Hold your fire! We'll lose the map!"

And with that, the gunshots ceased.

After a while, I was exhausted, but I couldn't stop. The pirates could be upon me at any second. When I reached the island, I stood on the beach heaving, trying to catch my breath, and glanced back to see the pirates were in the rowboats halfway between the ship and the island. I couldn't stand here! With a groan, I forced myself to run deep into the jungle. I only stopped once I was sure I was far enough away from the beach and when my legs couldn't support me anymore.

My knees buckled and I collapsed against a palm tree, falling into a sitting position. Gasping for breath, I pulled the sphere out of my pocket, glad I had managed to get it. It suddenly floated out of my hand and transformed into a laughing pink blob.

"Morph?!" I shouted in bewilderment, and suddenly realized something. "Morph, where's the map?!" He used his abilities to show me the map was hidden in a coil of rope. "Are you serious?! lt's back on the ship?!" Hearing voices, I grabbed the shapeshifter and got him to be quiet. We've got company, I thought bitterly and looked around, Dammit! We need a more defensible position.

Releasing Morph, I crawled away from the voices and went even deeper into the jungle, the little bugger floating around my head. Once I was sure I could stand, I got up and trekked past the dense trees, looking for a place to hide. Hearing a rattling sound behind me, I froze and slowly turned around, motioning for Morph to keep quiet. I pulled out my gun and cautiously stepped towards a bush

A rusted robot with green eyes suddenly jumped out at me, screaming. I shrieked as it tackled me to the ground, poking and prodding me. My gun had fallen beside me.

"Oh, this is fantastic!" the robot exclaimed in delight, "A carbon-based life form come to rescue me at last! l just want to hug ya and squeeze ya and hold ya close to me."

It allowed me to stand up, but it wouldn't stop embracing me, which made me feel uncomfortable.

"All right. Okay. Would you just let go of me?" I said in irritation.

"Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry," he said pulling away, yet wrapping throwing an arm around my shoulders, "lt's just l've been marooned for so long. l mean, solitude's fun. Don't get me wrong. For heaven's sakes, after a hundred years you go a little nuts!" He laughed hysterically. Moving back, he added, "l'm sorry. Am l... l am, um... My name is, uh..." He frowned and put his hands on his head.

Beside me, Morph had turned into the robot with a cuckoo bird coming out of his head. I smirked and motioned for him to stop.

"B.E.N.! Of course, l'm B.E.N. Bio-electronic Navigator," the robot shouted, a chest piece popping out of place. "Oops." He fixed it, then asked me, "And you are?"

"Aralyne," I replied reaching for my gun.

"Oh, what a pleasure to meet you, Carolyn," he said grasping my outstretched hand and shaking it.

"lt's Aralyne," I said in annoyance, shoving him away and finally grabbing my gun.

"Anyway." He leaned against me.

Pulling away from him, I said, "Look, l'm kind of in a hurry, okay? l got to find a place to hide, and there's pirates chasing me."

"Oh, pirates! Don't get me started on pirates! l don't like them. l remember Captain Flint. This guy had such a temper."

I rounded on him in surprise. "Wait, wait, wait. You knew Captain Flint?"

B.E.N. sat down and replied, "l think he suffered from mood swings, personally. l'm not a therapist, and anyway... but l-you let me know when l'm rambling."

Rolling my eyes I thought, You've been rambling, but instead said, "But that means-but wait. But then you gotta know about the treasure?"

"Treasure?"

"Yeah, Flint's trove? You know, loot of a thousand worlds?" I pressed on.

"lt's-well, it's... it's all a little- little-little fuzzy," he said standing up and beginning to spazz out, "Wait. l-l r-r-remember. l do. l-treasure! Lots of treasure buried in the centroid- centroid—centroid of the mechanism. And there was this big door opening and closing... and opening and closing... and Captain Flint wanted to make sure... nobody could ever get to his treasure... so l helped him... Aah! Data inaccessible! Reboot!" Electricity began flying about his head and for a moment I thought he was going to break.

"B.E.N.? B.E.N.? B.E.N.!" I called out, slapping him.

He stopped and gazed at me in confusion, "Reboot! Aah! And you are?"

"Wait, wait, wait! What about the treasure?" I exclaimed trying to get back on topic.

"l want to say Mary," B.E.N. said.

"The-the centroid of the mechanism, or-" I repeated to him.

"l'm sorry. My memory isn't what it used to be. l've lost my mind. Ha ha! l've lost my mind." He said searching my clothes, "You haven't found it, have you?" he asked turning to show me a hole in his head with wires poking out. "Uh, my missing piece? My primary memory circuit?"

"Look, B.E.N., l really need to find a place to hide, okay? So l'm just gonna be, you know, moving on," I said walking away.

"Oh, uh, so, well, then... l guess, uh... this is good-bye, huh?" he said sadly, "l'm sorry that l'm so dysfunctional. So, uh, go ahead and... l do understand. l do. Bye-bye."

I stopped and gazed back at him. He seemed to dejected and I sighed in annoyance, "Look, if you're gonna come along, you're gonna have to stop talking."

B.E.N. jumped for joy. "Huzzah! Ha ha ha! Oh, this is fantastic!" Running to me, he jumped into my arms and I gave him a murderous look. "Me and my best buddy are lookin' for a..." He cleared his throat and added while hugging me, "Being quiet."

"And you have to stop touching me."

"Touching and talking. That's my two big no-nos," said B.E.N. jumping out of my arms.

"OK. Now, l think that we should-"

Grabbing my arm, the robot said, "Say, listen, before we go out on our big search, um, would you mind if we made a quick pit stop at my place? Kind of urgent." He pushed aside some foliage to show me a strange looking moss-covered cave on a hill.

"B.E.N., I think you just solved my problem," I said grinning at the cave.

He led me to his home and we stepped inside to find the inside slightly damp and covered in moss. There were even strange symbols carved on the wall.

"Uh, pardon the mess. You'd think in a hundred years l would've dusted a little more often... but, you know, when you're batchin' it you tend to, uh, let things go."

I moved towards one of the walls and studied it a bit, recognizing the symbols. "Look at these markings. They're identical to the ones on the map. l suspect these are the hieroglyphic remnants of an ancient culture."

"Hey. look! There's some of your buddies! Hey, fellas! We're over here, fellas!" B.E.N. shouted standing at the cave's entrance.

Several gunshots were fired, and I grabbed B.E.N. yanking him out of sight. I shot my own gun at the pirates, and missed. Great. I was skilled with archery and other weapons, but not a gun. Fuck my life.

"Stop wastin' your fire!" John Silver shouted and the pirates stopped. The Captain held a white flag and I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. "Hello. up there! Lynnie? lf it's all right, l'd like a short word with ya. No tricks, just a little palaver."

"Come to bargain for the map, doubtless," I muttered, "Pestilential... That means that he thinks I still have it."

Stowing my gun back in the waistband of my pants, I left the cave and walked towards him with Morph at my side.

"Ah, Morphy! l wondered where you lit off to," said Silver sitting down and rubbing his robotic leg, "Oh, this poor old leg's downright snarky since that game of tag we had in the galley." I glared at him as he chuckled. "Whatever you heard back there, at least the part concerning you, l didn't mean a word of it. Had that bloodthirsty lot had thought l'd gone soft, they'd have gutted us both. Now listen to me. lf we play our cards right, we can both walk away from this rich as kings."

"Yeah?" I said feigning interest as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

"You get me that map and, uh, an even portion of the treasure is yours." He held his robotic arm out for me to shake.

"Boy," I said shaking my head, "You are really something. All that talk of greatness, light coming off my sails? What a joke."

"Now, just see here, Lynnie -" he began to stutter, but I cut him off.

"l mean, at least you taught me one thing. Stick to it, right? Well, that's just what l'm gonna do. l'm gonna make sure that you never see one drabloon of my treasure!" I snapped at him.

"That treasure is owed me, by thunder!" he yelled frowning at me.

"Well, try to find it without my map, by thunder!" I mocked his accent.

His eyes narrowed and he growled out, "Oh, you still don't know how to pick your fights, do you, lass? Now, mark me. Either l get that map by dawn tomorrow, or so help me, l'll use the ship's cannons to blast ya to kingdom come! Morph, hop to it." When the shapeshifter didn't follow him, Silver yelled, "Now!" and Morph hid behind me in fear. "Oh, blast it!" Silver hobbled away and I returned to the cave.

"Without the map, we're dead," I muttered pacing the floor, "lf we try to leave, we're dead. lf we stay here –"

"We're dead! We're dead! We're dead! We're dead!" Morph shouted happily.

"Well, l think that Lynnie could use a little quiet time," said B.E.N., "Heh. So l'll just slip out the back door."

"Back door?" I repeated turning to him.

"Oh, yeah," said the robot opening a door on the floor that was covered in moss. I thought it was a giant boulder! "l get this delightful breeze through here which l think is important, because ventilation among friends-"

I ran over and peered down to see machinery and metal walkways. "Whoa. What is all this stuff?"

"You mean the miles and miles of machinery that run through the entire course of the inside of this island? Not a clue!"

Machinery inside an island? But there was sand on the beach and plants growing to form a jungle!

Uh, duh! Aralyne, you're in Incantationen! It's probably magic, you idiot! Anything can happen here!

I jumped through the door, landing on a walkway, and B.E.N. followed.

(If you choose not to read my story, that is absolutely fine. I write what I want, NOT what other people want. Have a nice day!)