Hook never did find the right path, though lack of trying was not the reason. It might have had something to do with the way he was stumbling and the near trips and falls, along with his aching head and body. The heat was so wicked, he was sweating profusely, which produced a terrible thirst. The coughs he was experiencing did not help matters and, in fact, made his parched throat even drier. Oh Neptune, at that point he would have gladly given his other hand for a tall glass of ice cold water.
He tried to get his mind off his thirst by focusing on the map instead, but found himself unable to read it anymore, due to his blurred vision. In fact, it was so bad it got to where he had to keep putting his face closer and closer to the map, to the point where his nose was touching the parchment. It worked somewhat, for he was so distracted on the fuzzy lines and squiggles that he failed, once again, to notice anything in his path. Or anyone.
"Hey! Watch out!" Hook was forced out of his woozy abstraction by a loud voice that seemed to be accompanied by flaps of feathers. So squawky was the voice that he also instantly dropped his map, although in his addled state he hardly noticed it.
The voice, it turned out, was that of Skully, the feathered first mate of Jake and his puny pirate band, recruited by that meddlesome Peter Pan to spy on Hook and his crew of the Jolly Roger.
Skully was not alone. Hook not only could see that the smallest pirate (what was his name? Cubby?) was with him, but that without the map to look at he now knew exactly where he was. He had wandered into the Kooky Kokonut grove, a collection of palm trees that bore special coconuts. While they looked and felt like regular coconuts, kooky kokonuts had a different smell and flavor to them and tasted like a mixture of fruit punch, butter, and applesauce. Hook hated kooky kokonuts, always had since he was a wee little pirate lad. He gave a slight shudder, though it was more from the sudden chill running through his achy body than from disgust at the thought of those kokonuts.
Cubby and Skully did not seem to notice this, though. They were more concerned as to who had almost trampled them, and why.
"Oh, it's just ol' featherhat," Skully said he flew eye level to Hook. The parrot looked down to get a glance at the map. "Searching for more buried treasure, by the looks of this map."
"Um, um, ahoy, Captain Hook," Cubby quietly stammered. "Y-y-you might want to watch out. A lot kokonuts fell last night and you wouldn't want to trip all over them."
To Hook, it seemed as though Cubby's voice was grating his ears, making his headache even worse, not to mention the smell of the kooky kokonuts was nauseating. He needed to get out of there, now.
"Ugh. You just worry about your own business, puny pirate, and Ill worry about me own," Hook muttered and tried to wave them off with his hook. He looked around for the map he had dropped. "Now, where did I put me treasure map?"
"Um, Captain Hook," Cubby walked closer to him and pointed down to the ground by Hook's boots. "Your map's right there, where you dropped it."
"Huh? Oh, oh right. There it is," Hook bent down to pick up the map that he could just barely make out with his blurred vision. At that point, however, the aches in his body moved onto his joints and he found himself unable to completely bend down to even touch the map. Nor did he have the strength to straighten himself back up. Captain Hook winced and grunted in obvious pain.
"Captain Hook! Are you alright?" Cubby quickly reached out in alarm to gently steady Hook as he started to wobble. It looked like he was going to collapse on the ground at any moment.
"Hey Cubby. Is it me or does Hook look a little more out of it than usual?" Skully flew up close to Hook's face and took note of the fact that the pirate's eyes looked red and glassy. Even the parrot knew that could not be a good thing.
"I don't know Skully," Cubby seemed a little unsure as he continued studying Hook's face. "I'm not into doctoring like Izzy is, but it looks to me like Hook may be sick. You better check his tempertature just to be sure."
Skully flew close to Hook's forehead and laid a wing on it. Almost instantly, he snatched it back.
"Crackers! His forehead's so hot it almost singed my feathers!"
"Aw, coconuts! That means you have a fever," Cubby took Hook's hand and began leading him further into the grove. "Here, you better sit here in the shade where it's nice and cool."
Cubby brought Hook to a palm tree with large, overhanging leaves. There was also no kokonuts, so there was little chance of having one drop on the ill pirate's head. And none too soon, for as soon as they reached the tree, Hook's legs gave out from under him and he collapsed in the shade. Cubby was still steadying him all the way, making sure his head did not hit the trunk of the tree. Any other time, Hook would have protested this treatment, proclaiming that blasted barnacles, he was not a weakling to be treated as such! But he was too sick and exhausted to protest, even as Cubby managed to get his red coat off of him and bunch it up into a makeshift pillow, laying it on the roots of the tree.
"Here Captain, you better lay right down here," Cubby gently yet firmly pushed Hook down so that his head rested on the coat pillow. Cubby took note of Hook's sweaty and flushed face, wishing he had a handkerchief or even a tissue to wipe the sweat off. Instead, he laid his hand on the pirate captain's forehead to feel the temperature for himself. It was a fever all right and a real high one too. That could not be a good thing.
"Alright, well, I got Hook in some shade. What should we do now?" Cubby turned to Skully, who was the best one to ask at the moment, as the parrot himself had suffered from a cold some months back.
"Well, the next thing we should do is cool him down and get him to drink some liquids," Skully explained. "That's the best thing to do when you're sick."
"But what can we get him to drink?" Cubby asked as he looked around. "There's no water around here and I didn't bring any with me."
"Hmm...," Skully gave it some thought and then it hit him like an ocean wave. "I've got it! We're practically surrounded by kooky kokonuts! Let's get ol' featherhat to drink some of the kokonut water."
"Great idea, Skully," Cubby's smile, though, quickly turned into a doubtful frown. "But, these kokonuts are really tough to crack open. I mean, I would hate to break them on a rock and risk spilling the juice, ya know?"
"Oh, yeah, good point," Skully turned thoughtful again as he eyed the path leading away from the grove. "Tell ya what? I'll fly off and see what I can find, In the meantime, you stay here to cool Hook off as best as you can. Try using his hat as a makeshift fan."
"Good thinking, Skully. And good luck with your search."
As Skully flew off, Cubby took Hook's hat from his head and, holding it in both hands, moved it up and down near the pirate's face, essentially creating slight breezes that were cooler than the air around them. It at least cooled Hook enough so that within seconds, Cubby could hear him snoring. That was a good thing, though. Sleep was also best for a sick person to get plenty of.
About twenty minutes later, Skully flew back into the grove with what looked like a stick in his feet. Before the parrot could let a word out, however, Cubby stopped fanning and quickly put a finger to his lips, pointing to a still sleeping Hook at the same time to indicate it was probably best to stay quiet to give the ill pirate some more time to rest. After moving away from Hook some but still keeping him in their sights, Skully dropped the stick he was carrying into Cubby's hands.
"Here ya are, matey," Skully whispered as Cubby examined the stick. It was hollow like a drinking straw, but with a sharp, slanted point at one end. "This should solve our kooky dilemma."
"Um, Skully, how will this help us?" Cubby looked at the stick in some confusion.
"Simple. You see the three black dots on each kokonut? Those are the eyes. All you have to do is hit the pointed end of the stick into one of those dots with a small rock, like a hammer and nail. Then Hook can drink the water through the stick and when the kokonut's empty, you can pull it out and start again."
"Alright! That's awesome! I'm going to try it right now!" With that, Cubby grabbed a kokonut and carried it out of the grove. Soon, Skully could hear the soft sounds of a rock hitting the stick. A short time later, Cubby came back with the stick straw successfully inserted in the kooky kokonut and walked over to Hook. He hated to wake pirate up, but it was important that he help Hook replenish the fluids he was losing through his sweating.
"Ahem. Um, Captain? Captain Hook?" Cubby gently shook the captain's shoulder to wake him, which Hook did so with a start.
"Huh...? Wha...? Oh, what do you want, ya puny pir-ah, ah AH, AHCHOO!" Hook shot straight up as he was rocked by a violent sneeze, followed by two more. Once the small sneezing fit ended, he sank back down into the pillow.
"Ugh, say it ya sneaky snook, don't spray it," Skully said as he flew in closer. "Anyway, Cubby has some kooky kokonut water here for you to drink."
"Yuck! Blasted bilgewater, I hate kooky kokonuts." Hook gave a look of disgust as he tried to turn away from the offered straw stick.
"I'm sorry Captain, but this is the only thing to drink right now because there's no water around," Cubby explaned. "Besides, you need to drink something or you're just going to end up feeling worse."
As much as Hook hated the kokonuts, at the same time he certainly did not want to end up feeling worse than he did already. And so, with great reluctance, he gave in and weakly turned his head towards Cubby, who put the straw in his mouth and allowed him to suck up the kokonut water. Hook's face scrunched up in distaste, but still he drank it all down.
"Yo ho, way to go!" Cubby praised using his matey Jake's catchphrase as he took the now empty kokonut away and pulled the straw out. "But you'll have to drink some more water. I'll need to stick this straw into another kokonut." As Cubby stuck the pointed stick into the eyes of another kokonut and began hammering it in, Skully landed right on the boy's shoulder as he took note of Hook's hand.
"Hey Cubby? Take a look at Hook's hand, right near his thumb," Skully used his wing like a finger to point it out. "What does that look like to you?"
Cubby leaned in closer to examine spot Skully mentioned. "I dunno, Skully. It looks like a really nasty bug bite to me, only it has these weird red and purple markings."
"Red and purple markings?! Crackers, Cubby! You don't think Hook's been...?"
The look on Cubby's face as he turned towards Skully silenced whatever the parrot was going to say next. "I'm thinking it's time you brought Jake and Izzy over here. We're going to need some help on this one."
"Right. You keep getting Hook to drink the water. I'll bring the crew on over."
And with that, Skully flew off towards Pirate Island, leaving Cubby with the nearly impossible task of getting Hook to drink more kooky kokonut water.
Minutes later, he spotted Jake and Izzy on Pirates Island, engaging in their favorite activities. Jake was putting the finishing touches on his new sail wagon, while Izzy was busy making jewelry from the beautiful seashells she had collected near Mermaid Lagoon.
"Jake, Izzy! Come quick!" Skully squawked as soon as he saw them. "Pirate emergency at the Kooky Kokonut Grove!"
Jake instantly dropped his hammer and ran towards his parrot matey.
"Skully! What's going on? And where's Cubby?"
Instanly, Izzy looked around for her friend and feared the worst when she didn't see him. "Is Cubby hurt? Is that who the emergency is for?"
"Oh, no, Cubby's fine. He's back at the grove," Skully assured his friends. "It's actually for Hook!"
At that point, Skully launched into his explanation of how Hook had stumbled into the grove and listed all the symptoms the buccaneer was suffering from. Izzy took note of each one and had a ready answer as soon as Skully stopped talking.
"Well, I am sorry that he's sick, but it sounds to me like he's just suffering from a garden variety flu," Izzy explained. "He may feel crummy now, but he should be ok in about a week."
"I dunno, Iz. I don't think this is any kind of variety flu," Skully shook his head. "He has a particularly nasty bug bite on his hand that's covered in red and purple markings. We're thinking he may have been bitten by the Neverland Flu Bug."
"THE NEVERLAND FLU BUG?!" Jake and Izzy cried out in alarm.
"Yay hey, no way!" Izzy exclaimed. "If Hook's been bitten, that means that he..."
She didn't finish her sentence, but then, she didn't have to. All three knew full well the consequences Hook faced as a result of that bite. Neverland Flu Bugs were the rarest insects of all and a good thing too. Anyone bitten by the bug would suffer from severe symptoms of the flu forever. And as far as anyone knew, there was no known cure.
Jake, Izzy, and Skully all shuddered at the thought. Hook may have been a cruel, selfish, criminal crook, but not even he deserved such a fate.