The Betrayed Marionette

~.~.~

It was perhaps the most unbelievable sight that the sun had ever dawned upon. The most extraordinary - most breathtaking!

This was the place that legends were made of. This was the kind of place that had captured the hearts, the hopes and the dreams of so many wayward souls - dreams of buccaneers and buried gold and fabled corsair coasts. It was the sort of far-off, free paradise that one's mind conjured up when thinking of the so-called pirate's life: a jewel of most vibrant jade tossed amidst a cerulean sea of finest agate, it's shores fringed by the whitest, softest-looking sand for at least a thousand leagues. Amu thought back to their previous stop then. Her mind's eye focused on the memory of grey, mottled peaks and stony shores and the dark, ancient forests beneath the mist. But this place was nothing like Musashi's home had been.

Even as the sun dragged itself from beyond the boundless horizon behind them they could feel it's resolve strengthening. They caught that tell-tale waft of steamy spray billowing up from the prow, gleaming off the bowsprit, and felt the gentle breeze and they knew now that they'd almost fully retraced their steps and returned to their welcome home just south of the equator. And it was not often that this crew ignored the rising of the sun so lightly. It was not often that their eyes were so drawn to some other wonder more liberating - more inspiring - than the dawn of another free day, but the sight of the subtle, sun-kissed hues landing like golden silk upon this newest isle had their attention with such firmness that the day had nearly crept across the sea in full by the time they were ready to drop their anchor into the glorious, turquoise waves beneath their hull.

Ikuto had been busy traipsing in and out of his cabin since the first green of the jungle had spotted the lens of his spyglass. Amu thought he seemed oddly optimistic, but perhaps it was just the contrast to their last little expedition. In fact the whole crew seemed to be lighter in heart. The men were singing in the rosy run. Their shanties swelled between the sails. Overheard, Daichi was waking from his perch atop one of the yards and his cries were ringing out across the sea. She supposed that when you hadn't had to hurl yourself headfirst into a hurricane to get there, these little pit-stops were much more agreeable.

But, for whatever reason - for some nagging reason that she could not fathom - Amu felt something untoward creeping into the back of her mind. There was a trepidation - an uncomfortable hesitation within her every step as she paced the narrow planks of the gangway, casting the briefest of glances over her shoulder every now and then.

They were just beginning to haul their faithful longboats and jolly-boats into action, having spent the past hour carefully navigating the shallow waters. The seabed was littered with all manner of obstacles. Amu could see them through the crystalline waves. There were all manner of colourful, wavy corals; plains of emerald kelp; and sunken shoals that rimmed the isle in shallow circles. In fact, looking out onto the shore, it was no wonder that they'd had to halt so far out to sea. The beaches were low - massive, flat expanses of naught but sand and seaweed that sloped so gradually into the sea that she reckoned a man could walk outwards for some distance and barely have the waves lap up to his knees. But, though inconvenient, Amu was amazed that the crew didn't seem to mind. In fact, they looked almost jubilant.

Amu could see why. This island looked like a paradise. Covered by lush, thick foliage, it stood as an emerald against the sea - rising steadily until the treetops touched the clouds above - and at its feet the land levelled until there stretched before them miles of soft, sandy beach, perfectly smoothed, untouched by the feet of men. The crew were currently headed towards the southern shore where the forest for a time peeled back and they saw that the land was riddled with the workings of an immense delta where swiftly-flowing streams and tributaries ran towards the sea, cutting across the sand like shimmering, silver thread, all spreading as an intricate web, branching off of a single, rushing river somewhere beyond the line of the trees. Amu would have marvelled as they approached the shore if not for the trepidation within her heart.

Wide and untamed, beyond its sunkissed beaches the thick, green jungle, deep and beckoning, seemed full of untold treasures. Its highest peaks seemed tipped and gleaming with dew beneath the sun, yet it was in the tumble of the trees that this forgotten place had taken her breath away. It was in the splashes of rich pinks and reds and the smattering of purest white-budded flowers; in the glimpses of orange and yellow fruits hanging from low-lying trees amongst the lush green; it was the glass-like glitter of the slow-moving delta that burst through the leaves and spread it's yawning mouth across the sands, mingling with the sea, green turf sprouting along its course. Like fingers stretching from beneath the canopy it clawed across the shore, it's many tributaries twinkling like candlelight amidst a chandelier as the day shed new light on its sands.

Yes, this place was the sort of place that all buccans dreamed of. Where merry men saw fit to lie spread-out on the sand drinking rum too strong and indulge in fruit too exotic without a care for the troubles of the world beyond. And Amu would have marvelled at the sight of it as they approached the shore if not for the unexplained apprehension that had taken hold.

By the time all was acceptable by their Captain's standards, the sky was positively blue and the air thick with moisture. By the time the Shining Black had anchored off-shore, the sun had risen high and full in the sky until all was wispy and faint beneath the rays. Behind them, the white diamond shone like a brilliant beacon of light amidst black sails, glowing under the tropical sun, yet growing fainter and dimmer to Amu's eyes the closer they neared the shore.

Their ship had been unable to inch any closer to land, much to their frustration, for, as mentioned, with every yard the waves grew shallower, the crystalline waters riddled with shoals and clusters of coral as far as the eye could see, scattered about the ripples of the sand, and it became apparent that, quite simply, the Shining Black was too mighty a vessel to venture into these waters and so she remained, bobbing just out of reach against the azure sky whilst the majority of her crew left the safety of her deck and braved the unknown.

They drew up on the shore in a fleet of little rowboats. All but thirty men there were, the rest left behind to guard their precious Shining Black (and those that left were more than slightly peeved to make so many journeys in so few boats) and for good reason. This island was perhaps three times the size of Musashi's small retreat from the world. They dragged their boats away from the outward stream of the delta's many mouths and gathered on the sand where Ikuto once again carved his band of ragtag scallywags into groups and sent them off into whatever direction his own heart deemed best until but merely forty remained. A small handful stayed to secure the beach, gathering bits of dry leaf and driftwood in anticipation of firelight should they remain camped out on the shores. Some were handing out some spare pistols and blades to the rest of the crew. Amu took a heavy, but keen-looking cutlass and admired it's gleam in the daylight as she paced towards the line of the trees.

"By gods," Ikuto breathed. There was great excitement about the beach that day - they could feel it buzzing like insects in the air. He rubbed his hands together and narrowed his gaze, taking in the edge of the forest before him. "If I had to bet money on my stepfather's choice of paradise…" And he turned back to his own small troupe, positively smirking like the cat that got the cream. "I think I'd be in for the winning, don't you think?"

Utau was just behind him, securing her powder flask to her belt. "Pity he'd have to spend his last few days in nirvana." She scoffed. "I'd hoped to find him shipwrecked somewhere slightly more desolate."

Ikuto chuckled lowly. For all her dirty looks, even Utau had to admit she couldn't quite douse that devious glint of mischief in his eyes.

"Go off with the men westward, Utau. I want a path cleared to the summit. I want it scoured."

"You are joking." Utau burst out. "After the last stop? Bound and gagged and carried off by natives? You're not leaving my sight!"

Amu bit her lip, her shoulders shaking. Ikuto glanced over only briefly, but she thought he appreciated her efforts to contain herself. Yaya, unfortunately, didn't have the same sort of courtesy.

"Something funny?" Ikuto hummed, watching the young girl descend into guffawing laughter.

"Carried off by natives!" she howled. "Yaya would've sure liked to 'ave been a part o' that, if Cap'n don't mind Yaya sayin' so herself! But Cap'n shouldn't worry! Cap'n's got Utau to fight the blighters off if there be any savages this time!"

Ikuto turned, looking only marginally unimpressed, but didn't answer. Amu whispered in his ear;

"Stay where we can see you, ruffian,"

He pouted. "That should be my line."

"You should've learned by now, Ikuto." Amu said. "I'm not going anywhere without you."

"Indeed. I remember." And he turned to address his men; "Stay sharp! Fan out every mile. And use your powder sparingly!" He paused, taking in the sight of the sprawling jungle, his gaze penetrating every nook and cranny, as though expecting their enemy to leap out at them at any moment. "If Kazuomi is here we must expect him to have seen us coming…"

They spread out, separating into small groups so as to conceal themselves more effectively in the undergrowth, all with their pistols primed and their blades keen. Ikuto and Amu were joined by Utau and Kukai (as well as Daichi who was flapping about on his master's shoulder) and Yaya (who was insistent on leaving the ship to forage for supplies) and so it was then that Amu found herself taking those first few tentative steps into the jungle, bidding the beach goodbye and plunging into the unknown.

~.~.~

From the very moment they first dove into the greenery, the air was immediately stifling. It hit them full-on as a smack in the face, rolling hot and wet against their cheeks; a wave of moisture to battle against until their faces were slick and shiny with perspiration.

Amu felt very claustrophobic all of a sudden. She stopped herself, reeling against the tropical climate and bracing herself to delve deeper, for it only became stickier and muggier with every step. It was like trying to breathe liquid. Like drowning in a fog. Each breath hung in their throats; every gasp of air trailing languidly across their cheeks. Unsurprisingly, they were soon all very hot, very clammy and very uncomfortable and, most of all, Amu just couldn't seem to rid herself of the irrepressible notion that the very jungle itself was closing in on them.

But it was probably just the humidity, Amu told herself perhaps forty minutes or so into their onward, uncomfortable trek.

Their plan had been at first to follow the course of the main branch of the river delta - a plan that she'd had no objections to, for, after all, it would make retracing their steps back to the beach much easier, especially once darkness fell, and the constant sound of the babbling stream offered an unlikely, odd sort of comfort as they pressed on through the trees, even though it was consistently hot and sweaty and littered with unfamiliar plantlife to bar their way. Amu's only regret was that she couldn't bring herself to drink it. Not with all manner of decaying foliage and questionable roots growing out of its banks.

Determined, the pirates began to carve their way through the jungle. Ikuto took up position at the front of the throng, unleashing his blade upon the dense foliage all around them, for, though the banks along the river offered some sense of direction, it's branching tributaries and streams were thickly overgrown. In regular intervals their Captain would pause and order little clusters of his men off to pursue some new, unexplored territory and off they would go, hacking through the undergrowth and vanishing wholly into the line of the trees.

Often progress was slow, for the temperature dulled their senses, and the jungle at times seemed impenetrable. After all, even here beneath the trees, shielded from the full light of the sun, this was the undisputed definition of tropic. Heat aside, the entire place seemed to thrive with the abundance of damp, wet air. Native, fanned palms with long, spindly fingers and low, green shrubs with thick, rubbery fronds as big as their heads were whispering faintly all around them. Everywhere they looked branches and creepers were dangling about their path, weighed down by thick, lush leaves which glinted with a waxy sheen. The soil was thick and springy, carpeted by a gnarled, knotted network of roots and vines of various descriptions, all crawling their way across the forest floor like an immense web, little shoots of leaf or clusters of colourful flowers occasionally bursting forth amidst the tangled mess and intertwining with themselves about the rabble. Here and there the green was punctuated by splashes of pinks and brightest, purest whites, all shivering as an array of insects and little, coin-sized, iridescent birds dove for their sweet, yellow centres.

Amu carried on, mesmerised, overwhelmed by the brilliancy and vitality of life here on this secluded little isle away from the rest of the world and felt herself grow lost in the sights and sounds of the jungle. In fact, she could hear little else, for insects and cicadas and all manner of other things were buzzing and screaming and whizzing continuously until the whole place seemed to pulse and vibrate with the beat of their wings.

There were, unfortunately though, plenty of less welcome creatures in this immense place. Right on cue, the jungle chorus was interrupted by the telltale 'thwack!' of skin on skin. Kukai rubbed at his stinging neck, hissing through grit teeth;

"Fuckin' little bloodsuckers!"

She might not have said it out loud, but Amu shared the sentiment. She was sure that her cheeks were red and glowing from the constant effort to swat them away.

"Careful," Utau eyed him warily. Amu could tell she was thinking of all the sorts of fevers that were rife in these tropical climates. The kinds that brought on delusions and hallucinations and had men kept quarantined in their cabins for weeks at a time. But there was not much that any of them could do - not when they were so deep into the foliage. All they could do was press on, fanning their faces.

Most of that morning continued in a similar fashion, but, as it turned out, they would not have to go far to come across their first glimmer of hope in the hunt for their former Captain.

Perhaps a few hours had passed when the men came to a halt at the side of the water - stopping abruptly so that Amu found herself walking face-first into Utau's back. She watched, dumbfounded, craning her neck over their quartermaster's shoulder as they clustered about a point in the stream.

At the base of the bank, half-buried in the sludge of silt, Amu caught the unmistakable gleam of gold. Ikuto nudged the thing with his foot. By the time the running water had worked away over the years of filth, two flintlocks and a weathered musket were sitting idly on the bottom of the riverbed. Amu felt faint. Ikuto and a couple of his men each took up an arm, shaking the water out of their rusty compartments.

"Well," he said at last; "at least we know we're on the right track."

It was a good thing that Ikuto seemed so optimistic, Amu thought then, because she sure as hell wasn't. Even after they had left the sodden firearms behind (for they were of no use and to carry them further would be meaningless) that glimmer of gold still lingered hauntingly in the back of her mind. The jungle was thickening - pressing in ever-closer. It was… Well, it was not unlike being watched - not unlike feeling as though something lurked in the shadow of those trees. As though someone, somewhere, was following their every movement from afar, trailing just out of sight.

She reached forward and borrowed Yaya's waterskin, taking a deep, long swig if only to distract herself from the ever-present nagging in the back of her head.

"This place really does seem familiar, ya know?" Kukai said then. Amu let him take a drink from the skin before prompting him to elaborate. "I mean, some o' the lads have definitely been here," he said; "but I don't recall it all that much."

"What were they doing here?" Amu asked. "What kind of rumours caused such trepidation about this isle?"

Kukai scratched at the back of his head. "Well," he began almost reluctantly: "the story goes that a bunch o' men were marooned here last time Ichinomiya was in these waters."

"Marooned?" Yaya chimed in, looking oddly delighted. "Just like in the ol' stories, that is!"

But Amu said nothing. Wordlessly, she left them to their discussion, yet as they went on it was no use because, for the life of her, the image of those weather-worn weapons gleaming at the bottom of the riverbed, nor the tale of the marooners, could be shaken from her mind.

~.~.~

They trekked through the trees for most of the day, creeping forth though the undergrowth, always on high alert lest something (or someone) jump from the depths of the jungle unexpectedly. For the most part they encountered nothing of interest, save that Yaya was constantly ducking and diving into the bushes in an attempt to scavenge anything edible along their way. She had quite a substantial haul so far nestled safely in a makeshift bag made out of leftover sail tucked carefully under her shoulder. But as they went on, Amu had to admit to herself that there was something about this place that made her feel unsettled. Maybe it was the way the jungle seemed to be pressing in on them or maybe it was just paranoia having heard the mysterious stories surrounding this isle, but there was definitely something about it that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end; that felt as though they were being watched - like something lurked in the shadows of the trees just waiting to strike. Several times someone snapped a twig beneath their boot or scuffed a stone alongside the riverbed and she would jump right out of her skin, terrified.

Amu spared a moment to wipe the sweat off the back of her forehead before scampering ahead to join the head of the group.

"Ikuto," she said, lowering her voice to little more than a hush of breath, glancing nervously over her shoulders as she went; "I don't know about spirits… But there's something here…"

Obviously Kazuomi was the first person to cross his mind at this statement, but even Ikuto had to admit that it was unlikely given the lack of human life they had (or had not) encountered so far. He shook his head, if unconvincingly.

"Don't give in to all that nonsense," he said simply.

But still Amu saw the tension in his frame; the narrowing of his brows; the reluctance in his step and she knew then that it was not simply her mind playing tricks on her - that there was definitely something somewhere in this jungle that set even a pirate's nerves on edge… But what that thing was Amu knew not.

By now their party had been reduced to perhaps fifteen - the majority of the crew branching off with the stream's tributaries to scope out the terrain so that they might regroup back at the ship before nightfall and search the isle properly at first light. They would have as long as they needed to investigate the potential safehouse - wherever that was.

They continued directly north, following the main branch of the river. Ikuto remained ahead with the majority of the pirates, cutting through a path with his cutlass, battling against the steepening terrain when at last they came to a lush clearing, bright and colourful, the water gurgling at their feet.

"Rest here a minute," Ikuto said, sheathing his blade. He brushed the sweat from his forehead and took a drink from his waterskin. "It only gets steeper from here."

The men gratefully obliged. Rations were handed out and, once all the pirates had had their fill, Yaya bounced up to him.

"Yaya's off to search for fruit over yonder!"

Spent from the day's effort, Ikuto merely waved a hand in approval and their eager cook bounded off into the greenery. Amu was left with little else to do but admire the foliage, for here the canopy was exceptionally colourful and filled with little white petals. In fact, this stretch of the jungle seemed so peaceful that they'd barely noticed that one of their group was missing.

"Hey!"

Kukai's voice rang clear from between the trees. Immediately the pirates were on alert, their blades in their hands. Amu and Yaya followed them into the jungle until they came across a little grove set slightly back from the stream. The trees were thinner here and Kukai stood in its centre beaming, pointing up at the canopy.

"I knew this rang a bell!"

But Amu, not any of the others, could not see a thing. At least not at first. Daichi let out a cry from his master's shoulder, his shrill voice rebounding in what at first appeared to be a mighty echo from within the trees…

But it was no echo. Those were not Daichi's screams. Hundreds upon hundreds of birds were calling - each singing out to the other, one by one until the sky was full of song-! There was a burst of sunlight. A flurry of feathers. And, mystified, the company of the Shining Black watched in awe as a whole flurry of birds in a hundred colours burst forth from the fruit grove, sending the canopy into a colourful frenzy.

On Kukai's shoulder, Daichi squawked as if in glee.

Kukai's eyes were bright and glowing as an olive grove in summer; "Daichi, look! It's ya buddies!"

Daichi squawked as if in recognition and leapt into the air, circling with his fellow parrots, disappearing into the throng. The sunlight dappled through their feathers. The air rang with their cries. And Amu smiled, momentarily forgetting the unease this jungle had brought her, and watched in awe at this magnificent natural display of colour.

It appeared that there were many beautiful things here in this jungle. And more there was yet to be uncovered.

~.~.~

They had made good progress by the time afternoon was upon them, though the terrain still followed an incline and the jungle was thick and stifling.

Their companions had split off into the jungle, sent away along the remainders of dried-up tributaries that they'd encountered along their path, and so the faithful few (those few being Ikuto, Amu, Utau, Kukai and Yaya) continued on what was proving to be a rather uneventful journey. But, at the very least, Amu's nerves were settled, though she couldn't quite understand why. Perhaps the rest had done her good. Perhaps she was still enamoured by the display of the island macaws. Or perhaps the relatively positive mood of her Captain was enough to set her soul at ease, for if there was one thing that troubled her, it was when her ruffian allowed himself to be troubled more than he let on.

But Amu was by now adept at reading Ikuto's face and instead of unrest she saw optimism. Even Utau looked pleased to be making progress throughout the bush. Not to mention that Kukai had been grinning from ear to ear without fail ever since. He followed on at the rear, Daichi perched happily on his shoulder, whistling buccan tunes to himself as they trekked on through the foliage.

Indeed, even without the parrots, there seemed to be life everywhere. Insects still buzzed incessantly about them; plants and flowers burst into life in sudden splashes of colour; in the distance they heard the whooping and hollering of monkeys high up within the canopy towards the isle's peaks. In this part of the world, Amu thought she knew that they must have been the small, sinuous creatures common in the southern rainforests, but their calls were tremendous and echoing so that a group of them some miles away sounded as if they were only metres above.

"Do you remember if there were any other creatures here?" Ikuto asked Kukai.

The response was mixed.

"Perhaps some fowl, Cap'n."

Deep down, Ikuto was beginning to worry about predators, but he reasoned that the isle was perhaps too small to support them and, as the day went on, they saw nothing of the sort so far.

Throughout their hike that day the stream which they had followed from the delta down by the beach had been strengthening, its waters coursing ever more swiftly the further they ventured into the jungle and it was then as the sun began to fade that they reached its strongest point. They heard it before they saw it. The sound of running water was near-deafening in their ears and it's source was a welcome sight.

"At last!" Amu's eyes lit up. Through the glimpse of the wide foliage the five pirates could just about make out the blissful gleam of a freshwater pool fed by a rushing waterfall, sparkling in fiery hues of red and gold as the last slivers of the setting sun pierced through the little gaps in the canopy. They had been thoroughly disappointed with the mud-ridden stream they had followed throughout the day, but here at its source the water ran as clear and crystalline as any they could have hoped for.

"Finally," Ikuto breathed a sigh of relief. One by one they filed through the narrow gaps in the trees, for here beside the water the jungle grew thicker and stronger, fed by the purest waters perhaps on the entire island. Here the earth was carpeted by fallen buds and ferns, feeding off the mossy soil beneath. Ikuto and his crew thankfully threw themselves to their knees, filling their empty skins, drinking deeply and relishing in the cool spray that billowed from the fall's descent.

"Drink." Ikuto said, sounding positively sated. Fruit might have been a necessary against dehydration, but it was nothing in comparison. It was nothing compared to this delight. "Fill up. Fill your carriers as much as you can." And he glanced upwards, ignoring the droplets that built up on his cheeks as he tried to peer up at the waterfalls' source. "That may be the best we can do…"

This Amu had to agree with. Though a welcome relief, the only downside was that this waterfall apparently marked the end of their path, for the river overhead flowed down from the top of a high ridge - an impenetrable wall of slick, grey stone, riddled with creepers sprouting wide, rosy-petaled flowers, claw crabs in vibrant reds and yellows sprouting in their hundreds amongst the surrounding brush in such numbers that they'd begun to climb along the wall itself, worn smooth and slippery by years upon years of steady weathering.

"How far does it go?" Amu wondered aloud. She tried to peer through the jungle either side of them, but the light was just beginning to wane as a gentle breeze shifted amongst the canopy, rearranging the foliage, making the greenery shift as though living. "There must be a slope or… Or somewhere we can climb it, surely?"

Kukai (who had been in the middle of an impromptu face-wash beneath the fall) shook his wet hair like a sodden dog and ran his hand across the face of the rock. "Too smooth to climb. It's gotta be, what, ten foot? I'll bet I could give one of ya a boost and you'd be up there right as rain! Utau?"

The blonde in question looked positively murderous. "You're not boosting me anywhere, Souma."

Kukai let out something that might have been an 'Aye, ma'am' and a mumbled apology, but no one took any notice. The initial idea was not a bad one though and, determined to see more of the isle, Ikuto stood on a nearby boulder and prepared to climb.

But, of course, the ridge was far too haphazard; worn smooth by the water and, though they tried, Amu and Ikuto and all the others put together could not find enough footing to hoist themselves over the top. Amu swallowed her pride and let herself be lifted onto Ikuto's shoulders, for he was the tallest of them all, but not even Yaya with her immovable confidence in scaling the thick vines could so much as poke her head above the crest of the stony wall and, finally, they relented.

Yaya had been halfway through trying to haul herself up using the many roots latched to the rock when she dropped to the ground, red-faced and spent. A little dust cloud of dirt and thorny debris trickled down behind her. She rubbed her hands, wincing, and sighed aloud.

"Ahh, it's no good!" she whined. "An' such a shame! Yaya can just about see a papaya tree o'er the top when she gets a-going!"

At this point, the sun was slowly starting to slip below the horizon. Whatever rays of golden light that had illuminated this little oasis had long since faded, faltering like a flag without the breeze, and vanished so that the entire clearing was starting to sink into the shadow of twilight, as if in preparation for the onset of night. Even if they had been victorious in their rock-scaling endeavour, by now neither Amu nor her companions could so much as see beyond the head of the waterfall. Their day was over. It was time to retreat.

"Have one last drink." Ikuto told them. He shrugged back on his jacket and hat, both of which he'd abandoned in his attempts to lift the others atop the ridge and both of which were now sodden from the splash of the water. "Then we head back to the ship. If we're lucky, some of the men might have found their way to higher ground."

Reluctantly, they turned back to face the trail they'd carved through the jungle.

~.~.~

But as the sunlight retreated - as the daylight failed and the moon rose and as the oncoming wall of night slowly swallowed the isle in its entirety - this whole place appeared to change. The forest seemed to come into its own. Voiceless it muttered; breathless it sighed, exhaling as the breath of some great behemoth, the leaves rustling in the last of the breeze, its raspy voice murmuring through the trees.

The shadows were gathering along the side of the path, creeping ever nearer, growing darker and denser with every step they took down the beaten track. Utau snapped off the branch of a spindly-looking tree and, using some oilskin safely tucked into her belt, lit it and held it aloft as a makeshift torch, but even then the shadows seemed to smother it. Choked it. Drowned it until it became little more than a single match flickering alone amidst the abyss of night. Amu could barely see her companions beside her. Up front, Utau was slowing as she tried fruitlessly to pick around the number of obstacles in their path and, undeniably, as they trod back blindly in the pressing dark, any first impression that Amu had kept of this place as the ideal tropical paradise had utterly faded.

It was, in truth, a place of deception. The moon had risen. The last breath of wind blew, rustling through the thick, green foliage, whistling through the empty hollows and crannies of the forest floor, peaking shrilly like the wails of unrested souls. The chirping of insects sounded like the disembodied croaking and choking of many voices, lost and invisible beyond the bush. In the background, way up beyond the tip of the ridge behind them, howler monkeys were whooping like unearthly demons - a once favourable sound now masked and distorted dreadfully by the onset of night.

Soon they could barely see beyond their faces. If anything, the firelight seemed to make it worse, for their eyes could not adjust beyond their little light. Subconsciously the pirates edged closer together, clustered behind Utau who was tentatively leading the way ahead. Even Ikuto looked somewhat spooked as they crept along…

Then, all of a sudden, something seemed to change. Something in the atmosphere shifted. A chill of terror pierced their hearts.

Utau stilled. The group stilled with her. Amu swore that she saw something move in the corner of her eye.

They froze.

There was silence. The monkeys were gone; the insects died…

And then, as Amu and Ikuto's wide eyes met, Utau's torch began to flicker - began to shake and sway so violently that it almost went out completely - as though somebody had leaned through the gaps in the foliage and blown a mighty gust of wind to leave them all helpless and stranded within the dark… And yet Amu could not feel a single breeze in the stifling heat of the jungle.

They all stood in dead silence for a moment… Listening; waiting; near drowning in anticipation…

But nothing happened.

"But a breath of the wind…" Utau spoke up, her eyes shining bright in the firelight, but, though she held her head up high, everyone present heard the waver in her voice; the tremble of her breath; they saw the shiver that wracked her shoulders even in the gloom…

It could not have been the breeze. There was not the merest breath to be felt.

Amu and Ikuto glanced at each other, looking dubious, even though they could not really see each other in the gloom. But the torch was fading, the night creeping in and Amu's eyes were adjusting. She glanced around… And her heart stilled. Dropped like a stone in her chest.

A figure. A shadow - a solid shadow - crouching a little way up the trail.

Amu squinted, doubting her vision in the dark, focusing for so long that she was beginning to believe that it was but a trick of the light - a deception…

And then it cocked its head.

Amu snapped back into life. Petrified, a shrill cry left her lips. She stumbled back, catching her ankle on a fallen, missy log and tumbled backwards into the stream with a 'splash!'. She heard Ikuto call out her name; heard the footfalls of her companions as they came to her aid; and when courage returned to her she opened her eyes only to find the firelight renewed and shining brightly in her face. Her friends stared down at her in concern. Ikuto grabbed her hand and hauled her up, but she was too terrified to let go, clinging to his arm, her eyes wide and terrified.

But, as she looked over his shoulder into the trees, there was no one there. The shadow was gone.

"Amu? What are you looking at?"

"B-But-Bu-But… I-I…" She pointed, trailing dumbly off.

And then, before she could find the words to explain herself, the atmosphere faded. The tension cleared. The air lightened. The moonlight peeked timidly through the forest canopy and the cleansing, running water drowned out all unholy noises in the dark. They let out breaths they were unaware of holding and looked round, dazed, as though waking from a deep dream.

"It's… It's nothing…" Amu gasped. "It's nothing…"

And, bewildered and shaken, they silently stuck together and slowly made their way down the trail and towards the beach.

~.~.~

A/N: Me? Updating after almost a year? It's more likely than you think!

That's right, I'm back and I am pumped to continue this story. I finally finished my story plan and now I have a solid ending to aim for which is so exciting!