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  Chapter four

  After a few weeks on board the ship, I asked a sailor named Drake where we were heading.

  He looked at me sharply.  “If nobody’s told you then I sure ain’t gonna be the first.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “It ain’t for me to tell, Pretty Boy.  Now get back to work.”

  When I asked some of the others for our destination, I received the same answer.  This piqued my curiosity.  What was so bad or so secret that they could not tell me?  Did they not tell me because I was an outsider, or because of something else?

  One of the crew, Phillip, took it upon himself to teach me swordplay.  He seemed to have a father’s heart despite his youth; he had taken Tanner under his wing, and now he did the same for me.  Tanner, of course, became jealous and acted more awful than usual. I did not want to put up with his behavior, but I preferred spending time with Tanner to sitting alone at meals and free time.  The swordplay helped me build some more muscle.  This I liked because I was skinny for a boy and it helped me get rid of my dainty appearance—the reason they called me ‘Pretty Boy’.

  “More force, Pretty Boy, hit me hard!” Phillip shouted.

  “But I—”

  “No buts I know they’re sharp, but you hit like a girl!”

  “Land in sight!” somebody called.

  Phillip lowered his sword.

  “Where are we going?” I asked nonchalantly hoping he would slip up and tell me.

  He gave me a sharp look.  “What, you mean nobody’s told you?”

  I shook my head.  He looked around to make sure nobody stood in proximity to us.

  “I didn’t tell you this, got it?”

  I nodded solemnly.

  “We’re lookin’ for the Fountain of Youth.”

  I blinked.  “But…I thought that was only a legend.”

  He shrugged.  “Apparently it ain’t.”

  “Why is that so bad nobody would tell me?”

  He looked around uncomfortably as if he had said too much.  However, taking everybody else’s behavior on the subject into consideration, he probably had.

  “We’re lookin’ for it for someone.”

  “Who?”

  “Now that I can’t tell you.  Capt’n would have my head.”

  In the morning some of the men took boats out to explore the island spotted the day before, and they took me with them.  They searched for the Fountain of Youth, though they failed to tell me that—on purpose, of course.  The island, despite its tropical beauty, was rather unnerving because of the birds and animals constantly screaming bloody murder within the trees.  We split into four groups and entered the jungle, marking trees with slashes in the bark so we would not lose our way.  The men hacked the foliage ahead of us with their swords to clear a path.  Everywhere we trampled we startled animals from their hiding places and barely escaped venomous snakes.

  We walked through the jungle for two days.  The bugs that bit us left itchy red welts and presented a great nuisance.  We were obligated to carry one of our number who sprained his ankle the first day, and on top of all else, one of the water gourds we carried leaked.  We noticed no signs of inhabitation until the second day, when we walked straight into a snare.  I suppose we stepped on some sort of trip wire or something because suddenly we rose into the trees, trapped in a net.  We were all stacked on top of each other, everyone screaming expletives insulting each other’s body parts, and I was way at the bottom, crushed under their body weight.  I couldn’t breath, and I might have suffocated, except for at the very next moment the net holding us gave out and we free fell to the ground.  I blacked out.

  When I woke it was a splitting headache, and I was so dizzy it took me a moment for my eyes to focus.  Why were my arms hurting so bad?  Why was I not able to move them?  It took me a few panicked moments, but I managed to get my bearings.  I was tied up with the five men in my crew, all of us back to back in a circle with our bonds tied to a stake in center of our unhappy circle.

  “What’s goin’ on back there?” Drake, who sat next to me, asked as he strained his neck to see behind our backs.

  I faced a wall made of cut saplings lashed together, but from what I understood from the jumbled conversation behind me, on the other side the natives who had taken us captive were preparing a meal.  A meal which apparently had human on the menu.  

   “We’re next,” Scar whimpered on the other side.  “Is that Ed?”

   “I think that’s Ed,” his brother, Bluejay said.

  They all let loose some of the choicest words they contained in their vocabulary.  I craned my neck to see behind me, but I couldn’t see anything.  I smelled cooking meat.

   “Hey!  I still have my knife!” Hammy said excitedly.

  They started talking all at the same time and yanking on the ropes that connected us all.

   “Shut your mouths for a stinkin’ second!” Scar bellowed over them.  “There are too many of them for us to get away right now.”

   “Well, what do you want us to do, wait till we’re cooked?!”

  They started bickering again.  

   “Just cut the ropes,” Drake said.  “Don’t let them see that you’re doin’ it, and don’t any of you dare get up until I say.”

  Hammy’s aim left room for improvement, so we all had bloody wrists by the time he finished.  We remained where we sat, as Drake ordered.  When the natives approached to take us to the fire, we stood up, still back-to-back, as they wanted.  We scooted toward the fire, but then one of the natives noticed the severed bonds.  He started to shout, and we ran.

  My group and I made ran through the jungle all night.  We had not gone long when the man who had sprained his foot was overcome by the natives, but the rest of us made it to the beach before the sun rose.  Those of us remaining shoved off in the rowboat before the natives caught up with us, and began paddling out toward the ship.  The tribe came out onto the beach soon after we got into the water.  They started shooting arrows at us.  I thought we made it too far away for their projectiles to reach us, but I heard Hammy cry out in pain from the back of the boat.  I looked back in time to see him topple over the edge, an arrow in his back.

   “No!” I shouted, leaning over to catch his arm, but already he was too far down.

   “Leave him!” Scar snapped.  “Help us paddle unless you want to be next.”

  I hesitated, but it was too late for Hammy anyway, so I did as he said.  After we had made it out of the tribe’s range and to the ship, the crew on board pulled us up.

   “Did you find it?” Captain demanded.

   “No, we nearly got eaten!” Bluejay snapped.

   “Know your place, sailor.  You will not speak to me in that tone.  What of the other groups dispatched—did you meet them?” Captain asked.

   “Dunno,” Scar answered.  “We were too busy runnin’ for our lives,” he said pointedly.

   “We saw Ed, though,” Bluejay said.  “He was cooking.”

   “Cooking?” Captain asked.

   “Cooking meaning he was the meal,” I said.

  Captain raised a bushy eyebrow but made no comment to that.  “We gave the groups a time by which they had to be back or we would leave.  As of today they have four more days.  Did you notice anything about these natives?  Were they all young, or were they especially strong?”

  There was nothing special to report about them, and the captain let the matter drop.

  Over the next four days only one of the other parties returned.  They failed to find the water, and received no trouble from the natives.  I was angry that the captain was so ready to abandon his men without even a fight.  It seemed like he should at least search the natives’ village for the water, but I guessed our answer about the natives being nothing special answered that question.

  I was not the only one upset about abandoning the other search groups, and many of the sailors made vocal their desire to send an armed rescu
e team after them, but it was to no avail.  Tanner was included in one of the two groups that failed to return, leaving me to take over all the responsibilities that we had (somewhat) shared.

  We set sail to continue our search.

  Part Two

  (Six years later)