“Get back here you—“

  “You little — Arhh” shouted Teo, much to Remy’s delight as he chased the monkey around the base of a large tree before it bolted up to a high overhanging branch.

  It’s small stature made it fast and infuriating to try catch. It knew what they were there for, even pretending to drop the eye before swinging around the branch by its tail to grab it.

  “Teo, go and hide in the bushes over there, I’ll try make it run over there and you can catch him,” whispered Remy as she motioned over to bushes deeper into the tree line.

  She pulled out a shiny coin from her pocket and flicked it with her thumb, making it spin high into the air before snatching it up in her hand again. The coin glistened in the sunlight and the ringing from the spin was enough to captivate the curious primate.

  Remy tossed the coin with precision toward the bushes Teo had hidden in, making the monkey launch from its branch in a frantic panic to get the coin.

  It was howling as it jumped across and landed next to Teo’s hiding spot, searching around everywhere for the coin before Teo launched out of the bushes with his arms extended in an attempt to catch it. The initial rustle of the bush gave him away, making the monkey jump out of the way with Teo going face first into the sandy, shrubby ground.

  —

  As the monkey led them further into the jungle, Teo spotted a rather unusual and odd item. Lightly moving in the wind was what appeared to be a worn out Jolly Roger just floating on its own.

  A pirate cursed island thought Teo as he nudged a distracted Remy.

  “Uh Remy. It’s not worth it we’ll never catch this bloody monkey,” he said. His eyes not moving away from the floating flag.

  Remy ran ahead intrigued by this particular bad omen rather than frightened like Teo. As she got closer she saw that it in fact wasn’t floating at all, but was rather attached to what appeared to be a mast.

  “I think it’s a ship,” called out Remy as she unsheathed her sword and started pushing deeper into the jungle ahead.

  “A what. Ship? In the middle of a jungle,” scoffed Teo at the impossible notion.

  Sure enough as they sliced through the thick brush of the jungle they came across a small lake, fed by a narrow and overgrown doglegged inlet, which was protected by a small cliff around it.

  Sat in the middle of the small lake was a worn down schooner that barely fit, sitting only just meters off either side of the cliffs edge.

  It’s eroded hull was covered in a deep green moss with deep splits across the planks of woods of what would of once been a beautiful ship. Nature had started to reclaim it, boarding it from the bowsprit that protruded into the edge of the thick scrub.

  It was a sight that left Remy in awe but did nothing to ease Teo’s mind of it being a cursed island.

  “Uh how’s there a ship in here—“

  “Shh. Wait a minute. I know this ship,” said Remy, her eyes opening even wider in surprise.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “The Sevens Reaper,” she whispered.

  “Sevens Reaper?” Scoffed Teo.

  The monkey, still holding the eyeball, ran around to the bowsprit and across to the deck before Remy jumped across from the small cliffs edge onto the ship.

  A large crack sent one of Remy’s legs through the deck as a plank gave out from the sudden force. Enormous, what seemed like laughs came from the monkey as it bounced into the cabin.

  After a short debate, Remy had convinced Teo to climb aboard to help her get her leg free. It didn’t take much to scare him into climbing aboard either, all she had to do was tell him that he’d be stuck on the cursed island forever and on he hopped.

  The boards started to creak under each carefully placed step as they made their way to the broken down door that led into the cabin of the ship.

  A jolt of fright forced a scream out of Remy stared down a man, albeit a dead one, sitting behind a desk, the monkey sitting on his shoulder with its tail curled around the backside of his neck.

  Teo came racing in behind her.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s the captain of the Sevens Reaper,” stuttered Remy, taken aback by the sight.

  How did he end up here, like this. She thought to herself.

  He was the most feared pirate just through word alone.

  She was certain it was him. The black salted beard intact, a walking cane nearby, and the trinkets spread around the cabin made it believable.

  As Remy scanned around the room further she noticed a tightly rolled, leather backed scroll in the decomposed hand of the Captain and an open scroll laid out on the desk in front of him, weighted down by some of his heavier trinkets that would have been laying around his cabin.

  She tiptoed over to the other side of the desk, moved away the trinkets and pinched a corner of the laid out scroll and slowly pulled it away from in front of the Captain as if he would suddenly wake up and grab her hand.

  This island has damned us. Providing refuge from prying eyes and enemies, it allowed us entry, only to close behind us.

  Our only luck will be if a ship stumbles upon this island. The men have spread to each side of the island to try their hand at a rescue with no debt to the sevens reaper, unlike myself.

  A captain's glory is to go down with his ship. There’s no glory here but it shall not deter me from dying with my ship.

  Captain G.R

  Remy let out a sigh, turned and blindly passed the letter to Teo. Shaking it around while he was impatiently tapping his foot waiting for his turn, she couldn’t take her eyes off the opened scroll on the desk. It was the captain's map.

  “Go on, take it already.”

  Teo grabbed the scrolled note and started muttering the words as he read them and paced around the cabin.

  She leant over and dragged the palm of her hand across the map to remove he years of dust and grime that covered it. Her eyes widened in awe as she pulled it off the desk and away from the decaying Captain, the trinkets clanging as they were upended by the rapid movement. She didn’t care for anything else in the cabin.

  “T…Teo,” she muttered as she started to slowly pace with her head right up against the map.

  Teo was too busy with the letter to take any notice of Remy and the map, and she didn’t bother calling him a second time.

  A thick black square delineated the map's edges, with a sentence on each side tucked between the border and edge of the scroll that read ‘The Oceans End’.

  Inside the border was a detailed, almost completed map that contained islands and countries that Remy had never heard of.

  Lightly dashed lines were traced across the map with dates marked against them to seemingly keep track of each voyage. If it was a repeated voyage the dates would be one after another along the line. The voyage lines weaved across each other and between the intricate drawings sprawled across it, showing points of interest and fierce beasts.

  There was one particular voyage line that drew Remy in further, if it were even possible at that particular moment.

  A single line that barely intersected with any other. A voyage that was never repeated.

  On the top of the map, near the Oceans Northern end, was an island. It had the pointed peaks of mountains drawn across it and wrapped around it was a large, scaled beast — a dragon.

  “That’s it!” She shouted.

  “What is it,” called over Teo finally snapping to attention.

  “It’s the map. And it shows where

  “Simple enough,” said Teo sarcastically.

  “We’ll just hop on our boat and sail across that big ole‘ ocean that’s filled with monsters to go sight see that vicious looking dragon.”

  She rolled up the scroll and gave Teo a little boop on the nose with it.

  “That’s exactly what we’ll do,” said Remy.

  A thud, followed by a small rumble along the floorboards broke the silence. It was Kylie’s eye rolling straight to Teo's feet, dropped by the monkey who took up a seat on one of the cabin windows.

  “Ugh gross.”

  He picked up the eye and inspected it. It was made of glass and although it was old and cloudy it had meticulous detail which was unusual for a fake eye, especially for a pirate.

  “This thing gives me the creeps.”

  “Don’t lose it, that’s our future there Teo.”

  He shoved the eye into his satchel to avoid its creepy glare.

  “Come on then let‘s get out of here.”