Hannah and the Pirate Boy: Curse of the Medallion - Part Two

     Rain was still coming down, though slowly. A small rumble of thunder sounded.

     "What happened?" he moaned and sat up, rubbing his head. He moved his sore limbs and found that he was stiff.

     Garin tightened a fist around a bunch of wet sand. "Oh, no," he gasped. "I fell overboard! No! Jacques, my crew, the Black Pawkeet!"

     He stood to his feet, finding it difficult, and cupped his paws to his face. "Jacques!" he called. "Jacques, are you out there? Talak? Anybody!"

     Finding it futile, he turned and examined his current predicament.

     "Great, I'm stranded on some island, and I don't know if my crew is alive or not or if my ship is still above water," he complained.

     Far off in the distance, Garin thought he could see a small harbor for ships.

     "That's probably my best bet," he decided and headed towards it.

     When he arrived, he saw that everything was chaos. He could just barely see the sails of a smaller ship that had sunk right in the harbor. Dirty Neopets of all sorts were running around and trying to clean up the debris.

     Some Neohomes were no more, blown to the ground by the forceful gales.

     "This is bad," thought Garin. "I wonder if Isca predicted this."

     He made his way, reluctantly, into the middle of the chaos, trying to find a way to the center of the small village.

     As he walked on, things became to get more and more familiar. The now wrecked market looked vaguely familiar, and a couple of the damaged Neohomes struck Garin as if he had seen them before.

     "Wait a minute! I've been to this rotten place before. It's Scurvy Island, the place I was stranded on before."

     He watched a familiar Neopet walk by. Garin smiled nervously and gave a short wave.

     "This is just great!" he muttered. "Some Neopets here know that I'm a pirate. What'll I do if one of them sees me?"

     Garin ducked behind an overturned cart and peered over. He waited until a few ragged Neopets walked by before creeping out and running down the street to the familiar inn.

     As he ran, the rain and the wind began to pick up again. It came down and hit Garin hard. He flinched every time a hard drop of rain would hit his face.

     Finally, he made it to the inn. He slammed the door shut as he burst in with a gale of wind. Unfriendly looking Neopets turned their haunting eyes on him. His hand flew to the hilt of his Maractite dagger as he eyed all of them and sat down.

     "At least I'll have a way to defend myself if something goes wrong," he leaned back and tried to gather his wits.

     Again, like always, there was a dark figure lurking in the shadows of the inn.

     ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

     Hannah and Armin trekked through the cave not making a sound. They kept their eyes and ears alert. Everything was dark, making it extremely difficult to see. Outside, they could heard the violent wind howling past the cave.

     "Hello?" Armin whispered, trying not to be too loud.

     Hannah followed his example and whispered an urgent call.

     Suddenly, their calls were answered by a faint voice. "Help," it called.

     "Hello? Where are you?" Hannah asked.

     "I'm down here." The voice was so small, Armin and Hannah could barely hear it.

     Then, as they walked, Armin noticed a small hole, in the ground, out of the corner of his eye. "Hannah, there." He tugged on her coat sleeve and pointed.

     They rushed over to the edge and peered down into the darkness. A small, muffled crying was heard.

     "Hang on," Hannah said, readying her coiled rope. "We'll help you out. Just grab the rope, honey, and we'll get you outta there."

     "Okay," came a weak voice, followed by a sniff.

     Hannah tied a loop in the end of the rope and then dropped it down. "Ok, try to get into the loop."

     Once she felt the rope tighten, she and Armin started to hoist the little Neopet out of the hole. It wasn't too hard, for the small Aisha wasn't very heavy. Soon, she emerged from the darkness, a green Aisha.

     Hannah slipped her out of the loop and picked her up. The Aisha clung to Hannah's coat in fright and continued to cry.

     "Let's go, Armin," Hannah said.

     "Right behind you," he answered.

     They walked back to the blocked entrance of the cave. The little Aisha started to sob more when she saw that the way out was covered up.

     "Shh, it's okay," Hannah reassured her. "We dug a hole to get out."

     The green Neopet nodded and then rested her head on Hannah's shoulder. Armin and Hannah exchanged sympathetic glances before venturing out the hole.

     As they had expected, the storm hadn't let up. But, what surprised them was that Kanrik was still there, huddled against Terror Mountain trying to keep warm. The snow that covered him made his cloak almost look white.

     "We've got her," Hannah said. "Let's go, Kanrik."

     He nodded and said, "Alright," through chattering teeth.

     The trio, along with the small Aisha, made their way down the mountain to the village. When they arrived, Kanrik led them immediately to the Aisha's Neohome. Instantly, her mother came running out.

     Hannah happily handed the little Neopet over.

     "Thank-you so much, Hannah," she cried, thankfully. "Armin too."

     "It was perfectly okay. We were glad to rescue her." Armin smiled.

     "Thank-you," the mother Aisha said again and then disappeared inside her Neohome.

     "Come on, Kanrik." Hannah turned to the shivering Gelert. "We'd better get you warmed up."

     "No, Hannah, that's alright. I must go anyway."

     "Kanrik!" Hannah ordered sharply. "Don't try to get out of it just because we are offering you hospitality."

     "Fine," he grumbled and followed Hannah and Armin to her Neohome.

     Inside, Hannah removed Kanrik's cloak and hung it up to dry it out. It was then that she and Armin discovered just how much Kanrik was shivering. His body was trembling to much that he could barely stand and walk straight.

     "Really, Kanrik. Why do you let yourself get caught up in these things?" she inquired, laying a blanket over him after he sat down in front of the fire. Armin carried in a mug of Hot Cocoa.

     "I wasn't about to leave you and Armin in that cave," Kanrik said, sipping the Cocoa, scalding his tongue.

     Hannah places her hands on her hips, looking at him, annoyed. She placed herself on the floor next to Armin.

     "Oh, I think I may have failed to tell you that they need you on Krawk Island." Kanrik took another sip of his Cocoa. His shivering had mellowed down.

     Hannah bolted up straight. "You're kidding!"

     "No." Kanrik shook his head. Armin looked bewildered.

     "Whatever for?" Hannah asked.

     "Galem is back. For what reason, I don't know. But the Neopets there can sense that he's up to something."

     "That no good thief!" Hannah spat. "When can I leave?"

     "Whenever you're ready," Kanrik replied with a hint of a smile. Hannah and Armin exchanged a quick glance.

     ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

     Garin ordered some food from the all-too-familiar green Yurble. As he ordered, he made sure to keep his head down and not to make eye contact with her. She went away grumpy, like he remembered.

     As Garin was waiting for his food to come, he tried everything to shake the knots out of his stomach. A sense of uneasiness swept over him like the chills. He shivered and glanced around finicky.

     To his relief, Garin watched the last two Neopets exit the Inn. After the door had shut, he slumped back, relieved, and blew out a long sigh.

     He was alone in the room now, but he was glad for that. At least he didn't have to worry about anyone seeing him, besides the green Yurble... But he was wrong.

     Two cold paws clamped down on his shoulders. He jumped and stiffened. Garin twisted his head around and reached for his dagger. But before he could draw it out, his arms had been pulled back harshly and he was forced to his feet.

     "Don't even think of trying to escape, you pathetic excuse for a pirate," came a thick, feminine voice.

     Garin turned his head in anger and saw a blue, female Zafara and a red, male Kougra. Both were dangerous looking pirates. Their eyes had reddish tints to them. He twisted his arms again and tried to free himself, but the attempts were pointless. The two Neopets cackled at their hostage.

     "They're from Scarblade's crew," Garin thought angrily to himself. "He's here."

     "Our Captain requests an audience with you, weakling. And you don't have a choice in the matter," the red Kougra hissed, shoving Garin for no reason.

     Garin snarled. He didn't have to guess who the "Captain" was.

     "Stop messing around, Tonek," the Zafara snapped, dragging Garin towards the door, keeping his arms fixed firmly behind him. "Scarblade wants him NOW! And he doesn't like to wait."

     "I know, Kette." Tonek followed them out the door. "I'm just giving the piece of scum what he's supposed to be treated like."

     Outside, the rain was pouring down, drenching them all from head to paw. Garin's hair fell in front of his eyes but he couldn't get an arm free to brush it away, so he jerked his head to the side and managed to flip it away.

     He was able to see the evil ocean, gray and dangerous. The waves it was generating were huge, each crashing to the shore with large white caps.

     All Garin could do was obey. He watched in horror as the huge black ship came into view over the crest of the hill. The Revenge. The letters were written in red, each dripping like wet paint. The ship itself was haunting. Up on the deck, Garin thought he saw a dark figure disappear.

     Kette dragged Garin up the long walkway up to the ship. Garin wondered why he hadn't seen the ship before, and he yelled at himself for that.

     Once on the main deck, Kette released Garin and pushed him forward towards the Captain's cabin. Garin looked around, trying to find a way to escape. He ran to the side but clumsily failed to see Tonek. The Kougra laughed and shoved Garin to the ground. He fell hard. The band of pirates on the deck laughed menacingly.

     "Oh, look. The poor little wimp doesn't know what to do," one mocked.

     "Yeah, I bet he's looking for his mommy," another cackled.

     Garin scowled and pushed himself to his feet. Tonek and Kette ushered him cogently to the cabin door, black as a shadow, and entered.

     Everything was dark, except for shadowy light peeking in from the cracked and dirty windows. A dark figure sat in front of them. It rose and moved into the light.

     Garin glowered at the green Lupe towering above him. Scarblade. His face was badly scarred on one side and his evil red eyes stared straight at Garin. Scarblade motioned to Kette and Tonek. They nodded and left the room, locking the door. Garin swallowed a lump as Scarblade continued to penetrate his soul with his red eyes.

To be continued...