The Legacy of the Black Pawkeet: Part Four

     I hummed to myself as I wiped down an empty table with a wet rag. It was midday, so the Golden Doubloon was pretty empty at the moment. My ears twitched as I heard the door open, but I thought nothing of it until I heard a familiar voice behind me.

     “’Lo Hannah.”

     I smiled and turned around to find my friend, Captain Garin of the Black Pawkeet, standing there behind me. “Garin! When did you get into port?” I asked. The Black Pawkeet didn’t pull into port often, but when it did, Garin and his crew were regulars here at the Golden Doubloon. However, I noticed a young, red Acara girl that I’d never seen before standing just behind Garin. “Who’s this?”

     “Hannah, this is Rosa.” Garin replied, “I was wondering if you could do me a slight favor…” He explained to me how he and his crew had rescued the girl from my dastardly Uncle Bloodhook after he’d destroyed her village. Now she had no place to go, so he was wondering if I would mind taking her in.

     “No problem. I can handle it.” I told him with a smile. I already looked after Armin, and besides, anyone who’d suffered at the hands of my uncle was someone I wanted to help.

     “Th-thank you…” Rosa managed.

     After I finished work, I led Rosa to my home on the beach. “I need to check in with Armin, but after that, I’ll take you shopping for some new clothes.”

     “New clothes?” she echoed. I smiled warmly.

     “You can’t very well just wear the same dress everyday, now can you? Besides, wearing a nice dress like that in a town like this? You might as well paint a target on yourself.”

     “Why?” She asked, “I don’t have any money. Or anything at all for that matter.”

     “No, but that dress will make you look like you do, and a lot of pirates get angry when they try to rob somebody only to find they have nothing to steal.”

     “Oh….” She replied before asking curiously, “Who’s Armin?”

     I smiled at her, “Armin the Small. He’s a young Bori who lives with me. We go treasure hunting together.”

     Rosa cocked her head, “What’s a Bori?” She asked. It was then that I realized that, having grown up in a small village on an uncharted island, Rosa must not have heard about my adventure that led to the revival of the Boris on Terror Mountain.

     “They’re… well… You’ll see when we get to my house.” I told her and we continued walking along the beach until we reached my cottage. “Armin, I’m home.” I called as opened the door and let Rosa inside.

     “Hi Hannah.” My young friend, Armin the Small, said as he hurried over to us. He stopped and cocked his head in confusion at the sight of Rosa, “Who’s this?”

     “Armin, this is Rosa.” I told him as I set my things down, “She’s going to be staying with us.”

     “Oh. Hi Rosa, I’m Armin. Armin the Small.” He told her with a friendly smile.

     She smiled back, “I’m Rosa the Gentle. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Armin.”

     I looked over at her, “‘Rosa the Gentle?’” I asked.

     “Captain Garin and Jacques gave me that nickname.” She explained.

     I smiled, “That sounds like them. Armin, I need to take Rosa into town for some shopping. I’ll cook dinner when I get back.” I told my Bori friend as I retrieved some money from our secret stash in the fireplace.

     “All right.”

     As I had said, I took Rosa into town and got her some new clothes that would be a bit more practical than the gown Garin and his crew had provided her with. Although she’d lived in the boondocks her entire life, Rosa fit in quite nicely with Armin and I. While I was at work, she took care of the house and took to making all our meals. It was easy to see how she’d been managing the house for her father for years.

     I never saw her cry, though I heard her at night. I think she was just holding everything in, which wasn’t a particularly good thing. I’m not sure who she was trying to be strong for, but there was a time to mourn and she wasn’t taking it. I am pretty sure though that trying to do what she’d always done was her way of trying to cope.

     A few days after Garin had brought her to me, on my day off, I found Rosa standing on the beach in front of my house, staring out at the ocean.

     “Lovely view, isn’t it?” I said as I walked up to her.

     “Aye.” She said with a nod, “I was thinking I need to earn some sort of living. Perhaps I’ll harvest pearls like my father.”

     “Pearls aren’t so easy to find around here.” I said thoughtfully, “Though… there are the old smuggler caves.”

     She shrugged in reply, “You have to know where to look for them. But I’m an Acara, we’re specialists at retrieving underwater treasures.”

     “Hm…” I said thoughtfully. She smiled at me.

     “I’ll show you. I’ll dive into the ocean and bring back something good.” She said while wading into the water.

     “Hey, wait a minute!” I called, but she didn’t listen. Before I could stop her, Rosa had disappeared beneath the surface. I watched anxiously as she stayed under much longer than I could’ve, but suddenly, she popped back up with something in her hands.

     “Hey! I think I found something interesting!” She called as she swam over to me. The item in her hands was a bottle with a piece of paper in it. It had a cork in it to keep water out, but was filled halfway with stones to ensure it would sink.

     “What’s this?” I asked as I looked at the bottle. Rosa pulled the cork out, slid the paper out and unrolled it, and then her face filled with excitement.

     “I think it’s a treasure map!” She told me.

     “Let me see.” I said, smiling with interest and leaning over Rosa’s shoulder to look.

     “Treasure of Captain Bloodhook…” Rosa read aloud before her face grew puzzled, “He buried something here on Krawk Island?”

     “Not him.” I told her, “His crew, after he was washed overboard and left for dead.”

     “Why hasn’t he reclaimed the treasure then?” She asked in confusion.

     “Because he didn’t have this.” I said, taking the map and holding it up to get a better look at it. “Nice work, Rosa.”

     Rosa smiled at me, “Is this the treasure he accumulated while captaining the Black Pawkeet? She asked.

     “Uh-huh.” I replied while continuing to study the map, “When he was washed overboard, his crew buried the treasure, but then they disappeared. Shortly afterwards, Bloodhook lost the Black Pawkeet to Garin.” That wasn’t actually the whole story, but Rosa was probably better off not knowing how truly vicious my uncle could be.

     She smiled again, “Bloodhook stole some valuables from my mother. If we find that treasure, maybe I can get them back.”

     “Mm-hm.”

     She continued to smile, looking excited, “Are we gonna go?”

     “Uh-huh.” As if I was going to pass up the opportunity to find my uncle’s legendary long-lost treasure!

     Rosa smiled. I rolled up the map and hurried back to the house with her. “Armin! Grab the supplies! We’re going on a treasure hunt!” I called as we entered the house.

     “Right now?” Armin asked in confusion. I nodded and held up the map.

     “Rosa found this treasure map, and every second we spend here is a second we could be looking for that treasure!”

     Armin smiled and hurried to get our supplies.

     Sometime later, Rosa, Armin, and I found ourselves standing on the shores of a lake that the map had led us to.

     “What now?” Rosa asked, referring to the next set of directions on the map. I looked at the map in my hands.

     “It’s around here somewhere… along the shore.”

     “Hm…” Rosa said thoughtfully as she scanned the shoreline for something that might indicate where the treasure was. I took another look at the map.

     “There should be an eagle-shaped rock around here somewhere…”

     “There!” Rosa declared, pointing in the direction of said rock.

     “All right. Let’s try digging around there.” I told my companions.

     Rosa and Armin both nodded and Rosa and I watched as Armin began digging in front of the rock. “I think I found it!” He called when he was a ways down.

     “All right, let’s haul it up!” I told them. Armin got beneath the chest and pushed it up with surprising strength for his size and Rosa and I grabbed the handles and pulled it up the rest of the way.

     “How will we open it?” Rosa asked, looking at the large lock on the chest.

     “I’ve got an idea, but you may want to get back.” I told her as I took a pouch from my waist.

     Rosa and Armin both nodded and stepped back, out of the way. The pouch I had was filled with gunpowder. I poured a bit into the lock, carefully lit it, and jumped back. The lock exploded a second later, leaving the treasure for our taking.

     “All right!” I exclaimed as I walked over to the chest with Rosa and Armin following. I opened the lid and watched as a few gold coins spilled out. Rosa’s eyes widened as they fell upon a pearl necklace and she gingerly picked it up.

     “Wow!” I exclaimed in excitement as I held up a large ruby. Rosa, however, remained fixated on the necklace.

     “My father gave this to my mother on their wedding day. He harvested, polished, and strung the pearls himself.” She said softly. Her eyes fell on a ring with a large pearl surrounded by smaller pearls. Even the band was made of pearls. “And this was her engagement ring.”

     “I’m sorry that my uncle put you through all of this, Rosa…” I said sadly, “Those are yours to keep.”

     Rosa smiled at me, “Thank you…”

     After that, the three of us divided the treasure up evenly, leaving Rosa’s heirlooms out of the count. We would use the gold coins to live off of, but the rest of the treasure we would keep and hide in the house. With the four sacks of treasure on our shoulders, we left the chest behind and returned home. Once there, we hid the sacks in the secret compartment of my fireplace where I stored all my hauls.

     “All right! Now let’s go celebrate!” I told Rosa and Armin.

     To Be Continued...