The Legend of Hannah: The Pirate Caves - Part One

     She rushed out of bed and into the light of day. She ran across the shore line of Krawk Island, the place where she lived and grew up on.

     Hannah was a young Usul, with brown hair and dull blue eyes. She never got to do much on Krawk Island and had never left it, all though she wanted to. She liked the idea of moving to Terror Mountain or the Lost Desert, but due to the shortage of doubloons, it was only a dream in her mind.

     Hannah's ancestors lived on Krawk Island for possibly, hundreds of years. She never had asked her parents directly when her ancestors had come, but her grandfather grew up on Krawk Island, so that was good enough proof for Hannah. She wasn't sure, but when she was much younger, she could remember old tales of pirates that everyone she knew would tell her. So she was almost certain, that her ancestors were also pirates.

     She raced to the tavern where she got her first job. It wasn't what she wanted, exactly, but she thought that if she could get a few doubloons, it would be worth it. She had always wanted a life of danger, yet nothing ever happened in the isolated island of Krawks.

     As she skidded into the tavern and ran past a few Neopians that sat at the tables and stopped at a large black Krawk.

     "I'm sorry I'm late," she told the Krawk at the counter. "My alarm went dead."

     "All right," he said, annoyed. "You can start with workin' at the 'register." He moved out of the way and Hannah hopped over the counter.

     * * *

     Hannah slowly wandered back to her house after a long day. She kicked a rock a few time as she walked by the Academy and the Armada. The day had been slow and boring. She knew it would be long, but not as long!

     She stopped at the stairs of the Smugglers Cove and walked up the stairs, two at a time, then she climbed up the side of the sandy entrance. At the top, she took a deep breath and dove into the muggy water.

     Her hands hit the bottom of the shallow sea and she pushed back up. When her head hit the surface, she swam back and forth for a while and then back to her house. Her home overlooked the sea of Krawk Island, so Hannah could swim back easily.

     As she opened the door, she felt a tingle go through her body and she jerked around and hurriedly turned her head both ways. She didn't see anything but she still sensed that something was there.

     She turned back around to open the door, again, but she still glanced at anything that moved.

     Suddenly, out of nowhere, a bright blue "bird" came diving down at Hannah, though she jumped out of the way just in time.

     It screeched and kept trying to fly into her. Though all it managed to do was tear her skirt, which was dripping wet.

     It had bright red eyes that seemed to make Hannah squint. It landed on the ground for a second and ruffled its feathers, then got its self airborne again and flew over Hannah, an inch away from her head.

     She ducked, as it came hurtling towards her again and it went flying into the sand. It jumped up and shook the sand from it's blue feathers and started to circle Hannah.

     It flew at her again and again, just barely missing. "Get lost!" Hannah said to it, though this was the first exiting thing that had happened to her.

     She dodged another hit of the bird's beak and grabbed it's tail, then thrashed it to the ground. Then it took one look at Hannah and flew away as fast as it could, though one wing was limp.

     "What was that thing?" Hannah asked herself. She had never seen anything like it before. She watched it as it flew away into the dark of the night.

     She glanced around, to make sure there were no more, and she followed the flap of its wings with her eyes and knew it was heading south.

     So she shut the door completely and hurried off after it. She couldn't tell if it was in front of her anymore, but she just kept running into the night.

     After ten minutes, she had ended up at the academy again and the thing had landed on a tree with maybe twenty others, just like it.

     She backed away slowly, but didn't leave. She just watched them for a moment.

     "Why are all of these things here? They've never been around here before," She watched as they all flew away, squawking to one another. A few of them looked back at Hannah, though they didn't take her as much of a threat and kept flying south.

     Hannah sighed, knowing this was getting her nowhere and left back to her home to sleep.

     * * *

      "Here you go, that'll be three doubloons," Hannah said drearily the next day at the tavern.

     She had her elbows on the counter and threw the golden doubloons in the register. There was no one left that was ordering, so she tucked down and searched in the cupboards for anything that could keep her occupied.

     There was a bunch of old books that looked like they had been sitting there for years.

     She looked down at her skirt, which was torn by the bird and thought one of these books could help her find out what it was.

     She dug through some of the books, though none of them caught her attention. But as she looked through them, she came across an old dusty one that was called Krawk Island Treasures and she took it out. This could possibly help. She thought as she blew the dust off.

     She opened to the first page where it had all of the chapters listed and their page numbers. She looked down the page but she couldn't understand what any of them meant so she just paged through the book.

     She, then, found a chapter called 'Pirate Companions' and below she saw a picture of the bird. "'Evil Pawkeet: all though small, this bird is very tough and one of the best flyers of Krawk Island,'" Hannah read, silently. "'Many of these Pawkeets live in caves and often in abandoned ships. Though, they are not found anymore, many Neopians have found similar looking birds, and named them after their origin.'"

     There were Mirgles and Skulls that had definitions also, but Hannah skipped it and skimmed through the book some more.

     Then she found a map of Krawk Island. It looked much larger than the island was now. And there were many other landmarks that Hannah never heard about, though some of them she had read about.

     She folded the corner back and went through other chapters, until she came across one that was called 'Pirate Caves.'

     Hannah glanced up to make sure no one was around, then went back to the book. "'Years ago, Krawk Island was roamed with pirates and their captains,'" Hannah read. "'But as Neopians discovered the island, the pirates had built underground caves to hide their treasure from the new arrivals. And to forewarn-'" But the rest of the page had been torn out.

     Hannah went back to the map that she had marked and ran her hand down the page until she saw the words: 'Pirates Cave'. The cave was much further south than the island even went anymore. But it was near the academy. So Hannah knew she could find it.

     She tore out the map and then noticed that for the next few pages, it was maps of other places, too. But Hannah ignored these, not thinking they would be much use to her.

     A few Neopians came up to the counter so Hannah shoved the map in her pocket and quickly darted down what they wanted on a sheet of paper and got it for them, thinking she would forget, still thinking about the Pirates Cave.

     Once she had taken their doubloons and put them in the register, she went to the back room, to check and see if the Krawk, she worked for, was there.

     He was washing a few dishes, so she took the book, while no one was ordering.

     "I could use this…" she told herself. "Depending on where ever this journey will take me, I'm going to need a way out." She looked down at the book that she was carrying.

     She quickly opened the front door and left to the Pirate Caves.

To be continued...