The Witch's Pirate! (Book 1)
Chapter 39: Home

Crystal

“Tell me, how in the world do you know that the map is in the volcano?” Bayou asked while we kept climbing up on a steep road, that led to the volcano itself. I wiped my sweaty forehead and glanced up at it. The smoke was heavy, puffing out from its top. It was angry, ready to erupt.

“Half actually, but I’m creeped out,” I huff out.

“Half? Then what about the village of the dead, exactly where are we? And what’s Under the death?” he asked, I moved closer to him, rubbing my arms.

“Apparently the map is broken into two, and this placed is not exactly the valley of the dead, but there’re a lot of dead corpses around. That’s what the shadow showed me. Maybe that’s why this placed is called under the death, due to its massive dead bodies buried under its ground?” I shrugged guessing.

“Seriously? Well, damn, wonder why the map is broken into two? But at least is better than nothing, now, why dead bodies?”

“I don’t know why the map is cut in half. And about the dead bodies? Maybe the king buries them here? Is sad and creepy at the same time, ” I told him, getting hotter and hotter, as we grew closer to the volcano itself.

“Could be. With him, anything is possible. Did she showed you how we ended up here?”

I frowned and shook my head.

“No, she didn’t show me that.”

“Who is she?”

“Don’t know, she looked familiar, though,” I added when we finally reach the top, about half a distance away from the opening of the volcano.

I fanned myself with my hand and looked around trying to remember where exactly I saw the map.

“You’ve said it’s inside the volcano, so let’s go and check,” he told me.

“But is burning up we can’t have our faces melted by that heat. We need another way we are lucky enough that there was a path instead of climbing up.”

“Your powers can be handy at this moment,” Bayou sighed, looking up ahead.

Something struck me as odd.

“If this placed keeps randomly changing, and there are dead people here, why would the king’s guardsman be here?” I asked him. Bayou shrugged at me.

“Don’t know, but...” his words were cut off when the ground under our feet started to violently shake. I moved with it, to fall on the ground. My eyes narrowed, when the ground splits open rather rapidly in front of me and I watched in horror as the lava oozed out. I looked up to see Bayou on the other side.

“Bayou!” I called out, when the ground shook once again, cracking the floor even more, I held tight on the ground, across the chasm, Bayou did the same.

“We need to hurry, keep going straight,” he shouted.

I nodded, gasping when a puff of steam erupted from the cracks. Without hesitating, I started to run upwards, jumping some cracks, avoiding the lava that oozed down. Hotter and hotter it became and my chest tightened. Heavy sweat ran down my face and body, but I ran as fast as my legs took me. Bayou’s jacket was not helping me at all. The plain outfield of the volcano came close to my reach, then I stopped in my tracks when Bayou cried out.

“Love, we have trouble,” he warned pointing in front of me. I followed his finger, and my breath caught when the scenery changed in front of us, revealing the beach that we were on two days ago.

“How is that trouble?”

“Ne, I meant to look in the waters,“he points out. I squinted my eyes to see a large ship coming our way. Unfortunately, I wasn’t Bayou’s ship.

“Let’s replace that map,” Bayou shouted, moving forward.

I did the same, and when we reached the edge of the volcano, the heat wave brushed against my face, making me flinch.

“It’s too hot, do you see anything?” I screamed, looking down at the volcano as far as the roaring heat would allow.

“Ne, I couldn’t see anything, where exactly did you see it?” he asked.

I closed my eyes, trying to remember. Small details of the memory flashed through my mind, then I snapped my eyes open.

“The branch, it wasn’t inside of the volcano, it was outside of a wall, somewhere around.” I told him. He arched a brow, but looked around.

“There’s no wall anywhere, it’s impossible for the map to be inside, or not it would have caught fire long ago,” he told me.

Another shake caused us to flop a little.

“Let’s go around,” I told him.

He nodded, and I went around the volcano, jumping here and there, trying to avoid burning myself. When I finally made the whole turn, my heart stopped to see another large opening, a cliff, this time the ocean waters could be seen on the bottom.

“Seriously?” I groaned, feeling Bayou reaching my side. He looked down, then back at the active volcano.

“So love, which way do you want to die? Boiling to death or drowning?” he mocked. I rolled my eyes at him.

“I’d rather live, thank you very much,” I told him. He shrugged.

“Chances of that are slim to zero.”

“I’ll take slim.” I looked around, only to hold to the floor when another tremor shook.

“We need to do this fast, we don’t have much time,” I cried out.

Bayou nodded, but in doing so, a violent explosion, caused my side of the ground to go down. I held tightly, praying that the floor wouldn’t collapse on me. Finally, it stopped.

“Oh God, was that an explosion?” I asked, looking at the ocean. My eyes widened, to see the ship pointing their cannons straight our way.

“How? We are too far from view.”

“We have to jump, we have no other choice, also no vines this time,” Bayou suggested.

“Darn, I actually want the vine at this moment,” I sigh defeated.

I blinked, not liking this at all. Then he stood up and took a breath. Without another word, he ran fast and jumped over the large crack that separated us, my heart stopped, as he made it to my side. I automatically wrap my hands around his arm to make sure he won’t fall back.

“Are you crazy? You could have died,” I scolded.

“You should know me by now, I’m not your ordinary pirate, am I?” He winked, moving to grasp my waist. I looked up, then shook my head.

“I should really stop asking questions,” I groaned, then something in my mind jumped and I grasped Bayou’s arm.

“Oi, I remember something, there was a strange rock next to the branch, the rock it looked like a face or something,”

“Face?”

“Yes, and I think it’s...” my words were cut short, when the floor below us finally gave away, causing our bodies to fall and to roll. I covered my face with my hands and felt some of the rocks piercing my hands and feet. Then finally, I felt no more ground, only the air as we fell. My heart thumped, and I couldn’t stop it, as I kept falling to my death.

“Ahh!” I screamed, my arms above my head, before I could fall to my death, I felt a strong hand grasp my arm, making my body bounce painfully and swing right to left.

“Love, open your eyes,” I heard Bayou’s raspy thick voice. Slowly, I peeked and I saw some of the rocks roll down. I looked up, to see Bayou holding firmly to a loose branch, that was sticking out of the sidewall, and holding onto me.

He was holding tight, but his hands were sweaty, and I couldn’t get a good grip.

“Try to climb up,” he suggested. I nodded, and he pulled me up. I grasped the hems of his pants, and continued to climb, feeling his body, against mine. I was huffing hard already, feeling very tired and noticing that he had his eyes closed. I stopped when I saw lava squirting out from the walls, dangerously close to us on our left side.

“I can’t hold on much longer, hurry,” Bayou gasped out, I shook my head.

“I can’t, the lava is oozing out, look,” I pointed, using my nose as I held tighter onto Bayou’s shoulders, my heart thumping hard from fear. He opened his eyes, and they narrowed.

“We were going to die either way,” I yelled out.

Another attack hit us, this time under us making Bayou lose his grip on the branch. We plummeted once more, a piercing scream escaped my lips, as I held Bayou tighter.

No, no, no, please God, help us, my mind screamed, then Bayou grunted and we stopped. His hands were firmly wrapped around another branch. Breathing harder, I looked at him.

“Are you alright?” he asked me.

I nodded, gulping hard, holding my arms around his shoulders and wrapping my legs around his waist.

“The tree branch won’t hold us,” he whispered, wrapping his arm around me. I am shaking.

“Who is attacking us?”

“Not sure, I think we can make it this time around, look.” He looked down as I did the same. We were closer to the water, I nodded, and looked straight into his silver eyes.

“Then at the count of three?” I asked him. He nodded, but something caught his eye. He tilted his head to the side, and a strange looked passed over his features.

“You said that you saw a face on a rock?”

I nodded, then he pointed using his head. I turned my head toward my right, and my eyes widened, to see the same face I had seen in the weird vision that the shadow lady had given me. The rock itself had a strange, sad look, with hollow eyes, and thin lips.

I jumped a little with excitement to see the branch next to it, with the map attached. It was caught between a small hole. The map was half cut in the middle, slightly old brown on the side.

“It’s the map Bayou, that’s what I saw,” I jumped once again, breathing hard, and smiling broadly. I looked straight at him as he kept staring at me. His silver eyes became gentle.

“’I don’t mind you jumping against me, but not now, I’m still injured, and we were literally hanging from a thread,” he told me.

“Oh, sorry, I forgot.” I blushed, turning to face the map.

“I don’t know, but it would be nice to get that map,” I whispered. Then my eyes widened when the map disappears from the branch, and ended up in my hand. I looked at the map with amazement, then looked at Bayou. He was smiling broadly.

“Your powers are back, now I will trust you, okay,” he placed his free hand on the back of my head, causing me to lean my chin on the base of his neck.

“What are you doing?” I nervously ask him.

“Trusting you,” then he let go of the branch, I clenched onto him, as my heart leap painfully from my chest. We dropped rapidly down toward the water, the harsh wind brushing against my skin.

“I believe in you.” Bayou whispers, and held me tighter.

No, I don’t want to die, I want us to go home, where’s it’s safe and sound.

I held tighter to Bayou as he spun me upwards, and laid under me. I open my eyes, and look straight at him.

“I want to go home!”