CHAPTER 6 : PIRATE CAVE

We left early morning, sailing South with exciting weather. We sailed for days, through rain and storm. On our way pass the North West Coast of South Africa, we saw a cave there that we've never noticed before. The sky was gray and rainy. Quickly Heikelos notifies us to go closer. I agree, and we ready the sails.

We took the ship as close to the cave as we could and then took two row boats to go in and inspect it.

Deep within the rugged cliffs of this cave we went. Aflame lanterns, as we did. It was dark and musky but also dry and ashy, quite big and pitch dark, I observed. Big enough to stash a mini ship or a proper treasure.

Just as we were inspecting it, one of the orphan's known as James, discovered something. It was gold! The cave was a hidden treasure trove. An entire box, with a red cloth and swords and maybe some dried fruit food also is what we discovered inside.

We were mesmerized and so intrigued. Someone stashed a loot in the cave, perhaps to evade capture and probably left to plunder a next escapade.

We had to move quickly, finder's keepers was the saying. We moved quickly, everything to our row boats, cleaning the cave from its valuable booty.

Upon our ship, all crew men inspected the treasure. It was ours for the taking. We had about 352 golden coins, a satin piece of cloth and 18 swords. We decided to distribute it fairly, Heikelos handing each member a few coins with the eldest crew members granted swords as well. Everyone was happy and a need for swords occurred, like a hunger for more gold.

We set sail and when we were quite well on our way, we decided to have some food. The one girl was then our chef and was preparing pumpkin soup with some brown loaf breads from the Caribbean for each to enjoy. We also had Brazilian coffee from the Carribean and everyone was relaxing in their hammocks, eating their food whilst the wind blew gently and the rain fell splashily.

That evening, we had a meeting. Everyone's eyes shimmered with this spec of gold, eyes as big as sourcers as we reviewed our day's escapade. More days like this day was the notion from all. We decided as pirates we were to discover the secret spots where other pirates and pirates of before stashed their treasures, and go out and obtain all. Dying a rich man, and then "never shall I die" I said.

We drew maps and Heikelos and I said that there's a pirate amongst us with a hunger for gold much more than Heikelos and myself. That we should associate with him more and have the luck rub off on us, the hungry pirate being James, who found the treasure.

We rearranged our ship to more of a liking to pirate's liking. The crew also became more scandral-like in their behaviour, speaking flat and rubbing their hands on their pants pockets, something they might have picked up from Heikelos and me.

We then left for Thaose for better supplies. We arrived early morning with the waves rolling us over into the bay of Thaose. We left with the two row boats, leaving the third one tied up at the ship Maroontov, and went and stocked up on our supplies. This time Theo discovered a bottle with a map in it that had a woman's name written on it within the rocks in the bay.

We all inspected it and felt like official pirates. A new destination now awaited us. The map looked like it could have been around the East South Coast of South Africa somewhere that had the x mark.

We packed up our stuff, some of the crew sharpening their swords, and left for our new destination.

We sailed in deep ocean waters for 3 days to avoid the Cape and turned round about to it's East. We sailed through some bad weather for 4 days, the ship rocking and swaying nearly sinking twice in the treacherous water but luckily not and to the new destination we roamed.

Upon arrival, it was again a pleasant day with just the memory of the storm hanging in the sky behind us. We sailed into this new land area, it had an eerie, greary feeling to it. We set out in search of treasure, Two had shovels; the rest had handmade shovels with cups and what nots.

That day we dug the place open. No one found nothing except for some empty whiskey bottles and a wooden Alice band. We spent 17 days searching until we found a coffin. After a big commotion, Henry the orphan crew member opened it and we discovered a bony corpse with 7 times a jewelry stash buried with him. We took it all, including the coffin and drifted the corpse into the ocean.

Heikelos was crying, and I was unhappy about this; we had respect for the dead and would never do such a thing to a dead man. Needless to say, the majority overruled and we just left it at that.

We distributed the dead man's stash equally, it consisted out of diamonds and pearls and mixed little gem's the size of pearls made of topaz, rubies, emeralds, saffire etc. Everyone rich enough to afford themselves a piece of land.

We had a lovely ceremony, and the orphaned boys who discarded the body apologized as they said that is what they saw what is done to a corpse from way back orphan days, and so that was what they did.

Everyone is very satisfied after having spent nearly a month digging and searching for their quarters/hammocks.

Heikelos and I had our bedroom chambers next to each other, under the gun and quarter deck. We greeted each other for the evening, very satisfied with our newly gained wealth, enrolling the orphans to becoming our crew was a great investment.

I closed my cabin door and lit a candle on the table. My bedroom resembled my childhood, but a lot had been taken away, and the new add-ons just weren't the same as they used to be. I thought about the girl again; this time, I heard her laughing, and I felt jealous that she could be perhaps flirting with a man. In an instant, as my jealousy grew, she went quiet, almost shocked on my soul. I could no longer see her, but a bitter need arose within me, To hell with the treasure, I need to find myself; this girl was my final thought as I fell asleep.