by Brian James
Everyone followed.
“Stick together,” I whispered as we all headed into the cave. I couldn’t be certain, but I thought I heard a slithering sound echoing in front of us.
Chapter 8
X Marks the Spot
“Arrr! I told you that curse was silly,” Aaron said as we made our way deeper into the cave.
So far, we hadn’t seen any giant snakes. We did see little snakes. Okay, we saw lots of little snakes. But we saw exactly zero giant ones. And I had to let Inna hold onto the back of my shirt and guide her. She absolutely, positively refused to open her eyes.
“We must be getting close,” I said.
The X on the map was only two hundred paces from the start of the cave. That meant it would be double for us, since our paces were kid paces. I tried to keep count, but pirates aren’t too good at counting. Most pirates can only count to ten. Still, I knew we had to be close.
I walked faster.
There was no sign of the giant snake. So there was no reason to go slowly and carefully. “Come on, mateys! Let’s make sure we beat Rotten Tooth there so we can see the look on his face.”
I hurried as fast as I could with Inna tugging my shirt behind me. There was a turn ahead. I had a good feeling about it. I dashed around the corner. “There it is!”
I couldn’t even believe my eyes!
I gulped.
In front of me was the biggest, tallest, most giant . . . pile of treasure I’d ever seen in my whole life!
“BLIMEY!” I shouted. I was so happy that I danced around. I didn’t even care that pirates aren’t supposed to dance.
Aaron ran at the mountain of gold coins and dove in just like he was diving into the ocean. Vicky tossed the coins around like she was splashing in the waves.
Inna still had her eyes covered.
“Look, Inna! We found the treasure. There’s even jewelry,” I told her. Inna loved jewelry!
“Are you sure it’s safe to look?” she asked.
“Sure I’m sure,” I told her.
Then Inna took her hands away from her face and opened her eyes. Her eyes got real wide and her mouth fell open. I couldn’t blame her; it sure was quite a treasure.
But then it was my turn to bring my hands up to cover something. Only I was covering my ears, because Inna started screaming at the top of her lungs.
Then she pointed.
I turned around.
In front of me was the biggest, tallest, most giant . . . snake I’d ever seen in my whole life!
Chapter 9
Aye! Eye-to-Eye!
I poked my head out from behind the rock. I saw the snake slither our way. It looked mean. It looked even meaner than Rotten Tooth covered in stinky fish guts!
Just then, it turned its head toward me.
I quickly ducked down.
“That was close,” I said. “I almost looked it in the eye.”
“What are we going to do?” Gary asked.
There were snakes everywhere. Not just the big one, but little ones, too. “There must be a gazillion of them,” Vicky said.
I tried to count them.
“One. Two. Three.” Then I lost count. “Aye, a gazillion seems right,” I said.
We were trapped!
There was no escape.
“Inna, what did the riddle say again about breaking the curse?” I asked.
Inna spread her fingers apart the tiniest bit. It was just enough so that she could read the riddle. “ ‘To break the snake’s curse, use the curse in reverse.’ ”
As she read, I caught a glimpse of her necklace. It gave me an idea.
“Inna, can I borrow your necklace?” I asked.
Inna shook her head. “No way!”
“But I need it to defeat the snake,” I pleaded.
“Are you going to hypnotize it?” Gary asked.
“Not quite,” I said. Then I asked Inna for her necklace again. “Pretty please with sardines on top!” I begged.
“Promise nothing gross will happen to it?”
“I triple promise!” I told her.
Finally, she handed me the necklace. I held it out in front of me and slipped out from behind the rock. I kept my eyes tightly shut.
I could feel the snake slithering right up next to me. Inna’s shiny necklace dangled between us. Then the giant snake leaned in closer. I held my breath.
Suddenly, the hissing stopped.
Everything went quiet.
Then . . . POOF!
I took a peek.
The snake was gone! There was an old lady standing there instead.
“WOW!” Aaron said, peeking out from behind the rock.
They all came out from hiding. None of us could believe our eyes!
Then the smaller snakes started to wiggle. Inna screamed and then there were even more POOFs. Each of the little snakes poofed into smoke. And when the smoke cleared, the pirate crew of the Sea Rat was standing in front of us.
“Did my necklace do all of that?” Inna asked.
“Aye,” I said, a little surprised myself. I had broken the curse!
Then we saw that there were other pirates, too. Rival pirates.
“Who are they?” Vicky asked.
“They must have come looking for the treasure before us and were turned into snakes,” I said.
The pirates looked at the crew of the Sea Rat. We outnumbered them. I counted. There were exactly a lot of us and exactly only a little of them.
“Let’s get out of here!” they shouted. They must have counted the same numbers as me.
Captain Stinky Beard rubbed his eyes. “Arrr, how’d you break the curse?” he asked me.
“Just like the clue said. I reversed it,” I said. “I saw my reflection in Inna’s necklace and figured out the riddle. I just had to make the snake look into its own eyes,” I explained.
“Clever lad!” Captain Stinky Beard said. “I thank ye! It’s not fitting for a cap’n to be a snake.” He was so glad that he didn’t even ask how we knew where to look for them.
The old lady was the next one to thank me.
“Aye,” I said. “But who are you?”
She told us she’d been cursed a long time ago. “I was a pirate like you. I tried stealing this treasure from my captain, but he caught me.”
I nudged Aaron in the side. “I told you that was against the rules,” I whispered.
“Aye,” the lady said. “And as punishment, my captain put a powerful curse on me. He turned me into a snake to make sure no one else tried to steal the treasure. I’ve had to guard that treasure ever since.”
“What happened to him?” Vicky asked.
The lady smiled. “He was the first person I turned into a snake,” she told us. “I haven’t seen him since.”
“So whose treasure is it now?” Inna asked.
“Yours!” she said. “I never want to see it again. Take as much as you want.”
The whole crew cheered and started filling their pockets.
I felt pretty proud.
And happy, too!
That was, until I felt Rotten Tooth’s hand on my shoulder. “ARRR!” he growled. “Who gave you mangy mutts permission to leave the beach? You’ll be on kitchen duty for a month!”
We froze in our tracks.
I couldn’t believe it. My plan had failed again.
But then Captain Stinky Beard came over. He ordered Rotten Tooth to back off. “This little matey and his friends just saved our lives!” he said. “Not to mention won us this here treasure.”
Rotten Tooth was the only one who didn’t look so happy about that.
“I won’t be having me best pirates washing dishes!” Captain Stinky Beard said. “See to it that they learn everything they want to know. Maybe they might even teach you a thing or two,” he said.
“HOORAY!” we shouted.
We jumped up and down.
Then the captain winked at us to let us know it was okay to dance around.
We danced the who
le way back to the Sea Rat! And on the way, we made a list of all the things we wanted Rotten Tooth to teach us. After he took a bath, of course!