Short story

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The isolated island looked to be completely drained of people. Captain Mashes Fitzgerald looked at it through his binocular for a while after which he demanded his crew to begin steering the ship towards the sandbank. When they were closer to the seaboard he stated that it was good after all that he had accepted to bring this big amount of volunteers on his journey, all with burning desire to be a part of his highly regarded crew. The reason to this statement was because of his sudden awareness of the dangerous wildlife on the island. He had spotted a herd of lions on the opposite bank, restlessly chewing on something that looked exactly like twigs. What was this, lack of harmless animals for the lions to eat, or only a revolutionary proposal in their herd to begin a new life as vegetarians? Why else would they stand there, eating plants instead of succulent flesh? Surely they were waiting for the first best opportunity to enjoy themselves with a dinner containing meat, perhaps the well-liked “Carrot Pirato”, also known in animal circles as “Meat of human pirate, garnished with gently fried carrots”. Of course a larger crew would also cost him a larger amount of money, but he reminded himself of that he would need a handful of seamen to be able to return back home. It was necessary to have those few additional people in insurance. Looking at it from his point of view, he could after all easily afford to pay each one of them more than they would dare to ask for after finding the treasure he knew was buried at this foreign island and returning home. If they would ever be able to return home so to say.

After they had bound their ship to a nearby tree and carried all essential equipment out of it, they all felt exhausted and determined to find a place to spend their very first night on. Fitzgerald decided to proceed further into the lands, up the mountain that rose to the sky in front of them, everything to avoid a coincidence with some dangerous animals. The information that they would have to make a short walk to their sleeping accommodation made the whole party to moan in choir. As a self-confident man, Mashes Fitzgerald decided to ignore their silly behavior and took the lead towards the mountain.

If he took the wrong decision that day, he would never come to know, but for a short while during the cold night he really considered to take a nap in the lion herd rather than sleeping at that mountain. The reason was because of a couple of sheep making nasal sounds without interruption that made the whole crew inclusive the now less self-confident captain to stay awake. In the morning hours the madness took control over him and he even tried to catch the sheep. First he was only after making the disturbing noise stop, then he thought that by strangling the sheep, he could use one of them as a head pillow and get a few hours of sleep. When he then awoke he could satisfy his hunger by eating the other one as breakfast. He did not succeed to catch any of them.

Next day the tired crew began their search for the treasure, which according to Fitzgerald was positioned nearby the big lake in the middle of the island. Once near the lake that was smooth as a millpond, some hungry members of the crew decided fishing, and incredibly they managed to catch a pike with a size that big none of them had ever seen until that day. When they all had had enough to eat, they continued their search without really noticing their tiredness. Thanks to Fitzgerald’s excellent directives, they were able to dig up the treasure that was lying in an old chest made of dark wood before twilight. Once they had revealed the content in the chest, and at its sight had been forced to dance round it in cheerfulness, they all swept a bottle of rum to clear their minds. Fitzgerald came with the proposition not to bother about going the same way back to the ship because they then would be forced to climb the mountain and perhaps unfortunately meet the sheep another time. The party returned in jovial moods back to the ship and they were all on board just as the last glimpse of the orange toned sun could be seen at th...