It was a simmering hot summer afternoon as 2 friends stared at the horizon sitting on a bench at the docks, for a while the only noises that could be heard were the cries of overhead seagulls and the rhythmic pounding of the ocean waves hitting the shoreline of the island.
“Jeez Typ, this stuff is really good, you say you call it… uh… ice cream?” one of the friends finally spoke up as he licked a ball of frozen pink goop in a cup.
“Yeah! I made it with some berries and milk and I’m pretty proud of meself for inventing this” Typ said cheerfully a he licked his green ball.
“Hecto, what do you think it’s like?”
“huh…?”
“what do you think it’s like ya know… being a pirate?”
Hecto stared off into the sea for a while as he adjusted his baseball cap a little. “I dunno, you tell me…” He gestured his hand to imitate a person walking along the horizon of the ocean.
Typ was just about finished with his ice cream when he looked at Hecto and blurted out “Do you think we could be pirates? good pirates at least?”
Hecto looked at Typ and scoffed. “Oh come on Typ, you know both you and me aren’t meant for the ocean, we’re just some boring old townsfolk kids, who don’t know how to fight, let alone keep enough oranges on board to prevent scurvy, we don’t even own a boat. Also don’t a lot of pirates wield magic?”
Typ looked at the ground disappointed at the reality that Hecto unveiled. “Well… I like swimming… and you’re a good fighter… I mean remember the time when you… scared away those bullies with the mop to save me?”
“Hell yeah I do” Hecto chuckled, “But Typ, pirates are way stronger than some fat losers who have nothing better to do, and pirates aren’t afraid to kill either, I look tough but to be honest, I don’t think I could handle the burden of killing another person…”
“I guess you make a point” Typ said as he bent down to pick up a rock throwing it at the ocean. “But, maybe we don’t have to be the kind of pirates that hurt people, maybe we can be the pirates who, idk, find places!”
Hecto looked over at Typ a bit puzzled. “What do you mean find places?”
“Well… what if we became the people to… I dunno… find mimhere island…?”
Hecto looked a bit shocked. “Typ, you must seriously be off your rocker to think that! Mimhere island is just a fairytale, it’s not real.”
“But it is!” Typ exclaimed, “I know it is! Even if… I don’t have proof…”
Just as Typ finished his sentence, Hecto exclaimed in pain as a glint of light hit his eye.
“Ow! Bloody hell! damn sun making shit reflective and all that…”
Typ looked at where the glint came from and noticed a bottle was laying on the shore of the beach. “Hecto look! a message in a bottle!”
Hecto adjusted his bearings to find that Typ was dashing off down to the beach to investigate the bottle.
“Hey! wait for me!” He shouted as he quickly followed Typ’s frantic pitter patter on the dock. After a few moments, the two of them had found the source of the glimmer.
“There’s a piece of paper inside!” Typ exclaimed. “Cmon let’s open it!”
Hecto grabbed a rock nearby and smashed the bottle, grabbing the parchment inside and dusting off the shards of glass. “Maybe it’s an SoS message or something, you think we should show this to the navy guards in town?”
Typ scoffed. “Oh cmon Hecto! at least read it first!”
The tan piece of paper simply read as follows:
"To whoever reads this.
I’m probably dead.
I’ve left all my things on my ship, conveniently near my body.
Find my corpse
On Mimhere island…
-Logan the ferocious"