Once upon a time there was a nasty Pirate called Black Beard. He wore black clothes and had a scar.
On a windy dark day he visited a lonely beach. There was thunder and lightning and footsteps on the beach. They led to a cave that looked like a skull.
Black Beard entered the cave and came to a pool filled with sharks. He jumped it and came to a room with lava on the floor. He got through and climbed a wall. He found the treasure chest and ran away with heaps of gold.
He was standing in the wind, his long dirty black hair blowing across his face. He was the most ferocious and nastiest pirate you could imagine. He went by the name of Black Beard. He wore ragged and dirty black clothes. He had an eye patch, a hook for a hand and a peg leg, all acquired in past battles and fights. His trusty old pirate hat had skull and crossbones on it. At his side were an old rusty sword and a pistol, which he had used many times. When he smiled you could see two rotten teeth, the only ones he had left.
On this day you could see that feral smile and those two rotten teeth as Black Beard was hobbling down a dark and lonely beach. He was on a mission. A mission that all pirates embark on, the hunt for treasure. The beach was cold and windy. Above were dark clouds that were crashing with thunder and lightning. The shore was scattered with rocks and shells. Amongst the crashing waves you could see the remnants of hundreds of shipwrecks. Broken timber was sticking above the water line. Every now and then you could see strange tentacles slowly roll over the surface of the water. These monsters were the protectors of this island.
Black Beard was aware of all this but not scared. He walked with a straight back and a slight limp, past these wrecks and monsters towards a cave unlike any other. It looked like a skull and the eyes of this skull blazed red. This is where Black Beard was heading, straight into the skulls mouth. The home of the mysterious treasure.
Black Beard walked into the mouth of the cave and shortly came across a pool blocking his way through the tunnel. He could see the huge fins of man-eating sharks darting back and forth in the pool. Dangling next to the pool was a rope. It was a challenge, do you dare swing across this pool. Black Beard was not scared; he had lived his life on the ocean. He put his dagger between the few teeth he had left in case, by chance he did fall and have to fight. He grabbed hold of the rope with his one good hand and grinned. As he swung across the space a huge shark leapt out of the water, aiming to rip the pirate off the rope. Black Beard lifted his leg just out of reach and landed with a thud on the other side as the shark crashed back into the pool.
Black Beard continued down the dark tunnel. He noticed it was starting to get warmer, much warmer. There was orange flickering glow on the walls and Black Beard felt the first bead of sweat drop from his forehead. He emerged in an enormous cavern. The floor looked like it was moving very slowly and bubbles burst through the floor every so often. You could see the heat shimmer off the floor and the old pirate realized the floor was in fact lava! Black Beard much preferred the cold, having lived on the deck of a ship for decades, yet knew he could not go back. There were vines hanging everywhere from the roof and Black Beard knew what he had to do. Again the rugged old pirate swung across the dangerous room although this time it was boiling hot rock coming up at him rather than a vicious man-eating shark.
Upon reaching the other side, Black Beard wiped his brow with a dirty hanky and hobbled further down the tunnel. He thought to himself that it wouldn’t have been so hard to get through if he had have found this god forsaken cave twenty years ago and with his entire crew. Black Beard took a second to reminisce on all the members of his old crew, who had throughout the years suffered dreadful fates in the search for this place. The old pirate was all that was left, yet he was not deterred. This was what he lived for, that glory. It was at that moment that he stopped cold. He hadn’t realized, but he had walked into the middle of a chamber. In the exact middle of that chamber was a chest. Could it be the pirate thought to himself, after all these years I have finally found the Aztecs gold? He slowly walked towards the chest, which was huge. The size of a bath almost. He closed his eyes for a second imagining the treasures it must be filled with. Gold, crowns, necklaces, diamonds, rubies. He reached his hand towards the lid. For a second he thought that it was strange that there was no lock on the chest. But he didn’t care as he opened the chest to see the treasure of a life time.
Something wasn’t right. The chest wasn’t full. In fact, there was nothing in the chest at all! Black Beard was about to explode when he saw a piece of parchment at the bottom of the chest. He picked it up, worried and excited by what it could say. As he read the parchment his face turned stone cold and all traces of his fierce smile were gone. In its place was a vicious scowl. The parchment simply stated,
Finders Keepers….
Catch me if you can……
Red Beard.