“And you can
quote me on that one.”
The Raven* #quote
Today I should be hanging with CJ so I writing this story ahead of
when he should be coming over. Hopefully he comes over as planned,
else I will have to occupy myself with making centipede robots again
and I remember that didn't go over smoothly last time I did it.
Anyway onto the flash fiction!
The Pirate King's Directions
A great pirate king hid his treasure without using a map. He wrote
all his directions to himself in a code no one could quite get on his
crew of dumb, obedient minions. He was certain to rotate out his crew
and make sure that they were generally oblivious as to where they
were going specifically to hide loot. But after he died all his
written directions to himself, he had to write many as he had a bad
memory. It was apparent that he knew his code but not all the
specific places he had gone. He hid his vast fortune in many areas.
All his notes became public knowledge and bounty was put on his loot
as much of it was royal heirlooms. Often the bounty outweighed the
black market value of the treasure.
People from all over the land tried to figure out his code and how
he navigated the sea. One of his directions read like this:
From the Third Royal Port sail southwest towards the crying woman
for thirty nautical miles.
Next sail towards the dancing dog for ten nautical miles
Afterward sail towards the wilting rose for twenty nautical miles.
Destination is three hundred yards east.
People tried and tried to crack the code for decades. Eventually an
artist by the name of Jose came to the royal court with an answer.
“You'd better be able to tell me how to get the valuables of the
royal families back. I won't appreciate having someone wasting our
time. And if this is some artist publicity stunt I'll have you hung.”
Jose bowed. “No your highness. It came to me when I was painting
the stars after having recently read about the pirate king in a book.
I realized that the stars are an art of nature open to interpretation
and that they may be interpreted differently. Sailors navigate using
the stars and perhaps the pirate king interpreted the stars
differently. His directions are made of different set of
constellations than what we use but created from the same stars.”
The king thought for a moment. “I've heard people tell me stupider
things. So, anything else?”
“I've done some looking into his directions and did some drawings
of the stars and tried to make up his constellations and maps. It's
only a theory but I think I have some probable guesses to his system
and where the treasure is.”
“We'll hold a meeting with all my available captains immediately.
Make extra copies of your maps exactly and expand on your theories.
Be ready to explain it to all of them. Put all your other commissions
on hold. Tell them its a direct order from the king. If they question
it or bring harm or threaten you they will be executed. You will be
paid five times your normal commission fee for each map.”
“Y-yes sir.” Jose felt extremely startled at the king's sudden
conviction. The pirate king had a great deal of wealth, but certainly
not enough to send all the available captains out. He could also see
an incredible want in the king's eyes. But still, the land had plenty
of money in the treasury.
In truth among the loot of the pirate king was a simple, cheap ring.
But a ring of enough value that pirate king stole it. The ring was a
wedding ring from the king's commoner wife who he fell in love with.
When he fell in love with her he went to great lengths to forge a
fake royal identity for her. She passed and took that secret to the
grave. He didn't intend to expose and wanted all the treasure back so
that he may he get the ring. He made a royal decree that “all rings
among the treasure, of any value, must go to the king if they
discovered in the treasure” to hide his true intentions of why he
wanted rings and avoid revealing her commoner origin and his want for
the commoner ring so no one would hold it ransom.
After the meeting with the artist he felt very happy. He knew that
his wedding ring would be delivered to him. Now he would wear it
though instead of hiding it away as he did back then to hide the
commoner origin of his wife. He would say now he wore the ring to
show dominance over the pirate king though truly it was to keep the
memory of his wife with him.
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