Ch. 6 The Island

Dante and the crew aboard the Black Pearl were waiting in anticipation for reaching the island. What the crew didn't know is that Dante was excited for a different reason than them, he would be getting his own ship soon.

The Black Pearl finally arrived in sight of the island and Dante's excitement was at it's peak although he didn't show it on his face. Just as Dante was in his thoughts, he heard Captain Barbosa.

"Alright ye bunch of ingrates, we have arrived at the island, the treasure of Cortez is as good as ours. Make ready to search the island, if we can't find it we'll burn what's left of the island to make sure it's here."

Dante blanched at the words of Captain Barbosa because he didn't know exactly where the ship was hidden on the island and couldn't risk the island's destruction until he found it. Dante then watched as The Pearl anchored right off shore and made sure to be the first one on the island.

"Captain, I'll head toward the middle of the island to look for clues, before working my way out, the others can do the opposite and work their way in."

"Aye, a fine idea. You heard him you sorry bunch of cockroaches, get to work."

The note had said that when Dante got to the island he would find the way to his vessel at the center of the island and that Dante himself was the key.

Dante made his way toward the center of the island and he found a weridly shaped stone that had the shape of a spiral on it's surface with an inscription in Latin which is what the original note was written in.

"Cave sis qui non portas electorum characterem, plus faciebis quam pactus sis, si hanc terram transmiseris."

This roughly translated to "Beware you who does not bare the mark of the chosen, you will face more than you bargained for if you trespass across this ground."

The note told Dante of the process to gain entry into the cavern that should be behind the stone. Dante walked towards the stone and cut his hand and spread his blood across the center of the spiral and said an incantation.

"Sanguis ad sanguinem vocat, et per sanguinem intrat in locum istum." Dante chanted.

The incantation meant "Blood calls to blood, and by blood enter into this place."

Just then there was a rumbling and from the center of the spiral where Dante spread his blood it glowed in a crimson hue until the blood was absorbed into the stone and from the center of the spiral, it slowly unraveled as the stone opened in the reverse direction of the spiral and a dark entrance with a staircase could be seen.

Dante entered the stone and the stone slowly closed behind him. If anyone was to see the stone now, it would look like any other stone, no spiral design or inscription to be seen.

After the entrance closed, on both the walls to either side of Dante lit up and Dante could see glowing crystals inside a metal plate all along the walls slowly brightening the darkened area downward. Dante made his way down the staircase and after what seemed like an hour, the floor straightened out and then he walked for what felt like 10 miles and finally he entered into a large cavern that was lit up by natural sunlight from an opening on the other side of the cavern and led to the ocean.

Floating down by a stone walkway that resembled a wooden dock was a magnificent ship. It was colored black with bright gold sails and golden-brown drawings of eastern dragons that looked to be flying all around the bottom half of the ship. There was a rope ladder that hung off the side of the ship that Dante made his way to as he climbed aboard the ship and was able to see that the ship looked brand new as if it had just been built.

Dante went all throughout the ship and saw the inside was almost the exact same as The Black Pearl, most likely done by the ROB to make it easier for him to navigate as he spent most of his new life aboard The Pearl. The head of the ship had a dragon figurehead but it was a small western dragon that looked as if it was coming out of the ship itself.

When Dante entered inside the captain's cabin he found a black and gold chest about the size of a medium sized dresser. He opened the chest and saw a folded parchment, a black and gold dagger and a small folded note on top of an obscene amount of gold coins.

Dante grabbed the folded note and saw it was from the ROB that sent him on this journey.

"Hello again,

If you have made it here, you have already noticed the design I gave for the ship's interior. It was made to be easier for you. Now as for the contents of this chest. It contains a blueprint of all the capabilities of the ship itself like the additional abilities I created for it. It also contains a dagger that works like Blackbeard's sword by which you could command the ship the same way and even captain the ship by yourself without the need of a crew. On the topic of a crew, I'll have you head to the bowels of the ship and find a pillar with the same spiral design you saw on the stone. Placing your hand on this design will open secret compartments which contain a nice surprise. Lastly is a small stash of gold to be used however you see fit. There will be one last note in the secret compartment and after that I will not be contacting you again.

Good luck and good-bye for the last time."

Dante was ecstatic at the inclusion of the dagger that worked like Blackbeard as he didn't even think of that before.

[Dagger image here]

Dante then head down to the bowels of the ship and found the pillar. He placed his hand on it and the floor in the center opened up and a secondary floor started to rise and take the place of the last floor. There were a couple interesting things that Dante could see. He saw a number of metal statues that were shaped to look like a band of pirates but if one looked closely they could see dragon esque eyes and scales on their arms. There were about 100 in total all carrying two pirate cutlasses and off to the side he saw what looked like oars you'd see in a Roman Trireme. It was then that Dante noticed that with the opening of the secret compartment, on either side of the ship, slots where the oars could be placed opened up.

As Dante was observing the statues, he saw a piece of parchment placed in the hand of one of the statues. He walked over and grabbed the parchment and unfurled it to read what it contained.

"Hello for the last time,

These are to be your crew they are called Dragon Knights and they can be activated by the word 'Tarakona' which is Maori for Dragon and then they will follow any orders in whatever language you want. Half of them will work the oars when needed and the other half can make up your basic crew. They are pretty much autonomous and will be able to follow even complex commands. I hope this works well for your future.

Have a fantastic life."

Dante was staring slack jawed at the statues as he now had almost an invincible army as long as they don't come into contact with super hot materials or get hit directly by cannonballs.

[Statues Image Here]

"I can't wait to take this out for a test drive." Dante said in excitement.

Dante also noticed something about the cavern where the ship was hidden. The opening where he could see the ocean had nothing for miles and it seems that he went deep and far enough that even if the island was burned, he could get in an out without a problem. So Dante decided that he'd just leave and let them do what they planned with the island.

As Dante finally made it back out if the stone entrance, he saw the stone close and as he walked away it transformed to look like a normal stone, but changed back as he got closer again.

"Well at least it can't be easily found by others." Dante thought to himself.

Dante arrived at The Black Pearl to find that most of the crew had already returned and Barbosa was standing at the Helm tapping his fingers.

"Captain Barbosa!!" Dante shouted up at him from the shore.

"Aye, there ye are. The rest of the crew didn't find anything and we hadn't seen you so we waited before we set the island ablaze."

"Aye, it seems I was given misinformation, next time I won't be so easily fooled."

"It's fine, I've heard whispers about an island that would contain Cortez' treasure, I planned to head there before you came with news, so we can head just to the port town where they originated." Barbosa said to Dante before turning to the last of the crew and shouting ao the crew on the shore could hear him.

"Burn it down boys, we be heading off to port and will find clues of Cortez' treasure there." Barbosa said as the crew cheered and began placing barrels of powder throughout the island before firing upon it as they left.

Dante watched the island burn with a large grin on his face and a new dagger placed in a sheath on the back of his waist.