Little Island

A giant gush of wind bangs against the Angel’s Apprentice, toppling over a container of \bright red apples. The ship is notorious for being able to drown a million ships a minute, but alas a fight against men could never prepare her for Mother Nature’s wrath. The crew stumbles around the ship, making a futile effort to keep her standing, praying that they would not sink to the deepest depths of the ocean. Maria tries to collect at least some of the fallen supply carts. She trips over various stolen goods in an attempt to salvage some of their food. She knows that if even one of them makes it out alive, they would need nourishment, so she goes to save the apples first. A wave suddenly surges towards the ship stopping her in her tracks as she is thrown overboard.

The harsh sun burns down on Maria as she winces trying to open her eyes. She can’t remember anything that happened after her boat went down. She feels weak and it takes an immense amount of energy to hoist herself up into a sitting position. She shields her eyes and looks around at her surroundings, she is on a beach surrounded by apples and other supplies that were on her ship. After replenishing some of her strength, she deducts that she must have been out for at least a couple of hours, seeing as she was completely dry when she woke up. She finds some cloth and raps a few apples up in it and slings it over her shoulder and starts up the beach. All she was thinking about was trying to find some water, she knows she can’t survive much longer without it.

Darkness loomed over her, the eerie quietness of the endless dunes taunting her to just give up. Instead of staying on the beach and going insane, she opted to try her luck in the forest, although she most definitely regrets her decision now. She clasps her arms against her shoulders as she tries to shield herself from the cold wind. As she walks aimlessly through the forest trying to remember why she even wanted to go on such a journey.

“It was all for the money.” She says to herself in a kind of scorning way. Everything that races through her mind is that all of this isn’t worth the measly 5k she was getting to act as a man and infiltrate the pirates. She was stranded on an island for goodness sake she deserved at least 10k. She doesn’t realize she is spacing out until she shakes her head and looks up to find a small shack standing in front of her. Peculiar, to think anyone would choose to live on such an island was inconceivable to her. Still, she shakes off the ominous feeling she gets when she looks at the shack and goes right into it.

Upon first inspection, it doesn’t look like much, just some old books and some empty cabinets. The floor creaks like an elephant was walking on it and the shack stank of one too. Although the shack was far from a good stay Maria is existed and immediately falls on the small dinky bed when she sees it. She still hasn’t found water and she ran out of apples hours ago. Thankfully the shack was kind to her and gifted her canned foods and water. The canned food was less than enjoyable, but at least she was feed.

Realizing she needed to find a way off the island she decides to make her way back to the beach so she can get some kind of signal out. Moving to open the door she knocks a cabinet over. Wincing from the pain she goes to leave, thinking that no one would care if she ever cleaned the cabinet up. Instead, she steps on a soft slab and slips. She curses loudly and goes to see what caused her so much pain. Maria raises her eyebrow in confusion as she sits up grabbing a small black notebook from the floor. It was clean, the only clean thing in the entire shack.

“I wonder how you got here?” Maria says to the little notebook. She doesn’t remember seeing the tiny thing when she first got to the shack, and she is pretty sure she would have noticed something so cute if it was there before. Deciding to open the notebook up she pulls the first page open and stares at a bunch of weird symbols.

“A strange map with even stranger symbols. What a weird place.” She can’t place a finger on it but she could sense a menacing aura surrounding her and this island. Although she could tell she was being warned against it she decides to follow the map in the little notebook. She wanders all around the island, hours go by and she is ready to give up. Her cans of food are almost gone and she is exhausted. Just before she finally gives up she comes upon a large carved-out cave. She can tell that it is most likely human-made from the strange eyelike sockets that sunk into the top, almost looking like a skull.

Maria knows she should be scared of the never-ending cave she has been walking in for ages, but instead she is just amazed. The carvings in the walls suggest the cave has been there for thousands of years and the luminescent aura of the cave added a sense of spirit. Dropping to the floor for a break she takes the little black notebook from her makeshift bag and takes out a pencil she found. She flips to a random page and starts doodling different images she has seen on the island. Curiously adding different types of houses that could be implemented into the area without destroying the natural terrain. She has to admit the place would be a great architectural spot if it wasn’t so strangely ominous. It is like she is drawn to the island but pushed away from it at the same time. She can’t put her finger on it and isn’t going to dwindle too long on things she can’t explain.

She stands up brushing off her shorts and makes her way further into the cave wondering if she will ever find what is at the end of this mysterious map. She knows it can’t be something amazing, the island was too weird for that. Ever since she got here she has been inconvenienced. It is ridiculous to ever think anyone would willingly want to come here.

Finally, after walking for hours, she comes to an enormous cavern. The only thing connecting her and the tiny piece of rock in the middle was a beaten-down rope bridge, obviously not to be trusted. Instead of going straight across it she grabs her little black notebook and pencil and starts sketching the area. If she was to ever get off the island, though she doubted that, she is sure that others would want to see such a drawing. In addition to drawing, she decided to write about what she saw in heavy detail.

‘There is a light shining on the stone in the middle of the cavern.’ She begins to write.

‘It’s almost like the island is telling me to go to it and see what is over there. Of course, I would, but the tiny rope bridge is much too scary. Though maybe if I got the courage to, others would think I am brave.’

Ultimately she decides to go over to the stone and what she finds is amazing. She has never seen so much gold in her life. It was so much, not even a giant could carry it out of the cavern, certainly not the long way she came. Thankfully she turns to find a slide-like tunnel behind the stone. Without thinking, she shoves a bunch of the gold into her bag and jumps down. Sliding down into a fresh body of water she hoists herself up out of the water onto the shore. Unsure what to do now she carries all of her things to the beach she originally woke-up on. It has been about a week since she got here, so long she thinks she might have gone crazy.

Proving to herself she hasn’t gone crazy yet she makes a fire with a bunch of extremely flammable leaves and creates large quantities of smoke. Knowing someone was to see her signal she sits down on a rock and opens up her little black notebook and begins writing again.

This time she doesn’t only write about her story of the ominous island she also writes her stories of being an undercover pirate. She writes about the amazing sword battles she has fought and the intimidating people she has eliminated. She continues this until she sees a ship in the distance coming toward her little island. She flags them down jumping up and down excited to finally get off such a terrible island.

When Maria finds out she found 20k out of gold on that island she jumps for joy. She plans the many things she could do with such a large amount of money in her time. She wants to spend it on large dresses and copious amounts of apples. While she is contemplating what to buy with her newfound wealth she looks through her drawers to find an expectable piece of paper to write her ideas down. That is when she sees the little black notebook she carried around on her journey on the island. As she picks the little thing up she carefully flips through the pages of the town she created in her mind.

She then realized exactly what she wanted to spend her newfound wealth on, the town of her dreams. Although that weird little island isn’t the best location she decided she wants to make it work. She knows by doing this she will provide those thievish pirates with acceptable jobs and welcome outcasts into a generous society. She starts on her project at once and outlines the whole build. Instead of letting the men build everything she gets a crew of women to work alongside them to complete her town.

Women building a town and having power was unheard of at the time so many people came to see the town when it was finished. This brings many new citizens that want a better life to the town. Soon enough this little island with its little town becomes a little country with big influence. After a couple of years of living on the island, they find a valuable rare resource and the town becomes even richer off trading.

The little county's legend is told far and wide because of the large success of the island. The story of Maria and her little black notebook is told as the history of the little island. Some people believe that she was crazy and scammed for her money, others think her legend is real. She is the only one who knows where her cave is and the only one to see the cavern. Therefore the 20k she found, and the gold left behind was a mystery waiting to be solved. Though one thing is for certain, Maria was a real person who loved to write and draw. The country still keeps her little black notebook with her drawings and her writings in a museum. Her art was in gift shops and people's walls and her writings in published books. There is no doubt she used her 20k and little black notebook to their fullest power, along with the mysteries of her little island.