To Find the Buried Treasure

There were pirates.

She lived by the shore and watched their ships come in. She looked out her window and watched them enter the shops. She watched them go about their business and she watched their drunken brawls.

She had a coin collection. They were coins she gathered off the street, coins she found here and there. She kept them in a box and called it her treasure. But what treasure was it really? It was just a few rusty coins.

One day the pirates came to her house. They knocked on her door and demanded a gift. What could she give them? She had nothing of value. Nothing to offer but the clothes on her back and the bread in the oven. But perhaps they would take the box of coins? They weren’t much, but they were all she had. She gave them to the captain and he left.

Little did she know that one of the coins was a treasure. Its face held the map to a fortune and if she had been able to read it, she could have found it.

She heard the pirates talking outside her window and watched them through the crack in the blinds. She heard their yells and their whispered conversations. She heard their secrets pass below her and she saw her coins. They were indeed a treasure.

And she saw the map.

How she came to possess it is a mystery. Maybe the pirate new something about the treasure and he knew she would need to be there. Maybe he knew the curse upon it. Maybe he knew.

But she had the map and she studied it. And she watched the ship take sail and she followed a day later in her own small boat. She sat at the oars and rowed and rowed. She rowed across the ocean. She rowed through the rivers. She rowed upstream and up the waterfalls. And then she was there.

The moss on the rocks had been sculpted. The pirate who had buried the treasure put his image on the rocks. His beard guarded the treasure and his eyes peered out to see who came. They peered out to see if they knew and if they cared to follow directions. They peered out to see if they understood the curse.

She went into the cave and found the two pirates searching. They dug until they found a hole and rummaged through the contents. There were the remains of leather clothing, there were rusted swords and shields. There were guns and cannonballs and there was a single object worth fighting for.

She reached in and pulled it out. It was a sphere of crystals formed in the midst of the treasure. It reflected the light across the cave. It shattered the darkness and illuminated her heart. It illuminated the hearts around her.

She gave it to the captain.

He gave her the coin.

They walked out of the cave together and the first mate ran behind them. He cursed at them and yelled at them and threatened to destroy them if they did not give him the gem.

But he did not know the curse.

So they got in their boat to leave and he was left behind. They saw his body upon the rocks and the bird standing over him. It was the bird who guarded the treasure and carried out the curse. No one who kept himself could carry away the treasure. Only those who gave themselves away could have a part.