CAPE HOOLERTHUND; THE HANDS OF TIME

The greatest pirate treasure known to man

Mathew arrived home. He lived with his father in a fancy two story house right in the middle of the island; enclosed in a metal barred fence and with armed soldiers patrolling the grounds.

It was almost mid-night and Admiral Krenan was in his study. On another night he would have been in there catching up on his reading whilst sipping on a cup of tea but on that night he wasn't, instead he was sitting back in his chair looking down at Mia's pirate necklace on his table; in almost a mad way. Looking at it as though he had asked it something and was waiting for it to answer.

Pirates on his island, it couldn't be. He and his army had worked so hard to end piracy and now could it be on the verge of coming back, if he could he would have grabbed the necklace and just crushed it to dust in his hand. He would have reduced it to nothing because what it represented was an insult to who he was. Piracy was unlawful and he was the law and so staring on at the necklace and wondering if it was just the beginning to what was on its way to come, had him feeling a certain way. It wasn't all bad and it wasn't all good either, it was somewhere in between. Admiral Krenan had mixed feelings about the incident that happened earlier that day and he was still thinking to himself about how best to play it.

Just then a knock came to the door; a knock that pulled him out of the deep thought he was in. Quickly he grabbed Mia's necklace and threw it into the top drawer.

"Come in," he answered and in walked Mathew. "Goodness Mathew, what are you still doing awake at this time? I thought you would be fast asleep by now."

"I actually wasn't around," Mathew said as he approached the table.

"Oh? Where did you go?"

"I uh . . . I had gone out. To see Mia."

"Mia?" Admiral Krenan wondered.

"The woman from earlier today. The one you had thrown into a holding cell."

"Uh the Dalhamavaughn woman . . . The pirate."

"Yes," Mathew responded.

"May I ask why you went to see her?"

"I was curious and wanted to ask her a few questions."

"Mm, and did that curiosity have anything to do with that kiss she gave you?" the admiral asked and Mathew immediately turned a soft shade of pink; going back to the sensational way he felt the moment her lips touched his.

"Goodness father no." He chuckled brushing it aside. That kiss had everything to do with him going to see her but he obviously didn't want his father to know that. "I just went to see her because I wanted to know more about why she would proudly walk around wearing a pirate necklace around her neck when it was clearly against the law."

"Because she's a pirate and that's what pirates do. They don't care about laws and rules, all they care about is causing chaos and disruption and taking what is not theirs. Filthy rats."

"Doesn't look much like a pirate," Mathew said; her beautitul face coming to his mind and immediately weakening him.

"Why? Because she's beautiful. Please son, don't be fooled. A pirate is a pirate and as is the law, come tomorrow she will be hung."

"That's actually what I came to talk to you about . . . I don't think you should hang her."

"And why is that?" Admiral Krenan asked as he sat up and placed his elbows on the table; very curious to hear what he was going to say because it was pretty clear that he was attracted to her. Could he actually be courageous enough to come out and say that she shouldn't be hung because of how beautiful she was and how deeply he had began to feel for her? He waited.

"Because." Mathew paused for a moment as he went back and forth in his mind as to how best to answer his question. Of course part of why he didn't want Mia to be hung was because of some of the things his father just said; her beauty and the kiss and to himself the dangerous feelings that were growing inside of him by the minute like a wild fire, but that wasn't going to be solid enough to have him call off the hanging for so he decided to give him something else. "She told me."

"Told you what?"

"What the time keeper brought her to this time to do," he said.

"Ugh my goodness Mathew, please tell me you didn't actually fall for that."

"It's the truth."

"No it's not. It is nothing but a load of rubbish," the admiral said. "She just said what she needed to say to have you come here and do exactly what you're doing. She played you. Used her beauty to cox you into coming here to try and convince me into changing my decision. Sorry but that is not going to happen. She's a pirate and come tomorrow she will be hung."

"Captains Grovergane and Mohlenar . . . She knows where they are."

Admiral Krenan's eyes widened as she slowly rose to his feet. "Impossible."

"And not just that . . . Capt. Zedarh's treasure . . . She knows where it is as well."

"Capt. Zedarh's treasure," he repeated as he came out from behind his table. "The treasure that is said to be . ."

"The greatest pirate treasure known to man . . . Yes. And she knows where it is."

"Goodness," the admiral said now standing in front of him, with a look on his face that was like discovering something he thought was dead but was actually alive. "And she told you this?"

"Yes."

"Why? Why would she tell you that? I asked her and she said she couldn't say. Why then would she tell you?"

"Because she's not from this time father. And in the time that she comes from there is a man who means very dear to her, a man who looks exactly like me. She opened up to me because it was as though opening up to him," Mathew said. "That was why she kissed me."

"Uh." Like a book his mind had been opened. The things Mathew just said brought forth the answers to the questions he had been asking himself for years. Questions he was so desperate to have answered but the answers were just nowhere to be found, nowhere to be found until now.

"She was brought back to take the pirates to the treasure," Mathew said; deliberately leaving out the bit about the kolossimous scrolls which were the instructions on how to awaken the kolossimous, scrolls that were to be burnt upon being found. He chose to not disclose such vital information to his father because he knew very well of his hatred for pirates; a hatred that ran so deep it was in his blood.

He knew that should his father get his hands on those scrolls that he would do with them exactly what she had been brought back to prevent someone from doing. He knew that with the way his blood boiled at the mere mentioning of any one of the pirate's names that should he have the power to command the kolossimous he would use it to completely wipe out every form of piracy not just in the nearby waters but in the whole world.

He would kill every last one of them, not even caring if they were women or children, as long as they played some part in piracy then he was going to kill them and Mathew didn't want that. Of course he was a man of the law and didn't condone piracy but unleashing the kolossimous onto the world would bring forth a destruction that would kill hundreds and thousands of people. There were pirate islands all over the world and Admiral Krenan was going to find them and reduce them and everyone on them to dust and he did not want to see that come to pass so he decided to say not a word more than what he had already said.

The admiral stood quiet as he thought on; thinking deeper about just what to do with the very priceless information that had just fallen into his hands.

"This could be your chance to find them and end them once and for all. As long as they're out there somewhere, alive, it means they've won. As long they escaped the fate that you had install for them it means they won and you lost. But this could be your chance to change that. A chance to finally have a do over of what happened five years ago and have them die by your hand; a victory that will see you take piracy by the its last roots and destroy any chance it has of ever coming back. Captains Dalhamavaughn and Zedarh may have died but Captains Grovergane and Mohlenar are still alive and they're out there somewhere. You find them . . . And they're yours."

Admiral Krenan gave him a look. "Sounds to me like you have a plan."

"I do," Mathew answered. "You let her go."

"Let her go? That is absurd, I am not letting her out of my sight."

"You let her go and I go with her. I execute a fake escape, so as to gain her trust, and then sail out with her to wherever Captains Grovergane and Mohlenar are and together reach to the treasure. We get as much of it as we can and on our way back I sabotage the ship so that they have no other choice but to stop here and when they do you take them and finally they will be yours. And not only will you have their lives but you will have their treasure as well . . . You will have it all."

"I will have it all," Admiral Krenan repeated looking into the distance but thinking of the glory that would surely be his if he managed to accomplish such a thing. That would be something that would most definitely see him be knighted by the queen; not just an admiral but a sir. "Sir Krenan . . . I do like the sound of that."

"The next move is on you admiral. Will you have the woman hung tomorrow . . . Or will you trust me to get you the greatest glory of your life?"

The admiral gave a smirk; he knew very well which one he was going to go for.

Just then the sound of a distant explosion was heard and they both flinched; looking at each other and wondering what it was and more importantly where it came from.

"What was that?" Mathew asked.

Just then another explosion went and one of the soldiers burst into the study; almost falling to the floor even.

"Admiral!" he shouted. "The fort . . . It's under attack."