He had lost a leg fighting cannibals in Madagascar, and his body carried the scars of a hundred sword fights.

Some called him a pirate, and some called him a scoundrel, and some said he was the devil himself!

Jarrod could count on one hand the number of real friends he had made in all his years.
He was never one to drop anchor in any port for too long, and he seldom visited the same place twice.

His schooner, the "Molly", had sailed the seven seas and was beginning to show signs of old age just like her master.
Her sails were tattered, and she too had scars, from cannonball and chainshot.

Jarrod's lone companion was a Scottish owl named Hootmon, who was always perched along one of Molly's rails.
The old owl couldn't talk, like a parrot, or sing like a songbird, but he was good company and Jarrod had grown quite fond of him.

Now the three were setting off on one last voyage, one last chance for fame and fortune.
They had sailed so many times before, only to find that their dreams of treasure and booty were only rumors.

But this time would be different.

This time they would find it.

This time they had a map!

Jarrod had won the map in a card game in Singapore.
It wasn't much of a map, the parchment was old and yellowed and the compass directions were hard to make out.
There were two tall mountains and some forests drawn on the paper.

And there was an X.

The old man had seen maps like this before, and had never found anything near the marked spot.
But this map had something that made him believe it was the real thing.

This map was marked with a royal shield!
On the shield there was a drawing of a tower and some sort of winged creature.
This had to be a very important map.

And so with fair skies and following winds they sailed south, further south than they had ever been before.
They sailed for seven days and seven nights, and on the morning of the eighth day they saw land.

It wasn't much, a small strip of land with two tall mountains and some trees, but Jarrod knew it was the place.

As the Molly drew nearer he began to see the island better, and he could see the beach.
But it was like no beach he had ever seen before!
The sand was black, inky black.
So black that no light reflected from it and it made the whole island seem dark and gloomy.

Jarrod could see now that there were more than a few trees here.
There was a thick tropical forest stretching from one mountain to the other.
And the mountains were sending up small wisps of smoke.

Those weren't mountains, they were volcanos!

As the ship drew nearer he began to hear a rumbling from deep inside the island.

Jarrod anchored the Molly and put a dinghy over the side.
He put the map in his pocket and Hootmon on his arm, climbed into the small boat and began rowing ashore.

The rumbling was getting louder now, and when he finally pulled the dinghy onto the black sand the rumble had turned into a steady roar.

Jarrod had never seen a volcano before, but he knew something about them.
He knew that the islands of Hawaii had been formed when undersea volcanos had erupted.
He had heard the tales of Krakatoa, the huge volcano that had covered a whole island with it's hot molten lava.

The old man realized that where he was standing had once been solid volcanic rock, and that over the course of thousands of years the wind and water had ground it into the fine black sand he saw now.

And he knew that an island with a rumbling volcano was not a place he wanted to be for very long!

There seemed to be an opening in the trees that lined the beach, so with his crutch under one arm and Hootmon on the other, Jarrod hobbled into the dense forest.

The opening in the trees revealed a narrow path and after checking the map Jarrod decided that the trail was leading them to the X marked spot.
The volcanos didn't seem to be as noisy now, the roar had lessened and Jarrod was thankful for that but hoped this wasn't the calm before the storm.

As they moved deeper into the woods there was a new sound.
Jarrod thought his old ears must have been mistaken for it sounded like a melody being played on a harp.
He decided it had only been the wind whistling through the tall trees, and he kept walking.

He had just looked at his map again when the path ended, the forest stopped, and there, in a clearing before him, was the most extraordinary sight he had ever seen!

A beautiful dragon was hovering near an open chest!

The creatures wings captured every color of the rainbow, and as they moved they made the sound of a thousand harps playing.

The chest was filled with gold and jewels, and a crown that gleamed in the light.

The dragon had seen Jarrod, and was watching him keenly, but made no threatening motions.
It just seemed to float effortlessly above the chest, making no sound but for the wonderful music of it's wings.
The chest was huge, almost half as tall as Jarrod and quite wide. The old pirate didn't know how he would be able to get such a prize back to the ship, providing the great dragon ever let him get close enough to try!
Then something happened that made him forget about the treasure.

From behind the chest where they had been hiding came two young children!
A boy and a girl, both blonde and sunburned and dressed in ragged silk tunics and buckle shoes.
They walked half the distance to Jarrod and stopped, and the dragon moved with them, hovering just above, it's wings seeming to wrap around and protect them.
They looked at Jarrod and Hootmon for a moment and then the boy began to speak.

His name was Anthony he said, and the girl beside him was his sister, Alyssa.
They were the children of the king and queen of a country far to the east, and had been sailing these waters with their parents searching for the very thing that had brought Jarrod here.

Treasure!

Their father had hidden gold and jewels here many years before, and now they had come to find it again.
They hadn't been too far from the island when a summer squall came up and their ship started to take on water and began sinking.
The king had tied the two to a large plank and lowered them into the sea, and that was the last they saw of their parents or the ship.
They had washed up on the shore of the black island with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the treasure map their father had stuffed in the boys pocket.

The children found the same path that Jarrod had walked, and they too had come upon the large treasure chest, but nothing more.
They were both very tired and fell asleep for a long time.
When they awoke it was to the sound of beautiful music, and the sight of a lovely dragon flying above them.

The brother and sister had been very frightened, but soon realized the beast meant them no harm.
The dragon would fly away at times and return with melons and bananas and other fruits for them to eat.
At night they would sleep under his great outstretched wings.
The creature had protected and cared for them always.

The boy could not write, but he had drawn a likeness of the dragon and a castle tower on the map, put it in a hollow log, and then thrown it into the sea hoping someone would find it.
And someone had.

Jarrod was fascinated by the childrens story, but as the boy finished speaking he heard that terrible sound again.
The volcanos were getting much louder now, and thick black smoke was billowing from them.
The earth was begining to shake and he knew he would have to leave the island very quickly.

But he had a problem.

He knew he would not be able to take the children and the treasure in the small boat at the same time.
The smoke was getting thicker and the rumbling was a deafening roar now.
There would be time for only one trip back to the ship.

The old scoundrel looked at the chest with all its wealth.
Then he looked at the young ones who had been stranded here for so long.

And he made his decision.

The Molly had all her sails unfurled and was beating a course away from the island.

The treasure was aboard and Jarrod knew the ship was out of harms way.

He turned for one last look back at the black island and saw the twin volcanos erupt in a great explosion of fire and lava.
Then the land was not there anymore, just a cloud of smoke hung over the water where the island had been.

But through the smoke he caught sight of a beautiful dragon flying higher and higher, up into the sun, never to be seen again.

With tears in his eyes, Jarrod turned away from the sight and examined his treasure.

They were there at his side, a little boy and a small girl who were worth more than any amount of gold and jewels.

The pirate, the scoundrel, the devil, call him what you will, had found something far more valuable than riches.

He would care for these two orphans now, and being loved by them and having them as his family would make him feel like the wealthiest man in the world!

He needed nothing more.

The End

original story ©1998 D.A. Tony Ciango
may not be used without permission!