The salty sea touched Captain Phoenix’s rough beard gingerly as the ship was being steered well enough to not crash into the violent waves ahead.  
     “Full ahead on the rocks!” Phoenix shouted. 
     His crew came up on deck to only see waves crashing into the boat as their captain was again drunk. “Captain, I see you’re drunk again,” a crew member said.  
     “Shut up, you scallywag!” Phoenix blurted.  
     A moment of silence ran throughout the boat. 
     “Ahoy! Land ahead!” Phoenix shouted. 
     The island showed no sign of civilization with its empty land, the golden sand, and the palm trees dancing in the wind. The sails were up with the crisp breeze cutting through the air. All eyes were on the island as the crew, and their captain inched closer. Phoenix was like most pirates: greedy, hostile, and self-centered. His crew was more of a hardworking and serious men looking to get rich.  
     As the boat approached, the captain was sending crew members out on smaller boats. Phoenix and his men stepped out onto the sandy shores of an unknown island.  
“This here is where we’ll find the booty!” Phoenix said. 
He looked at the map again, following. The map was staring Phoenix down as his eyes were set on the large red X. He glared back to the boat, making sure it was secure. Crew members were on deck guarding it with new and polished guns while drinking hard liquor.  
“Arrrrrgh,” Phoenix said.  
He spotted a strange silhouette in the distance. It was crafted with many feathers and a razor-sharp beak. The creature took forth in the effort and flew over to the men.  
Under the ball of fire in the sky, Phoenix limped to the bleak cave.  
“Follow forth,” Phoenix yelled.  
His voice echoed against the cool and cold walls down the cave’s spine and back to the front. The rigid stone touched his body the farther they ventured forth. Fabulous colors ran against the chest’s exterior with golds, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds that sparkled. There was metal caging outlining the box with a keyhole. 
 “Captain look, the bird has a key,” a young man said excitedly.  
Ruffled under the bright blue, red, and yellow feathers, there showed a bronze key with a small tip.  
“Shiver me timbers!” 
 The captain took the bronze key and stared at the keyhole with a grin on his face. The key locked in place with the keyhole and made a “CLICK”!  The chest opened with ease as many vibrant colors enlightened the room. 
 “There she is!” Phoenix whispered. 
 Phoenix knew he was now a rich man. His eyes glared with a greedy sensation. Phoenix reached his hand out and grabbed a handful of dazzling gold with lined edges and carefully crafted designs of ships in the center.  
“Well, don’t just ye all stare at it, pick it up!” 
The chest was as heavy as a fridge as it was tough to carry out of the cave. Captain Phoenix lit a blaring red and orange flame to shine on the cave walls. As he was limping down the gloomy pathway, he heard a “BOOM!” All the men shot their attention towards their captain for reassurance. He nodded in confidence as they turned around again to face the luminous sun. They stopped and set down the heavily jeweled chest and took a few deep breaths. Phoenix collapsed onto the goldenly baked sand and sealed his eyes shut.  
He woke up to the sound of a creature squawking in his face, “Squawk, Squawk, Squawk”! He arose groggy and unsteady as his vision came back into place. He looked to his left and saw nothing then his right and saw his crew. They were all huddled and concealed the chest behind them. They all grunted, picked up the chest, and trudged towards the way of their boat. 
They ditched the chest on the worn-down brown floorboards and sauntered to the rickety stairs. They all one by one touched their feet to the ground in an orderly pattern. As all were down, phoenix glanced at the glowing chest as his eyes were glowing too. He shook his head and started towards the old wheel. Before, the wheel was a decoration for the king and queen of England. After Phoenix and his men stole it, it was never the same. The wheel was worn down and smooth to fit his perfect hand size.  
“Polly want a cracker?” 
The bird tilted its head as if confused and let out a hoarse sound, “Squawk, Squawk.” 
Phoenix grasped tightly onto a cracker and opened the clear through like sealing. The grabbed two and looked towards the familiar face. The bird’s razor sharp-beaked tackled the cracker and ate it whole. Phoenix's ear caught a sound in the distance. 
“Boom!” 
Everyone bolted up the steps and looked around the boat. One crew member, Arnold, spotted a ship coming fast for their boat.  
“Uhhhh, captain, you might want to look!” Arnold screamed.  
Phoenix looked at Arnold’s face, and his eyes darted to the ocean. Phoenix looked in disgust as he saw another ship.  The clouded sky loomed overhead as the other vessel was approaching. The ship's flags were coats as the night sky in jet black with its chilling cross bone symbols sharply catching the eye s of Phoenix. 
“Those darn Barbados pirates, those scallywag’s them,” Phoenix muttered. 
Captain Phoenix looked around. He spotted the chest just lying there. As the other pirates came past the boat, the crew were swinging from ropes onto Phoenix’s ship. Ruthless, as can be, the pirates started to slaughter his crew. Arnold was trying to avoid the pirates by acting seemingly dead in the middle of all the action.  
A minute later, Phoenix and Arnold were collapsed in the corner of the underdeck. A drop a red substance dripped and dropped from the floorboards overhead the two. 
“Boy, wake up!” Phoenix shouted. 
Arnold was awake in seconds, looking around in dread.  He saw captain Phoenix in his eye as he muttered something under his breath. As they both climbed to the wood and rigid deck, everything was gone. 
 Bodies lied lifeless on the floorboards that had been drenched in blood that seeped into the floorboards. Phoenix noticed that all the men were not dead. They were taken hostage as a toll for the treasure. Arnold knew what they had to do, and the same went for Phoenix.  
“Well, I suppose we go and get them back,” Arnold said. 
Phoenix gave the nod as he shuffled to the steering wheel. There the treasure was. Untouched and hid under a flexible floorboard. On the horizon, Phoenix saw the drifting boat west of the island.  
As Phoenix’s boat got closer, Arnold was drawing up a plan. The plan was to “give them the treasure,” save the men, be rich. As soon as Phoenix’s boat got parallel, the pirates spotted them. They swung again on ropes over to the boat, but Arnold and Phoenix were ready. They launched the greedy pirates overboard and into the unforgiving and salty sea. Then they held on tightly as it was their time to swing across.  
While swinging in the air, men were waiting on the main deck. Grasping a sword in hand the,y swung their swords at the pirates. “Cling, Clang!” The swords were being swung back and forth as the battle continued.  
Arnold snuck to the lower deck and heard familiar whispering. He wandered down a hall and took a right to a jail cell. There standing between Arnold and the rest of the crew was a key. The keyhole seemed to have staggering and zigzag on the bronze keys perimeter.  
Back on the deck, Phoenix was dodging the slashes from the Barbados pirates. He crawled up the tangled netting on the boat and jumped off only to cut a pirate. He looked around, hesitated then ran to the ladder. Before he could get to the iron ladder, he caught a glimpse of a key.   
He quickly snatched the key and slid down the smooth iron ladder. He took two steps only to find himself stuck. He couldn’t move as space down the ladder got small and enclosed. He sucked in his stomach as his leather belt was in the way. He took his hand and gripped the belt as he tore it off.  
As he slid down, he had two options; left or right. He ran to the left and was led down a lit-up storage room with torches all along the vessel's walls. He ran back and then took a left. 
“Hello?” Phoenix asked. 
“Over here!” Arnold said. 
He ran down the long cold hallway with a step at the end. Phoenix hit the edge and fell over, revealing the key he had in his pocket. 
“There it is!” Arnold said excitedly.  
He lunged towards the key, grabbed it as the rest of the crew stampeded out of the cold and unforgivable cell. A charcoal smell came from the deck as one of the crew members set the deck ablaze. All the men piled up near the bottom of the ladder and skidded out of the lower deck.  
Phoenix had popped out and sprinted out and jumped towards the nearest rope. The landed in a smaller boat attached to the side of the boat. The rest of the men had landed safely fully into the main deck or windows of the lower deck.  
“HELP!” Phoenix cried out. 
Arnold looked over the edge and saw Phoenix in the emergency boat.  
“We need help over here,” Arnold yelled. 
A group of men rushed over and peered over the edge. They each got a part of the burning rope and lifted him and the boat up out of the water and into the main deck. Phoenix escaped the boat and fell over to his face on the red-stained boards. He pushed himself up and brushed himself off. They dropped the rope as it sizzled when it hit the blue water.  
Phoenix saw the other boat being burnt to a crisp as the charcoaling smoke covered the faces of the Barbados pirates. As Phoenix’s ship drifted away, he looked under the floorboards only to find the chest gone. He ran to the side as he saw the treasure chest, and its dazzling precious gems fell to the bottom, resting under the remains of the ship.  
“Noooooo, my booty,” Phoenix yelled. 
The wind picked up, and there was no stopping the boat as the aspiring anchor was too under the sea and never to be seen again. The gems were never found as the ship kept on its path back to the poor and dull life of being a pirate.