The Curse of Snake Island (6 page)

Then . . .
POOF!

I took a peek.

The snake was gone! There was an old lady standing there instead.

“WOW!” Aaron said, peeking out from behind the rock.

They all came out from hiding. None of us could believe our eyes!

Then the smaller snakes started to wiggle. Inna screamed and then there were even more POOFs. Each of the little snakes poofed into smoke. And when the smoke cleared, the pirate crew of the
Sea Rat
was standing in front of us.

“Did my necklace do all of
that
?” Inna asked.

“Aye,” I said, a little surprised myself. I had broken the curse!

Then we saw that there were other pirates, too. Rival pirates.

“Who are they?” Vicky asked.

“They must have come looking for the treasure before us and were turned into snakes,” I said.

The pirates looked at the crew of the
Sea Rat.
We outnumbered them. I counted. There were exactly a lot of us and exactly only a little of them.

“Let's get out of here!” they shouted. They must have counted the same numbers as me.

Captain Stinky Beard rubbed his eyes. “Arrr, how'd you break the curse?” he asked me.

“Just like the clue said. I reversed it,” I said. “I saw my reflection in Inna's necklace and figured out the riddle. I just had to make the snake look into its own eyes,” I explained.

“Clever lad!” Captain Stinky Beard said. “I thank ye! It's not fitting for a cap'n to be a snake.” He was so glad that he didn't even ask how we knew where to look for them.

The old lady was the next one to thank me.

“Aye,” I said. “But who are you?”

She told us she'd been cursed a long time ago. “I was a pirate like you. I tried stealing this treasure from my captain, but he caught me.”

I nudged Aaron in the side. “I told you that was against the rules,” I whispered.

“Aye,” the lady said. “And as punishment, my captain put a powerful curse on me. He turned me into a snake to make sure no one else tried to steal the treasure. I've had to guard that treasure ever since.”

“What happened to him?” Vicky asked.

The lady smiled. “He was the first person I turned into a snake,” she told us. “I haven't seen him since.”

“So whose treasure is it now?” Inna asked.

“Yours!” she said. “I never want to see it again. Take as much as you want.”

The whole crew cheered and started filling their pockets.

I felt pretty proud.

And happy, too!

That was, until I felt Rotten Tooth's hand on my shoulder. “ARRR!” he growled. “Who gave you mangy mutts permission to leave the beach? You'll be on kitchen duty for a month!”

We froze in our tracks.

I couldn't believe it. My plan had failed again.

But then Captain Stinky Beard came over. He ordered Rotten Tooth to back off. “This little matey and his friends just saved our lives!” he said. “Not to mention won us this here treasure.”

Rotten Tooth was the only one who didn't look so happy about that.

“I won't be having me best pirates washing dishes!” Captain Stinky Beard said. “See to it that they learn everything they want to know. Maybe they might even teach
you
a thing or two,” he said.

“HOORAY!” we shouted.

We jumped up and down.

Then the captain winked at us to let us know it was okay to dance around.

We danced the whole way back to the
Sea Rat
! And on the way, we made a list of all the things we wanted Rotten Tooth to teach us. After he took a bath, of course!