“Perhaps an hour? I really don’t know anymore. I have relied on my sound bounces for too long, my love.” Nerice commented and climbed onto Ruby’s back like normal. “The issue is that the sound I use for figuring out things isn’t magical.” She sighed, “Maybe it’s just this lousy pce. Give me an hour to adjust and then we can go from there.” Nerice turned her head and whistled the same little tune that Ashton did and felt a tiny reverberation from their craft. “While I can’t figure out what is nearby, there is an echo. Give it a try.”

  “I heard it. What’s more is that it’s coming from all directions.” Ruby added and turned in the direction of the path indicated on the map. “Hey, Larry…Del.” She called out a bit louder and got their attention. “Path is this way.”

  With a fir of his grey cloak, Ashton spun on his heels and deftly walked in the direction that Ruby indicated. “Ever feel like you are in quicksand?” Ashton commented and reached the edge of the small wooded section of the islet. “The further we walk in, the deeper we sink.” He pointed to Larry struggling to make his way through the ndscape though he was trying to traverse thick mud. “See?”

  “Argh!” Laddry called out and crawl-walked through the silt. “You tricked me One-Eye. Devil curse you, girl. I didn’t agrees to half the bounty, somewhere there be wickedness at py, sure’n there be. Once we finds me treasure, we be figure’n a real deal, savvy?”

  “Whatever, Lemonhead.” Ruby had found herself in sticky situations before, so one more didn’t honestly matter and currently Ruby knew that she had bigger problems than his insistence that the treasure, if found, would be split evenly. “I might have a solution to the silt issue, boys.” Once she thought about the weight of her armor and Nerice combined, Ruby knew that at some point she’d likely be just as cumbersome as Larry and didn’t include the possibility of getting treasure in and out of a cave. “We need to spread out our weight.” Ruby made her way to the edge of the trees and vines. “We also need-”

  “A sled.” Ashton leaned against a palm that was a little too straight for an isnd that should have had wind forcing its growth. “It is a true work of art to watch your mind work, Ruby One-Eye. You’re about to make snowshoes.” He drew one of his swords and started hacking down leaves and branches, “This is going to slow us down.” He tossed a few vines towards Ruby. “Have you given thought to the air? It’s stale, unmoving. What if we are somehow slowly using it all?” He ughed, “Maybe not so slow thanks to all the panting Lemonhead is doing.” Ashton lined up some of the bigger sticks and began shing them together like a tiny raft. “The more work we do, the less air we might end up with.” His smooth and sinister brown eyes shifted to Ruby’s belt. “How far does that map say we have to trudge in this mess?”

  Using her nimble fingers to untwine the thick vines, Nerice spoke before Ruby could get the map out to double-check the distance. “Since we are at the beach end, I figure it is about two miles in and out. Total of four to get back to the trawler.” Nerice shed a section of three branches together. “Tan-” She stopped with the realization that she’d likely spoken too hastily with Ashton nearby and changed what she was going to say. “Paralee, If we just make a couple of these rather than the shoes, then we could just make paddles…”

  Given the stress of the situation, Ruby didn’t bother with trying to correct Nerice as she spoke. “It’s fine.” She used her dagger and carved long lines thin lengths of palm bark and id it over the silt-raft. “I’ll make the shoes, I think it’s better if we have more than one option. Spotting Larry sitting on a mostly rotting tree, Ruby raised her eyebrow. “Get to work, big boy. You don’t get to just sit there and do nothing, we happen to be in this mess because of your stupid map. So you have to put in effort too.” When the rge man refused to move and crossed his arms, Ruby bent down and threw a rock which bounced off his face and immediately started to bruise and swell his eye. “Get your lemon eating ass off that stump and help.” Ruby nearly roared. “I don’t want to be here anymore than you do, so the more you help, the faster we get out of this hellish pce.” Her hazel eye gleamed with anger. “The next thing won’t be a rock.” Ruby patted her dagger. “Try me.”

  Between his new bckening eye and Ruby’s decration of a fight while he was likely knee deep in silt, Larry groaned and stood up. “Aye, we still has ill between us we does, One-Eye. Agreed that we’s wait for bance’n until ters.” Larry reached up and dropped his weight in order to break a huge branch off and drag it to the pile. “What to do with these?” Larry picked up the coconuts that had dropped to the ground.

  Intrigued, Ruby picked up one of the green oblong shells and shook it. “I knew it.” Ruby tossed one to Ashton, who caught it and simply stared at the one-eyed woman. “Oh, look who doesn’t know everything.” Ruby ughed and handed one to Nerice who ughed as well. “I wondered why they didn’t drop into the sand. It’s because they are empty, no coconut milk.” Ruby squatted and grabbed a handful of soil. “It’s not silt. It’s really, really fine sand. Better than a millstone could crush wheat.” She patted off her hands. “If it was silt, we would have plumes of it hanging in the air like a dust storm and clinging to all of our gear.” Ruby quickly cut open the coconut she was holding and showed the group the hollow center with only its sweet meat within. “I think I know what’s happening.” She dropped to her knees and took four of the hard shells and punched holes on both ends using her dagger hilt, and ran some of the rope Nerice had fashioned through the holes until she’d made a small circle, then slid it onto their raft. “Like a waterwheel.”

  “I…humm…” Ashton tossed the nut into the air and cleaved it without any real effort and then watched as the two halves nded in the dirt then slowly get surrounded by ants. “You said you know what’s going on?” He paused and pointed up, revealing his own little secret. “You know what that is reflecting over us, don’t you?”

  Unsurprised that the swift-thinking man had figured out part of what was happening, Ruby dismissed the revetion. “Nerice said it when she mentioned the smell of gss. We are in a living trap.” She ughed. “Whatever did this has a twisted sense of humor.”

  Nerice put her face in her hands and sighed, “Neptune’s trident…No wonder my ability isn’t working. “I really hope you are wrong…” Nerice paused. “...I’ll let you tell them.”

  “Gss? Fine sand? Our ship…oh god.” Ashton sat down and crossed his legs. “Please tell me this is a cruel joke.”

  Ruby took a few steps away from the group, then turned to face them all. “It is a cruel joke, one that we’ve stepped into when our two idiots jumped out of the boat.” Ruby pointed the tip of her dagger at both Larry and Delton. “We are a living version of a ship in a bottle.”

  Dropping a set of logs at the site where they’d been assembling the rafts, Delton pointed to the water. “Then let’s forget this and sail back home. I mean the water is right there.” Del tapped Larry on the arm, “You with me?”

  “Aye, sounds like a fair wind from me ears, Del.” Larry affirmed and cracked a half smile at Ruby. “Reasonable solution, One-Eye.”

  Gathering up a few more armfuls of coconuts, Ruby began replicating the little wheel she’d manufactured. “Larry.” She started, “If it’s a trap, the solution is with the map. No one makes a trap this fun without the need to gloat. Like Ash suggested at the beginning, our die was cast right when the lightning happened. So we go forward.” After a few minutes of quiet contemption among the others, Ruby was pleased when the group finally started working together.

  Whether through desperation or curiosity, the small group managed to fashion together three sleds that were wide enough to spread their weight to a point where even the raft holding Larry didn’t sink. Using their makeshift paddles, the small group propelled themselves through the well-defined path that led to the dead center of the isle. Just as promised, the map where the ‘X’ marked the spot held an opening in a hill of rock that someone of Larry’s size could barely squeeze through.

  When it looked like Larry and Del would get off their sled and rush the rocky entrance, Ruby held up her hand. “Stop. You’ve already done enough damage by charging off.” Ruby flicked off a bunch of ants that were crawling everywhere. “Natasha, it’s been a few hours. Anything changed?”

  Giving her whistle and clicks a test Nerice sighed when she finally got a return from the trees and rocky surface. “Some good news, it’s mostly working. I can’t make out much past the canopy, but I can see that the ground ahead of us is mostly rock, so the snow-sand shoes won’t be necessary unless we get close to the sleds.” She stood up and after poking the ground in front of her with her staff, she hopped to the ground. “Whew. I am gd to know that it is working again.”

  Larry cheered Nerice and jumped off his sled with Del in tow. “Treasure’s afoot boys!” Opening his little bag of remaining lemons, he tore into one and stuffed the contents into his cheeks before he rushed through the entrance.

  Ruby grabbed Nerice by the arm, “No, let them go. Can you see beyond the entrance? I would love to have a yout of what we are getting into.” Ruby kissed Nerice’s hand in silent prayer as she waited for the answer.

  “Nothing like a little adventure.” Ashton walked off of his sled and followed Larry and Delton into the cave. “Live a little, One-Eye. I doubt there is anything inside this hole other than an empty dream, but we’ve come this far.” He raised one eyebrow and gave Ruby a daring and taunting look before disappearing into the tunnel.

  While waiting for the news from Nerice, Ruby felt a light touch on her free hand and looked down to see one of the tiny flying lizards that were native to the isnd. “Hey there, little friend.” Ruby looked at the bck and empty eyes that the lizard possessed before it turned and started to lick ants from the leather that covered her forearm. “Well, Ner-Ner?” Ruby released Nerice’s hand and gently pced the lizard on the ground and watched it scurry off, easily traversing the soft sand.