Alex Neptune, Pirate Hunter, page 3
“Enough with the dramatic pauses and meaningful looks!” shouted Zoey.
Grandpa huffed, but his expression was thoughtful when he turned to Alex. “Yer grandma heard tell the egg weren’t lost, but stashed away somewhere nobody would find it.”
A Water Dragon could only ever have a single egg. If the egg really was still out there, it would be the only way to bring more dragons into the world.
“If somebody finds and hatches it, they would have their own baby Water Dragon,” said Alex. “They’d have power over the whole ocean.”
“And if it really is Brineblood, he might know exactly where it’s hidden,” added Zoey.
Meri nodded furiously. “We heard what happened here this summer – that the Water Dragon was real and had given a boy powers the world hasn’t seen for centuries. That the dragon used its magic to dissolve all the rubbish in the bay. It was enough to make people believe that Brineblood really could give them enough power to help the ocean.”
Anil shivered. “Who was that big guy with all the tattoos?”
“He calls himself Inkbeard.” Meri scowled. “My parents were always arguing with him because he thought they weren’t doing enough. He was the first to follow Brineblood.”
“Brineblood is lying to all of them,” said Alex. “If he gets the egg, he won’t use it to help them. Even if he wanted to, it took all of the Water Dragon’s power just to clean up the bay.”
Meri continued her story. “Brineblood got his followers to build the pirate ship in secret, using junk they fished from the ocean and scrap they stole from land. They call it The Flying Dustman.”
“I’d like a famous ship with a cool name,” muttered Anil.
“I managed to escape when Brineblood came for my parents. I stowed away on the ship and eavesdropped on their plans. Then I swam ahead so I could warn you.”
Alex watched her carefully. It was true she had risked herself to reach him before the attack. Still, he couldn’t help but feel she wasn’t telling him the whole story.
“If Brineblood knows where the egg is hidden, why does he want to capture me?” he asked.
“He can’t get it by himself,” said Meri. “There’s a sort of treasure hunt and he needs your power.”
“At least that means Brineblood’s power wasn’t restored when he came back from the dead,” said Zoey.
Meri pointed out to sea. “The trail begins at the lighthouse just outside the bay.”
They all turned towards the water. From this distance the old rock lighthouse was little more than an occasional flash of bright yellow light puncturing the gloom.
“Brineblood says there’s a riddle to solve: ‘Find a new perspective and follow the light’,” recited Meri.
“I know it’s bound to be really dangerous and there’s a lot at stake,” said Zoey, as if she had read Alex’s mind, “but I really enjoy a treasure hunt.”
“It’ll be the greatest treasure ever found!” added Anil, eyes turning dreamy. “My name will be in history books and museums.”
Alex crossed his arms and tried not to notice how his friends waited for his response. While the dragon was gone, it was his job to protect the bay – he knew he had no choice. But his friends did. They shouldn’t have to go into danger again because of him.
He looked between them. “You don’t have to do this.”
Zoey and Anil spoke at the same time. “Yes, we do.”
A smile broke across Alex’s face before he could stop it. “All right, we’ll find the Water Dragon egg before the pirates can reach it, save it from Brineblood’s clutches and return it to the dragon.”
“And you’ll help me rescue my parents?” asked Meri in a small voice. “If we can prove Brineblood is a liar, I know my old crew will help save them.”
Alex felt a flush of shame. He had almost forgotten about them. “Of course we will.”
As the others cheered, Alex glanced sideways at Meri. He expected her to look happy. Instead, she wiped a tear from her cheek and turned away as though hoping nobody would see.
Alex was ready to mobilize a fleet of dolphins to carry them out to the lighthouse straight away.
“We have to go right now!” he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet, itching to get to the water. “There’s no time to lose!”
Grandpa slapped an ice cream cone into his hand. “Eat this and calm down.”
The ice cream dampened the fire in Alex’s belly and he stopped fidgeting (though this might also have been because Grandpa was holding onto his shoulders).
“Brineblood failed to take yer prisoner, so he can’t go and get the egg,” said Grandpa. “The best thing yer can do is get a good night’s kip and make a plan. The lighthouse keeper is a mean old grump—”
“Takes one to know one,” muttered Zoey.
Grandpa pretended not to hear. “—and after they tried to get rid of ’im in the summer, he’s more protective of that place than ever.”
Anil nodded in eager agreement. “I’ve heard loads of bad stories about the lighthouse keeper.”
“Surely we could just ask him to let us take a look,” said Alex.
Anil scoffed. “Do you really want to ‘just ask’ a man who voluntarily lives by himself on a sea-shaken rock all year?”
“Maybe if we explained—”
“Do you really want to ‘just ask’ a man who eats barnacle shells for breakfast and once bit a great white shark?”
“Those are just rumours, he might actually be—”
“Do you really—”
“Okay, we won’t ask him!”
It felt wrong not to act straight away, but Alex had to admit that planning gave them the best chance of success – even if their plans had a habit of falling apart at the first sign of trouble.
Plus, now the adrenaline was gone, he felt bone tired. Using his powers always left him exhausted. He’d probably fall asleep before they reached the lighthouse.
They piled back into the ice cream van and drove down the hill. The boatyard was the first stop. Mr and Mrs Wu ran out to greet them.
“Thank you for keeping her safe,” Mrs Wu said to Grandpa.
Mr Wu ruffled his daughter’s hair. “I should have known pirates wouldn’t stand a chance against you.”
“Can my friend Meri sleep over?” Zoey asked sweetly. “Her parents are out helping with the clean-up.”
Meri blinked in surprise as if she hadn’t even considered she would need a place to stay. But when the request was granted, she looked relieved as she followed Zoey inside.
Next they dropped off Anil, whose parents were waiting outside.
“Of course I was safe!” Anil said before anybody else had even spoken. “You should have seen me – I called in a tactical battle seal to take the pirates down! Not to actually hurt them, that wouldn’t be very nice, just to stop them doing anything mean…”
He kept talking while Mr Chatterjee turned to Alex and Grandpa. “How much of this is true?”
“Most of it,” Alex said. “He just makes it sound made-up.”
Mrs Chatterjee nodded fondly. “Stories mean so much to him. He won’t miss the opportunity to star in one.”
Finally, Alex and Grandpa made their way back to Neptune’s Bounty. The high street was busy with people scooping rubbish into bags and cleaning walls and windows with soapy water. Mr Ballister was busy regaling them all with tales of his heroism.
“Knaves! Picaroons! Lily-livered, the lot of them, cowed by the fiery rage in my eyes!”
Alex and Grandpa reached their rooms above the shop via the back door. Alex had fought to keep his eyelids from drooping during the drive home. The otters were asleep in a pile on his bed along with Chonkers the cat, who had begrudgingly accepted their presence in the house. Alex climbed in without undressing, and the otters chirruped drowsily as they nestled around his head.
Before Grandpa could leave, Alex reached out and hooked his sleeve.
“You’re not going to tell Dad about this, right?”
“He’d never let me watch you and yer sister again if I did.”
“What if my powers aren’t strong enough to stop Brineblood stealing the egg?” Alex whispered.
Grandpa laid his hand lightly on Alex’s chest. “There’s more power and bravery in there than you’ll ever know.”
Alex just had time to smile before he drifted off to sleep.
A dream carried him to the bottom of the ocean. A deep chasm yawned, pitch black except for a faint green glow. Fathoms of water pressed on his body and pinned him to the seabed.
It had to be where the Water Dragon had gone to recover. Alex had been transported inside its body to share what it felt. The connection between them was still intact!
Can you hear me? Alex thought. Are you okay?
The dragon responded with a flicker of power. Its strength was slowly growing, magic regrouping. A dormant volcano waiting to erupt.
Another creature moved nimbly along the seabed, plumes of sand shifting under the passage of multiple limbs.
Kraken! Alex thought.
The octopus stopped and looked straight at him, orb-like eyes glowing inside her bulbous head. A clutch of arms whirled like a propeller and she darted closer.
You can hear me?
Kraken bobbed on the spot in what might have been a nod.
The crafty octopus had helped him rescue the Water Dragon before accompanying it out to sea. Alex was so glad to see they had stuck together all this time.
Kraken waved an arm covered in bright white suckers, as if making sure she had his attention, before pointing it straight at him. Or was she pointing at the slumbering Water Dragon? Sharing its body made it impossible to tell.
I don’t understand.
The Water Dragon’s power was slowly returning. Still, Alex hoped he would be able to tap into his own full strength without waiting for the dragon to come back to Haven Bay. He was pretty sure he would need it in the race to beat the pirates.
The octopus kept pointing, clearly trying to deliver some kind of message.
I don’t want to let the dragon down, Alex thought.
Kraken’s skin flickered pink in dismay as she brought up two arms to form an X of protest. But the dream was already slipping away as Alex surfaced from the depths of sleep.
In the morning, Alex hurried to the boatyard to meet Zoey and Meri. His best friend emerged first, rubbing sleep out of her eyes with both fists.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Zoey grimaced. “Two problems. The first was explaining to my parents how I pulled a new friend out of thin air. If anybody asks, Meri’s new at school. Second, my parents love her and won’t leave her alone.”
“Why is that a problem?”
“Because I want her to myself! Meri is awesome!” Zoey exclaimed. “I showed her all my inventions and she understood them without me having to explain everything a million times. She even suggested a way to make one better that will totally work!”
Alex frowned. “Are you sure we can trust her?”
“She took a big risk coming to warn you. Plus, she called me a genius, which means she can definitely be trusted.” Zoey fixed him with a serious look. “Remember when you told me to be friendlier to somebody I wasn’t sure about?”
When Anil first moved to town, Zoey had considered him a rival for Alex’s friendship and tried to keep him away from them. Now the pair still argued all the time but mostly because they seemed to enjoy it.
The front door opened and Meri stepped out into the yard. She had borrowed a fresh set of clothes: an overlarge You couldn’t drag(on) me away from Haven Bay! T-shirt and jeans held up with a length of rope cinched around her waist, short enough to flap around her ankles. The thick, green braids of her hair were piled on top of her head and leaning to one side like an underbaked cake.
“Do you think people are going to notice me?” she asked.
Two of Meri’s braids parted like a curtain and a crumpled drink can emerged from her hair. Slowly, it dragged itself onto her shoulder.
“A few people might notice that,” said Zoey.
Meri picked up the can and held it flat in her upturned palms. The dented metal wobbled side-to-side like an egg about to hatch. A pair of thick, sandy-red claws emerged from the ring-pull hole. Two front legs appeared before being followed by long, thin antennae and a pair of black eyes like tiny berries.
“Did you know there was a hermit crab in your hair?” asked Alex.
Meri smiled. “This is Sheldon. I found him stranded on some rubbish, miles out to sea. I’ve brought him loads of proper shells to move into, but he prefers random junk instead.”
Sheldon shifted to peer up at them, the drink can rattling, as if full of secrets.
“So where are we going so early on a Saturday morning?” asked Zoey.
“The lifeboat station.”
Alex tried to explain his plan as best he could: they needed a way to get into the lighthouse and reaching it at the mouth of the bay wasn’t their only obstacle. As Grandpa had reminded them, the lighthouse keeper was a notorious grump, which meant they couldn’t just go and ask for a tour. Alex needed a way to get the lighthouse keeper out so that they could get in.
Unfortunately the plan hinged on asking his sister for a favour. Bridget had gone out too early for him to catch her at home. So they’d have to see her at work instead.
Alex, Zoey and Meri made their way towards the high street.
“I saw the Water Dragon in my dream last night,” Alex said. “It’s resting. It’ll come back when it’s ready. Until then, I have to look after everything here without it.”
“We have to,” Zoey reminded him. “Just because the rest of us aren’t magic doesn’t mean we can’t help.”
“I know. It just feels like…”
“A lot?”
Alex nodded. “Exactly.”
The clean-up of the high street was almost finished. Sacks bulging with rubbish were piled at the side of the road and locals prowled with brooms to round up any loose litter. Alex and Zoey held their noses against the rotten smell while Meri hardly seemed to notice.
“Is this like what your group did out on the ocean?” Alex asked nasally.
Meri swept her eyes across the street. “Imagine this mess multiplied by a million, constantly pouring in faster than we can collect it, carried there forever on currents from all over the planet.”
Through his connection to the ocean, Alex knew it was suffering. But he hadn’t imagined it could be so bad. He was beginning to understand how Meri’s group had been swayed by Brineblood’s promise to clean everything up with the power the egg would give him. If only it were so easy.
They met Anil halfway along the street, holding a bag open for his parents to throw rubbish inside.
“We were up early for swimming practice so thought we should help,” he explained.
After waving goodbye to his parents, Anil joined them for the walk to the lifeboat station.
Pinch, a seagull Anil had befriended after rescuing him from injury, plummeted out of the sky and landed clumsily on his shoulder. A net hung around the bird’s neck, the top open like a feed bag. Nestled inside it were a mobile phone, a pair of glasses and a set of car keys.
“This isn’t litter!” Anil extracted the items and waved them in front of Pinch’s face. “This is just stealing!”
Anil had tried to break the seagull’s habit of pinching snacks from tourists by retraining him to collect litter instead. Unfortunately, Pinch was either unable or unwilling to work out exactly what counted as litter. Anil now spent half his time returning property to its rightful owners.
“At least you’re trying.” Anil scratched Pinch’s head and received an affectionate nip in return. “We’re actually quite a lot alike.”
Zoey looked puzzled. “You’re like a kleptomaniac seagull?”
“Not exactly. Alex has his powers and you have your amazing inventions. Me and Pinch are still working out how to be the best at something that will really make a difference.”
“You always say you’re the best at everything,” said Zoey.
Anil grinned. “Believe you’re the best…”
“…and you’ll be the best,” Zoey finished, rolling her eyes.
“Is that why you like swimming so much?” asked Alex.
“I love swimming! When I moved here, before we became friends, it helped me feel like I belonged by the sea. I know I’m good at swimming, but…” Anil nodded to himself as if he had made a decision. “The other thing that helped me feel like I belonged here was discovering all the local stories. They’re only told about properly significant people. I want to be so good at something that I have a really important role when somebody tells our story someday.”
“If anybody tries to leave you out, they’ll have me to answer to,” said Zoey.
Alex grinned. “And me.”
Meri had hovered at the edge of the group throughout the conversation, but now she watched them with eyes that brimmed with longing.
Before he could ask her what was wrong, a familiar movement caught the corner of Alex’s eye.
“Don’t look, but I think that man is following me again.”
Zoey and Anil immediately looked.
“A man with a terrible moustache just ran away down an alley,” said Zoey.
Anil’s eyebrows screwed down in concentration. “He looked familiar but I’m not sure why.”
Alex would have to confront his mystery follower eventually, but for now he was happy for the man to keep his distance while they got on with something more important.
The lifeboat station sat on the far side of the beach where the land steadily curved outwards to form the jaw of the bay. The station looked like a farmyard barn that had been relocated to the sand, its wooden roof rising to a point in the middle above a large door set into its front. Years of harsh weather had seen the red-and-white paint fade and strip away in broad patches. A concrete slipway extended from the front door like a tongue.
“Do not tell me you brats are here for my presentation.”
Bridget appeared from inside the station. Her highlighted hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, fingernails painted bright pink. The sleeves of her lifeboat service volunteer T-shirt had been too small for her arms and shoulders, so she had hacked them off with a pair of scissors.
