Lock took out a bandage and a bottle of cheap rum as I made Castor as comfortable as I could in his hammock. He groaned and grasped his arm, struggling to get his pistol from underneath his back as he laid down. With a grunt he dropped it, and closed his eyes preparing for a shot of pain when Lock took care of the ugly deep cut on his arm. From where I sat I could see both his leg and arm were seriously injured and wondered what had cut so deep into his flesh.

Castor bit his teeth as the dampened cloth contacted his skin. « Bloody coral reef. » He hissed. Lock laughed « Who knew something so silly would be your downfall, amigo. » But the laughter was meaningless to Castor as he bit away another curse. « Bandage. » Lock instructed me as he averted his attention to the jagged cut in Castor's leg. I fumbled with the material and ensured enough pressure on his arm. The safety pin was tucked between my teeth as Lock finally started to talk, but I thought he did so to divert Castor's attention from the burning pain in his leg. Castor held his breath and his knuckles were white as he scrunched the material of his hammock between his fingers.

« Entering the cave was no biggy, but returning safely... » Lock mumbled and I shot him a questioning look. « What happened? » I asked, my teeth still balancing the safety pin between as my hand wrapped around Castor's arm.

« We enter the cave and there's this huge pile of gold. Like a stereotype pirate's treasure. » Lock grinned and tucked at something only to cause a pain wave to hit through Castor. « You've had worse, mate. » Lock assured him before continuing. « Anyway, Dickens told us to keep our hands to ourselves for he did not know if the treasure was cursed or not. If that would be the case, a single galleon could cost us our heads. So we watched closely and Castor noticed the weird inscriptions on the walls. Strange sea creatures were displayed in some very doom's day situation. »

« Frightening, it was! » Castor shrieked out. Lock chuckled. « Here. » He handed him over the bottle of cheap rum and the other pirate took a big gulp. « Apparently, this only confirmed things for Dickens because he got that wicked smile on his face like whenever he get's something his way. »

« Dickens starts looking through the stuff and at the moment he carefully selects one item, the ceiling of the cave starts to thunder. Of course, Dickens looks shocked for he looks at the object as to assure he's got the right one. We can't see what he's holding, but he's sure that it is what he was looking for. He tells us to prepare for return, leaving the rest behind. You can guess, the protests we were shouting at his face. Whilst his temper lost us two good men, we didn't see that the water had started to rise. We were trapped inside that cave filled with gold and not allowed to touch anything by our Captain. Dickens lost it, sending out the the smallest one of us to climb through some crevices. It's safe to say that the poor fella did not survive the quest. »

I was listening very carefully at Lock when Castor interrupted « I would like to see how you come from underneath a rocky avalanche, matey. » I shivered at the thought of a body pressed flat underneath a mass of pointy rocks. A painful death indeed.

« So, we were all stuck and still Dickens insisted none of us to take something else for it would only slow us down to get out of there. » Lock continued only be interrupted by Castor once again « I think our poor Captain is a bit claustrophobic for the way he freaked out. No one could ease his temper. » I noticed Lock stiffen and he immediately redirected the course of our conversation « But we're safe and home now, so the pain it caused to get here does not matter. » He shot his eyes to me and back to somewhere behind my back.

I did not want to turn around afraid to find either Dickens or Paulina. Both weren't really favorable at the moment. I took a deep breath and turned my head the slightest to see a familiar bunch of curls waiting for me. She did not say a word, Paulina simply stood there, her drenched coat dripping steadily on the wooden floors. Castor and Lock shot glances at each other, but I barely noticed before Paulina said five words that would give me heart attack at any given moment.

« Dickens wants to see you. »