St Elmo's Fire

I was twelve years old and one of the best sailors in our community. While on the lake before sunset, suddenly a blinding blue green light bore down upon me, swallowing up everything. I grabbed the lines and held on for dear life, eyes squeezed shut.

After the light dissipated, I opened my eyes to find myself and my boat in the sea. A small tropical island lay on the western horizon. There was a ship anchored off the shore…with a black skull and crossbones flag at the mast. Frantically I turned to find my binoculars, coming face to face with a small fairy perched on the rigging, wearing a ruffly turquoise dress, with delicate gossamer wings.

"What's going on?" I cried. "Where am I?"

"You're ten miles off an unnamed island in the South Pacific," she responded calmly. "I apologize for the sudden transmigration, but it's crucial you do what I tell you as quickly as possible."

"Like what? Take me back home! I don't want to be here!" I was panicking.

"You can't leave until your mission is complete. Listen. I'm the Fairy Guardian of the Pacific Ocean. For months this pirate gang has wreaked havoc on my territory. Unspeakable crimes they commit, and I alone have no power to stop them."

"And you think I can do something about that? I'm just a boy!"

"You see the ship? What you have to do is get all of them onto the island. Then, set fire to their ship so they cannot leave. Within a month they will destroy each other. That solves the problem."

"Are you serious? How am I supposed to get pirates to abandon their ship? Excuse me good sirs, please leave so I can burn it down. Yeah, that'll go over well."

She sighed.

"Use your brain, kid. You can figure something out. Aren't you the adventurous sort, like the boy in Treasure Island?"

"That's fiction—I don't want to die!"

"You can do this. I believe in you."

My head was spinning. I had no choice; this weird fairy wouldn't send me home without attempting to do what she asked. Maybe I should try. It began to sound like an exciting challenge.

"Well, okay. But I don't have much time."

"Time is inconsequential. Good luck. Here's a gift before we part." She handed me a tiny glass bottle of shimmering blue liquid. "It's a healing elixir. If you're injured, apply it quickly and you'll be fine—in most cases."

I felt braver. She disappeared. Now what? I sailed to the opposite shoreline from the pirate ship, beached the boat and gathered my binoculars, a knife and other supplies so I could cross the island, studying the terrain.

It was rocky and volcanic, with a mountainous crater in the middle. Circling the base of the crater, I found a yawning cavern. Boulders lay scattered beyond the opening. An idea formed in my head. I flung myself down into the dirt and wallowed around to look authentic.

I plowed through tangled brush and clambering vines until the pirate ship came into view off the coast, then climbed up a tree with my binoculars to inspect matters. Half-empty alcohol bottles clunked about on the filthy decks. I watched from afar as one drunken, brawling pirate stabbed another one and flung him overboard. The fairy was right about them self-destructing.

I scrambled down the tree towards the beach and plunged into the ocean, swimming to the ship, hollering at the top of my lungs. The pirate who had just murdered his shipmate peered down at me.

"What're you about, boy?"

"Help! Help me!"

He unrolled a rope ladder down the side of the ship. I climbed aboard and waited while he fetched the captain and crew to see me. The captain had one eye, one leg, and one hand, replaced by a patch, a peg leg and a hook, respectively.

"I need safe passage to civilization. I was shipwrecked on this island two years ago and haven't seen another human until you showed up."

"You'd make a good ship's boy—we need someone to clean," the captain growled.

"I don't have to work—while I was here I found a huge treasure stash in a cave. I can't live on emeralds, rubies, diamonds or doubloons - I'll trade them just to leave this awful desert island!" I pulled a glassy, twinkling black obsidian from my pocket; I'd found it by the crater. "Look, a black diamond. I'll show you millions more in the cave."

They passed it from hand to hand, examining it. One bleary-eyed slob declared,

"He's right, it's genuine! Let's go!" Six pirates piled into a rowboat, hauling me with them.

"What? You'll need more of you than that to carry so much treasure, sillies," I scoffed. After some arguing, all twenty crowded into boats.

I led them across the jungle into the volcanic cavern and showed them where to dig. Eagerly they began shoveling, some with their bare hands, too busy to notice me slipping out and using a branch to roll a huge lava boulder in front of the cave entrance. Then I raced to the far side of the island, jumped into my sailboat and set off towards their ship again.

The rope ladder still dangled. I clambered up with matches, working fast. Their liquor proved quite useful to feed fires with. I went to each cabin, leaving blazes in my wake. By the time I stood on the gangplank and took a flying leap back into my sailboat, the whole ship was going up in flames.

One lone pirate stumbled onto the beach in time to see it burning. I was already several miles across the sea, watching through my binoculars.

"Well done, Elmo." The Pacific Guardian fairy appeared. "I knew you could handle it." Another blinding flash of blue light surrounded me. I was once more sailing the sunset path upon the waters of my lake. Wow. What just happened?

Word count: 998.
Prompt: You're on a boat, when you see a faint light coming towards you. What is it and what happens next?
Here's a fun bonus: two music videos that helped spark my imagination for this story