Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 -1 2019 | Page 254

Extracts From A Pirate's Diary
Pui Ching Primary School, Leung, Chi Long Jonathan - 11
18th November, 1500
Sunny
We set sail this morning at the docks in Beijing, bearing gifts from our emperor. When we boarded our
ship, our lookout, Un-Luck Lee did a lot of offences, including inviting his girlfriend onboard and tossing
the ship’s cat, Mrs. Tabby, overboard. Captain Chan told Lee that if he continues to behave in this way,
we’ll have to maroon him.
19th November, 1500
Rainy
Well, dear diary, Lee’s actions angered the sea monsters. Early this morning, Lee spotted some winged
female creatures sitting on some rocks through his telescope.
“Sirens!” he exclaimed, before falling out of the crow’s nest and luckily got entangled in the lowest part of
the rigging.
The captain commanded the cabin boy Lam to get the earplugs (They’re little thingies that the first officer
Chung invented which are for dimming noises). However, when he returned, Lee was trying to untangle
himself. He stuck his left leg out, making Lam trip and spilling all but one pair of earplugs. After giving Lee
a short lecture about being careful, Captain Chan decided that he would put on the remaining pair of
earplugs and steer, whereas the rest of the crew would stay in their cabins and wait until the coast was clear.
After a short period of time, the singing got really loud, and for a second, I thought that Captain Chan fell
asleep.
But then, the sirens stopped singing, and we heard Chan yell,
“They’re leaving! The sirens are leaving!”
We all went on deck and cheered, until first officer Chung said “Is it just me, or are those rocks moving
towards us?”
And indeed they were. That’s when I noticed that the “rocks” were green and scaly.
“They’re not rocks,” I said, “they’re part of a sea serpent!”
Just as I said that, the “rocks” sank into the water. Then, two gigantic horns poked out of the surface of the
water. The monstrous owner of the two horn reared up. It had piggy eyes (though they were large for us)
and was covered in emerald-green scales. We were all terrified, except for Lee, who was rooted to his spot
and seemed to be deep in thought. Suddenly, he snapped out of it.
“I have a plan” he said. “Listen.”
Listening to Lee’s ideas was the last thing we would do at any time, but then none of us had other plans, so
that was what we did. Lee’s plan was to steer the ship towards a nearby rock and turn left or right when we
were near it. Hopefully, the beast would follow our ship, and (hopefully) being large and clumsy, it would
crash into the rock. And surprise, surprise, it worked! Everything went according to plan and we escaped.
And for the first time in many million years, we cheered for Lee.
25th November, 1500
Sunny
Sorry about the long gap. The crew and I were busy giving away gifts to natives on uncharted lands and
navigating these days, and some stupid, lame-brained twit had left a magnet under the compass, leading us
the wrong way. Anyway, in the afternoon, Lee spotted an island (or at least he thought that it was one). He
asked us to steer the ship towards the island.
Anyway, we went ashore the island, except for Lee and his girlfriend, who decided to keep an eye on the
ship. There was a mountain smacked right in the middle of the island which towered over us. Captain
Chan, who was very energetic, decided to scale it. After an exhausting trek (a little stroll if you ask Chan) up
the mountain, we stuck the ship’s flag on its summit. But when we were ready to leave, we realize that most
of the island had sunk into the water. That’s when we uncovered the truth. We weren’t on an island. We
were on a man-eating Aspidochelone! The next thing we knew; we were paddling in salty seawater. And a
few metres from us was the opened mouth of the Aspidochelone. It glared at us with a gleam in its eyes as a
ravenous child might a table of food at New Year’s Day.
I closed my eyes and thought – ‘Goodbye, world... and hello, underworld.’
But when we thought all hope was lost, we heard a loud bang, and the Aspidochelone was bashed by a large
cannonball. It was Lee!
He yelled at the beast, “If you want to scoff my mates, you’ll have to get me first!” So the beast made a
ninety degree turn (that took it a little time) and chased after our ship. Meanwhile, Lee steered the ship
towards us, and his girlfriend fired a couple more of cannonballs at the beast. The rest of us (except me,
because I was a bad swimmer) swam towards the ship and scrambled aboard.