Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 - 2 | Page 166

The Cursed Chest
Victoria Shanghai Academy, Cheung, Vanessa - 9
“Land ho!” somebody on the deck yelled. Zheng He groggily opened his eyes. He got out of his luxurious
sheepskin four-poster bed. He brushed his teeth with his horsehair toothbrush and put on his best robe.
Zheng He turned to the rest of his gigantic fleet. He grabbed a large wooden megaphone, and said, “Okay,
half of you down to the island! Other half, prepare breakfast.” With that, the general jumped onto the
dangling rope ladder and headed down the ship. Half of his giant fleet followed him. They marched behind
Zheng He in two perfect lines, walking towards the heart of the island.
At the center of the island, there was a stone pyramid that was larger than the others. Zheng He and his
men entered the pyramid. They crossed a long wooden bridge. They found a bronze chest in the midst of
the large stone pyramid.
The chest was rusted and old, but still glinted in the sunlight. Zheng He tried to force the chest open,
assuming it was locked. But it swung open effortlessly. The half of Zheng He’s humongous fleet gasped.
Inside was exactly 882 gold coins. Zheng He’s men divided the coins among themselves and carried them
back to the fleet. Zheng He didn’t bother to touch a single coin. He was already wealthy, and that wealth
satisfied him. Why did he need more money?
The next day, Zheng He was bored. But the fleet seemed much more empty. So he just wandered
around the library, checking out different books. Suddenly, he gasped. He had spotted a bronze-coloured
book. On the front cover of the book was a very familiar symbol. It was the same symbol on the chest in
that stone pyramid.
That same withered skull with the pointed circles and wiggly lines. Out of curiosity, Zheng He pulled
the book from one of the library’s wooden bookshelves. The title was, ‘The Curse of the Aztec Gold’.
Then, Zheng He started reading from a random chapter, which amazingly was the exact chapter that he
needed:
“The Curse of the Aztec Gold is a very dangerous but not well-known curse. It was put on the chest
the Aztecs gave to a power-crazy Spanish conqueror named Cortes. Aided with his magic sword, Cortes
and his army conquered anything in their path. The Aztecs had given it to him because they hoped that if
they offered it to Cortes, he would stop his conquer of their country. But that only made him greedier.
That made the heathen gods so angry they cursed the chest: Whoever took gold out of the chest had to
return all the coins they took and sprinkle some of the blood of the child of any person they had ever
murdered in order to stop the curse. The curse was: Those who took coins from the chest shall turn into
walking skeletons when in the beam of the moonlight.
“So now you get it,” Zheng He said through a wooden megaphone. His voice was hoarse from all that
talking, and his mind was still swimming. He had been explaining to the fleet about the information he’d
read. “Now, all generals of the fleet, listen to me.” Zheng He told the captains of the ships his plan. Three
captains and the remaining half of their men would search the island at midnight until they found the
undead skeletons. When they did find them, those captains would sound a conch horn.
While they were searching, six generals and their remaining crewmembers would build a large, strong
cage made of the strongest material on the ship that could host more than a thousand skeletons. When they
heard the conch horn, they would join those three captains and get ready for the fight. The rest of the fleet
also needed to battle if they heard the conch horn’s cry. Suddenly, the fleet’s large bronze bell rang. All of
the sailors knew what that meant. Midnight .
“Okay, everybody.” Zheng He tried not to sound too afraid. “Operation Skeleton starts now! ”
All of the half of the fleet got to work. With so many sailors, the job was quickly done. Honk! HONK!
HONK! “The conch horn,” Zheng He whispered to himself. “EVERYONE, GET TO THE ISLAND!”
The admiral shouted much louder to the remaining part of the fleet. The skeletons were indeed a gruesome