Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 191

the enormous stockpile, recovering most of our treasures, discarding very little and keeping the rest.
Eventually, he found some mini axes; which looked like they couldn’t hurt a fly. Zheng He then sent three
of the strongest men to chop down trees. I remember looking at them, thinking that they would be at it all
day.
With one of the large hacked down trees, Zheng He fashioned some crude spears, ordering some men
to hunt down wild animals, or what we called ‘dinner’. There was some bickering to be heard between the
crew, but they ultimately kept silent. Meanwhile, Zheng He built a campfire, igniting it with a plank of
wood and a stick. Not long after, the crew members returned with a colossal pig slung over their shoulder,
apparently the forest was teeming with them. Zheng He praised them for their fine work, but also warned
them to kill the elder ones, leaving the younger pigs to reproduce. After digging into the magnificent
creature, it was time for a good night’s rest, then resuming the escape preparation later. At this point,
everyone was yet to be aware of our greatest danger, right here among us.
A bunch of shuffling footsteps woke me up, along with the muffled cursing of a man who most likely
fell in a hole and twisted their ankle. I gradually got up and stole towards the ragtag invasion of men. They
were all clustered together, gathered around someone. The leader looking figure then took out a long,
jagged knife, preparing to plunge it down. They were about to murder someone there and then! I ran. Once
I was in arms reach, I dived forwards. As I collided into the knife wielding man, his band let out a startled
gasp, scattering immediately into the woods. I then attempted to pin him down, and by doing so, his
identity was revealed. The navigator! I focused my gaze on him, my eyes fixated on a small cloth bag. It was
our jewels! I made a grab for it. Unfortunately, in doing so, I relinquished my grip and he ran away. I had a
feeling we were never going to see him again. As I looked down, chest heaving at Zheng He, I had to
suppress a giggle. He was still sleeping! He somehow slept through all that commotion!
In the morning, we all looked around for the navigator and his guidance, but to everyone’s surprise
(aside from myself), he was gone. At this point, we had to rely on Zheng He, who merely shrugged and
pointed to four different positions on the map, each one more unlikely than the last. We were lost. As we all
started chopping down trees to make planks, Zheng He sat on a rock, deep in thought. I walked over to see
what was going on, my brow covered in sweat. He spotted me and sparked up a conversation.
“Even if we had enough planks, we can’t be sure our handiwork will survive the trip...”
“We could risk it.”
“And risk losing our boat? No!”
“But we have limited supplies!”
“Fine. But if we sink, I’m blaming it on you.” He gave me a stern look, followed by a smirk.
And so it commenced. We set off repairing our ship. Luckily, we had a skilled carpenter on board for
exactly this type of scenario, but even with his skills, it took that day and much of the next to complete the
repairs. No amount of wood felt sufficient. We hurried to cut down trees, stripped them of bark, cut them
into thin slices, then painstakingly slowly nailed them over the hole. Finally, loaded our rapidly dwindling
supplies into the ship. As we limped to port, we were greeted with astonishment, as we were all given up for
dead. A few days later, I received a letter from the navigator fashioned from rough bark, requesting help. I
laughed and threw it away. A little cruel perhaps, but it was all a near murderer deserved.