In colonial Australia, if you were homeless it was imperative to have something of value to trade for food. Every day Jackie went rogue through alleys and abandoned streets looking for something to trade for a loaf of bread.
One day he got tired of doing this all the time and decided to follow the rumors. According to some, Mr. Crombie, the shipwright, kept things in his store worth thousands of pounds.
Like a little mouse, Jackie infiltrated Mr. Crombie's store. The 12-year-old soon covered his mouth in surprise at the sight of all sorts of unusual items for his time.
Jackie looked at his funny reflection in a wavy mirror; Jackie got to know the world in a colorful globe; Jackie tickled himself with a peacock feather. Jackie felt he had won all the food in the world when he beheld a miniature pirate ship sailing a wild sea inside a bottle.
His hands almost went by themselves to grab that magic bottle, and once he had it, he slipped away without making the slightest sound. A real cat.
Jackie was desperately running down an alleyway to get to his hiding place and better revel in every detail of the bottle, but before that, his hands began to feel strange.
Upon closer inspection, his fingers were water and not from being nervous. Jackie really wished it was all a bad dream.
To his misfortune, the other parts of his body began to water as well. From his fear, he couldn't even call for help. However, he did manage to see how there was no longer a boat, but a strange colorful stripe on the bottle.
It was cold and wet. Jackie was slowly waking up in a world full of colors. His first impression was that he was under the sea. But it wasn't just that. Jackie was on the Great Barrier Reef.
He immediately thought he was drowning, but like the fish swimming above him, he now had gills.
"What's up, kid? You look lost," said a rather jocular voice.
"Who is it?" asked Jackie still concerned.
"It's Wesea, the coolest sea turtle you'll ever meet," replied a slimy-shelled turtle with shiny lenses on his green face.
"Geez, what kind of heaven is this?" asked Jackie before cracking up laughing.
"I know I look like an angel with these flippers, but I'm just a kind soul," said Wesea adjusting his glasses stylishly.
Right after this, Jackie sought to stick his fingers to Wesea's shiny glasses, but Wesea gave him a flap on his head.
Jackie naturally rubbed himself, but realized that he no longer had human hands, but amphibious ones. So it was with his feet.
"Turtle, what's all this? You made me a toad?"
"No, of course not. I saved you, child. This transformation is because of Zendegi's magic bottle."
"Zend.. what?"
"I was expecting your 'thank you', buddy," said Wesea cross-flippers.
There was silence and an intense exchange of glances.
Finally, Wesea said:
"A while ago, when you entered the Zendegi world, you were going to be swallowed by a blue whale, and then the pirates on the ghost ship were going to choose you as their new slave."
"I'm already beginning to believe that Mr. Crombie had his whole store scented with opium," Jackie chuckled.
"Crombie!" shouted Wesea, who went from proud to annoyed in a second.
"Do you know who Mr. Crombie is?"
"Of course I know, kid. He's the reason you, me, the pirates, the Great Barrier Reef... we're all here."
"What are you talking about?"
"I tried to steal the wonderful bottle, too, and I stopped here, totally turned into a sea turtle," Wesea clarified.
"Ah, so you're a petty thief too?" asked Jackie to Wesea with a mischievous smile.
"I was. Now I just want to stop being a prisoner of this crazy biologist, shipwright," Wesea said before letting out a deep sigh.
Jackie laughed at Wesea's lament, but he immediately reminded him:
"Don't laugh so hard. You will end up becoming a criminal, I mean, sea animal before long, too."
"Impossible, I've gotten out of worse cages. There has to be a way out," Jackie said.
"Yes, there is, but you'll never be able to reach it. I've tried a hundred times!" replied Wesea somewhat tired of the child's innocence.
"Tell me what I should do, that now half-human, half-amphibian, I feel I can do many things."
"You will have to pass all the dangers of Zendegi's sea world, exploring all the islands of the Great Barrier Reef until you reach Roar Island where the "cork" of the bottle is," Wesea said categorically.
"Heck, how did Mr. Crombie get the Great Barrier into the bottle, anyway?"
"He just poured the bottle where that was and sucked it in."
A fortnight later and many miles left behind, Jackie was riding on giant manta rays. Each of his feet lay on them, and his gaze was after an island teeming with thieves thirsty for escape.
Once enthused by Jackie's will, the robbers did not stop at clearing the way for him to keep moving between cays, islands and islets.
At times they not only faced sudden storms, but also dealt with the constant appearance of the ghost ship and its terrible thousand cannons, flocks of gull-arrows and whirlpools that could swallow whole islands.
It didn't seem to matter what Mr. Crombie put in front of him, Jackie, even at such a young age, was able to figure every obstacle out without much trouble thanks to his life as an expert petty thief.
Finally, after almost a month of heading north, Jackie and all his followers saw the special glow of Roar Island.
Although not very large, this island had a somewhat frightening appearance, for it was crowned by a mountain shaped like a dragon's head with its mouth open.
Like a flashing pearl, Jackie was the first to see the "cork" inside the dragon's mouth.
With his body now almost completely amphibious, it was a piece of cake for Jackie to swim from where the concentration of thieves was going to the shore of Roar Island.
Jackie ran towards the dragon's mouth, despite being told from behind not to do so. Recklessness or bravery, Jackie had to finish what he had started.
When he was within a few feet of grabbing the "cork," a weapon seemed to charge. An oil lamp was lit which soon revealed a familiar face.
"But, what is this? Wesea, is that you?"
"I'm sorry, boy, but I won't let you do it."
"What on earth are you saying?"
"While you were traveling here, Crombie warned me that if we escaped, he would disappear my family. I won't allow it."
Jackie was shocked by such a cruel revelation, but a second later he reacted and poured coconut water he was carrying on his back into the lamp to put out the image of betrayal.
Shots rang out from the dragon's mouth. Then there was a great earthquake. The whole mountain came crashing down and as the thieves waiting for Jackie had never seen before, the sky and the sea shattered at the same time like glass.
"He made it," shouted some of them.
"Where's the cork?" asked others.
"Here I am!" shouted Jackie emerging from the debris with the cork in one hand and pointing to a luminous exit up ahead with the other.
Once the bottle was broken, everything Mr. Crombie had captured, including the Great Barrier Reef, was returned to its place, and he was left on some lost Pacific island by the thieves.
Meanwhile, Jackie joked with Wesea and his family at their home.
"Did you see that I actually return the favor?" Come on, give me those cool glasses of yours!"
You certainly know how to write an adventure. It's almost like Alice in Wonderland,under water. What a great concept. A world in a bottle, A diabolical shipwright, a world full of magical prisoners. As we read, we actually want to know how Jackie will escape his watery prison, although all the while we are certain he will.
Great story. Thank you for submitting it for the July contest (just in time!).
Hello! I never thought I could actually evoke such opinion with this story. I'm honored. I wanted to take readers on an underwater adventure they would really enjoy to take part of.
Thanks for bringing us all writing chances all the time. You do a superb job :)