What is a pirate without his adventures? Pirates' lives aren't spent solely in the sea. They also have to land on islands just to restock on necessary supplies (such as wood, clothes, and other living materials). But what if that certain island was dangerous? Or magical? Or just plain odd? This contest involved an adventure in a muffin-like island...

WEEK ONE: The Situation
The blue ocean couldn’t have looked any more beautiful…until your crew has spent weeks on it with no land sighted in the horizon. Insanity has spread, the captain and first shipmate are getting paranoid, and the crew members are in the verge of a mutiny (okay, so maybe a slight exaggeration, but suffice to say, you’re all going crazy!). Suddenly, there’s a cry, and one of your crew members waves his/her arms around from the Crow’s Nest, telling one and all that land has been sighted! As your ship gets closer, the ship’s captain takes a look through the telescope and sees an island. Finally, after long hours of staring at the wonderful land in front of the crew members, eyes start to squint and looks of incredulity appear on everyone’s faces. Just what type of island were they stepping into, exactly?

The island itself was very…odd. In fact, it was so odd that a few mouths were dropped after seeing what it was shaped like. What’s more, there seemed to be wings sprouted to the sides of this island! There was silence, until the wind starts whispering the name of the island: “Muffin…muffin…muffin…”

What happens now?

You are still on your pirate ship and you have yet to land on the island. Each of the ship’s crew members must make their way to the island in however they see fit.

The Empress Entries

Throughout her years of being a pirate and captaining a ship, Jenna had never seen such a weird island. And she had seen lots of islands, you could be sure of that. This all had to be an illusion. First of all, she was already beyond crazy mode due to countless days at sea. And so were the crews (whom she secretly suspected were trying to elect a new captain among themselves and throw her to the sea. As if.) of the ship. She knew the one thing they all wanted was to find a land. And perhaps, this huge longing had caused them all to see a land that was actually not there. Hey, it happened, right? People in the desert saw oasis all the time when there weren't any. Who said it never happened at sea? It would definitely explain the strange shape of the island and.. the wings sprouting from its sides.

They all had to have been so joyful to see this, but Jenna was afraid she was going to have to be the one who broke the news. This was no island. And even if it was, it probably wasn't even safe to step on it. It could be a dangerous magical creation with curses or something. That was when she heard the whisper in the wind. Muffin?

"Do you all hear and see what I'm hearing and seeing?" she finally spoke up, turning to the rest of the crews. There was only one way to determine whether this island was real or not. If they were all seeing the same thing, then it was safe to assume it was. Because she doubted they all secretly dreamt of a flying muffin shaped island. At least she never did.

"Aye Aye Cap'n. I sure do see and hear what you see and hear" said Morag, the ships First Mate...

What could be happening? "I mean to say, who doesn't love muffins, but this is going too far, don't you think" she pondered. "especially a huge muffin with wings."

Morag decided, that as First Mate she was under an obligation to the captain to check out if the land was safe first, before leading Jenna to her death and doom. So she set off in one of the Empress's Dingys and started searching for a small cove in which to go ashore and tie up the boat.

On landing, there was a sudden up-wind on the island, which let the most amazing smell waft up her nose. She didn't yet know what it was though.

As Morag explored the lands, she came to the conclusion that it seemed safe enough for the crew to step ashore after her and get some solid earth underneath their feet.

Well, this is just like Catriona, she is always in the kitchen cooking up food for everyone on board. She has been sailing for many years now with Captain Jenna and has always been good, with fresh seafood and lots of food. But this time was very weird indeed, wonder where they have the Empress sailed off to. There seems to be no land for a long time and they could not get any dry food or fruits. These waters seemed very eerily indeed as nothing interesting can be caught only if you are lucky, a net full of small fishes and shrimps.

Catriona was weighing as whether to bake some bread since there are some flour and yeast left or cook some shrimps when she heard 'muffin...muffin...muffin'. She was thinking one of her crewmate is making fun of her and without turning around she muttered, "What muffin, we do not have any butter nor eggs, how..." She turned around expecting to see one of her crewmate in the kitchen but was astonished that no one except herself is in the kitchen.

Just then she could hear shouting on the deck above so she decided to stop her work and climb up to the deck to check out what the commotion is all about. Besides the Empress seemed to have come to a halt!

As her first mate confirmed that it was not her imagination, Jenna felt both relieved and worried. Relieved because she wasn't insane (yet) and there was a land. Finally. But yet, she was worried that this so-called Muffin Island would do weird things to her crew. She watched as Morag bravely went ahead to check out the island, hoping she would be just fine. She saw Morag's signal that it was safe to land, so, although reluctant, Jenna turned around and ordered to her crews, "We're landing on that island!" She wouldn't like to be known as a captain who led her ship's whole crew to their doom, but the food and water supply had been running thin and it was either this island or eventual starving, and she'd rather take her chances. Seeing Catriona coming out of the kitchen, she smiled and pointed to the island. "Seems like we've finally found land!"

She went behind the ship's wheel and started directing The Empress toward the weird-shaped island. Morag seemed to have found a perfect place to tie their boat and step ashore. She carefully steered the ship to that direction and soon enough the beautiful ship hit the sand and stopped. Cautiously, Jenna climbed down from the ship and stepped her foot to the ground. Despite looking like a muffin, the sand seemed like real sand at least. She thought it'd be like an edible island or something. Gesturing at the rest of the crews to join her and Morag down there, she then approached her first mate to see what she'd discovered about the island. "Did you see anyone in this island? What is this island anyway?" she asked Morag, completely puzzled.

"Now don't laugh, but..." said Morag, her voice trailing off as she rounded another corner. "Come and see this" She beckoned to the crew to follow her and headed to the kitchens. Catriona had been baking many many muffins. "That would explain the tasty smell that wafts over the island" Morag said. "I think..." as answer to Jenna asking her to repeat what she had said at the beginning, "that, you know how dog and owner start looking like each other after while? I think that's what happened to the Island. Because the only thing being made here anymore was Muffins galore, the sand and rock started looking like a muffin too..."

Having first spotted the island from the crow's nest, Rowan was relieved that the rest of the crew could see the island too. As she climbed down the ladder to join the captain to journey ashore, she thought she could smell the faint smell of muffins. When she reached the deck again, she heard Morag's call. She followed Morag to the kitchen and tried to hide a laugh as she saw all those muffins in the oven. "I've heard about how pets and owners can begin to look alike, but I'm not sure that it's how the island came to be muffin shaped. Maybe someone dreamed about it and wished so hard for it to come true it actually came to exist." Rowan shrugged. "In any case, no matter how it got there, we really do need food supplies. Let's go with the captain and look!" She gathered together a few small items for exploration of the island and awaited further orders from Captain Jenna.

WEEK TWO: The Situation

The ships already anchored and the crew safely on land, it was finally time to start exploring. Now, all the ships were docked at different parts of the island, so each crew witnessed quite a few different things in the environment.

The Flying Dutchman:
In the middle of the crew’s exploring, the members of the Flying Dutchman wound up in front of a clearing, where the only way to move ahead was to cross a river. This was no ordinary river, however. The huge river cascaded down the creek in all its milky white glory…yes, no joke, milky white!

The Black Pearl:
After some trekking, the crew members of the Black Pearl landed themselves in a strange forest. In the confines of the forest, animals swarm around the different types of flora, feeding on the fruits available. The funny thing is that a wide variety of fruits were found all over the forest. Blueberry, apple, raspberry, you name it, it was there!

The Empress:
Landing on the “rocky” side of the island, it was only a matter of time before the crew of the Empress reached a couple of hills and mountains. Getting past these mountains, however, would be a bit difficult. The mountains themselves were dark brown and swirled, with almost smooth sides. The top pointed straight upwards and they were slightly cool to the touch.

Make your way through your appointed scenes, and try not to harm any living beings!

The Flying Dutchman Entries

"Aye! Throw th' anchor now in three counts. One... Two... Three!" The three of them, Momo, Ireth and Tala have stood at the very corner of the ship. They just threw the anchor down and suddenly there was a sudden stop of the ship. "Ouch," Momo was pushed to a ship pillar. Okay, the good point is: perhaps the shake could wake up the rest of her crews, Momo thought.

Momo moved to the rope Ireth has tied it before. "Now, we turn down th' ship! All o' us."

Momo started climbing down the rope. It was a little bit hard than what she could realize. She then just gave admiration to Rosa who was her most profesional crew who could do it. After two minutes of swinging, she reached the beach and walked around the island. At far, she heard a sound of water or waterfall or rain or wave or river--she wasn't sure. She just got her wand ready at her right hand, while her left hand touched her sword at her waist.

Acer flyed around the island to investigate, before he landed at Momo's shoulder. "White water there, white water there!" he said. Momo had no idea about what Acer talked about.

Rosa had simply stood there while her crew-mates had done the hard work of lowering the anchor. I wouldn't have been much help anyways, she thought to herself, since I can barely lift a fraction of my own weight. Give me a rope to slide down anytime, she thought with a smirk.

As if on cue, her captain had signaled for them to slide down the rope onto shore. "Woopee", Rosa exclaimed as she grabbed the bandanna tied around her head. She put the bandanna around the rope and looked back at the others. "See you all down there", she yelled out as she happily swung down to the beach.

Once on the beach, her curious nature got the better of her and she ran around a bit trying to explore her new surroundings. She turned abruptly when she heard the captain's annoying bird Acer shouting something about white water.

"White water? What is that crazy bird going on about", she yelled back towards the others.

Fi had been down in the hold the whole trip until this moment. She had gone down there to get some rum when she had got stuck down there. The sudden stop of the ship finally got her free after a week of rum-drinking that had kept her alive and now she was pleased to be able to move around and probably even eat something.

She couldn't, though, as she realized there had to be a reason the ship stopped. When she got to the deck she noticed the ship had stopped to shores of an island. She murmured something about no one helping her out from the hold but then thought it'd be better to complain about that later. Right now she was more concerned of being left behind.

"Wait for me!!!" Fiona yelled and swung down to the soft, nice beach.

Tala swung down with the rest of the crew. She walked the beach a few paces, looking out into the endless ocean.

"So glad we're out of that boat... I never did well in confined spaces." She grinned as she turned back to the crew, all traces of sleep finally gone from her eyes. "This should be interesting." At Acer's mention of white water Tala's eyes grew wide. She hurried to the edge of the beach and turned back to Capitan and crew. "Shall we go investigate?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

Just as Fiona had landed she heard Acer's announce of white water. To her it sounded weird and she felt her body tense as if there would be some kind of danger ahead of them. Maybe there was or maybe not, nonetheless she was ready for action anytime - even though she was rather dizzy and tired for not eating any proper food for a while.

"Well, I definately think it's worth checking. I mean, white water... Sounds veery interesting indeed", Fiona pondered when Tala asked if they should do something about it. She pulled herself together and said: "I'm ready for anything, Cap'n!"

Momo smiled at all of her crews who have reached the island, or well, almost all of them, exactly. Acer kept talking about the white water into her ears and it started annoying her. "Sssttt... Acer! Why don't yeh just go and help us checking th' island by yer wings?"

The naughty Acer seemed like understand what Momo said and he flied closer to what he called the "white water". Momo followed her parrot and it was about 5 feet more to reach the "white water".

"Mates, come 'ere! Look at that river!" Momo pointed the "white water". "This is a river which contains milk!" Momo said that, though she wasn't really sure if it was milk or not.

"What d' yeh think? I know that our rum supply was almost empty, but I thin' it isn't a good idea fer us fer take that milk. Don't know it's safe or not, yeah." Momo continued, "Besides, it seems that we have no other way to continue our trip wit'out crossing tha' milky white river. Any idea how we can cross there?"

"Ohh, milk!" Fiona said enthusiastic. "Gosh, now I feel myself so thirsty..." She went to the river and tasted the "white water". Yup, it was milk and boy, it tasted so good after a week of rum-drinking. So, she drank long and passionately until she was able to think more than just that.

How would they be able to across the river? Maybe using ropes; there was some trees around them but unfortunately none of them seemed to be close enough to the river. In case they found a good tree to that purpose, then it was considered as an option. Then again, they could chop some wood and make a small bridge, but that would take time. And what else? Drinking the milk? That sounded just weird in Fi's head and she realized she was still thirsty. She still decided to wait a bit before she'd drink some more. Instead, she shared these ideas with the others and then waited their comments.

Momo saw Fi drinking the milky water. Oh, no! she taught. She always pretended that it was not a good idea for drinking the water. Well, I just need to see th' effect later, perhaps.

Then, Momo listened to Fi's explanation about how to cross the river. Momo nodded once Fi stated about using ropes, because that was exactly what Momo thought. Momo still listened to Fi's explanation very carefully, but then she almost fainted by laughing after Fi talking about drinking all the milk in the river.

"Fi, I'm not really sure, but the milky water may cause bad effect. I had a feeling that the water might have worse effect for your brain, especially." Momo added, "Oh, no, not again... We've had many brains lost last year in our House. Don't you add the list with your brain got bad effect because of the water..."

Momo looked around at the cross of the river. She, then, saw a big three standing at the edge of the river. Good! Perhaps I can swing a rope there by using a rock. Then, I can just tie the other side of the rope to this tree, Momo looked to a tree beside her. Then we can cross the river by creeping the rope.

But now, the problem is that she realized that her power couldn't 'reach' the crossed tree. The tree was too far to be reach by her throwing power. "Ok, how can we tie it there?" Momo asked her crews. On her shoulder, Acer kept talking about "Drink... Milk... Eat... Muffin..."

Rosa had been exploring the island away from the group for a bit. After so much time stuck on the ship with them all, it was nice to have a little solitude. To hear nothing but her own thoughts was refreshing, and Rosa had always enjoyed exploring on her own.

She had noticed that this island was peculiar. The ground was a dark chocolaty colour, which made Rosa slightly hungry at the sight of it. She also found the trees odd, but she couldn't quite put her finger on the reason for their peculiarity.

Upon hearing voices, she realised that she was nearing the rest of her crew, and quickened her pace. As they came into view she exclaimed, "Hey guys, this is quite the island isn't it?" As the words left her mouth, she saw Fi drinking the water, white as snow. "Oh my, look at that water", she mumbled quietly.

The others were now discussing their options for crossing the river. They could build a bridge or try swinging over it. Of course the latter option appealed much more to Rosa's inner monkey spirit."I vote for the swinging idea", she said with a grin. "I can probably climb up one of the trees and get a rope across it", she said. "Like that one", she added pointing to a tree a little further away yet was nearer the river's edge.

Not waiting for a response, Rosa ran towards the tree. She desperately wanted to show her captain that she was a useful crew member and not just a liability. She seemed to always be the one being reprimanded and disciplined, and Rosa felt that maybe this would impress her captain. She started climbing up the tree, grasping at the branches and digging her toes into the bark. It wasn't that hard really, seeing as she spent most of her time on the ship climbing around the masts. As she reached a large branch high up in the tree, she noticed that this tree really was odd. This was a fruit tree, and their were fruits, or at least what looked like fruit, all over. Forgetting for a moment her task, she bent over to grasp a fruit. And to her surprise, it wasn't fruit at all... it was a muffin!

She quickly stuffed the muffin in her pocket, tied the rope to the branch and slid back down the tree. Once there, she yelled out, "Hey... look what I found".

When the ship had finally stopped and Captain Momo ordered everyone to get down, Ireth was so excited. But Ireth was the last to go down the rope, even Fi---who was previously stranded somewhere inside the ship unknowingly---went down before her.

Once Ireth stepped on the shore, she breathed the beach's air deeply. It was wonderful to finally feel the land again and not feeling seasick occasionally. Ireth took a walk a bit further from the other crews for a while, just to make the beach sand played with her feet. She looked at the trees that were swung by the wind. But when Ireth looked at it for the better, she found out that the trees were not just ordinary tree. Somehow, for a slight, they looked like marshmallow from afar.

Then Ireth decided to return to the group and informed about the strange trees. As she arrived to the crews, the trees she wanted to talked about seemed less interesting than the new thing she had just found. What laid before her eyes were a great river with the color of white! And she saw Fi drinking the water---or milk, who knew?

The others were discussing about how getting on the other side. Rosa offered an idea, but noone replied, so she made her own move and hurry climbed the tree near her. Ireth wondered if the tree felt like marshmallow too, it may felt funny. But the funnier thing was, when Rosa reached for a fruit on that tree she was climbing on, it was a muffin. Ireth could hear the sound of the worms inside her stomach screaming for food desperately.

"Rosa... Is that really a muffin? Is it edible?" Ireth asked Rosa.

Rosa held out the muffin in her hand. Ireth had asked if the muffin was edible, and in all honesty, she had no idea if it was or not. She brought the muffin-looking fruit in closer for a little examination. She turned it around, sniffed it a bit, poked it with her finger. "It looks like a muffin and smells like a muffin.. so it must be a muffin, right", she concluded.

"I guess there's only one way to find out, right", she said taking a bite out of the muffin. "Mmmm.. this is good", she said taking another bite. "Much better than the mush we've been eating on the ship", she added with her mouth full.

"Want some...", she asked.

Momo was always being the last one who ate something new. She always was not eager at eating new food or drink. She looked at Rosa eating the muffins. It looked delicious. The milk looked fresh as well. It always happened when you have been so much hungry or exhausted; you should see everything delicious.

But this time, her ego came over her physical needed again. Therefore, she decided not to eat or drink the muffins or milk at this time. Passing her mind from those double M, muffins and milk, she concentrated about how to cross the river first.

She took Rosa’s rope, which its other side has been tied to a tree. She tied the rope with a big branch of wood, and then she tried throwing it to the branch of a tree across the river. Acer went away from her shoulder and flied around the crews.

After some swings like a cowboy did, Momo threw the rope again. She could not remember how many times she had swung the rope before she said at last, “Hah… hah… can’t reach there… I give up!”

Decided to give up, Momo joined her crews and moved beside Fi. Having been tired, she at last drunk the water on the river, as hoping that it was really milk. Then she walked to Rosa and said, “Gimme one, please? I think we need teh eat first, so tha’ we gain energy to throw the rope” Momo giggled.

At the time Momo asked Rosa about that, her smart parrot, Acer, grabbed the rope within its wood branch tied there and flied to the tree across the river. He flied surround the tree for five times and tied the wood to a branch of the tree.

“Acer! That was a good thin’ o’ yeh! Good parrot! At least you could have something to help us and not to annoy us.” Momo grinned. “Yeah, we could cross the river now.” Momo started climbing the tree Rosa climbed first.

Fiona was rather happy since her idea of using ropes had gained such support. Though, now that she came to think about it, it wasn't totally her idea since Momoko had thought about that too. She figured that it didn't matter and watched as Rosa took a muffin from a tree and then ate it. It looked delicious and Fi felt how her stomach started to moan loudly... She was so hungry...

She grabbed one of those muffins on that tree and ate it - first she was a bit suspicious, but as nothing seemed to happen, she finished it quickly and took another one. She ate three muffins and then decided to take a brake since she already felt herself better and was able to follow the conversation the others had.

Fi watched how Momo tried to swing the rope but failed. She tried several times but it was no use, and finally she had to admit she needed more energy than she had currently. As Momo drank from the river and ate a muffin, Fiona kneeled next to the other end of the rope and twiddled in her fingers. Suddenly she got an idea and jumped up.

"If ya don' get the other end of the rope where you want it, Momo, well then maybe Acer could help. After all he can fly and... Well. Yah." Her voice quieted down and she stared at the ends of her boots.

Momo has climbed to the top of the tree and started creeping the rope to cross the river, while hearing Fi saying about Acer to help. "Fi, good point! Bu' Acer has helped us already." Momo grinned. "So, let's cross this river. C'mon, all!"

While creeping on the rope, Momo found that it was a hard thing to do. Wind blew the ropes in no sign of tired. Momo gripped the rope tightly and moved slowly to the tree across the river. She was about 1 m long until she reached the tree. She talked to her crews loudly, "Oh, yeah! Don't forget to bring those muffins as many as ye can! We're not sure there're food or not out there."

For the rest of the Week 1 submissions for this contest, please go here.
For the rest of the Week 2 submissions for this contest, please go here.