The Lost Treasure

by Ellis Byrd

  PENGUIN YOUNG READERS LICENSES

  An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

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  Cover illustrated by Karianne Koski Hutchinson

  Copyright © 2018 WildWorks Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Penguin Young Readers Licenses, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  Ebook ISBN 9781524788926

  Version_1

  Contents

  Title Page

  Map

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Continue Your Animal Jam Adventure

  CHAPTER ONE

  The salty sea breeze ruffled Peck’s fur, causing the bell at the end of one of her long ears to jingle. The bunny Alpha gripped the railing of the ship and gazed at the endless sea stretching out before her, barely able to contain her excitement.

  “I can see why Liza loves exploring,” she told Cosmo, who stood at her side. “Who knows what we might find out there? The land on that map could be anything!”

  “I know!” Cosmo grinned. “Think of all the new plants we might discover—and all the stories they’ll have!” The koala Alpha had a deep understanding of the plants of Jamaa and often communicated with them.

  “Tons, I bet!” Peck agreed. “And other surprises, too . . .”

  “Do you really think there’s some sort of treasure?”

  “Of course!” Peck hopped up and down. “That’s what happens when mysterious maps are involved. Maps always lead to treasure—and the real treasure is never what you expect! Maybe it’ll be something I can use in my next art project . . . Oh, or maybe we’ll discover a new musical instrument!”

  Over at the helm, Liza smiled as she gripped the wheel of the Wayfarer. Graham had designed the ship himself, and his team of builders now made up the crew. On deck, around a dozen monkeys, pandas, and foxes manned the sails, tugging on ropes and adjusting pulleys. Belowdecks, Graham and a smaller crew of otters were checking the hull and making sure the ship was operating smoothly. Unlike Peck and Cosmo, the monkey Alpha had little interest in a possible treasure or in exploring the unknown. In fact, when Liza first showed her fellow Alphas the map, Graham was the only one who’d shown no desire at all to sail the high seas.

  “Adventure is all well and good, but we might also be putting ourselves in unnecessary danger,” he’d pointed out. “If the fiasco at the Winter Games taught us anything, it’s that Phantoms could be lurking anywhere.”

  “But that was months ago,” Liza had replied. “There haven’t been any signs of Phantom activity since then. And I believe it’s our duty as Alphas to find this long-forgotten land.”

  “Furthermore,” Sir Gilbert had added, eyes twinkling as he turned to Graham, “if we’re to make this voyage, we will need someone to build a seaworthy ship.”

  Once Sir Gilbert said that, Graham had needed no further convincing. The challenge of designing and constructing a ship that could carry the Alphas and their animal friends across the sea was too great an opportunity for him to pass up.

  And the Wayfarer was a beautiful ship, Liza thought, admiring the great white sails and gleaming beams of polished oak and cedar. The sun shone brightly down as they sailed over the sparkling blue water. But despite the gorgeous scenery, Liza’s mind kept wandering back to the map rolled up in the wooden tube attached to her belt.

  She’d discovered the map in the Forgotten Archive, an ancient library and repository filled with scrolls, books, and records from Jamaa’s history. Liza had been doing research on the forgotten lands of Jamaa, poring over archaic texts and daydreaming about how exciting it would be to explore uncharted places. The panda Alpha had been so caught up in the idea that when she slid a particularly thick book back onto its shelf, the corner of yellowed paper sticking out of a thin crack had almost escaped her notice.

  “That’s odd.” Carefully, Liza had pressed her paw to the wood. To her amazement, a secret compartment creaked open. An old map was folded inside, held in place by a shiny purple stone the likes of which Liza had never seen. One look at the map, and Liza’s explorer instincts kicked in, and her heart had fluttered with excitement.

  The map showed a large island shaped a little bit like a teardrop. Jagged triangles over the southern tip indicated rocky terrain, while the northern terrain was covered in tiny dots, which Liza knew meant sand. The middle of the island featured an intricate system of caves and wild jungle, and right in the heart of it all was a large X.

  “X marks the spot, right, Liza?” Peck called, as if she’d read Liza’s mind. “You think there’s treasure, too, don’t you?”

  Liza laughed, turning the massive wheel slightly to the right to adjust their course. “I suppose it’s possible!” she called back. “Right now, I’m too engrossed in how beautifully the Wayfarer is sailing to spare much thought for gold.”

  “I don’t care about gold, either,” Peck said, wrinkling her nose. “But I bet the treasure will be way more interesting than that.”

  Sir Gilbert, the tiger Alpha, stood at the bow of the ship, watching the waves crest against the hull. He too hoped Liza’s map was leading them to something greater than gold: With any luck, they would discover lost Heartstones that had been stolen by the Phantoms years and years ago and never recovered. If they could return any Heartstones they found to Jamaa, new animal species would be able to live there.

  Turning, Sir Gilbert squinted up at the crow’s nest in the mainmast, where Greely was on lookout duty. “Any sign of land yet?”

  The wolf Alpha didn’t take his gaze off the horizon. “No,” he replied shortly. Greely had no interest in treasure of any sort. However, discovering new land meant obtaining new knowledge, and that was an opportunity Greely would never turn down. He would have preferred doing so alone, but sailing the Wayfarer required a large crew. Once they reached land, Greely intended to explore in solitude. The other Alphas would have to be okay with that—they should have long ago accepted that he worked best this way, anyway.

  The wind picked up, whipping Greely’s purple cloak against his back. He frowned, his eyes locking onto a dark spot in the distance. Was it land? Greely started to call down to Liza, but some instinct caused him to hesitate. His fur stood on end, as if the wind carried static electricity. He squinted at the dark spot, which was growing larger by the second. A tiny flash caught his eye, quickly followed by another, and Greely realized the dark spot wasn’t land at all.

  “All hands on deck!”

  “What’s going on?” Liza called, looking up in alarm.

  Greely grimaced as the Wayfarer sped toward the churning black clouds. Lightning flashed again, and this time, it was accompanied by the distant boom of thunder.

  “A storm is coming!�
��

  CHAPTER TWO

  Graham was just finishing his inspection of the rudders when the ship lurched. Dropping his wrench, he stumbled and bumped into the wall.

  “What’s going on?” exclaimed Eugenie, an otter who had been assisting with the inspection. Overhead, Liza’s commanding voice rose above the shouts and cries of the crew on deck.

  “Batten down the hatches!”

  A deafening crack of thunder sounded, and Graham hurried to the ladder.

  “It’s a storm!” he called to Eugenie. “We need to grab as many life jackets as we can!”

  They scurried up to the deck, and Eugenie gasped. The sky, which had been cloudless and blue earlier, was now a strange, smoggy gray swirled with purple. Lightning flashed every few seconds, briefly casting a greenish glow on the churning water. A flash of lightning was followed by a great splintering crack, and Sir Gilbert sprinted across the deck.

  “The mainsail!” he bellowed, grabbing the mast with both paws. “If we lose it, we won’t be able to control the ship!”

  Greely and several pandas joined him, pulling on the ropes holding the sail to the mast. Cosmo was tightening Liza’s life jacket as she fought for control of the wheel—and then the mast snapped.

  Liza watched as the wind carried the mast up and away, the mainsail and ropes tangled around it. The wheel went slack in her paws, and her eyes scanned the water ahead. There, barely visible through the storm, was the outline of a beach with palm trees blowing in the wind—an island!

  “Land ahead!” she shouted, letting go of the wheel. “Abandon ship!”

  The Wayfarer began to spin out of control. Liza hurried over to Cosmo and another koala, who were hurrying crew members onto the ship’s lifeboats. Each time a boat was full, Greely would quickly lower it down into the water.

  “Head for the beach!” Liza called as the second-to-last lifeboat was carried off by the choppy waves. “We’ll wait out the storm there!”

  Peck and Graham jumped into the last lifeboat hanging on the side of the ship, and then helped Eugenie in. Sir Gilbert followed, grabbing the oars.

  “Wait!” Cosmo cried, and Liza and Greely whirled around. One of the ropes had come loose, and the end was tied around another koala’s leg. “Wylie’s stuck!”

  “Wylie!” Liza exclaimed as she hurried over. “How did this happen?”

  “I didn’t see it there,” Wylie said, tugging frantically. “I must have stepped in the knot, and now it’s too tight!”

  “We’re about to have a much bigger problem,” Greely said, pointing. The other Alphas turned to look, and Peck gasped.

  An enormous tidal wave was rising up in the distance. Without hesitating, Greely sliced the ropes holding the last lifeboat.

  “Wait!” Sir Gilbert let out a roar of frustration as he, Peck, Graham, and Eugenie dropped safely onto the water.

  “Get to shore!” Greely called down to them. “We’ll meet you there!”

  Any response from the tiger Alpha was lost to the wind. Turning back around, Greely noticed a loose plank sticking up out of the deck. He tugged it out just as Liza and Cosmo succeeded in freeing Wylie from the rope. Liza took one look at the plank and understood. “It’s no lifeboat, but it will have to do!”

  Together, the four animals hurried to the railing. But the ship began tipping up, sending them skidding and sliding from the bow down to the stern.

  “We’ll just have to jump from here!” Liza said. “One, two . . . three!”

  They leaped off the Wayfarer, landing with a heavy splash. The great ship was almost vertical now, and they kicked hard, propelling their makeshift lifeboat out of the path of the tidal wave.

  “The others went that way!” Cosmo cried, but it was no use. The massive wave crashed down, and the current beneath it was too strong to swim against. Liza, Cosmo, Greely, and Wylie clung to their small piece of the Wayfarer as the current whisked them far, far away from the beach . . . and their friends.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Sir Gilbert stood on the beach, watching as the sun began to peek out from the clouds. The Wayfarer lay on its side in the shallow water, its masts broken or missing completely. Dozens of crew members scurried over the fallen ship, securing it in place with ropes and anchors.

  Now that the storm was clearing up, Sir Gilbert could appreciate how beautiful this island was: sparkling white sand, turquoise water, palm trees, bright pink and yellow flowers. Beyond the palm trees, the jungle was thick and dark, and Sir Gilbert half expected to see Liza and the others emerge at any moment. Surely they had washed up farther down the coast, he told himself. They couldn’t be far.

  “Sir Gilbert! Look!”

  The tiger Alpha turned to see Peck splashing through the water toward him, waving a wooden tube over her head.

  “Liza’s map!” Sir Gilbert exclaimed. “Where did you find that?”

  “Floating in the water over there.” Peck pointed to the left of the Wayfarer. Her purple eyes were bright with worry. “But other than this, there’s no sign of them. Do you think they’re okay?”

  “Of course,” Sir Gilbert said, and he meant it. “Greely, Liza, and Cosmo have been in more difficult situations, and they always come through. Wylie is perfectly safe with them.”

  Peck relaxed a bit. “Yeah, you’re right.”

  Graham hopped off one of the Wayfarer’s fallen beams and made his way toward them, Eugenie right behind him.

  “Just finished our assessment of the damage,” Graham announced when he reached his fellow Alphas. “It’s bad, quite bad—but fixable, of course! All we need are supplies: something to sew up the ripped sails, nuts and bolts, and washers to hold them in place . . .”

  “But we’re stranded on a deserted island!” Peck exclaimed. “We can’t get any of those things!”

  Graham laughed. “Why, there’s a jungle full of potential gadgets and gizmos right over there. With a little creativity, I bet we can put together everything we need.” His smile faded. “What about the others, though? Shouldn’t we find them first?”

  Sir Gilbert considered this. “Liza knew our lifeboats were headed for this beach,” he said at last, gazing out at the wrecked ship. “She’s an experienced explorer—she’s likely leading them this way as we speak.”

  “So the best thing for us to do is stay put and fix the ship,” Peck concluded. “We can get one of the crew members to look out for Liza and the others while we search the jungle for tools.”

  “We’ll need other supplies, too,” Eugenie piped up. “Fresh water, for one thing. And we lost a lot of food overboard.”

  Sir Gilbert nodded approvingly. “A fine point. Why don’t you assign a lookout, Graham? In the meantime, Peck and I can search for food and water while you and Eugenie look for . . .” He paused, brow furrowed. “Just what will you be looking for, precisely?”

  “No idea!” The monkey Alpha laughed, snapping his goggles on top of his head. “That’s all part of the fun!” He waved before heading back to the Wayfarer with Eugenie.

  Smiling, Sir Gilbert began making his way to the jungle. Peck hopped along at his side, pulling out the map as she did.

  “You know, if I hold the map this way,” she said, turning the paper sideways, “that beach kind of looks like this beach. See here, all those trees? Just like this jungle?”

  Sir Gilbert squinted at the map. “Hmm. Do you think this is, in fact, the island we were searching for?”

  “Maybe!” Peck said excitedly. “Liza said we were close, but I guess she didn’t realize how close. Oh, I can’t wait to tell her!”

  * * *

  The jungle was filled with plants and flowers unlike any Sir Gilbert had ever seen: giant red flowers that drooped like bells, and round yellow bulbs covered in spikes. One tree’s branches were dotted with little purple orbs that tasted like grapes, and Sir Gilbert filled his bag with as many as he could.

  Peck’s nose was buried in the map as they walked. “I really think this is the island, Sir Gilbert!”
she said when they reached a narrow river. “Look here, we’re right at the blue squiggle!”

  Sir Gilbert lowered his canteen into the river, scooping up the fresh water. “That would be most fortuitous.” He gazed down the river. “Look at the size of those lily pads . . . They’re absolutely enormous. I’m sure Graham will think of some way to put them to good use, don’t you agree? Peck? Peck, are you listening to me?”

  “What? Oh!” Blinking, Peck lowered the map. “Sorry. It’s just that I think we’re close to the path that leads to the X that marks the buried treasure! It’s not too far from here, just up that way . . .”

  Sir Gilbert arched a brow. “The buried treasure? Peck, it’s quite exciting that we might be shipwrecked on the very island we were searching for. But right now, we are on a mission for supplies, not treasure. Perhaps we might use the map to find food, and—”

  “We will, absolutely!” Peck was already scurrying down the riverbank. “I just want to check and see if I’m right!”

  She veered left when the river curved right, plunging through bright green bushes. “The path’s right on the other side of this patch of sand!” she called over her shoulder to Sir Gilbert. “It heads north, and . . . ack!”

  Sir Gilbert emerged from the bushes to find Peck waist-deep in the ground, holding the map high over her head. All of Peck’s instincts told her to wriggle and squirm, but every movement only made her sink another inch.

  “It’s quicksand!” Sir Gilbert said. “Don’t move, Peck. Wiggling will only make you sink faster.”

  “Ah.” Peck stopped moving. She could still feel herself sinking, but much slower now. It took every bit of willpower she had not to struggle against the quicksand.

  Sir Gilbert grabbed a stick and held it out to her, standing at the edge of the quicksand. Slowly, carefully, she reached for the stick . . . but it was too far away. Desperate, Peck lunged forward and felt herself sink another few inches.

  “Stop!” Sir Gilbert cried, withdrawing the stick. “I’ll find something longer.”