“The Lucky Eagle”

They stood on the island looking at their boat, or more like the remains of what was left of their boat. None of them said a word, as they just stared out into the crystal blue sea.

The 3 of them had been given a brief vacation after the busyness of the Christmas season. Jinx and Jangle had thought it would be nice to bring Snowball along. He was the newest elf to join the team.

One day when they were talking Snowball had shared about his years of sailing a boat, and that gave Jinx and Jangle the idea to go on a boat excursion. They had asked Santa and he found a boat for them to use. Then they surprised Snowball with it. He was very much surprised when they said how they were going to take a little trip with it and he could be the Captain!

He was quiet for a few moments which led Jinx and Jangle to ask if everything was okay.

“Oh yes, yes, it is umm..fine! This should be quite the exciting adventure!” he replied. Jinx and Jangle agreed, as they patted him on the back, “Aye Captain!” they joked.

The next few days they gathered supplies to cover them for about a 3 day trip. On the day that they took off, Santa and the other elves gathered round to watch them sail off.

Everyone was clapping Snowball on the shoulder and he began to feel very proud. This really may turn out to be a grand adventure he thought as he smiled back at the other elves. Confidence rose up in him, he had faith that he could do this, surely he could!

They had only been sailing for a day  when the accident happened.  The accident that left them staring at the broken remains of  their ship which they had named, “The Lucky Eagle!”  The Eagle that was supposed to have smoothly glided over the crystal blue sea.

At this time it was just Jinx and Snowball looking at the wreckage. Jangle had decided to explore the boat to see what things he may be able to rescue from it. You never knew what you may miss if you weren’t sure to look in every nook and cranny. Jangle was always one for being very detailed. Not much could escape his eye. Jinx was the same way, but at this time he just was still in shock about the boat.

Finally he broke the silence and turned to Snowball and said, “I am curious, how many years of boating experience did you say that you had?”

“5 years.”  Snowball replied.

“Well I would say that is a good amount, what kind of boat did you sail?”

At this, Snowball hung his head, looking at his feet for a little … then he replied in a soft voice, “My toy sailboat.”

“WHAT!!!!” Jinx shouted as he stared at Snowball, whose face was turning red.

“Yeah, you see there was this creek behind….” Snowball started to explain, until Jinx cut him off.

“Please don’t tell me that sailing your toy boat is the only sailing experience you ever had!!” Jinx said.

There was silence as Snowball looked at the ground.

“Well, I am waiting…”

“Waiting for what, you told me not to tell you! I am going to go see if Jangle could use another pair of eyes to help him.” stammered Snowball, as he ran towards the boat.

Meanwhile Jinx remained speechless and frozen in place, with his mouth hanging open.

Had Santa known that Snowball only ever operated a toy sailboat? Jinx highly doubted it! But it was a little late to wonder about that now.

Later that day they were cooking over a fire. They had managed to save the matches from the boat and were able to find some wood on the island. By this time Jinx had calmed down, after all, they were all  in the same boat now. All stranded on an island. It didn’t do any good to be mad.

While they were cooking their food, Jangle spoke up. “Do you think this island has wild animals on it?”

“I wouldn’t worry about that. The bigger problem is how do we get off this island?”said Jinx.

Meanwhile Snowball was staring off into the distance, not finishing the food that he was holding in his hand.

“Umm…Jinx about the wild animals…”

“I told you guys not to worry about that!  Why should we worry about crazy, wild animals. You all are getting yourselves scared over nothing!”

“B…but…” cried Jangle

ROAR!!!!

Jinx JUMPED,   dropping the food that he held in his hands. He looked behind him and found himself looking into the eyes of the strangest animal that he had ever seen!

(to be continued…)