The camping Pirates 🏴‍☠️

This short story was inspired by a true story

Today was pretty adventurous. Wait, let’s take a few steps back. We woke up to the sun shining on our tent… nope not that far. My family has five people in it, Mom, Dad, DrowndedDragon, and FlyingOrca. Then there’s me of course. We were camping when the crazy stuff happened. Where? To be honest, I don’t really know, I wasn’t old enough to care really. We wanted to swim in the river near us, but it was too cold. So instead we went for a hike. 

We hopped in the car, then drove to the nearest park. On our way there we crossed this cool bridge. I mean, it was cool, but also kinda scary. The bridge was under the water! By that I mean it was only a few feet under the water, we still could see the sky. When we finally got across the bridge, we turned left right into the park. The hiking trail we walked on was right along the side of the river. 

DrowndedDragon and FlyingOrca were running ahead, with me behind Mom and Dad who were talking. I liked being left alone, behind everyone. I liked it because I was able to overhear Mom and Dad’s conversations, and I could see everyone in front of me. I dunno why, but I don’t like it when people are behind me, and I can’t see them. Anyways, that’s irrelevant. Let’s get on with the story.

Mom, Dad, and I caught up with the two kids who were catching their breath. Then suddenly, Dad pointed to the water. 

“Look!” he shouted. 

“What?” I asked, looking to where he was pointing, which was at a tree. 

“Not the tree, the lake! There’s pirates!” he shouted. 

I moved to get a better view, he was right! Pirates were rowing toward us from the river! Behind them was their ship, it was a flurry of activity. 

“Are they here for us?” Mom wondered.

“Maybe, what are those?” Dad asked, seeing purple arms and bodies standing up in the rowboat, then pointing at us. 

“They’re purple people eaters!” I screamed after squinting to see better. 

“Run back to the car!” FlyingOrca shouted, running behind us toward the direction of the car. 

As a family, we ran back up the path. I looked at the river while we traveled back to the car. The pirates were rowing after us, we were just slightly faster than them. My lungs hurt from trying to put enough air into my throat at a fast pace. I felt fear along with the feeling that this was childish. How can this be real? 

We finally got to the car and inside it, then my Dad had to use the restroom! He ran back out of the car and into the outhouse. As we waited, I couldn’t help but take peeks over at the river. The purple people eaters and the pirates were getting really close now. At least the parking lot is far away from the river. 

DrowndedDragon and FlyingOrca were asking if we could have the t.v on while eating snacks. How can they be eating at a time like this? That’s when my greatest fear of today happened. Six purple people eaters were climbing out the rowboat! I probably would’ve peed my pants right then and there if I was even younger. The purple people eaters were purple, they had no nose or eyes, at least the smaller ones didn’t. There were two tall ones, about the size of Mom and Dad, there was one about the size of the one that looked like Mom’s size, except this one was just a tad bit smaller, like my size. There were two smaller ones, the left one was bigger, DrowndedDragon sized, the one on the right was FlyingOrca sized. Then the sixth one was toddler-sized. The Mom and Dad sized ones were the only ones with eyes, I wonder if the little ones just didn’t have them grown yet. The one that could be me had one eye. They all also had no hair. 

Normally I would say they looked like clones of our family, but there’s the toddler, we don’t have a toddler. Maybe in the future? Who knows. 

Dad finally got out of the restroom, then ran toward the car as soon as he saw the purple people eaters. Two pirates were hanging back in the rowboat. Then suddenly as the car roared up, from behind the trees in the river there appeared the pirate ship! 

As Dad backed the car out of the parking lot, I sighed with relief, the purple people eaters were getting back into the pirate ship, they won’t be chasing us any longer. 

Opening my eyes came a heart-stopping sight. The ship was flying above us!

“Dad, can we go any faster?” I demanded. 

“No, I’m already at the top of the speed limit!” he shouted back.

Looking over at him, he had both hands on the wheel and was sweaty from concentrating so hard. 

“So? We’re being chased by a flying ship!” Mom shouted. 

“Fine,” he said, speeding up. 

On our way to the campsite, there were hills, we were going so fast it would be fun if we weren’t being chased by pirates and purple people eaters who looked like our family. 

“Weeee!” DrowndedDragon and FlyingOrca shouted as we drove. Man, they sure don’t have a care in the world right now. 

“We’re here!” Dad shouted when we drove into the campsite. 

The ship went to chase us, but instead, it bumped into a barrier that was around the campsite. We were safe.

“Sis! Sis! Breakfast!” someone shouted, shaking me awake. 

I could smell smoke from the campfire outside the tent, sigh, it was just my imagination.