The Treasure of the Island: Explorers, #2

By Melissa J. Roche, Ressa Draco and Gabriel M. James

Is the hidden treasure of Tesoro Island legend or legit?

It's real, according to an old-and soggy-message in a bottle, which sends dragon prince Fuego off on a daring treasure hunt to the heart of the island itself. With his sister Oro the crow, he leads the crew of Explorers past the edges of the magic map and into the unknown. 

But they're not the only ones on the hunt. Seven evil hedgehog wizards (hezzards) are hot on their tails, not to mention a mysterious (and really pretty) blue dragon, and a suspicious snowy owl. 

Who will find the Treasure of Tesoro Island? Real or not, here the Explorers come...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blade Wheel Books
• Release date: Jul 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227747037

Book preview

Chapter 1

Treasure and Hedgehogs

It was another misty morning on Tesoro Island, and fifteen-year-old Prince Fuego was sitting on the edge of the easternmost castle turret, thinking about hidden treasure and hedgehogs.

He was sitting on the edgiest edge of the turret, just below the window where you could look out to see bad guys coming up the hill toward the castle and throw squishy fruit at them to make them stay away. To be specific, he was perched on the little ledge just below the window, the ledge where you could line up a whole bunch of squishy fruit and push it all off at once on top of the bad guys if they didn’t get the message after the throwing bit.

He was up there because the view was spectacular, and his dad and mom weren’t watching. And because he had been a dragon a few minutes ago, which had made it easier to fly up to the turret and land on the stone-shingled roof. It hadn’t been quite as easy to turn back into a human prince and keep his balance while shimmying down the roof to the window and the skinny ledge, but he had managed. Because he was strong, and brave, and not afraid of heights like his older sister Joya.

Now he was just sitting, as a boy instead of a dragon, with shaggy black hair that the wind was currently tossing into his light-green eyes, dangling gangly legs that had been shaking a bit—okay, a lot—just minutes before, reassuring himself that it wasn’t a stupid idea and he could just turn into a dragon again and fly away if he fell so he was actually really perfectly safe.

He gazed off toward the morning mists flitting through the tops of the trees of the eastern forest, and thought about hidden treasure again. Not just any hidden treasure. The amazing Treasure of Tesoro Island, the one his grandfather King Theodore had found almost twenty years ago on one of his exploring adventures somewhere away off in the island’s interior.

The king had mysteriously disappeared after that adventure, leaving behind only a cryptic message that had floated down one of the streams to the Cambiador Castle. His son Leon, Fuego’s dad and the current king, had fished the bottle out of the stream just before it washed out to sea, but not in time to save most of the message. All that was left after the water damage was Grandpa Theo’s kingly signature and a few enigmatic words:

... have to stay... the most valuable treasure...

At least, that was the story that had made its way down over the years, told to bright-eyed toddlers who preferred adventure over sleep. Now, many sleepless nights later, this bright-eyed prince was ready to find out if the story was true.

It was true, at least according to the wizards. The ones who had turned up at his family’s castle eight years ago to inquire about a so-called potentially hazardous magical treasure, then had pitched a huge fuss when the royal family had refused to give out any information. One thing had led to another, ending up with seven cranky wizards and a cursed royal family.

The wizards had used their best super-strong transformation spell to turn the whole family into shapeshifters, humans who can change into animals. So it was that Fuego and his sisters and parents had spent eight years learning to live with their—sometimes dangerous—animal alter egos.

Up until a particular climactic moment only just a week ago, Fuego hadn’t been able to control his own transformation at all, finding himself turning into a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon whenever he was angry at anyone or anything. Now was different; he was still getting used to it, but he could shift back and forth without completely losing control of his emotions.

At least, as long as he didn’t think too hard about wizards.

He cast a dragony scowl across the field to the dark line of the forest, watching the beams of golden sunlight filter through the trees. They were still out there, somewhere. If they were even wizards at the moment. They had shown up inside the castle just last week disguised as a troop of tiny but menacing hedgehogs, who had apparently stuck around the island for eight whole years just to spy on the royal family.

Yes, hedgehogs. Cute, innocent, harmless—and pure evil. Except in the case of these particular wizards, only one of those adjectives was actually true.

Wizard hedgehogs. Wiz-hogs? Wedgehogs? Hezzards? Definitely hezzards. Fuego grinned until his teeth showed.

Then he scowled again, because who did those hezzards think they even were, barging into the Cambiador castle and stealing what rightfully belonged to his family? Well, okay, his family didn’t technically own the treasure, not yet anyway. But they had found the island and built the castle, and his grandpa had sent that message saying he did find something, so if there really was something out there it definitely belonged to their family.

Just then, a flapping noise startled him out of his wits, almost knocking him off his precarious perch. He swung his head toward the sound, ready to yell or breathe fire or anything in between...

But it was only a crow.

A familiar crow, with a twinkle in its beady black eye that looked a lot like a crowy smirk.

Oro the Crow, by Ressa Draco

Chapter 2

A Crowy Conversation

Fuego crossed his arms and glared at the crow, with the special big-brothery glare he reserved for this particular bird.

Dad is going to roar if he finds you up here, he warned.

The crow cocked its head sideways and cackled at him, ruffling its feathers... then it spun around with a whooshing sound...

And turned into a girl. His little sister Oro, to be precise.

Oro shook herself, settling her favorite layered and flappy black shirt around her shoulders. Then she dropped down to sit on the edge of the turret beside him, still fixing him with her beady-eyed gaze.

I was about to say the same thing to you, she retorted. What are you doing up here?

Fuego sighed. Gotta love snoopy little sisters. Slisters? Snoosters? Totally snoosters.

Enjoying the morning air, he huffed.

Ha, she snorted. "Since when does my brother ever get up before nine to enjoy the morning air? You’re scheming something, aren’t you? And I bet I know just what it is."

He glared at the twinkle in his snooster’s eye.

You’re plotting three different ways to sneak into the kitchen and steal some of Elliot’s delicious breakfast rolls.

Ha! Now it was his turn to snort. No way. They’re too fruity. Before meeting their new friend the teenage cook, he would have thought no one could manage to make cinnamon rolls with six different kinds of tropical fruit baked in. Elliot should call them fruit rolls instead. Or frolls. Yup, they were frolls.

Come to think of it, all of Elliot’s dishes tended to be fruity. Either that or fishy. But Fuego had to admit the change was new and interesting. The castle’s magical toaster oven usually took care of the Cambiador family well enough, but Mr. Toaster had gotten himself into a bit of a cranky mood of late and had decided to serve them nothing but bacon-wrapped asparagus and garlic ice cream for weeks on end up till now.

How a toaster oven managed to serve any kind of ice cream was still a mystery to them all, but hey. Magic for the win.

Not the rolls, then? Hm. Oro tapped her chin, thinking. Then her eyes sparkled again. I know! You’re plotting how to get your hands on Ressa’s gloves and find out your own secret magical ability!

He snorted again. Yeah, right. While he had to admit that the idea of magic gloves that added new superhero skills with each wearer sounded pretty awesome, the gloves definitely felt like a last-adventure, been-there-done-that sort of thing. Not to mention the white gloves always looked like they were made with rainbows and sparkles, which really wasn’t his look. He only dressed in black, or very, very dark red. And sometimes fire colors.

Well then. I bet you’re scheming up a plan to run off into the heart of the island and find Grandpa’s hidden treasure.

The statement caught him by surprise, and he darted a look at his sister. Her smirk widened at his reaction. Bingo, she crowed, exulting in her victory.

Fuego sucked in a breath, thinking about how royally his plans could be ruined by a tattletale snooster. Please please please don’t tell Mom and Dad, he begged with his eyes, not quite ready to bring himself to actually beg anything from anyone, least of all his little sister.

Her eyes teased him back. And I bet you were just thinking how impossible your plans would be without the help of a sneaky Crow.

Chapter 3

Sneaking, Without a Crow

That night, Fuego crept through the darkened castle halls two hours after his usual bedtime, trying not to think how much easier this particular spy mission would be with the help of a sneaky Crow.

No, he had told Oro back on the castle turret that morning. He hadn’t clarified which of her statements the no applied to, just no. Yes, he was in fact planning a daring adventure to find the mysterious treasure, but no, he had no intentions of inviting his twelve-year-old sister.

He shook off the pinch of guilt between his shoulder blades and focused on sneaking. Only one more hall between him and his prize, now. A really, really long hall full of dark doorways that were mostly open and empty and kind of creepy to walk past, but still.

Not all of the rooms off the hall were empty. Several of the first few were full of sleeping adventurers, members of the team of quirky characters that Oro had somehow picked up on her travels overseas.

The first room had been loaned to Captain Gabriel, also known as Cap, the team’s noble and generic leader, with a hero’s heart and an insatiable curiosity for anything that sounded exciting and adventurous. And the courage to face down a roaring dragon to teach said dragon a lesson about sharing. Fuego still hadn’t quite forgiven Cap for hugging his mouth shut during the final showdown back in the courtyard last week. But he hadn’t eaten him yet either.

The next room had been claimed by Ressa the Defender, the young woman warrior who always seemed to be accompanied by a full set of dangerous things with sharp points and edges. And Cap. She always seemed to be accompanied by Cap. The two of them could usually be found either sword fighting or going on picnics together, two obvious signs of a serious relationship.

At the moment, both Cap’s and Ressa’s rooms were empty and dark, the doors slightly ajar. So they weren’t sleeping either. Fuego raised an eyebrow, but kept moving as quickly as he could through the rest of the hallway.

Next up was Elliot’s room. He knew it was the cook’s room because of the mild scent of fruit rolls—frolls—wafting on the air as he approached it. That, and the warning posted on the door:

"Keep Out. Trespassers will be treated to sizable helpings of Chef’s Surprise and subject to bad joke testing without warning."

Fuego snorted. Just hanging out around the teenage cook was enough to subject anyone to bad joke testing.

The cook’s door was ajar as well, and okay, now it was starting to get a little creepy, the growing number of adventurers out and about at night instead of sleeping. Maybe they were having a secret meeting or something. Or maybe they had all had exactly the same idea as he had, and they were sneaking off right now to find the treasure on their own...

Fuego shrugged his tense shoulders and hurried on past. If the wizard was gone too, that would only make the job of searching his room that much easier.

Yes, wizard. Because Oro had somehow managed to make friends with a wizard named Astriel on her last adventure, and convinced him to come visit the Cambiador Castle in hopes that he