Timothy lived on a small island. His island rested between the ocean and a mainland. Timothy's island lay like a green jewel in the rough seas-green leafy, tropical trees and much foilage, including rare yellow and orange flowers covered the ground. Many types of animals, to be listed later in this story, found their way to this island a millennium ago. But, the only human on the island was Timothy.
He had made friends of all the animals in this small ark and these animals responded by respecting Timothy as one of their own. In addition to caring for the plants, Timothy cared for the many animals.
On his island paradise, Timothy counted five badgers, ten hedgehogs, six Roe deer, nine foxes (four kits), two Arctic wolves, too many rabbits to count, birds of all shapes and colors, and a huge, ancient sea tortoise.
Timothy and the animals shared a rare gift in common. The boy and the animals understood each other. In other words, Timothy could talk to the animals.
For as long as he could remember, Timothy lived among the animals on this verdant isle. He could see the mainland which was so close, one could imagine a giant crossing the sea in two steps to get there, but no one ever bothered either the animals or Timothy in his garden.
The reason that Timothy had remained isolated was owing to two swift sea currents, which flowed up from the southern parts of the world, surrounding his island, but making crossings treacherous. These currents churned up the sea in a fierce battle of hot and cold waters. Timothy, so far, was content to stay on the little land which he seemed to own and grow enough vegetables and catch enough fish to eat.
Some of the trees on the island grew coconuts and mangoes. But, beyond the rough seas, the mainland stood wild and cold, barred from seafarers by high, rocky cliffs, upon which thousands of puffins came twice a year, covering the rocks with their feathers.
Timothy knew that a long time ago, his island had been connected to the mainland, as the corner of the eastern side fit perfectly into a niche of rock which Timothy could see across the water.
How and when his little bit of earth had become detached from the mainland remained a puzzle to the boy.
The huge difference between the mainland and Timothy's island was the churning hot waters which encircled his land and made it a little Garden of Eden.
That so many odd animals from so many parts of the world settled on Timothy's island remained a mystery. But, Timothy found two clues when he was twelve.
On his twelfth birthday, which Timothy did not realize was his birth date, the boy discovered a small cave on the western shore. In the cave, which smelled dark and dank, lay two chests. One held two Bibles, and two books with notes on language. The other chest had been filled to the brim with rare and costly jewels.
Timothy could read. How he could read remained another mystery, as he could not remember his parents or any teachers. But, read he could.
The Bible opened to Timothy two significant details. The first was that his ancestors came from the cold, northern country which he could see from the eastern beach. That Timothy's ancestors had written their names in the Bible, and kept a journal of fifty-two generations, gave Timothy an idea of who he was and from where he had come.
Timothy's ancestors had been Catholics from an area of a land called England. His ancestors came from a place called. Regnum Orientalium Anglorum. A story in the back of the Bible revealed that Timothy's ancestors had fled from their lands at the death of King Edmund on November 20, 869. They traveled north and west until they came to a small peninsula sticking out into the sea from a cold, rocky coast. One name listed in the generations, written in dark black ink, read Ceolwulf. Timothy imagined this name belonged to one of his ancestors.
The second chest holding the jewels also indicated a name of an ancestor. The name of a woman, Alba, was inscribed on the box of jewels. Timothy imagined the jewels adorned the neck and head, ears and wrists of this lady long gone. But, he had never opened the box of jewels.
Timothy could read the Bible and considered himself a Christian. In fact, he wore a cross wrought of silver and decorated with green and purple jewels constantly.
But, even though Timothy hid the jewels in a second chest in his small hut, these jewels were known to four other men on the mainland.
Four evil men had paid an old pirate for a letter which was written in Latin. Only one of these men could read this, but he ascertained that the jewels passed down from a Roman family near the once-island of Flegg of from a villa, called Faustina, had been taken away at the martyrdom of St. Edmund, King, by a relative of Edmund's to a far away place on the western coast.
This letter indicated that the jewels disappeared fifty-two generations from the date of the old pirate's dates, which he compiled at the bottom of the letter.
The letter held a mysterious message that the place of the jewels lay in a cave in the Garden of Eden.
Many thieves had perished in the valley of the Tigris and Mesopotamia Rivers, believing the Garden of Eden where the jewels were hidden was the original one in the Middle East. The old pirate himself had spent years of his life traveling to that part of the world, looking for the jewels, until one day, he realized that the letter was written in an Old English dialect as well as in Latin. The pirate, smarter than most pirates, felt a cold sweat covering his body when he experienced an epiphany that the Garden of Eden with the chest of jewels actually was off the coast of England.
That this pirate took a ship back to England and landed in a small town near Norwich was the beginning of his terrible, fatal illness. Before he died, he met the four evil men who took the letter from him and heard his explanation before he passed away.
The men, one Scot, one English, one Welsh and one Irish swore an oath to each other to find the jewels and share the wealth. The Scot was called Roger Blood, the Welshman, Hywell Jones, the Irishman, Hugh O'Toole and the Englishman, Ralph Claxton.
Evil grew in their hearts as they planned to find and kill anyone who owned the jewels of the Garden of Eden.
Each man excelled in one of the seven deadly sins. Roger, with red hair and green eyes, had an "anger" problem. The other three men feared his temper, and Roger became the leader of the pack.
Hywell resembled his great sin of greed. His once round face was pinched with anxiety and avarice.
Hugh, the smallest man. was called, "The Sloth" by the other three men. A clever man and daring to his boots, he had a habit of falling asleep after dinner and never was seen until late the next morning.
Ralph, the youngest man in the group, exhibited a serious attraction to the ladies, any lady. Of course, he was steeped in lust.
If there had been three more men with the sins of envy, gluttony and pride, an entire team of the seven deadly sins would be planning a surprise visit to Eden, but luckily for the innocent Timothy, only four of these sins would make way to the little island.
On the coldest, wettest day of the year, the team of four decided to go west to the coast and look for Eden.
They argued a lot over the way to go, but finally, Roger decided on a ship, which left the northern coast of East Anglia and sailed around the northern parts of Scotland and down to the islands near Jura, where Roger thought Eden would be located.
So, after several months of travel, the four men sailed around the coast and down past the Hebrides, and somewhere in the area of Islay. Roger was wrong, as Timothy's island lay farther south, between the coast of the Mull of Galloway and the mainland near Luce Bay.
Timothy's island was so small and so secret, no map held its name or marked its place.
To be continued..............