Tia Dalma ventured through the Jamaican jungle, glancing at her surroundings as she traveled. She passed exotic trees which towered over her. When at last she reached a wharf, she noticed a corpse lying on the ground. Feeling curious, she walked over to it to examine it. She got a good look at its face, complete with a dark, black beard. It must have been rotting for weeks. The sight of his face invoked a vision of the future; she could see Blackbeard the pirate, accompanied by a woman who was very dear to him, searching for something, revealed in another image to be a water-filled place containing a ring of stone. She did not know for certain what it meant. What she did know was that Blackbeard had to live.
She sat down for a while, chanting words which contituted a ritual which she had mastered. After all, she was a voodoo mystic. When the ritual was finished, cadaver was brought back to life, no longer appearing to be decomposed as it had before.
"Who are you?" Blackbeard asked.
"I am Tia Dalma, master of voodoo," she answered.
"I'm... alive again."
"I resurrected you."
"Am I a zombie?"
Tia Dalma laughed.
"If you were a zombie, would you be able to think for yourself?"
Blackbeard recalled memories of people he had turned into zombies. He felt nothing like how he would imagine they felt; he had free will. He turned his attention back to Dalma.
"Why did you bring me back to life?"
"I had a vision when I saw your face. Your fate is tied to a future event. I saw a ring of stone surrounded by water. I am not sure what it means, but you were accompanied by a woman. You were of advanced age, and she looked much younger than you."
"A ring surrounded by water."
"Perhaps it is a mystical place only heard of in legend. Perhaps the Fountain of Youth?"
"That's preposterous. I have been to the Fountain of Youth, and there was no ring of stone."
Blackbeard stood up and started to walk away.
"Where are you going, Blackbeard?"
"To find a ship."
"And where will that ship take you?"
"Wherever the tides take me."
"Every tide is predetermined. Your fate is tied to the place I saw in my vision."
"And where is this place?"
"That is for you to find out."