Jack's Dalliance
Captain Jack Sparrow had never been sure if it was real or a rum-fueled dream.
He had told Elizabeth the story of the bootleggers, and others about the sea turtle raft made with his own back hair.
All he knew for sure were the facts - he had been abandoned on the island by his mutinious crew, he had stumbled upon the rum and sat down on the shore determined to drink himself into a stupor, and that he came out of it days later aboard a rum-runners ship, his passage paid for with a mysterious gold doubloon.
It was what happened in between that was a bit fuzzy.
He was into his second bottle of rum, eyes still on the horizon, when he noticed something a bit closer.
Eyes narrowing, he got to his unsteady feet, and stumbled toward the shoreline and a small bit of wreckage that had clustered there.
She gave him a wry smile as he got closer. "Have a drink for a lady?"
Wordlessly, he handed her the bottle of rum.
With a merry twinkle in her otherwordly silver blue-green eyes, she tipped the bottle back and drank deep. Jack was amazed any woman could put down that much spirits in one swallow. He sat down on a bit of the wreckage and watched her. Her blonde hair adorned with seashells and trinkets ran down to her waist, covering her assets in a way that was just a shame.
"Merci beaucoup," she said, handing him the bottle back with a wicked grin. You're not one of the rum runners. And you've got a pistol."
"Don't forget my hat," he said, patting his prize possession.
She smiled. "Let me guess. You're a pirate."
"Captain Jack Sparrow, at your service, love," he said, giving her a flash of gold in his grin.
"If you're a captain, where's your ship?" She looked around. "My island isn't that large that you could conceal it nearby."
"My crew marooned me here. I didn't know this place belonged to anyone."
"Oh, it does," she said. "To the King of the Sea. He gave it to me, as a wedding gift."
"You're married to the King of the Sea?"
"Yes. Does that frighten you, my pirate?"
He grinned lavisously. "Not a bit, love. It'd take more than a jealous husband to scare off Captain Jack Sparrow."
She returned his grin and with a sweep of one pale hand, moved her hair back so everything was on display. "Not so jealous. He has his concubines." She grabbed his white shirt to pull him closer to her. "I have my human dalliances." She brought her lips to his and kissed him long and hard, dragging him into the water with her. Jack's hands skimmed her body, running down to the slick, shiny blue-green scales that made up her lower-half.
"Not that I'm not up for a dalliance," Jack said, when she at last released him. "But I can't reckon how we would work. For any kind of pleasures."
She laughed. "Try checking behind the third scale." She reclaimed his mouth again and Jack was lost.
When he returned to his senses aboard the rum-runners ship, there was a gold doubloon, much like what had paid for his passage, tied up into his hair.
And a strange, foggy memory of the best afternoon of his life.