Summary: Jack finds himself shackled to a pole on an island with no idea how he got there and a humungous hangover. He only has one thought on his mind, getting back onto the Black Pearl, but the navy men who've caught him don't seem to agree with this, and he has to find a way to get past them the East India Trading Company and the sea to be reunited with his boat…I mean ship. All the while trying to remember what he has done which has upset them all so much. This adventure takes place ten years before The Curse of the Black Pearl. Story shall be continued only with reviews, I know it's harsh but….pirate.

MISADVENTURE

A BIT OF A REST

I knew it was there, but what did I care. The sirens could call as much as they wanted, the waves could constantly reach for me, the smell could waft across the winds to my nose, and the blue could be reflected in the sky…..so maybe I cared a little. But there was nothing I could do, cruelty I called it, chaining a man up in full view of the things he loves the most, allowing him to be so close, yet so far away.

These navy men, they're a cruel breed no denying it and they know it was killing me being able to see the sea to almost touch it and be in full view of my beautiful Pearl and yet be unable to move closer to it. I was also thirsty and hearing the waves lapping against the sand seemed to be making my throat even dryer. The sun beat down upon my skin and I felt quite dreadfully burnt it being midday and all, at this time I would have found a shady patch on my Pearl and probably would have been dozing off in comfort and perfect contentment. Right now my head was turned around so I could look enviously at the navy men lying a little further off in the shade of trees and canvas covering they had erected themselves, dozing in hammocks or the comfortable sand and having quite a cool time about it. It almost makes a devilish rogue such as myself repentant…almost….

My head ached and I think I had a bit of a hangover, or a lot of one. I was shackled to a pole and had no memory of how I had gotten to that present situation, though it did seem to happen to me a lot. One thing I did know though, was that I must have had a mighty fine night at Tortuga, which I remember making berth at, finding my new fine crew and getting drunk as I could possibly get. After that time I can not remember one thing but it appeared I had been picked up by a few navy men, and I had no idea why they had dragged me off, but I wasn't really worried about that at the present time, as a pirate I take things as they come and prioritize, and right then my belly was giving me the most protest.

I saw one of the men get up, he held a bowl of fruit and looked quite young. I was wary of him at first, hoping he wasn't thinking of making a name for himself by putting in a few blows against the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow while he was chained up and currently harmless, but all he did was casually walk by me, as if I wasn't even there. I assumed he was stretching his legs, but I still watched him warily. He stood a little away from me, looking out to the ocean as if admiring the view and fresh air. He then passed by me on his way back to the calling soldiers. I noticed something drop from his bowl but I didn't move, pretending to watch him with loathing which wasn't hard to muster as he walked back to the other resting men. I watched them for a bit longer then turned my head. It helped give them an idea that I had lost interest in them and their lazing ways, and was looking for something else to fill my starving, dehydrated sun stroked hours.

After a while I heard the music and laughter drift from up there way, I then sent a casual glance towards the place in the sand where I'd seen the thing drop. There lay a peeled piece of banana and I almost cried out in happiness. Obviously my pleading gaze had been haunting the officers as they had all been silent while I was facing them, and one had decided to give me something to shut me up so to speak. Now there was the problem of picking it up. You see I was shackled to what I call a pole but really was a blooming tree practically, stuck in the ground firmly. The bark was still on it and my arms practically went halfway across it, they had made the chain so short so I was almost hugging the tree. It was all I could do to keep my face off the bark and prevent myself from having splinters stuck in my beard, which I doubted would look very becoming. There was no way I could sit down being in the current position so my feet and legs were aching terribly. I could hardly move as it was extremely hard to move the chains up or down, or even sideways as the bark was so rough and the chain kept on getting stuck and had to be pulled violently. I had already tried this out, but when a man is as starving as I am he learns to take things in his stride, and make things move.

It took some maneuvering of my legs and body, but I finally managed to push the fruit closer and with a bit of wiggling pushed the cuffs down the pole I was harnessed to until I could grasp it between weak fingers of my right hand. I crouched like that with the banana in my clutches, panting somewhat from the difficulty of pulling my arms down the pole, which was no easy business and had caused them to bleed once more, for a little while. I then managed to raise myself up in what could be referred to as a more comfortable position, namely standing, though it wasn't really as my feet were aching terribly and managed the maneuver myself until the banana piece was firmly in my mouth, though I don't know how I did it. I munched on it then gulped it down, it had been a bit sandy and squashed from all that moving but I wasn't one to turn up my nose at a bit of food, though I would have preffered rum. With a bit of food in my belly, scant and unpleasant as it was, I could now turn my slightly aching head on what to do next. I faced the ocean once more and then absent mindedly gazed at the horizon, my mind whirring with many ideas.

At first when I had awoken to find myself cuffed so I had shouted at the men, tried to persuade, flatter and finally threaten them. This seemed to do no good though and finally I had yelled myself hoarse, my throat was raw and hurting and I was desperately thirsty. I had called for a bit of rum, then for a bit of food, and finally for a bit of water but the marines just ignored me and I supposed that they had been threatened by their commanding officer with a much worse punishment for talking to me then my winging was. Though I proudly must say I saw many of them cringing while I had been shouting at them, and many of them turning red at my obscenities and songs. That plan of talking and tricking my way out had led to no where though so I had thought up my second plan which was to break the pole they had shackled me too. I think it must have been in the ground for a while now, so I supposed that this was one of their own private berths for repairs and the such but that thought did not help me rip the pole out of the ground. I had pulled, and shaken, kicked and cursed but it hadn't budged one wit. Finally I had taken to just pulling my wrists with a desperate idea of ripping my hands off, just to be free, but this didn't happen either and it just caused my wrists to bleed and hurt immensely, another pain to add to my ever growing list. I finally had stood there for a while spent on strength and my plan of the begging look seemed to go off well, even though it wasn't a plan as such, but still left me in the same position, shackled to a pole burnt, thirsty, exhausted and desperate to just jump in the sea cool down and try to swim to my Pearl. At least I wasn't so hungry any more though; I suppose a pirate must count his blessings.

Finally I just lent against the pole, using it to take the weight off my aching feet somewhat. My face was pressed into the rough wood, and after a bit of wiggling I managed to use the pole to push my hat over my eyes so they could be shaded at least. I had never tried to sleep standing up but I supposed that this time was as good as any and as long as the navy men didn't take it in their heads to play shoot the pirate in the back I would be fine. I tried to doze off and imagine the pole was the mast of the pearl and I had shackled myself to it in order to allow no man to take it away from me and in a way it worked. I dozed off, or I think I did, because in a moment a burst of pain ran up my arm from my wrists, I had slid down the pole and my weight had pulled on the cuffs. I sighed heavily and quickly stood up, I supposed sleep wasn't for me, but they had to come and unshackle me soon, before I roasted to death, I was quite sure they wanted me alive otherwise they would have shot me by now. So I gazed at the sea and let my thoughts wonder to rum and my pretty ship which was visible on the horizon hovering and waiting for me. I knew it would be gone by the night, the men knew that in any situation if I didn't come back by night time to keep to the code and wait in Tortuga for as long as they could for me. That thought made me sigh heavily, but it was good they would be gone by then, I wouldn't be surprised if these navy men were planning on meeting up with some of their bigger mates, and then the Pearl would have been gone for real, enveloped in the sea. I knew Old Billy boy would look after it well and the other men would hang on from greed, seeing as I was the only man with the bearings to the biggest treasure in the Caribbean. Its funny how our world works, I just got my blooming ship and freedom and then I'm taken away from by the law. There goes my resolution to never let it slip from under me; I never really was one for resolutions. I sighed again and began tapping the pole for want of something to do. I was still bored so I began whistling, this did not seem to help and quiet laughter coming from the soldiers behind me made me think it was getting much too quiet and peaceful on this here island since the time I had stopped shouting.

"And the mermaids call to the seafaring men," I began singing softly, my throat was still scratchy and dry but it was feeling a little less raw and I thought I'd be able to manage to run through the song at least twice before it disappeared completely. "TO THEIR DEATHS IN A WATERY DEN," I belted out at the top of my lungs.

I heard many of the navy men groan loudly behind me, someone even shouted despairingly, "Oh no, he's at it again."

I grinned, maybe a bit more singing would break their hard hearts or ears, and they'd let old Jacky out of these shackles or at least chain him into a more comfortable position so he could sleep. I continued with my song, there were many yells to me to shut up, but I kept on relentlessly. If I couldn't get any rest I might as well take pleasure out of stealing their rest from them. "BUT FOR LOVE OF THE SEA," I finished with and then began another song to loud protests. After I had gone through it a second time I called to the protesting marines, turning my head to catch a glance at them, many of them had their hands over their poor suffering ears, having a bad voice and being tone deaf is a blessing and quite a handy weapon, the only thing I could wish for would be a good song to sing, but the scant few I know were gotten from taverns and I never had bothered to really learn any others.

"Gentleman," I called behind my shoulder, "I'm getting awful tired, but I can't seem to sleep shackled as I am. And when I can't rest I tend to sing, over and over and over and….well you get the idea." I grinned as I saw their horrified faces. "Maybe if I was obliged with a hammock or some such I'll be able to rest and when a man is sleeping he can't sing. Upstanding gentleman's such as yourselves must see this. I'm stuck on an island anyway, not many places for me to run, and one hammock for me means rest for all of us, a bit of water wouldn't go astray either. I'll tell you what you can even shackle me to the hammock if you want, what say you to that?" I chinked my chains to close my persuasive speech and waited, watching for what they'd decide to do next. I saw them contemplating it and it seemed a very attractive deal to them, personally my voice was getting a bit tired so it wasn't such a bad thought for me either.

"Let's do it," said the young officer who had dropped the fruit, "He'll drive us slowly mad if we don't."

One of the other officers grabbed him, "No you idiot," he snapped, "The commander said not to go any where near him, or talk to him at all. If he finds we've tried to make him comfortable we'll be discharged.

"He's as sly as a fox," said another, "I've heard stories bout him and his ship. We shackle him to a hammock and the next thing we know we'll be trussed up and he'll be off with our ship."

"Don't be stupid," the fruit marine snorted, but I heard that hint of doubt in his voice. It made me somewhat proud that people could think so much of me and sometimes it was very rewarding having such a big legend, but this was not one of those times.

"C'mon Johnny boy," I muttered under my breath, christening the fruit marine with a name of my own devices. He looked a lot like Johnny to me anyhow, gullible and completely soft hearted.

"You haven't heard the stories, you don't know," an old sailor suddenly growled from behind the boys, he was quite hairy and resembled something of a badger, quite a foreboding fellow he was, "You're just a green boy on the sea, so don't go shooting your mouth off or making decisions. You don't want to displease the captain or you'll have the skin flayed off your very back."

I saw little Johnny's resolve waver, he finally sat back down on the sand sullenly. "He'll probably run out of voice eventually, but be prepared to live through a few more hundred songs." He muttered grumpily.

The boy was giving me a bit more credit then was actual fact, as I didn't know if my voice could even hold out for two more bouts, but I began a new bout of singing on the top of my lungs, trying to prove his point. I turned my gaze back to the sea as my neck had begun aching from all the craning and turning. I knew that now there was probably no chance of me getting a comfortable hammock, but there was still fun in torturing the navy men, and I was never one to have qualms about a pass time such as that. I just wished that I could enjoy a bit of a sleep. After a while once I was on my fourth of fifth bout, I wasn't really sure losing count a while back, I heard some boots on the sand treading towards me. I grinned smugly, quite proud of my skills of torturing.

"Now see, it ain't so hard. I doubt that commander can be half as painful as my pretty singing voice." I called patronizingly behind my shoulder, not bothering to look which marine had been sent to unshackle me. "I'm mighty tired now, so a bit of sleep will do me good and during the night if some water comes my way, I might even forget all the songs I know entirely when I wake up tomorrow."

The person stopped behind me and said nothing. I frowned, slightly concerned by their silence and was about to turn around. Then something hit me over the head and darkness enveloped me. Not exactly how I had envisioned getting a bit of rest, but I suppose pirates gotta take what he can get. At least I wasn't thirsty anymore, my feet didn't hurt, the sun didn't bother me and my wrists weren't sending bursts of pain up my arm. But one thing which did bother me in the darkness was dreams of the sea and the Pearl calling to me once again. That's one thing I couldn't seem to escape through a bit of rest.