Chapter One

Sade is Tricked

A storm rattled the Ocean Pearl's sails. The crew, mixed with both genders, raced around making sure everything was okay. Strange, how storms can change everything about your mood. Like how you could have been peacefully chatting with your first mate one minute, then, when the clouds moved in, began complaining bitterly about the whole situation.

"This is crazy. You'd think that Davy Jones controlled the weather, too!" I abandoned the wheel and began pacing. "I'm going to go get some dried pineapple," I huffed. "That usually helps."

"Maybe it helps YOU," muttered Karissa, my best friend and first mate. "Should I take over the wheel, Captain?"

"No need. The wind did it for us." My long blonde lion's mane of hair billowed out as I stormed back to my cabin.

Well, it used to be my cabin. Now I'm sharing it with Captain Jack Sparrow, who glanced up at my arrival.

"Well someone's uptight tonight," he said cheerfully. "Lovely little breeze."

"It's a gale, you bloody pirate," I grumbled, stumbling over to my cabinet with my personal supply of dried pineapple.

The ship shifted suddenly. I tripped and fell into Jack, who caught me and we both ended up tumbling onto my bed. Jack's bottle of rum started to tip, but he reached over to catch it just in time.

I groaned and went limp in Jack's arms. "I give up. I just give up."

"Come on, love," he said playfully, standing up and extending an arm to help me up. "This isn't the Captain Sade River, the destined Golden Lion that I know."

I took his hand and he pulled me up. "Some storm," I commented.

Jack crossed the room to take a sip of rum, but the ship moved again, and the result was a soggy, bewildered Jack Sparrow on my bed, and a dazed, rather frustrated me on the hard cabin floor.

"This is getting out of hand," I complained.

"At least you're not the one covered in rum, love."

"Knowing you, I'd think you would delight in that," I said, picking myself up.

He sniffed his arm. "Well, it does make me smell nice."

If smelling nice meant smelling like rum, Jack always smelled nice.

"Anyway, Jack, Karissa and I are having a little trouble with the wheel. Will you help us?"

"Of course, love," he started, when the ship shifted again and I ended up in Jack's arms.

"I could get used to this, love," he purred, tracing my lips with his forefinger.

"Stop it," I told him sternly. "We have to get the ship righted. You don't want to sink to Davy Jones's locker, do you?"

He stopped mid-trace with his finger on my lower lip, staring at me dumb-founded.

"Okay, bad choice of words." I cringed, and he let go of me, grabbed my arm, and led me on deck, muttering something about bad jokes.

Why are there two captains on this ship? How am I a girl and still a captain? And what's up with the whole Davy Jones thing?

Well.

Let's start at the beginning.

The beginning is that I am the first female captain ever to set foot in Tortuga, the biggest pirate hangout ever. Not that I'm a pirate. I'm not so big on the whole stealing/killing thing. Never done that. But I captain the Ocean Song.

I didn't always live at sea. Before my life on the ocean, I lived in a normal family, had a normal life, and went to school.

I hated it.

That was when the pirate Hector Barbossa kidnapped me and my best friend Karissa Norman. We escaped on a rowboat, and headed to Tortuga. We didn't really want to go back to our normal lives, so we stole a ship (okay, so we stole once. So sue me.) We named it the Ocean Song and gathered a crew of women sailors that had been turned down by men simply because they were women. Karissa let me be captain, so I let her be first mate.

Things were perfect for a while. We sailed the Caribbean, finally freedom, sweet freedom! I had a loyal crew, a loyal first mate, and best of all, I was now Captain Sade River.

That was when trouble struck.

I was born on Friday the thirteenth, so, unknown to pretty much the whole world, I couldn't go to heaven when I died. I had to join Davy Jones on his ship, the Flying Dutchman, and be a part of his damned crew forever. Basically, I had to forever serve him.

We ran into his ship and had a bit of a fight. I told the crew to go hide, but Karissa wouldn't leave my side. We both drew our swords as Davy Jones, who looks a bit like an octopus man, came. We had an epic sword fight, and he ended up telling us the prophecy that a Golden Lion would end up defeating him ultimately.

The Golden Lion was called that because of her golden hair that looked like a lion's mane.

We survived the fight, told the unsuspecting crew we had ran into Barbossa, and made for Tortuga. Karissa had heard a rumor that Captain Jack Sparrow, possibly the most famous pirate captain ever, had a magic compass that pointed to what you wanted most in the world. To make a long story short, he offered to give me the compass in exchange for my service on his ship, the Black Pearl, for a couple of months. I agreed, named Karissa captain of the Song, and set out to find the girl. Well, little did I know that that girl was me. To make another long story short, Jack, his first mate, Gibbs, and I faced Davy Jones, didn't win or lose, and found that Karissa had made her way here with a rowboat. All of us hurried back to Tortuga, teamed up, turned the Ocean Song temporarily into the Ocean Pearl, and set out to help me fulfill the prophecy.

And I don't miss school one bit!

"Karissa!" I called as Jack and I approached. "Jack's gonna give it a try!"

Jack smirked at the storm ahead of him as he took the wheel. "A storm won't stop Captain Jack Sparrow, love," he told me. "Now no more Davy Jones's locker, savvy?"

"Sure, Jack, just don't crash us, okay?" The ship moved again and I grabbed his arm to stop from skidding across deck. Karissa, however, toppled over the platform and ended up on the deck below. I chanced a glance over.

"I'm fine," she called. "Just give a warning next time before Jack takes the wheel."

Jack frowned. "Captain Jack, love, and it was like this before I started steering." He concentrated on the sea ahead, his dark brown eyes concerned. I hooked my arm through the ship's rail, squinting to see the crew rushing around and Karissa crawling back up.

"Jack!" I screamed. He glanced up and did a double take as a huge wave towered over us. Karissa and I hugged each other tight as Jack ducked. The wave only hit the platform, grabbing Jack whom I held tight to. It didn't do any good. The wave swept the both of us over board.

We went up and down a couple times, gasping for air, and I felt a little woozy once I came up the last time. Jack, who had already recovered, had lost his rum scent but not his charm. "Let me know if you need mouth-to-mouth, love," he purred seductively.

I snarled at him but didn't let go of him; what good would have come of that? The Ocean Pearl had disappeared somewhere in the distance, and I groaned. "Now what?" I asked the pirate.

"The mouth-to-mouth, I should think," murmured Jack.

"Jack! We're out in the middle of the ocean, and all you can think of is…" I found I couldn't say it. "Anyway, we're going to die, and I'm going to be damned forever and never go to heaven, and I guess I won't see you then, Jack. I'll miss you."

"You will?" he whispered, doing that lip-finger thing.

I sighed. We were going to die, and I would never see him again. I might as well tell him how I felt. "Oh, Jack, you can be annoying, but sometimes you're my best friend in the world, other than Karissa. And you're, well, brave in your own way. Your own strange, twisted way that I don't get at all. Then again, you don't really get me, either, so whatever. Anyway, you're a great friend and when you're in heaven I want you to remember me as the Golden Lion who wasn't afraid to challenge stereotypes. And I think you should know that I still have your compass in my pocket, so if you want to die with it in your hands, I understand."

"Anything else?" asked Jack.

"Well…"

"How do you think I look?"

"Wet. And amused."

"I mean, most of the time."

"Um, why?"

"Just answer."

"Well…" I blushed a little. "Handsome, I guess. In your own pirate way. But that doesn't mean you're a good person. Looks are only skin-deep." I leaned against him. "Goodbye, Jack Sparrow." The waves were getting wilder. It wouldn't be very long now. Tears rushed down my cheeks. I had failed. Never again would there be another Golden Lion.

"Hmm," Jack smirked, and I felt a bad sense of foreboding. "Now where did that island come from?"

I whipped around. There, indeed, was an island.

"I- you- that… you saw it all along, didn't you, you worm?!"

Jack's smirk grew as we stumbled onto the island. "So, you think I'm handsome, love?"

"Like I said, that doesn't mean anything!" I growled. "It doesn't mean…"

Suddenly, Jack pulled me toward him, and I was right in his face. "I understand exactly what you mean, love."

I tried to push the pirate away, but he didn't budge. "You can't move me, love…" he picked me up and twirled me around as though we were dancing. "But I can move you. I can do whatever I want with you."

I glared down at him. "I hate you."

"The last time you said that, you had just jumped into the Caribbean Sea to save me. Now, you're up in my arms, and you still say that."

"So?"

"So I'm saying that your words don't vary depending on the situation."

"So," I snarled, "you mean if I said, I'm going to knock you silly, you don't think I'd actually do that?"

Jack smirked. "Just kiss me."

I punched him, which was a mistake because it sent us both tumbling to the ground. Jack just managed to catch me but the impact of his body hitting the ground left him a little loopy. He sat for a minute trying to regain his bearings while I surveyed the supplies.

"Palm trees… a raft? Coconuts… food… A couple other plants… we'll have to test if they're poisonous… and that's about it."

The storm was calming down a little. I sighed. The first thing to do was to try to get that raft ready. I gave Jack another kick, my rage at him still freshly ablaze, and got to work planning.