The midnight stars shine brightly over the harbor at Great Inagua. The Jackdaw moaned and groaned with her storm-worn wood settling in the calm waters after braving a massive storm. Inside the Captain's Quarters, Captain Edward Kenway sat behind his desk in the dark moonlit cabin, clenching a fist in one hand, and a cracked picture of his beloved in the other. He stared, glared actually, at two gold Reales on the desk before him and screamed a speech in his head.
"Why can't I take more of these bloody coins? Just a few thousand fucking more and then I can finally be with my dear Caroline again. Just a few more years, then I can lay down my sword, and pick up a rose," he thought to himself. There was a knock on the hatch leading to the main deck. Captain Kenway opened the hatch, but there was nothing and no one around. So he closed the hatch and turned around to go back to his chair, when a stranger was already sitting in it, and laughed at him.
Clearly not one of Kenway's crew, this man wore a gold leaf tunic with a red jacket made from crocodile hide , in a design completely alien to the pirate, with a creepy, dinosaur-reminiscent collar touching the imp's neck. His teeth were yellowed with decay and age without facial signs, and his greasy hair hung to his shoulders. A mischievous grin crossed his filthy, inhuman face as he rose to his feet.
Eager to wipe that grin away, Edward drew a pistol, which he leveled at the intruder. "Who the bloody hell are you? Take a step forward and you're a dead man," he warned.
"Ah ah ah," the stranger said mockingly, "it'll take so much more than that to kill me deary! And good luck living long enough to find out what will. As for the name, ya haven't earned the right yet!" He had an oddly high pitched yet raspy voice.
"The crew is on board with us. They'll hear this shot and come running. Now get off my ship before you get carried off in a box!"
"I'm immortal... weren't you listening? You cannot kill me deary, so please stop wasting everyone's time and just ask me what you summoned me here for! You and I both know there is something amiss! Here you are, Captain of a fine, beautiful, and tough ship in the West Indies!" The man changed his voice to a condescending, more manly tone. "And yet, all this power isn't quite satisfactory. You want freedom! But you also want love! And you can't have both."
Edward was indeed curious. This bastard had some nerve boarding his ship uninvited. What could he possibly want from the Jackdaw and her crew? Gold, most likely. Adventure, perhaps. Maybe he wished to sign on? No, this man possessed far too much guile for a pirate. The only way Edward could learn this stranger's motivations, he realized, was by playing along.
Edward sheathed his pistol. "Alright," he said in a polite tone, "I won't shoot. Who are you, stranger, and what do you want?"
The man walked out from behind the desk. "Rumplestilskin," the stranger introduced himself, rolling the 'r' in his name, and bowing low as if to a king. "charmed to meet you, Edward Kenway, minus your little tantrum there. Contrary to what ya think though, I'm your friend."
"I don't believe we've met before, Mr. Rumplestilskin, but somehow you learned exactly where to find me. Explain yourself."
"You're easy to track, Captain. You and your fellow pirates leave a swath of destruction across these waters, capturing ships and raiding plantations everywhere you sail. Yet despite all the riches you've gained, the home you built, you are still not satisfied. Something you left far behind in another world enters your thoughts every day. Caroline, no? A lovely name for such a precious deary."
Edward felt rage boil within him upon hearing the name of his beloved wife. "What do you know about Caroline, wretch?!" He demanded.
"I know that she awaits your return. I know that she has loved you from afar, but I also know that you, given your nature, cannot give up this life as we saw with the challenge her dad imposed."
The pirate captain relaxed slightly. "You must know her father, then. Right?"
"Ah! That's not the point. You want freedom, you have your ship! You want love, but you don't have her. What if I were to tell you, I could bring her to you tomorrow?" Rumplestiltskin proposed, now not blinking anymore, and grinning from ear to ear. Captain Kenway looked back behind him at the broken picture of Caroline, and agreed. Everything Rumplestiltskin said was true.
"Yes you are right, I do want her more than anything. I would stop being a pirate were it not for the gold I need to travel back home."
"Strike a deal with me, a problem with gold there'll no longer be, and you'll be free!" Rumple eerily chanted.
"You take me for an impulsive fool? Every man wants a trade off. There must be some sort of payment for you if I agree to this deal. What's your price?" Kenway was sad but certainly not stupid. Rumplestiltskin laughed again.
"Right you are, mate! My price for you, is the Jackdaw. You want to have your love? It'll cost you your ship, forever. Do we have a deal?"
The cost for Kenway was immense. Sacrifice his ship? What would become of her crew? How could he remain their captain if he and his pirate brothers had no vessel to call their own? Then again, the Jackdaw wasn't the only ship plying these waters. The pirates could easily capture another; start again with a new home. Besides, more than one vessel regularly made port here at Great Inagua, all of them crewed by sailors loyal to Kenway. And Rumplestilskin was taking only the ship, not any of Kenway's wealth. Perhaps his price wasn't so steep after all.
"Very well," Kenway agreed, "the Jackdaw goes with you, but Caroline stays with me, along with my crew."
"yes yes yes, the girl stays with you and don't worry about a thing, she'll never leave your side again, Captain. Or perhaps you should call me that." Rumplestilskin let out a coarse cackle.
Ignoring this rude remark, Kenway shook hands with the sorcerer.
"Remember, Edward," Rumplestilskin said slyly as he released Kenway's hand, "all magic, come with a price!"
"Be there some actual form to sign as proof of our deal?" Kenway asked, wanting a record for future refrence should a fight between them spark in the future.
"Funny you should ask, can you read?"
The sorcerer waved his right hand as if holding an invisible banner and in a cloud of red smoke an incredibly long scroll was conjured.
"Just sign on the dotted line," Kenway complied, but as Rumplestiltskin noticed, with his left hand not the usually seen right hand.
"What an unusual quirk! Such talent, such skill! Careful deary, when it comes to me there's only one way to battle me, fighting fire with stones does no good deary. In this world or the next Captain Kenway, the Jackdaw will be mine!" He snapped his fingers and Kenway found himself standing on the cliff overlooking the harbor. Behind Edward stood his mansion home, while around him slept the bodies of his drunken crew. Down in the harbor below, the Jackdaw silently made sail, Rumplestilskin standing at the helm. Kenway watched with sorrow as his beloved brig sailed out to sea without her captain and crew.
His sorrow was swiftly washed away by anger. Rumplestilskin had the Jackdaw, but Edward would not allow him to keep the brig. That damn shitbird possessed no right to walk her decks, let alone command her. That didn't relieve the pain of watching her depart.
A lonely feeling settled deep in Kenway's gut. Thankfully, he would not remain alone long.
For tomorrow bore witness to the Kenway family's arrival.