It's been a while since I've posted anything anywhere, but I felt the need to put words to paper. As stories go, this is missing some basic criteria—namely, a plot. But I couldn't get it out of my head. I hope it is enjoyable.

A Battle Picked

Townspeople watched the man walking across the dock. They had all seen him before. The sway in his walk, the beads in his hair. Over time, the hair had grayed in places and there were a few more scars on his face. But as the charming, mischievous smile flashed across his face, they all were assured that he was still Captain Jack.

Part legend, part nut, all pirate.

As he passed from port and began his trek through town, more and more curious faces made their way to doorways and windows, most of the female persuasion. When he paused at the tavern, the women held their breath. If he went in, he would stay for hours and they could visit at their leisure. If he passed on, however, there was only one place he could be heading: The Turner house. And it would be hours before he even returned to town. Especially with both Captain Turners at port.

There had been, during the first few visits from Captain Jack, great talk of impropriety between him and Mistress Turner. The irony of that fact in a town full of miscreants and buccaneers did not occur to any of those who spread the tale. The lady never answered the unasked questions. At first, Jack ignored them, too.

Until one day, about three years after Mistress Turner arrived at the island. Jack was just leaving the tavern, passing the grocer's shop door. He recognized Elizabeth's maid inside and could not help but overhear the taunts that were being directed her way. All dealing with Elizabeth and him. Jack smiled. Not a bad story to leave behind—his concern for Elizabeth's reputation was non-existent. She was the Pirate King after all and would hear worse.

The maid dutifully ignored them, her head high. However, when someone started in on the young boy, saying he was a bastard and the son of a coward, she turned to stand up for him. To her dismay and amusement, she found Jack holding a blade to the man's neck.

"You say what you like of me. Say what you like of the wench. But seeing as you're no sailor, you best be sure you lay off the boy's father. Many a man here has seen the ghostly sails of the Flying Dutchman and no coward could ever captain that ship."

The man turned blank eyes to Jack but a murmur went through the crowd. It was a pirate town, after all, and more than one man had seen friends lost to sea and more than one woman had waited at port to find that her husband or son had not returned.

"For those of us who have the guts to sail," Jack sneered at the man, "there is no nobler or harder job than Captain Will Turner's, and any family of the sea should be glad to have a man such as him at the helm. If you ever have the misfortune of meeting him in person, mate, you best hope he doesn't learn of your treatment of his wife and son."

Jack slipped his sword back into his belt and said, "And you better hope that I never hear it again." He calmly nodded to Elizabeth's maid and left. No one ever spoke of it again.

And on this day, nearly eight years later, they watched him as they had many times, make his way up the path to the house hidden away in the hills. There wasn't a thought of anything improper in anyone's mind.

-fin