Haul Together
Jim knew his father was not a good man. The other boys teased him endlessly about it, and adults treated him kindly and overly sympathetic. Jim knew he was illegitimate, too, and his mother was very probably in no "good" profession when he was conceived.
Jim knew all this, so why was he still waiting, waiting for something he was fairly certain would never come? Something from the Horizon was calling to him, always. Even as the noose was about his neck, even as he glanced at the endless sea for the last time. Even as his twice cursed pirate father condemned his mother and him to death while he roamed free.
Why? Why did he still wait? Because of his mother, that's why. His mother and her stupid fairy tales. "You're father was a pirate," she would say. "He said he'd come back. He'll come back with treasure and gold." His eyes would widen, and he would believe her implicitly, as all little children are apt to do. She would continue, "He taught me a pirate song. He told me to teach it to you when you were a man." And she would close her eyes and hum, swaying softly back and forth. Jim remembered it as the only time his mother ever looked truly at peace.
Yo Ho
Haul together
Hoist the colours high
Heave Ho
Thieves and Beggars
Never say we Die
That song had sustained him throughout his life. It had always given him hope. When was hope ever more needed than now? He absentmindedly played with a brass coin.
The King and his Men
Stole the Queen from her Bed…
He started to sing. Softly, just to break the deathly silence. He already felt courage flowing back into his veins.
And bound her in her Bones.
The Seas be Ours
And by the Powers
Where we will, We'll roam.
The strength that had been sapped from him with every pull of the lever came creeping back. He would die like a man, for there was no other option. He looked up towards the sun and basked in its rays for the last time.
Yo Ho
Haul together
Hoist the colours high…
Where was that coming from? His father? No, no Jim, don't be stupid, he scolded himself. It was his imagination. Or was it? First one, then two, then four, then a hundred voices were raised in song, singing the pirate anthem. Jim looked around. This couldn't be. But it was. He felt hope like he hadn't felt since Lord Beckett's declaration of war on Piracy. Perhaps he wasn't a pirate, but he was one with everyone in the courtyard, just for a moment. The voices swirled together, high and low, husky and sweet, burned by sun and sea and barked orders. These were a fighting people, and this was their last defiance. Against society, against rules, against expectations, against everything that had forced them into piracy. They would not go down without a fight.
Jim saw some soldiers grow uneasy. One of them, the little rat, one of them went running to Lord Beckett himself. What would he say? "My Lord, they've started singing…" Jim almost smiled.
Yo Ho
Haul together…
And the lever pulled.