Hi everyone! This is my first Pirates story, so if it sucks, blame Toxic-Beetle for being the one poking me until I posted it up...it's all her fault I swear! Hope you like it! Please review!
Sam
Xxx

Chapter 1: All In The Stones

The smell of the forest around them was new to her. The ocean aroma that usually filled her senses was far behind, as was the ship she knew to be home. At five years old, she had to admit that the forest was intriguing, yet also frightening to her. She didn't like being caged in, with the tree canopy blocking all of the sunlight that she knew was still there. A gust of wind nipped at her face, and she shuffled closer to the man beside her, who already had an arm protectively around her.

She had overheard him talking to Mr Gibbs earlier, about leaving her on the Black Pearl, the ship she loved as her home, where she had been raised for as long as she could remember. Her father had said no. He didn't want to leave her there, when the Pearl was at risk from attack, even if it meant taking her with them. He never let her leave his side when they were off the ship, and even on the ship, he was constantly keeping an eye on her.

Something caught her eye in the water - a candle, floating past them. "Dada...candle..." She said, tugging on the side of his jacket to get his attention, and then pointing at the floating candle with her other arm.

He looked where she was pointing, and then turned over his shoulder to signal to them men who were rowing. "We're close." He said.

"Jack." Came a voice, and both Jack and the girl turned around. "Why have we come here?"

Jack sighed. "Because she has something for us, Gibbs."

"But Neveah...it is not safe for her here..."

"Neveah is perfectly safe with me." He insisted, tightening his arm around the girl's shoulders, as she curled closer. "Perfectly safe."

She always heard her father saying that. Jack felt like he had to say it nearly everyday. Since Neveah's mother died when she was still just a baby, a lot of people doubted Jack's ability to be a responsible father. Many of his crew pleaded with him not to bring the child on board the Pearl, and even Mr Gibbs thought it was better that Neveah be raised by Will and Elizabeth. Jack had been determined to raise her himself, and whilst certain things, such as mystery trips to see Tia Dalma for one, questioned his reasoning, he generally had become the responsible parent.

His reaction had been classic when they found that the culprit of the rum being gone was because a certain four year old was learning how to play catch with them. Gibbs was surprised that Jack hadn't started to lick the rum from the floorboards, and rather, had quickly picked up his daughter before she started to play with the glass. She'd learned the 'Dada's Rum - No Touchy' rule that night.

They saw the old shack raised above the water just before they arrived there. Neveah was watching the candles floating in the water, transfixed by the flames now that it was darker. The water appeared black now, rather than the murky greenish-grey that it had before. Before, she had seen a large snake slip into the water, and had gasped aloud, before Jack had assured her that if the snake came anywhere near her, he'd blow it's ruddy brains out.

As they approached the shack, Jack lifted Neveah onto his hip, stepping out onto the small pier that looked so old and worn it was a wonder of how it was still standing. Gibbs followed them off the ship, and followed them up the creaky old steps. Outside what could be described as either a door, or a peice of wood nailed to the rest of the shack on only one side, Jack set Neveah down on the ground and kneeled before her.

"I want you to stay close to me, okay?" He told her.

"'Kay Dada." She nodded.

"Don't touch anything, don't speak to the lady, and don't take anything that you're offered. Do you understand me?" He said to her. It was rare that Jack showed any major authority over Neveah like this, but when he did, she understood that its rarity meant it was serious, and obeyed him.

"'Kay Dada." She nodded again.

Standing up straight, Jack took her hand, but before he opened the door, he turned back to Gibbs, muttering quietly: "Keep an eye on her." Gibbs nodded. Neveah was a curious child, and no doubt the jars of tricks in Tia's shack would interest her. He didn't fancy coming out with a cursed child, however.

Entering the shack, Jack wasn't surprised to see that it hadn't changed at all since his last visit many years ago. "Remember what I told you." He said to the girl again, who nodded as they entered further into the shack. She let out a small cry as a rat ran across the floor before her, scampering over her feet, and Jack lifted her from the ground, settling her back on his hip when she clung to him.

Her cry alterted Tia, who made herself visible from where she had been watching them from the back of the shack, unseen by them.

"Jack Sparrow." She said simply, in that tone that always suggested she was pleased to see him. This was often followed by a tale of someones inevitable doom - usually his own.

"Tia Dalma." He said, not sounding pleased to see her at all, and looked at Neveah when she gasped, coming face to iris with a glass full of eyes hanging from the ceiling. Jack moved them away from the jar, and Tia looked curiously at Neveah.

"Well, well, well, Little Neveah." Tia said, as she caught sight of the child in Jack's arms. "The only child of Captain Jack Sparrow. The motherless angel that keeps our captain on the straight and narrow."

Jack passed Neveah to Gibbs. "Try not to let go of her." He said, knowing that the girl would squirm, and then looked back at Tia. "You said you had something for me?"

Tia nodded, and sat down at the table, where her prophetic stones were strewn across the worn wood with many different engravements on it. The wooden table was filled with trinkets - jewellery, decorated stones, peices of card with drawings of patterns on it. Nothing that Jack hadn't seen before on his trips here. Sometimes, he wondered if the trinkets ever moved.

She picked up the stones in her hands, and shook them in her grasp, a look of pure concentration upon her face. Jack didn't watch her, instead looking at a rather nice collection of jewellery that looked extremely valuable. He saw a particularly fancy looking bangle, and slipped it into his jacket pocket. Neveah giggled, watching her father's trademark pinch, and Jack put his finger to his lips nervously. He had been caught thieving by Tia before, and it wasn't an experience he wanted again. Neveah smiled, giggling silently this time, and put her finger over her lips.

Tia threw the stones down onto the table with a chant - some language that she always spoke to herself that he couldn't even begin to understand. She observed them with great interest, not raising her eyes as she looked at the position of the stones with great interest. She was silent for a minute...two minutes...three minutes...and then...

"As much as I enjoy a trip up the mankey river of doom," Jack said, breaking the silence, "I hope you didn't bring me here to look at your lovely pattern of stones."

Tia ignored his comment, and looked at the stones still. "They're not stones. They're prophecy stones." She told him.

Jack frowned. "And I'm here because..."

"Every person has a destiny, Jack." She told him. "Things we are meant to do, and things we are meant to know." She looked up, straight at Neveah. "Even the smallest person has a destiny to belong to."

Jack waved his arms around. "Oh no you don't!" He said, drawing a satisfied smile from Tia's lips as she watched him step protectively infront of Gibbs and Neveah. "You don't look at your story stones and then look at my girl. No. Not happening."

"But, Jack, don't you see?" Tia said to him, as Neveah wrapped her arms around Jack's neck, and he took her back into his arms. "It is already happening."

"What are you talking about?"

Tia smiled again - this time it was the 'I know something you don't know' smile that annoyed him so much. "We all have a destiny, Jack." She repeated. "We are each born with two paths before us. A path that we choose, and a path that we fall to if our first path falls ill. You chose the path that lead you to the Black Pearl, rather than the path that lead to a respectful life on land - the same paths that present themselves to most pirates." She said, looking briefly to Gibbs, standing silently on Jack's side. "Someone has already interfered with the paths of Little Neveah Sparrow."

"Interefered...?" Jack asked.

"Her mother, she was visited by a friend of Davy Jones before the babe was born." Tia said, and saw the recognition of Neveah's mother flashing before his face. "You know of whom I speak."

"Adelaide." He said to himself. Neveah looked at Jack's face, away from the jar of moving tentacles bove Gibbs's head she had been entranced by. She had heard that name before. She heard Jack mention it when he thought she wasn't listening.

"The man went by the name of Henry Alderman." Tia continued. "A fortnight before Little Neveah was birthed, he visited Adelaide in the middle of the night."

"That's not true." Jack shook his head. "She slept in the same room as me. I would have known."

"The prophecy stones do not lie, Jack Sparrow." Tia said in a warning tone before turning back to the stones. "Adelaide knew that her health was poor, and knew that she would not survive long after bearing her child." Jack looked down at the ground. Adelaide's death had been medically explained by the after effects of the birth which she never recovered from. "She knew from the start of her motherhood that her child would outlive her within months."

Jack shook his head again. "She can't have known that." He muttered at first, and then repeated it louder. "She can't have known! She would have told me!" Surely Adelaide would have said something if she knew that she was going to die. Surely she'd have told Jack, her husband, if she knew that he was soon to be widowed and alone with thier child. She would have done.

"She made a deal with Henry that allowed her child to live."

"What?" Jack asked, no longer feeling the pain of Adelaide's death. "What kind of deal?"

"In exchange for her soul after her death, her child would be allowed to live on after her passing."

Jack looked at Neveah. She was alive because of a deal made with an associate of Davey Jones? God, what had Adelaide gotten herself into? He was silent for the longest of times, and it was Gibbs who broke the silence.

"So...Miss Adelaide's still alive?" He asked.

Jack looked at him, and then at Tia.

"Not alive." She said, and Jack sighed. "But not dead either."

He shook his head and looked at Gibbs. "She never could make up her mind." He said with a gentle laugh that eased the situation somewhat, before remembering that Tia had brought them here for a reason.

"There was a clause, by which if Adelaide continued on into death before her service on the Flying Dutchman was up, then her child would bear the rest of her sentence. Since it was the only way that Little Neveah would be able to live, she agreed, under the condition that this deal is forgotten as soon as Neveah births her own child."

"She did what?" Jack asked incredulously. Adelaide wouldn't have done that. She loved their daughter, right up until the day she passed. She wouldn't make a deal that meant she would have to go within an ocean of the Flying Dutchman, let alone onto his ship.

Tia inspected the stones again. "There is no warning to when her soul will pass on." She said, with a hint of alarm in her voice. Tia getting alarmed was rare, and never meant good things. She turned around, abandoning the stones, and bringing down a box from atop of the shelf. When she brought it down, she rumaged through it, and finally retrieved a small velvet bag.

"She must wear this, at all times." Tia instructed.

Jack looked inside the bag, and saw that there was a silver necklace inside. A heart shape made out of rubies, each precious stone studded around the edge with borders of more silver. He would defiantely sell that for a lot of shiny pennies. "Why?" He asked her.

"It will make her invisible to Davey Jones and his monster." Tia told them. "If Adelaide's soul passes on before Neveah births her own child, then he will be unable to retrieve her when she is wearing this necklace. He will have no hold over her."

She had been right about the jar of dirt, and everything else so far, so he took the necklace, and set Neveah down on the ground, clasping it around her neck. She looked at it for a moment, and then let it hang, standing beside her father's leg when he stood up again. He kept a hand on her shoulder, keeping her beside him.

"What's the rest of this 'destiny' stuff about then?" He asked her.

"She is the one that must kill Davey Jones." Tia nodded.

It finally hit him who they were talking about. "Davey Jones is dead." He remembered. How could he forget? "Norrington stabbed his heart. Jones is dead, his lovely beastie is dead, and the rest of his buggering crew are dead."

"Davey Jones cannot be killed until the one destined to kill him stabs the heart." Tia said. "And the destined one, is Little Neveah."

And Jack did something that surprised both Gibbs and Tia. He laughed. He laughed harder than he had laughed in a while. When he was done, he lifted Neveah onto his hip. "Well, thanks for this lovely trip, Tia, always good to see you." He said cheerfully. "I'll make sure Nevie keeps an eye on your necklace for you. Have fun with your Story Stones." He said, and he notioned to the door. Gibbs left first, but Tia called Jack back.

"Sparrow."

He turned around and looked at her. "You cannot ignore her destiny."

"I'm not going to ignore it." He told her. "I plan to forget about it completely."

And he left.

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