Weird Travels - Chapter 1
Norrington had planned everything for the past week. Every map, every detail, every port was researched and filed. He knew exactly what to do, when to do it and who to ask. Why, then, did he feel as if he was beheading the King? A single jail cell key balanced between his fingers as he approached the dungeons. This decision could either make him or break him. Norrington dismissed the guard as he entered the dungeon and approached a prisoner cell. "I trust you're doing well," he said loudly in order to make sure the other guards wouldn't find out about his plan.For he was about to free a pirate.
Josephine looked out at the shore of Port Royal from the ship she had so cleverly stowed away on. 'Well... it was clever to me', she thought. She was abandoned on an island for over 15 years. The only other people on the island, beside her, were a group of natives who helped her survive when they weren't trying to kill her. She studied them; she observed what they ate, how they hunted and what they drank. One tropical, sunny day, as she was resting in the tree branches, she noticed a wild boar snacking on a bush below her. She thought it was her lucky day; not only was it a feast but she could also use the hide for a blanket. Unfortunately, she had miscalculated the strength of the beast. She landed on a twig as she dropped from the tree branches. The boar raised its ear when it heard the twig crack and charged at the source of the sound. The boar charged too quickly for Josephine to react. It was as if she had lost her will to fight and could only stare at the charging beast with unblinking eyes. "Oh bugger," she whispered and soon everything went black. Josephine grimaced as she remembered how she felt that day. She remembered being happy, calm, and surrounded by people who actually cared for her. But then she woke up and could feel the sun on her face, the breeze in her hair and an abnormally painful throbbing sensation all along her back. A shadow approached her as she thought about how her face felt like it was burning like roast pig under the sun's ever-radiant light. 'The pig,' she thought. But she was confused. If the sun was so hot, then why was there a shadow standing right over her? Shouldn't she have felt some sort of cooling sensation? The shadow even had a voice. The voice offered her life in exchange for a certain item that was lost. Josephine recollected back when she listened to the person's offer and decided she would rather live than die from a beast she was supposed to kill. Yet she decided the person who gave her this one opportunity had a very strange sense of humor. The item she had to retrieve was stolen and the owner had no idea where it was.
"Unknown location?" Josephine scoffed. They had agreed to an accord and she now found herself on a god-forsaken piece of ship. It appeared the deck hadn't been cleaned in years, centuries if it was possible. The person she was looking at, if she could call it so, looked like squid with the arm of a lobster. She reminded herself not to drink too much when marooned on a Caribbean island the next time she actually found herself marooned.
"Aye, and you best better be getting a going there, missy, or else you're time is up."
"And what if I, pray tell, happen to not return said ... thing?" At this time she had figured out how to stand without losing her balance, but it was a difficult task so she leaned against a barrel of grog for support. Josephine batted her hand to the side as if flickering away some annoying fly.
"You'll be a sore tough loser and a member of my crew for your entire lifetime!" The captain started to laugh shortly before the rest of the crew, whom she had noticed seemed to have appeared out of thin air, joined in.
Josephine rolled her eyes and looked up to the sky. 'You're kidding me'.
"What's the catch?" Josephine held her breath.
"Aye, I keep your soul until you find the item. When you find it the soul is yours."
She blinked. "That's it?"
"You need to find the item."
"I should be fortunate enough that I won't look like them, am I?" Josephine waved her hands towards the captain's crew. "You say I need to find this valuable lost item of yours in an unknown location. How will I ever find said unknown location without first finding land and a crew who won't run away in fear of me when I approach them and tell them of this said hunt for the unknown location of your valuable item?"
The captain stopped laughing. Josephine swore he blinked just then; she hoped she confused him.
"You make a solid point."
Josephine spun around and inspected herself. "I'm a what?"
"You shall search for this item looking like that," the captain continued on and gestured to her. "But when you do find the item I will come after you. If you choose to run from me you'll turn into one of my crew until you return it. You'll have a debt to pay, Miss Josephine, if you do not return. Am I clear?"
Josephine gulped. Either she could run from him forever and live looking like a mutated lobster or she could find the item and hold it ransom... until he killed her. "Inescapably."
"Get to work."
Josephine found herself being carried towards one of the dinghies. "I assume you'll carry me in?" she said. "Oh! Lovely!" she cried when she was lifted from the ship into the boat. As the crew was lowering her boat she cried out, "Just one last miniscule question, mate!"
The captain leaned over the side. "You're not backing out now, are you?" The crew started to laugh.
"No, no..." she said and looked over the side. She was halfway to the ocean and she gulped. She hated heights. She quickly looked back at the Captain as she tightened her grip on the boat. "How much time do I have?" The crew looked at the captain as he thought for a moment.
"Thirty-six months."
As the crew continued to lower the boat she yelled out, "Just one more question!"
The crew argued and stopped lowering her boat. "What is it this time?"
"Do you have any rum?"
"You can row yourself to shore and get the rum yourself!" A pair of oars sailed through the air and she let out shriek as she ducked when the oars crashed into her boat. "Much obliged," she shouted back to them as she checked herself to make sure nothing important or valuable had broken.
She counted how many years thirty-six months equaled to as she was lowered to the sea. By the time she was finished with her calculation she was already halfway to shore. "Three years. Oh bugger."
"It depends on how you define 'well', mate," she replied from under her jacket. The little boat she was so fortunately given had crashed on a reef and she had to swim to shore. It wasn't long until a sailing ship had nearly crushed her and it was then that she had grabbed her knife and dug it into the side of the ship to let it carry her into port. When it did make port she had swam around to climb up onto the pier but as she was fixing her tricorn hat, that she was fortunate to still have, the ever-so famous Cutler Beckett had his men arrest her. She was brought back to Beckett's office where she was left alone with him. She shivered as she traced her hand over the 'P' brand on her forehead. She vowed then she would hunt him for the invisible scars he gave her when he left her alone with his men.
"What should we do with the Prisoner?"
"Use your imagination."
But it was the sound of a key entering a lock that made her peek out from under her jacket. "What have you got there, mate?" For some odd reason she didn't fear Norrington. She didn't fear anyone who was going to free her but she was cautious of their reason for freeing her.
"Nothing that won't hurt you more than it will hurt me, I assure," Norrington replied. 'I'm going to be hanged for this'.
It wasn't long until Josephine heard the door to her cell open. She stayed where she sat against the wall and tilted her head. Norrington sighed, "For bloody sake I'm rescuing you." He threw a large sack at her feet.