Chapter 3: Roll Away!
It began slowly. We shifted our weight in the cages so our momentum would make it move. The other half of the crew was doing this too. Pretty soon we were swinging across the canyon. Despite the situation, I was having fun and actually started laughing. "Whoo!" I shouted as the wind struck my face.
"Please not now, Jason" Gibbs said. I complied but kept grinning. We swung close to the canyon wall. Reaching out we managed to grab twigs and grass but the roots came out so we swung back. The second time we were more fortunate.
I grabbed hold of a thick vine. It was actually pretty difficult to hold the cage against the wall but we managed. "Put your legs through and start to climb." Gibbs ordered.
"Come on, men! It will take all of us to crew the Black Pearl!" Will shouted.
"Actually, you wouldn't need everyone. 'Bout six would do." Leech corrected. I quickly counting how many men were in each cage. There was about six. "Oh dear." Leech groaned. Will looked back at Gibbs for confirmation. The first mate nodded.
"Hurry!" I yelled. We started to climb faster while Marty stood on top of the cage and shouted encouragement. Fat lot of help you are. Now it was a race to the top. Whoever got to the Pearl first would have control of it and would probably sail away without Jack or the rest of the crew. Our cage soon passed the other one. Again, despite the situation I was having a fairly good time. I held in the urge to laugh and mock the other "team".
"Stop!" Will suddenly whispered urgently. Everyone froze. I looked back to see a cannibal walking across the bridge. We hung there in silence. Leech, apparently thinking he's better than everyone else, signaled for his men to be quiet and kept climbing.
"What are you doing?" I hissed. "Stop!" Leech laughed silently. Those idiots are going to get us killed. I held up my middle finger to the man. A gesture I learned from a drunken Jack a few months ago. Leech glared daggers at me. While he was distracted his hand grabbed something other than a vine, a snake to be exact.
"Snake!" he screamed. Everyone in his cage started freaking out. In a panic, they all let go of the vines. The cage plummeted towards the seemingly endless chasm. They all screamed in fear as the fell to their death. Unfortunately for us the cannibal walking across the bridge saw the whole thing.
"Move!" Will shouted. We scrambled up the cliff. No need for secrecy now. Why couldn't those idiots have just stayed quiet? I asked myself. Now we had to rush to the top, run through the jungle and hopefully the Pearl would just be ready to go. I doubted that last part.
As I was thinking we had made it to the top of the cliff. "Cut the line! Find a rock!" Will ordered. I noticed that Will was giving a lot of orders lately. Well it was his plan. Pretty soon the line was cut. That was when the cannibals caught up with us. "Roll the cage!" Will shouted. We started moving forward making the cage roll. The ground suddenly got really steep.
We rolled down the hill out of control and at top speed. I was doing a mixture of screaming and laughing. The cage went off a ramp thing and we were airborne. "Whoooo! Hahahaha!" I laughed. We landed with a solid thump and kept rolling. To be completely honest, my stomach wasn't doing so well. Luckily enough, the cage ran into a tree and stopped rolling. "Can we do that again?" I asked, feeling really dizzy but also laughing like a madman.
"How 'bout no?" Marty suggested.
"Lift the cage!" Will ordered.
"Lift it like a lady's skirt!" Gibbs translated. That put an image in my mind and started laughing even more. I was pretty much giddy with adrenaline. As we started running the cannibals caught up to us and chased us again.
We ran for a few minutes then a cliff suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Practically running off the cliff, we fell down and crash landed in water. Thankfully, the cage broke on impact so we could swim freely. That confused me. The cage broke when it landed in water but not when it landed on the hard ground? Eh, guess we're just lucky.
The cannibals gathered along the edge of the cliff and started shooting arrows and throwing spears. One of the spears pierced the water just to my left. Again, lucky. We swam up river. It ended at a dead end. Pressed up against the wall, I hoped our luck would hold out. Will had his arm protectively across my chest. Thankfully, our luck did hold out. The cannibals suddenly turned away from the cliff and ran. "Why…oh, never mind." I started.
Everyone had a look of relief on their faces. I probably did too. We almost died, again. Over the past year there were a lot of situation were dying was a high possibility but this one would have been the worst. No one wants to be eaten alive. Drowning, I can handle. Stabbed to death, sure why not? But I do not want to be eaten. Even if I'm dead before I become part of a meal I do not want my flesh or heart or other organs to be in someone's digestive track. I shuddered just thinking about it.
Shaking my thoughts from my head I began following the others downriver. Luckily, the river ran out into the ocean. I could see the Black Pearl "docked" less than a mile to our right. "Race you!" I shouted and sprinted towards the black ship. Being the fastest, I got there first and was greeted by the most unexpected person. "Pintel?" I asked.
The almost bald, pot-bellied man turned around. Upon seeing me he yelped. "Ah! Barbossa!" I glared at him. Pintel quickly corrected himself. "No, not Barbossa. You're his lad. Jason, right?" I rolled my eyes and nodded. Glancing up, I saw who looked like Ragetti lean over the railing of the ship.
"He's got me eye and 'e won't give it back!" the man shouted. Yup, that's Ragetti.
"Well how'd ya get it back last time?" Pintel shouted at his nephew. By this time Gibbs and the others managed to catch up.
"Excellent! Our work's half done!" Gibbs exclaimed.
"We've done it for you knowing you'd be comin' back for it." Pintel said innocently. I rolled my eyes.
"Loose the sails, boys!" Gibbs ordered, ignoring Pintel.
"What about Jack? I won't leave without him!" Will said defiantly.
"I vote we leave Sparrow behind." I said and raised my hand. Will glared at me. "What?"
In the distance there was a shout. "Oi!" I turned around and saw Jack running towards us. There was only a few seconds before we saw a huge mob of hungry, angry cannibals chasing after him.
"Never mind, let's go!" Will said and ran towards the ship.
"Cast off those lines!" Gibbs shrieked. I ran to the side of the ship and climbed the rigging. As soon as I climbed over the railing I ran into Ragetti. He was as I remembered him, blond, tall and only had one eye. There was no wooden eye in his socket this time. I cringed at the sight.
"Jason!" he cried.
I grinned. "The one and only. Get to work, man. We have cannibals to sail away from." Ragetti looked slightly confused but then nodded and walked off. Minutes later, Jack climbed over the railing. Taking a glance back at the island I saw the cannibals lined up on the beach, screaming their sorrow.
Gibbs immediately ran up to his captain. "Let's put some distance between us and this island and head out to open sea." Pintel and Ragetti were putting Jack's coat on his shoulders. Suck ups.
"Yes to the first and yes to the second but only so far as we keep to the shallows as much as possible." Jack said. Gibbs and I exchanged confused looks.
"That seems a bit contradictory, Cap'n" Gibbs pointed out.
"I have every faith in your reconciliatory navigational skills, Master Gibbs. Now where is that monkey, I want to shoot something!" Jack sounded rather annoyed. To be fair to him, he was wet and had almost been eaten alive and there was paint dripping down his face.
Something dropped onto the deck. It was Ragetti's wooden eye. I cringed as he spit on it on it and picked it up. Jack loaded his gun and was looking for Lil'Jack when Will walked up to him.
"Jack, Elizabeth is in danger." Will said.
"Again? I swear that girl gets into all kinds of trouble." I remarked.
"Sound like anyone you know?" Jack asked mockingly. I opened my mouth to say something but closed it again. Jack walked towards the helm. "Have you considered keeping a more watchful eye on her? Maybe just lock her up somewhere."
"She is locked up, sentenced to hang for helping you." Will argued, following Jack.
"Technically she didn't really do anything. She just stood with you in front of Ol' Norrington." I said, following the duo. Both Will and Jack looked at me.
"Do you ever be quiet?" Will asked.
"Sadly, no." Jack answered. "Anyway, there is a time when one must take responsibility for their actions."
"Says the man who runs away from everything." I stated loudly. Jack glared at me but didn't answer. Will turned the attention back to him when he took a sword from a pirate and held it up to Jack's neck.
"I need that compass of yours, Jack. I must trade it for her freedom." he said.
Jack looked thoughtful. "Mr. Gibbs?"
"Aye, Cap'n?
"We have a need to travel upriver." Jack leaned in close to Gibbs. The old man looked scared.
"By need do you mean a trifling need. A fleeting, as in a passing fancy?" Gibbs asked hopefully.
"No, a resolute and unyielding need." Jack said. Gibbs looked disappointed.
"What we need is to make sail for Port Royal with all haste!" Will demanded.
"Calm down, will you? Everything is going to be fine." I assured my old friend. Jack sighed, whether it was at my comment or Will's I do not know.
"William, I shall trade to you the compass if you will help me find this." Jack pulled out the cloth he took from the prison. The one with the key drawn on it.
Will took it in his hand. "You want me to find this?"
"No. You want you to find this. Because the finding of this finds you incapacitorially finding and/or locating in your discovering a way to save your dolly-belle ol' what's-her-face. Savvy?"
"That's not a real word." I said.
"What isn't?" Jack asked.
"Incapacitorially."
"Yes it is." he defended.
I sighed. "No it's not."
"Yes it is."
"Then define it. What does it mean?" I asked, crossing my arms and letting a smug smile stretch across my face.
"It mean…um…"
"I'm waiting."
"Shut up." Jack ended the argument with that.
"See? Not a real word."
"Jason, why don't you go sleep or something? You're good at that." Jack waved his hands in front of my face in a shooing motion.
I looked at him skeptically. "Why?"
"Because you look tired. Don't you agree, Gibbs? Doesn't young master Barbossa look exhausted?" Jack gave Gibbs a look.
"Aye. You should go get some rest. I noticed you haven't been sleepin' well lately." Gibbs said, sounding a bit unsure.
I eyed them both skeptically. Although I hated to admit it, Jack was right, I was rather tired. Sleeping in a cage isn't exactly restful. "Make sure they don't leave without me, okay Will?" I asked the blacksmith. He nodded. Still suspicious, I turned around and walked down the stairs to below deck. There I found my hammock and completely crashed.
Did anyone else think that Jack sounded a bit too eager for Jason to think? Hmm, I wonder what he's planning. Tell me what you think in the review section (Hint: it's located below this chapter) Anyway, have fantastic weekend, guys and gals. I myself will be spending it with my family up north. Until next time, farewell.