Wow, it's been way too long since my last chapter, and I apologize. A lot. But I promise to publish more. It's my new year's resolution. Yep.
I assume you won't listen to 'I don't want to go?" I asked, rather hopelessly. The pirates, who had been ordered to come and get me, didn't answer. They wordlessly swung open the door and dragged me onto the deck, in front of Sparrow.
"I can only imagine why you brought me up here." I told him indignantly, straightening my dress, trying to gather what little dignity I had left. "Because I certainly cant fathom the reason why I was dragged up those stairs."
"You're coming with us." Sparrow replied immediately.
I scowled. "And what makes you think that I want to accompany you to a port filled with drunken pirates?"
"Unfortunately, love, you really don't have a say in the matter." He told me.
"But why do I have to come with you? Why can't I remain on the Black Pearl, in my nice comfortable cell?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest.
Jack smiled at me. "Do you really think that I don't remember your little escaping act last night?" He inquired, and I cursed mentally.
"I wish you hadn't brought that up just now, and had otherwise forgotten about it." I admitted.
"Which is exactly the reason why you are coming with us, whether you like it or not." He finished.
"Fine. But don't think I'm happy about it." I grumbled and descended the gang plank that led to the cobblestone streets of Tortuga.
We walked along the streets of Tortuga, meanwhile me being even more disgusted with every rum soaked pirate I saw trying to look up a woman's skirt. I turned towards Jack Sparrow.
"Why exactly are we here? And where are we going?" I raised my eyebrow.
"The Faithful Bride." He replied. "It's a tavern. You don't realize how much a man misses rum when he's been on the sea for a time."
"Only a man addicted to rum would miss it." I pointed out.
"She does have a point." One of the two pirates, who were 'escorting' me, said. I looked at the pirate, and rolled my eyes.
As I continued to look around at the dismal place, the captain talked.
"You do realize that this town, Tortuga, is really the only pirate town left in the world." He told me, and I scoffed.
"I wonder why." I replied sarcastically. "Could it be that pirates are rather dimwitted and easily provoked?" I said, and then laughed as the two pirates accompanying us looked offended. "Like I said, easily provoked."
The Faithful Bride was a mixture of foul smells: rum, seaweed, salt, and well, dirty pirates. I wrinkled my nose as soon as even the slightest whisper of a breeze wafted past.
"You don't really expect me to go in there?" I asked incredulously, pausing in the doorway, but was shoved roughly through it by one of the pirates.
My eyes watered as I tried to adapt to the wretched smell, and my eyes got used to the dim light. I started to blink rapidly as a hand on my shoulder steered me towards an empty table and forced me to sit down. The hand's owner sat next to me, and the other pirate and Sparrow sat on the opposite side.
I scoffed as all three pirates ordered drinks as a girl came around. "Honestly, what is it about that ridiculous drink that makes pirates so addicted to it? It's a terrible drink; all it does is makes grown men become complete idiots, incapable of coherent, intelligent thought."
"You do like to state your opinion, don't you?" Jack Sparrow said, as the girl came back with the drinks. He thanked her and winked.
"It also gives men absurd ideas, such as the one that you seem to have. You think you are attractive and that no girl can ever resist you." I said, making one of the pirates snort into his drink. We all looked at him; he fidgeted and acted embarrassed.
"Miss Isabella," Sparrow started, but I cut him off.
"That's Miss Ryan to you." I interrupted. "I can't get on first name terms with a pirate."
"Miss Ryan," he corrected himself. "You seem to have a lot of misconceptions about pirates, and I intend to teach you better. I think you'll find that pirates aren't all bad."
"You've already tried to convince me of this, Sparrow, but you actually haven't succeeded as of late." I added my opinion. "Uncivilized, barbaric, unnecessarily violent..."
"Well you certainly have strong opinions." He remarked.
"It's how I was raised. My father wanted to make sure that I would have a good education, so he educated me himself. He was very well learned." I explained, and then realized that I was talking about my father in the past tense, as if I would never get to see him again. "Is. Is very well learned." I corrected myself.
"Well, you are lucky; educated, smart and pretty." The captain complemented me.
"Thank you." I thanked him as if he didn't say that only to flirt with me, I was just trying to be civilized towards the pirates. I had realized that the only way to not go completely insane when dealing with pirates is to just ignore their rude behavior.
However, when he made another comment, I forgot about trying to be civilized, and I glared at him yet again. "You know, I'm at least making an attempt towards being civilized. You could do the same."
"But I thought you said that pirates were uncivilized and barbaric, so how are we supposed to try and be even slightly civilized? A man can never change his nature, you should know that." Came his annoying reply.
"No, I wouldn't know that." I shrugged. "But what I do know is that you can stop talking and shut the hell up. That's how you can be more civilized."
He actually felt silent, which I was surprised at, and finished his drink, swallowing loudly and slamming his cup down on the table. I waited until the other pirates had finished their drinks, and then got incredibly impatient.
"Can we go now?" I pleaded. I was beginning to develop a headache from the awful smell of alcohol in the bar.
"Why?" Jack asked.
"Because it smells badly of alcohol and unwashed pirates in here, and the smell is starting to get to me." All three of the pirates sniffed the air simultaneously, and I tried to keep from laughing at the absurd noise.
Jack nodded finally, and stood up, which the rest of us took as a sign to do the same. "We're not going back to the Black Pearl." He told me, and I sighed. "We're going to walk around the town for a while. But we're certainly not going to make you stay in the bar."
I narrowed my eyes. "What is with your sudden change of heart?" I asked suspiciously.
"You asked me why I couldn't be more civilized." He reminded me. "That was me trying to be more civilized."
I paused for a few seconds before thanking him. "I honestly appreciate that you did that." I said, as a blast of cool, fresh air hit me in the face and I breathed deeply. My escalating headache went away along with the smell of the rum, and instead my nose was filled with the salty smell of the sea. I breathed deeply as we began to walk the streets of Tortuga.
Annoyingly, I began to enjoy myself as we walked, the captain telling us stories about his experiences along these very streets. He told us about his various misadventures, and I couldn't help but smile as he relived his various getaways from the trouble he had gotten himself in.
We walked for a while, and when we got back to the dock, where the Black Pearl was bobbing slightly in the waves, the sky was dark; almost midnight black, and the moon's rays of moonlight gave just enough light to see the basic details of my surroundings.
The pirates walked drunkenly up the gangplank, obviously having had one too many drinks at the bar. The alcohol, however, didn't seem to have affected the captain too much. Or maybe it was that he always acted drunk. That could be it.
I looked questioningly at Jack, but he merely smiled and stepped back, gesturing for me to walk up the gangplank. He followed behind me when I did.
"Why is it that you've had just as many drinks as the other two, yet you don't seem as mindlessly drunk?" I asked, looking over my shoulder in his direction.
"Oh, trust me, I would need a few more drinks before I begin to act that drunk." He told me, and I couldn't resist a small smile.
"That's reassuring." I replied, shaking my head. "Because that only means that you need to swallow more before you become as rum soaked as the rest." I eyed the two drunken pirates suspiciously. "I honestly think that being in a state of drunkenness, such as that," I gestured to the pirates "cannot be good for both your mind and your body."
"And since when have you become a doctor?" He asked, sarcastically, turning to face me in the combined light that the moon's glow and the ship's lanterns provided. "Anyway, I've been as drunk as that many times, but I'm perfectly fine!" He added, stumbling off in the wrong direction.
I laughed quietly to myself, as he soon came stumbling back. "Like I said: just fine." He told me, and disappeared into his quarters.
"Exactly." I muttered, and retired to my own quarters, also known as the dark, damp cell.
Thanks for reading.