Chapter 7

The crew piled into two separate longboats to row down the river. Jack stood at the head of the first. Will and Jewel sat in the second with Gibbs, Marty, Pintel and Ragetti.

"Why does Jack fear the open ocean?" Will asked

"Well, if you believe such things, there's a beast does the biddin' of Davy Jones." Began Gibbs. "A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that suction your face clean off, and drag an entire ship past the crushing darkness... The Kraken!" At the creatures name, Marty looked back at the old salt. Pintel and Ragetti glanced at each other. Cotton's parrot in the boat ahead of them even flapped his wings.

"They say the stench of its breath is like - ooh! Imagine: The last thing you know on God's green earth is the roar of the Kraken, and the reeking odor of a thousand rotting corpses... If you believe such things." Gibbs continued. Jewel rolled her eyes.

Of course. After living skeletons, who would believe in such a monster? She thought

"And the key will spare him that?" asked Will

"Now that's the very question Jack wants answered. Bad enough even to visit... her." Gibbs said

"Her?" Will questioned. Gibbs nodded, not leaving Will's eye contact.

"Aye." he said

"Here's hoping the answer to that question is yes though." Jewel said

The two boats floated in silence down the river. Darkness was setting and fireflies began to flit and flutter around the river bank. They started to see small huts hidden by the trees. Pintel reached for a musket. Jewel put her hand on it to push it down, shaking her head. They didn't mean any harm. At least she assumed since nobody has tried to kill them yet. Soon they came upon a wooden hut at the end of the river. It had a small dock that looked as though it had seen better days, but there was a ladder from it that led to the hut's front porch. Once the boats were docked, Jack was out and facing his crew and daughter.

"Nothing to worry about, mates!" said Jack cheerfully. "Tia Dalma and I go way back! Nigh inseperable we are. Were.. Have been... Before."

"My faith in you is beginning to lack, dad." Jewel commented

"I'll watch your back." Gibbs said

"It's me front I'm worried about." Jack said, before turning to Jewel, "Mind the boat."

"Mind the boat." Jewel said to Gibbs, following Jack.

"Mind the boat." Gibbs said to Will before following the Sparrows.

"Mind the boat." Will said to Ragetti

"Mind the boat." Ragetti said to Pintel

"Mind the boat." Pintel said to Marty

"Mind the boat." Marty said to Cotton

"Awk! Mind the boat!" Cotton's Parrot said to Cotton, before flying off and leaving the old pirate alone. Jack opened the door to the shack open, Jewel close behind him. Inside they found Tia Dalma hunched over her table. She looked up at them. A smile began to cross her features.

"Jack Sparrow." She said, standing to walk over to him.

"Tia Dalma!" Jack said, opening his arms. He quickly ducked when he noticed a snake at eye level looking at him.

"I always know de wind was goin' blow you back to me one day." Tia Dalma said, walking up to Jack. She noticed Jewel behind him

"Hello again, madame Dalma." Jewel said with a smile and a nod.

"Young Sparrow. You still have dat bag you stole?" she asked

"... I knew I forgot to bring you back something." Jewel said, her smile dropping.

"Your items you left behind are still here." Tia Dalma replied

"Thank you." Jewel said. Tia Dalma noticed Will and pointed at him.

"You. You have a touch of... destiny about you, William Turner." She said, walking up to him.

"You know me?" Will asked

"You want to know me." She smiled seductively, caressing Will's cheek. Jack and Jewel quickly stepped in front of their friend.

"There will be no knowing here!" Jewel said, before grabbing on of Will's arms.

"Aye. We've come for help and we're not leaving without it!" Jack said, as he led her away back to her table, "I thought I knew you." Will looked down at Jewel, who didn't let go and looked at him.

"Not so well as I had hoped. Come." Tia Dalma said, taking her seat at the table.

"Come." Jack waved for Will and the crew to come in. Jewel let go of Will's arm so he may sit in a chair. Will Never left Tia Dalma's gazing eyes.

"What service," she smiled as she approached Will and carressed his chin once again, "May I do you? Hmmm?" Jewel's hand was on her sword. Jack squeezed a hand on her shoulder. Jewel let out a breath and released her grip.

"You know I demand payment..." Tia Dalma said

"We brought payment!" Jewel snapped. Jack was startled by his daughter. He pat her on the shoulder and whistled for Marty to bring the cage. He laid the cage with Jack the Monkey in it onto Tia Dalma's table. Jack lifted the cage up and cocked his pistol.

"Look!" Jack announced as he shot Jack the Monkey. "An undead monkey! Top that!" Tia Dalma lifted the cage door and, with much anticipation, the monkey jumped out and off the stairs to the back of the cabin, much to the chagrin of the crew.

"No!" Gibbs complained, "You have no idea how long it took us to catch that." Jewel leaned over to watch the monkey run and sit on a pair of black boots. She had seen them before. She stood up straight and paid more attention to what was happening now instead of the past.

"The payment is fair." Tia Dalma said, closing the cage door and putting it on the ground.

"We're looking for this, and what it goes to." Will said, laying the key drawing on the table. Tia Dalma's head snapped up to see the picture.

"The compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to dis?" she asked Jack. He looked from the large black hat with nice big feathers on it to Tia Dalma.

"It can lead him to anything but at the moment." Jewel muttered

"... Maybe." Jack said, ignoring his daughter, "Why?" Tia Dalma sat down and smiled from ear to ear.

"Ayeee... Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants!" Jack dropped the hat on a table, "Or... do you.. but are loathe to claim it as your own." Jewel looked back at her father, rolling her eyes at his browsing, "Your key go to a chest, and it is what lay inside the chest that you seek, don't it?"

"It do." Jewel said, before shaking her head. "Does, it does. Yes please."

"What is inside?" Gibbs asked curiously.

"Gold? Jewels? Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?" Pintel said, his eyes lighting up with every word. Ragetti slowly turned his head and stared at a jar of eyeballs hanging next to his head.

"Nothing bad, I hope." he said

"You know of... Davy Jones, yes? A man of de sea. A great sailor, until he ran afoul of dat which vex all men." Tia Dalma said

"What vexes all men?" Will asked. Tia Dalma stared into his eyes, her hand creeping onto his own.

"What indeed." she said

"Where are the things I left here?" Jewel asked, knowing she had left a scythe in the shack after her last visit. She was ignored though. Then she realized: The scythe was on her boat, and that is now at the bottom of the ocean somewhere near Africa.

"The sea?" Gibbs asked

"Sums!" Pintel said

"Dichotomy of good and evil?" Ragetti asked. Gibbs and Pintel looked at the skinny pirate, an eyebrow raised.

"A woman." Jack and Jewel said with rolled eyes.

"A Wo-man. He fell in love." Tia Dalma said

"No-no-no-no, I heard it was the sea he fell in love with." Gibbs said, shaking his head. Tia Dalma rolled her eyes.

"Same story, different versions, and all are true!" Tia Dalma said, her tone more serious. "See, it was a woman, as changing, and harsh, and untamable as de sea. Him never stopped loving her. But the pain it caused 'im was too much to live wid. But not enough to cause him to die."

"What exactly did he put in the chest?" asked Will. Tia Dalma smiled at him and placed her right hand over her chest.

"Him heart." She said with a slight sigh and a smile.

"Literally or figuratively?" Ragetti asked. Pintel lashed out his hands at Ragetti's idiocy, Gibbs nodding in agreement.

"He couldn't li'erally put a heart in a chest!" He said before he turned his head to Tia Dalma, "Could he?"

"Oh aye," Jewel commented, "Like you couldn't literally be skin and bones. Especially in the moonlight." Tia Dalma stared at them, her expression serious.

"It was not wort' feeling what... small fleeting joy life brings," she said, "and so... he carved out him heart, lock it down in a chest, and hide de chest from de world. De key, he keep wid him at all times." Will quickly stood, in complete rage and furor. He glared at Jack.

"You knew this." he said

"I did not." Jack replied innocently, with a hint of outrage, "I didn't know where the key was. But now we do. So all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, go back to Port Royal, and save your bonnie lass, hey!" Jack turned and began to walk out. Tia Dalma stood up and held out her hand, palm up.

"Let me see your hand," she said sternly. Jack held his right one to Tia Dalma. Jewel rolled her eyes and pulled his right one forward. Tia Dalma unwrapped the cloth tied around it to reveal the black spot. Gibbs gasped at the sight.

"The black spot!" He said. The old salt quickly wiped his hands on his chest, spun around once to the left, then spat on the floor.

"Is that really necessary?" Jewel asked

"The black spot!" Pintel and Ragetti both said, before doing the same.

"Apparently it is." Jewel said

"Black Spot?" Will asked, looking at Jack's hand.

"My eyesights' as good as ever, just so you know." Jack said holding both his hands up, just as annoyed as Jewel. Tia Dalma walked to the back of the cabin, stepping over the boots.

"I am just..." Tia Dalma mumbled, "My little... Where are you?..." Everything else was inaudible. While she was away, Jack took a ring from her table. Tia Dalma walked back out with a jar of dirt.

"Davy Jones cannot make port. Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where your safe, Jack Sparrow. And so you will carry land wit you..." she said, holding the jar out to Jack. The pirate took the jar with little respect.

"... Dirt. This is a jar of dirt." He said flatly

"Yes?" Tia Dalma said. Jack examined the jar with little curiosity.

"Is the... jar of dirt going to help?" he asked. Tia Dalma stepped forward.

"If you don't want it, give it back." she said. Jack Sparrow clutched the jar closer to him.

"No!" he said. Tia Dalma smiled and stepped back.

"Den it works." She said before sitting down at her table. Will walked past Jack, who only pulled his jar closer, to stand in front of Tia Dalma.

"It seems... we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman." he said. Tia Dalma scooped the crab shells on her table up, cupped them in her hands, and closed her eyes.

"A touch," she said, "of destiny!" The crab shells hit the table like a magnet at its mark. Tia Dalma looked at the pirates.

"You will find your ship here. Be cautious." she said, before looking straight at Jewel, "What you left is in the room you used."

"Thank you!" Jewel said before running up the stairs. She pulled open the door and sure enough, there was her bag. She opened it and looked through it. Everything she left behind, her coats, her dress, fan and gloves, her silverware, and her violin were all in the bag. With everything accounted for, Jewel went downstairs and rejoined her friends and family just as they were leaving, feeling very victorious, but worried for what's to come. As she was about to climb down the ladder, Tia stopped her.

"Your moder would want you to have dis." she said, holding a box out that had a sparrow holding a rose carved on top of it. Jewel took it and bowed her head.

"Thank you." she said, before climbing into her longboat.

"What's that?" Will asked

"A gift from my mom." she said

"What's inside?" Gibbs asked. Jewel pulled on the lid. It didn't open. She did it with more strength. It wouldn't budge.

"Strange." she said, "I guess what's inside will have to wait."