1Chapter Seven
Sariah lay flat on her stomach with naught but a short skirt and a shirt of Jack's that had been chopped up to fit her. Se had to pull it almost all the way up anyway, so that Jack could tend to her back. She rested her her chin lightly on her hands, wincing a bit as Jack's carefully scrubbed hands moved across her back.
"I don't see why you had to do this." She muttered sullenly to Jack.
"Well luv . . ." Jack started. "Both Anamaria and Elizabeth are extremely busy since we are still rather short handed, and you don't want anyone else to do it, so I had to. You see?" He carefully tightened a bandage that had come loose.
"You could of- owch- let Will do it!"
"Are you crazy?! He is the one who did this to you! I am not going to let him hurt you even more."
"Owchies! Well he would sure so a better job than you, Captain Sparrow."
"I'm doing the best I can you ungrateful little fish maiden!"
"You could do better monkey boy!"
"How do you know scaly skin?"
"Because fuzzy man!"
"Cold blooded little fiend!"
"Long tailed tree swinger!"
"Heartless little wench!"
"Bloody drunken pirate!"
This went on for a good long time until Mr. Gibbs came in to speak to Jack. "Cap'n. We've spotted a pirate ship to the south. It's floatin' low in the water so I'm figurin' that either their cap'n needs to lose a few pounds, or they're carrying some heavy cargo. Shall we loot 'em, or press on to Redmond?"
Jack stood up. "What is their gun capacity?"
"Pretty weak Cap'n. An' they are full o' holes too, so it should be easy pickin' unless they have a bloody good crew."
Jack grinned devilishly. "We fight. Run out the guns and put up the pirate flag. Try not to send them to the bottom first thing. Try to cripple them, then take prisoners and all the cargo. Then you can sink it. I don't have the money to fix up a ship like that."
Sariah sighed. Another seagoing battle. Jack only attacked if the ship was half sunk, or had very few guns. He didn't want to do anything to harm his precious ship. She sat up and watched Jack leave, ignoring her pounding head and throbbing back. Sadness suddenly washed over her as she realized that that had been her first fight with Jack. She hung her head sadly, then noticed her hand resting on her knee. She groaned aloud when she saw it beginning to turn blue. She leapt up and raced out onto deck to warn Jack.
She had just gotten onto the deck when she heard an all to familiar sound. A cannonball was, of course, heading straight for her! She hit the deck and watched it sail smoothly overhead into the ocean on the other side of the ship. Spotting Jack on the other ship, she leapt up and made a running dive into the ocean.
-o-
Sariah quickly surfaced and watched the two ships battle. She could just see Mr. Gibbs and Anamaria laughing hysterically, probably at Jack or Will. Seeing Jack swing over to the other ship, she swam over to it herself and climbed aboard. "Jack!" She yelled.
Jack spun around and started to wave, then frowned at seeing Sariah in her nye add form. Looking down at his own hand, he let out an unearthly shriek and started to run back to the "Pearl." The two of them ducked behind some water barrels for a hasty conference. "Ah, bloody 'ell! Why does this keep happening? I'm a bloody monkey again!"
Sariah rushed out, closely followed by Jack, and together they grabbed Will and rushed into the Captain's quarters.
"We have to fix this!" Will roared.
"How are we going to do that?!" Sariah screeched at an ultra sonic pitch. "We have no idea where that bloody snake- person- thing went! You saw his face. He looked as if he were ready to give up an arm and a leg to get away from there."
"Besides, I think he was telling the truth. An average, well, almost average man, being threatened with his life like that wouldn't lie. He would tell the truth." Will pointed out.
Jack nodded. "Aye, but that still doesn't get us anywhere."
"It does tell us one thing!" Sariah cut in. "It tells us that the man can't help us. We may be able to get back to normal, but he obviously doesn't know how."
BOOM
The three people looked up suddenly as the door shuddered violently. Will leapt up in surprise as it crashed open. "Elizabeth!" He roared as the beautiful young girl fell onto the floor Jack's cabin. He raced to her side and helped her to her feet, just before leaping upon the person who had thrown her in. This time, nobody held him back. Elizabeth had to turn away and Sariah drew a little closer to Jack as Will tore at the man, who was screaming pitifully. In a few moments, Will had assured that the man would never draw another breath.
"Oh dear . . ." Sariah said, painfully recalling what had happened when Will had attacked her. "Elizabeth? Are you alright?"
But Elizabeth was to busy vomiting into a tin bowl that Jack had given her to answer.
Will straightened up and looked at the three appalled observers. He looked down in surprise at his bloody claws. "Why are my paws all bloody?" He licked his lips. "And why does my mouth taste like- oh no." Elizabeth gagged again and turned away, leaving Jack and Sariah to explain things to him.
"Um, remember how Jack said that you attacked me?" Sariah asked carefully. Will nodded, recalling the horrible wounds that where still etched on her back, side, and neck. By some magic though, he observed, they had become white scars, rather than open wounds. "Well . . ." Sariah continued. " . . . um, whatever you did, you just did it again. To that man." She pointed to the maimed body of the poor man whom Will had torn apart.
Will stared in shock at the gory body laying on the cabin floor. Thick red blood was running from the man's torn throat to mix with his intestines that Will had torn out. The stuff was spilling all across his face so that his own mother wouldn't of been able to recognize him. All of that, and the gory slashes and bite marks Will had inflicted across the rest of his body produced the most appalling sight any of the four people present had ever witnessed.
Elizabeth couldn't stand it. One, she was surrounded by animal people, two, her fiancé had just literally ripped somebody apart, and three, they where still being attacked by pirates! She could stand her two friends and her handsome betrothed being animal people, and she could handle the pirates, but mix both those things with the smelly body stinking up the cabin in front of her, and she was sure to fall apart.
Will had to reach out and catch her as she fell into a graceful swoon. He gently laid her down on Jack's bed, then turned to speak with his friends. "Why do I keep doing that? First everybody gets mad at me for attacking Sariah, which I don't even believe I would do, and now you are blaming me for that!" He jabbed a bloody claw at the gory corpse. "Sariah suddenly knows how to move things without touching them, and claims that Jack can read her mind."
Sariah watched Jack's long fuzzy tail flick around. "I'm not sure, but I'll bet that either the amulet or the bracelet had something to do with all that."
Will was about to respond when a shot rang out. Jack and Sariah drew back in surprise as Will was shot off his feet. In a single swift movement, Sariah drew one of her twin swords and threw it. It flew straight as an arrow and buried itself in a filthy pirate's neck. The pirate emitted a strangled gurgle and collapsed on top of the body Will had ripped apart. Jack was about to help Will up, but Will sprang to his feet by himself.
Elizabeth had recovered enough to see Will gingerly pull a bullet out of his forearm. No blood was on the bullet or came from the already closed wound. On that mark, Elizabeth had to grab her bowl again and, well, you get the point.
Will looked at the smashed bullet, then at the small white circular scar it had left in his arm. He sat down next to a retching Elizabeth, utter disbelief written all over his face. "Oh, God I'm tired of magic, and ships, and the ocean, and pirates! Why can't it all just stop?"
Sariah concentrated hard on the bullet in Will's hand, and shakily levitated it out of his hand into own. "I don't know, I really don't mind. Excepting, of course, that I won't be able to show my face on Oxbay anymore. But other than that, I don't mind."
Jack laughed. "I don't think any of us will be able to show our faces anywhere ever again. Unless . . ."
Will and Sariah looked at each other worriedly. What was Jack thinking of now? They watched him as he strode over to his large trunk and as he started pulling out random bits of clothing. Both Will, Elizabeth and Sariah had to fight off several other pirates who where obviously keen on capturing the captain's quarters for a barricade.
Finally, Jack turned and threw a green tunic to Sariah, and a black outfit to Will. Both of the items of clothing where very strange. Sariah's was covered in little bits of silver that formed odd patterns all up and down the thing. You had to put it on like a very long jacket, and lace it up in front with long silvery gold laces. It came with some very tight green pants and there was a dark red sash with little silver and gold beads to tie around her waist and chest like a corset (only much more comfortable). It tied in the back with a gold bit of cord so that it looped all across her stomach and chest.
Will's outfit was nearly as strange. The shirt was very long in the back, but nearly to short in the front. The pants reached almost all the way down to his ankles and had slits going from close to the bottom, almost all the way up. The lower part was closed so that the slit was in the middle. It came with a long gray cloak that could be fastened with a dagger shaped pin, or tied shut. There where also wrist guards, gloves, and two thin black stone rings to fasten around his forearms.
"What is this?!" Cried Sariah, inspecting a short dagger that was hidden in the sash. "Do you expect us to wear these?"
Jack watched Will trying to yank one of the wrist guards over his rough, bloody paws. "Well, if we are going to look like freaks, we may as well look like a traveling circus rather than a bunch of strange people trying to look normal. These outfits will help us look like that, and I already probably look enough like a pirate monkey so I don't need anything. Trust me!"
Elizabeth and Sariah went below deck to try on the outrageous clothes that Sariah would have to wear.
