Jack closed the door quietly and turned around to scan the cold room, searching for Elizabeth. It was dark from the overcast skies, threatening to spill into rainfall. He finally noticed Elizabeth lying down on his bed, head buried into his old pillow. Almost immediately, a dirty thought crawled into his mind, but Jack shook it away. Not the time mate, he thought. Before he could open his mouth, Elizabeth rose up from the bed, but her back was still facing Jack.
"What happened to that sweet boy I knew and loved? He's such a different man now; I just don't know him anymore." She placed her hand on her forehead and ran it through her wavy hair, causing it to fall back down again. Jack noticed Elizabeth rubbing her left arm, the same place where Will grabbed her not too long ago. "What am I going to do Jack?" Jack swayed his head over in surprise, confused on how she knew he was standing there. He then smiled. Keen as ever.
"Love, I'm sorry to say that you can't blame dear Will for being so bitter."
"What do you mean?" She turned around.
"Lizzie, he's has been away from his heart for many years now. Any right man would feel harsh after separation from the thing that gave him warmth and comfort." Elizabeth nodded and understood. "You're right."
After a few moments of silence, she quickly dried her damp eyes with the back of her hand and walked over to Jack's desk. She then sat down and grabbed the enchanted map closer to her and opened its contents. She had previously thrown it on the desk earlier in fury. Jack walked over to the desk and carefully looked at the worn out map.
To Jack's surprise, there were no lines, landmasses, or even a legend. There were only nine little boxes, each having one of the nine seas inscribed in them. Jack burrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but then quickly understood. Elizabeth however was utterly bewildered.
"What in the world are you supposed to do with this ragged piece of parchment? How are we going to find Tai Huang with this? Why would Will give me this? Does he not care about his life anymore?!" She looked up at Jack, assuming that he would agree with her, but was surprised by Jack's expression. He was deep in thought.
"Touch it." He said quietly after a few minutes.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Touch one of the boxes and see what happens." Elizabeth moved her head back in further confusion and looked down at the map again.
"Go on then," Jack encouraged. Elizabeth looked at Jack and then the map again. "Are you sure tha-?"
"Just do it Lizzie!" Jack was irritated.
"Fine, alright!" Elizabeth replied. She slowly lifted her right hand and softly touched the box which said The Caribbean Seas.
All of a sudden, the nine boxes disappeared. Elizabeth quickly moved her hand away, and both her and Jack watched in amazement. As soon as the boxes disappeared, a detailed drawing of Jack appeared in the middle of the parchment with his name written below. It then moved to the upper left hand corner. Following that, a map of the Caribbean Sea slowly appeared, along with many ships bobbing up and down, as if they were on the sea. Each of them also had there name written below them.
Spotting the Pearl, Jack understood how the map worked. He scratched his upper lip as he drew up a plan. Elizabeth looked at Jack's face again, slightly smiling to herself on how silly Jack looked when he was in thought. But before she had the chance to open her mouth and comment, Jack interrupted. "It's not here."
"What?" Elizabeth asked, quickly switching her gaze to the map.
"I can't spot the Dragon anywhere."
"Then obviously it's not in these waters," she paused, "Perhaps we should try another Sea."
"And how, do you suppose, do we do that love?"
"Well, there is a drawing of a cutlass pointing to the left…I wonder… if I touch it-" As soon as Elizabeth placed her finger on the cutlass, the map of the Caribbean Sea disappeared, and the nine boxes reappeared. "Which sea should we try next?" Elizabeth asked.
"Well, you know Huang better than anyone else on this ship love, where would he be with your ship?"
Not taking her eyes off the map, Elizabeth retraced all of the conversations she had with him. "Well… he always insisted that we sail back to Singapore and stay there, much like Sao Feng. Bloody Coward." She laughed.
Understanding Elizabeth, Jack swiftly touched the box that said The South China Seas.
Suddenly, a sketch of Elizabeth came forward, and following that, a map was shown of the bottom of China. Many ships were also present, floating in many different directions.
"This is outstanding! We can follow any ship, in any sea, at any time, and they won't even know we're coming!" Elizabeth exclaimed.
Jack looked up and was glad to see Elizabeth back to her self again. He looked down at the map again and saw an Oriental looking ship slowly moving out of the South China Seas and moving west. He then read the name of the ship in his mind.
The Immortal Dragon.
"Well this might be easier than we thought love. Looks like Tai Huang wants to have an interesting visit with us as well." Elizabeth quickly got up from the chair, causing Jack to step back. She was grinning from ear to ear.
"Well this is working out perfectly Jack! We are one step closer to saving the chest! Shall I speak to Gibbs about our plan then?" Jack nodded.
Elizabeth quickly ran out the door and shut it, her yells for Mr. Gibbs still audible. Jack laughed at Elizabeth's childishness and sat down in his chair and felt the warmth of her body still present. He quickly decided to study the map a bit further before setting sail.
But before he took his compass out from its place in his jacket, Jack leaned back and sighed.
"She's one step closer to saving the chest," he whispered.
A/N It's a touch screen map! But of course, for the late 17th century! XD
Just got the idea from combining the Marauder's Map (Harry Potter) and the map available on the At World's End website. So credits to them!
Happy New Year!
