RED SKY

"For the love of all that is good and holy, Mr. Gibbs, please, help me. Let me go to the island and catch up with him!"

Elizabeth felt tired, exasperated and desperate. Barbossa made her stay back, remaining on El Cazador, hopeless to do anything but watch the lanterns of the landing party disappear into the thick undergrowth of the Caribbean jungle. She needed to get to him, to be at Will's side. Everything seemed to work out so much better when the woman stood proud with her fiance. Will protected her, kept her safe from harm, loved her, and the noblewoman repaid him as much as she could. She spent the better part of an hour trying to convince Gibbs to allow her to join the landing party, to be at Will's side again.

Gibbs, steadfastly and respectfully refused. "With all due respect, Miss Swann, you can just sit yerself down and hush up." Elizabeth gasped in shock as his sharpness. "With all due respect, of course." The man sighed as the young woman plopped down beside him. "It's a waste of breath, Miss. I cannot disobey my captain's orders."

"No matter how foolish they are?" Elizabeth retorted.

The man just looked to her, surprised, and asked, "What d'ye mean?"

The woman shook her head, throwing up her arms in surrender. "Tia Dalma." Gibbs just looked to her curiously. "She told me one way to survive all this."

"And what was that?" he inquired.

Elizabeth sighed a heavy breath. "Barbossa's already showing his weakness."

Gibbs didn't understand. "Miss, what did Tia Dalma tell you?"

"Don't let them see you're afraid."

xxxx

"It's so strange."

Will Turner had never felt anything like this in his entire life. This island, it was strange. It seemed to have life, aside from the ordinary flora and fauna native to the Caribbean. No, it was as if the entire island bore a life, intrinsic to even the rocks and the earth, extending into the animals and the plants. It lived. It breathed. And it felt, felt the footsteps of men who should never trespassed there. Will could feel it, from the very tips of his toes to the hairs standing on end on the back of his neck.

They walked for what felt like hours, but the time hardly moved. The moon still hung, full and pregnant, in the exact same place in the sky. The stars barely turned in the heavens above. Will and the rest of the crew marveled at it, all except for Barbossa, who seemed not at all surprised by it.

Instead, Barbossa looked keenly upon the fine mists that seemed to be gathering and pooling about them; the old captain looked to his party. "Move silently now." He glanced about, taking in everything around them. "They hear us."

Will didn't dare ask. Instead, he just bravely followed Barbossa deeper into the jungle. He held the lamp out for a moment, catching sight of a strange, white bird in the trees. It kept the blacksmith in its gaze, its sight lingering upon Will, just as Turner could not help but look upon the bird. It appeared to be a white hawk of some form. The creature tilted its head to one side, called a strange coo, and fluttered off into the shadows. He peered into the darkness, and something, something gold and flashing moved out there. It disappeared, along with the bird before Will could really see.

He strained to see and hear, but there came not a sound. In fact, the island seemed to draw sound away from them, swallowing it up. The lantern light also fell short, swallowed up into the inky darkness of night. The blacksmith almost thought this strange land hungered for sound and light.

They walked on, further.

But Will swore he heard something lurking still.

xxxx

Elizabeth finally decided to retire after some time, much to Gibbs thanks. He had grown tired of hearing nothing but her begging and bickering with him. Barbossa held the captain's place, and, as such, his word, his order could not be questioned. To do so would be a direct disregard for his orders, a crime very much punishable in some rather unsavory ways. Gibbs far rather bear with the ire of the woman than the wrath of his captain, no matter who served that post.

Those words of hers rung in his ears. The man had never been fond of Tia Dalma ever. He found she always sent them head first into the worst possible of situations. It had remained Jack's decision whether or not to actually head off, but it was always her advice that put the ideas in Jack's mind, it seemed. The damned oracle had a way about her of telling truths in riddles and puzzles, without ever really telling the whole truth to anyone.

He pondered the oracle's advice as he strode the deck.

A soft scuff caught Gibb's attention behind him. He whirled around, expecting to see Mr. Cotton, or any of the other members of the crew, but not expecting at all what he saw. The last thing Mr. Gibbs saw before that flash of light behind his eyes and the sharp thud of something hard thumping his own skull, was no earthly creature. It was a demon, of the purest and the oldest of blood.

Darkness overtook Gibbs before he ever hit the ground.

xxxx

The mist suddenly grew thicker, curling around them, as if attracted to them, drawn in by gravity. Barbossa didn't like it. He held up a hand, signaling silently for his landing party to stop dead in their tracks. The men all drew to an abrupt halt, just standing, waiting, freezing there in the darkness.

Barbossa glanced over his shoulder and growled, "Douse those lamps."

Will swiftly did as he was told, pausing to draw his sword slowly, quietly, daring not to make a single sound. As the metal gave a slight hiss, the blacksmith cringed. His workmanship on the blade and its sheath had been impeccable, but no metal worker or blade smith could ever completely get rid of the all too characteristic sound of a weapon being unsheathed. It rang a dead give away.

Barbossa glared at Will, but spoke not an utterance. Instead, the pirate captain turned his attention to the jungle as another crewman snuffed the final lamp. The man crouched slightly, like an animal. Will took a swordsman's stance, proper and regal. Both stood as still as statues, opening their ears and taking in every sound around them, no matter how small.

It came from behind them at first. An unnatural cry. A predatory feline call, as a jaguar in the mists. It came from the trees. The entire group spun around to see it, but there sat no beast, no man, no creature in the trees around them. At least nothing they could see in the shadows of the moon about them.

Barbossa both thanked his lucky stars for the full moon and cursed the damned sphere in the sky at the same time. It illuminated the wild, untamed lands well enough for them to see by, to peer into the shadows. However, on the same token, whatever nocturnal creature stalked them could see just as well, or most likely better, especially added with the pale lunar beams. If the pirate captain could have doused the moon's light, he probably would have.

Will, meanwhile, maintained a keen ear before them, and rightfully so. With so many ears and eyes focused behind them, someone had to keep watch ahead. And, with good cause as another cry rang out in front of them, answering whatever creature skulked behind them. But, still, there roamed nothing, no beast or animal, in his eyesight.

Barbossa grabbed Turner by the shoulder and towed the younger man with him as he approached the center mass of the landing party. "Get close an' put yer backs to each other."

"What is it?" Will breathed.

Barbossa grinned from ear to ear. "Old beasts."

A dark mass sprang from the trees, right at them.

xxxx

"Why can pirates never be organized?" Elizabeth snarled.

After giving up on persuading Gibbs to take her ashore, the woman had retired to the captain's quarters to continue in her attempts to make any sense of the parchment that had been signed and stamped by Barbossa in blood of some form. It seemed like a contract, that was sure, but, for what, Elizabeth couldn't tell. Instead, she spent her time searching through the papers and journals this way and that, but with no luck. The previous captain of El Cazador had been a meticulous note taker, too meticulous, filling journal upon journal with needlessly detailed logs of their travels.

Elizabeth had also spent some time trying to search for the silver coin Barbossa had Tia Dalma inspect, but with no luck. The captain had to have taken it with him upon the island. She cursed him for knowing her that well.

A shadow passed over the windows behind her.

Elizabeth jumped but calmed herself immediately. It was probably just one of Jack's crewmen, feeling antsy for the sight of a woman in indecent states. She smirked, steeled herself and drew an old, rusted cutlass from where it stood, propped by the door. Elizabeth Swann was not one to be messed with or taken so lightly; she'd show them.

Elizabeth drew in a deep breath and kicked the door open from the inside, shouting, "Alright you..."

The woman hadn't been expecting what awaited her on the other side of the door to the captain's quarters; she trailed off from her annoyed rant as her brain desperately tried to make sense of the cobbling together of so many unlike things. It bore a shining, shimmering gold face, snarling upon her with large, pointed fangs. A thick main of black hair hung down over most of its body, wreathing the face like a lion. It growled at her and swung a massive paw at her.

Elizabeth jumped back, slamming the door behind her. "Oh, no you don't."