Jack helped Almyra into the first longboat as any gentleman would while the second half of the crew loaded into the other longboat behind the first, though Jack and Almyra wished they had the boat to themselves.
"Are you sure Tia Dalma can help, Jack?" Almyra asked softly, her hand in his as he looked down the swampy river ahead of them.
"If she can't, I don't know who can," Jack said quietly, looking back to her with a reassuring smile. He kissed the top of her head, his lips pressing softly against the blue bandana that covered her blonde beach waves. "Everything is going to be fine. I give you my word."
She pressed her fingers against the cloth on his left hand. "This better not be the first time you break a promise to me, Jack Sparrow."
Jack nimbly slid down the longboat without rocking it, kneeling before her with his hand still in hers. "I swear to you, Myra, I will do everything I can to prevent this fate. I don't want to die, and even more than that, I don't want to leave you. And I seal this promise with a kiss." He lifted her hand with a flourish and pressed his lips to the back of her hand. Despite the dramatics, his voice was tender and his kohl lined dark eyes were sincere.
Almyra slid her hand gently around the back of Jack's neck to tug him closer, their foreheads pressed against one another and both of their eyes closed.
Will looked at Gibbs and the others of the crew in the second longboat. "Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?"
"Well," Gibbs began to explain, "if you believe such things, there's a beast that does the bidding of Davy Jones. A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that can suction you face clean off, and drag an entire ship past the crushing darkness. The Kraken!"
Marty turned in their direction at the ominous name, and Pintel and Ragetti looked at one another nervously.
Gibbs's explanation continued on in depth. "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."
Will swallowed and paused for a moment. When he finally spoke again, it was quieter than before. "And the key will spare him that?"
"Now that's the very question Jack wants answered," Gibbs told him simply. "Bad enough even to go visit… her."
Will looked up warily. "Her?"
Gibbs's only answer was a short affirmative, "Aye."
Tia Dalma's shack floated into view. The bayou was glowing with spots of fireflies, and an iguana lounged on a twisting tree branch. The iguana's tongue shot out and snatched a firefly out of the air. As the longboats docked, people were visible through the trees, peeking through the darkness.
Jack stood up and turned toward the two boats, addressing the crew with his regular swagger returned. "No worries, mates. Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves we are. Were. Have been."
Gibbs clapped a hand on Jack's shoulder. "I'll watch your back."
Jack looked at him warily. "It's me front I'm worried about."
Almyra took his hand again. "I've got that part."
He smiled and looked back to the crew. "Mind the boat."
"Mind the boat," Gibbs ordered Will.
"Mind the boat," Will repeated to Pintel.
"Mind the boat," Pintel told Ragetti.
"Mind the boat," Ragetti said to Marty.
"Mind the boat," Marty finished off by speaking to Cotton.
Poor Cotton couldn't tell anyone, and even his bird squawked, "Mind the boat!" and left him there.
Jack stepped forward cautiously, slowly pushing open the door to Tia Dalma's shack.
Almyra glanced around as she stepped in just behind Jack. It didn't look so much different than the last time she had been inside, and that was a very long time ago, when she was with Jack as part of his crew on the Pearl, when he had first gotten his compass that never pointed north. A live snake hung inside the shack, moving slowly where it had been wrapped. Tia was sitting behind a table, focused on her crab claws until she heard the movement, and looked up.
She smiled when she spotted Jack and Almyra in the doorway. "Jack Sparrow, and his love! I always know de wind was goin' blow you two back togeda one day, and den it blowed you two back to me!"
"You're always right, Tia," Almyra said with a smile as the bayou witch took her hand and smiled. "We never should have doubted you."
"No, you shouldn't have," Tia confirmed with another smile. "But now dat your curse is long gone, I find your touch of destiny for de second time, but it is a different touch dan before. No longa a cursed fate, but a heavy one all da same."
Almyra raised an eyebrow. "We may have to discuss that sometime."
Tia flicked at her pocket, where Jack's Piece of Eight rested as a comfortable intrusion. "I dink you know what it is." Her attention flicked over to Will as he, Gibbs, and the rest of the crew that joined them inside slowly filed in.
"You," Tia Dalma said as she walked up to Will. "You have a touch of… destiny about you, William Turner."
Will looked at her in shock for a moment. "You know me?"
Tia smirked playfully. "You want to know me?"
That was when Jack jumped in. "They'll be no knowing here. We've come for help, and we're not leaving without it."
He led Tia Dalma away with an arm draped over her shoulders. "I thought I knew you."
"Not as well as I had hoped," Tia said simply, slipping from his grip and moving forward with a motion to the pirates filling the shack. "Come."
Jack turned to the crew and repeated her command. "Come."
Tia sat behind her table again, looking at all of the pirates standing before her. "What… service… may I do you? Hmmm?" She turned her dark eyes on Jack. "You know I demand payment."
"I brought payment," Jack said, almost like a proud toddler, which made Almyra roll her eyes. Jack whistled and a crewmember brought forward Jack the monkey, locked in a birdcage.
"Look!" Jack said, once again, proudly. He cocked his flintlock and shot the beast, but it has no effect. The monkey chattered loudly, frightened. "An undead monkey! Top that!"
Tia reached over and lifted the cage door, allowing the monkey to leap to freedom.
"No!" Gibbs called, trying and failing to stop her. He sighed. "You've no idea how long it took us to catch that."
Tia only shrugged, ignoring Gibbs's complaint. "The payment is fair."
Jack pulled the cloth drawing from his pocket and unfolded it, revealing the picture to Tia Dalma. "We're looking for this. And what it goes to."
Tia Dalma looked up and him with a furrowed brow. "The compass you bartered from me. It cannot lead you to dis?"
Jack turned defensive. "Maybe. Why?"
Tia grinned, amused. "Ayeeee… Jack Sparrow do not know what he wants! Or do know, but are loathe to claim it as your own." She looked at Almyra when she continued, knowing it was just as much her mission to find the key and chest to save Jack. "Your key go to a chest, and it is what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?"
"What is inside?" Gibbs blurted hopefully.
"Gold!" Pintel called quickly. "Jewels? Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?"
"Nothing… bad, I hope," Ragetti said quietly. He glanced at a jar of eyeballs that swayed gently nearby his head.
She looked over the questioning crew, seeing through Almyra's stoic expression to the concern for Jack that nestled just beneath the surface.
Jack noticed and took Almyra's hand in his own.
A smile ghosted Tia's lips before she spoke again. "You know of… Davy Jones, yes? A man of de sea. A great sailor, until he ran afoul of dat which vex all men."
Will looked up curiously. "What vexes all men?"
Tia grinned. "What, indeed."
"The sea?" Gibbs guessed suddenly.
"Sums!" Pintel corrected in a sure tone.
"The dichotomy of good and evil," Ragetti tried.
Almyra chuckled a little at that one. She didn't realize that anyone in the crew knew what the word "dichotomy" even meant, and Ragetti wouldn't have been in her top guesses.
Jack rolled his eyes. "A woman." It was obvious he knew what vexed all men. The woman that vexed him stood beside him and held his cloth-wrapped hand.
Tia grinned again. "A wo-man. He fell in love."
"No-no-no-no," Gibbs argued quickly. "I heard it was the sea he fell in love with."
"Same story, different version," Tia Dalma corrected firmly, "and all are true. See, it was a woman, as changing, and harsh, and untamable as the sea. Much like your own woman, Jack—untamable."
Almyra blushed slightly.
Jack smiled proudly.
Tia continued her tale. "Him never stopped loving her. But the pain it cause 'im was too much to live wid. But not enough to cause him to die."
Will looked at Tia Dalma warily. "What… exactly did he put into the chest?"
Tia pressed a hand to the center of her chest. "Him heart."
Almyra stiffened slightly. Finally they knew for sure a way to save Jack, but… she didn't know what price there would be to pay, and who would have to pay it.
"Literally, or figuratively?" Ragetti asked quietly, trying to make sense of it all.
"He couldn't li'erally put his heart in a chest!" Pintel protested. He hesitated and looked at Tia Dalma. "Could he?"
She shook her head slightly. "It was not wort' feeling what… small fleeting joy life brings, and so… he carved out him heart, lock it away in a chest, and hide de chest from de world. De keys, he keep wid him at all times."
Will stood up and moved toward Jack, standing before him confrontationally. "You knew this."
"I did not," Jack argued simply. "I didn't know where the key was, but now we do. So all that's left is for you to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal, and save your bonnie lass, hey!"
Almyra snorted. "Sounds simple."
Will frowned at her facetious attitude. He still never would've guessed that it had been her idea that he had to retrieve the key for Jack.
Tia Dalma stood up and stepped toward Jack, holding out a hand. "Let me see your hand."
Jack held up his right hand, showing that it was untouched.
Tia nudged Almyra's hand free from his left, and she tugged his hand forward, unwrapping the bandage to reveal the black spot to the crew.
Almyra flinched at the sight.
Gibbs gasped. "The black spot!" He rapidly wiped his hands down his chest, spun once to the left, and he spit on the floor.
Pintel and Ragetti repeated the panicked statement and then repeated Gibbs's superstitious dance in complete synchronization.
Almyra lifted her chin in revulsion at their reaction, furiously upset by how they suddenly had to ward themselves from Jack.
"My eyesight's as good as ever, just so you know," Jack told them quickly.
Tia was talking to herself as she slid past a beaded doorway into the back room, searching for something.
Jack slipped a ring off of Tia's table, and resting beside the ring was a oddly designed silver locket.
Almyra nudged Jack in the ribcage, probably harder than necessary, to get him to lay it back down.
Jack huffed and put it down, rubbing his ribcage.
Tia slipped back out from her back room with a large jar and an explanation. "Davy Jones cannot make port. Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you are safe, Jack Sparrow. And so you will carry land with you." She handed Jack the jar, which was filled with dirt.
Jack looked at it for a long moment as he took the jar from Tia. "Dirt. This is a jar of dirt."
"Yes?" She said, wondering why he was questioning.
"Is the… jar of dirt going to help?"
Tia frowned. "If you don't want it, give it back."
"No!" Jack pulled the jar close to his chest almost protectively.
Tia smirked slightly. "Den it helps."
Will took a deep breath. "It seems… we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman."
The bayou witch sat back down behind her table, pulling several crab claws and shells into her cupped hands, closing her eyes "A touch… of destiny!" She tossed the crab claws down to see how they fell.
Almyra took a deep breath. They had their answer.
