AN: Ugh!! is resurected from the dead I am so sorry about the horrible wait for this chapter... I have been so horribly busy with algebra, life and the crazy things it has in store for myself. I hope to work on this a bit more cause I really miss writing it and I have such great idea's for it. I hope this was worth the wait and my deepest apologies.
Irish Pirate Queen
Disclaimer: I do not own POTC, disney does. lucky them XP I own Jessa Sparrow and anything that is not in the films
Chapter 10: The Wheels Start Turning
Back in the Dutchman's hold a hallow thud echoed in the darkness as two earthen wear mugs slammed down on the rotten wood crate.
"Two ones." The slick voice of the Bo 'sun slid through the damp air of the hold as he looked at his opponent.
"Three twos" was Bootstrap Bill's instant reply.
The two men were down to the final round in their dice game. Jimmyleg's was at three dice, while Bootstrap was on his final dice. At the beginning of the game Bootstrap had suspected Legs to succeed, but there's always the small glimmer of hope that had shined, but now it had been extinguished and fast. The Dutchman's Bo 'sun was the number one dice player next to the captain.
Jimmyleg's peered under his mugs rim and smirked "Ye know what's a real shame Bootstrap?" he hissed with a nasty sneer on his face. "Its that I don't have a single three in my hand." He lifted his mug to reveal two ones and a four.
Bootstrap's demeanor went from the usual downcast melancholy to complete depression.
"Twas a noble attempt Turner but lets face it… nobility is left to the noble hearted. Nobility doesn't blend with pirates." With that said the Bo 'sun left the hold.
"H…how do you know my name?" Jessa asked stumbling over her words as she backed away from the door and the captain. "I never said anything to suggest that my father was Jack Sparrow."
Jones' mouth curled up into a cruel smirk as he began to pace in front of her cell slowly. "Ye said you were an orphan… I have never heard of a orphan without a last name, if they didn't have a parental surname then they make one for themselves." He chuckled darkly as he watched the girls face turn more frightened by the second. "Ye see child… with out yer last name ye have no identity."
He looked at the young girl sternly, locking her eyes with his "Yer in luck though Miss Sparra', be glad I am a patient man." Captain Jones' turned and walked away from the cell and the girl, heading up to the main deck.
As the sun set in the Caribbean the Black Pearl was moored off shore of the island of Cuba. After escaping the cannibals on Isle Pelegostos Jack had an interesting conversation with William Turner involving his compass, Miss Swann who was Williams fiancé behind bars, and the key. Of course both men wanted something, which Jack was experienced in manipulating a situation. He gave the young man the sail cloth with the drawing and told him it would help his beloved fiance from her dark fate, for once he gave the key to Jack he'd give him the compass. But why Will needed the compass to get Miss Swann out of prison was something the young man wouldn't expound upon and Jack wanted to know, but he left it alone.
On the trip up the Pantano River Jack sat at the bow of the long boat, his mind going back to the last few hours he'd spent with his daughter. The thought of her being dead made the Captain extremely sad, but in his heart he couldn't help but feel that she was still was alive. He could only hope, and he did, he hoped that Jessa was safe more than anything he'd ever really wanted. Maybe that was why his compass was acting strange, perhaps his hearts desire wasn't a tangible thing, but more of a feeling. Though the feeling he felt at that moment was dread... great and terrible dread. The river that he and his men were traveling up just so happened to be the very same river that Jessa had spent the past 16 years living on along with her mother, Tia Dalma.
Jack knew that Tia would wonder were the girl was, and even if he made up some clever little lie she would see right past it. And the woman was known to get quite a temper when she got angry. Though Jack wondered if the Jamaican woman would make much of a reaction to the news of Jessa possibly being dead. But then there was always that possibility of her knowing if she was alive and were she was. He'd have to talk to her in private away from the others.
Jack was jostled out of his thoughts as Gibbs steered the long boat up next to the crude dock in front of the witch woman's shack. He swallowed down the small trace of fear in him at the site of the structure and stepped out of the long boat.
"No worries mates. Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves. Nigh inseparable we are..." he stopped there but continued in his thoughts 'Well before the loss of our child'.
"I'll watch yer' back Cap'n." Gibbs said coming up behind him.
"Its me front Im worried about mate. Watch the boat." he instructed the man after Gibbs, which was Will. Will passed the instructions on to a bald headed man with yellow teeth and the instructions were finally carried out when they reached the mute sailor Mr. Cotton, who's parrot chose to abandon for its curiosity of the current events.
Jack went up to the wooden door, it looked even more ancient than the last time he'd stepped foot in the swamp, and pushed it in slowly and cautiously peered in to the candle lit shack. About half way into the comfortably sized shack sat a dark wood table and stools. On the table was an array of items, items like rings, bones and old crab claw's scattered across the surface.
"Jack Sparrow!" said a pleasant accented voice which came from the grand dark wood ladder back chair behind the table.
Sitting in the chair was a petite chocolate skinned woman, even though she sat in the large chair the air of wisdom and power of the obeah woman, was not diminished. Every detail, down to the last drop of ink in her strange facial marks, of Tia Dalma's self proved she had a mysterious strength about her, a presence that deserved respect, and a woman who was not to be taken lightly. The woman had a queer appearance, beneath her eyes and on her chin were three dots of black ink, her coarse hair was braided into small strands and tied loosely behind her head. And her attire was quite elegant for were she lived, it looked as if at one point it had been an noble English woman's gown, but now after years of wear and adjustment. It was no wonder rogue men like Jack were drawn to this woman and the place in which she dwelt, an exotic experience most called it.
Jack stepped through the door, returning her welcoming smile. "Tia Dalma!" he said in a delighted tone.
The woman stood from her chair, one arm spread in greeting while the other held her voluminous skirts "Aye! I always knew de wind was goin' te blow you back to me one day..."
Tia stopped mid-sentence when she caught sight of the young man with dark brown hair and matching eyes. My he was a handful of eye candy to Tia for she was simply use to sea haggard men that normally came for medicines and help. Tia Dalma looked him in the eyes and saw in the young man's mind, his name.
"You... you have a touch of destiny about you... William Turner." she said slowly, drawing out the vowels in his name.
Will looked at the woman in shock, it was clearly readable on his face. 'How does she know my name?' he thought a bit hesitant about this whole plan of Jack's. "You know me?" he asked
She walked up to him, a bit to close for Will's comfort and smiled up at him in a seductive manner "Do... you want to know me?" she asked, there was hinting in her tone but yet not enough for anyone in the room to be sure of what she entirely meant... that was all excluding Jack .
"There'll be no knowing here!!" he said coming up to them and placing his hands on her shoulders and moving Tia away from his young friend. "We need help and we are not leaving till we have it." he said with a nod, then bent to her ear and said in a hushed tone "I thought I knew you!?"
"Not so well as I had hoped..." she said with disappointment in her voice "Come." Tia said sitting down in her chair and leaning on her right side in a relaxed position in her chair.
Jack ushered Will to sit down in the chair across from her while he stood to the side and behind him, looking at the items in the jars. The remaining crewmen ducked, stared and avoided the hanging jars, the one with the wooden eyeball stared at a particular jar of eyeballs uneasily.
"What service can I do you? Hmmm?" she asked in a contemplative tone. "You know I demand payment Jack Sparrow." she said suddenly a bit harsh, making the men jump at the sudden change.
Jack smiled triumphantly and took the wooden cage that Gibbs had handed him. Inside was the figure of a monkey huddled up to one side, glaring at anyone he could lay eyes on. The 'Pearl's Captain pulled out his pistol and shot Jack... the monkey.
"Look an undead monkey. Top that." he says handing the cage to Tia Dalma, the animal inside chattering unhappily. The woman released the lock on the cage and Jack scampered out of the cage.
The crew looked apprehensive "You've no idea how long it took us to catch that." Exclaimed Jack's... Captain Jack's first mate.
Tia shrugged and sat back down "The payment is fear... what is it you want Witty Jack?"
"We're looking for this...and what it goes to." said Will taking a piece of sail cloth from his coat pocket and unfolding it on the table. Revealing it to be the same piece of cloth Jack had recovered from the prison a few weeks back.
Tia looked at the cloth, stunned for a brief second, she replaced that expression with a frustrated one. "De compass you battered from me. It cannot lead you to dis?" she said briskly looking at Jack.
"Maybe...why?" The man asked with an attempt of trying to sound like he didn't know what she was talking about in the slightest bit.
Tia began to chuckle, a gleeful smirk spreading across her lips "Ayeee... Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants! Or.. Do know, but 'ard loathe to claim it as your own aye Jack Sparrow?" she said tilting her head up as if to look down at him, she then changed her mood and directed her gaze to the other men and Will "Your key go to a chest, and what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?"
"But...what... is in the chest?" Gibbs said speaking up so he could be heard. Pintel, the bald strange man with horrid yellow teeth chose now to put in his two cents worth. "Gold! Jewels?" he said excitedly "Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?" Ragetti, the man with the wooden eye, nudged in as well "Nothing...bad... I hope." he says looking at the jar of eyeballs once more.
"You know of Davy Jones..." she said as a statement of fact, she knew that each man there knew of the fearsome captain, or at least had heard something about him. "A great man of de sea... a great sailor. Until he ran afoul of dat which vex all men." she said running a finger across her cheek.
"And what vexes all men?" William asked naively, leaning forward, entranced by her tale.
The older woman smirked and bit her finger lightly, eyeing young Will a bit hungrily "What indeed."
"Oh...the sea?" offered Gibbs
"Sums!" proclaimed Pintel
"The dichotomy of good and evil..." Ragetti said a bit unsure of his answer.
Jack shook his head and scowled, he called those buffoons his crew? "A woman!" he said turning to examine some jewels and a hat with a large dark feather.
"A wo-man... he fell in love" Tia said giddily as she repeated Jack's words.
"No, no... I heard it was the sea he fell in love with." Gibbs said with a nod of his head.
"Same story...different version." she said waving her hand in a dismissing manner. "But all are true!" she said with a sharp nod "See... it was a woman, as changing and harsh, and untamable as the sea." she began shaking her head "Him never stop loving her... but the pain it caus 'im was to much to live wit'... but not enough to cause him to die."
"What...exactly did he put in this chest?" Will asked, sounding like he didn't really want the answer.
Tia leaned forward, laying her hand over her heart and said delicately "Him heart."
"Literally or Figuratively?" The wooden eyed man asked with an uneasy look on his grimy face.
"The man couldn't 'literally' put his heart in a chest!" Pintel said rubbing his chest looking at the two men who stood next to him, he turned and looked at the bayou queen with a raised brow "Could he?" he asked a bit freaked.
"It was not wort' feeling what...small fleeting joy life brings." she said looking at all the men intently "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 had been very absorbed in the woman's words, and when she finished he simply sat there thinking them over. Her last words hitting him hard in the face, as if he'd been punched... so to speak.
"You knew this!" He exclaimed standing up and facing Jack, a challenging look in his eyes.
"I did not!" Jack said sounding wounded, as if he couldn't figure out why will was so unhappy with him and would accuse him of such a thing. "I didn't know where the key was. But now we do." he said with a raise of his finger and shaking it triumphantly in the air. "So all that left to do is climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and save your bonnie lass, hey!" he said gleefully heading for the door at an abnormal speed for the crazed captain.
"Let me see your hand!" came the demanding words of Tia Dalma.
Jack flinched and looked at her stubbornly, he finally gave her his right hand, when she untied it the pulsing ink of the black spot was revealed.
AN: Also I hope my multi events helped to make the chapters longer... I am really struggling on making them longer so I hope this helped.