RED SKY
Beast and demons roamed the earth long before man, and they will continue to traverse this grand tapestry of life, the universe, and everything. Their bloodlines could, at one point, be traced back to the beginning, to before time had ever been recorded, and beyond. Their strength, their ferocity shall exist until the end of all existence, whether through blood or legend.
As a young man, Will Turner had always read about the monsters and mysterious creatures of the world. At some time or another, he had come across the book of The Odyssey, and fell into that world of Odysseus. His favorite parts had always been when "Nobody" blinded the Cyclops and when the ship had to narrowly skirt around the Charybdis and the Scylla. His mother hated her son's interest in such tales and tried as hard as she could to divert him from such stories. Now, knowing what life and death had befallen "Boostrap" Bill Turner, Will understood why his mother loathed Homer's books of Odysseus and his journey home.
When Will first saw the kraken, something in him strangely fell back to his childhood, thinking of Poseidon's great beasts, of the Charybdis, pondering if perhaps, just maybe, Odysseus had somehow gotten past the great evil thing that was the kraken.
Now, upon seeing this thing lunging towards them, unbidden, the image of the chimera flashed into his mind. A creature that had never truly been man, nor truly a beast. A hybrid. It had always been described as a hideous, furred monster, with flashing claws and teeth. A thick, wooly mane billowed back from its snarling face, flowing behind it and over the beast, like fur. But Will had never been expecting the patterning, the leopard spots dappling up the long, tanned legs, nor the inhuman, but no where near recognizable as animalistic snarl.
He froze in horror, sword drawn, waiting for the opportune moment as time seemed to slow down. Will drew in a breath and sunk lower in his stance, holding his saber up higher, ready for the strike. Time suddenly sped forward when Barbossa shoved Will aside, just out of the creature's path. Barbossa ducked out of the way just as it landed, tucking into a neat roll and lashing out with its pointed claws, swinging at the captain; the pirate however, just kept stepping back and away from the chimera.
Will looked to the frightened crew, steeling himself and barking out, "Ready!"
xxxx
A monster.
A year or two ago, Elizabeth might never have believed such a terrible beast to live and draw breath. However, in but a short time, the woman had seen too many impossibilities become realities that, despite her mind's logical protests, the noblewoman knew it had to be true. Her eyes had seen cursed Aztec gold, two pirate crews of the damned, a captain who resemble an octopus, and an hideous killed demon of the deep. She had to trust that this thing pounded away at the door existed in reality.
The door trembled with each passing blow; books and items on the racks closest to it shook and rattled. The wood creaked as if it would give at any moment. Elizabeth steadied herself and drew up the rusted cutlass she had merely been intending to tease Gibbs and the remaining crew with. Will had taught her well. She couldn't really surprise her enemy, but this strange quarry had been slowed to a grinding halt by the door. The woman would just wait patiently, as her fiance had taught her. If you can't get the drop on them, wait for the enemy to come to you, make them do all the work, extend all the effort.
Elizabeth just had to trust that Gibbs and the rest of the crew were faring well.
A splinter of wood shot out of the door, knocked loose by what appeared to be a gleaming, gold claw. It skittered across the floor to a halt at Elizabeth's feet. She shuddered slightly, knowing now just how formidable a creature this monster was, just how powerful and strong it was. However, Elizabeth knew Will's instruction would serve her well.
She hadn't been expecting the sudden splash of twinkling, sprinkling glass at her feet, nor the sudden smash of a heavy mass plunging through the massive windows behind her, catching her off guard. While the one on the other side of the door had kept her distracted, another beast had managed to traverse the deck above, its sounds covered by the thudding upon the door, and crash though the window while her back had been turned.
But her nerves had been on end, and Elizabeth knew to turn and face her foe immediately, still keeping an ear out on the one behind the door. This one swayed from one side to the other, as a wolf would, its weight never straying long on one foot. A smart tactic. It would draw her attention on the motion and keep her from guessing which way the beast would strike first.
Elizabeth glared at the demon right in its dark eye. "It's polite to knock before entering."
The thing snarled and gave a quick step forward, striking out with a smooth arc of its massive, ebony furred paw. Elizabeth retaliated with her cutlass, swinging out with the rusted, old cutlass fiercely, grunting with the effort. The beast just seemed to dance to the right, crouching lower and drawing its paws up, defending its self.
"Especially," Elizabeth took a long step forward, slashing through the air at the monster before her. "When it is a lady's room!"
Too late, did the woman realize her mistake, her grave error. She had taken too long of a step, advanced her opponent too far. Will would have chastised her severely for allowing herself to get so off-balanced, putting too much energy into the attack and loosing her focus on maintaining a good defense. However, at that moment, her fiance wasn't there to chuckle, laugh, and tease the woman about her accident. No, instead, there stood this evil thing that bore only malice and no mercy for a foolish fighter.
"Damn..."
The creature came at her suddenly, just as the door's hinges gave way.
Elizabeth's eyes went wide. "Not good."
xxxx
How strange and unusual it felt to be running to Barbossa's aid. Will had spent so very long hating the pirate captain for what he had down to them. Barbossa, after all, had marooned Jack twice and Elizabeth once, murdered his father, almost killed him, lied, cheated, and destroyed lives across the Caribbean. For so long, from the moment he first saw the Black Pearl and up until Sparrow had fired that one, lucky shot of his, Will had longed for nothing more than to see Barbossa dead.
However, now, Turner needed the pirate captain, for whatever bad blood flowed between them. So, the blacksmith took up his saber and rushed after the black demon that threatened his captain. The man held up his blade ready to slash down and through the back of the creature that drove Barbossa deeper into the underground.
Will never got the chance to strike such a blow, as a heavy weight slammed into him and sent him to the ground. The wind knocked out of him as he hit the wet earth of the island's jungle. Immediately, the blacksmith tried to roll to one side and fend off whatever had struck him down, but the weight still pinned him down. He reached back and elbowed it hard in the face, feeling a sharp pain ring out in his bone, like hitting it on the big anvils in the shop.
The beast let out a cry and shrank back, into the underground. Will sat there for a moment, gazing into the shadows, expecting it to come back at him. Still, as the quivering fronts of fern stopped moving, Will knew it would not return from that spot. This creature actually bore a strange intelligence to know well enough not to attack from the same angle again and again.
Will's ears caught a strange cooing noise of the bird he had seen not too long ago, jolting him back to his previous focus. The captain. His captain. He looked to Barbossa as the creature attacking him reeled back and into the shadows.
The older man panted, tired; sweat rolled down and off his face.
"Captain?" Will breathed.
Barbossa gave a half-smile at the blacksmith. "Been some time since I been mortal. Just 'bout forgot what 's like." He looked to Will. "Ye're well on your way to becoming a right pirate, First Mate."
Will didn't know what to think or feel at that; he almost thanked his lucky stars for the sudden pounding and drumming of many heavy feet into the trees, circling around them in the shadows. Those many enemies swirling around them saved Turner from giving any response, whether for the position or the negative, to the man he had reluctantly accepted as his captain.
Barbossa stood at Will's side but placed a hand on the smith's arm when he held up his saber at the ready again. "No. Wait."
Will responded with a quick shout to the men. "Hold!"
The captain looked to the younger man at his side, a mild, devilish gleam in his eye, almost proud. Turner ignored it, returning his gaze to the darkness and void of the jungle just outside the pale light of the moon. He focused on the sounds upon them, trying to train his ears on at least one set of steps. But there remained something so eerily familiar about those sounds.
Barbossa held out a hand, palm to the ground and fingers splayed.
Will called the order. "Steady."
The sounds suddenly turned inwards, towards them.
"STEADY!"
xxxx
Elizabeth's lady like graces and previous life as a simple noblewoman came to her in a lightning strike. She barely thought about the reaction as her feet danced across the floor. Attending balls, parties, and grand masquerades had the woman well practiced in the waltz, and her nimble feet carried her with a seemingly solitary, elegant move.
Her hand reached out into air, towards the desk. Her fingers curled around the dagger someone had been using previously as a letter opener. And, then, Elizabeth stopped on a dime, holding the dagger to the beast on her left, still standing just outside the door frame, and bearing the cutlass at the monster to her right as if shuffled in front of the utterly destroyed window.
Will's training called out in her mind.
Elizabeth raised a daring eyebrow upon these two creatures that dared attack her. "You think you can take me?" Her voice taunted the monsters. "You think you can kill a woman who took on Davy Jones and his kraken?" The pair of demons made soft, angry seeing barks at one another. "Then come and get me!"
They rushed her bitterly, but Elizabeth had the jump on them. She had been ready and waiting for them. As they drew near, just near enough, the woman gave a slight fox trot to one side, and let them almost run head first into each other. Then, Elizabeth bolted for the door, feeling most triumphant and ready to take on anything that lay ahead.
She hadn't been ready for the blunt object that struck her from behind.
Elizabeth tumbled to the ground, landing hard on the old, worn deck of El Cazador. Distantly, the woman registered the sounds of Pintel and Ragetti arguing in terror and fright as they ran. She tried to cry out to them, but the sounds came out all muffled. The world rocked and titled, more so than usual aboard any ship. Elizabeth reached out with one hand and felt with the other hand to the back of her head, and finding something warm and sticky plastering her hair to her head. It didn't take looking at her wet hand to know what the substance was, yet Elizabeth could not fight the compelling urge to look upon her crimson stained hand.
"Mr. Gibbs..." she called out.
Her vision focused finally, seeing the man lying, sprawled and unconscious before her in a heap. But Gibbs wasn't the only one. The last ten of fifteen members of the crew had been either dragged there and laid out on the main deck, blooded and bruised, most out cold. Pintel and Ragetti were swiftly herded back towards Elizabeth by a forth demon.
The woman glanced ahead of her, to where the dagger and the cutlass had fallen, just as Gibb's side. She moved to reach for them, but one of the ebony monsters snatched them up and hurled the weapons off the side of the sloop and into the Caribbean with a small splash.
Elizabeth rolled onto her back and stared up at the monster over her, into those black sockets where eyes should have been. Instead, she stared into nothingness and void. But that wasn't what surprised her or shock her by the beastly visage. It horrified her to no end, but not quite like the woman would have imagined. The creature stood taller, prouder over the fallen noblewoman, preening and posturing its self in a dominant position. It stared out, as if proudly, over its prey. The back half of its left paw glistened with the scarlet of Elizabeth's own blood.
In the ether of the world around her, Elizabeth half heard Pintel say it. "Imagine 'at. Four demons o' the underworld. Y'think we slipped somewhere in takin' care o' our immortal souls?"
But Elizabeth just lay there, transfixed, especially when the creature howled a deep, keening bay and drew its clawed paws high over its head, ready to bring them down upon the noblewoman. She just couldn't react, couldn't think, couldn't move. Instead, Elizabeth just kept gazing up with wide eyes at the demon.
"Will..."