Pirates Pen Pals

Chapter 10—These Noisy Crapauds!

A/N: Here's the latest update on what Jack's up to with those rainforest creatures…for all my lovely reviewers and readers!

Jack

Ok…I was feeling a bit weird here. This forest was so thick, damp, and just wet!

"Come on, kids," called Barbossa, ahead of me. Our group was the first, right after him, and then following Elizabeth was Norry's group. "We're gonna see some great stuff here!"

Huh, like you could convince me. It was then that I glimpsed a gigantic tree, the largest I had ever seen, but the strangeness of it wasn't only largeness, the trunk was sort of this brownish-green, a bizarre combination. All in all, quite beautiful, even Becky, who'd been boasting every minute he could that he'd won the hunt, gaped at it.

I suddenly had an idea. If this tree's what we saw first…maybe it could be the first on the list?

Before I could shout out, Barbossa announced, "Here is where your journey begins, mates," he gestured to the forest behind. "A trail and a road are completed, so it's perfectly safe. And, Mr. Pintel and Ragetti are there to accompany you all the way and to tell you if this was the species needed on the list. Good luck," he stepped off, obviously going to a shortcut. Cheater.

"Ragetti," I nudged the guy, "is this the…Chandelierooler...?" Somehow, I still couldn't pronounce a word in there.

"Um…let me see…brownish-green trunk, large, eh…" the guy was practically in-training!

"Yes, or no?"

Surprise! I wasn't the one saying this. Guess who? Liz! Of all people! The governor's daughter had gone mad with the heat, haha.

She grabbed his collar, hissing, "Come on, Ragetti, we don't have all day! We need to win this hunt." Seemed like she was VERY determined. Ooh, scary girl.

"Y—yes, miss," Ragetti whispered, rather scared. "But what you see won't be on that list in order, though," he muttered.

"Good!" Liz smiled, checking off the list, and turning to us as though it was perfectly normal and the grabbing of Ragetti had never happen, "Now, let's move on, shall we?"

Who knew? She was a great actress—Will looked stunned!

Liz

Phew! It was good to get that off my chest! Had been longing to be in charged for a long time, but this would never happen if that d--- Beckett didn't start it!

The shortie marched over here, proudly announcing, "Even though there are only two people in our team, Miss Swann, (Never in a million years would he get to call me Elizabeth—that nut knew it!) We're going to win it, without a doubt."

He grinned, "You can try, in which all of you will lose, or you can give up, in which all of you will face only mere embarrassment."

How could he? Been bugging me for the entire trip and said he could get away with it? I had four words for you, mister. Over. My. Dead. Body.

I stepped up to him, shooting words into his face, "We will win, and you WILL lose. That is all, Becky, nice talking to you," I sarcastically waved him off, not glancing one bit at his distorted face the second I mentioned his 'nickname', and just walked over to join with my group.

Will

Oh my God, what had happened to the girl of my dreams? Although, when I think about it, Elizabeth's determined, willing to do whatever she needed to reach her goals. Aw, that just made me admire her even more… But that Beckett ruined everything. Hated him!

Jack

We met a two-way street, so we turned right, them left. I spotted a colorful bird, mainly purple, with yellow eyes, and green wings. (Whoa.)

Nudging Will, I said, "Look there! A bird weirdo!"

He took one look at the list and told Liz excitedly, "Liz! Jack's spotted what might be the Amazona Arausiaca parrot!" I had no idea where he learned to pronounce such words…nerd.

Liz turned, gaping in surprise, "Oh, what a beautiful bird!"

Ragetti interrupted, "Uh, miss, actually, it is the Sisserou bird, very charming, indeed, depends on the rainforest…so"

Liz cut him off, "Right! We've got two. Move on, people."

She was more of a leader than I thought.

Minutes later, Liz discovered a 'lined, striped' tree, as she explained to us.

"Let me see," said Ragetti, inspecting the tree, leaving us to wait for a million years…

"Mr. Ragetti?" Will asked, polite as always, but with a tone of impatience in his voice, "It's been—"

"10 years have passed," I interrupted. "And we have lost speed, and therefore time, precious time that cannot be recovered once lost!"

Will stared at me. "Jack, I can honestly say I'm surprised you said that! Impressive!"

Starting to feel embarrassed with all the staring, I shrugged them off, "Just some sentence in some book, Will, don't look so impressed, I clearly don't read half as many books as you do…"

Ragetti finally answered, "You've got it!" Trying to sound cheery, even though we could tell by the look in his face that he was sooo bored. "It's the Gommier, a tree exuding latex, used as incense,"

"That's interesting," remarked Will.

Next up? We had to leaf through these mini jungles of ferns, when Will (At last he discovered something on that list!) suggested, "Liz, could this be a thing on the list? Seeing the number of ferns,"

Throughout his (a bit long) speech, Liz didn't look as dreary as talking with Ragetti, instead, she looked up to him with interest and admiration. (Would they arrest me if I puke in their forest?) "This should be the Cyathea arborea and Cnemidaria grandifolia, right, Ragetti?"

The One-eye assistant stepped up, "Yes, mister, those are the only ferns in the list."

Liz beamed, "Great Will! Keep up the good work." Will's smile was as though he had won the grandest award on Earth…

Ook, ook…

Wait a minute. What was that? The ook thingie?

"I swear that had to be an owl," I told Will, who asked Ragetti. "The Barn Owl?"

He nodded, and Liz gave him thumps up. Sigh. Lovers….

"Hey, Will, come see these red flowers, so nice!" Liz's voice rang. She was much ahead of us, wanting to complete the hunt fast.

Will hurried to her as though she'd said she was dying, and, picking one flower up from the branches, he handed it to her, "For you, Liz.

"Aw, that's so sweet, thank you, Will," she brightened.

How I hated being in between lovers…

"This may be the Boa rib…" I suggested, hoping at least, even Ragetti, someone would turn their attention on me. I was not going to be ignored like at home!

Ragetti nodded, "It's also the Dominican national flower!"

"Nice, Jack, let's see if you can find any Anthurium—it's the last thing on our plants list!" Liz smiled.

Instead, we found a little animal on a tree, looking sort of like an opossum. Its face resembled a mouse, with its brown fur and long tail. Enough to make Liz gasped, "Ooh, what a pretty creature! Now, what are you called?" she cooed.

Girls! They went soft every time with cute, cuddly animals!

"There ye go, Will," I said to the lad. "Buying a present for Liz? Look no further, cute, cuddly animals would please her!"

The lad grinned, "Yeah, whatever she liked, I would, too. Just wanna see her happy,"

Honestly, Elizabeth was lucky with ol' Will.

Ragetti said, "It's a manicou, miss, also on the list, now can we go?" Funny, now he was annoyed with Liz.

"Fine!" Liz pulled a straight face. "Go!"

"What was that disturbing noise? I ensure you they're not owls!" I shouted to Ragetti since now the noise was maddeningly loud…

"Uh, it's a…kind of frog, you see, real noisy…"

"Just tell me what they are! Dang it! Why are these things never clear?" I swore, wanting to get away from the freakish frogs. Whatever they were, they just topped Ma's record on being the loudest sound I had ever heard on Earth.

"A Crapaud, right?" Will came to my rescue. Had to thank him for that.

Near there, we saw a strange flower, sort of heart shaped. Oh, right, how perfect for the situation.

I wouldn't be surprised if Will hand Liz one of those heart flowers. In fact, he did. What a predictable guy!

"Sorry to interrupt your…ahem…romance," I said, snapping them off from their fantasies, making both jumped at the sound of my voice.

"Me thinks this is an Anthurium, because, reasonably, it's the last tree on our list,"

Ragetti quickly confirmed, and we were on our way…

Soon we got the parrot (Easy-peasy, also last parrot on the list!), and the Buteo platypterus was next. Although I had first expected it to be a platypus, it surprisingly turned out as a bird…sort of like a hawk, actually.

"Then why did the scientists name it a platypus?" I asked Will, my personal walking-talking encyclopedia.

"Well, I dunno…" he shrugged. There were surprises left in this world! This nerd didn't know everything like I thought, incredible! Well, at least Liz's safe with him. Knowing too much would be dangerous.

We were knocking down animals after animals. I swore no one could have gone as fast. Not even Norry and Beckett.

Just then, something brushed past my eyebrow. "Whoa, whoa," I yelled, hands flinging clumsily in the air.

"That thing's so fast…."

"The Purple-throated Carib's a hummingbird…." Ragetti hinted.

"Oh, yes! That's it! The hummingbird is the swiftest bird ever. Jackpot!" Will exclaimed, while Liz smiled. "We've got two left. They could never beat us!"

Beckett

What the heck was a Purple-throated Carib? This stupid guide didn't say anything. So frustrating, and yet, we still had five to go. Why was this so hard to find? Nothing's impossible for the Beckett. Come on, Norry!

"James?"

"Yes, Bec?" he replied, still looking at the bird.

"I think that might be the amazona…something," I suggested.

"But it could be the Sisserou, also, Bec!"

"Nah, I think it's amazona, it had to be," I always trusted myself. "Pintel?"

"It's the Siserou, sir.."

Dang it! Why did Norry had to be right every time?

"Fine, it is…" I didn't know if I could take this annoying thing for the rest of the trip…

Jack

We heard a bird quaked for the zillionth time of the day. After this, I was going to be so bored of bird sounds!

Luckily, we saw two birds, sitting together on a branch, sort of gray color, but not all too similar. One could see they were of different species.

Smart Will piped up, "Ragetti? Are the last two things on the list birds?"

Ragetti, still reading off a book, said, "Yeah?" He didn't care anymore; we were boring him out. Great! That's the entire purpose of having him trotted along, ha!

Will grabbed my hand in his left, and Liz's in his right, then we all jumped up in victory.

"We won! We won!"

Ragetti looked up, "Oh, yay," he droned.

"Now follow, here's the exit," he walked…

--------------------------------

Liz

We won! I knew that from the start! Beckett and James would never get along well—James was kind of honest and stuff, but Beckett was, well, full of himself.

Teams like that never worked.

Our awards were free ice cream sundaes at the hotel this evening when we would have free time.

Sundaes, here I come!

-----------------------------------------

A/N: Ah, this one's even longer than Chap 8! Whoo hoo!

Ready for a splash in the Caribbean seas with our fave characters?

Next Chap's called "Water, Water, and more Water!"

Experience—

---Waterfalls

---Beaches

---Water activities

Thanx,

Your ever humble fanfic writer :)