A cool breeze blew across the wide river, propelling the HMS Interceptor through the aqua-water. Her Union Jack flags had been taken down, and replaced with Captain Jack Sparrow's ensign; a skull and crossbones looking up at a red sparrow in the black sky.

'Not quite the most terrifying of pirate flags,' Manfred thought, 'but still pretty adequate.'

He stood on the deck of the ex-navy brig, watching Roshan as he played inside a large bundle of rope. Will Turner had decided this made a nice playpen for the baby, and would keep him out of the way while Will and Jack ran the ship.

And so far, the plan was working. Roshan was not disturbing anybody as he crawled around in the rope-bundle/playpen, pushing a lightweight cannonball in front of him. ("It's the only thing close to a ball we have," Jack had explained)

Manfred looked up to the quarter deck. There they were; the blacksmith and the pirate. Jack Sparrow was steering the Interceptor while Will cleaned his sword.

"Are you quite sure the sails don't need trimming?" Will asked.

Jack looked down at him. "Son, I've been at sea for many years now. I know exactly how much sail is needed. We're fine, savvy?"

William nodded.

Nobody spoke for a few minutes.

Finally, Will looked up from his work, and started talking. "When I was a lad, back in Britain, my mother raised me by herself. After she died, I came out here, looking for my father."

"Is that so?" said Jack shrewdly, licking his finger to check the wind direction.

Will stood up. "My father? Bill Turner? It was only after you knew my last name that you agreed to help. Since that's what I wanted, I didn't press the matter." He walked up to the pirate captain. "I'm not a simpleton, Jack. You knew my father."

Jack sighed, and looked Will straight in the eye. "I knew 'im. Probably one of the few who knew him by the name of William Turner. Everybody else just called him 'Bootstrap', or 'Bootstrap' Bill."

"Bootstrap?"

Jack smiled. "He was a good man. Good pirate. I swear, Will, you look just like him."

'Pirate? Pirate?' Will could feel anger building up inside him. Somehow, he sensed that Jack Sparrow was telling the truth. But it couldn't be…it just couldn't be true.

"That's not true!" Will snarled. "My father was a merchant sailor. A respectable, law-abiding man!"

"He was a bloody pirate, a bloody scallywag!" Jack shot back.

"My father was NOT A PIRATE!" Will bellowed, pulling his sword out of its scabbard.

Captain Jack Sparrow laughed, undaunted. "Put it away, son. It's not worth getting beat again."

"You didn't beat me," growled William, shaking with fury. "You ignored the rules of fair engagement. I could kill you in a fair fight."

"Well then, there's not much incentive for me to fight fair, then, is it?" Jack smiled. Suddenly, he turned the ships wheel hard over starboard.

The boom of the Interceptor swung around. The next thing he knew, Will found himself dangling above the frigid water, clinging to the ships boom.

Jack Sparrow picked up Will's sword and pointed it at its owner. "Now," he barked, "as long as you're just hanging there, pay attention!"

Will was fully focused on the pirate's words.

"The only rules that really matter," continued Captain Jack, "are these: what a man can do, and what a man can't do. For instance, you can accept your father was a pirate and a good man, or you can't. But pirate is in your blood boy, so you'll have to square with that someday."

He sauntered over to the wheel. "Take me for another example. I could let you drown! But I can't sail this ship all by me onesies, savvy?"

Quick as a flash, Jack turned the wheel over to port. The boom swung back over the quarterdeck, depositing Will Turner at Jack Sparrow's feet.

Jack walked over to Will, and held the sword at his neck. "Can you sail under the command of a pirate? Or can you not?"

Unexpectedly, Jack flipped the sword over, offering the hilt to Will.

"Perhaps I can." Will took the sword from Jack, and sheathed it.

Jack Sparrow smiled. His persuasion skills were still very good, even with a hard-headed man like this one.

He swaggered back over to the wheel, and turned the ship a couple of degrees port.

Will looked towards the bow of the Interceptor, sheltering his eyes from the setting sun.

"Where are we headed?" he asked.

"The tar pits. I've got an old mate there who could help me rustle up a crew."

"The tar pits?" said a spitty, interested voice.

Jack Sparrow looked down to see Sid the sloth, looking up at him with bright eyes.

"What's gotten you so interested, Sid?" asked Jack Sparrow.

"Nothing," said Sid quickly, turning slightly pink behind his messy fur. He rushed over to a bucket of water and started flattening the fur on his head, checking his reflection in the water.

Will turned back to Jack. "Rustle up a crew…do people live at the tar pits?"

"Not just people, son. Pirates. I know a few of the pirates that live there. They'll probably sign up for an adventure. I know their type."

"We can probably camp there for the night," suggested Will.

"Probably right for that lot." Jack nodded at Manfred, Diego, Sid, and Roshan, down on the main deck. Manfred was watching Roshan, Diego was lounging in the sun, and Sid was slumped over the railing, green in the face.

"Fourth time he's been sick since we set off," grumbled Will Turner in a disgusted tone.

"And now to find a meal befitting a conquering hero!" Sid lisped to himself.

After the gang had anchored the Interceptor just off the coast, Sid had been the first off the ship, kissing the ground. He definitely knew that at sea wasn't his place.

Now he was searching for his dinner, partially because he knew he deserved it, what with saving the melon and getting the Interceptor, and partially because he had been seasick on most of the journey.

Sid pushed aside a branch as he continued his search for food. It snapped back, whipping the sloth in the back of the head.

Sid glared around at the tree the branch was attached to. "What ho? A foe! Come on, come on! You want a piece of me?"

The sloth raised his arms and assumed a kung-fu crane stance. "HOOOOOIIIII-YAAAAAA!" He plunged his paw into the tree…and felt something small, round and hard.

Sid tightened his grip on the object, and pulled out a small acorn.

"Spoils worthy of such a noble…" Sid gushed, and tossed the acorn into his mouth.

Before he could swallow it, however, a screaming blur came flying out of the shadows. It forced open Sid's mouth, grabbed the acorn, and stomped off, growling angrily.

Scrat was furious. How dare that stupid big sloth steal his acorn! Oh well, it was probably his fault anyway. He would have to find a safer place to bury his precious nut now.

"Ouch…" Sid groaned as he watched the fluffy squirrel tail disappear into the darkness. "Stupid squirrel." It was a pity that he had lost the acorn to the squirrel, but there

were always other foods…

Like those still-green birch leaves over there! 'Mmm! I love birch leaves!' The sloth waddled over to the tree and started eating.

Will Turner followed Jack Sparrow between the rocky outcroppings and tar pits. He had no idea where the pirate was taking him. He was also unsure why the pirate was carrying a bucket of water.

"What's the water for?" Will asked.

"Shhhhh," Jack shushed. "You hear that?"

A loud snoring was coming from behind another boulder. Smiling, the pirate tiptoed around the boulder. Will followed him.

Propped up against the rock, clutching a small, ragged teddy bear, was a dirty grey-bearded man in a filthy bosun's uniform.

Jack lifted the bucket over the man's head and showered him with water.

Quick as a flash, the man woke up, eyes wild with anger.

"CURSE YA FOR BREATHIN', YA SLACK JAWED IDIOT!" he shouted, pulling out a dagger with a shaking hand.

Jack pressed the bucket onto Will and stepped forward.

The man's expression softened. "Mother's love. Jack!" he smiled, putting away his knife. "You should know better than to wake a man when he's sleeping. It's bad luck."

"Ah!" said Jack Sparrow happily. "But, Mr Gibbs, I know how to counter that sort of bad luck. The man who did the waking pours the man who was sleeping a drink." He shook a large gourd attached to his belt, which emitted a sloshing sound. "And while the man who was sleeping is drinking, he listens to a proposition from the man who did the waking. Savvy?"

Will had watched this Mr Gibbs as Jack had talked. Mr Gibbs had been looking quite confused…up to the point where Jack had mentioned drinking.

"Aye! That'll about do it!" nodded Mr Gibbs, and he let Captain Jack pull him to his feet.

All of a sudden, Will threw the rest of the water over Jack's first mate.

"BLAST! I'M ALREADY AWAKE!" bellowed Mr Gibbs, blinking the water out of his eyes.

"That one was for the smell," explained Will.

Jack Sparrow and Mr Gibbs sat down against a cliff. Gibbs produced two mugs from his bag, and, true to his word, Jack poured them both some rum.

"So, tell me," Joshamee said to his captain. "What's the nature of this venture of your'n?" He took a sip of his rum.

"I'm going after the Black Pearl," explained Jack simply.

Gibbs choked on his drink.

"Jack!" he spluttered. "It's a fools errand."

"But this time, I know exactly where it's gonna be, and I'm gonna take it."

Joshamee shook his head. "You know better than me the tales of the Black Pearl."

"That's why I know what Barbossa is up to. All I need is a crew, and that's where you come in, Mr Gibbs."

"What I hear tell of Captain Barbossa," Gibbs muttered, "is that he's not a man to suffer fools, nor strike any bargain with one."

"Good thing I'm not a fool, then," smiled Jack.

"Prove me wrong!" Gibbs exclaimed. "What makes you think Barbossa will hand his ship back over to you?"

"Let's just say it's a matter of leverage, eh?" Captain Jack smirked.

Will heard the word 'leverage' carry across from where Jack and Gibbs were sitting. He glanced over at the two pirates, then, trying not to get caught eavesdropping, assumed his normal position again. However, he kept his ears peeled, and watched the pair out of the corner of his eye.

Gibbs was looking blankly at Jack Sparrow again. Jack gestured with his head at Will.

His companion continued to stare questioningly into Jack's mysterious brown eyes.

Jack nodded again at Will. Gibbs glanced across at the young blacksmith.

"The kid?" he asked.

"Now that is the only son of Bootstrap Bill Turner. Savvy?"

Joshamee Gibb's eyes widened. Slowly, a smile formed across his scraggly bearded face.

"Is he now?" he murmured. "Leverage says you. I feel a change in the winds, says I. I'll find us a crew, Captain. There's lots of crazy pirates living at the Tar Pits. They'd have to be nuts as you to brave the cold. I'll whip you up a crew before dawn."

Smiling, Captain Jack Sparrow lifted his tankard. "Take what you can!" he shouted extravagantly.

"Give nothin' back!" replied Gibbs, and they slammed their mugs together and drank deeply.

"Bedtime, squirt," said Manfred happily, picking up Roshan from a rock and curling the baby into his trunk. Within moments, the baby was asleep.

It had been a very strange day. Picking up a Paleo-Indian baby, a pirate, a blacksmith, and a sabre tooth tiger was definitely not normal.

That sabre, though…he didn't trust that sabre. There was something not right about the tiger. The mammoth glanced over at the tiger.

Diego was sound asleep, lying across the campsite.

Sighing, Manfred was just about to drift off to sleep, when he heard a rustling from nearby.

Sid the sloth waddled across the camp, patting his stomach contentedly.

"Ah, the triumphant return," said Manfred sarcasticly.

Sid looked around wildly, not realising that the mammoth was actually talking to him. "Huh? Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm so full."

The sloth meandered over to a small rock against the cliff wall, and started patting it down as if it were a soft bed. "You know what, Manny?"

"No."

"Those two humans, Will and Jack, they're going to whip up a crew before dawn. Something like that."

"Why is that important, Sid?"

"No reason." Sid finished patting his rock. "Now, how about a good-night kiss for your big buddy Sid?"

"Shhhhhh!" Manfred hissed. "The baby's asleep."

"No, Manny. I was talking to you," Sid smiled.

"No way," grunted the mammoth.

Sid sniffed, offended. "Fine. I'll tuck myself in then."

He stretched, lay down on his rock, and looked up at Manfred. "Alright," he yawned. "Goodnight."

The sloth's head tipped back and he fell silent.

Then he turned over.

Then he started humming to himself, tossing from side to side, and then onto his back.

'How long is this going to go on for?' Manfred thought for himself.

"Na! Na, na, na, na." Sid muttered to himself, kicking his foot in the air. Then he flipped over, yawning contentedly.

Manfred had had enough.

"WILL YOU BE QUIET!" he bellowed.

Sid woke up in a flash, and blinked at the mammoth.

"Alright, alright," he groaned. "I was just trying to relax."

The sloth settled down again. He curled in a ball…and started sucking his thumb noisily.

"Oi." Manfred muttered, but the sloth was fast asleep already.

The mammoth took one last glance at the sabre, then, slowly, his eyes closed too.

Diego watched through his eyelids as Manfred's eyes shut tight. 'Perfect. Time to start Operation Baby Capture.'

His eyes flicked wide open. In the darkness, they glowed a creepy shade of green.

The sabre stalked over to the mammoth, flicked out his claws, and was just about to grab the baby when…

Rustle, rustle, rustle

Diego looked around for the source of the sound. Nothing there.

Had he imagined it? The only sound he could hear now was the sloth's loud snoring.

Diego tried again. He reached towards the baby…

Rustle, rustle, rustle

The mammoth snorted in his sleep, and tightened his trunk around Roshan. Now it was impossible for Diego to get the baby out of the mammoth's tight grip.

The tiger growled angrily. Whoever had made that rustling noise would pay for it.

Rustle, rustle

Diego looked around. The bushes at the top of a bank were moving slightly. Someone was behind it, possibly the someone who had made the rustling noise.

The sabre crouched down, flattened his ears…and leaped.

Roaring, he flew over the crest of the bank, and came down upon the other creature. He pinned it to the ground, lifted his paw to deliver the killing swipe…and recognised the other animal.

"What the…Zeke?!"

"Go ahead, slice me," sneered Zeke, Diego's scrawny comrade. "It'll be the last thing you ever do!"

"I'm working here, you waste of fur!" Diego snarled.

"Frustrated, Diego?" leered another voice.

Diego looked to see Oscar standing in front of him, looking coolly at him. "Is tracking down helpless infants too hard for you?"

The sabre tooth tiger looked at his two pack-mates. "What are you two doing here?"

"Soto's getting tired of waiting."

"Yeah!" Zeke laughed. "He said, 'come back with the baby, or don't come back at all!' Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

"Message received," shot back Diego. "And you can give Soto this message. I'm not only bringing the baby…I'm also bringing two humans, and a mammoth."

"A mammoth?!" yelped Zeke excitedly.

"Mammoths never travel alone!" growled Oscar.

"This one does," said Diego, leading Zeke and Oscar to the edge of the bank, so they could see Manfred slumbering peacefully. "I'm leading them to Half Peak."

Zeke was now shaking with hunger. "Mmmmm…look at all that juicy meat. Let's get him!"

"Not yet!" growled Diego. "Haven't you forgotten we still have the curse on us? Once the curse is lifted, we'll need the entire pack to take this mammoth down. Get everybody ready!"

Zeke and Oscar lingered for a moment, staring at their superior like he had gone mad.

"NOW!" ordered Diego.

Zeke ran off, short bob tail between his legs. Oscar glared at Diego for a moment, before he too loped off into the distance.

Sighing, the sabre walked down the embankment and back into the camp. He laid back down where he had been laying before, and settled in for the night.

Above him, a blue full moon was glowing in a clear sky.

Somewhere along the wide river leading north, a pitch black ship with tattered sails coasted through the water, illuminated by the light from a waxing moon, and shrouded by an accompanying cloud of fog. This eerie, supernatural fog followed the vessel wherever she went.

The Black Pearl was dark all over…save for the lights in the grand rear cabins.

Elizabeth Swann stood in her cabin and watched the ornate oil lamps hanging from the ceiling swing to and fro. She didn't really care much for the decorations, though. She almost preferred a dark damp brig cell to a beautiful cabin.

Suddenly, Elizabeth heard footsteps behind her. She turned to see Pintel and Ragetti walking into her cabin, Pintel bearing a pretty red dress.

"You'll be dinin' with the captain and the sabre pack leader tonight," he grunted, "and they request you to wear this." The bearded pirate thrust the dress towards her.

"Well," shot back Elizabeth coldly, "you may tell your captain that I am disinclined to acquiesce to his request."

Pintel sniggered.

"He said you'd say that," he grinned. "He also said if that be the case, you'll be dinin' with the crew…and you'll be naked."

Ragetti burst into a fit of giggling.

Elizabeth was shocked. What could be worse than dining with a rough crew of evil pirates in the nude?

'Best be dining with one evil pirate and one evil in clothes instead,' Elizabeth thought, and she snatched the dress out of Pintel's hands, and tucked it under her arm.

"Fine," growled Pintel.

Soon, Elizabeth was dressed, and seated in the captain's cabin in front of a large table. Dozens of pirates walked in from the deck, carrying platters of fruit, fish, bread, meat, even a stuffed boar with an apple in its mouth. Candles were lit. Another pirate poured wine into golden goblets. It was a meal fit for a king.

Captain Barbossa entered his cabin, and sat down at the head of the table. Soto loped in beside him and leaped up onto a large stool, so he was level with Barbossa and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth picked up a golden fork and knife with shaking hands, and daintily started picking out small bits of meat from the boar. Soto and Captain Barbossa, however, didn't touch a thing, and only watched Elizabeth eat.

Hector Barbossa chuckled. "There's no need to stand on ceremony, miss, no need to impress anybody."

"You must be hungry," said Soto from across the table.

'Fine, then,' thought Elizabeth. Dropping her fork, she picked up a whole leg of boar and started ripping large chunks of pork from the bone.

Barbossa and Soto still didn't eat.

As soon as she had finished her mouthful of pork, Elizabeth grabbed two slices of French bread and shoved them into her mouth.

She heard the sound of liquid being poured. "Try the wine," Barbossa suggested, pushing one of the gold goblets towards her, now full to the brim with rich red wine.

Elizabeth grabbed the goblet with both hands and drank deeply.

Hector Barbossa picked up something else from another platter. "An' the apples. One of those next."

Elizabeth stopped. She felt suspicious. She looked around towards the chair next to her, to see the monkey watching her closely with its big beady eyes.

"It's poison," she whispered, pulling away from the green fruit.

An awful laugh came from Soto's place on the table.

"You read too many fairy tales, Miss Turner!" the sabre-tooth tiger sneered. "There's no sense in killing you at all."

"Then release me!" Elizabeth demanded. "You have your trinket. I'm of no further value to you!"

In response, Barbossa pulled something out of his jacket. It was the pirate medallion. The gold skull face glistened in the candlelight.

"You don't know what this is, do you?" Hector Barbossa croaked.

"It's a pirate medallion."

"Wrong," Soto said from across the table. "That is Aztec Gold. To be precise, one of 882 identical pieces they delivered in a stone chest to Cortés himself. It was blood money, paid to stem the slaughter he wreaked upon them with his massive armies."

"But," Barbossa cut in, "the greed of Cortés was insatiable. So the heathen gods…placed upon the gold…a terrible curse. Any mortal that removes but a single piece from that stone chest shall be punished…punished for eternity."

Elizabeth let out a cold laugh. "I hardly believe in ghost stories, Captain Barbossa, not anymore."

"Aye!" barked Hector Barbossa. "That's what I thought too, when I was first told the tale. Buried in the caves of an extinct volcano what cannot be found, 'cept for those who know where it is." His voice turned bitter. "Find it, we did."

Soto listened eagerly to Captain Barbossa's story. Although he had heard the tale many times before, he was still excited by it every time; excited by the fact that it said the curse could be undone.

"There be the chest," croaked Barbossa. "Inside, there be the gold. And we took 'em all!"

After the Paleo-Indian tribe had killed off half his pack, he had travelled back to Half Peak, his pack's base. While exploring the caverns inside with Diego, Lenny, Oscar, and Zeke, he had stumbled upon the stone chest of Cortés. When they crossed the chest, one gold medallion caught on each sabre's claw. The gold medallions were dragged away by the tigers and lost. They became cursed.

At first, Soto thought being undead was quite a good thing. He was now immortal, so he had thought. Nothing could stop him from getting his revenge on the humans.

But soon, things turned sour.

"We spent those medallions, and traded 'em, and frittered 'em away on drink and food and pleasurable company. But the more we spent those coins…the more we came to realise…the drink would not satisfy…food turned to ash in our mouths…and all the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lust."

Soto remembered his first hunt after becoming cursed. He had taken on a large male deer in the prime of his life, killed it easily…but when he took his first bite of meat, it had no flavour, no juicy tenderness…and when he swallowed, his stomach was not satisfied at all.

Not long after that, he returned to Half Peak, and met the pirates. Captain Barbossa had been sympathetic, and told him that they too were cursed.

The sabre-tooth tigers managed to find four of the five medallions they had unwillingly taken from the chest, and return them. However, one had still been missing.

Soto had been told the story. The medallion had been picked up by an un-cursed member of the Black Pearl's crew; Bootstrap Bill Turner. He had sent it off somewhere, before the cursed pirates killed him.

"We are cursed men, Miss Turner! Compelled by greed, we were, but now…we are consumed by it!"

The monkey started jumping up and down on its perch, screeching excitedly.

Barbossa got up, and started stroking the monkey tenderly. Out of the corner of his eye, Soto saw Elizabeth slip a knife into her hand.

He decided not to warn Barbossa. 'There's no harm that can be done to us. That's one good thing about this curse.'

"There is one way to end our curse," Barbossa whispered, and Soto's heart leaped again. "All the scattered pieces of the Aztec gold must be restored, and the blood repaid. The blood of a descendent of Bootstrap Bill Turner."
This part of the legend, Soto had decided not to tell to Zeke, Oscar, and Lenny. They were too excitable, too eager to be told. They might do something stupid, like go chasing after Bootstrap's child themselves.

He had intended to tell Diego, the only one he trusted, only that Diego was out bringing the baby back to Half Peak. The baby, and a mammoth, and two adult humans. That was excellent news to the sabre's ears.

Barbossa grinned down at Elizabeth Swann. "Thanks to ye, we have the final piece."

He handed the monkey the gold medallion. The monkey screeched happily, leaped off its perch, and raced across the floor and out of sight.

"And…the blood to be repaid?" asked Elizabeth nervously.

"That's why there be no sense in killin' you, Miss Turner. Yet." Soto smiled evilly from across the table.

Elizabeth's eyes widened. These pirates and sabres were mad! They were going to kill her!

"Apple?" asked Barbossa, picking up a green apple from the table and extending it towards her.

Not missing a beat, Elizabeth whacked the apple out of Barbossa's hands. She pulled the knife from under the folds of her dress, leaped towards the sabre tooth tiger…and flung the knife deep into his chest.

No blood leaked from the wound. Soto didn't gasp with pain.

Elizabeth gasped with shock.

Soto pulled the knife out of his chest with one paw. The metal was still clean.

"I'm curious!" he laughed. "After killing both of us, what did you intend to do next?"

With a cry, Elizabeth turned and ran. She opened the doors, stepped out onto the deck, closed the doors, and turned around to see…

Skeletons.

Ghastly skeletons in tattered clothing, glowing blue in the moonlight, flesh hanging from their bones.

They were everywhere. Pulling the sheet lines, turning the capstan, cleaning the deck.

Elizabeth screamed.

Suddenly, she was caught up in the rotating rods of the capstan, skeleton pirates surrounding her. Still screaming, she tripped over a plank and fell into the cargo hold.

Elizabeth landed on something. Her frightened, confused brain only had enough time to recognise that something as canvas before the canvas was stretched, and she flew up into the air.

Again and again, the pirates flung Elizabeth up into the air, using the canvas like a trampoline. The frightened woman wailed with fear.

Just before she dropped towards the canvas for the third time, she was caught in midair by a skeleton pirate swinging on a rope. Elizabeth could actually feel his bones. She screamed again.

The pirate threw her off. Elizabeth landed hard on the quarterdeck. She got up on shaking legs.

Suddenly, three more skeletons climbed the stairs and surrounded her. Only they weren't human skeletons.

They were sabre-tooth tiger skeletons. The skeletons of Oscar, Lenny, and Zeke.

Elizabeth screamed louder than ever.

Zeke laughed insanely, and galloped towards the woman.

Elizabeth rushed around the side of the large ships wheel. Zeke leaped onto the other side.

As soon as he was directly in line with the wheel, Elizabeth grabbed a handle and pulled.

The wheel rotated, snapping Zeke's head backwards.

Gurgling, the sabre shook his head hard. With an awful cracking sound, his head snapped back to its original position.

The tiger growled again.

Elizabeth took off, down the stairs onto the main deck, and hid under them.

All of a sudden, the cursed monkey swung down beside her.

"RAAAAWK!" it shrieked.

Elizabeth screamed, and rushed out from under the stairs…and into Barbossa.

"Look!" barked Barbossa, turned Elizabeth around to show her the tattered sails of the Black Pearl, and the skeleton figures of her crew, who had stopped their work to watch the confrontation.

"The moonlight shows us for what we really are!" said Soto loudly. "We are not among the living, and so we cannot die, but neither are we really dead!"

Hector Barbossa whipped Elizabeth around again to face him. There was anguish in his face.

He snarled. "Too long I've been dying of thirst, but unable to quench it."

"Too long I've been starving to death, but haven't died!" Soto continued.

"I feel nothing!" moaned Barbossa. "Not the wind on my face, nor the spray of the sea…nor the warmth of a woman's flesh."

As he said this, Barbossa extended his hand into the moonlight. In front of Elizabeth's eyes, the skin rotted away, leaving nothing but rags of clothes and bone.

"You said earlier," grinned Soto, as he loped into the moonlight, "that you don't believe in ghost stories."

Barbossa and Soto now walked side by side, and Elizabeth watched in horror as they both transformed into hideous skeletons.

"Well, you best start believin' in them!" growled Hector Barbossa. "YOU'RE IN ONE!"