Chapter 11 Tia Dalma and her stories
"Finally you made it" was the first Amèlie said as Jack reached the deck safely, the ship already some good meters away from the bloody island. "And I was starting to get worried"
. smirked at her, although she wasn't looking at him. Instead she stared over the horde of odd-looking humans at the beach. "Worried? About me?"
"No, about the dog" Amèlie replied, sarcasm dripping in her voice. Her father joined her at the railing, his eyes moving restlessly around, before it caught on the Cannibals, while not noticing his daughter moving slightly over to him. They just ran back the way they came from, apparently forgetting about their 'god'.
Amèlie couldn't help but snort as she spotted the dog, which was running away from the natives.
Gibbs came up to them, following the Cannibal's every move with a grimace plastered on his face. "Let's put some distance between us and this island and head out to open sea"
Pintel draped the coat on Jacks shoulders carefully along with Ragetti, saluting hastily as the Captain gave them a mere glance. Not trustworthy, but whatever Amèlie thought with a shrug.
"Yes to the first, yes to the second, but only as so far as we keep to the shallows as much as possible" Jack said after another weird side-glance to the two new crew members.
"That seems a bit contradictory to me, Captain" Gibbs quietly protested, unsure what to do.
"I have every faith in your reconciliatory navigational skills, Master Gibbs" was all Jack replied. The named cast a glance at the dark-haired girl, but she simply shook her head, a crease between her eye brows.
"Now where is that monkey? I want to shoot something" he requested. As if on cue, a wood eye dropped in front of them. Happy to have it back, Amèlie watched Ragetti crouching down on the deck, holding the eye like a treasure in his hands.
The monkey ran away with a screech and Jack got his pistol ready to shoot its head off without killing him. However, Will interrupted him before everything could happen.
"Jack" he said simply with a calm yet eager tone.
"Ah" the called replied, his eyes never leaving the tiny fluff ball. Amèlie thought, it was quite cute, if it didn't belong to Captain bloody Barbossa, the one, who dropped her off to an island with her father and Elizabeth. Though, she probably would have never found out without him that Jack Sparrow -pardon- Captain Jack Sparrow was actually her father.
"Elizabeth is in danger"
"Again?" it came out from the girl's mouth without warning. Not that she didn't like Elizabeth, on the contrary she found the young woman quite nice. She wasn't like those other arrogant nobles from Port Royal. But getting always in danger was annoying.
"Have you considered keeping a more watchful eye on her?" Jack continued for her. "Maybe just lock her up somewhere?" He kept on walking, Will hot on his heels.
"Elizabeth is locked up in a prison, bound to hang for helping you"
"There comes a time when one must take responsibility for one's mistakes" Not a wise choice of answer. Will snatched a sword from a pirate, who stood closest to him, holding it on Jacks throat to stop him from moving any further.
"I need that compass of yours, Jack. I must trade it for her freedom" Amèlie looked down at her hand. There it was, the little treasure he sought. She always wanted to know how it worked. Might as well be the best time now. She didn't feel like she could use it in the near future. Opening it she watched the needle spin and spin.
She wanted to know what she wanted. She had the freedom after all (if you could call it freedom with Davy Jones and the Kraken chasing them and then again not only them). But...she looked out at the sea, the island already a small spot in the horizon. What was it what she wanted?
Will looked down at Jack's belt where he had noticed the compass hanging from it at the island, while he was hanging on a roasting stick, his head spinning from the gift he got on the neck.
But it wasn't there anymore.
Jack must have noticed his bewilderment as he pushed the threatening sword from his throat and looked down as well. Touching the spot where his compass was ought to be, his mind searched for a quick conclusion to why the hell it was gone.
"Amèlie?" he asked tentatively. Will looked at her direction, spotting the compass in her hand, open and placidly spinning around.
"Jack?" she asked back, casting a glance on his back before back down. For a brief moment, Will asked himself if she ever called him 'father' like a daughter would do to her parent. But got off it while pondering how she had managed to get the compass from Jack's belt. He was sure he had seen it, no matter how much gift he had in his blood.
"How did she do it?" he spoke to Jack, who turned around, staring at his daughter with pride? across his face. How he could be proud with his daughter for pick pocking, was beyond Will. Maybe it was just some pirate thing he didn't understand and would never want to. Though he was still a little awed at the skill she had. But even more disgusted.
"I have no idea" the Captain of the Black Pearl replied, before walking up past her to the wheel, where his first mate stood.
"Mr. Gibbs?" he called for him.
"Captain?" Amèlie looked up at the shouts of names as noticed her father going up. Glancing back down on the compass, she saw it stopped for a minute, resting to her left, where the open sea was and then to her right, before spinning again. Amèlie frowned, shaking the small thing a little. Maybe it really doesn't work But Jack had confirmed her otherwise already that it seriously was showing what you most wanted.
Seeing as it didn't stop she jumped from the railing, deciding she would rather listen to the conversation and waiting, then to be bored beyond beliefand waiting. Silently walking up the steps, she stopped at the last one at the top, leaning against the stair case.
"We have to travel upriver" Jack demanded right now. What?
"By need" Gibbs started, his hands steering the ship with the wheel. "Do you, mean a trifling need, fleeting, as in, say, a passing fancy?"
"No, a resolute and unyielding need" Gibbs stared at him, worried about the words of his Captain.
"What we need to do is make sail for Port Royal with all haste" Does he honestly believe Jack would do something like this? Then he doesn't know him...honestly Amèlie thought, but got off it.
"William" Jack spoke his full name. "I shall trade you the compass, if you will help me..." to Amèlie's mild surprise (mild, because she had a clue what he wanted as soon as the word 'help' fell) he took out the piece of clothes he got from the Turkish Prison. "...to find this"
"Jack..." the young girl said quietly with a weird warning undertone. With her eyes that looked so much like his she told him what a low opinion she had for his request.
Will, however, didn't even notice the silent conversation the two pairs of identical eyes had as he stared down at the drawing key, which was fluttering in the breeze under Jack's unhygienic hands.
"You want me to find this?" he asked, indicating on the key.
"No, you want you to find this" Jack said with a grin, though it faltered at the frown on his daughters face. He really shouldn't let himself get so affected from his daughter. It would get unhealthy. Figuratively.
"Because the finding of this, finds you incapacitorially finding and/or locating in your discovering the detecting of a way to save your dolly belle ol' what's her face. Savvy?" he talked rather quickly for his benefit.
Will took the cloth out of Jack's hands, holding it closer to his face to examine it further.
"This...is going to save Elizabeth?" he asked, just to be sure. After all this was all he wanted. Jack narrowed his eyes at him, scrutinizing the face of the blacksmith.
He leaned closer and whispered. "How much do you know about Davy Jones?" An eerie silence appeared between the four pirates -well, three- while Will furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Amèlie prayed he would at least know how dangerous he was.
"Not much" Meant as much as...nothing.
"You should" it came out from the brown-haired girl's mouth with a shake of the head.
"Aye, it's going to save Elizabeth" Jack replied, ignoring Amèlie's retort and the glance Will threw at her.
Amèlie sighed and looked down at the compass, not really hoping it had stopped. But it had. The needle pointed a bit north-west from her. Quizzically she looked up at the direction. It was pointed on the deck, where all the pirates worked. What now? What did she want?
The fifteen-years old girl sighed, closing the compass with a snap as she stood up from the railing, getting tired with the position she sat for only some minutes.
If she had taken a closer look to the direction, she might have seen it was pointed on a boy, maybe one or two years older than her. She might have seen the reddish hair, straight falling onto his soft green eyes, which were watching her until she was out of sight.
But she never did.
It was dark all around her, the canopy of leaves above her blocking the light of the warm sun. If it hadn't set already. They had been sailing upriver like Jack had commanded.
Though now they weren't on the Black Pearl anymore. No, she was at the front of one of the two boats, which was gliding over the thick swamp. Her arm was rested on the prow of the longboat, Will, Gibbs and some others sitting behind her. the reddish haired boy among them.
She scanned the place over and over, fearing, something would attack them. Surely there was enough hiding places for attackers, just like in the island. She might be paranoid, but Amèlie couldn't help the tension of alertness.
"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?" Will's voice reached her ears. She listened prick-eared, wondering why he would ask anyway. All he needed to care for was his young woman Elizabeth, wasn't it?
"Well" Gibbs didn't seem to think so as he willingly explained. "if you believe such things, there's a beast does the bidding of Davy Jones" his voice got quieter and quieter with each word. "A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that suction your face clean off and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness..." He paused for the dramatic effect. "The Kraken.
"They say the stench of its breath is...ohh" he shuddered and Amèlie rolled her eyes. He should be an actor. When did he meet the Kraken to know such things?
"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" Amèlie glanced over her shoulder, only to see Pintel and Ragetti cowering away from Gibbs as if he was the Kraken himself. Even Will seemed paralyzed while he stared at Jack's first mate.
"If you believe such things" Gibbs cleared his throat, glancing around.
"You should believe it" the young girl turned around with a mischievous glint in her eyes only one of her fellows seemed to notice. "Think of it. The Kraken. Living in the depths of the oceans...always following the Flying Dutchman, destroying ships by commando without leaving anyone on deck alive...sucking everything remaining down with him to the bottom of the sea..." she remembered her mother telling her with exactly those words.
And the listeners seemed as entranced as she had been back then. "But you don't need to be frightened" she added, successfully destroying the mood. She smiled to herself, turning back. Though they had a very good reason to be scared. And it was currently sitting at the front of the other longboat, clinging onto the palm of a certain Captain.
A hut came in sight after a while of eerie silence except for the usual night-noise around them. Amèlie could feel many eyes following them as they sailed up to the seedy shack and here and there she caught a glimpse of strange-looking people.
Finally they stopped in front of the ladder which would lead them up to the hut, which seemed to be Jack's goal.
The Captain stepped onto the landing in front of the ladder, turning around to face the others, who got up from the boat as well.
"No worries, mates" he spoke out as he saw his crew kept looking around as if fearing, somebody would jump out and attack them. "Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves. Nigh inseparable we are..." he said almost proudly, before he faltered. "...were...have been...before"
"I understand" Amèlie retorted dryly.
"I'll watch your back" Gibbs said in reassurance.
"It's me front I'm worried about" Jack replied hesitantly. Jeez, what did he do to that woman? Amèlie rolled her eyes.
"She won't do anything to you" the description she heard from the jamaican-looking woman didn't show her as a violent person.
Jack stared at her. "How do you-" but stopped himself, shaking his head as if deciding he didn't even want to know. He climbed up the ladder, Amèlie following silently, her mind far away to a woman with black hair, steely blue eyes as deep as the seas she had sailed...Isabella.
"Mind the boat" she distractedly heard Gibbs' voice, before she was up at the door right behind Jack. Her father slowly crept up into Tia Dalma's house, opening the wooden door cautiously. Amèlie found it quite hilarious at the sight of a crouching Captain Jack Sparrow, who was obviously fearing a woman. Well, it wasn't only a woman, but still.
The head of the Jamaican woman snapped up at the creaking door in alarm before she recognized the person.
She stood up with a wide smile, revealing a number of noxious teeth. "Jack...Sparrow" The named straightened up with a relieved smile flashing at her as he opened his arms for her. "Tia Dalma"
He went towards her, but stopped as he almost knocked his head against a jar hanging from the ceiling full of eyeballs. Amèlie didn't even want to know what this woman had in mind with those and where he got them.
"I always knowed the wind was going to blow you back to me one day" she approached Jack while speaking, but stopped as Will appeared behind Amèlie at the door.
She pointed at him with her finger, a thoughtful expression across her face. She changed her direction and stepped towards him. "You..." she spoke slowly, getting the attention of the blacksmith, who had looked around the room in bewilderment all the time.
"You have a touch a' destiny about you. William...Turner" she got quieter until she only whispered his name. William stared at her with furrowed eyebrows.
"You know me?"
Tia Dalma grinned as she leaned closer, not minding the young girl, who stepped away from in between them, a grimace on her face. "You want to know me"
Jack appeared beside them all so suddenly, feeling dejected as he intervened. "There'll be no knowing here" He turned Tia Dalma's back to Will, speaking quieter now. "We've come for help and we're not leaving without it"
Will glanced at Amèlie in confusion, not exactly knowing what to do, but she only shrugged and motioned him to come closer inside.
Jack looked at the woman beside him in a almost offended manner. "I thought I knew you"
"Not so well as I had hoped" Tia Dalma replied amused as she headed further back, gesturing to everybody else. "Come"
"Come" Jack echoed, waving Will over, who sat down on the chair beside the woman. She leaned closer again, caressing his face. "What service may I do ya?" she purred, before forcefully snapping at Jack. "You know I demand payment"
"I brought payment" Jack enthusiastically replied, whistling over Pintel and Ragetti, who held a hooded cage between them. They walked/stumbled over and placed the cage on the table beside Will.
Jack unveiled the cage, showing Jack, the monkey inside it. "Look..." he took out his pistol from his belt and shot the monkey. It merely screeched and jumped around. "...an undead monkey. Top that!"
Tia Dalma walked towards it, examining the 'treasure', before she opened the cage, freeing the monkey. It ran out to a low table, past Amèlie, who watched it with disinterest.
"No" Gibbs on the other hand winced at the sight of the free fluff ball. "You've no idea how long it took us to catch that!"
"The payment is fair" the woman in the dress decided, ignoring the old man's outburst.
Will, who took it as a 'yes' for the help they needed, laid out the drawing of the key importantly on the table. "We're looking for this"
Tia Dalma stared at piece of cloth, stopping dead in her process of sitting down on the chair. She looked up to Jack. "The compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to this?"
"Maybe" Jack answered curtly, staying strictly behind Will. "Why?"
"Ahh, Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants" Tia Dalma said with a wide smile as she settled down on her seat. She straightened up a little, speaking with a more mysterious voice. "Or do you know but are loath to claim it as your own"
Jack puffed a nearby feather out of his face, squirming inwardly under the steel brown gaze of his daughter as he didn't respond. Tia Dalma, though, let it go, going back to the main issue.
"Your key go to a chest" she explained, making herself comfortable as if this conversation would need longer. Amèlie sighed quietly. I want back to the oceans...
"And it is what lay inside the chest you seek. Don't it?"
"If we knew what lays in the chest" Amèlie raised her voice, looking directly at her father, who consciously didn't meet her eyes.
"Gold? Jewels?" Pintel, the fat one of the two, who never seemed to be separated once, suggested greedily like every good pirate. "Unclaimed properties of valuable nature?"
"Nothing bad I hope" Ragetti gulped at a jar, full of something Amèlie couldn't decipher, near his face.
Tia Dalma sat up a bit, asking quietly. "You all know of Davy Jones, yes?" At the nodding of the crew she continued. "A man of the sea...A great sailor...until he run afoul of that which vex all men" she almost looks infatuated... Amèlie furrowed her brows at her own thought.
"What vexes all men?" Will asked puzzled. Amèlie caught the disbelieved look Jack casted at Will's back, while he pocketed something.
Tia Dalma smiled again, touching his hand quite teasingly. "What indeed..." Amèlie didn't notice the look someone gave at her back.
"The sea?"
"Sums?"
"The dichotomy of good and evil" At this point the young girl glanced up with raised eyebrows.
Jack, who lost his patience, spoke up. "A woman!"
"A woman" Tia Dalma echoed more passionate. "He fell in love..."
"No no no no no" Gibbs disagreed immediately. He seriously disagreed with everything that had something to do with woman. "I heard he fell in love with the sea"
"Same story, different version and all are true" Tia Dalma looked quiet upset at the interruption. "See, it was a woman as changing, and harsh and untamable as the sea" she positioned herself more...as if she was talking about herself...
"He never stopped loving her" she said in a dreamy voice. "But the pain it caused him was too much to live with. But not enough to cause him to die"
Will, who got enough of this story telling, pointed at the cloth again. "What...exactly did he put into the chest?" he asked, willing to sound calm and not annoyed.
Tia Dalma put her hand to her chest, smiling almost lovingly. "Him heart" Amèlie stared at her oddly.
"Literally or figuratively?" Ragetti asked cautiously.
"He couldn't live, putting his heart in a chest" Pintel reasoned, scolding the other one. He got unsure however, asking "Could he?"
"It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings" Tia Dalma waved off, straightening up again. "And so, him carved out him heart, lock it down in a chest, and hide the chest from the world"
"The key he keep with him at all times" And there we go...
Will, realizing what she had just said, jumped up from the chair and positioned himself threateningly close to Jack. "You knew this" he spat out angrily.
"I did not" Jack immediately declined, holding his hands up in surrender, as if he wasn't just about to pocket something again.
"I didn't know where the key was. But now we do. So, all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and save your bonnie lass, aye?" he turned to leave, but stopped at Tia Dalma's commanding voice.
She held out her arm to him. "Let me see your hand"
Jack turned back slowly, caught. He pathetically held out the hand, only him and Amèlie knew it wasn't unmarked, but under the woman's hard gaze he gave her the hidden one.
She undid the makeshift bandages Amèlie had wrapped around the hand so nobody else would panic. Everybody, however, got a good look at the dark mark despite the dim light.
Gibbs gasped breathlessly. "The black spot! The black spot!" He hastily dusted himself out, spinning around for one circle before spitting unhealthy on the ground in front of his feet. Amèlie didn't know what this should bring off, but Pintel and Ragetti didn't seem to care as they mimicked the old man. Though she was more than sure, they had no idea what the black spot stood for, even if they had cried it out after the small 'ritual'.
Amèlie watched them, deadpanned, until Jack exclaimed sarcastically cheerful "My eyesight's as good as ever, just so you know"
The dark-haired girl sighed, quite exasperated, settling down on the chair as she got tired, standing around all the time. So they all know...now what?
Tia Dalma seemed to have an idea as she pushed a curtain away, rummaging at the back of her hut as she mumbled something unintelligible under her breathe, while Jack pocketed again a trinket from her as unthankful as he was. But who was Amèlie to judge, so she simply looked away.
She looked broody at the table in front of her, not really seeing the odd devices, which were placed on it, as she thought about her useless past in Tortuga, the island for people, who didn't think much of life..
At least until the Jamaican-woman came back...with a jar. She almost elegantly walked up to the current Captain of the Black Pearl.
"Davy Jones cannot make port" she explained to everybody, who didn't know. "He cannot step on land but once every ten years" she held out the jar for Amèlie's father.
"Land is where you will be safe, Jack Sparrow, and so you will carry land with you" she offered him. Jack took it hesitantly, pausing as he stared at it.
"Dirt" he spoke shortly. "This is a jar of dirt"
"Yes" Tia Dalma agreed, as if she didn't know what there was to complain.
"Is the...jar of dirt going to help?"
If you don't want it...give it back" Tia Dalma stepped threateningly forward.
"No" Jack childishly replied, clutching the jar to his chest tightly.
Tia Dalma smiled. "Then it helps" Wasn't really the answer he had asked for now, was it? Amèlie noticed he looked around cautiously. As if somebody would want to steal this away from him.
"I have the feeling..." Will spoke up, sending a glance at the jar and the drawing of the key. "we need to find the Flying Dutchman"
"I have the feeling your feeling is right" Amèlie uselessly retorted as she lazily stood up, knowing they would, finally, leave now.
"A touch..." Tia Dalma picked up some items, randomly it seemed, from the table, shaking it concentrically in her fists, before dropping them. "...of destiny"
So sorry for the long update...as always hehe. But this is quite long for you, so I hope it makes it up.
I wanted to thank some reviewers, always wishing for more though.
Nizuna Fujieda: Thank you very much! Critic is always a help if you need to tell me to make something better :D
xxxLauraaxxx: Do I have a new fan? :P
esinger: Love it how you review to every chapter. Please tell me if I should make something better. :)))
Unspoken Goodbyes: Thank you so much. I like to make a brilliant job XD (sry, this was lame I know ;) )
Other Reviews are very much appreciated. :D
