Tia Dalma

The Black Pearl was anchored off shore of this new strange island. The island wasn't as mountainous as the Isla de Pelegosto, but it was thick with jungle foliage. A river ran through the center of it.

Jack Sparrow led an expedition party onto the island. With him were Calvin, Hobbes, Will, Gibbs, Pintel, Ragetti, Cotton, and Marty. The nine took three rowboats up the river. Almost as soon as they rowed to the island's interior, the sun was blocked out by the thick canopy above. Jack rowed with Cotton, Marty, Pintel and Ragetti were in another boat, and Will, Calvin, Hobbes, and Gibbs brought up the rear.

"This place is pretty creepy…" Calvin said, looking around. And in fact it was. The river had a fog rising from it. Strange creatures cried in the distance. It gave the whole place a grim look.

"I'll say…" Hobbes said. "I wonder if there are people here?"

"If there are, they can't be worse than those crazy cannibals." Calvin said. "Besides, I have my two swords." Calvin pointed to his flame sword and thunder sword strapped to his back. "Whoah!"

Calvin suddenly saw a little boy pop up on the shore. The boy was dark skinned, and had black matted hair. He sat on a large tree stump, watching the crew pass by.

Calvin stood up and reached for his swords. "It's okay," Gibbs said. "Pay not attention to these. They won't do us any harm."

Calvin sat back down. This place was getting to him. He wanted to think of something to distract him from the eerie trip.

"Gibbs?" Calvin asked. "What's a Leviathan?"

"Ahh…" Gibbs said, as if he was shifting into his story telling position. "Well, if you believe such things, the Leviathan is another name for a beast that does the bidding of Davy Jones." Calvin and Hobbes exchanged glances, remembering the name from before. "A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that'll suck your face clean off, and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness."

Hobbes gripped his tail. "Wh-what's the creatures real name?"

Gibbs held it in for a moment, then said, "The Kraken."

This one word filled Calvin and Hobbes with fear. They both started to tremble. Will looked at Calvin, and grabbed his hand.

"Don't worry, Calvin. There's no such thing as a Kraken."

"Aye," Gibbs said. "And their ain't no such thing as undead pirates, or cursed treasure, or enchanted primates." Gibbs leaned in to lock eyes with Calvin and Hobbes as best he could.

"They say the stench of its breath is like…" Gibbs shuddered, causing Calvin and Hobbes to do the same. "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." Gibbs suddenly lightened up. "If you believe such things, of course."

"I believe…I believe…I believe…" Calvin muttered to himself over and over.

"The key will spare him that?" Will asked.

Gibbs scratched his head. "Well, that's the very question Jack wants answered. Bad enough even to go visit…her."

"Tia Dalma," Hobbes said.

Later…

The sun was setting once again. But nobody could really tell. The sun had been hidden for so long, Calvin thought he would never see it again. Scores of fireflies lit up the dim setting. The jungle had moved from "creepy" to "boring". Calvin had resorted to chipping pieces of wood off the boat, and seeing how far he could toss them. The only reason he wasn't complaining was that he didn't want to attract natives.

The rowboats floated round a bend, and an old sea shack came into view. It was elevated above the river by several large beams, and had a rickety ladder that led to its door. A dark yellow light shone through the windows. Everybody was silent as they drifted closer to the shack.

When they got there, Jack turned around, and said, "No worries, mates. Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves; nigh inseparable, we are." Jack's face dropped. "Were. Have been. Before."

"We've got your back, Jack." Gibbs said.

"It's me front I'm worried about." Jack responded, ascending the ladder.

"Mind the boat," Gibbs said to Will as he followed Jack.

"Mind the boat," Will said to Calvin and did the same.

"Mind the boat," Calvin said to Ragetti.

"Mind the boat," Ragetti said to Pintel.

"Mind the boat," Pintel said to Marty.

"Mind the boat," Marty said to Hobbes.

"Mind the boat," Hobbes said to Cotton.

"Mind the boat," Cotton's parrot squawked, flying after the others. Cotton was left alone and confused.

Jack ascended to the door, and cautiously looked around. With a creak, Jack slowly pushed the door open. He walked in, followed by his crew.

"Wow," Calvin said to Hobbes. "It's even weirder inside than outside."

Hobbes was speechless. The inside of the shack was about as flimsily looking as the outside, but the shack was filled with strange trinkets. Shells, bits of gold, candles, strange liquids, jars of eyes, and other unidentifiable substances. Dozens of containers hung from the ceiling. A snake was rapped around a tree that went through the house. In the middle of a room was a table, with books and odd trinkets on top. There was a woman sitting at the table. She was dark skinned, had long braided hair, black lips, and wore a matted dress. She looked up at Jack.

"Jack Sparrow…" this woman, Tia Dalma said slowly with a smile.

"Tia Dalma," Jack replied.

"I always knew the wind was going to blow you back to me one day." Tia Dalma said as she walked up to Jack. But someone caught her attention. It was Will.

"You…" she said. "You have a touch of destiny about you…William Turner."

Everybody turned to face Will. "You know me?" he asked.

Tia Dalma inched closer. "You want to know me?" she asked.

Calvin jumped in between. "Whoa, lady, calm down. We're here for help and we're not leaving without it." he said.

Tia Dalma looked down at Calvin with wide eyes. "And you…" she said. "You have something very special about you…" she said. "Where is your tiger friend?"

"Huh?" Calvin asked. Hobbes walked over to Calvin's side.

"Here," Hobbes said.

"Calvin…and Hobbes…" Tia Dalma said. She looked hard at them. "Where are you from?"

Now, it was Jack's turn to interrupt. "I believe I am the one who decided to come here," he said.

"I'm sure," Tia Dalma said. "You know I demand payment."

"I brought payment!" Jack said. Pintel came in, holding a cage that held Jack the monkey. "Look," Jack said, shooting the ape. The monkey reared back, but remained unharmed. "An undead monkey. Top that."

Tia Dalma took the cage, and let the monkey out. Jack the monkey ran off. "The payment is fair," she said.

"We're looking for this," Will said, pulling out the key drawing. "And what it goes to." Calvin walked up to the table, followed by Hobbes.

"The compass you bartered from me," Tia Dalma asked. "It cannot lead you to this?"

"Why would it?" Calvin asked.

"Because…" Tia Dalma started, "That compass points to what you want most…"

"Cool…" Calvin said. "Hey Jack, can I borrow--"

"No." Jack said. "Bloody thing doesn't even work."

Tia Dalma smiled. "I hear you. Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants," she taunted. "Or, do you know, but are loath to claim it as your own?"

Jack was silent. "So where does the key go?" Hobbes finally asked.

"Your key go to a chest, and it is what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?"

"What is inside?" Gibbs asked.

"Gold?" Pintel asked greedily.

"Diamonds?" Calvin asked, wringing his hands with delight.

"Anything valuable?" they both asked.

Tia Dalma played with her hair for a bit. "You know of Davy Jones."

"Yes?" Gibbs said.

Tia Dalma continued. "A man of the sea. A great sailor, until he run afoul of that which vex all men."

"What vexes all men?" Will asked.

Tia Dalma smiled, and said, "What indeed?"

"The sea?" Gibbs inquired.

"Sums?" Pintel questioned.

"The dichotomy of good and evil?" Ragetti asked. Everybody stared at him.

"A woman," Jack said bluntly.

"I knew it!" Calvin said. "That's why Hobbes and I made that club. You know, G.R.O.S.S."

Tia Dalma ignored Calvin and nodded. "A woman," she said. "He fell in love." Calvin gagged.

"No, no, no, no," Gibbs said. "I heard it was the sea he fell in love with."

Tia Dalma suddenly turned to face Gibbs, and said rather angrily, "Same story, different version, and all are true!"

She continued. "See, it was a woman as changing and as harsh and untamable as the sea. Him never stopped loving her. But the pain it cause him was too much to live with, but not enough to cause him to die."

"So what did he do?" Hobbes asked.

"He locked him heart in a chest," Tia Dalma said, clutching the area where her heart was.

"Literally, or figuratively?" Ragetti asked.

"Well, he couldn't literally put his heart in a chest," Pintel argued.

"I don't know…" Calvin said. "Some pretty weird stuff goes on in the Caribbean…" Calvin said.

"It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings," Tia Dalma narrated. "And so…he carve out him heart, lock it away in a chest, and hide the chest from the world." She looked at the key drawing. "The key he keep wit' him at all times."

Will stood up and faced Jack. "You knew this," he said angrily.

Jack defended himself. "I did not. But now we do. All that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, and you go back to Port Royal and save your bonnie lass, eh?"

"Let me see your hand," Tia Dalma said, holding out hers.

Jack reluctantly showed it to her. His hand was wrapped in a piece of cloth. Tia Dalma peeled it off, revealing a black spot on his palm.

"The black spot!" Gibbs gasped. He spun around twice and spit. Pintel and Ragetti followed Gibbs example.

Calvin was afraid to ask, but he did anyway. "What does the black spot mean?"

"Jack owes a debt to Davy Jones he cannot escape," Tia Dalma said.

"Oh…" Calvin said. "So why the spinning and--"

"I have just the thing," Tia Dalma interrupted. She went to the back of the shack, and after a few moments came back holding a jar containing some substance. "Davy Jones cannot make port. Cannot stop on land but once every ten years. Land is where you are safe, Jack Sparrow." She handed the jar Jack. "And so you will carry land with you."

Jack, confused, took the jar. "Dirt," he said. "This is a jar of dirt."

"Yes…" Tia Dalma replied.

"Is the jar of dirt going to help?"

"If you don't want it, give it back."

"No!"

Tia Dalma smiled. "Then it helps."

"So," Calvin asked. "I guess we need to find Davy Jones?"

Tia Dalma grabbed some shells and crab parts, and brought them to a map. She whispered to them, and then exclaimed, "A touch…of destiny!" She threw the crab parts and shells onto the map. The claws landed in what seemed like random places.

"This," Tia Dalma pointed to a crab claw, "Is where you need to go."

Jack pulled out a map from his pocket. Amazingly, the things Tia Dalma threw formed a group of islands exactly like ones on Jack's map.

"I wish you luck, Jack Sparrow," Tia Dalma said, as the crew began to leave. Calvin and Hobbes were the last ones out. Before leaving, Tia Dalma stopped them.

"Calvin and Hobbes," Tia Dalma said. Calvin and Hobbes turned around. "I hope you make it back to your own world."

Calvin and Hobbes stood silent for a moment until Jack's voice sounded in the shack, saying, "C'mon mates. No time to lose!"

They quietly left Tia Dalma to locate the dreaded devil of the sea.