OMG 21st chapter! :O but we only have 7 reviews? Anyway, ON WITH THE CHAPTER!
Claus didn't think twice; he threw himself forwards and Jabberwocky was pushed out of the way of the oncoming tentacle: which Claus was directly underneath! Jabberwocky screamed as the tentacle crashed down. The tentacle shook and slowly rose a small distance: before Claus rolled out from underneath; clutching a sword soaked in foul smelling blood.
Jabberwocky pulled him into a warm and emotion filled embrace: "Grange! You came back!"
Claus felt glad she was so close to him, but felt a twisted feeling in his gut when he heard her say another man's name: "No! It's me, Claus!" Jabberwocky looked up at his face: she had only seen the cloak and had jumped to conclusions.
Jabberwocky started to walk away with embarrassment, "Oh... sorry... It's just that he usually wears a black cloak..."
Claus whirled around with realisation: "WAIT! Who IS Grange?-"
"HEY!" Mercuric yelled to get both of their attention, she had her cutlass ready and had Ragetti behind her- who was also armed- "If you two don't mind, could you please leave your personal issues until after we've fought off this monster?"
Mercuric cut off part of a tentacle; Ragetti pulled her out of the way of another one that aimed for her head.
Jack opened his eyes wide to find himself lying like a discarded ragdoll on deck. He shook his head at the crews attempt to fight of the monster. A monster couldn't just simply be killed with a few cutlasses! True, it could be fended off just long enough for them to sail away... Jack watched as the hope was destroyed -almost as quickly as it came- when a tentacle crushed the wheel of the ship. He dashed to the nearest person he could find – which happened to be Mercuric- and pressed the gem, that he had been keeping in his pocket, into her hand:
"Take care of this, we can't afford to lose it!"
Mercuric nodded before placing the precious gem into the pocket of her shirt. She could have sworn that the felt the gem grow slightly warmer...
The ship rocked dangerously as a tentacle bashed down hard onto the deck of the ship: causing a massive crack to appear! Mercuric found Jabberwocky amongst the chaos.
She lightly grabbed her arm so that she was absolutely sure she had her attention: "GET THE SHEILD! IT'S IN JACK'S CABIN" She yelled over the noise.
Jabberwocky nodded and dashed towards the Captain's cabin, not noticing how Mercuric was violently flung off of the ship when the ship was once again rocked by the sea monster! The cabin had become even more shambolic due to the ship fighting a losing battle against both the monster and the waves. She steadied herself so that she wouldn't lose her balance and fall flat on her face. The shield itself was easy to find; the dilemma was what to do with it? - Her ponderings were abruptly stopped in their tracks; several tentacles pounded the ship simultaneously: sending her soaring into the air!
Jack groaned and rolled onto his side: he noticed how the ground felt wet yet slightly soft. He slowly opened one golden brown eye to see himself lying in wet sand: the tide lapping at his legs. He looked around him to find the unconscious Mercuric along with the rest of the crew in a similar situation. His hair had started to dry; meaning that he must have been laying there for a while. He felt Mercuric's hair: soaking wet. She must have washed up here fairly recently. Mercuric stirred in her sleep before opening her eyes wide with panic; but the panicked looked vanished when she felt the gem in her shirt pocket. She sat up and looked around the part of the island they were stranded on: "Where are Claus and Jabberwocky?" Mercuric asked both curiously and slightly worried.
Jack shrugged; "They must have washed up on another part of this island, I suppose lass." He looked at her and quickly offered her his now mostly dry coat, his voice filled with embarrassment as he averted his eyes, "You, erm... might want to wear this... let's just say your clothes are ...still drenched."
Mercuric quickly put on the coat and smiled her thanks to Jack. At least he had the decorum to tell her before the crew woke up! She fiddled with the buttons to make sure the coat covered all of her chest. Jack looked back at her once he was sure she was completely decent: "Why do you like dressing in such a masculine manner, lass?"
Mercuric shrugged: "Better than dresses and corsets." She leaned back and looked up at the sky with a slight smirk on her face, "And if people automatically assume I'm a boy, so be it."
The crew had started to wake up: Mercuric and jack could hear their groans and their feet sinking slightly into the sand. They decided to wait until they dried off before looking for Jabberwocky and Claus. The crew had started to talk to Mercuric; and their topic clearly proved that they believed that she was a "he".
"So Mercuric, how many girls have you had?" Pintel asked, (clearly Ragetti must have forgotten to inform him that Mercuric WAS a girl.) Mercuric couldn't think of an answer to the question that embarrassed her.
Pintel laughed and patted her on the back: "Lost count, eh lad? I bet you're a right ladies man: not like your brother, eh? Bet you've had almost as much as Jack, you rascal!"
Mercuric laughed; "But I'm not as big of a man-whore as Jack."
Another crew member joined the conversation: "So, how exactly do you get the girls? Personally, I just spout some crap old poetry and that does it…"The pirate and Pintel laughed in agreement; while Mercuric sat there brimming with anger inside. She hated it when men talked about ladies like that…She told them that she was going to find Jabberwocky and left the two pirates before she did something she would regret.
"You looked like you were about to gouge their eyes out!"
Mercuric looked back to see James walking behind her, and rolled her eyes, She was sure that he was probably a nice fellow; but sometimes he seemed irritatingly vain and annoying. A boy who kept his hair that long must be! She carried on walking as James followed.
"You didn't seem smug when Pintel said about you being a ladies' man," James carried on as he looked at her curiously, "Most boys would have been." He opened his eyes wide, "are you one of 'em homosexuals?"
Mercuric laughed and shook her head: "No, I'm into men!" She covered her mouth at what she said. Hook gasped and pointed at her:
"I KNEW it! Wait till the crew hears about this!"
Mercuric was glad that at that moment they were further away from the crew: so they couldn't hear them. But she couldn't have him blabbing her secret to the crew! She punched him between the eyes and went to do it again; when James grabbed her arm to stop her she brought her foot hard to his chest, with enough power that he landed on his back into the white sand. Mercuric kicked sand into his eyes: James instinctively covered his eyes with his hands; Mercuric seized the opportunity to pin him down and punch him square in the jaw. He glared at her with now irritated blood shot eyes: Mercuric placed a hand around his throat:
"Now, Listen here scum!" Mercuric hissed angrily into his ear, "Unless you want me to kill you, and for you to kill your own pride, you're going to keep my true gender as a secret between us two -and the people that already knew-. Understand?"
James nodded: she knew she wasn't kidding.
"Smart decision, lad." Jack laughed from right behind Mercuric, "Mercuric isn't exactly good at managing anger!"
Jabberwocky leaned her head back onto the trunk of a sturdy palm tree and groaned: she had no idea what part of the island Mercuric was on! She patted the metal shield with her hand; at least she still had that. She just hoped Mercuric had the gem. She saw something wash up on the beach and she wondered curiously towards it. She ran her hand over what had washed up: a wooden crate, it had a few dents but it had somehow survived the wrath of what is known as the sea. She saw a message carved onto the top of the crate:
ToJabbers,
HAPPYBIRTHDAY!I'msureyou'lllovethisgift,myalmost-as-violent-as-mefriend!
FromMerSmith
Jabberwocky smiled –Mercuric had remembered her birthday! - She must have not written her full first name due to her having to carve the message into the wood using her cutlass. Jabberwocky went to lift up the lid of the crate to look inside, but stopped herself: No!Yourbirthdayisn'tuntiltomorrow! Jabberwocky sighed:
"One more day, THEN I can open it!"
"You didn't tell me that is was your birthday tomorrow!"
Jabberwocky turned her head slightly to see Claus looming so close behind her that she could almost feel his heartbeat through her back. She twisted the rest of her body around to meet his enraged emerald eyes:
"Grange Mcarley?" He snarled down at her, "The assassin? The man that tried to kill my sister: who is also YOUR best friend! Are you deranged?"
Jabberwocky tried to match his infuriated glare with her own defiant one: "What happened between me and you that night; I was drunk. It was also a mistake!"
Claus somehow managed to look even angrier than before: "Really? You certainly wasn't complaining!"
Jabberwocky pushed Claus away from her and walked away while dragging the crate. Claus pursued Jabberwocky; determined to not let her dismiss the matter.
"You were fine with kissing that Grange fellow: even though he could kill you!"
Jabberwocky shook her head at him; but he blocked her path and carried on:
"You cannot trust him, Jabberwocky! He could do anything to you!"
Jabberwocky let out an irritated sigh; she hated to admit that he did have a point... Jabberwocky picked up the shield and gently traced her soft fingers over the design; the metal felt cold to the touch. She knew she had to change the subject before Claus lectured her even more: she spotted something... someone floating on top of the ocean in the distance.
She looked back down at the shield: "Looks like some of the crew didn't make it... I hope Mercuric hasn't lost the gem."
Claus felt a twisting sensation in his stomach and a sharp pain in his chest: "D-did you see Mercuric after we fell of the ship?"
Jabberwocky shook her head: "No, I didn't see her." She saw the pained expression on his face and immediately understood why he had asked, "But she'll be fine. She's Mercuric and Mercuric always survives!"
Claus shook his head; he could see in her eyes that she doubted it deep down, even if she herself couldn't see it. He sat on the hot sand with his knees brought up against his chest: "How can you be sure? She's small she could have died easily: she isn't exactly the strongest person you could meet." He frantically put his head in his hands as if he was about to rip out his hair from the roots: "I've lost my mother, my father, I can't lose her too!"
Jabberwocky wrapped one arm around the almost sobbing teenager and gently soothed him by stroking his hair with the other: "She'll be fine, you'll see. She survived all of those years with Commodore Smith, so one measly sea monster wouldn't kill her." She didn't want to admit it: but it wasn't just Claus she was trying to convince, it was herself too.
Jack had finished brushing the sand off of his coat that Mercuric was wearing: "Next time, can you please not get into a fight while wearing my coat; I'm lucky that you didn't get blood stains on this thing. I know how violent you can be." Jack smiled: for once he wasn't angry at Mercuric. As he brushed her hair away from her face he saw a large and sore bruise near her right eye; thatwasn'tthereafewdaysago.He winced at the memory of not being able to help her that night:
"Why did they attack you?" Jack muttered, not fully realising that he had said it aloud until after he the words had left his mouth.
"One said that the boss told them to. Then another said that he wasn't the boss; just higher up than them. Or something similar to that, I think."
"Assassins!" Jack snarled with a sneer: Jack despised assassins!
Mercuric jumped back and yelped: causing both Jack and James to give her disturbed looks. She felt a burning sensation coming from her shirt pocket; she reached in and pulled out the gem. The gem glowed bright red. Mercuric hissed in pain from it burning her hand before tossing it into the air: only it hovered in midair just a few centimetres above her hand. All three of the pirate's mouths flew open in shock: only for their mouths to grow wider as the gem emitted a ray of red light! The light form a flat circular shape that glowed scarlet: the gem dropped back into Mercuric hand. It was now black and had a pleasant warm feeling to it. She took a step towards the flat circular shape:
"It's a...portal!"
James pointed at the portal, as if accusing it of doing a dastardly deed, with an almost scared expression on his face: "T'is witchcraft!"
Jack and Mercuric grinned at James, before saying simultaneously: "T'is magic, mate."
Jack walked up to the portal: so close that he could feel his hair stand on end. He wasn't actually going to step into it: they needed the shield to defend themselves against the dragon! He just wanted to observe the portal up close, he didn't know why but his hand reached out towards the portal; sparks reached his hand and an uncountable amount of stinging sensations engulfed his body.
Jack saw the world spin around him, as the insides of his head felt like they were going to detonate! He recognised the feeling from when he remembered the kraken: except this was a hundred times worse! He saw images flash before his eyes: too fast for anyone else to make sense of, yet Jack understood all of them.
William! –Istillthinkthatyou'reaneunuch-
Elizabeth:Youjusthadtoburntherumdidn'tyelass?
Barbossa!Thelesssaidaboutyouthebetter!
DavyJones:YoumusthaveknownthatIwouldn'thavekeptmysideofthedeal!
MrGibbs:AtleastyouwerethepersonIcouldusuallytrust.That'srareamongstpirates.
Jack's vision finally returned to the real world: and his eyes immediately locked onto Mercuric. Mercuric could tell that something was wrong: so slowly started to back away. Jack pointed accusingly at her and took a larger step forward for every step she took backwards; his voice grew to a dangerous tone: "Part of my crew, you said! Had been for two weeks; you said! Someone knocked me over the head while you were getting more coffee, eh? REALLY? Because, now I remember it slightly differently! You trespassed onto my ship, and then Jabberwocky hit me over the head with something!"
All of the senses in Mercuric body were screaming at her to run, but the fact that she wasn't the best at running and that Jack's legs were much longer than her, proved that he would catch her in less than three strides if she tried to run. So she continued to back away from him as he continued the accusations.
Jacks eyes grew even darker and more ferocious: "YOU were the one that lied to me the most! THE WHOLE TIME YOU'VE BEEN USING ME!"
Mercuric turned and started to run when Jack's steps became larger and faster. Jack wrapped one arm harshly around her waist to stop her from getting away; with his hand belong to his other arm covered her mouth and nose. Mercuric uselessly thrashed her arms and legs hysterically as Jack pressed harder. Jack felt her body go limp and let go of her: sand flying into the air as she collided with the ground.
James' eyes darted from Jack, to Mercuric, then back to Jack. James' mouth hung open like a fish gasping for air: "I-is s-s -she..."
Jack shook his head: "Just unconscious." He glared wrathfully at Mercuric's body; he growled at James while still glaring at it: "Get the crew..."
Jack examined the hole dug by the crew; it was deep enough, he guessed. He turned to James:
"Did anyone find any rope?"
James nodded and presented him with a long piece of rope that he had found in the sea: it was still wet yet strong. Jack took the rope and approached Mercuric: she was still out cold, and was most likely going to stay like that for a while. Jack ripped his coat off of her:
"Mine, I think, lass!"
Jack pulled up the body and tied her hands behind her back; before throwing her into the pit. She lay there on her front, her breathing the only sign of life in her body. Jack instructed the crew to follow him to find the shield; they all turned to leave, except Ragetti who stepped towards the pit:
"She'll die in there, Captain."
Jack turned his head slightly: "She'll be able to climb out of there if she jumps high enough."
Ragetti whirled around to glare at Jack: "And if the tide comes in? What then?"
Jack narrowed his eyes: "She can swim, so she'll swim her way out!"
Ragetti felt himself grow increasingly frustrated: "WE CAN'T JUST LEAVE HER HERE!"
Jack glared at him: "CAPTAINS ORDERS!" He lowered his voice so only he and Ragetti could hear, "Unless you want to be part of another mutiny; except this time you'd be on your own! So are you with us, or her?"
Ragetti looked back at the pit: then trudged after Jack and the rest of the crew.
"So, you're fifteen tomorrow?"
Jabberwocky looked down at Claus- who was fiddling with the ends of her dark hair- and nodded.
"You're getting older." Claus continued, "Aren't you worried about what you're going to do? The crew are mostly men..."
Jabberwocky grinned: "And what exactly are you implying, Claus?"
Claus smirked and sat up, "I have no doubt that you can defend yourself." He brushed her hair away from her face, "But many of the men are bigots: but chances are they wouldn't even dare to lay a finger on you; if you had a man..."
Jabberwocky's grin grew even wider: "Then it's too bad that I don't have a man." She stood up and strolled over to the sea: clutching the shield.
Claus sighed: Why?WHYcouldn'tIchoosesomeoneless...teasing?Oratleastsomeonethatisn'tinterestedinassassins?
He watched as she stood in front of the sea with her back to him: the tide occasionally lapping at her now bare feet. Her dark wave blew in the gentle breeze: it moved enough so that he could see her neck from where he was sitting; he closed his eyes and remembered the sweet smell of strawberries that she smelt of that night.
Jabberwocky smirked as she wriggled her toes in the sand: she rarely got the opportunity to go to beaches in England! The weather here was much nice too; it was almost always grey back home. She snuck a hidden glance at Claus and felt her stomach flip over inside; Calmdown,Jabberwocky.It'sjustaboy:yourbestfriend'sbrother.Thatnightwasamistake,remember? She sighed, why couldn't life be sometimes simple? She wondered how they were going to find the treasure without the ship. Mercuric was going to be so livid when she found out that all of her books were gone; that was when she remembered that she couldn't find the cloak that Grange had given her before she was knocked into the ocean. Her thoughts turned to Grange; she felt both her chest and stomach flutter. She remembered the night that he showed her his face; yet she still hadn't told him her true name.
"The next time I see him," she quietly promised herself, "I'll tell him my real name."
Her attention was drawn to something approaching the island from a distance: but at a high speed. She felt herself step deeper into the water instinctively.
A ship was fast approaching...