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Pirates of the Caribbean: The True Black Pearl
Chapter 4: Rings and Pirates
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Disclaimer: I know this is pointless as I have it on the first page, but I don't own Pirates of the Caribbean. The only thing that I own here is Roxanne Tarisse and the crew of the Eclipse plus some randomized characters that appear now an again... And if you don't believe me, I'll sick my budgies on you!
Happy New Year, my wonderful, wonderful readers! I'm just going to say this before the chapter starts:
Attention: The next chapter probably won't be up for a while. Why? There's a huge fight scene coming up, and I really want to have it well detailed and pretty long. And so I will have to not only have to learn the basics of sword fighting, I'll have to choreograph the entire scene. It might take a while...
Now, sorry about the interruption, and on with the chapter!
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"Thar seems to be a storm brewin', Cap'n. Ye think we should be avoidin' it?" Gibbs questioned of Jack with a firm nod of greetings to the two who accompanied him at the helm of the Black Pearl- Will and Elizabeth. The freshly drunken pirate captain nodded, waving slightly in dismissal.
"Normally I would brave it, but I don't believe our newlyweds would quite enjoy it." He replied in a slur. Gibbs nodded before heading off to inform the crew of the new plans. Jack wistfully tied a rope to the helm, keeping it steady before turning his attention to his companions. "Well now, we've readied one of our spare cabins for ye. I suspected you two would share a room...?" He spoke his last sentence with a slight tone of mischievousness, yet before they could react to this statement he continued. "Now, I believe ye be wishin' why you've been asked to join us on this little voyage?" Jack's eyes turned with a hypnotic blink to Will as he replied.
"It's crossed my mind, yes." He said as his response. The Captain nodded and took a glimpse to Elizabeth, who watched the spellbinding movements of the surrounding sea with unfocused vision before turning back to Will.
"When I was a young lad- just about fifteen, maybe sixteen- a young lass and I would travel the Caribbean in this boat- a tiny little thing- fantasizing about being pirates, savvy?" Jack waited for confirmation of his companion's understanding before continuing, "The boat was hers, from her father as he was a fisherman. We'd go around, practice the normal pirate stuff- sword fighting, smuggling, pilfering, but above all-" He rose a finger in the air to emphasize the importance of this one thing, "- treasure hunting. Now, there were no treasures that we knew about, never mind had a map for, and so we'd go, bury some trinkets, make a map which was absolutely flooded with riddles. We'd tear it in half, each take a part, and then go find it the next year." Jack Sparrow smirked slightly as even Elizabeth seemed intrigued now.
"The treasures were just little things... daggers, cutlery and whatnot. But as we got good at it, they started to get a little more personal, family heirlooms and alike. Now the first one... that one was the most exquisite of all... we never found." He smirked, pulling a folded piece of parchment from his pocket. Carefully unfolding it, he revealed its content to his companions. Half of a map, "It was a ring, a tiny little thing, but it was hers, passed down to her from her great grandmother. It was supposed to have some kind of magic, but until I saw what happened to Barbossa's crew on the Black Pearl, I didn't believe... Well!" Jack threw his hands up in the air, "Now I do, mate!"
"I see..." Will muttered with a slight nod. The look in his eye told the pirate captain that the young blacksmith had come to a conclusion of some-kind... Just perhaps that was the case. Elizabeth rose her brow curiously.
"So, is this friend of yours a pirate, now?" She asked, folding her arms across her chest. Jack shrugged.
"Last I heard she was. We tried to keep in contact after her father took a job in Spain, and it worked for a while- until we both actually became pirates and with the constant traveling that comes with the job... It became difficult, as one would expect. I don't think I even learned the name of the ship she took up crew to..." He explained, pausing as he turned his attention to the seemingly endless waters in thought. Captain Jack Sparrow wondered where his childhood friend was at that very moment... Perhaps smuggling goods, pilfering from the innocent, maybe enjoying a good old mug of rum? Speaking of the substance, he could have gone for a pint of the stuff right about then.
Roxanne Tarisse, where could you possibly be? He thought as he tucked himself into his cabin later that night, vaguely remembering the day they buried that cursed little ring as he drifted into a dark sleep, dreams intertwined with memory...
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"Yeah! That sounds like a good one! Write it down! You got it?" A teenaged boy asked, pressing his weight on his shovel as he used it as a support. The young man's deep auburn eyes glistened in excitement as they turned upon his companion who sat within a heap of materials under the shade of a lonely palm tree, scratching down notes to a piece of parchment- purposely burnt to add an aged effect.
"Yes, it's written." She confirmed, not bothering to brush away the wrinkles and sand from her clothing as she rose to her feet. It wasn't in the girl's nature to wear the dresses and elegant gowns normal girls her age would. For one, being a fisherman's daughter, they simply couldn't afford it. And two, why wear dresses when men's clothing was exceptionally more comfortable? With a free hand she tucked several strands of her messed hair behind her ear and she handed the parchment to her accomplice. The boy stared at it, squinting slightly before shrugging.
"I'll... just assume it's written well..." He replied after a moment, handing it back to the girl. She smirked, yet her reaction to the young man's lack of reading ability was less then what could have been offered. It was in fact very well written, as well as any Shakespeare fanatic like herself could. 'It' was a riddle, written for a very special purpose. The girl pursed her lips, forcing them into a soft smile.
"Where are we going to bury it, then? In the hole?" She asked, taking the parchment back into her possetion as she motioned with a nod towards the small chest by her companion's feet. The boy rolled his eyes in the limited way that males could before shaking his head.
"Heck no! It's far too traditional!" He insisted with a wave of his arm. The young woman raised a curious brow, turning her attention from the young man's face to the shovel he carried and back again.
"And so the purpose of that would be to...?" She asked, rather amused as she motioned to the tool, but her companion avoided the question as his attention drifted in direction of the rocky cliff farther down the little retreat of Drorewan.
"This is the first one of many we get to bury, you know, so we're going to set it in a very special place- a place where no one would be able to find it- no one but us." He continued. The girl frowned as he opened a tiny chest, knowing what she was to put inside soon after. Her fingertips pressed against the cool, smooth surface of a silver band wrapped about her finger before slipping it off and keeping it clasped in firm grip of her hand.
"I know very well this may be our first one, but it also may be our last..." She muttered with a note of concern, blinking as she turned back to the young man, "I really hope my father doesn't take that job in Spain, but if he does I have no choice... Everyone I've ever met... I'll never see them again, never again..." Her grip on the ring tightened, "... I don't want to lose it..." She read the inscription written on the inside of the band several times over. "Jack... I don't want to lose it..." Jack's smile turned to a frown, taking a step forward before hesitantly patting the girl on her back in act of comfort.
"Hey, now! Don't be talkin' like that! You won't be much of a pirate if you go on with that sappy talk!" He insisted, waving out to the vast ocean surrounding the island before turning back to her, "Even if he does take that job, we'll see each other again, one day on the open seas! Two pirate legends, meeting in combat, in a fair fight, savvy?" The young woman took a glance back at him, a slight smirk across her lips.
"As fair a fight as a pirate can make it, eh?" She taunted. Jack smirked.
"Of course!" He replied in a stout confirming nod.
"All pirates have special names, you know?" She pointed out. The young man turned to her curiously, a slight tilt to his head. She nodded before imposing a second question, "What will the seven seas know you as?" Her companion considered this before a wide grin tugged at his lips, taking both himself and the shovel to the top of a small mound of boulders, planting the tool to the ground as if it was a flag.
"One day, I'll be known as Captain Jack Sparrow, the fiercest pirate in all the oceans- the entire world!" He cried triumphantly from the rocks, for all the island to hear. The girl shook her head, chuckling in slight.
"But that's your name already, you goose!" She argued in a jeering tone. Jack's grin only grew wider as he held the shovel as a sword, slicing at the air a number of times before replying.
"The Jack Sparrow part, aye, but not the Captain part! I'll be a Captain one day, you'll see! I'll commandeer meself a ship- a big ship! Not just a dinky little thing like that..." He paused, motioning towards the tiny vessel, which had been their mode of transportation as it swayed back and forth with the winds by the beach. The girl frowned. It was her boat- her father's old fishing boat. Sure it was small, but it was enough for two young teens such as themselves to control to bring at least some reality to their dreams of pirate-ism.
"And she'll be the fastest in a Caribbean?" She asked him tauntingly. Jack nodded, smirk widening even more. The young woman let out a sharp laugh, one of pure amusement as her worries slowly faded away. Jack looked down upon her from his perch, his eyes flashed.
"And you, Miss Roxanne Tarisse, what will you be called when you're named a pirate?" He asked. Roxanne's smirk slowly turned into a frown as the cogwheels of her mind turned. She had never really thought about that...
"When I'm a pirate, the world will know and fear me as-"
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Please R&R!
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