From afar, Isle du Diable looked like just another Caribbean island, green palm trees, sparkling clear water and white, sandy beaches. But, if Will looked hard enough, he could see the masts of sunken ships jutting out of the water, like memorials to those who had been here before. He could also see that the peak of that beautiful, solitary mountain was scarred by the lava that had carved paths into its sides.
Near the south side of the island, though, Will could also see a sign of life. A tall Spanish galleon was anchored about a mile out, far enough that the perilous shallow area around the island would not sink their ship as it had so many others.
He was approaching that ship now, barely one hundred metres ahead. Will could see the men ogling him from the deck of the ship, and he meant ogling. You see, this was all part of Jack's "plan", which Will referred to as insanity.
"Right, mate. This is me plan. You row to their ship and distract them while I," Jack accentuated this point with a flourish of hand motions, "Climb aboard and rescue yar fair lady. Again."
Ignoring Jack's last comment, Will immediately posed his question. "And how would I distract them?"
Captain Jack Sparrow shot his first mate a devilish grin, one that Will had come to associate with moments of complete and utter insanity.
"Why, with these, of course!" the smiling pirate gestured to a pile of pillaged clothes, more precisely, women's clothes. Quite fittingly, in the middle of the clutter there was a blond wig, one that Will remembered Jack wearing one night, in the midst of one of his stupors.
The sea captain turned to him again, that annoying grin still plastered onto his face. "And that goatee jus' gotta go, William, me lad. No one wants a hairy maiden."
Before Will could come up with a response, Jack escaped, swaggering out of the room, obviously pleased with himself.
Willow had laughed, of course, upon seeing her new found father without his facial hair and a blond wig upon his head. But she had almost doubled over in stitches when he emerged clad in a floral print dress, ruffles and all. The girl's grandfather had chuckled a bit too, and Will could have sworn he saw James Norrington smile. The crew, of course, had their share of hysterics as well.
And that was how William Turner II ended up in the longboat, paddling himself to the White Tiger under the false name of Sophia.
//Thank the Lord for small miracles.// Will thought to himself as he paddled, thinking about the corset Jack could have made him where. He shuddered involuntarily.
"'Ey down there! Where's a pretty maiden like you goin' in a rowboat?" someone shouted down from the ship.
Will grumbled once more about his current situation, then looked up to answer. "I was- I mean, I was shipwrecked! Please help me!" he cried out, pausing at the beginning to change his voice to the highest it could go. It was pitiful, and sounding nothing like a woman to his ears, but hopefully it was enough to fool this pirate crew.
"Grab ona the rope! We'll 'oist ya up!" the same voice called down again, tossing down a rope a the same time.
Will went to scale up the rope, but realized that a dignified lady in a dress would not do such. Sighing, he grabbed onto the rope, and waited to be hoisted up.
Once on deck, Will faced an entire crew of lust filled crewmembers. He grew afraid... very afraid.
"Hey, darling." some called out.
"Come stay with me..." others said.
As Will tried his best to become a flirtatious young woman, he kept his eye on the starboard side, where Jack was due to climb over. Finally, after several moments of distracted flirting, he spotted the soaking wet pirate flopping over the side and running down to the brig, but not before he stole a laugh at Will's misery.
A few minutes passed, with various butt pinches and arm squeezes from the men around him. Will was becoming very, very scared. After what seemed an eternity, Jack popped out of the hold and gave Will a confused shrug.
He saw the pirate mouth the words: "They're not here!"
Will nodded his acknowledgement and Jack then jumped silently back into the water below. Taking a cue from Elizabeth, the young Turner feigned a faint and tumbled off of the side of the boat, remembering not to surface so that the pirates would not search for him.
Finally, after a long stretch of swimming, Will found himself back at the Pearl. Shimmying up a nearby rope, he collapsed onto the deck and struggled to level his breathing once more.
"And?!" asked Anamaria to the two men, Jack having crawled aboard only moments before Will.
"She-wasn't-there." gasped Jack. "They-must've-taken-'er-to-shore."
As Will soaked up this information, he realized that this presented a whole new problem. The only reason they would have taken Elizabeth to shore would be to use her to get through the booby traps.. booby traps that no living man had ever gone through...
Forcing himself to his feet, Will grabbed onto Jack's shoulder. "C'mon Jack, we've a damsel to rescue."
The pirate captain just moaned and collapsed to the deck.
*Well, that's another chapter. Probably about three left, maybe more.
Thanks for the support, everyone!
~Aelan (yes, I'm always changing my name)*
