Title: Not All Treasure Is Silver and Gold
Author: Laera Elentari
Disclaimer: I don't even know why people bother to write disclaimers...but in my act of conformism I'll take the time to tell you that no, I'm not Disney, and am in no way associated in any of the corporations producing Pirates of the Caribbean. I just play with the action figures. That's all.
Will felt his entire body tense, ready to spring away from the impending danger that he saw in Norrington's glare that scanned the streets of the inlet, and the anxiety and anger in Elizabeth's quick steps, but it seemed that every muscle in his body was against him as he found himself unable to follow instinct. But hearing quick pattering behind him, he turned around to face Jack, who was quickly untying a rope from the rough dock posts and maneuvering the small boat that he was freeing so that it rested upside down on the water's surface. Will panicked. "Where are you going???" Hearing the frantic whine in Will's voice, Jack looked up with concern. "Can't be found here, you know. Not 'til the proper time..." As he tore the last loop of the rope out, he deftly slid his body into the cool ocean waters, and then looked up at Will. "Hope you don't mind, mate. See you in a few. And...try not to do anything...stupid..remember what you want, not what she does. You're Bootstrap Bill's son, every inch of you...just...try to remember that." Inhaling deeply, Jack closed his eyes and sunk beneath the softly rolling waves.
Will felt his blood run cold as he realized that he was alone, surrounded by the imminent arrival of the searching party and the expansive ocean about him. What was Jack doing??? he questioned as he felt the morning winds strike the bare sweat on his brow. Looking up frantically to the cobblestone road that Elizabeth, Norrington, and the Governor were rushing down, Will felt his drive collapse. Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to fall into the welcoming waves and permanently remove himself from the situation. Yet Jack's words rang in his ears: "Remember what you want, not what she does...", yet they offered little comfort. Only with Jack's slurred voice reverberating through his mind did he become more confused, and feel that much weaker.
Her light chiffon nightgown falling loosely about her slim, cold form fortunately did not offer much distraction in terms of weight or breathing ability, but it was still a reminder of the reason that she was out in the early morning rushing down the streets in the company of none other than her very father and the Commodore. The note. Unconsciously, she quickened her step as she felt the memory prick her consciousness and her very ego.
"Dear Elizabeth," the note read, scrawled haphazardly (characteristic of the only slightly educated blacksmith that Will was) on the yellowed sheaf of paper, "I don't quite know how to say this, but I don't belong here anymore, and you know that. In fact, you are the one who made me so aware of it. I wanted to deny it earlier, but I now know what your true intent is. I've felt unappreciated and patronized, and I'm leaving. I doubt that I will come back. After all the Commodore can do much more for you than I can and ever will be able to. Thank you for all that you've done for me, I suppose, but now it's too late for me to help you out, except for doing as I am. Good luck, and may your fate be better than mine. -Will"
Internally, Elizabeth bristled, and as her father glanced at her worrisomely, she determined that it was also apparent externally how betrayed she was feeling. After all of her time establishing a place for Will in society despite her possibly true feelings, her desires for something more than a blacksmith for a lover. A pirate??? When that fancy of his had ended, she supposed that hers for him had as well. With the adventurous pirate's blood in him roiling, when he found himself caught in adventure and loved it-well, that was how she had loved him, knew him to be. After all, she would never have known him if it weren't for that pirate in him.and now that it had fled him and he had buckled down into the restrictions of society for her sake, she realized that this situation was the last that she wanted. Now dependent, irritating at times in his blind reverence, and simply paling in comparison to the daring man that Elizabeth had thought him to be, Elizabeth had lost the affection for him that she had once had. Even the Commodore appealed much more, with his drive and dalliance in everyday danger, with a mix of a gentleman's grace. But Will-- his mannerisms grated, and his ineptitude was ridiculous. She had no more need for him, but for him to recognize it before she could clearly voice it? Feeling her control over her situation slipping, she twitched involuntarily and strode faster down the dusty steps, scanning the port that they now approached.
And then she saw him, staring blankly at her beneath the glorious morning light-their eyes met, and the anger and betrayal rose in her veins as the scent of the sea enveloped her.
Any energy or passion for his cause that Will had before fled him as her glaring, bitter eyes sought his. He felt weakened, entirely so, completely at a loss for action. Forgetting himself, he stood awkwardly at the dock as he watched the foreboding, darkened visages of Elizabeth, and now the Commodore and General, walk quickly and angrily towards him. He dropped his bag and gaped pitifully.
"Will!" Elizabeth shrieked as she walked towards him, shaking with fury and the cold morning air, now directly in front of him, backhanding him viciously to the nose and then following through with a violent open handed slap across his face, sending him recoiling, in exploding pain and dense confusion. Unable to even think, and with the misery that he was in, he was almost reduced to childish tears. Just with her presence he was finding himself backing down and taking the abuse, dumbing himself down for her intellectual sake and for that of her overpowering egotism and superiority complex, and with his resolve, his pirate's blood quickly cooling in his veins, he was already willing to let her lead him back home, away from any dreams that he ever had.
Shaking bitterly, her eyes softening and glossing with tears of anger, pain, and disbelief, she could do nothing but stare at him. How dare he do this to her? Ruin her name, her very morals? Who did he think he was?
"Elizabeth..." Will tried weakly, reaching out to awkwardly touch her on her shoulder, "I..." The Commodore shoved him back fiercely, reducing Will to a cowering remnant of the man who he was but an hour ago. "Don't even try to explain yourself!" He shouted pompously, looking irritated and disgusted at Will's very presence. "Causing such emotional damage to a woman of Mrs. Swann's standing, even stooping so low as to disappear at dawn? You're lucky that she ever had any respect for you, being a delinquent blacksmith and nothing more! Your foolish dreams...what are these that you can turn away from the life that this amazing woman so...so valiantly gave you, even at the risk of her own respectability? You should be ashamed at your avarice!" Practically foaming at the mouth, spittle flying with each enunciation, the Commodore showed no sign of relenting as he berated the already broken Will. Carefully, so as not to redirect the Commodore's rage, the Governor meekly shuffled to Elizabeth's immediate side, holding lightly her arm as she continued to shake and grimace with her withheld emotions and damaged ego. "Despicable, the betrayal of the trust that she gave you so willingly, your foolish concepts that you are less than forever indebted to her overriding your sensibility? What are you thinking??? Preposterous, the disrespect you have shown her."
Breathing limited within the air pocket underneath the upside down boat, Captain Jack Sparrow tried to be frugal with his oxygen supply as he carefully paddled over to the left of the dock as far as possible until he would reach the docked ships and be able to engineer a great distraction followed by a marvelous escape for both himself and Will. Trying to ignore the odd echoes of the ocean and his own ragged breathing that filled the pocket, he tried to distract himself with thoughts of the situation, though none of them were reassuring. Having seen Will with Elizabeth before, and the horribly and painfully subservient companion that Will would reduce himself to for his dominating bitch that Elizabeth was simply sickened the pirate as nothing else could, not even Ana Maria's cooking (another tale for another travel). As he paddled onwards determinedly, he still couldn't help wasting oxygen for a casual prayer for Will's own drive and a bit of almost nervous laughter and what his predicament would be if Will gave in. Recovering with the awareness of his favorite twin daggers resting at his hilt and the rum back on board the Black Pearl that he could always use to forget it all, he doggedly continued.
Will flinched as the spittle still flew from the Commodore's tireless jaws and each inflection reduced him even further into the position as Elizabeth's discontent subordinate. Not even daring to look into her eyes, he stared down at the floor, deaf to the Commodore's very threats and insults as he felt himself go completely blank.
"You're Bootstrap Bill's son, every inch of you...just...try to remember that."
And finally, the tidal wave, the rush of adrenaline and spirit, it came. Flashing through his mind, the colors brightening, the smell of the sea growing clearer, the sensations burning on his skin, the thoughts crowding his very memory as he saw every moment of his life from the burning village of his childhood, ransacked by those who were once his father's cohorts, to the knife slashing across his skin and his blood breaking the very curse of the Black Pearl, he remembered who he was. Finally breaking free of the trance, the misery, the cowardice that Elizabeth's overbearing demand had placed upon him, he truly opened his eyes, saw the Commodore's features reddened with passion and fury, and Elizabeth's alabaster skin and cruelly innocent eyes, with the Governor clinging to her desperately; he saw them. And he knew them for what they were, and knew himself for what he was. Reemerging were the grotesque sounds of Norrington's curses, the very shuddering of Elizabeth's body, the creak of the dock beneath him and the gulls calling him across the ocean as he raised his head and brazenly looked Elizabeth in the eye, and then saw, out of the very corner of his view, one of the British Navy's finest ships, The Magdalene, curving about, cutting through the soft waves, coming directly towards the front of the dock, with a vaguely amused and pleasantly expectant Captain Jack Sparrow dripping at the helm.
Lip curling with bitter humor, he finally broke into a smile, and the Commodore stopped in the midst of his tirade, vaguely flabbergasted. "What...who...what are you-", he turned to look back at the source of Will's amusement and focus, as Will delivered a striking blow to the Commodore's stomach, winding him, simultaneously pulling the Commodore's own finely crafted dagger from his sheath to press the flat of the sharp blade across Norrington's throat. As the Commodore swallowed nervously, seeing the dangerous glint in Will's eyes, Will extended his grin further, revealing a toothy malice. "Time to go," he said in a low, almost childish pleasure, kicking the Commodore soundly in the groin and shoving him back into the astonished and temporarily frozen Elizabeth and Governor who had stood behind him, leaving them in a heap as he whooped triumphantly, tossed the Commodore's blade into the sea and sprinted to the very edge of the dock to meet the rope ladder that Jack tossed down the side and leap onto it, to climb it doggedly with relief and pure excitement flooding his entire being. Finally throwing himself over the edge onto the deck, he stumbled towards the openly pleased Jack Sparrow, and fell into his vaguely outstretched arms as Jack laughed deeply, kissing him roughly on the forehead, then letting him go roughly as Will laughed himself and stepped back carefully to slump down against some of the ship's light cargo. Feeling the light sea breeze fill him, Will found himself entranced by it, entrapped by it, never to be let go, and never to wish to be.
Author: Laera Elentari
Disclaimer: I don't even know why people bother to write disclaimers...but in my act of conformism I'll take the time to tell you that no, I'm not Disney, and am in no way associated in any of the corporations producing Pirates of the Caribbean. I just play with the action figures. That's all.
Will felt his entire body tense, ready to spring away from the impending danger that he saw in Norrington's glare that scanned the streets of the inlet, and the anxiety and anger in Elizabeth's quick steps, but it seemed that every muscle in his body was against him as he found himself unable to follow instinct. But hearing quick pattering behind him, he turned around to face Jack, who was quickly untying a rope from the rough dock posts and maneuvering the small boat that he was freeing so that it rested upside down on the water's surface. Will panicked. "Where are you going???" Hearing the frantic whine in Will's voice, Jack looked up with concern. "Can't be found here, you know. Not 'til the proper time..." As he tore the last loop of the rope out, he deftly slid his body into the cool ocean waters, and then looked up at Will. "Hope you don't mind, mate. See you in a few. And...try not to do anything...stupid..remember what you want, not what she does. You're Bootstrap Bill's son, every inch of you...just...try to remember that." Inhaling deeply, Jack closed his eyes and sunk beneath the softly rolling waves.
Will felt his blood run cold as he realized that he was alone, surrounded by the imminent arrival of the searching party and the expansive ocean about him. What was Jack doing??? he questioned as he felt the morning winds strike the bare sweat on his brow. Looking up frantically to the cobblestone road that Elizabeth, Norrington, and the Governor were rushing down, Will felt his drive collapse. Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to fall into the welcoming waves and permanently remove himself from the situation. Yet Jack's words rang in his ears: "Remember what you want, not what she does...", yet they offered little comfort. Only with Jack's slurred voice reverberating through his mind did he become more confused, and feel that much weaker.
Her light chiffon nightgown falling loosely about her slim, cold form fortunately did not offer much distraction in terms of weight or breathing ability, but it was still a reminder of the reason that she was out in the early morning rushing down the streets in the company of none other than her very father and the Commodore. The note. Unconsciously, she quickened her step as she felt the memory prick her consciousness and her very ego.
"Dear Elizabeth," the note read, scrawled haphazardly (characteristic of the only slightly educated blacksmith that Will was) on the yellowed sheaf of paper, "I don't quite know how to say this, but I don't belong here anymore, and you know that. In fact, you are the one who made me so aware of it. I wanted to deny it earlier, but I now know what your true intent is. I've felt unappreciated and patronized, and I'm leaving. I doubt that I will come back. After all the Commodore can do much more for you than I can and ever will be able to. Thank you for all that you've done for me, I suppose, but now it's too late for me to help you out, except for doing as I am. Good luck, and may your fate be better than mine. -Will"
Internally, Elizabeth bristled, and as her father glanced at her worrisomely, she determined that it was also apparent externally how betrayed she was feeling. After all of her time establishing a place for Will in society despite her possibly true feelings, her desires for something more than a blacksmith for a lover. A pirate??? When that fancy of his had ended, she supposed that hers for him had as well. With the adventurous pirate's blood in him roiling, when he found himself caught in adventure and loved it-well, that was how she had loved him, knew him to be. After all, she would never have known him if it weren't for that pirate in him.and now that it had fled him and he had buckled down into the restrictions of society for her sake, she realized that this situation was the last that she wanted. Now dependent, irritating at times in his blind reverence, and simply paling in comparison to the daring man that Elizabeth had thought him to be, Elizabeth had lost the affection for him that she had once had. Even the Commodore appealed much more, with his drive and dalliance in everyday danger, with a mix of a gentleman's grace. But Will-- his mannerisms grated, and his ineptitude was ridiculous. She had no more need for him, but for him to recognize it before she could clearly voice it? Feeling her control over her situation slipping, she twitched involuntarily and strode faster down the dusty steps, scanning the port that they now approached.
And then she saw him, staring blankly at her beneath the glorious morning light-their eyes met, and the anger and betrayal rose in her veins as the scent of the sea enveloped her.
Any energy or passion for his cause that Will had before fled him as her glaring, bitter eyes sought his. He felt weakened, entirely so, completely at a loss for action. Forgetting himself, he stood awkwardly at the dock as he watched the foreboding, darkened visages of Elizabeth, and now the Commodore and General, walk quickly and angrily towards him. He dropped his bag and gaped pitifully.
"Will!" Elizabeth shrieked as she walked towards him, shaking with fury and the cold morning air, now directly in front of him, backhanding him viciously to the nose and then following through with a violent open handed slap across his face, sending him recoiling, in exploding pain and dense confusion. Unable to even think, and with the misery that he was in, he was almost reduced to childish tears. Just with her presence he was finding himself backing down and taking the abuse, dumbing himself down for her intellectual sake and for that of her overpowering egotism and superiority complex, and with his resolve, his pirate's blood quickly cooling in his veins, he was already willing to let her lead him back home, away from any dreams that he ever had.
Shaking bitterly, her eyes softening and glossing with tears of anger, pain, and disbelief, she could do nothing but stare at him. How dare he do this to her? Ruin her name, her very morals? Who did he think he was?
"Elizabeth..." Will tried weakly, reaching out to awkwardly touch her on her shoulder, "I..." The Commodore shoved him back fiercely, reducing Will to a cowering remnant of the man who he was but an hour ago. "Don't even try to explain yourself!" He shouted pompously, looking irritated and disgusted at Will's very presence. "Causing such emotional damage to a woman of Mrs. Swann's standing, even stooping so low as to disappear at dawn? You're lucky that she ever had any respect for you, being a delinquent blacksmith and nothing more! Your foolish dreams...what are these that you can turn away from the life that this amazing woman so...so valiantly gave you, even at the risk of her own respectability? You should be ashamed at your avarice!" Practically foaming at the mouth, spittle flying with each enunciation, the Commodore showed no sign of relenting as he berated the already broken Will. Carefully, so as not to redirect the Commodore's rage, the Governor meekly shuffled to Elizabeth's immediate side, holding lightly her arm as she continued to shake and grimace with her withheld emotions and damaged ego. "Despicable, the betrayal of the trust that she gave you so willingly, your foolish concepts that you are less than forever indebted to her overriding your sensibility? What are you thinking??? Preposterous, the disrespect you have shown her."
Breathing limited within the air pocket underneath the upside down boat, Captain Jack Sparrow tried to be frugal with his oxygen supply as he carefully paddled over to the left of the dock as far as possible until he would reach the docked ships and be able to engineer a great distraction followed by a marvelous escape for both himself and Will. Trying to ignore the odd echoes of the ocean and his own ragged breathing that filled the pocket, he tried to distract himself with thoughts of the situation, though none of them were reassuring. Having seen Will with Elizabeth before, and the horribly and painfully subservient companion that Will would reduce himself to for his dominating bitch that Elizabeth was simply sickened the pirate as nothing else could, not even Ana Maria's cooking (another tale for another travel). As he paddled onwards determinedly, he still couldn't help wasting oxygen for a casual prayer for Will's own drive and a bit of almost nervous laughter and what his predicament would be if Will gave in. Recovering with the awareness of his favorite twin daggers resting at his hilt and the rum back on board the Black Pearl that he could always use to forget it all, he doggedly continued.
Will flinched as the spittle still flew from the Commodore's tireless jaws and each inflection reduced him even further into the position as Elizabeth's discontent subordinate. Not even daring to look into her eyes, he stared down at the floor, deaf to the Commodore's very threats and insults as he felt himself go completely blank.
"You're Bootstrap Bill's son, every inch of you...just...try to remember that."
And finally, the tidal wave, the rush of adrenaline and spirit, it came. Flashing through his mind, the colors brightening, the smell of the sea growing clearer, the sensations burning on his skin, the thoughts crowding his very memory as he saw every moment of his life from the burning village of his childhood, ransacked by those who were once his father's cohorts, to the knife slashing across his skin and his blood breaking the very curse of the Black Pearl, he remembered who he was. Finally breaking free of the trance, the misery, the cowardice that Elizabeth's overbearing demand had placed upon him, he truly opened his eyes, saw the Commodore's features reddened with passion and fury, and Elizabeth's alabaster skin and cruelly innocent eyes, with the Governor clinging to her desperately; he saw them. And he knew them for what they were, and knew himself for what he was. Reemerging were the grotesque sounds of Norrington's curses, the very shuddering of Elizabeth's body, the creak of the dock beneath him and the gulls calling him across the ocean as he raised his head and brazenly looked Elizabeth in the eye, and then saw, out of the very corner of his view, one of the British Navy's finest ships, The Magdalene, curving about, cutting through the soft waves, coming directly towards the front of the dock, with a vaguely amused and pleasantly expectant Captain Jack Sparrow dripping at the helm.
Lip curling with bitter humor, he finally broke into a smile, and the Commodore stopped in the midst of his tirade, vaguely flabbergasted. "What...who...what are you-", he turned to look back at the source of Will's amusement and focus, as Will delivered a striking blow to the Commodore's stomach, winding him, simultaneously pulling the Commodore's own finely crafted dagger from his sheath to press the flat of the sharp blade across Norrington's throat. As the Commodore swallowed nervously, seeing the dangerous glint in Will's eyes, Will extended his grin further, revealing a toothy malice. "Time to go," he said in a low, almost childish pleasure, kicking the Commodore soundly in the groin and shoving him back into the astonished and temporarily frozen Elizabeth and Governor who had stood behind him, leaving them in a heap as he whooped triumphantly, tossed the Commodore's blade into the sea and sprinted to the very edge of the dock to meet the rope ladder that Jack tossed down the side and leap onto it, to climb it doggedly with relief and pure excitement flooding his entire being. Finally throwing himself over the edge onto the deck, he stumbled towards the openly pleased Jack Sparrow, and fell into his vaguely outstretched arms as Jack laughed deeply, kissing him roughly on the forehead, then letting him go roughly as Will laughed himself and stepped back carefully to slump down against some of the ship's light cargo. Feeling the light sea breeze fill him, Will found himself entranced by it, entrapped by it, never to be let go, and never to wish to be.