Chapter 9:
"How much longer is this going to take? I thought you knew where to go?" Giorgio's voice asked impatiently behind Jack.
The pirate was slowly traipsing a little bit ahead of the group, stopping from time to time pretending to think about where to go. The men behind them followed reluctantly, somehow they had the slight suspicion - after wandering around in the darkness for more than an hour they were most certainly entitled to - that he was just trying to win some time, which he was in fact.
"Just, a little bit further. We'll be there soon," he muttered over his shoulder.
Jack himself grew more and more impatient with every minute passing. Wasn't Valentina supposed to arrive with a rescuing party about now? His eyes scanned the forest around them expectantly, roaming here and there restlessly. If that bloody woman wasn't going to turn up in the next few minutes, he would try to escape on his own.
He knew this island pretty well and consequentially he had a good shot at shaking off his captivators, Jack reasoned to himself. His plan was unfolding a little bit differently than he had expected, but that was no reason to be worried - yet. Well, one had to be flexible - where was the fun in a life totally predictable? But what if the Pearl wasn't even there? Then he would be in deep trouble, but as usual he would figure out a plan to get out of it.
Okay, on three. One, two, two and a half, he breathed in deeply his body humming with anticipation. This was going to be fun. Three!
When you looked at Jack you would not necessary think him that to be a particularly fast runner. You could imagine him swaggering, pacing, walking, swaying or strutting, but not running, but that particularly night at the Isle de la Muerte he surprised himself and his guards with a incredible fast sprint into the woods. Jack wore a mad smile on his face as he bashed into the bushes, jumping over tree trunks that lay on the forest ground like a young hare. Loud screams could be heard behind him as his captivators started their pursuit.
"Seguitelo! Non non lasciatelo scappare! Veloce! /Follow him! Don't let him escape! Quickly!/" Giorgio barked loudly.
Valentina could hear him scream his commands from her hideout nearby in the bushes. She had watched the whole scene with wonder in her eyes. "Well, who would have thought you were that crazy, Jack," she mutter to herself with a grin on her face and retreated a little bit further into the safety of the coppice.
The men had fanned out quickly, trying to get a hold of the fugitive pirate who had disappeared somewhere in the forest. Valentina's top priority was now to find Jack (hers and that of about twenty other people) , but she highly doubted that they, too, wanted to bring him back to the Pearl. She tightened her grip on her daggers, she was well acquainted with those weapons and they gave her some sense of security. After a few seconds of carefully listening to the sounds of the woods that surrounded her, making sure that nobody was around to catch her, she took off to find Jack.
Obviously the searching parties had never heard about the concept of keeping a low profile. They broke through the bushes and tree branches like a herd of grunting boars, a fact which made them easy to evade. She , in comparison, had one major advantage that eased her search greatly. Valentina knew where Jack was headed: the shore.
After a few minutes, when she had made half way back to the beach, she heard a muffled curse. It came from the bushes to her left. Valentina slowly sneaked closer, ready to attack whatever or whomever she would find behind them. Her muscles tensed and she but on a grim face. With a quick and determined gesture her hand bushed the branches aside that blocked her view.
What she saw then almost recompensed her for all the incommodities she had come across in the last few days. In front of her, spread eagled on the muddy forest floor, lay Jack. His face and clothes were sprinkled with dirt. Probably thanks to the roots in which his boot had gotten tangled. As he wasn't able to get up anymore, because he was still handcuffed, Jack had decided to spent his time creatively - with inventing new curses.
She kneeled down besides him and when he noticed her, an enormous and incredibly relieved grin almost threatened to split his face into two halves.
"My, my! I didn't know that the monkeys on this island grew that big and even were able to talk," Valentina joked while she helped him up.
"What took ya so long?" he asked, ignoring her teasing remark.
"I'll tell you what took me so long......," she took a deep breath, both to calm herself and to suppress some of her anger, which threatened to wash over Jack in a major tantrum (what was to ensue was only the edited 'we- have-to-get-out-of-here, there-are-20-angry-men-searching-for-us'version), "you bloody had me do all the work!!!"
"First I was struggling to stay over water until the Pearl arrived, fearing for my life the whole time. Then nobody agrees to accompany me on this blasted rescuing mission and I end up going on my own. So I row over to this god forsaken island all by myself with nothing but two daggers to fight a bunch of angry Italians and get your sorry ass out of here! That, dearest Captain Sparrow, is what took me so bloody long," she punctuated every word gesticulating angrily with her hands, while her tirade washed over Jack with the force of a tidal wave.
He watched her with completely dumbfound expression on his face. When he had finally recovered a little bit, he took a deep breath, as if he was coming up with the comeback of all comebacks, but ended up looking like a fish out of water.
"As I thought," Valentina dryly commented his reaction, "Come now, we have to get out of here," she growled at him and dragged him with towards the shore, grapping him by the handcuffs.
"What about these?" Jack asked after he had recovered a bit, motioning with his eyes at his bound hands.
"Later. It will take some time, which we don't have right now," she judged by throwing an expert glance at the locks.
Suddenly a loud cannon shot echoed like thunder through the stillness of the night. Both Jack and Valentina ducked instinctively.
"What was that?"
"That was the signal. We have to hurry," Valentina answered briefly.
* "Che cosa è successo? Perché sparrano i cannoni? Alla spiaggia! Alla spiaggia! Subito! /What has happened? Why are the cannons firing? To the beach! Now!/" Giorgio ordered and the horde made its way towards the beach with angry screams.
Their heavy feet stomped through the forest, trampling down bushes and plants unflinchingly. The trees around them came alive. The animals were startled, thanks to the commotion and noise the men made. Small shadows scurried through the coppice timidly. Everywhere parrots took off from their nests in the tree crowns with loud protesting screams.
"The are coming!" Valentina announced and accelerated her pace even further. She didn't want to end up in captivity again. Her heart was pounding wildly and a thin layer of sweat made her skin shimmer.
"Not so fast, missy," a thickly accented voice proclaimed to their left. They both froze in tracks. A feeling of foreboding and utmost dread overcame her. She knew this voice.
A tall shadow stepped out of the forest. It was the man who had been their guard at the 'Fulmine' and he looked extremely bad-moody. Valentina gulped nervously. The two fugitives hastily stepped back, as if an earth crack had suddenly opened under their feet.
"I was sure there was something I forgot te tell ya," Jack said sheepishly.
"Like telling me that the angry giant was lurking for us somewhere in the woods ready to snap our spines like they were a twig?!" he voice doubled over. "Excellent work, Jack," she drew her daggers, but before she could throw them he stormed at them with a battle cry on his lips. He was surprisingly fast for a man that big. Like an angry bull he trampled in their direction.
Both Valentina and Jack jumped aside hurriedly, as none of them had a overwhelmingly strong death wish. The young woman rolled on her back immediately, taking aim at their attacker with her dagger. Now was the only chance! Valentina aimed for his heart, but unfortunately she missed it. Her hands were shaking like leaves in autumn, it was a wonder she didn't drop the weapon accidentally.
The man looked at the dagger that protruded from his shoulder with a threatening growl on his lips, then he quickly ripped it out without even flinching. But before he could unleash his wrath upon them a second dagger hit him. This time it didn't miss its aim. The sharp blade embedded itself deeply into his throat, cutting through all his major arteries. His eyes rolled back in his skull and blood spilled from his lips. With a terrible gurgling noise, that resounded in Valentina's head over and over again, he slumped forward and soon the floor beneath him tinted crimson red.
Valentina was breathing heavily when she got to her feet. Her face was very pale. She almost looked like a ghost in the moon light.
"Are ya alright?" Jack asked preoccupied.
"Yes," she replied briefly. Fear had washed her sarcasm away. She absentmindedly helped him up.
It was only a few steps towards the shore and the screams that echoed through the forest behind them announced that it was high time they moved. They sprinted into the direction of their boat and then quickly pushed it into the water. Valentina grabbed the paddles and started rowing like there was no tomorrow. They slowly, but steadily, put a bigger and bigger distance between themselves and the shore.
"Aren't they going t' get us?" he asked worriedly, as he watched their pursuers run to their boats.
She grinned despite the fact that every muscle in her arms burned and begged her to stop, "Ever....tried......to row....without paddles?" Valentina said in between heavy breaths, her cheeks were flushed from the exertion.
They both broke out in laughter simultaneously as they saw one figure, they assumed it was Giorgio, do some sort of over-enthusiastic war dance on shore as he discovered that all their boats had been effectively immobilized. In one last desperate effort some of the men tried to catch up with them by swimming, but fortunately Jack and Valentina were already too far out on sea.
After a while she let go of the paddles and turned around to Jack. They were floating somewhere between the island and the Pearl. Valentina reached for her pocket and produced a rusty picklock. It looked like it had been used a lot in the last few years.
"Now, let's try and get those handcuffs of yours off," she announced. Her voice sounded extremely exhausted.
After a few minutes a loud clicking noise could be heard and Jack was finally free. She grinned, content with her work and herself. Slowly the adrenaline that had coursed through her body and given her the necessary strength to fulfill her highly demanding task, left her system. Her limps suddenly felt like they were made of jelly. The young woman let her body slump back exhaustedly, stretching out over the gap between the two wooden benches of the boat, totally uncaring of what happened around her.
Funny she never noticed, the sky above them was absolutely clear and hung full of twinkling stars. She stifled a yawn as she felt a mixture of exhaustion and relief wash over her.
"Your turn, Jack. Get us back home," she said not even able to move a finger, as every muscles in her body seemed to hurt at once.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi there! Thanks for the extremely nice reviews, you guys! I keep posting so fast because in a week I will be off to Italy to go to university there (only for one semester though). Don't know whether I should be extremely happy or extremely scared, I'm still deciding. It's hard to leave behind my family and friends...
Back to the stuff that concerns you....Anyways, no worries. I will post the end of this fiction before I'll leave (still have a slight head start, so I'm confident I can keep my promise)
Please, push the review button and drop me a few lines! Take care!
"How much longer is this going to take? I thought you knew where to go?" Giorgio's voice asked impatiently behind Jack.
The pirate was slowly traipsing a little bit ahead of the group, stopping from time to time pretending to think about where to go. The men behind them followed reluctantly, somehow they had the slight suspicion - after wandering around in the darkness for more than an hour they were most certainly entitled to - that he was just trying to win some time, which he was in fact.
"Just, a little bit further. We'll be there soon," he muttered over his shoulder.
Jack himself grew more and more impatient with every minute passing. Wasn't Valentina supposed to arrive with a rescuing party about now? His eyes scanned the forest around them expectantly, roaming here and there restlessly. If that bloody woman wasn't going to turn up in the next few minutes, he would try to escape on his own.
He knew this island pretty well and consequentially he had a good shot at shaking off his captivators, Jack reasoned to himself. His plan was unfolding a little bit differently than he had expected, but that was no reason to be worried - yet. Well, one had to be flexible - where was the fun in a life totally predictable? But what if the Pearl wasn't even there? Then he would be in deep trouble, but as usual he would figure out a plan to get out of it.
Okay, on three. One, two, two and a half, he breathed in deeply his body humming with anticipation. This was going to be fun. Three!
When you looked at Jack you would not necessary think him that to be a particularly fast runner. You could imagine him swaggering, pacing, walking, swaying or strutting, but not running, but that particularly night at the Isle de la Muerte he surprised himself and his guards with a incredible fast sprint into the woods. Jack wore a mad smile on his face as he bashed into the bushes, jumping over tree trunks that lay on the forest ground like a young hare. Loud screams could be heard behind him as his captivators started their pursuit.
"Seguitelo! Non non lasciatelo scappare! Veloce! /Follow him! Don't let him escape! Quickly!/" Giorgio barked loudly.
Valentina could hear him scream his commands from her hideout nearby in the bushes. She had watched the whole scene with wonder in her eyes. "Well, who would have thought you were that crazy, Jack," she mutter to herself with a grin on her face and retreated a little bit further into the safety of the coppice.
The men had fanned out quickly, trying to get a hold of the fugitive pirate who had disappeared somewhere in the forest. Valentina's top priority was now to find Jack (hers and that of about twenty other people) , but she highly doubted that they, too, wanted to bring him back to the Pearl. She tightened her grip on her daggers, she was well acquainted with those weapons and they gave her some sense of security. After a few seconds of carefully listening to the sounds of the woods that surrounded her, making sure that nobody was around to catch her, she took off to find Jack.
Obviously the searching parties had never heard about the concept of keeping a low profile. They broke through the bushes and tree branches like a herd of grunting boars, a fact which made them easy to evade. She , in comparison, had one major advantage that eased her search greatly. Valentina knew where Jack was headed: the shore.
After a few minutes, when she had made half way back to the beach, she heard a muffled curse. It came from the bushes to her left. Valentina slowly sneaked closer, ready to attack whatever or whomever she would find behind them. Her muscles tensed and she but on a grim face. With a quick and determined gesture her hand bushed the branches aside that blocked her view.
What she saw then almost recompensed her for all the incommodities she had come across in the last few days. In front of her, spread eagled on the muddy forest floor, lay Jack. His face and clothes were sprinkled with dirt. Probably thanks to the roots in which his boot had gotten tangled. As he wasn't able to get up anymore, because he was still handcuffed, Jack had decided to spent his time creatively - with inventing new curses.
She kneeled down besides him and when he noticed her, an enormous and incredibly relieved grin almost threatened to split his face into two halves.
"My, my! I didn't know that the monkeys on this island grew that big and even were able to talk," Valentina joked while she helped him up.
"What took ya so long?" he asked, ignoring her teasing remark.
"I'll tell you what took me so long......," she took a deep breath, both to calm herself and to suppress some of her anger, which threatened to wash over Jack in a major tantrum (what was to ensue was only the edited 'we- have-to-get-out-of-here, there-are-20-angry-men-searching-for-us'version), "you bloody had me do all the work!!!"
"First I was struggling to stay over water until the Pearl arrived, fearing for my life the whole time. Then nobody agrees to accompany me on this blasted rescuing mission and I end up going on my own. So I row over to this god forsaken island all by myself with nothing but two daggers to fight a bunch of angry Italians and get your sorry ass out of here! That, dearest Captain Sparrow, is what took me so bloody long," she punctuated every word gesticulating angrily with her hands, while her tirade washed over Jack with the force of a tidal wave.
He watched her with completely dumbfound expression on his face. When he had finally recovered a little bit, he took a deep breath, as if he was coming up with the comeback of all comebacks, but ended up looking like a fish out of water.
"As I thought," Valentina dryly commented his reaction, "Come now, we have to get out of here," she growled at him and dragged him with towards the shore, grapping him by the handcuffs.
"What about these?" Jack asked after he had recovered a bit, motioning with his eyes at his bound hands.
"Later. It will take some time, which we don't have right now," she judged by throwing an expert glance at the locks.
Suddenly a loud cannon shot echoed like thunder through the stillness of the night. Both Jack and Valentina ducked instinctively.
"What was that?"
"That was the signal. We have to hurry," Valentina answered briefly.
* "Che cosa è successo? Perché sparrano i cannoni? Alla spiaggia! Alla spiaggia! Subito! /What has happened? Why are the cannons firing? To the beach! Now!/" Giorgio ordered and the horde made its way towards the beach with angry screams.
Their heavy feet stomped through the forest, trampling down bushes and plants unflinchingly. The trees around them came alive. The animals were startled, thanks to the commotion and noise the men made. Small shadows scurried through the coppice timidly. Everywhere parrots took off from their nests in the tree crowns with loud protesting screams.
"The are coming!" Valentina announced and accelerated her pace even further. She didn't want to end up in captivity again. Her heart was pounding wildly and a thin layer of sweat made her skin shimmer.
"Not so fast, missy," a thickly accented voice proclaimed to their left. They both froze in tracks. A feeling of foreboding and utmost dread overcame her. She knew this voice.
A tall shadow stepped out of the forest. It was the man who had been their guard at the 'Fulmine' and he looked extremely bad-moody. Valentina gulped nervously. The two fugitives hastily stepped back, as if an earth crack had suddenly opened under their feet.
"I was sure there was something I forgot te tell ya," Jack said sheepishly.
"Like telling me that the angry giant was lurking for us somewhere in the woods ready to snap our spines like they were a twig?!" he voice doubled over. "Excellent work, Jack," she drew her daggers, but before she could throw them he stormed at them with a battle cry on his lips. He was surprisingly fast for a man that big. Like an angry bull he trampled in their direction.
Both Valentina and Jack jumped aside hurriedly, as none of them had a overwhelmingly strong death wish. The young woman rolled on her back immediately, taking aim at their attacker with her dagger. Now was the only chance! Valentina aimed for his heart, but unfortunately she missed it. Her hands were shaking like leaves in autumn, it was a wonder she didn't drop the weapon accidentally.
The man looked at the dagger that protruded from his shoulder with a threatening growl on his lips, then he quickly ripped it out without even flinching. But before he could unleash his wrath upon them a second dagger hit him. This time it didn't miss its aim. The sharp blade embedded itself deeply into his throat, cutting through all his major arteries. His eyes rolled back in his skull and blood spilled from his lips. With a terrible gurgling noise, that resounded in Valentina's head over and over again, he slumped forward and soon the floor beneath him tinted crimson red.
Valentina was breathing heavily when she got to her feet. Her face was very pale. She almost looked like a ghost in the moon light.
"Are ya alright?" Jack asked preoccupied.
"Yes," she replied briefly. Fear had washed her sarcasm away. She absentmindedly helped him up.
It was only a few steps towards the shore and the screams that echoed through the forest behind them announced that it was high time they moved. They sprinted into the direction of their boat and then quickly pushed it into the water. Valentina grabbed the paddles and started rowing like there was no tomorrow. They slowly, but steadily, put a bigger and bigger distance between themselves and the shore.
"Aren't they going t' get us?" he asked worriedly, as he watched their pursuers run to their boats.
She grinned despite the fact that every muscle in her arms burned and begged her to stop, "Ever....tried......to row....without paddles?" Valentina said in between heavy breaths, her cheeks were flushed from the exertion.
They both broke out in laughter simultaneously as they saw one figure, they assumed it was Giorgio, do some sort of over-enthusiastic war dance on shore as he discovered that all their boats had been effectively immobilized. In one last desperate effort some of the men tried to catch up with them by swimming, but fortunately Jack and Valentina were already too far out on sea.
After a while she let go of the paddles and turned around to Jack. They were floating somewhere between the island and the Pearl. Valentina reached for her pocket and produced a rusty picklock. It looked like it had been used a lot in the last few years.
"Now, let's try and get those handcuffs of yours off," she announced. Her voice sounded extremely exhausted.
After a few minutes a loud clicking noise could be heard and Jack was finally free. She grinned, content with her work and herself. Slowly the adrenaline that had coursed through her body and given her the necessary strength to fulfill her highly demanding task, left her system. Her limps suddenly felt like they were made of jelly. The young woman let her body slump back exhaustedly, stretching out over the gap between the two wooden benches of the boat, totally uncaring of what happened around her.
Funny she never noticed, the sky above them was absolutely clear and hung full of twinkling stars. She stifled a yawn as she felt a mixture of exhaustion and relief wash over her.
"Your turn, Jack. Get us back home," she said not even able to move a finger, as every muscles in her body seemed to hurt at once.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi there! Thanks for the extremely nice reviews, you guys! I keep posting so fast because in a week I will be off to Italy to go to university there (only for one semester though). Don't know whether I should be extremely happy or extremely scared, I'm still deciding. It's hard to leave behind my family and friends...
Back to the stuff that concerns you....Anyways, no worries. I will post the end of this fiction before I'll leave (still have a slight head start, so I'm confident I can keep my promise)
Please, push the review button and drop me a few lines! Take care!