Title: The Black Pearl
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Pirates of the Caribbean. I also have not read the book or seen the movie yet, so this is my version of what happened.
Chapter 1: The Expedition (Present day)
Cassandra Martin smiled with poorly concealed excitement as the boat drew near the wreck of the Black Pearl. She was a Junior archaeologist in charge of excavating the ship. Cassandra was excited, this ship had a fascinating history, including a somewhat legendary curse. Rumor had it that some of the gold stolen by the pirates was cursed and had transformed the crew into living skeletons under the light of the full moon. As a scientist she dismissed it as merely legend, but the legend was intriguing. "We're here.", announced Michael, as the boat stopped over site. The team had been working for three weeks prior to her arrival. What made this excavation so easy was that the wreck was only partially submerged. That meant that her team could explore the wreck relatively easily. It had to have something to do with the island and its tides, the wreck was too neat. It was one thing to excavate a wrecked pirate ship submerged under several feet of water, this was one that because of extremely receding tides, she could literally stroll aboard. Her boat docked on the island and she hurried ashore to hear the reports from her team members. They had explored must of the ship above water including a room which housed some of the treasure. "Any cursed gold?", Cassandra asked with a grin. "Nope, but there is something that' you'll wanna take a look at.", Will, one of the students, replied. He lead her onto the ship and into the cabin. There was a pile of money on the floor and some kind of strange crystal. "We're not sure exactly what that is.", Chris, another archaeologist said, "it looks like some sort of amulet, and there's this beside it." Cassandra picked up the amulet and the paper it was resting upon. It was written in some sort of strange language she had never seen before. She looked at it carefully, reading it out loud as she tried to translate it. "Arwinort oraiotion oprkkn" As soon as she finished that she had cause to regret it. The amulet started to glow faintly, filling the cabin with a strange glow which became a blinding flash of light.