Chapter the Seventh: Cave

Jack felt relieved when they left the claustrophobic, wet confines of the jungle. To his dismay, he saw no shadow of a ship looming on the distance, nor the billowing of a sail over the horizon. It was depressing, really - he knew, deep in his black heart, that it would take nothing short of a complete and utter miracle for the Pearl to find him.

Knowing his luck, they'd probably turn up *after* his allotted fourteen days were up, to find their Captain dead and sacrificed to some Jamaican god or other.

It wasn't a nice concept. Jack always visualized himself as going out in some blaze of glory - in a spectacular firefight with an enemy ship, perhaps. Or maybe he would grow old and become the Greatest Pirate that Ever Lived To Say So, and then die in his bed surrounded by a million grandkiddies.

Although he really couldn't see himself having kiddies at all, let alone grandkiddies.

Anyway, instead of dying in the ways he thought he ought to, he was going to be sacrificed on some bamboo altar for the benefit of these people whose sole purpose in life was to dance around a campfire in face paint, chanting "Mulla mulla!".

How depressing.

Jack was so depressed about this that he wasn't much help to Urenna as they built the signal. As he half-heartedly tossed a twig onto the heap of bamboo and driftwood she had piled up on the beach, she'd had enough.

"You stop! I do it," she snapped irritably. Jack didn't need to be told twice. He flopped down onto the sand and watched the warrior woman as she hauled another log of driftwood onto the pile.

"Yer lucky, y'know," he remarked. "Your life is so simple. Don't have to worry about being killed in horrific ways. Oh, wait," he added, frowning, "Maybe you do - some of those snakes can't be too friendly, eh?"

Urenna ignored him. She knelt by the pile of flammable stuffs, and did something with a stick and her hands at its base. Soon, a flicker of fire had begun to spread over the heap.

Jack scrambled up and backed away, watching as the flames grew and grew. Smoke curled upwards, grey ribbons against the clear blue backdrop of Caribbean sky.

"They won't see it," moaned Jack. "The chances that they'll sail past this island right at this moment, today, is bloody remote, aye?"
"We light signal every day," said Urenna. "We come once at day, once at dark and wait."

"Wait for how long?" Jack kicked up some sand. He had an idea. "On second thoughts," he said slowly, "Why don't you go back to the village, Urenna? I'll wait here and then come after about an hour or so. What d'ye say, eh?"

Urenna stared at him steadily. "I not allowed," she said. "My father maybe angry that I not let guards come, as it is."

Jack remembered her arguing with his two personal 'escorts' just as they were about to leave the camp. He supposed Urenna found them as annoying as he did.

He eyed the woman specutavily. She had that spear with her, and she had stuck it in the sand and was leaning against it, staring out at the sea. It wouldn't take much to just grab the spear from her...but then again, Jack wasn't too sure...there was sort of an aura of contained strength around her, of bottled-up violence. He definitely wouldn't like to be on her wrong side.

They waited on the beach for what felt like an eternity. Jack sprawled out on the sand and stared up at the sky, and would sit up so fast his head span when he thought he heard a ship approaching. But the creak of wood, the billowing of sails was all in his mind.

Urenna sat, meditating, near the signal. At least, Jack thought she was meditating - she was deathly still and staring out at the sea with wide-open, staring eyes.

He crawled over and tapped her on the shoulder. No response. He poked her in the stomach and let out a little squeak as her hand grabbed his fingers in a bone-crushing grip. He could *feel* the bones of his fingers grinding together. "Sorry," he muttered, and Urenna released him with a glare. He stood and popped his sore knuckles.

"They're not going to turn up, love," he said to the sea, depressed. Urenna stood, hefting her spear across her shoulder.
"Yes. We return to camp; come back at night," she confirmed. When Jack didn't move, she hit him in the back with her spear. "Come!"

Jack grumbled and groaned for the entire trip back to the village. He walked beside Urenna now, though when he lagged behind she would glare at him and jab him with the spear. He dearly wished he had his sword - not to injure her, per say, just to scare her a bit. His back hurt in all the various places she had poked him.

Maybe she wasn't warming up to him like he had thought.

The village was a bit more awake when they arrived. People were sitting around the campfire, cooking their food in the still-glowing embers. One child was running, naked, as his fed-up mother poured water over his mud-smeared body.

"Where do you get the water?" Jack asked, curious. "I 'aven't seen any rivers."

Urenna looked at him, a faint smile forming on her lips. "I ask my father if I can show you."
"Show me what?" Jack asked thin air as Urenna raced off, leaving him with his guards, which had magically appeared behind him. Captain Sparrow whirred and gave them a toothy gold grin.

"Ello, mates. Nice day, eh?"
They just stared at him, holding their spears in a threatening manner.
"Right. I suppose it isn't all that wonderful," continued Jack casually, "It's a bit humid. I, myself, wouldn't mind a bit of a breeze."

Still just blank stares.

"Grouchy lot, aren't you?" Jack crossed his arms and lapsed into silence, perhaps sensing that his immediate company weren't going to be very conversational this moment.

Urenna came back after five more minutes of Jack's standing around and being glared at by the guards. She had an odd, enigmatic look on her face, and spoke quickly to the guards in their native language. The two men looked disgruntled and moved off.

Urenna turned to Jack, a mysterious smile on her lips. "Come. I show you," she said, and then as an afterthought gestured with her spears. "No funny business," she added.
"Funny business?" chortled Jack. "Wherever did you learn an expression like that?"

She just looked at him and pointed with her spear.
"Just asking," Jack muttered, and after a glare from the warrior woman, moved in the direction she indicated.

The trek to the island's opposite coast took what felt like hours. In fact, it was two hours, and during that time the sun moved behind clouds that had appeared out of nowhere. The forest was dense and essentially dark, and Jack knew better than to stray from Urenna's sure path. She darted through the jungle as if she'd lived there all her life, which she, actually, had.

The island was relatively small, but the thick jungle made it difficult to cut through the middle of it. Circumnavigating the coast would have taken far longer, and since Urenna knew all the quickest routes to...wherever they were going, it didn't take as long as it might have.

Jack didn't see the sheer rock face rising up in front of him until Urenna flung an arm out to stop him. He looked up, up, UP at the huge rock that towered above the various breeds of palm trees. There was sand underfoot, as well; Jack judged that they were fairly close to the beach.

He thought he could hear water. And sure enough, when he looked down, he saw a small creek trickling through the thinning undergrowth. It had formed a small gully by his feet, lined with stones and ugly-looking reptiles that scuttled away as Jack's gaze fell on them.

"Look," Urenna said. It was the first time she had spoken during the trek through the jungle, and Jack was startled. He followed her pointing spear with his eyes, seeing a cavernous opening in the side of the rock, where the trickle of water was coming from.
"Marvellous," said the Pirate Captain dryly, "Is this what you came here to show me? A hole in a rock with water coming out of it?"

"No. We go inside," said the dark woman. She started towards the opening.

"What? Into that dark place? There could be anything in there!" Jack wasn't usually a cautious man. In fact, he was a complete and utter fool when it came to danger. He'd rush into it headlong whether he knew it was there or not - it was in his piratical nature to do so. But something about that dark cave made him nervous, that and the simply homicidal look Urenna was giving him. She smacked him with her spear.

"Go!"

"Aye, all right, woman," Jack muttered, "Ye don't have to be gettin' violent with me."

He had to splash into the creek and crouch to get inside the cave. He crawled through on his hands and knees, hearing Urenna follow behind him, considerably more quietly.

He could see some sort of glimmering light in front of him. "What *is* that?" he asked, his voice echoing into some great distance. Urenna told him to be quiet and just keep crawling.

The light grew closer, and soon Jack could stand and walk. The water was ankle-deep now, and it made a sloshing sound as he waded through it. The warrior woman was somehow managing to make no noise, and for a moment Jack wondered if she had turned back, but a sharp poke in his back when he stopped told him otherwise.

Jack found that the water had carved a groove in the rock, and he could stand on an outcropping that rose up beside it. His boots squelched as he walked, and Urenna climbed up behind him. He could sense the spear pointed at his back.

After what felt like an eternity of plodding on in wet boots, Jack emerged into the light. He was barely able to suppress a gasp. He was standing on a wide ledge of rock, overlooking a vast cavern with a huge freshwater pool in the middle. The light came from breaks in the rock overhead, letting thin streams of sun alight on the gently-rippling water. There was some glittering ore in the walls that sparkled like diamonds when the light shone upon it.

It was, in as few words as possible, quite pretty.

"You like?" asked Urenna. She was standing beside him, her black eyes shining.

"It's nice," remarked Jack, not wanting to appear too amazed by the picturesque scene. It vaguely reminded him of the cavern in Isla Del Muerta - but this place had a less sinister, insidious feel about it. Its atmosphere was of some dream, fantasy world - like it would disappear into some other dimension at any moment. "Beauty is a fleeting thing," Jack murmured under his breath, wondering if it was a quotation or if he had just made it up.
"What?" Urenna glanced at him in the sparkling dimness. He shook his head, looking at the water.

"Where does it come from? The water, I mean," he asked.
"It comes from the ocean, of course," said Urenna, smirking at him. Her sudden eloquence of speech made Jack glance at her sharply. Maybe her clumsiness with the English language was just an act...it didn't surprise him. She seemed to catch herself at his glance, and spoke again. "River tunnels in from sea," she said, "Cave's been here many moons."
"Aye," said Jack, still glancing at her surreptitiously out of the corner of his eye.
Urenna seemed to be thinking deeply about something. Her fingers clenched and unclenched from around the spear. "You should go," she blurted suddenly. "No point in staying. You hide this side of the island until ship comes."

"What?" Jack was startled. "But what about Chief Kahuna or whatever-his-name-is? What about the agreed fourteen days? I can escape before they're up if the Pearl doesn't come, trust me. And when the Pearl does come, I'll escape anyway, and your ruddy father won't get any of his precious rum," he added rather smugly.

"No," said Urenna. "He's going to kill you in two days." She didn't look at him, staring at the water's surface, evidently forgetting to keep up the act of an uneducated Amazon woman.

"What!" Jack said. "When was this decided, eh? First you tell me he's going to kill me whether the Pearl turns up in fourteen days or not, and now you're tellin' me he's offing me in two days?! Eh? What say you, woman?"

"Sorry," she muttered. "The Gods need a sacrifice."

"Yes yes, we all know that," said Jack bitterly. "Allah Ackbar and all that pap. But honestly, a man has a right to know when he's going to die!"

"Father only tell me today," Urenna said, remembering to uncomplicate her dialect again. "I not know."

"Rubbish," scoffed Jack. "You knew the whole time. You knew I'd be killed when you took me to your blasted scraggle of a village. You *knew*. And now suddenly you're taking mercy on me? Sorry, love, but I don't buy it." Jack walked across the ledge as far away from her as possible, and crossed his arms, staring at the glittering wall of the cave stubbornly.
"You not a bad man, Captain Jack Sparrow," said Urenna from behind him; using his correct name for the first time he could remember since he'd met her. "I know that now. I not want you to die."

"Neither do I, love," sighed Jack, "Neither do I." He turned to her, his anger abated. "So, what're we going to do, eh? If I just go now, you'll be punished, from the looks o' things. Have you another plan?"
Urenna grinned at him.