Grace and the Sparrow

Chap1.

The sun had set and you could catch a faint glimpse of the twinkling stars in the sky if you looked very carefully. It was quite foggy outside, but it was a warm, mild fog. The noise was everywhere, as always here in Tortuga. But she had actually grown quite fond of it, as she had been here for quite some time.

She had been sitting by the dock all day, drinking from her bottle of rum, breathing the sweet scent of the ocean and observing the ships that lie at anchor. They were all so beautiful. She wanted more than anything to become a crew member at one of them. But, being a woman, that was pretty much impossible.

She could be described as muscular, but still feminine. Her eyes were piercing blue. Her hair was deep red, and it had been braided into hundreds of small plaits with white and black wooden pearls weaved into some of them. A black bandana was tied around her head. She had five golden earrings of various designs in her right ear, and two in the left. She wore a white linen shirt with wide sleeves and a dark blue bodice over that. Her trousers were grey with a big black belt, and black leather boots that almost reached all the way up to her knees. Attached to the belt was her most precious belonging – her cutlass. It had saved her life more than once, and had actually proven to be the only companion she could fully trust. But she still had some scars to remind her of her unfortunate past. The one that was bugging her the most was the big scar on her left cheek.

Her name was Grace Harper and she was 23 years old. The story of her life was all but pretty, but we won't go into that right now. The only thing that actually matters at the moment is where it led her. It had led her here, to Tortuga. And now she was sitting at the dock, daydreaming. She dreamed of how it would be like to be a pirate. To be able to go wherever she wanted, whenever she wanted, living on the ocean, being completely free. She was not very fond of the killing thing that some pirates seemed to spend a lot of time doing. But she was not at all opposed to stealing, which is pretty fundamental if you are thinking of getting into the pirating business.

The most beautiful ship of them all was without a doubt The Black Pearl. For the last couple of hours Grace had been admiring the exquisite ship, the details and the black sails. She looked so majestic. And the name, The Black Pearl, wasn't too bad either. It wasn't the first time Grace had seen The Pearl, but every time she laid eyes on the ship, she was breath taken by the beauty.

"'Lo there, poppet", a hissing voice whispered beside her, and she wrinkled her nose as she smelled the stench of a man who probably hadn't taken a bath for a very long time. She turned around and saw three men standing next to her. She quickly got on her feet, a hand on her cutlass, ready for anything that might happen.

"Care to join us for sum' fun?" One of the men took a few steps closer. He was huge, and his two companions were almost as big as he was.

"We dont bite, y'know. S'long as you cooperate, that is…"

They started laughing. And the way they were looking at her… It made her feel like they were some sort of predators, and she was the prey.... Suddenly the largest of the three men grabbed her arm and started pulling it, trying to make her come with them. Her cutlass came out, and quick as a snake she cut a deep wound in the man's arm. He groaned, and grabbed her other hand, the one holding the cutlass. He squeezed it hard until she was sure he had crushed every bone in the hand and she had to let go of the weapon. She only had time to let out a short scream before the man's other hand hit her in the head, and all went dizzy. Somehow she continued fighting without really knowing what she was doing. And after a while, she began to realise that she was not fighting alone. And after a few more minutes, the men finally disappeared. When they were gone, her strength just vanished. Everything was swimming before her eyes, and she could not stand up any longer. As she fell, someone caught her gently and lifted her of the ground. She caught a glimpse of a face with dark eyes, and a long black hair with a red bandana. A deep voice said:

"You all right?"

She tried to answer, but she couldn't. The face begun to fade, she could hear the man speaking to her, but she could not make out the words. And so, all went black…

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To be continued…

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Ok… This is my first try on a fanfic. Please review! It's not too much of a Mary-Sue, is it? I hope not…

!Updated!

Thanks for the reviews! I've made some changes...