On Sparrow Wings
Chapter 1: Jack's Lessons
Disclaimer: My soundtrack, which once again is playing, is the only Pirates of the Caribbean thing I own… There are a few things I LIKE to own… and a certain pirate…
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"Pirates? Did he say pirates!?" Mark shouted at Jack.
"Teach? Did he say teach!?" Jack shouted back.
"What about the pirates!?" shouted Mark
"How am I ever going to teach a boy like you!?" shouted Jack.
"I don't care how you're going to teach me! What pirates was he talking about!?"
"We're pirates! Now you are! You'll never learn how to be a proper pirate!" This was turning into a shouting contest, and it was hard to tell who was winning. Jack decided to take control of things. When Mark opened his mouth to shout something else, Jack pulled out his sword and started to wave it around. "Now, here's how we going to handle this." He looked straight at Mark and continued. "First, we find out how well you fight. Then I'll teach you the code and a few polite manners, savvy?"
"Fine," said Mark, still angry, and a little confused by the change in Jack's volume. He pulled out his sword and faced Jack. "Ready when you are."
Jack pulled the first move, teasing Mark a little with a parry here, a thrust there. Mark countered perfectly. Jack threw some fancy footwork at him. Mark followed easily. Instead of fighting, it seemed as though they were dancing. So Jack decided to spice things up a bit and threw in a good old-fashioned pirate move. He performed a piece of fancy footwork with a nice turn in it. Seeing what he wanted, he stabbed the dirty washrag and flung it in Mark's face. Completely unprepared, Mark fell back and grabbed at the cloth.
"Cheater!" he growled.
"Pirate. Ye need to learn how to do that." He attacked again. Mark responded, deflecting the blow and returning with one of his own.
"Who taught ye how to fight?" Jack asked.
"The Royal Navy," Mark replied.
"The Royal Navy!?" Jack almost dropped his sword with shock. He straightened up, totally forgetting the fight. Mark lunged for Jack's sword hand, but was too slow. Jack saw the attack coming and as Mark's momentum carried him forward, Jack grabbed his wrist and held him at sword point. "What are ye doing here? Come to spy and turn us in?"
"What?" Mark was eyeing the sword. "Oh, you think I'm from the Royal Navy. No, no, I used to go watch their training sessions and they took pity on me and taught me how to fight."
"So you're not from the Navy?"
"No, I'm not."
Jack relaxed and sheathed his sword. "Well, I suppose you can take care of yourself in a fight, then. Now for a little etiquette lesson. I think you need to know first off that pirates are not big on handshakes. Too much can be given away if the person on the other end is clever enough to figure it out. Now see, I have this tattoo representing me name, Jack Sparrow." Jack rolled up his sleeve a little. "And some pirates who've gotten in trouble and have miraculously worked everything out have these lovely little brands in the shape of a 'P' that right away tells anyone who wants to know that he is, in fact, a pirate. So, no more handshaking. Next, ye must know the Pirates Code." Jack suddenly had an idea. "This will take a while, so why don't we head over to this pub I've heard about. It's not far."
"Well, I suppose… We could go for a moment…"
"Excellent! Well, let's be off then. Right this way." Jack put a friendly arm around Mark's shoulders. It made Mark very nervous, especially coming after Jack's disparaging remarks. Jack could feel Mark stiffen, and grinned to himself. This was so funny.
~~~
The two reached the pub in the middle of Jack's lesson on 'parle' and he paused for a moment to get two mugs of ale from the bar tender. Carrying them over to a table, Jack plunked them down and taking a swig, promptly launched back into his lesson.
"…And so parle takes ye to said captain of said ship without harm, savvy?" He took another swig, missing Mark's nod. "I said 'savvy?'"
"Yes, Jack. I've got it. You've only told me about it three times. Can we move on?" Mark replied impatiently.
"Ye scurvy dog! How dare ye say things like that! I demand an apology!" Jack shouted, jumping up and brandishing his sword. Mark lurched backwards in shock. Jack turned toward the rest of the pub. "Good townspeople! We can't let him get away with such rudeness! He will pay for calling all citizens of Port Royal landlubbers with only half a wit, will he not!? Rally with me to teach this boy a lesson!" He turned back to find Mark had drawn his sword and was looking towards all the drunk and angry faces glaring at him.
"Wha- what are you doing, Jack?" Mark was sounding nervous. "This really isn't funny."
Jack grinned and moved out of the angry townspeople's way. The first attacker struck, encouraging the fellows behind him to surge forward. Mark did very well for the first couple of minutes. As the angry mob continued to attack, Mark went from nervous and skilled to scared and tiring. The sheer number of people attacking over and over was wearing him down. Jack watched as Mark's guards, blocks, and parries became slower, more ragged. Finally someone scored a hit, a cut on Mark's leg. The sight of blood seemed to encourage the mob all the more. Mark's breathing became ragged; he stumbled and collected a few more cuts. Jack started to get worried. He didn't want the kid to be killed. He just wanted to pull a little prank. Show the kid he didn't really have what it took to be a pirate and that he should quit and go home. Jack watched as the crowd grew more and more out of control. They advanced, pushing Mark back, closer and closer to the wall. His back hit the wall, but he continued to fight back. His face a terrified mask, he looked over to Jack. Jack could see it in those blue eyes. So many things in his eyes. Questions, feelings. Why did you do this? What have you got against me? He could see the fear, the anger, and there, the tiniest bit of regret. And then a new question formed in Mark's eyes. Why am I still fighting?
Jack waded in, shouting at the top of his lungs. "Stop! Enough! He's had his punishment!" He looked at Mark, whose stance had relaxed, his sword arm dropping, leaving himself open to anything. Jack fought over to him. The people he passed and yelled at stopped their mad attack and stood watching in a half mad, half drunken stupor. A few men right at the front opposed him.
"Why should we leave 'im? 'E flat out insulted us! I say we kill 'im!" the first man shouted his last words.
"Yeah! Kill 'im!' the other two shouted.
"That's really a wonderful sentiment, killing whoever insulted you, but he's already half dead and so there wouldn't be any fun in it, so why don't ye call it good and go have a drink to celebrate." Jack said. "See look. All your mates have already started without you!" The three men looked. "Go on! Have a nice drink. Celebrate!" The men wandered over to the bar. "Splendid." Jack turned to Mark. Mark just stood there, half numb with shock over what had happened. "Let's get you out of here, savvy?" Jack draped one of Mark's arms over his shoulders and half pulled him out of the pub, up the street and back to the ship.
~~~
Jack and Mark made so much noise stumbling up the ramp to the ship that Captain Langford came out to see what all the ruckus was about.
"Jack! What'd ya do to the lad?" he demanded.
"Well, I didn't exactly do it to him…" Jack hesitated.
"Oh? So then who did?"
"Well, it's like this," he started. A new voice interrupted
"It was my fault. We went to a pub while Jack was explaining the Code and I insulted Port Royal'ers and the men attacked. If it wasn't for Jack I'd be dead." Mark explained.
"Is that the way of it, Jack?" He looked appraisingly at Mark.
"Uh, yeah, Captain. That's the way of it."
"Well, I must say, I wasn't prepared to take on a wounded crew member…" He paused. "But I suppose facing a pub full of angry men does speak some merits for the lad. And my word is my word. So, Jack, take him below and fix him up a bit. I expect a reasonably well turn out for when the crew returns tonight. We leave at dawn." He went back to his cabin muttering about the 'balls of young people these days.'
~~~
Down in the crew's cabin, Jack was giving Mark the what for.
"I saw it, mate. That's why I rescued ya. In your eyes. You were giving up. Can't ever give up. That's another pirate thing ye'll have to learn. Don't give up till after yer dead. And ye gotta guard yer eyes. They give everything away. That's how I knew to jump in." Jack was patching up Mark's cuts. Mark winced quite often. "And I saw the regret. Ye can't ever regret anything, least of all being a pirate. Regret leads to other torments, like giving up. That's what did it to ya. Regret made you give up."
"Jack, shut up. Let me get a word in edge wise." Mark sounded slightly cross and Jack gulped. "I want to know why you did that to me. And it had better be reasonably good."
"Well, ye see," Jack felt awkward and embarrassed telling Mark his stupid reason. "Ye see, I didn't like ye very much, and I had no respect for ye at all, so I decided to play a… a little prank on ye. Ye know, get in a fight, get roughed up, wimp out, go home… But now, now I see yer not the soft little boy I thought ye was. Yer good. Ye got skill and determination, and a pirate needs that, but a pirate also has gotta be able to face down anything with out regret, right up till after yer dead. No backing down ever. That's what ye need."
"I see." Mark said thoughtfully. "I'll remember that."
"Excellent. Now I got two questions for ya. First, I want to know why ye lied for me." Jack asked sternly. "I could have handled it."
"I'm new here and I didn't want everything screwed up. And you had already saved me. It was my turn." Mark answered evenly.
"Oh. Okay. So second is, um, seeing as how what I did was totally wrong and unnecessary, I, uh, was wondering if you'd, ah, forgive me, and start over so we could be friends. Yeh really got my respect back there." Jack watched Mark's face for any clue to his decision.
"Well, I suppose if I had been in your place I would have felt the same, and because life would be utterly miserable on board if we were angry at each other, I suppose I could forgive you." An evil gleam entered Mark's eyes. "On one condition."
"What would that be?" Jack asked warily.
"You have to do three quarters of my work for the first month."
"O- okay. So ye'll forgive me now?"
"Yes." Mark nodded.
"Alright! Now go get into some clothes with a little less blood on them!"
~~~
As soon as the last man had boarded, Langford gave the call for all hands on deck.
"Quicker, men! We've got a new crewmember and yer all going to meet him before anyone can head for dreamland!" Captain Langford strode up and down the line of men, impatiently waiting for Jack and Mark to appear. "Jack! Bring the lad up! Didja miss the order for all hands on deck!? NOW!"
"We didn't miss it, Capt'n. Mark's just got a bit of a limp after all his fun today." Jack's voice sounded from the hatch. Then his head popped out. "See, here we are!"
"Good. Hurry it up! We all want some sleep before we pull out."
"Aye, Capt'n." The rest of Jack climbed out as the crew watched, mildly interested. Mark slowly ascended and finally was clear of the hatch.
"Well, men, here's the new crewmember. Goes by the name of Mark Morrison. I expect everyone to treat him with the same respect ye treat each other with, especially considering that after his bit of a fight today, I figure he could take any one of ya. So have at him."
The crew looked at Mark, and slowly came over to introduce themselves or ask questions.
"Name's Gunnar."
"Morrison as in the farrier?"
"Welcome aboard."
"We're gonna have to get you a sea name."
"I'm Hairy Harrison, largely do to the fact that I've got a lot of hair."
Mark nodded and replied to each man, careful to not offer to shake anyone's hand. Everyone seemed to be alright, not at all like the bloodthirsty pirates he heard about in tales. Being a pirate might not be so terrible after all.
"Alright! Enough chitchat! Rest! Sleep! Now!" Langford called above the voices of the men. Mark sighed. Rest, finally. He walked with the crew to their quarters and settled into his bunk for some hard earned sleep.
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A/N: Golly gee, life does interesting stuff. I'd have had this up a long time ago, but for the fact I've been on a mini vacation in San Francisco, and kept busy with the terrifying chore of ((start scary music)) cleaning my closet… which became… ((lots more scary music)) cleaning my room. Man, was it bad. First off, if you don't know what you're doing, my closet is a death trap. Then, after I drug everything out (dishes, clothes, racecars, books, games, a textbook from last year…) my room became a death trap. I might have had two whole square feet of carpet visible and scattered in three-inch hunks across my room. But now I'm done!!!! (did you really need to know all that? Oh well…) YAY!!! ((happy music)) So even though school is starting Monday, and I have tons of after school stuff (homework, riding, church…), I will probably be able to write faster! Yay!!! ((more happy music)) As it is now 12:01 am, I'm gonna say cheerio to you! Luvs and Lasagna!