Disclaimer : Disney owns the rights to everything. EVERYTHING! I am making no profit what-so-ever... in fact I am probably helping Disney make more profit by making people go see the movie. :) Go me.
No questions because ff.net was down and... I didn't want to wait until it was back up to continue. :)
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Chapter 7 - Beards of Black
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"Argh - be almos' towards the en'o' the month." A voice came from behind Blackbeard, startling him, but he would never show it. "Cap'n?"
"Aye." Blackbeard looked out over the water. The waves were slowly lapping at the sides of Palm Rock. It wasn't given that name for nothing. There was only one small beach area; the rest of the island was rock and cliffs. The main vegetation on the island was the infamous palm tree. Blackbeard wondered how a small village could possible do so well here on this island. Very few people knew where it was ... and it was only the ones wanted by his Majesty's navy that knew where it was. At least it was a safe place ... but that wasn't what was worrying him.
"Keep a good watch o'er the water. We don' wan' ter be surprised when it be the Pearl's time ter drop anchor." The man ran off in a hurry to tell everyone to keep watch on the waters for the night.
******
"Land! Reamp! Ho!" The parrot flew down from the highest black sail. "Land ho! Reamp!" Ogsfort puffed his feathers in pride as he settled down on the wooden boards beside Jack Sparrow's feet.
"Right." Jack smiled as he steered the ship. They were nearly there. Adventure was just around the corner, and he could feel the anticipation growing inside of him. "Go round up the crew... me parrot mate."
The bird flew off squawking and annoying every crewmember in site. Jack smiled, the gold shining brightly in the sun; for once it wasn't him who was being annoyed.
******
"Cap'n! Cap'n! CAP'N!!" Blackbeard looked up; he had been having a nice dream. Sparrow had been left for dead on a raft, floating in the middle of the Atlantic while Blackbeard had been enjoying the pleas of mercy from Sparrow's crew. Dumb whelps wanting to give up their own lives for their Captain. He had known that Captain Jack Sparrow was dead in this dream. And his own crewmember waking him up - he had a good idea to have him shot.
"I 'eard ya the firs' five times." Blackbeard stood up and looked out the window. Sure enough ... a ship with black sails a little off in the distance ... but definitely on its way to Palm Rock. If Blackbeard could see Miss Catharine DeVries he'd kiss her right now and give her anything she asked for. The old girl really did know her stuff.
"We'll be leavin' fah-r the local pub at the village. Cap'n Jack will be goin' thar firs'." Blackbeard began to laugh as he looked back at the Black Pearl sailing towards the island. It was a laugh full of malice, hatred, evil and a tad of revenge. The crewmember that was still in Blackbeard's presence drew back in fear. This was not the Captain Blackbeard that he knew. Oh, no. It was someone who was now showing their true nature ... something was not right. The man left screaming as Blackbeard continued to laugh while keeping his eyes focused on the Pearl.
******
The kohl-painted eyes of Jack Sparrow watched over the crew as the Black Pearl dropped its anchor at Palm Rock. He took a deep breath and began to walk, not so straight, of course, down to the dock. Places to go ... people to meet ... and treasure to take. All in a days work. It was going to be fun.
"Anything happen last night while you were keeping watch?" Elizabeth whispered into Will's ear as she saw Cat come out of her cabin. She didn't look so good either.
"No. I heard nothing. She tossed and turned all night. Probably couldn't wait to get here and do well ... I'm not sure." Will watched as Cat looked at them, her eyes full of both wonder and knowing perfectly well of what they were talking about. He looked back at Elizabeth. "Ears peeled and eyes to the floor ... " Bootstrap Jr. paused and thought that over.
"Eyes peeled and ears to the floor. I know." Elizabeth smiled as the two of them went hand and hand off the boat.
Catharine watched as Will and Elizabeth seemed to be up to something. *It better bloody well not be anything planned for me. I don't care how much they like me.* She looked at Palm Rock. She did was she was told to do, and yet why did she feel so terrible?
Cat numbly ran her fingers through her hair. She hadn't slept a wink last night. The feeling at the pit of her stomach had been so overbearing that she had decided to just 'read' all night. If you could even call staring at the same page for an hour 'reading'. The bags underneath her eyes carried a huge load and all she wished was that she was somewhere else and had a nice comfy bed to sleep in with no worries over her head. The life of a pirate ... well ... it wasn't for her and it wasn't fun. All the 'yo hos' and 'arghs' could walk the plank and never be heard from again if it was up to her.
She shook her head of all the thoughts swimming around in her mind. Cat walked back into her cabin and laid her head down on her feather pillow. She had had to put all the feathers back in it and sew the fabric back together. The pillow looked rather nice now, except for the nice tear down the middle, but it was still comfortable none-the-less. But not comfortable enough to get the worries away. The pit in her stomach grew, some knots and painful, fluttering butterflies joined it.
There was a knock on her cabin door. Cat could barely talk, but she managed a weak, "Come in." And in stepped Captain Jack Sparrow.
"Are ya ill?" His voice echoed on the walls. She forced herself to sit up, giving herself a headache in the process.
"No." Cat put her hand to her head, closing her eyes.
"Since you *are* the one with the map, I figured ye'd be the first off the ship." Jack shrugged and walked backwards towards the door, waiting for a response from Cat.
"OH!" This made Catharine really get up. She forgot that she was supposed to have the map. How stupid could she get? "Oh..." She threw her hand up to her head. A headache and a head rush all at the same time was actually quite painful.
Cat ran her hands through her hair again, and followed Jack out of her cabin, down to the dock, and finally onto Palm Rock.
"You know - Will still owes me a hat. I might just make'em buy me one here. Whatcha say?" Jack nudged Cat in the side; she just looked at him and then back at the ground. *Where are they?* She thought to herself. Not that she wanted them to carry Mr. Sparrow away ... it just seemed to her that as soon as they had docked that the Pearl would have been swarming with Blackbeard's crew.
"I can't wait to see it." Catharine tried to muster up a lot of energy to make her sound more like herself. That pit kept growing.
"Now, now." Jack grabbed her and made her face him. "Tell ol' Captain Jack what's botherin' ya. You ain't been yourself since we got here."
"It's nothing." Cat smiled. "My father told me about this place when I was young." A quick lie to get him off her back and to stop making her feel so guilty. But why did she feel guilty? She knew perfectly why. Captain Sparrow was becoming a good friend of hers. He seemed to know what she was thinking... well not all of it... and actually seemed to care about her. That was different. She had never had anybody really care for her before.
Those dark eyes looked down in annoyance. She knew that he knew that she wasn't telling the truth... or not the whole truth. He shrugged and went on talking about how Will was going to buy him a nice, big hat. With a big Robin Hood style feather sticking out of the side of it.
"Are you sure that ya are alrigh'?" She had been so lost trying to listen to everything that he was saying that he nearly scared her half to death by asking her this question.
"For the love of God..." He sure was beginning to annoy her. Maybe it was better that Blackbeard would drag him off. No! Jack was her friend. She should tell him right now what she had done.
*Would I prefer my death or his?* That seemed to settle everything and she smiled at Jack.
"Tired is all."
"All that scouring of the decks, eh?" A loud chuckle that came from his gut and escaped from his mouth was heard. She didn't find it quite so amusing. That annoying laugh would soon be silenced forever.
*Ah! Stop thinking like that.* Cat literally smacked her forehead and Jack looked at her a little wary.
"Bug." He nodded and kept on walking. Catharine looked around her; she had just been following the Captain, and he had led them to a small pub.
"So far so good..." Cat mumbled to herself. *NO! Blackbeard is supposed to be around here. I'm supposed to get a big reward out of all this.*
Jack walked aimlessly to the bar and ordered nothing else but rum for him and all the crew. He walked to a couple of tables where a few Black Pearl crewmembers were. They started laughing and cutting up, and then the drinks came.
Cat just stood at the door. What was she doing? Just standing at the door where someone could walk in and make her go flat on her face, is what it seemed like. As soon as she had thought that, she wished someone would have walked in and smashed her so far to the ground that she would die.
Blackbeard was in the corner of the room, looking straight at her. A cigar was in his mouth, and as he took a breath the cigar glowed a bright red. His eyes were wild, but she held the gaze, daring him to make a move. She decided that it wasn't the time for dares... it was time for Captain Sparrow and his crew to leave Palm Rock. Something in Blackbeard's eyes was more sinister than anything she had ever saw in her life. Evil. Even bad pirates weren't... that evil. She had killed before, yes heartless. But this was as if Satan himself had went deep into Blackbeard's blood. That was pure evil.
"Jack..." Cat whispered as loudly as she could. She didn't want to alert anybody, especially any of Blackbeard's cronies. "Someone is trying to steal the Black Pearl."
"Noooo-non-sentence. Cotsfort and Ogton 'ave the shiiii-ip par-fact-leee safe 'n sound, love." He smiled and ordered another round. Jack was drunk and enjoying life. But Cat didn't have time for none of his foolishness.
"You're not listening to me. Cotton and Ogsfort are dead!" She tried to pick up his arm and drag him, but that didn't work either.
"Know what... bless their wittle ol' 'earts. Costingtong and Ogscotton ... two grrreat soulsss." He began laughing and then a few tears slid down from his dark kohl eyes. "I loved that bird...." He put his head in his hands and began to cry harder that any one person she had ever seen. "I ne'er meaned it to say that he'd... " A choke and a hiccup... and then all the tears were gone. "Where's the dock?"
"Thank goodness... I'll take you to - "
"That ain' right... you's suppose'em to say... 'who be thar'."
Cat looked at him like he had two heads and five pairs of legs. "What!?" She looked behind her. Blackbeard was looking dead at her.
"I say... 'where is the dock' you say 'who be thar'." He started to giggle. Then he stood up and looked at Cat, very seriously. "Do yer git it? 'Cause I sure as hell don't..." Then he started laughing again, stumbling around the pub. Cat wanted to strangle him and take him prisoner of his own ship.
The next thing Cat knew a fight had broken out from something that Captain Jack had said. He was laughing and hiding behind the kegs of rum. She went after him, but a large hand stopped her. Blackbeard put his hand on her shoulder.
"I knew tha' ye'd come through fer me." Cat slapped his hand away, but he wasn't going to give up so easily. He grabbed her wrist and held it tight. Catharine struggled and as she went down to grab the dagger from her ankle, Blackbeard shoved her up against the wall and pointed her own dagger right back at her. *So this was how Will felt. Have to tell him sorry about that.*
"Lett'er goooo." The drunken tones of Captain Sparrow. He was tapping Blackbeard on the shoulder, trying to get his attention. Bless his heart.
"Jack! No!" Blackbeard had the dagger right at her throat. A centimeter closer and there would be blood from the Black Cat all over the pub.
"Didja not 'ear me... mate?" More poking from the drunk, and nearly falling from standing up, Captain Sparrow. "Are ye deaf!? I caaaaaain't speak that mute talk... let her-"
Blackbeard let go of Cat and turned to face Jack. Cat tried to get Jack's attention, but Blackbeard kicked her down to the ground.
"Yer not deaf. Well that's good to 'ear." The drunk tone started to go away as if he realized that the big guy with the big black beard was being quite serious.
Cat watched as Blackbeard took Cat's own dagger and went overhead, hoping to hit Jack right in the heart. However, swashbuckler Jack was too quick for that and he blocked rather easily. It had to be the weight of the sword that stabled the weight of the Captain Sparrow. He was way to drunk to fight so well.
Then, the next moment, Cat saw Blackbeard fighting Will. No more Sparrow. And that was all she saw before being knocked unconscious.
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A/N : And to think I was going to continue on with this chapter. Hmm... oh, well. Hehe. Oh, and if you think that this story is close to being over... well, I'll shut up.
As always read and review ... oh, you all would be very proud of me. I took the time, while FF.net was down and read up on pirates. They are so cool! The sequel to this (yes, it's already in the works) and the rest of this are going to be a lot better than I had planned - all due to my research! Aren't you all glad?
No questions because ff.net was down and... I didn't want to wait until it was back up to continue. :)
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Chapter 7 - Beards of Black
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"Argh - be almos' towards the en'o' the month." A voice came from behind Blackbeard, startling him, but he would never show it. "Cap'n?"
"Aye." Blackbeard looked out over the water. The waves were slowly lapping at the sides of Palm Rock. It wasn't given that name for nothing. There was only one small beach area; the rest of the island was rock and cliffs. The main vegetation on the island was the infamous palm tree. Blackbeard wondered how a small village could possible do so well here on this island. Very few people knew where it was ... and it was only the ones wanted by his Majesty's navy that knew where it was. At least it was a safe place ... but that wasn't what was worrying him.
"Keep a good watch o'er the water. We don' wan' ter be surprised when it be the Pearl's time ter drop anchor." The man ran off in a hurry to tell everyone to keep watch on the waters for the night.
******
"Land! Reamp! Ho!" The parrot flew down from the highest black sail. "Land ho! Reamp!" Ogsfort puffed his feathers in pride as he settled down on the wooden boards beside Jack Sparrow's feet.
"Right." Jack smiled as he steered the ship. They were nearly there. Adventure was just around the corner, and he could feel the anticipation growing inside of him. "Go round up the crew... me parrot mate."
The bird flew off squawking and annoying every crewmember in site. Jack smiled, the gold shining brightly in the sun; for once it wasn't him who was being annoyed.
******
"Cap'n! Cap'n! CAP'N!!" Blackbeard looked up; he had been having a nice dream. Sparrow had been left for dead on a raft, floating in the middle of the Atlantic while Blackbeard had been enjoying the pleas of mercy from Sparrow's crew. Dumb whelps wanting to give up their own lives for their Captain. He had known that Captain Jack Sparrow was dead in this dream. And his own crewmember waking him up - he had a good idea to have him shot.
"I 'eard ya the firs' five times." Blackbeard stood up and looked out the window. Sure enough ... a ship with black sails a little off in the distance ... but definitely on its way to Palm Rock. If Blackbeard could see Miss Catharine DeVries he'd kiss her right now and give her anything she asked for. The old girl really did know her stuff.
"We'll be leavin' fah-r the local pub at the village. Cap'n Jack will be goin' thar firs'." Blackbeard began to laugh as he looked back at the Black Pearl sailing towards the island. It was a laugh full of malice, hatred, evil and a tad of revenge. The crewmember that was still in Blackbeard's presence drew back in fear. This was not the Captain Blackbeard that he knew. Oh, no. It was someone who was now showing their true nature ... something was not right. The man left screaming as Blackbeard continued to laugh while keeping his eyes focused on the Pearl.
******
The kohl-painted eyes of Jack Sparrow watched over the crew as the Black Pearl dropped its anchor at Palm Rock. He took a deep breath and began to walk, not so straight, of course, down to the dock. Places to go ... people to meet ... and treasure to take. All in a days work. It was going to be fun.
"Anything happen last night while you were keeping watch?" Elizabeth whispered into Will's ear as she saw Cat come out of her cabin. She didn't look so good either.
"No. I heard nothing. She tossed and turned all night. Probably couldn't wait to get here and do well ... I'm not sure." Will watched as Cat looked at them, her eyes full of both wonder and knowing perfectly well of what they were talking about. He looked back at Elizabeth. "Ears peeled and eyes to the floor ... " Bootstrap Jr. paused and thought that over.
"Eyes peeled and ears to the floor. I know." Elizabeth smiled as the two of them went hand and hand off the boat.
Catharine watched as Will and Elizabeth seemed to be up to something. *It better bloody well not be anything planned for me. I don't care how much they like me.* She looked at Palm Rock. She did was she was told to do, and yet why did she feel so terrible?
Cat numbly ran her fingers through her hair. She hadn't slept a wink last night. The feeling at the pit of her stomach had been so overbearing that she had decided to just 'read' all night. If you could even call staring at the same page for an hour 'reading'. The bags underneath her eyes carried a huge load and all she wished was that she was somewhere else and had a nice comfy bed to sleep in with no worries over her head. The life of a pirate ... well ... it wasn't for her and it wasn't fun. All the 'yo hos' and 'arghs' could walk the plank and never be heard from again if it was up to her.
She shook her head of all the thoughts swimming around in her mind. Cat walked back into her cabin and laid her head down on her feather pillow. She had had to put all the feathers back in it and sew the fabric back together. The pillow looked rather nice now, except for the nice tear down the middle, but it was still comfortable none-the-less. But not comfortable enough to get the worries away. The pit in her stomach grew, some knots and painful, fluttering butterflies joined it.
There was a knock on her cabin door. Cat could barely talk, but she managed a weak, "Come in." And in stepped Captain Jack Sparrow.
"Are ya ill?" His voice echoed on the walls. She forced herself to sit up, giving herself a headache in the process.
"No." Cat put her hand to her head, closing her eyes.
"Since you *are* the one with the map, I figured ye'd be the first off the ship." Jack shrugged and walked backwards towards the door, waiting for a response from Cat.
"OH!" This made Catharine really get up. She forgot that she was supposed to have the map. How stupid could she get? "Oh..." She threw her hand up to her head. A headache and a head rush all at the same time was actually quite painful.
Cat ran her hands through her hair again, and followed Jack out of her cabin, down to the dock, and finally onto Palm Rock.
"You know - Will still owes me a hat. I might just make'em buy me one here. Whatcha say?" Jack nudged Cat in the side; she just looked at him and then back at the ground. *Where are they?* She thought to herself. Not that she wanted them to carry Mr. Sparrow away ... it just seemed to her that as soon as they had docked that the Pearl would have been swarming with Blackbeard's crew.
"I can't wait to see it." Catharine tried to muster up a lot of energy to make her sound more like herself. That pit kept growing.
"Now, now." Jack grabbed her and made her face him. "Tell ol' Captain Jack what's botherin' ya. You ain't been yourself since we got here."
"It's nothing." Cat smiled. "My father told me about this place when I was young." A quick lie to get him off her back and to stop making her feel so guilty. But why did she feel guilty? She knew perfectly why. Captain Sparrow was becoming a good friend of hers. He seemed to know what she was thinking... well not all of it... and actually seemed to care about her. That was different. She had never had anybody really care for her before.
Those dark eyes looked down in annoyance. She knew that he knew that she wasn't telling the truth... or not the whole truth. He shrugged and went on talking about how Will was going to buy him a nice, big hat. With a big Robin Hood style feather sticking out of the side of it.
"Are you sure that ya are alrigh'?" She had been so lost trying to listen to everything that he was saying that he nearly scared her half to death by asking her this question.
"For the love of God..." He sure was beginning to annoy her. Maybe it was better that Blackbeard would drag him off. No! Jack was her friend. She should tell him right now what she had done.
*Would I prefer my death or his?* That seemed to settle everything and she smiled at Jack.
"Tired is all."
"All that scouring of the decks, eh?" A loud chuckle that came from his gut and escaped from his mouth was heard. She didn't find it quite so amusing. That annoying laugh would soon be silenced forever.
*Ah! Stop thinking like that.* Cat literally smacked her forehead and Jack looked at her a little wary.
"Bug." He nodded and kept on walking. Catharine looked around her; she had just been following the Captain, and he had led them to a small pub.
"So far so good..." Cat mumbled to herself. *NO! Blackbeard is supposed to be around here. I'm supposed to get a big reward out of all this.*
Jack walked aimlessly to the bar and ordered nothing else but rum for him and all the crew. He walked to a couple of tables where a few Black Pearl crewmembers were. They started laughing and cutting up, and then the drinks came.
Cat just stood at the door. What was she doing? Just standing at the door where someone could walk in and make her go flat on her face, is what it seemed like. As soon as she had thought that, she wished someone would have walked in and smashed her so far to the ground that she would die.
Blackbeard was in the corner of the room, looking straight at her. A cigar was in his mouth, and as he took a breath the cigar glowed a bright red. His eyes were wild, but she held the gaze, daring him to make a move. She decided that it wasn't the time for dares... it was time for Captain Sparrow and his crew to leave Palm Rock. Something in Blackbeard's eyes was more sinister than anything she had ever saw in her life. Evil. Even bad pirates weren't... that evil. She had killed before, yes heartless. But this was as if Satan himself had went deep into Blackbeard's blood. That was pure evil.
"Jack..." Cat whispered as loudly as she could. She didn't want to alert anybody, especially any of Blackbeard's cronies. "Someone is trying to steal the Black Pearl."
"Noooo-non-sentence. Cotsfort and Ogton 'ave the shiiii-ip par-fact-leee safe 'n sound, love." He smiled and ordered another round. Jack was drunk and enjoying life. But Cat didn't have time for none of his foolishness.
"You're not listening to me. Cotton and Ogsfort are dead!" She tried to pick up his arm and drag him, but that didn't work either.
"Know what... bless their wittle ol' 'earts. Costingtong and Ogscotton ... two grrreat soulsss." He began laughing and then a few tears slid down from his dark kohl eyes. "I loved that bird...." He put his head in his hands and began to cry harder that any one person she had ever seen. "I ne'er meaned it to say that he'd... " A choke and a hiccup... and then all the tears were gone. "Where's the dock?"
"Thank goodness... I'll take you to - "
"That ain' right... you's suppose'em to say... 'who be thar'."
Cat looked at him like he had two heads and five pairs of legs. "What!?" She looked behind her. Blackbeard was looking dead at her.
"I say... 'where is the dock' you say 'who be thar'." He started to giggle. Then he stood up and looked at Cat, very seriously. "Do yer git it? 'Cause I sure as hell don't..." Then he started laughing again, stumbling around the pub. Cat wanted to strangle him and take him prisoner of his own ship.
The next thing Cat knew a fight had broken out from something that Captain Jack had said. He was laughing and hiding behind the kegs of rum. She went after him, but a large hand stopped her. Blackbeard put his hand on her shoulder.
"I knew tha' ye'd come through fer me." Cat slapped his hand away, but he wasn't going to give up so easily. He grabbed her wrist and held it tight. Catharine struggled and as she went down to grab the dagger from her ankle, Blackbeard shoved her up against the wall and pointed her own dagger right back at her. *So this was how Will felt. Have to tell him sorry about that.*
"Lett'er goooo." The drunken tones of Captain Sparrow. He was tapping Blackbeard on the shoulder, trying to get his attention. Bless his heart.
"Jack! No!" Blackbeard had the dagger right at her throat. A centimeter closer and there would be blood from the Black Cat all over the pub.
"Didja not 'ear me... mate?" More poking from the drunk, and nearly falling from standing up, Captain Sparrow. "Are ye deaf!? I caaaaaain't speak that mute talk... let her-"
Blackbeard let go of Cat and turned to face Jack. Cat tried to get Jack's attention, but Blackbeard kicked her down to the ground.
"Yer not deaf. Well that's good to 'ear." The drunk tone started to go away as if he realized that the big guy with the big black beard was being quite serious.
Cat watched as Blackbeard took Cat's own dagger and went overhead, hoping to hit Jack right in the heart. However, swashbuckler Jack was too quick for that and he blocked rather easily. It had to be the weight of the sword that stabled the weight of the Captain Sparrow. He was way to drunk to fight so well.
Then, the next moment, Cat saw Blackbeard fighting Will. No more Sparrow. And that was all she saw before being knocked unconscious.
______
A/N : And to think I was going to continue on with this chapter. Hmm... oh, well. Hehe. Oh, and if you think that this story is close to being over... well, I'll shut up.
As always read and review ... oh, you all would be very proud of me. I took the time, while FF.net was down and read up on pirates. They are so cool! The sequel to this (yes, it's already in the works) and the rest of this are going to be a lot better than I had planned - all due to my research! Aren't you all glad?