Chapter Two: The Pig's Backside

"How does everything look, oh all-seeing Eagle?" Jack called up to her from the deck. She looked down at him and smiled. Would the butterflies she felt when she looked at him never go away?
"Neither a speck of cloud nor a sign of ship, all-knowing Sparrow!" she called back before coming down from the nest.
Not in the slightest bit ashamed, he walked over to her, swept her up into his arms and kissed her soundly. She smiled up at him and stroked his cheek before whacking him on the back of the head. "You scalawag, have you no worry for what the crew might think?"
"Why should I? Between the feared Captain Jack Sparrow and his equally feared partner in crime, Arianne the Golden Eagle, they'd not dare make a snide remark!"
Flippant as always. She smiled at this most endearing of traits and shook her head. He was really the limit. When he whispered in her ear, she let loose a rare giggle and pushed him away to go and see how the remainder of the crew were doing and perhaps to gamble a bit with those that were not on duty.

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He watched her go and couldn't help but smile as his eyes traced their way down from her braided hair held partly back by a blue scarf to the sway of her hips. Seeming to sense his stare (and she probably did, she seemed to read his mind more often than he found comfortable), she waggled her hips a little more seductively before looking back and winking as she disappeared below deck.
He shook his head, trying to clear his head of the intoxicating scent she always seemed to leave behind when she walked away.
True to his word, for the past year or so they had pirated very little--perhaps once or twice. They were more or less on the lookout for an adventure right now. He had never thought to say it, but just sailing from port to port had gotten, well, boring. He didn't want the typical adventure, however (why was it that the majority of them had to do with saving Elizabeth Turner, anyway?), he wanted to find something spectacular.

Arianne knew of his wish, and had expressed her desire for the same. There had been a few rumors of some pool that was supposed to restore youth in the bars they visited when they reached a port, but it hadn't seemed anything of import. Who believed in something as ridiculous as that? Honestly, a pool that restored youth...
Almost as strange as a chest of medallions cursed by old gods? Jack wondered to himself. Perhaps there may yet be something to this. Suddenly, he shouted orders for them to turn about and head back to the last port. They could make it by nightfall if the winds favored them.

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When the ship suddenly listed and the table of cards went flying, Arianne--who had never lost her balance or her cards--hurried up the steps, tossing her hand behind her. The men immediately scrabbled to see what she had, and whistled with relief. She would have killed them yet again!
When she reached the deck to find it a flurry of activity, she immediately sought Jack at the wheel. "What's in your head, you scoundrel?" she asked when she saw the huge smile on his face.
"Why, we're going back to Tortuga love!" he replied cheerily. Too cheerily. She looked suspiciously at him.
"Why are we going back to Tortuga?" she finally asked, her curiosity winning out.
"Because I think we should find the Fountain of Youth, darling!"
"You want to--you can't be serious--we should find--"
He laughed at her near speechlessness. "Yes, love, we're going to try and find the Fountain of Youth. It should be a grand adventure, don't you think?"
"But Jack, the Fountain of Youth doesn't exist...the very idea is absurd!" she protested.
"Is it as absurd as cursed gold turning men into skeletons, love?" he asked, all joviality momentarily gone from his face.
She simply stared at him, her mouth agape. When she finally came to herself, she simply shrugged and said, "To the Fountain of Youth we go, then!"

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They reached Tortuga just after nightfall. The winds had indeed favored them this day. Jack and Arianne were one of the very few to disembark--the crew had had their fill of the riotous place over the past couple of days--and they headed straight for a very seedy bar (not that any bar on Tortuga was anything but) in which the worst of the rumormongers tended to haunt.
Arianne didn't much like Tortuga--such a smell!--but it was one of Jack's favorite ports, and so she went along with it. She had to admit that occasionally just watching the things going on around here was rather amusing. She grinned as she remembered the very first time they had come here. Scarlet and Giselle had come with friends to exact vengeance upon Jack for their "humiliation," as they called it (though how a whore could suffer humiliation was beyond her...), and had found him to be accompanied by Arianne. They had advised her not to get entangled with the likes of Jack Sparrow, as he tended to bed women and leave them the next day. Their double-edged smiles at Jack had been wiped clean of their faces when they were told that Jack had married her, and that they had been married for about a month at that time. The whores had left rather surprised and unsatisfied, but it surely didn't last long. There were plenty of men who would gladly bed those two (either together or separate), and there was much gold to be had for them. Privately, Arianne thought that some of that gold should go to better make- up for them.
She shook off her reflective mood when they reached the bar called the Pig's Backside, and she forced down a shudder of revulsion. She really didn't like filthy places like this, but if there was any information to be had, they would find it here.
Entering, they found the wretched place to be packed, and she had to force down bile. Keeping a hand on the hilt of her dagger--to draw sword would be impossible--she, kept a sharp eye out for possible thieves (and who wasn't a possible thief in this place?) as she followed Jack around whilst he asked certain people if they had heard of the Fountain.
Eventually, he found someone who knew a friend of someone who said he knew where the Fountain of Youth lay, and they were pointed to the farthest corner of the cramped and odorous room.
Pushing and shoving their way through, Arianne having to draw her dagger and jab at a few hands sneaking for her purse and other things, they finally reached the place they had been directed to and found to their surprise some room to breathe. "I'm going to have to take a bath after all this, Jack," she whispered to him. He just smiled over his shoulder at her and moved to sit down with the old man--and he was very old--at the table.
"So, I hear you know something of the whereabouts of the Fountain of Youth, eh?" Jack said. The old man didn't even blink; he sat completely still, staring at a single spot.
"Umm...nice weather we're having," Jack continued, but the old man still didn't move. Arianne whispered a suggestion into Jack's ear and he glanced at her in slight disapproval, but went along with it. "How about I buy a round of drinks?"
"That's more like it!" the old man said, all of a sudden coming to life. "I like you, laddie!"
Jack and Arianne exchanged a glance as he shouted his order over the general din of the bar.

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Hours later, the old man was still drinking on Jack's money, babbling complete nonsense. Every time he tried to get a word in edgewise, the man would stare at him blankly for a moment before continuing on in some useless tangent. Jack was slowly starting to lose patience, and as he looked at Arianne sitting to his side he noticed that she was getting more and more fidgety, she no longer even bothered to hide her disgust of the man and the place. She hadn't touched a single drop of her drink, which the old man promptly relieved her of.
Gods, would the old fool never shut up and answer a few questions? he wondered idly.
"Now, the Fountain of Youth, that's a worthy adventure, mates!" the man suddenly said. Jack suddenly perked up, giving him his full attention.
"You know where it is, then?"
"Aye, I know where it is," he stated before taking a swig from his mug.
"Can you tell us?" Arianne asked excitedly, her revolt seeming to be lost for the moment.
"A question I must ask of you two first," he said, staring hard at the both of them. Jack could swear he was sober in that moment. "Are ye afraid to suffer a fate worse than death?"
Jack looked at Arianne, only to find her looking at him with puzzlement. "Like what?" Jack eventually asked.
"Answer the question, lad, or ye'll never know where the Fount lies."
Looking at Arianne and finding her nodding, he answered, "No, we're not afraid to suffer a fate worse than death."
"Good, then!" the man said, suddenly seeming in a good mood. "So, ye want to find the Fountain of Youth," he cackled. "'Tis been many a year since young'uns like yerselves have come askin' after it."
He continued on in this vein for what seemed like hours more, and just as Jack was about to drop his head to the table and fall asleep, the man finally gave them the bearings.
Thanking him profusely (no doubt thanking him for finally giving them the answer they needed more than anything else), they finally left the Pig's Backside.

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The man watched them go with a sly smile on his face. Yes, it had been many a year since young folk came to him yearning to find the Fount. What the young fools didn't realize was that none of the ships he had previously given the bearings to had ever been seen again, nor would they be unless someone came along that could break the spell holding them...

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Okey dokey! Chapter 2 up! I couldn't believe that I already had two reviews this morning, lol! Well, I hope that the people asking me if there would be a sequel found this so I can answer their question: Yes, I'm writing a sequel! ^.^ I hope you all enjoy!

Also, Alex, if you're FINALLY reading this (probably about two months after I've written it), I want you to know that I'm proud that you finally read the first story!