A New Pirate in the Caribbean
Chapter One: Meetings and Greetings
Adrienne Jessica Abbot-Jaine, or Jesse Jaine, as she was known to most in the Caribbean, had managed to disguise her almost never recognizable features and convince a particularly old man by the name of Captain Alden to allow her a passage on his small merchant vessel. The ship happened to be carrying cotton from Africa and goats from the Falkland Isles on that particular voyage. The only trouble with that was she was stuck doing all of the on-deck menial tasks. Like the one she was doing now- swabbing the deck.
Lucky for Jesse, it was only a small area where one of the crewmembers had fallen and stuck him self with his own cutlass. Then again, maybe not so lucky. Why the man had a cutlass out in the first place and on-deck was beyond her. But Jesse scrubbed harder and harder anyway, ridding the deck of as much of the red viscid liquid as she possibly could.
Her knees were becoming stiff and her back had already been hurting for the last five minutes before she finally called herself done. As she raised herself off the wooden floor, ignoring the fact that her hands, knees, and britches were all tinted with a red color-the remnants of her own tenacity-, she looked about the ship at the clear and bright day.
The wind blew freely, cooling her warm neck and face and stirring about in the cove they were just about to sail into. Her eyes panned to the left side of the ship and noted waves crashing violently against a cliff, in which a large gape was encrusted and allowed passage into what appeared a small cape, and three decaying corpses which hung from the break in the cliff.
She stared blankly at the sign hanging next to the third corpse, which read 'PIRATES YE BE WARNED'. Another noose hung below the sign, probably once having held a fourth body that had become too worn and weathered and had resolved in falling into the aqua depths below; Jesse didn't really care to know or find out.
She instead threw the brush she had been using into a bucket of sickly looking water that she had also been using, and turned to the helm of the ship. After recognizing the Captain and acknowledging him with a short nod of her head, she turned and sat on the deck, a few feet away from where she had been scrubbing and pulled her boots on over her bare-skinned calves.
When she was done, she pulled herself up and strode the short walk over to the helm, where the captain stood, smiling and raising inquiring eyebrows.
"Ye all done already?" he asked, knowing full well she had been working a good half of the morning trying to remove the crude stain from his deck.
"Yes, sir. How much longer would ye think 'til we reach port?" she asked, squinting into the horizon at the landscaped town that was Port Royal.
"Ten minutes, maybe twenty. O' course, considerin' some storm don't come an' blow us off course. Ye never know with all the crazy Caribbean weather that goes about." The old man laughed.
Jesse smiled sincerely at the peculiar character and headed off to ready the docking gear. Within about ten minutes, 'Old bugger was right!' as Jesse had mused; the Rosa de Espina had sailed into a dock and was ready to unload. This was Jesse's exit as she happily, well almost happily, reminded herself.
She had begun to pick up a cotton bale when the captain waved her over.
"Listen, ye done enough work already. Ye can go." He said to her, in a manner that a grandfather would his granddaughter.
'Oh, little does he know. ' She thought, noting his kind tone.
Jesse smiled and thanked him, starting towards the gangplank which had been let down already.
"An' lass, ye might wan' a put on somethin' a bit more lady like. Ye'll be getting' yerself hung walkin' 'round like tha'!" Captain Alden called over the side of the ship and tossed a small change purse with some coins in it to Jesse. She smiled devilishly and made a poor attempt at a curtsy, then headed off on her way down the pier.
She could still smell the sea in the air as she stepped off the pier onto the cobblestone road of the bustling town that was Port Royal. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and the commoners of the town were busy moving through the streets to get to their scheduled appointments, whatever they were.
Jesse swept through the shadows, careful to not draw any attention to her self as she made her way through the maze of streets. She continued through the winding streets until she reached a sign bearing the crest of a blacksmith. She was greeted by warm air playing across her face as it rushed its way out of the open door.
A dim light cast itself all around the shop, which was really one big room, and a cloud of dust rested in mid-air making it hard to see. She closed the door behind her and jumped quietly off the stoop. The cloud of dust seemed to ease up where she stood now. Upon surveying her surroundings, her eyes fell upon a young man.
The young man looked up at Jesse. "Can I help you?" he asked. He sounded a bit suspicious. Of course, she was suspicion-worthy. She reached for her belt and placed her hand upon the hilt of her sword. The boy grabbed the sword he had been working on, readying him self for a fight.
Jesse let out a diabolic laugh as he did so. She unsheathed her sword. Now he saw why she had laughed. Her sword was broken, just enough to make it unworthy of a good fight. He set down the sword and walked towards her.
"I was hoping I could trade it in. You could melt it down for a new sword and I could pay a few less pounds for a new one?" she bartered. He walked to her, took the sword, and began examining it. "I suppose I could use more of this metal. You would still have to pay the respected price, though."
In the light Jesse could see him better. He looked a little older than she did, maybe a few years. His dark brown hair was unruly, from working tirelessly, no doubt. He was tan and lean, from working around the coals, one would guess. His clothes were ones to be expected of a blacksmith- plain and dusty like the shop he worked in, and his eyes were a dark color, unidentifiable in the harsh lighting. With his messy brown hair and unkempt appearance, he reminded her a lot of a cute little puppy.
"Done. I'll make it more if you get one done soon." She was hoping to get her sword done and make way to the nearest port to avoid being hung. He nodded and looked at the clock. "I can have it done in ten minutes if you'll still be in town."
She looked at him oddly. "Ten minutes?"
"Yes, I have one about this size in the flat next door. I can do a few fixes on it, make it worth your while." He knew he was overestimating the ten minutes. He hardly ever made a sword that would need repairs.
"Would it be alright if I waited here?" She glanced past him and out the window at two guards leisurely walking by. He looked at her with a 'you surely jest.' look.
Jesse made an offended noise and countered, "That doesn't mean I'm dishonest. I'm paying you, aren't I?"
He looked at her sideways.
"What would I steal, anyway?" she looked around at the various tools and things about the room. "The donkey?" she said sarcastically.
He gave her another glance and snatched up his bag of money that rested on the table he had been working upon and walked out, closing the door behind him awkwardly.
Jesse sat down on a makeshift ramp, probably once a cart, nearby the place she had been standing, and looked at the donkey. 'Sad, so sad' she thought.
Just then the doors opened and closed too urgently to have been the blacksmith. She jumped to her feet, ready to run or fight if she had to. The dust began to clear around the door and off the stoop came a pirate who seemed a little older than the blacksmith had been. He was looking around, for another exit, she guessed. Seeing her he took a few more steps in that direction, unveiling his self from the cloud of dust.
He looked her up and down, and then continued looking around the room. Jesse made the justified conclusion that he had just written her off as a 'no threat'. The man seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, not noticing who she was and all.
'Obviously, he's a pirate too,' she thought, looking at him.
"And just who the hell do you think you are?" she said indignantly. The man continued to ignore her as he picked a hammer up off an anvil. Jesse was being frustrated to no end. He gave off trying to bang off his shackles with a hammer and looked around the room.
'Must've just escaped.'
Apparently, something caught his eye and he looked around the room again. He walked to the hearth and pulled out a fire poker, and then walked over to the donkey. He brandished the white hot metal on the poor beasts' backside and with a quick move and a few seconds, had his hands unchained.
Just as Jesse was going to ask of the mans' business, the blacksmith walked back in. The blacksmith looked at her with plain accusation. "Don't look at me. I didn't invite him in," she said, countering his glare. He seemed to believe her and took his attention to the stranger in their mist.
"You're the one they're hunting, the pirate." At the last comment Jesse looked out the window to see quite a few guards running down the streets.
"You seem familiar. Have I threatened you before?" the pirate queried.
'Ah, so he does have a voice. And me thinking he was a mute…' Jesse mused.
"I make a point of avoiding familiarity with pirates." The blacksmith answered his voice cold as ice.
'Apparently,' Jesse thought, 'I made a mistake coming in here.'
"Well then it would be a shame to put a black mark on your record then, so if you'll excuse me-" the pirate said, turning for the door.
Jesse stepped closer to it as well, not wanting to be around when the blacksmith figured out she wasn't a law-abiding citizen. And she would have been out the door, had she not stopped because of the blade currently resting on he pirates' shoulder.
"You think this wise, boy? Crossing blades with a pirate?" the pirate said, calm and slightly amused.
"You threatened Miss Swann." The blacksmith sneered, pushing the blade even closer to his opponent.
"Only a little." The pirate replied, dragging the blade of his sword across that of the blacksmiths', almost as if to sharpen it. The clanging of swords came next and Jesse was entranced by the fight, rooted to the spot from which she was viewing it.
"You know what you're doing, I'll give you that. But how's you're footwork? If I step here…" the pirate said, acting as if he was instructing an elaborate foreign dance. "Good. And now I step again…" he said, pleased with his opponents' skill and reaction.
"Ta!" the pirate smiled whipping around and placing his sword back on his belt as he headed for the exit. He managed to get just to the door and Jesse had managed to finally snap out of her daze when the blacksmiths' sword went whizzing by both of them and landed, blade first, just above the door lever.
Jesse was caught by surprise and, apparently, so was the pirate. His eyes widened considerably, looking from the tip to the blade of the sword as it wavered in mid-air. His hand caught the hilt and the swords' movement halted. He wrapped both hands around the hilt and gave a tug- no give. The pirate gave another yank- still no reward.
The blacksmiths' face, as Jesse observed, was one of boredom, obviously he knew there wasn't any getting that sword out. The pirates' struggle became more furious and he eventually realized his efforts were in vain and turned to face the blacksmith.
"That- is a wonderful trick. Except now, once again, you are between me and my way out. And now you have no weapon." He said, drawing out his sword and smiling smugly. But his smile soon faded as a fire poker appeared just inches away from his face.
'At least the wound'll be cauterized.' Jesse thought, not daring to move for fear of being struck when she had no sword.
The pirate made a dash for the back exit but was cut short by the flaming hot metal that was the blacksmiths' weapon. They battled some more and the pirate ended up throwing the blacksmiths' fire poker aside. But in his pause the blacksmith had had flipped over a turning wheel and grabbed another sword, only to once again be pursued by the pirate…who had decided to start up a conversation.
"Who makes all these?" he asked, observing the hundreds of swords strewn about the shop.
Without missing a parry, the blacksmith answered, "I do. And I practice with them three hours a day." He said smugly and switched places with the pirate on the shop floor.
"You need to find yourself a girl, mate." He said condescendingly. Jesse backed up as the two followed away from the turning wheels, which looked remarkably like spools, as Jesse had thought.
"Or perhaps the reason you practice three hours a day is because you've already found one and are otherwise incapable of wooing said strumpet. You're not a eunuch, are you?" He said, and then paused to glance downward.
"I practice three hours a day so that when I meet a pirate, I can kill it!" the blacksmith said, apparently insulted that he would call him a eunuch. Jesse frowned, that didn't sound too friendly, even if she wasn't *exactly* a pirate. The pirate raised his eyebrows in apparent understanding and continued on with their little rendezvous, ending up on the ramp Jesse had been sitting I when he first came in.
Jesse stumbled back a bit when the ramp slid off the stoop and became unbalanced, making it quite hard for the two men to get in any good swings until they had managed to even it out. Hey swung and the blacksmith had the upper hand, with two swords.
After a few moments time, the blacksmith managed to catch the pirates chains with one of his swords and delve it into the beam of wood overhead. The pirate wiggled his hand about and found, like the sword in the door, it gave no reward. He made a few blind swings to no effect at the blacksmith and finally wised up, steeping on a loose board that flew up and knocked the blacksmith in the chin and off the ramp.
The blacksmith landed and stood back up, apparently amused at the pirate who was now defying gravity by placing both his feet on the beam and pulling with all his might on the blasted sword. And, just as the blacksmith stepped back onto the cart, the sword gave way and released itself from the beam, causing the pirate to fall down and onto the raised end of the ramp, which in turn caused the blacksmith to soar into the rafters.
The pirate rolled off the wooden seesaw and knocked into the stoop, then undauntedly stood up, looking for the young man again. He looked up by chance and smiled; the boy was in the rafters, leaving a clear exit for him. But his smile faltered as the blacksmith swiped loose the ropes holding a very heavy looking bundle of boxes and they fell causing the pirate to fly up into the rafters as well. He caught a beam and swung himself up onto another, facing the blacksmith.
The two danced back and forth between two beams for a minute before Jesse finally heard clanging metal again. She began to make her way to the back exit, but was cut short as a sword whooshed past her, nearly scraping off the entire front of her body.
She heard a slight thud on the wood of the rafters and looked up to see the blacksmith on the ground and the pirate standing up on some sort of a display shelf for armory plates. The pirate looked around, a bit frantic and his eyes landed on something he deemed useful. Luckily, Jesse noticed too and had enough sense to look away just before he emptied a bag of dust onto the blacksmith.
She heard a clang of metal a few feet away from her and looked to see a sword resting a few feet away and the blacksmith holding iron tool, with the pirate pointing his gun at the young man's forehead.
"You cheated." He said, caught off guard.
"Pirate." The pirate said pointedly.
Suddenly, the doors of the shop began to shake, causing Jesse to stumble away and towards the two men at the back of the shop. The blacksmith had now moved and was blocking the path to the back exit.
"Move away." The pirate said, giving the boy a chance to live.
"No." he said stubbornly.
"Please move?" the pirate asked desperately. Jesse was biting her lip and glancing from the door to the men.
"No!" the blacksmith said, annoying Jesse as she clenched her jaw at his idiocy. "I can not just step aside and let you escape." He said, his voice soft, almost as if he regretted having to do this.
"This shot is not meant for you." The pirate stated, cocking the gun. The blacksmith faced became etched with confusion and his stance became more relaxed.
SHATTER.
Jesse jumped aside as a glass was broken over the armed pirates' head, causing him to fall forward onto the floor at the blacksmiths' feet. A short and dirty looking man stood holding a broken bottle.
'Where the hell did he come from?' she wondered. Her thoughts stopped when she involuntarily jumped back as the doors were finally broken through by the royal navy, who came pouring into the shop. Men swarmed around the four in the shop and pointed bayonets at the unconscious man on the floor.
An important looking man spoke aloud, his eyes on the pirate. "Excellent work, Mr. Brown. You've assisted in the capture of a dangerous fugitive." He said, his tone quite 'high and mighty'.
"Just doing my civic duty, sir." Slurred the short man, looking up at the 'sir'. Jesse glanced at the blacksmith who rolled his eyes to no one in particular.
"Well I trust that you will always remember this as the day Captain Jack Sparrow almost escaped. Take him away." He said, but stopped as his eyes fell on Jesse. He looked at the young blacksmith.
"Hold on men. Is she a friend of yours?" he asked. The blacksmith shook his head and the important looking man looked Jesse over. "Take her as well." He said and left.
"Hey! What? I-" Jesse stumbled, searching for words as the navy men grabbed her by the arms and lead her out by the pirate. She shot an evil glance at the blacksmith and struggled in vain against her captors.
Thus, Jesse Jaine was captured for the first time in her entire life.