High Flier
Chapter 4 - Painful Challenges
~Pirate Rhi
Hey guys, I'm back with chapter the fourth of High Flier. Thanks to all those who reviewed. It's greatly appreciated. I've spent most of my week putting up photos from my camp on my website, so if you guys wanna see them, the link's in my bio. I also joined the writing club at school, so I've been writing original fiction as well. It's very different from fanfiction, I must say. I'm finding it very hard to make the stories short, I tend to ramble on a bit, much like what I'm doing now…
Lykosdracos - Thanks for all your reviews, mate, I love reading them, they always give me a laugh. And I'm very glad that you're loving my story. I love storms, but we don't get very spectacular ones over here, so I always write about storms.
Padfoots-Pirate - Sorry 'bout that, mate. I am dutifully updating so you shan't be kept in suspense for much longer. Hope you enjoy. There's no cliffie on this chapter, and I think that might be the only cliffie I've written so far, and I've done up to chapter 10…
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The foul-smelling pirate grinned as he advanced on Elizabeth, who backed away from him. He barked at her, enjoying the look of disgust on her face.
Elizabeth whipped Will's sword out from behind her back, brandishing it at the pirate. The pirate eyed her curiously.
"If you come any closer, I will not hesitate to use this." She said firmly, willing her voice not to shake.
The pirate made a strange noise in his throat. "I like that. Feisty women." He turned and spotted Alex.
Forgetting Elizabeth for the moment, he advanced on Alex in much the same fashion that he had done on Elizabeth. Alex backed away from him so that her back was against the wall. She had nowhere to go.
"What 'bout you? You up for a little…lovin'?" the pirate leaned closer, causing Alex to cough, because of his evil-smelling breath.
"If you come any closer, I will be forced to relieve you of the reason you call yourself a man." She hissed angrily, pressing the flat blade of her dagger into his upper thigh.
The pirate stepped back, out of the reach of her dagger, but did not lose the evil grin.
* * * * * *
Will was kept busy out on the deck. The pirates they were fighting weren't very experienced swordsmen, but they were determined, and there were many of them.
He managed to push his present opponent overboard and wipe away the sweat that was dripping down his forehead before his next challenger came along.
He could see that their foes were losing faith, their captain had fallen, and he guessed that the crew didn't have any fight left in them.
As if his thoughts came true right then and there, the Dragon's crew all suddenly surrendered.
The Pearl's crew all looked a little surprised, but nevertheless, went to work relieving the Emerald Dragon of its treasure. That task was quickly completed, then the surviving members of the Dragon's crew were tied to the main mast and the ship sent adrift.
Jack came and stood next to Will as they watched the Emerald Dragon sail away, holding a bottle of celebratory rum in his hand, and grinning widely.
* * * * * *
Meanwhile, Alex and Elizabeth still were having problems. The pirate had stepped back, taking in the two women holding their weapons of choice. He reached down to his belt and pulled out a cutlass and a dagger, brandishing the weapons at the women, letting them know that he was the master now.
He lunged towards Elizabeth, who swung her sword up just in time, causing the swords to clash together, sending the metallic vibrations up her arm.
The pirate swung again, this time, swinging his sword so hard that he knocked Elizabeth's sword out of her hand.
Alex chose that moment to pounce on the pirate's back, wrapping her arms around his head so that he couldn't see. Distracted from his previous task, he concentrated on getting Alex off his back. Turning in wild circles, he managed to back Alex against the wall, crashing her against it. Her cry of pain encouraged him and he crashed into the wall again and again.
Alex, preoccupied with the pain and trying not to let go, didn't feel him slipping his dagger from his belt. The first she knew of it was a searing, sharp pain shooting up her arm. He had cut her all the way from her upper arm to just below her elbow.
Alex cried out in pain and dropped off his back. She curled up in a fetal position by the wall, protecting her arm, which was dripping massive amounts of blood.
She faintly heard Elizabeth scream for help, but everything seemed all fuzzy, except for the sharp pain shooting up her arm.
The door to the cabin was roughly shoved open and Jack and Will burst through the door.
Alex watched everything through eyes glazed over in pain. It was as if everything that was happening was in a dream, it was so surreal. She saw Jack pull out his sword and run it through the guts of the pirate so hard that the sword went all the way through him, a good distance of the sword sticking out of the pirate's back. Jack twisted the sword, then pulled it out of the pirate, grabbing the now in agony, but still alive pirate by the scruff of his neck and dragged him from the room.
Meanwhile, Will had pulled off his shirt and ripped it into strips, both him and Elizabeth pressing the cloth onto Alex's wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Alex's face contorted in pain. She bit into her lip so hard that it drew blood. Will saw this and pushed a piece of the cloth into her mouth so that she would bite on that and not her lip.
The door to the cabin burst open and Jack rushed into the room, having dealt with the pirate. He knelt on the floor next to Will and Alex, and his concerned face was the last thing Alex saw before she gave in to the blackness.
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"I'll put her onto the bed. Help me out Jack." Will said.
"Take her to my cabin. The medical supplies are in there." Jack said, as Will rose with Alex's slight figure in his arms. Elizabeth rose with him, holding the makeshift bandages on Alex's arm.
They quickly made their way to Jack's cabin and lay Alex down on Jack's bed, where Elizabeth had to hold her still, because she was writhing about in pain.
Jack collected the medical supplies from a nearby drawer and handed them to Elizabeth, who went to work on Alex's arm, first disinfecting the wound with some alcohol, then wrapping it tightly, with a proper bandage.
Jack and Will stood by, watching Elizabeth's nimble hands working on the horrible wound. She finished wrapping the arm and secured the end of the bandage. Finally, she stood, wiping her bloody hands on a cleaner piece of a rag, which had once been Will's shirt. She dropped the rag on top of the small pile of blood-stained cloths.
"Are you going to stay with her?" Elizabeth asked, turning to Jack.
"Yeah, you guys can go." Jack said, pulling up a chair. "And Anamaria's steering the ship, so she'll be fine. I'll look after the lass here."
"Call if you need anything." Will said, then he and Elizabeth left the room, leaving Jack with the sleeping Alex.
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Alex was back at the one place that she didn't want to be. The familiar shape of the huge circus tent cast a shadow over her, haunting her vision as her feet unwillingly shuffled towards the tent looming over her. Instead of the bright, colourful tent, it had turned black and was bulging with the bad memories that Alex called her past.
A familiar voice echoed through her dream. A voice that she would rather never hear again. It was calling her name…taunting her. "Alexandra…" Dickon's voice filled her mind. "You'll never be anything, so stop trying. You're a stupid, useless bitch, only good for one thing…" the voice started laughing, a horrible, evil laugh.
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Jack had fallen asleep in the chair, his head resting on the table. He was suddenly awoken by the sounds of Alex thrashing around in her sleep. She was mumbling something about Dickon and it not being true. Her face was flushed a bright red.
He put his hand to her forehead, which was burning hot to the touch.
"Luv, yer burnin' up!" he said, leaving her side for a moment, where had dipped a clean cloth into a bucket of cold water. He wrung it out and placed it on her forehead, firmly holding it there until she stopped thrashing about.
Letting out a relieved breath, he dipped the cloth in cold water again and replaced it on her forehead before sitting back down in the chair, not taking his eyes off the sleeping girl.
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Alex's dreams turned lighter as a silhouette of a man appeared and chased the dark tent and Dickon's horrible voice away.
The silhouette gained colour, and she realised the figure was Jack. He was standing, his hand resting casually on the hilt of his sword and he was grinning.
"Don't worry, luv. I got yer back now." His voice filled her dream, but it wasn't a dark presence, like Dickon's. His voice made her feel warm and comfortable instead.
Suddenly, everything faded and Alex could feel her mind start to wake up.
* * * * * *
Alex opened her eyes and looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling. She started to push herself into a sitting position, but quickly stopped when a bolt of pain rushed up her arm. Jack was suddenly at her side, helping her into a sitting position.
Alex noticed the white bandage on her arm. She touched it gently with her other hand.
"What happened?" she asked. "And where am I?"
"That scalawag slit yer arm and you blacked out. Will brought you in here and Liz bandaged yer arm. You had a fever too, prob'ly from yer clothes, they were still wet. And yer in me humble abode."
Alex slowly took this information in. "How long was it out?" she asked.
"A few days." Jack answered.
A look of guilt came across Alex's face. "Sorry. I took your bed. I should get out of your cabin now." She began to get up, but Jack stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Stay there. Yer the injured one. You need yer rest." Jack said firmly.
"What about you? Did you sleep?" Alex asked, noting the tiredness in Jack's eyes.
"I had enough." He replied, when the reality was, he hadn't slept since she'd had the fever on the first day.
Alex thought for a second. She couldn't exactly deny the man his bed, but he wouldn't let her get up. There was only one solution to the problem, but she had a lot of bad memories with men and beds. But, she thought, he hadn't given her a reason not to trust him. Letting out a breath, Alex shuffled over as far as she could on the largish bed. She patted the space next to her. "Sleep here." She said.
After hesitating a moment to make sure she was okay with that, Jack moved himself from the chair to lying on the bed next to Alex, falling asleep almost instantly.
Alex didn't go to sleep for a while, instead she sat up, staring at Jack. The man was growing on her, and she was scared. She'd never allowed herself to get close to anyone anymore. It only caused trouble. She'd made that mistake once, and she'd vowed never to do it again. The way she saw it, the relationships you had with people could only be used against you, so she avoided knowing much more about a person than their name.
She sighed, this was a whole new experience. She wasn't at the circus anymore, she reminded herself. This man had seen her at her worst hour, and still he offered to take her aboard his ship. She shuffled down into the bed and shut her eyes, in an effort to stop the thoughts that were whirling around in her head. She tried thinking of other things in an effort to block the other thoughts from her mind. Finally she managed to calm her mind for long enough for her to slip off to sleep.
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Well, there you go. End of chapter four.
Hey, don't you think it's really stupid that Johnny Depp didn't get his Oscar. I really wanted him to win! I rushed home from school and went straight on the internet to find out who got what. I was so disappointed. Pirates of the Caribbean didn't get anything either! That really sucks. Well, at least there's the sequel to look forward to. Maybe it'll get some awards. Fingers crossed, eh? Lord of the Rings did real well, though. I'm very proud of it and what my little country did for it…=)
Oh, I loved Once Upon a Time in Mexico. I went on about it all week, and my friends are really jealous of me…lol.
Anyways, I've gotta go study for my chemistry and biology tests that are on Monday. Argh! I hate tests!
Later
~Rhi