Author's Note - I don't own this or that and I especially don't own the legendary Black Beast of Aaauugh, but let me tell you that if they were offering tours of Terry Gilliam's brain, I would be first in line.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It was night. It was night because time had passed. And maybe almost enough time had passed that the Yellow Dart was very close to wherever it was that Jack was directing her. One can only and desperately hope.
Time was funny when you sailed, thought Captain Melanie Cash, and adjusted the wheel under her hands. The only thing that marked it was the rise and set of the sun: there were no landmarks to reach or to pass, and if there were they would be useless during the night anyway, when the vast expanse of blue deepened into a vast expanse of black and there was no difference between the water and the sky. There were only stars - stars to assure you that your eyes weren't closed; stars that stabbed through the dark and spun over your head.
How was it, Melanie often wondered, that so much trust could be placed in something that was so distant and unfeeling? In something that might not even be real? To navigate at night meant you had to read the stars and mark a path beneath them. To navigate was to trust them and to accept their far-away glow as guidance. Melanie had learned, after long years of cruising across the black depths while they wheeled above, that their voiceless winks and shimmers did speak truth to a proper listener or observer.
But on those same travels she had also learned that earthly bodies often did not prove as trustworthy as the celestial ones. On the travels where she had learned to read and watch the heavens, she had learned that it was both possible and wise to do the same to people.
And here had come Dana Flint.
Will appeared at ease enough with the young woman, but Melanie reminded herself that the relatively naive blacksmith, while certainly sharper than many, had not been raised a pirate - it was trust that people drew out of him before his cutlass, not the other way around. That was not only a shame, it was something that might soon prove to be disastrous because already Flint was aboard the ship. The Yellow Dart shuddered gently and moaned in her sleep, and Melanie adjusted the wheel again. Hair that the captain could not see whipped around her face as the night wind pulsed against the Dart's sails. Her ship's sails.
Melanie could not say what it was about Flint that bothered her, nor what it was that had unsettled her sleep to the point that she had taken the helm from Jack and sent him to early bed. But there was something in the way the woman's coat fell about her, in the way she angled her cap down over her eyes, and in her quiet observance of Jack that Melanie had seen and recognized: there was more to this Flint than the lass let on, she was sure. Perhaps more than even Will could see.
No doubt time and the stars would tell, but the mistress of the Yellow Dart has not acquired her position by waiting with wide eyes and bated breath. She made up her mind to speak with Flint at her first opportunity on the morrow.
~
"... yo ho, a pirate's life for me," he finished to the polite applause of Will and Melanie. The singer bowed graciously, and made as if to tip a non-existent hat.
"What a lovely baritone voice you have, Gibbs," Melanie remarked. "That song was truly meant to be sung by you."
A short distance away and perched on the side railing, Jack snapped his head around at that casual comment, causing his beads to jangle and the little Carly to jab him in the side with a finger.
"You're s'posed to be teachin' me, mister Sparrow."
Jack turned back to her with a smile that was not entirely apologetic. He raised his eyebrows and gestured, imploring her. "Do forgive me, my dear. But it seems that impetuous bearded wretch over there has stolen my song." Carly shook her head
"The nerve."
"Agreed, darling. The nerve. Now where were we?"
It so happened that where they were was in the midst of a lesson on sleight-of-hand. On the condition that Milton sit elsewhere - indeed, the monkey had been dozing on Melanie's shoulder and was startled awake by her clapping - Jack had agreed to teach Carly the fine art of taking an object into one's hand and making it 'disappear.' She had become interested in it after he and Will had entertained the crew the previous evening by telling them the story of their adventure with the Black Pearl and the demise of Barbossa. Carly had instantly picked up on the merit of having the talent of making things invisible in one's hands, especially if Jack had been able to use it in such a creative way, and she had begged to be taught.
So Jack now produced a coin and passed it over each of his ringed fingers to Carly's delight, then flipped it back across the opposite way. While she continued to watch with bright eyes, Jack took the coin into his palm and closed his hand. When he opened it and flexed his fingers, the coin was gone and Carly's mouth was wide open.
"Wow!" Jack looked pleased.
"That's what I did. I can show you how, if you like." Carly nodded, and the coin reappeared in Jack's hand.
"If you're going to be giving lessons," said Dana Flint from over Jack's shoulder, "I would love to be in on them." Jack heard the clack of boots on the deck and looked up to see her peer into his hand. "Useful talent, that." Melanie glanced over. This was Flint's first appearance of the day. Apparently she and Gibbs had discovered one of the Yellow Dart's kegs of ale the evening before and had not found it particularly necessary to rise early the next morning.
While the little pirate was virtually vibrating with excited anticipation, Jack regarded Dana. "It's kept me out of a spot or two." He winked, and Dana settled herself atop a crate.
He then proceeded to demonstrate how the coin had disappeared, and if anyone out there knows how it was actually done, please don't hesitate to tell me. Seriously. I thought it would be cool to talk about, but now I have no idea. No idea. None.
Well ... this has gotten a little awkward, hasn't it? I mean, being that the author is supposed to be all knowing and everything. Huh.
Does anyone else hear crickets?
Yeah. It's time for a sea monster.
Suddenly - and it had to have been 'suddenly' because anything like 'slowly but surely' or 'casually' would naturally have been of great insult to the name of such creatures - a sea monster roared up out of the water. It emerged to the side of the Yellow Dart in a great eruption of foam and water and loud guttural sounds.
"Roar!!" the monster roared with an impressive double-exclamation mark, and simultaneously got the deck all wet, took the heat off of the incompetent writer and spoiled the pleasant afternoon. It closely resembled 'the legendary Black Beast of Aaauugh' from Monty Python's movie "The Quest for the Holy Grail," which had also been a clever tool of distraction.
As such, it was all horns and teeth and eyeballs, and shook its bearded chin menacingly at the crew who had been politely waiting for the author to finish before they acknowledged it. It thrashed about in the water and its bulk caused the Yellow Dart to bob and lean to one side. Will and Dana, though land lubbers they were not, had never had the opportunity to come into contact with such a creature and were appropriately terrified.
"What in the HELL is that?" Dana cried, and quickly removed herself from the railing at the side of the ship. Carly had disappeared into the rigging in less time than it took for the creature to swing its head around to track her, and so Jack was left as the closest bipedal morsel . He was on his feet with his sword in hand and oriented it at the snout of the monster very fast. The coin had not left his other hand.
"That," Jack called to her, "is a sea monster! A large and evidently rather toothy one."
"I can see that, thank you!" Dana snapped back, and drew her pistols.
Melanie had a firm grip on her own sword. "Into just what waters have you been leading us, Mister Sparrow?" While the captain did not seem overly panicked, both she and Matthew were very white. Gibbs and his lovely baritone voice looked ill, and Jones and Carine had been discussing the finer points of the restaurant business until they were both sprayed with sea monster water and abruptly decided to never serve fish again.
The monster heaved itself upwards until Jack was covered completely by its shadow. It shifted its gaze from the pirate with the shining metal below it to the figure in the hat and billowing coat that held no weapon it recognized, and its decision was not a difficult one. With a bellow, it descended upon Dana Flint.
Dana had not expected this. In fact, she was having difficulty convincing herself that the ghoul that loomed before her was ~real~, never mind opening its gaping mouth to take her in. Sea monsters were from storybooks. But before she was eaten with this last thought in her head, a flash of gold traveled across the monster's field of vision and it turned its head to the side to follow. Dazed, Dana watched Jack charge up to the monster after tossing his coin and reach over his head to stick his sword in its neck. Melanie raced across the deck with a cry, leaving Matthew and Gibbs at the helm. A startled Will found his swords in his hands and convinced himself that, given the situation, they might come in handy. He joined Melanie and Jack before the sea creature's face.
While the rest of the crew of the Yellow Dart scrambled to keep the ship afloat, the monster abandoned its hunt for the gold piece and twisted its supple neck around so that it could glare properly at its attackers. Jack hauled his blade out of the neck that he had pierced and was drenched with sea monster blood. There came a loud squeal from the creature, and Melanie and Will brought their swords down to bear on its sensitive snout, which was something that it did not care for. At long last, Dana found a grip on her bearings and unloaded both her pistols at the creature - one shot of which tore through its little ear while the other was embedded solidly in its chin.
It roared and whipped its head from side to side and in doing so, flung Melanie's sword into the sea. Will again slashed at its nose, and the sword-less Melanie swiftly punched the monster in one of its many eyes with a sharp "Hee-YAH!" that startled everyone. But it did the trick, because the cousin of the legendary Black Beast of Aaauugh had been finally been upset to the point that it decided it did not care for its current company and descended back into the sea.
The whole ordeal had not lasted long, but Melanie, Will and Jack watched its horned head disappear before relaxing. Melanie turned to survey her ship. She looked pointedly at Dana.
"Are you all right?"
Dana nodded slowly. She glanced quickly towards Jack, who was making a face at the mess that covered his cutlass. "You saved me from being eaten," she said.
"Don't think it didn't cost you," Jack replied. "You owe me that shilling." While Will took Jack's sword to examine it, the pirate addressed Melanie. "Wonderful performance darling, really quite remarkable. But may I inquire as to the nature of that last exclamation?"
Melanie tried to remember what it was Jack was referring to, then looked sheepish. "Oh that. Well, a pirate's got to have a full resumé. I can use more than shot and sword to defend myself."
While Jack and the rest of the crew had a good laugh, Will peered over the bowsprit. "Look!" he called. "I can see land!"
"Wot a stroke o'luck!" Carine agreed as she wrung out her hair. "Imagine, tha', findin' land just as we 'ave no more sea creature t'face."
"And what's more," Melanie remarked, "it appears that the ship is completely undamaged!"
There was a great 'hooray!' from the crew and from Gibbs' lovely baritone voice, and both Jack and Gibbs were very grateful to have found themselves on such an efficient and entertaining ship as the Yellow Dart - though neither of them ever ate fish again.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It was night. It was night because time had passed. And maybe almost enough time had passed that the Yellow Dart was very close to wherever it was that Jack was directing her. One can only and desperately hope.
Time was funny when you sailed, thought Captain Melanie Cash, and adjusted the wheel under her hands. The only thing that marked it was the rise and set of the sun: there were no landmarks to reach or to pass, and if there were they would be useless during the night anyway, when the vast expanse of blue deepened into a vast expanse of black and there was no difference between the water and the sky. There were only stars - stars to assure you that your eyes weren't closed; stars that stabbed through the dark and spun over your head.
How was it, Melanie often wondered, that so much trust could be placed in something that was so distant and unfeeling? In something that might not even be real? To navigate at night meant you had to read the stars and mark a path beneath them. To navigate was to trust them and to accept their far-away glow as guidance. Melanie had learned, after long years of cruising across the black depths while they wheeled above, that their voiceless winks and shimmers did speak truth to a proper listener or observer.
But on those same travels she had also learned that earthly bodies often did not prove as trustworthy as the celestial ones. On the travels where she had learned to read and watch the heavens, she had learned that it was both possible and wise to do the same to people.
And here had come Dana Flint.
Will appeared at ease enough with the young woman, but Melanie reminded herself that the relatively naive blacksmith, while certainly sharper than many, had not been raised a pirate - it was trust that people drew out of him before his cutlass, not the other way around. That was not only a shame, it was something that might soon prove to be disastrous because already Flint was aboard the ship. The Yellow Dart shuddered gently and moaned in her sleep, and Melanie adjusted the wheel again. Hair that the captain could not see whipped around her face as the night wind pulsed against the Dart's sails. Her ship's sails.
Melanie could not say what it was about Flint that bothered her, nor what it was that had unsettled her sleep to the point that she had taken the helm from Jack and sent him to early bed. But there was something in the way the woman's coat fell about her, in the way she angled her cap down over her eyes, and in her quiet observance of Jack that Melanie had seen and recognized: there was more to this Flint than the lass let on, she was sure. Perhaps more than even Will could see.
No doubt time and the stars would tell, but the mistress of the Yellow Dart has not acquired her position by waiting with wide eyes and bated breath. She made up her mind to speak with Flint at her first opportunity on the morrow.
~
"... yo ho, a pirate's life for me," he finished to the polite applause of Will and Melanie. The singer bowed graciously, and made as if to tip a non-existent hat.
"What a lovely baritone voice you have, Gibbs," Melanie remarked. "That song was truly meant to be sung by you."
A short distance away and perched on the side railing, Jack snapped his head around at that casual comment, causing his beads to jangle and the little Carly to jab him in the side with a finger.
"You're s'posed to be teachin' me, mister Sparrow."
Jack turned back to her with a smile that was not entirely apologetic. He raised his eyebrows and gestured, imploring her. "Do forgive me, my dear. But it seems that impetuous bearded wretch over there has stolen my song." Carly shook her head
"The nerve."
"Agreed, darling. The nerve. Now where were we?"
It so happened that where they were was in the midst of a lesson on sleight-of-hand. On the condition that Milton sit elsewhere - indeed, the monkey had been dozing on Melanie's shoulder and was startled awake by her clapping - Jack had agreed to teach Carly the fine art of taking an object into one's hand and making it 'disappear.' She had become interested in it after he and Will had entertained the crew the previous evening by telling them the story of their adventure with the Black Pearl and the demise of Barbossa. Carly had instantly picked up on the merit of having the talent of making things invisible in one's hands, especially if Jack had been able to use it in such a creative way, and she had begged to be taught.
So Jack now produced a coin and passed it over each of his ringed fingers to Carly's delight, then flipped it back across the opposite way. While she continued to watch with bright eyes, Jack took the coin into his palm and closed his hand. When he opened it and flexed his fingers, the coin was gone and Carly's mouth was wide open.
"Wow!" Jack looked pleased.
"That's what I did. I can show you how, if you like." Carly nodded, and the coin reappeared in Jack's hand.
"If you're going to be giving lessons," said Dana Flint from over Jack's shoulder, "I would love to be in on them." Jack heard the clack of boots on the deck and looked up to see her peer into his hand. "Useful talent, that." Melanie glanced over. This was Flint's first appearance of the day. Apparently she and Gibbs had discovered one of the Yellow Dart's kegs of ale the evening before and had not found it particularly necessary to rise early the next morning.
While the little pirate was virtually vibrating with excited anticipation, Jack regarded Dana. "It's kept me out of a spot or two." He winked, and Dana settled herself atop a crate.
He then proceeded to demonstrate how the coin had disappeared, and if anyone out there knows how it was actually done, please don't hesitate to tell me. Seriously. I thought it would be cool to talk about, but now I have no idea. No idea. None.
Well ... this has gotten a little awkward, hasn't it? I mean, being that the author is supposed to be all knowing and everything. Huh.
Does anyone else hear crickets?
Yeah. It's time for a sea monster.
Suddenly - and it had to have been 'suddenly' because anything like 'slowly but surely' or 'casually' would naturally have been of great insult to the name of such creatures - a sea monster roared up out of the water. It emerged to the side of the Yellow Dart in a great eruption of foam and water and loud guttural sounds.
"Roar!!" the monster roared with an impressive double-exclamation mark, and simultaneously got the deck all wet, took the heat off of the incompetent writer and spoiled the pleasant afternoon. It closely resembled 'the legendary Black Beast of Aaauugh' from Monty Python's movie "The Quest for the Holy Grail," which had also been a clever tool of distraction.
As such, it was all horns and teeth and eyeballs, and shook its bearded chin menacingly at the crew who had been politely waiting for the author to finish before they acknowledged it. It thrashed about in the water and its bulk caused the Yellow Dart to bob and lean to one side. Will and Dana, though land lubbers they were not, had never had the opportunity to come into contact with such a creature and were appropriately terrified.
"What in the HELL is that?" Dana cried, and quickly removed herself from the railing at the side of the ship. Carly had disappeared into the rigging in less time than it took for the creature to swing its head around to track her, and so Jack was left as the closest bipedal morsel . He was on his feet with his sword in hand and oriented it at the snout of the monster very fast. The coin had not left his other hand.
"That," Jack called to her, "is a sea monster! A large and evidently rather toothy one."
"I can see that, thank you!" Dana snapped back, and drew her pistols.
Melanie had a firm grip on her own sword. "Into just what waters have you been leading us, Mister Sparrow?" While the captain did not seem overly panicked, both she and Matthew were very white. Gibbs and his lovely baritone voice looked ill, and Jones and Carine had been discussing the finer points of the restaurant business until they were both sprayed with sea monster water and abruptly decided to never serve fish again.
The monster heaved itself upwards until Jack was covered completely by its shadow. It shifted its gaze from the pirate with the shining metal below it to the figure in the hat and billowing coat that held no weapon it recognized, and its decision was not a difficult one. With a bellow, it descended upon Dana Flint.
Dana had not expected this. In fact, she was having difficulty convincing herself that the ghoul that loomed before her was ~real~, never mind opening its gaping mouth to take her in. Sea monsters were from storybooks. But before she was eaten with this last thought in her head, a flash of gold traveled across the monster's field of vision and it turned its head to the side to follow. Dazed, Dana watched Jack charge up to the monster after tossing his coin and reach over his head to stick his sword in its neck. Melanie raced across the deck with a cry, leaving Matthew and Gibbs at the helm. A startled Will found his swords in his hands and convinced himself that, given the situation, they might come in handy. He joined Melanie and Jack before the sea creature's face.
While the rest of the crew of the Yellow Dart scrambled to keep the ship afloat, the monster abandoned its hunt for the gold piece and twisted its supple neck around so that it could glare properly at its attackers. Jack hauled his blade out of the neck that he had pierced and was drenched with sea monster blood. There came a loud squeal from the creature, and Melanie and Will brought their swords down to bear on its sensitive snout, which was something that it did not care for. At long last, Dana found a grip on her bearings and unloaded both her pistols at the creature - one shot of which tore through its little ear while the other was embedded solidly in its chin.
It roared and whipped its head from side to side and in doing so, flung Melanie's sword into the sea. Will again slashed at its nose, and the sword-less Melanie swiftly punched the monster in one of its many eyes with a sharp "Hee-YAH!" that startled everyone. But it did the trick, because the cousin of the legendary Black Beast of Aaauugh had been finally been upset to the point that it decided it did not care for its current company and descended back into the sea.
The whole ordeal had not lasted long, but Melanie, Will and Jack watched its horned head disappear before relaxing. Melanie turned to survey her ship. She looked pointedly at Dana.
"Are you all right?"
Dana nodded slowly. She glanced quickly towards Jack, who was making a face at the mess that covered his cutlass. "You saved me from being eaten," she said.
"Don't think it didn't cost you," Jack replied. "You owe me that shilling." While Will took Jack's sword to examine it, the pirate addressed Melanie. "Wonderful performance darling, really quite remarkable. But may I inquire as to the nature of that last exclamation?"
Melanie tried to remember what it was Jack was referring to, then looked sheepish. "Oh that. Well, a pirate's got to have a full resumé. I can use more than shot and sword to defend myself."
While Jack and the rest of the crew had a good laugh, Will peered over the bowsprit. "Look!" he called. "I can see land!"
"Wot a stroke o'luck!" Carine agreed as she wrung out her hair. "Imagine, tha', findin' land just as we 'ave no more sea creature t'face."
"And what's more," Melanie remarked, "it appears that the ship is completely undamaged!"
There was a great 'hooray!' from the crew and from Gibbs' lovely baritone voice, and both Jack and Gibbs were very grateful to have found themselves on such an efficient and entertaining ship as the Yellow Dart - though neither of them ever ate fish again.