Chapter 3
"Here we are…Tortuga…we will need to be armed"
"I am ready" Legolas and jack had reached the agreement that Legolas would be treated as will's son "it may be the only way that I can manage to recruit a crew"
Tortuga was one of the worst places that Legolas had ever seen, all of the occupants seemed to be drunk and intent of brawling until the dawn broke, jack had just given him a briefing on the laws of Tortuga and finished with
"…sad has been the life that has not breathed deep the prelifilos bouquet that is Tortuga, savvy…what do you think of it?"
"The memory will linger"
"I tell you mate if every town in the world was like this one no man would ever feel unwanted…"
"An elf still would"
"…Scarlet!"
Great now the man would go off after his prostitutes for the night, Legolas was surprised to hear a loud smack of a woman's hand passing over a man's face and looked to see jack muttering "not sure I deserved that"
"Giselle…"
"Who was she?"
"What?"
By the sound of it Mr Sparrow's head had been hit with considerable force again
"What was that about not feeling unwanted?"
"Oh stow that sort of talk…we must try to find Gibbs"
"Gibbs? Did he come from the royal merchant navy?"
"Yes…how did you know that?"
"I met him on his last voyage with that navy, he may even recognise me"
They found Gibbs sleeping with some pigs behind an inn, jack emptied the bucket he was carrying on the mans head
"Curse you for breathing you slack jawed idiot…mothers love, jack…you should know better than to wake a man when he is sleeping it is bad luck"
"Fortunately I know how to counter it…the man who did the waking buys the man who was asleeping a drink and the man who was asleeping drinks it whilst listening to a proposition from the man who did the waking, savvy"
A look of puzzlement passed across Gibbs' face before he smiled and said
"Aye that will about do it…" as he stood up Legolas poured his bucket over the man's head
"Blast I'm already awake"
"That was for the smell…but I do not believe it was sufficient"
"Who is that?"
"Will Turner…"
"you again…you look no older than you did eight years ago…you had better be careful jack, this man cant fight like a demon, you know he…"
"Gibbs I am sure that Mr sparrow does not need my life history"
"Of course and there is that proposition jack mentioned"
They made their way to a nearby inn, jack and Gibbs sat down to discuss matters over a drink, Legolas sat near to them trying and failing to get drunk
"Will, how many rums is that now?" asked Gibbs; it seemed that they had reached a decision
"This is only my twenty third"
"Twenty third?"
"I don't get drunk easily…what have you decided?"
"I am to find jack a crew, I think it will take me all of tonight" with that Gibbs took his leave
"Twenty three, flagons of rum?"
"Elvish wine was much stronger than this man made slops"
"Well if that is the case then you and I are going to the Barnaby Shark…there are drinking competitions all night there…I may be able to make some money"
"And might even be able to get drunk, I have not managed to do so for about three thousand years"
"That is far too long for anyone to be sober for…"
They made their way to the Barnaby Shark, it was a large hovel with few tables at each table there were people drinking liquors seeing who could drink the most before passing out…jack made his way over to the bar and started to talk to the man behind it
"…surely you don't want to enter"
"No but my mate here does…do you have anyone who might want to drink against him?"
"Most of my men will beat him easily!"
"Are you sure of that? Sure enough to bet on it?"
"…Monsey…how much have you had?"
"Nothing yet sir"
"I want you to go against…what's your boy's name?"
"Tom Harrow"
"Has your boy drunk anything yet?"
"A little"
Legolas heard no more of the conversation as Monsey came and sat down in front of him, Monsey was thin man, and he was shorter than Legolas by a head
"Well we had better take a seat, drinks will be coming soon, I ain't seen you here before, how do you know jack sparrow?"
"I knew him as a boy"
"Right, here goes, ah rum, now I am willing to bet that you are under the table after less than six of these beauties"
"Really? I am willing to bet that I can manage far more"
"Very well but what are you going to bet?"
"The only thing of value I own is this…" Legolas drew out his amulet and placed it on the table, the mans eyes grew large when he saw it; Legolas covered it with a hand, "what will you bet?"
"Five gold coins"
"Then let us commence, if you will allow it I would prefer to keep this on my person until the end of the match"
"Very well…it will be easy enough to take when you are unconscious"
The bartender and jack came over
"Are we all ready to start?"
"Yes"
"then commence", Legolas picked up the flagon and drained it in a similar manner as he had drained the other twenty three he had drunk that evening, Legolas could see that Monsey was pouring half of his drink down his front but this did not matter, once he had drained his sixth flagon Legolas received five gold coins from Monsey
"You know, you would get drunk more easily if you actually drank the entire glass"
"Are you accusing me of cheating?"
"Yes, your jacket is soaked with rum,"
"Is it? I hadn't noticed, boy you should know something…this is Tortuga cheating is permitted"
"well then, I will just have to help you along" with that Legolas hit the man over the head to fast for the human eye to follow, out of the corner of his eye he saw jack receive some money from the bartender and then approach him,
"Tom…do you reckon you can manage another competition?"
"Easily, that man cheated anyway"
"Sorry I forgot to mention that…"
"It matters not…I knocked him unconscious anyway"
Jack looked impressed, but said only, "you won't get drunk if you knock out all your opponents"
seven drinking matches later Legolas had become the centre of attention at the Barnaby shark with people betting on when he would finally go under, Legolas found it faintly annoying that these men could only manage about eleven of twelve flagons before they went under, the man sitting opposite him now was apparently the drinking champion of Tortuga, the man was fresh and had drunk nothing all evening whereas Legolas had drunk somewhere between eighty and ninety that evening, the man's record was thirty flagons, they settled down to talking and drinking, after ten flagons the man's voice began to slur
"Mate, you…still doing alright?"
"I am doing perfectly well, thank you, I have only had eighty odd flagons of rum this night" this rum was barely even alcoholic by elven standards
He heard muttering behind him, "eighty flagons? He's had sixty odd here…how can a man drink so much? I won't envy him in the morning…"
How much longer would it take him to become drunk, he thought wistfully of the barrels of wine in his father's wine cellars.
"Tom?"
"Yes Aragorn"
"What the hell did you call me?"
"Sorry jack I was reminiscing on times past,"
"Your opponent has passed out…there is no one else left to challenge you…are you drunk?"
"Not yet…it is hard to tell when I will get drunk, it comes suddenly and when it happens you will be blessed with the pleasure of my singing"
"Then shall we go to the bar and try stronger spirits?"
"Yes that would sound like a good idea"
They headed up to the bar
"Hey mate, tom here wants more to drink"
"More to drink? That lad has had more than sixty flagons of rum"
"Yes and now he would like to sample the wine"
The bartender brought up a glass of strong red wine
"Hannon le" Legolas started to drink the wine slowly but stopped when he saw Jack looking at him, "there is a problem, mellon nin"
"Well mate, you keep on sprouting odd words"
"They are elvish, which means I am finally becoming drunk" he drained the wine glass in one gulp and felt himself relax
"Tom…you are humming…and glowing"
"It is because I am happy; the wine has made me happy"
(changing to jack pov to see a drunk elf…drunk people don't know what they are doing)
jack turned back his rum hoping to finish it before this boy…man…elf did anything embarrassing…he was too slow for the elf started to create a melody that had no words but sounded like a stream running over small pebbles, then there came the sounds of the dawn chorus of birds, the wind through the trees
everyone in the inn had come to a stand still and they were all looking to locate the source of the sound, jack nudged him in the hope that this might stop him, but unfortunately it caused the elf to start singing loud and clear in the strange langue that he sometimes spoke…typical…jack left his drink on the side board and led Legolas out of the door, unfortunately there appeared to be no way to shut him up so jack had to lead the singing elf down the lanes of Tortuga toward the interceptor, he was so busy concentrating on the elf that he did not notice that he was being surrounded until it was too late
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Legolas was able to see through the drunken haze for all of three seconds but those three seconds told him that this was a very bad time to be drunk, he thought back to all the healing methods that Estel had taught him, and yes there was a method for becoming undrunk in a hurry, he forced away the haze for enough time to make a large cut on the back of his hand and then concentrated on pushing all the alcohol out of his body, he was rewarded as his mind became clearer, he listened carefully as his body recovered
"Give up your valuables"
"Sorry mate don't have any"
"What about all that stuff in your hair? And your weapons?"
"I don't really feel like giving up my valuables, don't know about you jack"
"Tom? I thought you were drunk"
"I realised that that was not the best place to be at this time…but I think there are more pressing matters at hand"
"Come on we ain't got all day so just give them up"
"Well mate, sorry to say this but I think that you will regret this if you do not walk away now…"
the men merely laughed, but quickly stopped when they saw that the people they were threatening had knocked out more than half of their number, as their leader was amongst the fallen they took to their heals and ran.
"So how did you become undrunk so quickly?"
"A trick one of your ancestors taught me,"
"I won't envy your hangover tomorrow"
"I won't get one for two reasons, one I am an elf we can not fall ill, the second is that I have sent all of the alcohol in my body out of it"
"So how can an elf die?"
"We may only die by fire and weapons strong poisons will also work"
"Then I would consider you very lucky"
"we can also die of one other thing…grief…I have almost died that way many times…elves also do not like to be in small enclosed spaces…that is why I made the prisons escapable I would go crazy if I were shut away for any great length of time"
"What was the thing that you bet against Monsey with?"
"That is my amulet, it is part of my immortal life, if an elf wishes to live a mortal life with a man or woman they can give the amulet to said person and then they will have a mortal life"
"We could talk for hours about elves but I also took of some drink in the Barnaby shark and unlike you I will have a hangover…Gibbs is coming an hour after sunrise…where do you wish to sleep?"
"I would like to find some trees if it is possible"
"The wilderness is that way…I will be resting at hangman's lodgings…I will meet you on the dock"
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The next morning found Legolas waiting on the dock for Jack; he had been waiting for all of ten minutes before the man arrived
"How do you feel this fine morning?"
"To be perfectly honest…bloody awful, dunno why I only had five rums"
Legolas handed jack a small hand full of herbs
"Chew these they will ease the pain"
As jack took his morning medicine Gibbs came out of the town followed by roughly twenty men
"Hey there will, how are you feeling this morning"
"Perfectly fine, although all the better for your asking"
"Twenty three rums and you have not a hangover…some men have all the luck"
"Gibbs, do you really think that Will stopped at that? I entered him at the drinking competitions in the Barnaby shark…he was the champion of the night…have you a crew?"
"Yes, feast your eyes mate, every man worth his salt…and crazy to boot"
Jack walked along the line of sailors and stopped in front of an old man who had a parrot perched on his shoulder, upon seeing Legolas the parrot flapped over to him, jack raised his eyebrows
"You there…"
"Cotton"
"Mr Cotton do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and obey commands even to the point of certain death…Mr Cotton…answer man"
Gibbs interrupted, "he can't jack…he's a mute…had his tongue cut out, so he trained the parrot to talk for him…no ones quite figured how"
Jack turned half way to face Legolas then paced along then turned to the parrot which rested upon his shoulder
"Mr Cotton's parrot, same question"
"Wind in your sails…wind in your sails"
"Mostly we figure that means yes"
"Of course it does…well what do you think boy?"
"They are about as sane as Denethor the last steward of Gondor"
Everyone stared at Legolas at this comment, but further questions were prevented by a call from further up the line
"And what's the benefit for us?"
jack looked slightly startled by this voice and started up the line looking closely at each person's face, Legolas already knew who had spoke it was the person fourth from the end of the row, when jack reached the person he drew of the hat that shielded her face from view
"Anna Maria" Legolas heard the loud thump of a woman's hand against a man's face, he turned and innocently asked
"I suppose you did not deserve that one either?"
"No that one I did deserve," Legolas could see the woman nodding,
"You stole my boat" this woman was very angry jack tried to ward her off but found himself unable to…as a final attempt he said
"You'll get another one"
"I will?" Legolas felt this would he a good time to help the pirates
"A better one" he suggested
Jack echoed him
Legolas pointed to the interceptor and said
"That one"
Jack looked bewildered
"What one?"
Legolas pointed again at the interceptor, next moment he found an angry pirate looking up at him
"That one?" Legolas nodded, "aye…that one…what say you?"
The crew responded with a thunderous aye
Gibbs and jack had a short argument about Anna Maria; jack ended it with the final tome
"It would be worse not to have her"
Gibbs came over to Legolas
"Hey there will, how has life fared you these past eight years?"
"I became a blacksmith after I left the navy"
"And what of your brother?"
"Bill was not my brother, although he was a relation in blood to me, he is working as an apprentice in the northern isles now"
"You remember the day you read my fortune?"
"Yes…"
"Can fortunes ever change?"
"No…but do not let yourself be troubled…I must try to return this parrot to Mr Cotton"
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