****************************************************************
"Ye've had broken ribs since the fall?" he asked accusingly, giving her a look of righteous annoyance. Much like the look a father would give a daughter when she erred.
She squeezed her eyes shut from both pain and the desire to block out Jacks kohl rimmed eyes, which were filled with a look of such reprimand that she felt uncomfortable. It had been long since anyone had worried over her and she felt very uneasy about the whole affair.
"No wonder you were acting like an ol' woman" he muttered as he went about fixing her broken ribs and bruises as best he could.
Fortunately Dan was somewhat learned in the healing properties of plants around here. And as a result she just rubbed some sticky stuff on her bruises and together they bandaged her ribs. This time with a roll of bandages Dan kept in her boot.
Jack raised an eyebrow at this discovery but Dan just shrugged it off.
They traveled the rest of the day. When they finally rested for the night they were at the foot of a mountain.
Dan was adamant that they had to cross it. Jack disliked the idea greatly.
"Look" she insisted. "Once you're over, the ocean is not one mile away. Your ship awaits you… and it is easy traveling once you're over."
They had been having this debate for the last half an hour, it wasn't so much the mountain… well it was the mountain actually. If they got into this much trouble in a forest that was practically peaceful, think of a mountain hike… Jack shuddered at the idea, but it seemed Dan knew what to press to get her way with him. The boat.
"You'd be sailing again in little more than four weeks," she promised assuredly.
Jack sighed in defeat. While Dan smiled contentedly. How was she going to climb a mountain without the use of her arms anyway?
He sprawled himself on the ground and tried to sleep. But he couldn't. The small fire crackled merrily, there was minimum bug attacks and the ground was covered with soft leaves. But sleep wouldn't grace him with its presence.
After turning every which way, he finally turned to Dan.
She was lying on her back, completely at ease (he noted resentfully). The salve seemed to be doing its work.
"Those men back there didn't look like the ones we met before" he let the statement hang.
Dan grunted. "They weren't, they belonged to an outlaw tribe" she said sleepily.
"Ah" Jack said as if he understood completely. She sighed.
"The island is divided up into four different groups; the city and all its people, the military camp, which you have already had the pleasure of visiting, and an outlaw tribe. Which the military camp hunts."
Jack frowned from across the fire. "That's only three…"
Dan gave a lopsided smile, not bothering to sit up. "The other group is me," she said softly. But Jack heard.
"The men we just met were from the outlaw tribe" she hurried on.
Jack turned questioning eyes on Dan. "What did they want?" he asked curiously.
"Who knows, my horses, money we may have been carrying or some other unsavory thought" she answered casually, sleep plaguing her mind.
"So it's you, the Spanish military and a group of cutthroat outlaws fighting it out in this forest?"
She gave an affirmative grunt.
After his roguish grin slipped off his face he turned serious eyes onto her lax figure.
"Why?" he asked confused. "Why don't you just ignore the fighting? Or leave the island to bigger lands. You can't hide forever…" he ventured wondering if she would just ignore him now that she seemed asleep.
She cracked an eye open to regard him. As if deciding whether or not to tell him. "I can't ignore the fighting, because if one side wins they will focus their full attention on me; as for leaving. No. I shouldn't have to; besides how would I get all those horses across the Caribbean? I'd prefer to stay" and with that her eyes snapped shut and she turned away.
Jack sighed. "You could just leave the horses". But he got no response from the girl.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jack awoke in the early hours of the morning. Dan was already up. The fire had died and now only thin wisps of smoke came out of the ashes of last night's light.
"Good morning Captain" she chirped grinning a huge grin. Jack was taken aback.
The last time he saw her smile was when she was about to kick someone in the face and the time before that she had just trampled someone with her horse.
Her cheesy grin only widened at his nervous reaction. "Have some breakfast, we have a big day ahead of us." She said as she handed him something that was burnt on the outside so he could not guess what it was.
Jack studied the charcoal coated substance, which was as long as his pinkie finger and then looked at Dan suspiciously. "What is it?" he asked slowly.
Dans' grin did not fade; it appeared she expected him to ask that question.
"Trust me, you don't want to know" she said in her cheerful manner.
Jack flashed a metallic grin, "Aye, I probably don't" and without any hesitation put the thing in his mouth and chewed.
At first all he tasted was charcoal, then after biting into the thing a few times he tasted some kind of meat. Almost like chicken. It didn't have any bones or gizzards that he could taste so he swallowed it and smiled at Dan again.
They were on their way up the mountain not ten minutes later.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The first part of their mountain climb was just walking uphill through sparse forest. It got thinner and thinner as they ascended. Soon the trees were far enough apart to see where exactly they were heading.
Which appeared to be up.
The mountain just kept rising. Jack felt sickened by the look of it. But Dan was unfazed and continued to plod up the steep incline.
After three days they were halfway up. Jack cursed the mountain with every step.
It had got blisteringly colder.
They could no longer get a fire starting, so they wrapped themselves in their clothes and huddled into themselves.
It was now he wished he had kept the tacky coat he had borrowed from the Spanish drunk.
Jack had suggested they huddle together, but had been unable to keep the cheeky grin from his face. The moment he had approached (it was a cold night) she had looked at his face for three seconds, guessed what he was about to say and flatly refused.
So they continued the miserable cold journey. It hadn't snowed so far, something Jack was eternally grateful for. But the clouds only darkened the further up they went.
Everyday Jack expected to wake to nothing but white numbness and wonder if he was dead or simply buried.
But everyday he awoke to a darker and darker sky. Half way through the second week the usually blue sky looked a murderous black.
The pair trudged all day and usually collapsed too tired to talk at the end of it. Finally the sky began to coat the two in light flecks of pure whiteness. But it promised that this was merely the first barrage. It would get them both yet…
And it did. The very next day. It snowed continually and hard. Coating, suffocating and half burying them in silent chill. At times when the wind picked up Jack could not see ahead, but nor could he stop because if he did he would become a living snowman in less than a minute. The wind died down, but there was a constant, mildly strong chilly wind that seemed to cicle the mountains peak. It became more and more noticable the further up they went.
Finally Jack called to Dan, almost twenty paces ahead and doing extremely well without her arms. She was so light-footed she almost glided over the snow, hardly sinking to her ankles.
Jack however was used to a sturdy deck beneath his feet and had to dig through three feet of snow every step he took.
"Ye've lost us!" he shouted to the young woman ahead of him.
Dan turned a frowning face upon him. "Not possible, as long as we head up we're right!" She called back but not as loudly.
Jack cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Besides" she added, ignoring the look directed her way, "I wouldn't let us get lost, we'd run out of water…"
Jack increased the height of the eyebrow. "Luv, we're on a flamin' mountain, COVERED in snow. Snow is cold water, we're right for water." But Dan wasn't convinced.
"Yes, snow IS cold water. So cold it freeze the saliva in your mouth and you'd die of coldness. We need water very dearly. And I mean water not ice" she sounded slightly amused but mainly grumpy.
Jack was taken aback.
It was now so cold that his teeth chattered all day long. But the mountain top was merely a days journey away, and Dan seemed to be on the mend.
They reached the summit a day later. Jack almost wanted to collapse on the spot. Just staying alive sapped energy up here. The air was different. It felt like there was only half the air there usually was and he could no longer feel his toes. Dan, who had been trailing behind slightly; caught up. "Why have we stopped" she huffed. Jack didn't answer, instead he flopped onto the ground.
"Ah so it's like that is it" she said tiredly. Jack grunted in response. "Come on get up, you don't realise how dangerous it is to go to sleep in the snow" she prodded and staggered forwards.
"I'm wiped luv, have a little sympathy eh?" Jack pleaded showing absolutely no intentions of moving.
"Get up, it's all down hill anyway. And the snow has stopped" she ordered wearily. Jack grunted.
"Look, I'm tired, hungry and bloody cold" he said in annoyance. Sleep was so welcoming. His eyelids became heavy and he breathed deeply for the first time in ages.
Just as peaceful darknes washed over him he got a sharp kick in the ribs which hurt unbelievably, despite the fact he was half numb.
"Get UP!" Dan hissed at him through clenched teeth. Jack sat up sharply.
"YOUR cold, I have had the same chill in my arms BONE for at least a week!" she seethed at him. Jack blinked and leant back slightly. He had never seen her so mad.
Her stare was colder than the mountain top. Jack lumbered to his feet. "I didn't figure you to be one ta kick a man while he's down" he grumbled as he rubbed his ribs where she'd kicked him.
"Do it again and I will kick you all the way down the mountain if I have to" she threatened darkly and pushed ahead. Jack sighed, now his back was wet and extremely cold.
She was right though. It was far easier on the way down. The snow was harder so the walking was easier for Jack. Freshly fallen snow was impossible to walk on... and in one day they where a third of the way down. Now they could sleep. Only one at a time though, and Dan was the one who was usually on watch. Something about both sleeping and dieing of cold. Jack thought it stupid since it deprived him of sleep. But Dan seemed worried enough to stay up two times as much as he was. And once, when he did fall asleep on watch he had awoken to find her on duty, cross legged in the snow. Where she'd sat for so long she had trouble moving again.
Finally however they got to the otherside, where the snow was thin and melting and forest floor came underfoot.
Jack felt like a walking dead man from those stories about cursed gold... of course they were only drunken tales, but it was the closest thing he could think of comparing his weariness to.
Once Dan deemed them deep enough into the forest for sufficient cover they both collapsed in a heap, against respective trees and both were too tired to keep watch.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jack awoke with a start, as a hand clamped over his mouth. He was slightly groggy, but the urgency in Dans grip jerked him awake almost instantly.
"Move" she whispered and crawled away quickly behind the nearest tree. Jack watched and realised her bandages were off. He followed as quietly as he could. He met Dan behind the tree.
"They're trying to surround us, I'm not sure who. I haven't seen them yet, but we must hide. Be as quiet as you can and...shhhh" she ducked down and peeped around the tree. Three men had entered the clearing the travellers had been in only moments before.
Dan tiptoed away and Jack followed. She moved extremely quickly but remained as silent as always. When they stopped they were next to a big old, many boughed tree. Dan pointed up and Jack nodded.
Apparently they were to climb.
Jack leapt up and grabbed the nearest branch. At this moment a shout rang out of the forest behind him. In a flash he dropped and rolled into the undergrowth. Dan did the same in the different direction. Jack lay so low he was almost level with the ground, and although his heart raced he stopped breathing all together. A man wearing as odd an arrangment of clothes as Jack came into sight. He ran to where the pirate and the youth had been, then spun and scanned the surrounding area. And, despite Jacks silent urgings, made his way uncertainly towards the captain. Soon he was looming over the hidden pirate. Two steps and he'd step on Jack. Then Dan gave a muffled cough and the man turned and lunged towards her. Dan then took a risk, she stood and ran... away from Jack; and the man gave chase. Calling to his fellow men for assistance.
Jack remained hidden for almost ten minutes before he cautiously stood and ducked back into the forest. Not knowing what to do or where to go he wandered randomly for a half hour before he stopped and climbed a tree. He knew only that he could not go back to where he had been and that Dan could probably find him. At least he hoped she could.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Three hours passed and Dan had not come anywhere towards Jack. The Captain had listened to every sound but the only noise was that of the living forest. For a while he dozed against the trees' trunk. After four hours he became worried. By now she should have lost them. And have found Jack. He waited for only five more minutes before a slight tinge of panic got the better of him.
He clambered down and headed into the darker part of the forest.
After going right through the dark patches Jack came to sparser forest and found his back to the mountain he had climbed.
He was heading in the right direction. Soon he could here the sea. It was the sweetest sound he had ever heard in his life. He crashed through the remaining trees to come to a sheer cliff edge, where the ocean met land. For a few minutes he just drunk in the view, watching every wave listening to every gull and finally he scanned the bay. It was a very sheltered bay, and only visible from the cliff on which he stood. Down in the cove the pirates eyes made out a natural dock. And anchored there was a small, but sturdy looking boat. In realitively good condition from what he could see. His heart rate quickened.
Jack searched for a way down and found one to his right, where the roots of a ancient tree, that was growing right on the face of the cliff, made a perfect ladder to clamber down onto relatively flat ground.
Jack sat in the dirt and went to lower himself down. When his hand closed around a metallic object. In curiosity Jack clasped the thing and looked at it.
It was an old horseshoe.
The captain stared at it in thought when shouts started in the forest to his left. Then in a second Jack threw down the horseshoe and pelted back into the forest. Away from his ship to freedom and away from his domain, the ocean.
******************************************************************
Jack barely realised he had been running to help, until he saw the campsite. It was a military one and it was in flames and chaos.
Jack did not leave the ring of trees. He was safe as long as he was out of sight.
He ended up hiding behind a tree that had smooth bark. From his vantage point he was able to watch the commotion take place. The renegade men were massacring the military men. Shots rang out. Guns and arrows versus guns. The attack was random.
Men hid in trees and shot military men who tried to form useless lines.
There were clashing orders, terrified shouts and the general hubbub of a take over. Finally, once the commander of the Spanish army had been shot and died the men broke ranks. Scattering into the surrounding woods. Jack had to duck behind the tree as a group or three military men went rushing passed, followed by a spray of bullets.
A few of the renegades gave chase after the escaping men. They didn't want the general and the main camp to know of this until they had time to prepare.
But most remainded. What they had really come for was the spoils. Even while some of the wounded were still alive the renegades swarmed in. Looting and finishing the job as they came.
Then there was a shrill whistle and they scattered. Taking boots, pots, cigars and weapons.
After all had gone quiet and the eery peace of the dead had settled upon the former encampment Jack crept forward. He stole his way into the clearing, looking in the tents that remained standing and searching for any sign of Dan. If she had been here, if she was dead, had she run off, which way. Anything that was hers. Her bag, a bandage, a footprint. He was still searching when he heard a pistol cock and felt the hard steel of a gun in his back. He froze, put his hands up in surrender and slowly rose to his feet from the crouching position he had been in.
His attacker circled around him, the pistol pointed at Jacks face.
"Well, well it looks like we has you" the translator mocked as he cocked his gun. Jack, his hands still up, grinned.
"So it does eh" he smiled, masking his fear. The man had a dangerous glint in his eye. The other was bandaged, blood seeping through the bandages.
His one eye gleamed maniacally. Jacks' stomach plummetted. The man wanted to kill him. Then there were more shouts and more military men came into the leveled campsite.
Jack felt slightly better. His fate did not rest in one madman anymore.
He was efficiently cuffed and led to the three horses the twenty or so men had arrived with. He was attached to the nastiest looking horse, which tried to bite him the moment the others left him.
Jacks focus however was outwards. He listened to everything the soldiers said, although it was Spanish, and searched the woods with his ears for any sounds of Dan.
There were none.
Finally the men returned and began the trip back to a camp. It took two days, in which Jack had to sleep bound. The camp eventually came into view, it was right next to the mountain. On the western side. Jack blinked, this must've been the reason Dan wanted to go across the mountain there was no way to get past without being caught.
There was an overpowering feeling of tension in the camp. The soldiers jumped at every sound and stared at Jack with malice. If looks could kill Jack would have been dead eighty times over by the time he made it to his destination. There was a quick pitstop at the Generals tent, which Jack had to stand outside of while the two men talked, then he was led across camp to a large, well grounded tent.
He approached it with a sense of dread....
"Ye've had broken ribs since the fall?" he asked accusingly, giving her a look of righteous annoyance. Much like the look a father would give a daughter when she erred.
She squeezed her eyes shut from both pain and the desire to block out Jacks kohl rimmed eyes, which were filled with a look of such reprimand that she felt uncomfortable. It had been long since anyone had worried over her and she felt very uneasy about the whole affair.
"No wonder you were acting like an ol' woman" he muttered as he went about fixing her broken ribs and bruises as best he could.
Fortunately Dan was somewhat learned in the healing properties of plants around here. And as a result she just rubbed some sticky stuff on her bruises and together they bandaged her ribs. This time with a roll of bandages Dan kept in her boot.
Jack raised an eyebrow at this discovery but Dan just shrugged it off.
They traveled the rest of the day. When they finally rested for the night they were at the foot of a mountain.
Dan was adamant that they had to cross it. Jack disliked the idea greatly.
"Look" she insisted. "Once you're over, the ocean is not one mile away. Your ship awaits you… and it is easy traveling once you're over."
They had been having this debate for the last half an hour, it wasn't so much the mountain… well it was the mountain actually. If they got into this much trouble in a forest that was practically peaceful, think of a mountain hike… Jack shuddered at the idea, but it seemed Dan knew what to press to get her way with him. The boat.
"You'd be sailing again in little more than four weeks," she promised assuredly.
Jack sighed in defeat. While Dan smiled contentedly. How was she going to climb a mountain without the use of her arms anyway?
He sprawled himself on the ground and tried to sleep. But he couldn't. The small fire crackled merrily, there was minimum bug attacks and the ground was covered with soft leaves. But sleep wouldn't grace him with its presence.
After turning every which way, he finally turned to Dan.
She was lying on her back, completely at ease (he noted resentfully). The salve seemed to be doing its work.
"Those men back there didn't look like the ones we met before" he let the statement hang.
Dan grunted. "They weren't, they belonged to an outlaw tribe" she said sleepily.
"Ah" Jack said as if he understood completely. She sighed.
"The island is divided up into four different groups; the city and all its people, the military camp, which you have already had the pleasure of visiting, and an outlaw tribe. Which the military camp hunts."
Jack frowned from across the fire. "That's only three…"
Dan gave a lopsided smile, not bothering to sit up. "The other group is me," she said softly. But Jack heard.
"The men we just met were from the outlaw tribe" she hurried on.
Jack turned questioning eyes on Dan. "What did they want?" he asked curiously.
"Who knows, my horses, money we may have been carrying or some other unsavory thought" she answered casually, sleep plaguing her mind.
"So it's you, the Spanish military and a group of cutthroat outlaws fighting it out in this forest?"
She gave an affirmative grunt.
After his roguish grin slipped off his face he turned serious eyes onto her lax figure.
"Why?" he asked confused. "Why don't you just ignore the fighting? Or leave the island to bigger lands. You can't hide forever…" he ventured wondering if she would just ignore him now that she seemed asleep.
She cracked an eye open to regard him. As if deciding whether or not to tell him. "I can't ignore the fighting, because if one side wins they will focus their full attention on me; as for leaving. No. I shouldn't have to; besides how would I get all those horses across the Caribbean? I'd prefer to stay" and with that her eyes snapped shut and she turned away.
Jack sighed. "You could just leave the horses". But he got no response from the girl.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jack awoke in the early hours of the morning. Dan was already up. The fire had died and now only thin wisps of smoke came out of the ashes of last night's light.
"Good morning Captain" she chirped grinning a huge grin. Jack was taken aback.
The last time he saw her smile was when she was about to kick someone in the face and the time before that she had just trampled someone with her horse.
Her cheesy grin only widened at his nervous reaction. "Have some breakfast, we have a big day ahead of us." She said as she handed him something that was burnt on the outside so he could not guess what it was.
Jack studied the charcoal coated substance, which was as long as his pinkie finger and then looked at Dan suspiciously. "What is it?" he asked slowly.
Dans' grin did not fade; it appeared she expected him to ask that question.
"Trust me, you don't want to know" she said in her cheerful manner.
Jack flashed a metallic grin, "Aye, I probably don't" and without any hesitation put the thing in his mouth and chewed.
At first all he tasted was charcoal, then after biting into the thing a few times he tasted some kind of meat. Almost like chicken. It didn't have any bones or gizzards that he could taste so he swallowed it and smiled at Dan again.
They were on their way up the mountain not ten minutes later.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The first part of their mountain climb was just walking uphill through sparse forest. It got thinner and thinner as they ascended. Soon the trees were far enough apart to see where exactly they were heading.
Which appeared to be up.
The mountain just kept rising. Jack felt sickened by the look of it. But Dan was unfazed and continued to plod up the steep incline.
After three days they were halfway up. Jack cursed the mountain with every step.
It had got blisteringly colder.
They could no longer get a fire starting, so they wrapped themselves in their clothes and huddled into themselves.
It was now he wished he had kept the tacky coat he had borrowed from the Spanish drunk.
Jack had suggested they huddle together, but had been unable to keep the cheeky grin from his face. The moment he had approached (it was a cold night) she had looked at his face for three seconds, guessed what he was about to say and flatly refused.
So they continued the miserable cold journey. It hadn't snowed so far, something Jack was eternally grateful for. But the clouds only darkened the further up they went.
Everyday Jack expected to wake to nothing but white numbness and wonder if he was dead or simply buried.
But everyday he awoke to a darker and darker sky. Half way through the second week the usually blue sky looked a murderous black.
The pair trudged all day and usually collapsed too tired to talk at the end of it. Finally the sky began to coat the two in light flecks of pure whiteness. But it promised that this was merely the first barrage. It would get them both yet…
And it did. The very next day. It snowed continually and hard. Coating, suffocating and half burying them in silent chill. At times when the wind picked up Jack could not see ahead, but nor could he stop because if he did he would become a living snowman in less than a minute. The wind died down, but there was a constant, mildly strong chilly wind that seemed to cicle the mountains peak. It became more and more noticable the further up they went.
Finally Jack called to Dan, almost twenty paces ahead and doing extremely well without her arms. She was so light-footed she almost glided over the snow, hardly sinking to her ankles.
Jack however was used to a sturdy deck beneath his feet and had to dig through three feet of snow every step he took.
"Ye've lost us!" he shouted to the young woman ahead of him.
Dan turned a frowning face upon him. "Not possible, as long as we head up we're right!" She called back but not as loudly.
Jack cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Besides" she added, ignoring the look directed her way, "I wouldn't let us get lost, we'd run out of water…"
Jack increased the height of the eyebrow. "Luv, we're on a flamin' mountain, COVERED in snow. Snow is cold water, we're right for water." But Dan wasn't convinced.
"Yes, snow IS cold water. So cold it freeze the saliva in your mouth and you'd die of coldness. We need water very dearly. And I mean water not ice" she sounded slightly amused but mainly grumpy.
Jack was taken aback.
It was now so cold that his teeth chattered all day long. But the mountain top was merely a days journey away, and Dan seemed to be on the mend.
They reached the summit a day later. Jack almost wanted to collapse on the spot. Just staying alive sapped energy up here. The air was different. It felt like there was only half the air there usually was and he could no longer feel his toes. Dan, who had been trailing behind slightly; caught up. "Why have we stopped" she huffed. Jack didn't answer, instead he flopped onto the ground.
"Ah so it's like that is it" she said tiredly. Jack grunted in response. "Come on get up, you don't realise how dangerous it is to go to sleep in the snow" she prodded and staggered forwards.
"I'm wiped luv, have a little sympathy eh?" Jack pleaded showing absolutely no intentions of moving.
"Get up, it's all down hill anyway. And the snow has stopped" she ordered wearily. Jack grunted.
"Look, I'm tired, hungry and bloody cold" he said in annoyance. Sleep was so welcoming. His eyelids became heavy and he breathed deeply for the first time in ages.
Just as peaceful darknes washed over him he got a sharp kick in the ribs which hurt unbelievably, despite the fact he was half numb.
"Get UP!" Dan hissed at him through clenched teeth. Jack sat up sharply.
"YOUR cold, I have had the same chill in my arms BONE for at least a week!" she seethed at him. Jack blinked and leant back slightly. He had never seen her so mad.
Her stare was colder than the mountain top. Jack lumbered to his feet. "I didn't figure you to be one ta kick a man while he's down" he grumbled as he rubbed his ribs where she'd kicked him.
"Do it again and I will kick you all the way down the mountain if I have to" she threatened darkly and pushed ahead. Jack sighed, now his back was wet and extremely cold.
She was right though. It was far easier on the way down. The snow was harder so the walking was easier for Jack. Freshly fallen snow was impossible to walk on... and in one day they where a third of the way down. Now they could sleep. Only one at a time though, and Dan was the one who was usually on watch. Something about both sleeping and dieing of cold. Jack thought it stupid since it deprived him of sleep. But Dan seemed worried enough to stay up two times as much as he was. And once, when he did fall asleep on watch he had awoken to find her on duty, cross legged in the snow. Where she'd sat for so long she had trouble moving again.
Finally however they got to the otherside, where the snow was thin and melting and forest floor came underfoot.
Jack felt like a walking dead man from those stories about cursed gold... of course they were only drunken tales, but it was the closest thing he could think of comparing his weariness to.
Once Dan deemed them deep enough into the forest for sufficient cover they both collapsed in a heap, against respective trees and both were too tired to keep watch.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jack awoke with a start, as a hand clamped over his mouth. He was slightly groggy, but the urgency in Dans grip jerked him awake almost instantly.
"Move" she whispered and crawled away quickly behind the nearest tree. Jack watched and realised her bandages were off. He followed as quietly as he could. He met Dan behind the tree.
"They're trying to surround us, I'm not sure who. I haven't seen them yet, but we must hide. Be as quiet as you can and...shhhh" she ducked down and peeped around the tree. Three men had entered the clearing the travellers had been in only moments before.
Dan tiptoed away and Jack followed. She moved extremely quickly but remained as silent as always. When they stopped they were next to a big old, many boughed tree. Dan pointed up and Jack nodded.
Apparently they were to climb.
Jack leapt up and grabbed the nearest branch. At this moment a shout rang out of the forest behind him. In a flash he dropped and rolled into the undergrowth. Dan did the same in the different direction. Jack lay so low he was almost level with the ground, and although his heart raced he stopped breathing all together. A man wearing as odd an arrangment of clothes as Jack came into sight. He ran to where the pirate and the youth had been, then spun and scanned the surrounding area. And, despite Jacks silent urgings, made his way uncertainly towards the captain. Soon he was looming over the hidden pirate. Two steps and he'd step on Jack. Then Dan gave a muffled cough and the man turned and lunged towards her. Dan then took a risk, she stood and ran... away from Jack; and the man gave chase. Calling to his fellow men for assistance.
Jack remained hidden for almost ten minutes before he cautiously stood and ducked back into the forest. Not knowing what to do or where to go he wandered randomly for a half hour before he stopped and climbed a tree. He knew only that he could not go back to where he had been and that Dan could probably find him. At least he hoped she could.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Three hours passed and Dan had not come anywhere towards Jack. The Captain had listened to every sound but the only noise was that of the living forest. For a while he dozed against the trees' trunk. After four hours he became worried. By now she should have lost them. And have found Jack. He waited for only five more minutes before a slight tinge of panic got the better of him.
He clambered down and headed into the darker part of the forest.
After going right through the dark patches Jack came to sparser forest and found his back to the mountain he had climbed.
He was heading in the right direction. Soon he could here the sea. It was the sweetest sound he had ever heard in his life. He crashed through the remaining trees to come to a sheer cliff edge, where the ocean met land. For a few minutes he just drunk in the view, watching every wave listening to every gull and finally he scanned the bay. It was a very sheltered bay, and only visible from the cliff on which he stood. Down in the cove the pirates eyes made out a natural dock. And anchored there was a small, but sturdy looking boat. In realitively good condition from what he could see. His heart rate quickened.
Jack searched for a way down and found one to his right, where the roots of a ancient tree, that was growing right on the face of the cliff, made a perfect ladder to clamber down onto relatively flat ground.
Jack sat in the dirt and went to lower himself down. When his hand closed around a metallic object. In curiosity Jack clasped the thing and looked at it.
It was an old horseshoe.
The captain stared at it in thought when shouts started in the forest to his left. Then in a second Jack threw down the horseshoe and pelted back into the forest. Away from his ship to freedom and away from his domain, the ocean.
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Jack barely realised he had been running to help, until he saw the campsite. It was a military one and it was in flames and chaos.
Jack did not leave the ring of trees. He was safe as long as he was out of sight.
He ended up hiding behind a tree that had smooth bark. From his vantage point he was able to watch the commotion take place. The renegade men were massacring the military men. Shots rang out. Guns and arrows versus guns. The attack was random.
Men hid in trees and shot military men who tried to form useless lines.
There were clashing orders, terrified shouts and the general hubbub of a take over. Finally, once the commander of the Spanish army had been shot and died the men broke ranks. Scattering into the surrounding woods. Jack had to duck behind the tree as a group or three military men went rushing passed, followed by a spray of bullets.
A few of the renegades gave chase after the escaping men. They didn't want the general and the main camp to know of this until they had time to prepare.
But most remainded. What they had really come for was the spoils. Even while some of the wounded were still alive the renegades swarmed in. Looting and finishing the job as they came.
Then there was a shrill whistle and they scattered. Taking boots, pots, cigars and weapons.
After all had gone quiet and the eery peace of the dead had settled upon the former encampment Jack crept forward. He stole his way into the clearing, looking in the tents that remained standing and searching for any sign of Dan. If she had been here, if she was dead, had she run off, which way. Anything that was hers. Her bag, a bandage, a footprint. He was still searching when he heard a pistol cock and felt the hard steel of a gun in his back. He froze, put his hands up in surrender and slowly rose to his feet from the crouching position he had been in.
His attacker circled around him, the pistol pointed at Jacks face.
"Well, well it looks like we has you" the translator mocked as he cocked his gun. Jack, his hands still up, grinned.
"So it does eh" he smiled, masking his fear. The man had a dangerous glint in his eye. The other was bandaged, blood seeping through the bandages.
His one eye gleamed maniacally. Jacks' stomach plummetted. The man wanted to kill him. Then there were more shouts and more military men came into the leveled campsite.
Jack felt slightly better. His fate did not rest in one madman anymore.
He was efficiently cuffed and led to the three horses the twenty or so men had arrived with. He was attached to the nastiest looking horse, which tried to bite him the moment the others left him.
Jacks focus however was outwards. He listened to everything the soldiers said, although it was Spanish, and searched the woods with his ears for any sounds of Dan.
There were none.
Finally the men returned and began the trip back to a camp. It took two days, in which Jack had to sleep bound. The camp eventually came into view, it was right next to the mountain. On the western side. Jack blinked, this must've been the reason Dan wanted to go across the mountain there was no way to get past without being caught.
There was an overpowering feeling of tension in the camp. The soldiers jumped at every sound and stared at Jack with malice. If looks could kill Jack would have been dead eighty times over by the time he made it to his destination. There was a quick pitstop at the Generals tent, which Jack had to stand outside of while the two men talked, then he was led across camp to a large, well grounded tent.
He approached it with a sense of dread....