Sorry that it has been a while since this story got any new updates, but I
haven't had very much extra time, and I have had a pretty bad case of
writer's block, along with a huge pile of homework that I have barely had
enough time to finish without doing anything else.
But I would like to say that I am definitely not abandoning this fic, even though for a while I thought that I might have to.
Also, sorry that the last chapter was so short! I really had no idea that it was that short, because it looked much longer than it really was in the Microsoft word document, and I was in a rush to post something on the site while I had the time and I was hoping that I didn't lose any faithful readers or reviewers!
Please after reading, write me a review! They make me happy and keep me writing the story! I promise that if I get at least 15 reviews on this chapter I wont take more than a week to post chapter 6!
And now . . . DUM DUM DUM!!! The next chapter! Whoooooo-hoooooo!
~*~*~*~ In case you forgot . . . A dull orange flame danced from side to side, trying desperately to stay attached to its pale candle in the thickening mist. The harsh ocean waves entered the harbor slightly tamed, rocking the ships to sleep with a steady lull while still reminding them of the awaiting danger in open waters with the occasional creeeeaaak of planks. No sails rustled in this deadly silence, and superstitious sailors with night duty at the fort on the hill shivered at the mere thought of pirates.
Out of the fog, a man takes three cautious steps forward, but his old leather boots make no sound that can be heard through the dead air. Over his shoulder, the man motions slightly for others to follow with a jerk of his head and a finger to his lips to keep silent.
" 'kay, men, follow up tha' hill," he whispered, staring into the distance. "Tha' half o' ye can distract the guards," he motioned to the men on his left, "and this 'alf o' ye is gonna foller me te get tha lass. Savvy?"
The men all nodded, while others whispered "Aye!" before they were hushed. Although no one could see in the fog, Captain Jack Sparrow smiled that same trademark mischievous smile.
~*~*~*~ Kat woke with a little gasp and sat up in her bed. She had been having a nightmare; she had been standing in a dark hallway, and far, far into the distance in front of her, she saw an illuminated open door, light cascading all around it. Surrounding her were even more doors, but these ones were dark and mysterious. She began to run, overpowered with the urge to get out as soon as possible, but the faster she ran, the faster the light receded into the distance. All around her, the dark doors opened, showing all her friends and family calling to her, and then . . . dying. She tried vainly to break through the doors, but they only slammed in her face when she got too close. There was nothing she could do, but she ran from door to door, screaming and crying, louder and louder, until . . . BANG!
She sat up in her bed, gasping and hysterical, the thought of corpses still fresh in her mind. It was a wonder no one in the house had heard her wild screams, but she was grateful for that. The last thing Kat needed was more nervous friends and family fussing over her as if she were only three.
A powerful gust of wind kicked up, throwing the French doors wide, and Kat jumped to her feet with a shriek as she ran to slam them closed again.
Tears from her nightmare still dripped from her delicate-featured face, and they brightened the color of her eyes to an ethereal sapphire blue.
Kneeling beside the glass doors, Kat watched the tall, regal trees outside sway and groan with the force of the wind sounding as if they might at any minute be ripped from the ground, until suddenly, it was perfectly still again. The sudden change sent shivers up Kat's spine, and she glanced about the room, trying to set her eyes on an object that might help her to unearth some comforting thought from the current turmoil in her mind. Across the room, she spotted a pile of childhood relics; dolls, false strings of pearls, poufy and frilly princess dresses that had never been worn, and a large, decrepit, comforting wooden trunk.
The trunk contained all of the most precious items Kat had possessed as a little girl. They would be of no value to anyone else, yet they held a very special place in her heart. Kat crossed over to it and gently pried it open. Leafing through piles of her own amateur drawings, unusually colored rocks, and wooden figures, a shiny object from the bottom caught her eye.
Drawing it out from the other objects, Kat nearly dropped it in shock. Throwing her hands over her mouth to stifle a gasp, Kat could only stare. In front of her lay a neatly folded set of pirate's clothes, carefully tailored to fit loosely, but well. Beside them lay a finely carved wooden sword, dulled at the tip so it could be used safely by a small child. The shimmer she had spotted had been one of the polished and dented brass buttons across the front.
Now that she saw these, a large part of Kat's youth flooded back into her mind all at once.
Kat had never been interested in girly things, and no matter how polished and proper the gifts her parents showered her in were, she was never quite fond of them. Rather than playing games or having tea parties with girls her own age, Kat had always found a place with the boys. Playing at pirates and soldiers or "borrowing" an apple from a townsperson's fruit cart, Kat had ruled her group of friends with an iron fist. Empty hours that should have been used learning needle point or etiquette had become adventures, and Ekaterina had been shortened to Kat. The pirate clothes had come from a slightly older friend when she was eight or nine, and she had bullied him into obtaining them for her. She had carved the sword herself out of a piece of firewood she had found outside the house in the winter, using her father's expensive silver dagger.
These memories came flooding back into Kat's mind and she sat for a moment, considering whether or not to accept them. True, she had been wild as a child, but years of living alone had tamed her fiery spirit; Kat was much more obedient now. After a moment's thought and a bit of changing views, she mumbled quietly, "I am much too grown up for tales such as these. I should not have been so silly as a child." And with that, she pushed it all from her mind and returned to her bed.
~*~ Captain Jack Sparrow gazed up at the third story window he had looked at just hours before and flooded his mind with his own mental praises. "What a clever one you are, Jack Sparrow," he whispered to himself, "this plan is absolutely genius."
Grinning like a madman, he gave out the next order to his men. "'right, so, here's tha plan. We're gonna climb up tha'. . ." he struggled to find the word he wanted, but finally gave up and pointed to the rose trellis "thing. Four o' ye will wait on tha roof, an' ye," he said, motioning to Mr. Gibbs and another man, "will wait here wit' me. Ye three'll get in an' grab the lass. Savvy?" he finished.
"Aye, captain!" the crew whispered mischievously. Meanwhile, Jack headed back to the Black Pearl to await his captive.
~*~ Just as Kat was about to drift off into a pleasant sleep, she heard a gigantic creak from somewhere above her head, and she shrank back into the many pillows decorating her extravagant bed.
She was about to pass off the sound as an act of the wind again, when she heard voices from outside her window. Quickly, she jerked the thin white sheet over her head, and then slowly lowered it again.
The window was open.
Frightened, Kat burrowed deeper into her many thick, soft blankets. A moment's silence and then . . . there it was again. The same voices.
For a moment, Kat thought she might be hallucinating, her provoked mind turning the reflection of a teddy into something menacing. But after a moment, Kat was sure that she did see something, in the corner of her large room. Staring at it for a moment, it stayed still and then . . . twitched. Kat was sure that it had, she had seen it, and it was not a trick being played on her by her betraying eyes.
Kat had been concentrating on the shadow so intently that she had forgotten to keep her other eye open for trouble. Suddenly, a large, meaty hand shot out from behind her and held tightly over Kat's mouth, preventing her from screaming. Then, the shadow she had seen before showed itself more clearly and whispered "'Ello, poppet."
No matter how violently Kat struggled with her captors, she couldn't break free. They tied her up and gagged her, but not before she managed to claw at a few of them, which drew strings of harsh curses.
They tied a long rope to her waist, and proceeded to lower her down, bit by bit.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, or at least that is what Kat would have been doing if she weren't gagged, Kat thought to herself, isn't this wonderful. What could have been the best night of my twenty years of life was first ruined by a pirate, and now, I being kidnapped. Isn't this wonderful! Don't I just love my life right now!
~*~ Captain Jack Sparrow sat, reclining in a partially torn velvet armchair he had dragged up onto deck from his quarters a few minutes earlier. He was fidgeting uncontrollably with anticipation: he couldn't wait to see the lass's face when she found out it was him behind this devious plot, yet at the same time he felt strangely . . .guilty? After all, it was unfair to the poor girl to have all this happen at once . . . Jack slapped himself a few times in the face to shake off all feelings of sympathy.
"AnnaMaria, get me ano'er bottle o' rum!" he shouted to AnnaMaria, who was waiting below decks, preparing dinner for the crew when the pirates returned from their current mission.
Jack sighed under his breath, shifting his feet beneath him. Any minute now . . . he thought to himself impatiently. Those blunderin' fools, probably stop't a' a tavern by now . . .
~*~ Kat stumbled from pirate to pirate, tripping at every possible moment on her tightly knotted bonds.
"Excuse me, umm, could you please . . ." Kat was cut off as the man she spoke to pushed her on to the next man. "If it's all right will you please cut . . ."
"Nah, 'pologies lass, capt'ns orders . . . gotta stay tied" a drunken man mumbled to her shoving her away again.
Suddenly, Kat got an idea. Instead of protesting weakly to a deaf audience, she simply plopped herself down onto the dirty road, wincing as her fine satin nightgown made contact with the filth below her sore bare feet.
The men walked for a while without noticing her absence, and Kat was finally beginning to think she had accomplished her purpose. Finally! They have left me! Now I have not only solved the problem of walking without my legs, but I am free of those disgusting people! Now the only problem is . . . I have no way to get back tied up like this, and I am afraid that I am quite vulnerable here. . .
~*~ "'et's take 'er back ta' the Captain, and afta' tha' we can get some rum!" shouted one extremely drunken man.
"Aye!" chorused the others together. "we can fina'ly get a night o' fun!"
It was then that the men realized Kat, or, more accurately, her absence.
"'Ey!?!?! Where's tha' girl? Dammit!!! Damn 'er to 'ell!!!" those were just a few remarks some of the men made, before proceeding to retrace their steps to relocate the missing Kat. After turning a few more corners, they spotted her, sitting smugly in the mud as if it were her throne of triumph, still trussed up like a thanksgiving turkey.
Damn it, Kat thought, her proud face falling. They've found me again. Now I'll just have to go along with it . . .
When the men attempted to shove Kat to her feet, she refused. "If you intend to kidnap me, lower me upside down from a balcony, and then force me to walk handicapped while being abused by you lot, you are very much mistaken. I am a lady of dignity, and I will insist upon being treated like one!"
For a moment, the only reaction to Kat's speech was a few heads tilted in confusion, until a tall, heavily muscled and tattooed man with a shaved head walked over, threw Kat over his shoulder, and continued on his way to the Black Pearl, despite all her struggles. The other men simply shrugged and followed, continuing their talk of plans for later in the night.
~*~ By now, Jack had begun to pace back and forth, snapping at remaining crew members out of sheer impatience, even if they had done nothing wrong.
Suddenly, out of the fog, Jack spotted the remainder of his crew. A broad smile broke over his face, but he was careful to hide it quickly as he approached his crew, still feigning annoyance and arrogance. Pulling one man aside, he asked in an exasperated tone "Well, wha' took ye so long, man?"
The man only replied, "Tried to runaway, tha' one. 'ad ta go back an get 'er." This left Jack as the confused one now. How could she run away tied up like that? Before Jack had a chance to ask questions, the man walked away and went below decks, seizing his chance for s good night's rest.
~*~ Kat was thrown carelessly to the decks, and she winced in pain, wishing and praying with all her mind that she could be somewhere else, anywhere else. She was bruised all over, tired, and not to mention on an unknown pirate ship. She lay in a heap, refusing to move or look up. A steady thunk, thunk, thunk, sound got louder and louder, reverberating off a pair of boots hitting the deck with every step, coming closer until they were directly before her. Kat moaned pitifully, trying to act her way into some better treatment. Kat had always been a good actress.
A heavily ringed, tanned and dirty hand reached down and cupped her chin gently, lifting and tilting her head to face upwards.
When Kat saw the face looking back at her, she froze, anger and shock coursing through her sore body. The last tear she had left after the events of the night trickled down her muddy cheek, and she managed a weak "Y-y-you . . . , I-I-I, b-but . . . Will . . . f-friend?" before she fainted, deadly still at Jack Sparrow's feet.
~*~*~*~ Whoo hoo! My longest chapter ever in this story! Please read and review to tell me what you think of it! What do you think will happen later in the story between Kat and Jack? Got any opinions or ideas for what should happen next in the story? Your reviews make me so happy, please leave me one to inspire me to continue the story!!!
But I would like to say that I am definitely not abandoning this fic, even though for a while I thought that I might have to.
Also, sorry that the last chapter was so short! I really had no idea that it was that short, because it looked much longer than it really was in the Microsoft word document, and I was in a rush to post something on the site while I had the time and I was hoping that I didn't lose any faithful readers or reviewers!
Please after reading, write me a review! They make me happy and keep me writing the story! I promise that if I get at least 15 reviews on this chapter I wont take more than a week to post chapter 6!
And now . . . DUM DUM DUM!!! The next chapter! Whoooooo-hoooooo!
~*~*~*~ In case you forgot . . . A dull orange flame danced from side to side, trying desperately to stay attached to its pale candle in the thickening mist. The harsh ocean waves entered the harbor slightly tamed, rocking the ships to sleep with a steady lull while still reminding them of the awaiting danger in open waters with the occasional creeeeaaak of planks. No sails rustled in this deadly silence, and superstitious sailors with night duty at the fort on the hill shivered at the mere thought of pirates.
Out of the fog, a man takes three cautious steps forward, but his old leather boots make no sound that can be heard through the dead air. Over his shoulder, the man motions slightly for others to follow with a jerk of his head and a finger to his lips to keep silent.
" 'kay, men, follow up tha' hill," he whispered, staring into the distance. "Tha' half o' ye can distract the guards," he motioned to the men on his left, "and this 'alf o' ye is gonna foller me te get tha lass. Savvy?"
The men all nodded, while others whispered "Aye!" before they were hushed. Although no one could see in the fog, Captain Jack Sparrow smiled that same trademark mischievous smile.
~*~*~*~ Kat woke with a little gasp and sat up in her bed. She had been having a nightmare; she had been standing in a dark hallway, and far, far into the distance in front of her, she saw an illuminated open door, light cascading all around it. Surrounding her were even more doors, but these ones were dark and mysterious. She began to run, overpowered with the urge to get out as soon as possible, but the faster she ran, the faster the light receded into the distance. All around her, the dark doors opened, showing all her friends and family calling to her, and then . . . dying. She tried vainly to break through the doors, but they only slammed in her face when she got too close. There was nothing she could do, but she ran from door to door, screaming and crying, louder and louder, until . . . BANG!
She sat up in her bed, gasping and hysterical, the thought of corpses still fresh in her mind. It was a wonder no one in the house had heard her wild screams, but she was grateful for that. The last thing Kat needed was more nervous friends and family fussing over her as if she were only three.
A powerful gust of wind kicked up, throwing the French doors wide, and Kat jumped to her feet with a shriek as she ran to slam them closed again.
Tears from her nightmare still dripped from her delicate-featured face, and they brightened the color of her eyes to an ethereal sapphire blue.
Kneeling beside the glass doors, Kat watched the tall, regal trees outside sway and groan with the force of the wind sounding as if they might at any minute be ripped from the ground, until suddenly, it was perfectly still again. The sudden change sent shivers up Kat's spine, and she glanced about the room, trying to set her eyes on an object that might help her to unearth some comforting thought from the current turmoil in her mind. Across the room, she spotted a pile of childhood relics; dolls, false strings of pearls, poufy and frilly princess dresses that had never been worn, and a large, decrepit, comforting wooden trunk.
The trunk contained all of the most precious items Kat had possessed as a little girl. They would be of no value to anyone else, yet they held a very special place in her heart. Kat crossed over to it and gently pried it open. Leafing through piles of her own amateur drawings, unusually colored rocks, and wooden figures, a shiny object from the bottom caught her eye.
Drawing it out from the other objects, Kat nearly dropped it in shock. Throwing her hands over her mouth to stifle a gasp, Kat could only stare. In front of her lay a neatly folded set of pirate's clothes, carefully tailored to fit loosely, but well. Beside them lay a finely carved wooden sword, dulled at the tip so it could be used safely by a small child. The shimmer she had spotted had been one of the polished and dented brass buttons across the front.
Now that she saw these, a large part of Kat's youth flooded back into her mind all at once.
Kat had never been interested in girly things, and no matter how polished and proper the gifts her parents showered her in were, she was never quite fond of them. Rather than playing games or having tea parties with girls her own age, Kat had always found a place with the boys. Playing at pirates and soldiers or "borrowing" an apple from a townsperson's fruit cart, Kat had ruled her group of friends with an iron fist. Empty hours that should have been used learning needle point or etiquette had become adventures, and Ekaterina had been shortened to Kat. The pirate clothes had come from a slightly older friend when she was eight or nine, and she had bullied him into obtaining them for her. She had carved the sword herself out of a piece of firewood she had found outside the house in the winter, using her father's expensive silver dagger.
These memories came flooding back into Kat's mind and she sat for a moment, considering whether or not to accept them. True, she had been wild as a child, but years of living alone had tamed her fiery spirit; Kat was much more obedient now. After a moment's thought and a bit of changing views, she mumbled quietly, "I am much too grown up for tales such as these. I should not have been so silly as a child." And with that, she pushed it all from her mind and returned to her bed.
~*~ Captain Jack Sparrow gazed up at the third story window he had looked at just hours before and flooded his mind with his own mental praises. "What a clever one you are, Jack Sparrow," he whispered to himself, "this plan is absolutely genius."
Grinning like a madman, he gave out the next order to his men. "'right, so, here's tha plan. We're gonna climb up tha'. . ." he struggled to find the word he wanted, but finally gave up and pointed to the rose trellis "thing. Four o' ye will wait on tha roof, an' ye," he said, motioning to Mr. Gibbs and another man, "will wait here wit' me. Ye three'll get in an' grab the lass. Savvy?" he finished.
"Aye, captain!" the crew whispered mischievously. Meanwhile, Jack headed back to the Black Pearl to await his captive.
~*~ Just as Kat was about to drift off into a pleasant sleep, she heard a gigantic creak from somewhere above her head, and she shrank back into the many pillows decorating her extravagant bed.
She was about to pass off the sound as an act of the wind again, when she heard voices from outside her window. Quickly, she jerked the thin white sheet over her head, and then slowly lowered it again.
The window was open.
Frightened, Kat burrowed deeper into her many thick, soft blankets. A moment's silence and then . . . there it was again. The same voices.
For a moment, Kat thought she might be hallucinating, her provoked mind turning the reflection of a teddy into something menacing. But after a moment, Kat was sure that she did see something, in the corner of her large room. Staring at it for a moment, it stayed still and then . . . twitched. Kat was sure that it had, she had seen it, and it was not a trick being played on her by her betraying eyes.
Kat had been concentrating on the shadow so intently that she had forgotten to keep her other eye open for trouble. Suddenly, a large, meaty hand shot out from behind her and held tightly over Kat's mouth, preventing her from screaming. Then, the shadow she had seen before showed itself more clearly and whispered "'Ello, poppet."
No matter how violently Kat struggled with her captors, she couldn't break free. They tied her up and gagged her, but not before she managed to claw at a few of them, which drew strings of harsh curses.
They tied a long rope to her waist, and proceeded to lower her down, bit by bit.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, or at least that is what Kat would have been doing if she weren't gagged, Kat thought to herself, isn't this wonderful. What could have been the best night of my twenty years of life was first ruined by a pirate, and now, I being kidnapped. Isn't this wonderful! Don't I just love my life right now!
~*~ Captain Jack Sparrow sat, reclining in a partially torn velvet armchair he had dragged up onto deck from his quarters a few minutes earlier. He was fidgeting uncontrollably with anticipation: he couldn't wait to see the lass's face when she found out it was him behind this devious plot, yet at the same time he felt strangely . . .guilty? After all, it was unfair to the poor girl to have all this happen at once . . . Jack slapped himself a few times in the face to shake off all feelings of sympathy.
"AnnaMaria, get me ano'er bottle o' rum!" he shouted to AnnaMaria, who was waiting below decks, preparing dinner for the crew when the pirates returned from their current mission.
Jack sighed under his breath, shifting his feet beneath him. Any minute now . . . he thought to himself impatiently. Those blunderin' fools, probably stop't a' a tavern by now . . .
~*~ Kat stumbled from pirate to pirate, tripping at every possible moment on her tightly knotted bonds.
"Excuse me, umm, could you please . . ." Kat was cut off as the man she spoke to pushed her on to the next man. "If it's all right will you please cut . . ."
"Nah, 'pologies lass, capt'ns orders . . . gotta stay tied" a drunken man mumbled to her shoving her away again.
Suddenly, Kat got an idea. Instead of protesting weakly to a deaf audience, she simply plopped herself down onto the dirty road, wincing as her fine satin nightgown made contact with the filth below her sore bare feet.
The men walked for a while without noticing her absence, and Kat was finally beginning to think she had accomplished her purpose. Finally! They have left me! Now I have not only solved the problem of walking without my legs, but I am free of those disgusting people! Now the only problem is . . . I have no way to get back tied up like this, and I am afraid that I am quite vulnerable here. . .
~*~ "'et's take 'er back ta' the Captain, and afta' tha' we can get some rum!" shouted one extremely drunken man.
"Aye!" chorused the others together. "we can fina'ly get a night o' fun!"
It was then that the men realized Kat, or, more accurately, her absence.
"'Ey!?!?! Where's tha' girl? Dammit!!! Damn 'er to 'ell!!!" those were just a few remarks some of the men made, before proceeding to retrace their steps to relocate the missing Kat. After turning a few more corners, they spotted her, sitting smugly in the mud as if it were her throne of triumph, still trussed up like a thanksgiving turkey.
Damn it, Kat thought, her proud face falling. They've found me again. Now I'll just have to go along with it . . .
When the men attempted to shove Kat to her feet, she refused. "If you intend to kidnap me, lower me upside down from a balcony, and then force me to walk handicapped while being abused by you lot, you are very much mistaken. I am a lady of dignity, and I will insist upon being treated like one!"
For a moment, the only reaction to Kat's speech was a few heads tilted in confusion, until a tall, heavily muscled and tattooed man with a shaved head walked over, threw Kat over his shoulder, and continued on his way to the Black Pearl, despite all her struggles. The other men simply shrugged and followed, continuing their talk of plans for later in the night.
~*~ By now, Jack had begun to pace back and forth, snapping at remaining crew members out of sheer impatience, even if they had done nothing wrong.
Suddenly, out of the fog, Jack spotted the remainder of his crew. A broad smile broke over his face, but he was careful to hide it quickly as he approached his crew, still feigning annoyance and arrogance. Pulling one man aside, he asked in an exasperated tone "Well, wha' took ye so long, man?"
The man only replied, "Tried to runaway, tha' one. 'ad ta go back an get 'er." This left Jack as the confused one now. How could she run away tied up like that? Before Jack had a chance to ask questions, the man walked away and went below decks, seizing his chance for s good night's rest.
~*~ Kat was thrown carelessly to the decks, and she winced in pain, wishing and praying with all her mind that she could be somewhere else, anywhere else. She was bruised all over, tired, and not to mention on an unknown pirate ship. She lay in a heap, refusing to move or look up. A steady thunk, thunk, thunk, sound got louder and louder, reverberating off a pair of boots hitting the deck with every step, coming closer until they were directly before her. Kat moaned pitifully, trying to act her way into some better treatment. Kat had always been a good actress.
A heavily ringed, tanned and dirty hand reached down and cupped her chin gently, lifting and tilting her head to face upwards.
When Kat saw the face looking back at her, she froze, anger and shock coursing through her sore body. The last tear she had left after the events of the night trickled down her muddy cheek, and she managed a weak "Y-y-you . . . , I-I-I, b-but . . . Will . . . f-friend?" before she fainted, deadly still at Jack Sparrow's feet.
~*~*~*~ Whoo hoo! My longest chapter ever in this story! Please read and review to tell me what you think of it! What do you think will happen later in the story between Kat and Jack? Got any opinions or ideas for what should happen next in the story? Your reviews make me so happy, please leave me one to inspire me to continue the story!!!