A/N Whoopsy sorry to anyone who read this before I put up my note. I beg
your forgiveness, and plead sleep deprivation... anyway this is my first POTC
fic. Please I beg of you review, and if you don't like it feel free to
flame, tis a matter of opinion, just try to keep the insults on my
ancestors to a minimum, they're sensitive.
Disclaimer: If it was in the movie it's not mine... / awww why can't I claim it? Because it's not yours ya hear!!!.... uh enjoy
Live for My Dying
Chapter One Beginning with an Ending
She turned her face to the west wind and closed her eyes. Letting its cool fierceness tug at her hair, which fought bravely against the pins which held it cruelly bound. One small lock broke free and she felt it against her face as it danced in the wind. A small smile reached her lips and she tried to concentrate her whole being into that strand of hair, so that she too was free.
Her smile turned into a sigh of contentment, as she realised that her ordeal was over. She leant against the ship's rail, resting her chin on her hands. It was unladylike, but she'd had more then enough of etiquette, and for now she was more then pleased to leave it behind. Opening her eyes she stared out across the sea at the setting sun. She always missed Caribbean sunsets, watching the sunset over the land was never as spectacular as this.
"Getting an education never seemed worth this," she breathed, going over the last seven years in her mind. Madame De La Croix's School for Young Ladies, was in a town a days ride inland, in one of the many mainland British colonies. Born and raised on an island port, the total loss of the sounds and smells of the sea had been terribly unnerving. Homesickness had been a leaden weight on her heart every second she had spent at school, and the burden had not been eased in the slightest by the other girls' derision of her raising and manner. She was new money; disgustingly below their regard, and they had not let her forget it for a second.
She almost sighed again, but the sound of footsteps made her turn around instead. A smile spread widely across her face at the sight of her father. He put an arm around her shoulders and wordlessly they, turned together to watch the sun slipping beneath the water. Surreptitiously she studied him, reacquainting herself with him and noting anything that had changed in her absence, a deepening of the creases around his eyes, the slightly denser patches of silver at his temples, contrasting with his cobalt hair. He was definitely thinner.
Her eyes returned to his face. He was a handsome man, with a strong jaw, straight nose and hazels eyes that lit his face when he smiled. Those eyes were the only feature she had inherited from him, that and a stubbornness of her jaw line. She had often wondered why he had not remarried when her mother had died in childbirth seventeen years ago; there had been no shortage of offers. Not that she'd minded; she had never been happier then when in it was just the two of them.
He had been the harbourmaster at the port of one of the most prosperous islands colonized by the British. She had grown up in the midst of the bustle of the docks, happy amongst ebb and flow of the tide of seafaring humanity. Running wild with the dock boys and listening to the stories of world wise sailors, who were feeling indulgent. Her world was contained there and at the centre of it, always watching over everything, was her father.
The last of the suns light disappeared and it was suddenly dark, her father's arm tightened warmly around her shoulders, once. Then he turned to her and smiled,
"Come inside 'speth, dinner has been sent up from the galley for us."
She returned his smile and they walked together below deck. So much had changed over the years, but always, always he had remained constant.
When she was eight, they had received word of the death of some obscure relative of her father. He had inherited a small trading firm. To most this would have been a paltry windfall, barely worth the effort it took to run. But with her father's patient hand and wide contacts, this windfall had taken seed and blossomed.
It had only taken two years. Two years for him to come into control of almost all major trading rights in the Caribbean Sea. Two years for the world of the aristocracy to open up to them. Two years for their lives to come under the scrutiny of hateful gossips and snide socialites and be turned upside-down.
However her father had not let this faze him, he had seized hold of these new opportunities, seen them as his chance to give his daughter a good life. He was determined that she would grow up a lady, the daughter of Marcus Hunter owner of the largest fleet of merchant vessels in the Caribbean, not Marcus the harbourmaster's brat. And so though it broke his heart not to have her with him, he sent his little Elspeth to school.
Thus began her ordeal. Totally unsure of what to expect, she had arrived, as a grubby, wide eyed eleven year old, into a world of beautiful young girls who were always impeccably clean, who sat up straight, spoke softly and properly and only ever walked gracefully. It was here that Elspeth learnt that everything about her was inappropriate.
Proper girls weren't supposed to be tanned and freckled from spending all their days in the sun. Their hair was not supposed to hang in long brown sun bleached straggles. They definitely weren't supposed to say anything, especially not what was on their mind.
They flooded her world with hairpins that were pulled so tightly they felt as if the were going to rip your face off, corsets that squeezed the air from your lungs and made you feel light-headed and table manners that involved so many useless knives forks and spoons, that's she wanted to scream and shove the salad fork, down the throat of the next person she saw.
Despite this, she endured it all with relative equanimity. She had almost given up once, after the first year. She knew that if she asked him her father would not make her go back. But when he came to pick her up for the end of year respite, she had looked at his face and seen his happiness at the chance he had given her and the words had died in her throat.
For six years she had kept herself detached from her school world, and been as ladylike as she could, because it was for him. And now it was over and her mind exulted at that thought.
That night they ate together in the master cabin, on one of her fathers many ships and they recounted the past few years, perfectly happy in each others company. It was rather late when she kissed him on the cheek and sought her bed. In her own small cabin she undressed to her shift and climbed into the bunk.
She sprang from her bed at the sound of a loud banging on her door. It burst open and her father ran into the room. Immediately she knew that something was wrong.
"We're being run down by pirates," he said, confirming her fears, "Hurry get dressed and come to my cabin, it's the most defensible." He embraced her quickly and then all but ran out through the door. Hurriedly she pulled on her least ornate dress, not bothering with a corset and ran down the corridor her hair streaming out behind her, brushing past members of the crew running in all directions. She reached the cabin and stepped out of the flood people, trying to block out the sound of the conflicting orders being yelled from all directions. Suddenly her father's voice cut through the noise,
"Everyone, not currently needed elsewhere, arm yourselves and go out on deck!" he shouted, and the noise abated and the crew moved forward with purpose. Her father hurried towards her and quickly guided her into the cabin, "Lock the door and barricade it, stay in here and do not move!" she opened her mouth to protest but he silenced her with a look, "Do it Elspeth! I have to go, don't open this door until I tell you to!"
"Alright." She sighed, biting her lip.
He took something from around his neck and put it over her head,
"Keep this safe," he said softer this time. He hugged her tightly and then was gone. She look down at what he had put around her neck. It was his official seal bearing the insignia of his trading firm. In the wrong hands it could do a lot of damage.
Resolutely she tucked the seal into her bodice, closed and bolted the door, then looked around for things to barricade it. She cursed quietly, being in a ship cabin ship almost everything was bolted down. She pushed a small but heavy desk against the door and kept the chair within easy reach, it would be useless in holding the door but she might be able to use it as a weapon should the door be breached.
This done she began to pace. She was in an inside cabin and therefore had no porthole, she could hear very little of what was occurring on deck. Suddenly there came loud thumps and the sound of running feet. They had been boarded. She clamped down hard on her lip and tasted blood.
The sounds from above slowly diminished. Elspeth transferred her teeth from her shredded lip, to her knuckle, her other hand wrenching at her hair as she strained to listen.
Her heart sank as she heard sounds of doors being wrenched open and cabins being searched. She pushed all thoughts of anything but the situation at hand from her mind, refusing to panic. Taking a deep breath she reached for the chair and gathered her wits as she heard them draw ever closer to her cabin. She heard rough voices at her door and gravely shouts as they tried her door and found it too be locked. A pistol fired and a smoking hole appeared where the lock had been.
Quietly she moved across the room until she was against the wall right next to the door. Raising the chair in her hands she waited. There was a resounding crash as many bodies rammed against the door, the desk moved few inches across the floor. Quickly lowering the chair, Elspeth dragged the desk out of the way before they could ram the door again. She heard them count to three, but this time when they hit the door they met with no resistance and four raggedly dressed men tumbled into the cabin.
With a hoarse scream she brought the chair down on the head of the closest one and ran out of the now clear door, away from the still shocked pirates. She prayed silently that they had no friends waiting for them in the corridor, already knowing it was hopeless and that there was nowhere to run. Gathering her skirts in her hands he made for the deck, as she heard shouts and sounds of pursuit behind her.
Finally with the deck in sight she glanced behind her to see how close her pursuers were. Satisfied that they were far enough behind, she turned back only to find her way blocked by a giant of a man. She skidded to a stop, looked over her shoulder begging for an escape but finding only the four pirates from the cabin. She cursed loudly as they all closed in around her smirking. One, she noticed had a steady trickle of blood coming from his scalp, he was glaring at her particularly maliciously.
"Stupid bloody strumpet," he snarled at her stepping forward to grab hold of her.
She back fisted him in the face, making him take a step back clutching his nose,
"Get the wench!" he screamed enraged and suddenly she was grabbed roughly from all sides. She struggled madly letting lose kicks, punches, screams and biting any hand or arm that came into range, but all to no avail. Finally her hands were locked behind her back, by the giant. The bloody one pulled her head back by the hair and looked into her face, she glared at him and he smirked, "Bring 'er to the capt'n." he said to the giant, then he and the other three moved off to search the remaining cabins.
The giant grunted and forced her out from below. She gasped at what she saw on deck, many of the crew had been killed and lay in small heaps, here and there. She nearly gagged at the sight of them, fear for her father churning her stomach. Frantically she scanned the deck looking for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. The giant dragged her to the rail and pushed her across a boarding plank onto a mean fast looking ship that was tied onto her father's vessel.
Scanning this new terrain, she sighed gustily with relief at the sight of her father, with a small huddle of prisoners at the starboard rail. She caught his eyes for a second, and then the giant grunted again and twisted her arm painfully, dragging her towards a tall grizzled man wearing a tri- corn hat.
"Cap'n," the giant grunted in a thick gravely voice, "Found 'er below."
The captain looked her over, "Tie 'er arms Ox," he said grinning, "It's time I had a little discussion with the prisoners."
Elspeth struggled again frantically, freeing her hands for a second, but the giant dealt her a dizzying blow to the temple. Before her head stopped spinning her hands were caught again, this time in front of her, and her wrists tightly bound. An arm snaked roughly around her waist and she was pulled against the body of the captain. He leered down at her then dragged across the deck to stand in front of the prisoners.
"Now," he said in a booming voice, "I'll not waste words on ye lot." Elspeth caught her fathers eyes and he returned her gaze calmly, "I'm sure ye're situation is all too obvious." He nodded slightly at her, and then turned his gaze on the captain, "Ye have two choices, join my crew, or die."
This statement was met by defiant looks on all accounts. One of the young deckhands piped up,
"What about the lass?"
The captain smirked, "The lass of course will be joining with the crew," he said pulling her close to him again. She arched away from him turning her face as far from his as possible. His lecherous breath, sending sick chills down her spine. There was a snarl from the prisoners and suddenly her father ran forward hands untied, with a small knife outstretched.
For a moment Elspeth sense sharpened, accentuating every detail so that it would remain in her memory with a sickening clarity. A loud bang cut through her mind followed by a roaring that drowned out everything. She saw every movement her father made as he jolted backwards once and fell to the deck. His head rolled to the side and for one last second she held his gaze. Then the light in his hazel eyes went out.
With a scream that she did not hear Elspeth ran forward, not even registering that the captain had let her go to fire his pistol. She fell to her knees at her father's side, shaking him futilely, tears coursing down her face. With a rush the roaring in her ears subsided and she could hear, over the sound of her own sobbing, the captain's raucous laughter. Her senses narrowed on that one sound, bound hands quickly finding her fathers small knife. She sprang to her feet,
"YOU BASTARD I'LL KILL YOU!" she screamed her anguish, but before she could take more then a step, the giant and other members of the pirate crew formed a barricade between her and their captain.
Snarling expletives that would have had her kicked out of school, Elspeth was backed slowly towards the rail.
"Capt'n Kerris, I don't think she thinks much of your hospitality." A small whipcord pirate giggled in a high pitched voice, "Praps she expected a tour of the ship?"
Elspeth now had her back to the rail and the circle was growing ever smaller. She looked frantically around for anything of any use to her.
"What a splendid idea mate," the captain said stepping into Elspeth's line of sight, her lip curled viciously at him, "Yer Ladyship may I present my ship, there's the bow and there's the stern," he smirked pointing to each respectively.
She glared at him with all the hatred she could muster. Catching sight of an empty tar bucket she hooked it over her foot.
"And here's the starboard rail!" she hissed flinging herself over the side.
She tumbled over once, twice, and then crashed down shattering the frigid black surface. Slowly she slid into the sea's dark embrace.
Disclaimer: If it was in the movie it's not mine... / awww why can't I claim it? Because it's not yours ya hear!!!.... uh enjoy
Live for My Dying
Chapter One Beginning with an Ending
She turned her face to the west wind and closed her eyes. Letting its cool fierceness tug at her hair, which fought bravely against the pins which held it cruelly bound. One small lock broke free and she felt it against her face as it danced in the wind. A small smile reached her lips and she tried to concentrate her whole being into that strand of hair, so that she too was free.
Her smile turned into a sigh of contentment, as she realised that her ordeal was over. She leant against the ship's rail, resting her chin on her hands. It was unladylike, but she'd had more then enough of etiquette, and for now she was more then pleased to leave it behind. Opening her eyes she stared out across the sea at the setting sun. She always missed Caribbean sunsets, watching the sunset over the land was never as spectacular as this.
"Getting an education never seemed worth this," she breathed, going over the last seven years in her mind. Madame De La Croix's School for Young Ladies, was in a town a days ride inland, in one of the many mainland British colonies. Born and raised on an island port, the total loss of the sounds and smells of the sea had been terribly unnerving. Homesickness had been a leaden weight on her heart every second she had spent at school, and the burden had not been eased in the slightest by the other girls' derision of her raising and manner. She was new money; disgustingly below their regard, and they had not let her forget it for a second.
She almost sighed again, but the sound of footsteps made her turn around instead. A smile spread widely across her face at the sight of her father. He put an arm around her shoulders and wordlessly they, turned together to watch the sun slipping beneath the water. Surreptitiously she studied him, reacquainting herself with him and noting anything that had changed in her absence, a deepening of the creases around his eyes, the slightly denser patches of silver at his temples, contrasting with his cobalt hair. He was definitely thinner.
Her eyes returned to his face. He was a handsome man, with a strong jaw, straight nose and hazels eyes that lit his face when he smiled. Those eyes were the only feature she had inherited from him, that and a stubbornness of her jaw line. She had often wondered why he had not remarried when her mother had died in childbirth seventeen years ago; there had been no shortage of offers. Not that she'd minded; she had never been happier then when in it was just the two of them.
He had been the harbourmaster at the port of one of the most prosperous islands colonized by the British. She had grown up in the midst of the bustle of the docks, happy amongst ebb and flow of the tide of seafaring humanity. Running wild with the dock boys and listening to the stories of world wise sailors, who were feeling indulgent. Her world was contained there and at the centre of it, always watching over everything, was her father.
The last of the suns light disappeared and it was suddenly dark, her father's arm tightened warmly around her shoulders, once. Then he turned to her and smiled,
"Come inside 'speth, dinner has been sent up from the galley for us."
She returned his smile and they walked together below deck. So much had changed over the years, but always, always he had remained constant.
When she was eight, they had received word of the death of some obscure relative of her father. He had inherited a small trading firm. To most this would have been a paltry windfall, barely worth the effort it took to run. But with her father's patient hand and wide contacts, this windfall had taken seed and blossomed.
It had only taken two years. Two years for him to come into control of almost all major trading rights in the Caribbean Sea. Two years for the world of the aristocracy to open up to them. Two years for their lives to come under the scrutiny of hateful gossips and snide socialites and be turned upside-down.
However her father had not let this faze him, he had seized hold of these new opportunities, seen them as his chance to give his daughter a good life. He was determined that she would grow up a lady, the daughter of Marcus Hunter owner of the largest fleet of merchant vessels in the Caribbean, not Marcus the harbourmaster's brat. And so though it broke his heart not to have her with him, he sent his little Elspeth to school.
Thus began her ordeal. Totally unsure of what to expect, she had arrived, as a grubby, wide eyed eleven year old, into a world of beautiful young girls who were always impeccably clean, who sat up straight, spoke softly and properly and only ever walked gracefully. It was here that Elspeth learnt that everything about her was inappropriate.
Proper girls weren't supposed to be tanned and freckled from spending all their days in the sun. Their hair was not supposed to hang in long brown sun bleached straggles. They definitely weren't supposed to say anything, especially not what was on their mind.
They flooded her world with hairpins that were pulled so tightly they felt as if the were going to rip your face off, corsets that squeezed the air from your lungs and made you feel light-headed and table manners that involved so many useless knives forks and spoons, that's she wanted to scream and shove the salad fork, down the throat of the next person she saw.
Despite this, she endured it all with relative equanimity. She had almost given up once, after the first year. She knew that if she asked him her father would not make her go back. But when he came to pick her up for the end of year respite, she had looked at his face and seen his happiness at the chance he had given her and the words had died in her throat.
For six years she had kept herself detached from her school world, and been as ladylike as she could, because it was for him. And now it was over and her mind exulted at that thought.
That night they ate together in the master cabin, on one of her fathers many ships and they recounted the past few years, perfectly happy in each others company. It was rather late when she kissed him on the cheek and sought her bed. In her own small cabin she undressed to her shift and climbed into the bunk.
She sprang from her bed at the sound of a loud banging on her door. It burst open and her father ran into the room. Immediately she knew that something was wrong.
"We're being run down by pirates," he said, confirming her fears, "Hurry get dressed and come to my cabin, it's the most defensible." He embraced her quickly and then all but ran out through the door. Hurriedly she pulled on her least ornate dress, not bothering with a corset and ran down the corridor her hair streaming out behind her, brushing past members of the crew running in all directions. She reached the cabin and stepped out of the flood people, trying to block out the sound of the conflicting orders being yelled from all directions. Suddenly her father's voice cut through the noise,
"Everyone, not currently needed elsewhere, arm yourselves and go out on deck!" he shouted, and the noise abated and the crew moved forward with purpose. Her father hurried towards her and quickly guided her into the cabin, "Lock the door and barricade it, stay in here and do not move!" she opened her mouth to protest but he silenced her with a look, "Do it Elspeth! I have to go, don't open this door until I tell you to!"
"Alright." She sighed, biting her lip.
He took something from around his neck and put it over her head,
"Keep this safe," he said softer this time. He hugged her tightly and then was gone. She look down at what he had put around her neck. It was his official seal bearing the insignia of his trading firm. In the wrong hands it could do a lot of damage.
Resolutely she tucked the seal into her bodice, closed and bolted the door, then looked around for things to barricade it. She cursed quietly, being in a ship cabin ship almost everything was bolted down. She pushed a small but heavy desk against the door and kept the chair within easy reach, it would be useless in holding the door but she might be able to use it as a weapon should the door be breached.
This done she began to pace. She was in an inside cabin and therefore had no porthole, she could hear very little of what was occurring on deck. Suddenly there came loud thumps and the sound of running feet. They had been boarded. She clamped down hard on her lip and tasted blood.
The sounds from above slowly diminished. Elspeth transferred her teeth from her shredded lip, to her knuckle, her other hand wrenching at her hair as she strained to listen.
Her heart sank as she heard sounds of doors being wrenched open and cabins being searched. She pushed all thoughts of anything but the situation at hand from her mind, refusing to panic. Taking a deep breath she reached for the chair and gathered her wits as she heard them draw ever closer to her cabin. She heard rough voices at her door and gravely shouts as they tried her door and found it too be locked. A pistol fired and a smoking hole appeared where the lock had been.
Quietly she moved across the room until she was against the wall right next to the door. Raising the chair in her hands she waited. There was a resounding crash as many bodies rammed against the door, the desk moved few inches across the floor. Quickly lowering the chair, Elspeth dragged the desk out of the way before they could ram the door again. She heard them count to three, but this time when they hit the door they met with no resistance and four raggedly dressed men tumbled into the cabin.
With a hoarse scream she brought the chair down on the head of the closest one and ran out of the now clear door, away from the still shocked pirates. She prayed silently that they had no friends waiting for them in the corridor, already knowing it was hopeless and that there was nowhere to run. Gathering her skirts in her hands he made for the deck, as she heard shouts and sounds of pursuit behind her.
Finally with the deck in sight she glanced behind her to see how close her pursuers were. Satisfied that they were far enough behind, she turned back only to find her way blocked by a giant of a man. She skidded to a stop, looked over her shoulder begging for an escape but finding only the four pirates from the cabin. She cursed loudly as they all closed in around her smirking. One, she noticed had a steady trickle of blood coming from his scalp, he was glaring at her particularly maliciously.
"Stupid bloody strumpet," he snarled at her stepping forward to grab hold of her.
She back fisted him in the face, making him take a step back clutching his nose,
"Get the wench!" he screamed enraged and suddenly she was grabbed roughly from all sides. She struggled madly letting lose kicks, punches, screams and biting any hand or arm that came into range, but all to no avail. Finally her hands were locked behind her back, by the giant. The bloody one pulled her head back by the hair and looked into her face, she glared at him and he smirked, "Bring 'er to the capt'n." he said to the giant, then he and the other three moved off to search the remaining cabins.
The giant grunted and forced her out from below. She gasped at what she saw on deck, many of the crew had been killed and lay in small heaps, here and there. She nearly gagged at the sight of them, fear for her father churning her stomach. Frantically she scanned the deck looking for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. The giant dragged her to the rail and pushed her across a boarding plank onto a mean fast looking ship that was tied onto her father's vessel.
Scanning this new terrain, she sighed gustily with relief at the sight of her father, with a small huddle of prisoners at the starboard rail. She caught his eyes for a second, and then the giant grunted again and twisted her arm painfully, dragging her towards a tall grizzled man wearing a tri- corn hat.
"Cap'n," the giant grunted in a thick gravely voice, "Found 'er below."
The captain looked her over, "Tie 'er arms Ox," he said grinning, "It's time I had a little discussion with the prisoners."
Elspeth struggled again frantically, freeing her hands for a second, but the giant dealt her a dizzying blow to the temple. Before her head stopped spinning her hands were caught again, this time in front of her, and her wrists tightly bound. An arm snaked roughly around her waist and she was pulled against the body of the captain. He leered down at her then dragged across the deck to stand in front of the prisoners.
"Now," he said in a booming voice, "I'll not waste words on ye lot." Elspeth caught her fathers eyes and he returned her gaze calmly, "I'm sure ye're situation is all too obvious." He nodded slightly at her, and then turned his gaze on the captain, "Ye have two choices, join my crew, or die."
This statement was met by defiant looks on all accounts. One of the young deckhands piped up,
"What about the lass?"
The captain smirked, "The lass of course will be joining with the crew," he said pulling her close to him again. She arched away from him turning her face as far from his as possible. His lecherous breath, sending sick chills down her spine. There was a snarl from the prisoners and suddenly her father ran forward hands untied, with a small knife outstretched.
For a moment Elspeth sense sharpened, accentuating every detail so that it would remain in her memory with a sickening clarity. A loud bang cut through her mind followed by a roaring that drowned out everything. She saw every movement her father made as he jolted backwards once and fell to the deck. His head rolled to the side and for one last second she held his gaze. Then the light in his hazel eyes went out.
With a scream that she did not hear Elspeth ran forward, not even registering that the captain had let her go to fire his pistol. She fell to her knees at her father's side, shaking him futilely, tears coursing down her face. With a rush the roaring in her ears subsided and she could hear, over the sound of her own sobbing, the captain's raucous laughter. Her senses narrowed on that one sound, bound hands quickly finding her fathers small knife. She sprang to her feet,
"YOU BASTARD I'LL KILL YOU!" she screamed her anguish, but before she could take more then a step, the giant and other members of the pirate crew formed a barricade between her and their captain.
Snarling expletives that would have had her kicked out of school, Elspeth was backed slowly towards the rail.
"Capt'n Kerris, I don't think she thinks much of your hospitality." A small whipcord pirate giggled in a high pitched voice, "Praps she expected a tour of the ship?"
Elspeth now had her back to the rail and the circle was growing ever smaller. She looked frantically around for anything of any use to her.
"What a splendid idea mate," the captain said stepping into Elspeth's line of sight, her lip curled viciously at him, "Yer Ladyship may I present my ship, there's the bow and there's the stern," he smirked pointing to each respectively.
She glared at him with all the hatred she could muster. Catching sight of an empty tar bucket she hooked it over her foot.
"And here's the starboard rail!" she hissed flinging herself over the side.
She tumbled over once, twice, and then crashed down shattering the frigid black surface. Slowly she slid into the sea's dark embrace.