Pirate Dreams
Chapter 3
Caris nodded towards Jack as she uncorked the bottle he had given her and took a whiff. "Nice to meet you Jack Spar...pwoar!! What the HELL is this!?!?" She held the bottle away from her nose, her face was screwed up in disgust, and re-corked it.
"That's Capain Jack Sparrow, and that," he nodded at the bottle in her hand, "Is all you need when stuck on a desert island. Drink of the gods. Her majesties finest... rum." He took a swig.
"Uh, huh." Caris said, unimpressed. She sat down on the sand next to him. "And isn't it lucky that there's a load of rum on a Desert island." She wiggled her toes, noticing for the first time that she wasn't wearing any shoes.
Jack just grinned, staring out over the emerald blue sea, and had another drink.
-
"So, how are we going to get off this island?" Caris asked after a while.
The 'Captain' had been regularly sipping from the bottle in his hand and it was now almost empty. Caris didn't expect an answer. She looked at her own bottle. The pale green glass. The murky brown water. Slowly an idea started to form in her mind. She stood and marched back into the thin covering of trees.
Jack, who was now lying on his back in the sand staring dreamily into the clear blue sky, jumped with a start as he heard a smashing sound coming from the trees through which Caris had disappeared. He staggered to his feet and stumbled his way into the trees.
"NO!!" he yelled as he reached where Caris was kneeling. There was a wet patch on the sand and fragments of glass lay dotted around it. "What are you DOING!" he yelled, horrified.
"I've got an idea," Caris said excitedly. In her hand she held the bottom piece of the bottle which had been left in tact, and was playing with it in her hand, "If we started a fire, a ship would surely see the smoke, and then we can get off this island."
"But... the rum..."Jack staggered forward and fell to his knees at the edge of the wet sand. After a moment he stood. Through the glazed-over, sleepy look on his face, Caris could see anger in his eyes.
"What IS IT with WOMEN and destroying MY RUM!!!!" He thought back to the last time he had been stranded on one of those islands. The overwhelming amount of smoke and fire, and the rum, all gone. Damn women.
As he stood there, swaying back and forth, looking down at the strange woman, he felt overcome with a sense of responsibility. And nausea.
"Don't light a fire." He said. Then fell back over and passed out.
The way he had said it, Caris thought, he sounded so sure of himself and his voice was so clear. That must be the tone of voice he used as a captain. It was a voice strong enough to lead people and command authority. It had worked on Caris, so she put the bottle end down and waited for the incapacitated man to awaken.
-
There was sunlight on her face again. It wasn't as warm and comforting as it had been before, and after a moment Caris felt a pounding sensation in her head growing steadily stronger. A hangover was one of the things Caris didn't need. She very rarely got them but when she did it felt as if all hell had broken loose inside her head. It felt as if a million people were pushing to get out of her brain, and all of them were yelling at her, painting a picture, bit by painful bit, of all the events of the night before.
Slowly and carefully Caris turned her head to glance the time from her bedside clock. It was 7:40. At 10:30 she had a fencing lesson, piano at 12, she had arranged to meet Kim, Sarah and Robin at 1:30 for some costume shopping in preparation for Kim's fancy dress party the next weekend, at 5 there was a barbeque that their neighbours had invited them to, and at 8 she had agreed to go for a jog with John, who lived around the corner from her.
It would be a busy day, and all she really wanted to do was sleep.
Caris set her alarm for 10, rolled over and dozed off again.
-
There was sunlight again, warming her skin as she lay wedged comfortably in what appeared to be a leafy bush. When Caris lifted her head high enough to see over the huge leaves surrounding her she saw that she was actually at the top of a palm tree, about 7 feet above the ground. The sun was low but Caris didn't know if it was morning or evening on what appeared to be the same tropical island that she had been on before.
Looking down, Caris recognised the snoozing form of who she assumed to be Captain Jack Sparrow. On the ground below her feet, lying scattered in the sand, were the shards of glass from Caris' broken bottle.
Taking care not to land on them, Caris swung down from the tree and walked over to the unconscious man. She kicked and prodded his side until he mumbled and muttered under his breath for her to go away. Satisfied that he wasn't dead or too comatose, Caris decided to walk around the island until he was awake.
The sky was lighter than it had been when Caris awoke. It was morning, the sea was calm and the sky was, once again, completely clear.
Jack was awake when she returned.
"'Bout bloody time." she said with no patience. As far as her dreams went, this one took the cake for being the most boring.
"I guess it's morning." He staggered to his feet.
Caris didn't reply. She picked up the bottle end and turned to the now standing man. "Can I light a fire now?"
"Yeah, but first..." he reached deep into one of his pockets, "This is for you."
At first Caris thought he had pulled out a stick. It was a small, smooth cylinder about as long as the distance between her thumb and little finger when she stretched them as far apart as she could. On closer inspection, she realised it was actually a small gold rod with an assortment of tiny stones and jewels laid into it in a spiral, which wrapped itself around the rod.
She took it from Jack's outstretched hand and traced the line the jewels created with her finger. At one end there was a black obsidian circle about the size of a penny. From it came a thin trail of minute coloured stones varying from black tourmaline to dark green olivine. The dark green merged via a continuous stream of different crystals, into blue emerald, then lavender and purple amethysts, blood red ruby to dazzling orange citrine, yellow aventurine and then on to clean white quartz. At the opposite end of the rod was another penny-sized stone, a clear diamond.
"What's this?" she asked after her inspection.
Jack moved his face closer to hers, his hands held loosely together in front of him, "You mean you don't know?"
Caris raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. The way he spoke was as if it were common knowledge.
"Hm." Jack withdrew, "So you really don't know. Well. It's a sceptre." He waved his hands and arms, gesticulating wildly to accompany his explanation. "Rumour has it that it was created by Metztli, the Aztec god of the moon, and Tonatiuh, the Aztec god of the sun, to control the flow of time." He paused and took a swaying step backwards. "However, the god of death and resurrection, Quetzalcoatl, stole it and enchanted it with all sorts of spells, curses and magical mumbo-jumbo."
"Of course." Caris nodded, taking in everything he was saying but not really believing it.
"So, for some reason it got lost and every 100 years or so," he swayed sideways, "It pops up somewhere in the world, and subsequently..." he stepped back up to Caris and clasped his hands together, "...disappears..."
"Soo.." Caris started once she had determined that that was as good as Jacks explanation was going to get, "Why'd you give it to me?"
"Oh, you also need to strap it to your arm before you go to sleep." he said turning away from her to stare out across the sea.
Caris was so unbelievably confused, she didn't notice the faint beeping sound until it had grown to a loud blaring siren echoing around her head.
-
Caris opened her eyes with a start. The noise of her alarm hurt her ears. She turned over to switch it off, only to be met with an uncomfortable jab in her side. When silence prevailed again, Caris reached under her quilt and felt something cold, cylindrical and bumpy.
Slowly, Caris closed her grip on the unknown object and pulled it out from under the covers and held it up, watching it shine in the light coming from between the curtains. She puzzled over it's decoration and shivered, despite still being wrapped up in her warm bed.
It was the sceptre.
-
by astramina
Chapter 3
Caris nodded towards Jack as she uncorked the bottle he had given her and took a whiff. "Nice to meet you Jack Spar...pwoar!! What the HELL is this!?!?" She held the bottle away from her nose, her face was screwed up in disgust, and re-corked it.
"That's Capain Jack Sparrow, and that," he nodded at the bottle in her hand, "Is all you need when stuck on a desert island. Drink of the gods. Her majesties finest... rum." He took a swig.
"Uh, huh." Caris said, unimpressed. She sat down on the sand next to him. "And isn't it lucky that there's a load of rum on a Desert island." She wiggled her toes, noticing for the first time that she wasn't wearing any shoes.
Jack just grinned, staring out over the emerald blue sea, and had another drink.
-
"So, how are we going to get off this island?" Caris asked after a while.
The 'Captain' had been regularly sipping from the bottle in his hand and it was now almost empty. Caris didn't expect an answer. She looked at her own bottle. The pale green glass. The murky brown water. Slowly an idea started to form in her mind. She stood and marched back into the thin covering of trees.
Jack, who was now lying on his back in the sand staring dreamily into the clear blue sky, jumped with a start as he heard a smashing sound coming from the trees through which Caris had disappeared. He staggered to his feet and stumbled his way into the trees.
"NO!!" he yelled as he reached where Caris was kneeling. There was a wet patch on the sand and fragments of glass lay dotted around it. "What are you DOING!" he yelled, horrified.
"I've got an idea," Caris said excitedly. In her hand she held the bottom piece of the bottle which had been left in tact, and was playing with it in her hand, "If we started a fire, a ship would surely see the smoke, and then we can get off this island."
"But... the rum..."Jack staggered forward and fell to his knees at the edge of the wet sand. After a moment he stood. Through the glazed-over, sleepy look on his face, Caris could see anger in his eyes.
"What IS IT with WOMEN and destroying MY RUM!!!!" He thought back to the last time he had been stranded on one of those islands. The overwhelming amount of smoke and fire, and the rum, all gone. Damn women.
As he stood there, swaying back and forth, looking down at the strange woman, he felt overcome with a sense of responsibility. And nausea.
"Don't light a fire." He said. Then fell back over and passed out.
The way he had said it, Caris thought, he sounded so sure of himself and his voice was so clear. That must be the tone of voice he used as a captain. It was a voice strong enough to lead people and command authority. It had worked on Caris, so she put the bottle end down and waited for the incapacitated man to awaken.
-
There was sunlight on her face again. It wasn't as warm and comforting as it had been before, and after a moment Caris felt a pounding sensation in her head growing steadily stronger. A hangover was one of the things Caris didn't need. She very rarely got them but when she did it felt as if all hell had broken loose inside her head. It felt as if a million people were pushing to get out of her brain, and all of them were yelling at her, painting a picture, bit by painful bit, of all the events of the night before.
Slowly and carefully Caris turned her head to glance the time from her bedside clock. It was 7:40. At 10:30 she had a fencing lesson, piano at 12, she had arranged to meet Kim, Sarah and Robin at 1:30 for some costume shopping in preparation for Kim's fancy dress party the next weekend, at 5 there was a barbeque that their neighbours had invited them to, and at 8 she had agreed to go for a jog with John, who lived around the corner from her.
It would be a busy day, and all she really wanted to do was sleep.
Caris set her alarm for 10, rolled over and dozed off again.
-
There was sunlight again, warming her skin as she lay wedged comfortably in what appeared to be a leafy bush. When Caris lifted her head high enough to see over the huge leaves surrounding her she saw that she was actually at the top of a palm tree, about 7 feet above the ground. The sun was low but Caris didn't know if it was morning or evening on what appeared to be the same tropical island that she had been on before.
Looking down, Caris recognised the snoozing form of who she assumed to be Captain Jack Sparrow. On the ground below her feet, lying scattered in the sand, were the shards of glass from Caris' broken bottle.
Taking care not to land on them, Caris swung down from the tree and walked over to the unconscious man. She kicked and prodded his side until he mumbled and muttered under his breath for her to go away. Satisfied that he wasn't dead or too comatose, Caris decided to walk around the island until he was awake.
The sky was lighter than it had been when Caris awoke. It was morning, the sea was calm and the sky was, once again, completely clear.
Jack was awake when she returned.
"'Bout bloody time." she said with no patience. As far as her dreams went, this one took the cake for being the most boring.
"I guess it's morning." He staggered to his feet.
Caris didn't reply. She picked up the bottle end and turned to the now standing man. "Can I light a fire now?"
"Yeah, but first..." he reached deep into one of his pockets, "This is for you."
At first Caris thought he had pulled out a stick. It was a small, smooth cylinder about as long as the distance between her thumb and little finger when she stretched them as far apart as she could. On closer inspection, she realised it was actually a small gold rod with an assortment of tiny stones and jewels laid into it in a spiral, which wrapped itself around the rod.
She took it from Jack's outstretched hand and traced the line the jewels created with her finger. At one end there was a black obsidian circle about the size of a penny. From it came a thin trail of minute coloured stones varying from black tourmaline to dark green olivine. The dark green merged via a continuous stream of different crystals, into blue emerald, then lavender and purple amethysts, blood red ruby to dazzling orange citrine, yellow aventurine and then on to clean white quartz. At the opposite end of the rod was another penny-sized stone, a clear diamond.
"What's this?" she asked after her inspection.
Jack moved his face closer to hers, his hands held loosely together in front of him, "You mean you don't know?"
Caris raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. The way he spoke was as if it were common knowledge.
"Hm." Jack withdrew, "So you really don't know. Well. It's a sceptre." He waved his hands and arms, gesticulating wildly to accompany his explanation. "Rumour has it that it was created by Metztli, the Aztec god of the moon, and Tonatiuh, the Aztec god of the sun, to control the flow of time." He paused and took a swaying step backwards. "However, the god of death and resurrection, Quetzalcoatl, stole it and enchanted it with all sorts of spells, curses and magical mumbo-jumbo."
"Of course." Caris nodded, taking in everything he was saying but not really believing it.
"So, for some reason it got lost and every 100 years or so," he swayed sideways, "It pops up somewhere in the world, and subsequently..." he stepped back up to Caris and clasped his hands together, "...disappears..."
"Soo.." Caris started once she had determined that that was as good as Jacks explanation was going to get, "Why'd you give it to me?"
"Oh, you also need to strap it to your arm before you go to sleep." he said turning away from her to stare out across the sea.
Caris was so unbelievably confused, she didn't notice the faint beeping sound until it had grown to a loud blaring siren echoing around her head.
-
Caris opened her eyes with a start. The noise of her alarm hurt her ears. She turned over to switch it off, only to be met with an uncomfortable jab in her side. When silence prevailed again, Caris reached under her quilt and felt something cold, cylindrical and bumpy.
Slowly, Caris closed her grip on the unknown object and pulled it out from under the covers and held it up, watching it shine in the light coming from between the curtains. She puzzled over it's decoration and shivered, despite still being wrapped up in her warm bed.
It was the sceptre.
-
by astramina