Hi! Since I was in such a good updating mood, I thought I'd be nice and
give you this chapter as well. And also, if any of you have advice on which
LOTR sword I should ask for for my birthday, then do tell me. In this
chapter most of the new characters are introduced – I'm really sorry to
everyone who didn't get in, but I had so many applicants! I took more than
I first expected to, there were so many! I had no idea that this story was
so popular... anyway, again, sorry to people who didn't get in. I hope you
continue to read and enjoy this story anyway!
Chapter 5 – Another 'able-bodied' crew?
"Look!" said Helen excitedly, gesturing to the bunch of people standing on the quay. She'd raced up the gangplank only seconds before and woken everyone up from a rum-induced slumber – Jack had not been happy at all. But now she'd dragged everyone up on deck, with the help of Mort. "See? Leave me one night, and I find you the best crew there is in the Caribbean!"
Elizabeth squinted at the group of people. "They're all girls," she said disappointedly.
"Uh, I'm not," said a voice in the middle of the group. A boy stepped forward. Jack looked at him.
"You're Jack Cole, aren't you?"
"Uh, yes," said Jack Cole, looking slightly unnerved.
"Knew your father," said Jack, "Good pirate, that man. And I hear you've been doing a little pirating for yourself?"
"Just a bit," said Jack Cole smiling.
"First Jack Sparrow, then Jackie, now another Jack?" said Frankie in desperation to Gemma, "How are we going to keep up with it all?" She was interrupted by a squealing flash hurling itself upon her. Once it had slowed down to less than the speed of light, and stopped trying to hug her to death, she recognized her as Alex. "ALEX! You came!!"
"Oh no, they're back together..." said Will fearfully.
"And we're louder than ever!!" said Alex, looking scarily evil.
"And, ahem, the saner crewmembers are?" asked Elizabeth, surveying this group of girls on the quayside, most eyeing Will or Jack or even Mort, Mro, Tanuki and Tobias with interest.
"I'm Liza," said one of the girls.
"Is that short for Elizabeth?" asked Elizabeth interestedly.
Liza pulled out a sword. "If anyone mentions that again, they die," she said angrily. Elizabeth backed away.
"No kidding! I'm called Liz!" said a girl next to her. Liza cheered and high-fived her.
"Liz? Is that name short for Eliza-" began Will.
"TSH!" said Liz, glaring, then seemingly getting a better look at him and breaking into a smile. Will looked alarmed.
"And what about you?" he asked another one of the girls, who seemed to have a blue ball of fluff on her shoulder. "And what is THAT?"
"I'm Bulma," she said, looking up defensively at him, "And this is not a THAT, it is a WOB-WOB."
"What the hell is a Wob-Wob?" said Anamaria.
"That," said Bulma, pointing at the blue ball of fur on her shoulder.
"Oh yes, Wob-Wobs," said Jack. He noticed Will looking at him confusedly. "What? Came across them in my travels. They're from one of the smaller regions of Holland, not good at much but are incredible at playing tic-tac- toe. I knew a pirate who had one – good man, went by the name of Wazinski, had a hilarious little brother, now here's a funny story-"
"Save it," advised Will.
"Don't interrupt him," said one of the girls, glaring, "That's wrong on so many levels."
"And you are?" said Elizabeth.
"Terreis," she said, "And don't take that tone with me, young lady, I'm older than you, savvy?" Elizabeth blinked.
"I like her," said Jack gleefully, throwing her a bottle of rum.
"What about you two?" Will asked the last two girls hurriedly, seeing Elizabeth's murderous glare at Jack.
"I'm Elderberry, and this is Eowyn," said one of the older girls, gesturing to the younger looking girl at her side, who was waving her sword around making 'vwoom'ing noises.
"What's she doing?" whispered Will. Elderberry shrugged.
"Well, time to get underway," said Jack, spotting Tanuki and Tobias staggering back from the shops, laden with large caskets of rum, "Now that we've got our new crew and supplies. Everyone to the Black Pearl!" He downed the last of the rum in his bottle and threw it over his head; it hit a seagull, which fell into the sea with a loud squawk. "Whoops."
"That's not more foreshadowing, is it?" asked Will worriedly.
"It's a conspiracy!" said Eowyn suddenly and so dramatically that it made Will jump slightly.
"What is?" asked Frankie.
Eowyn looked at her, still with a dramatic facial expression. "Seagulls." Gemma backed away worriedly, but Frankie beamed, having found a kindred spirit.
***
They set out from Tortuga as soon as all the rum was loaded on board. Those already on the crew from the previous adventure were making friends with those who had just joined and bringing them up to speed with their quest this time.
Eowyn had immediately been accepted by Frankie, as she seemed to be just as strange as she was; Gemma was admired by half of the new crew for being able to resist both Jack AND Will, but she herself had made friends with Bulma, having been captivated by the sheer cuteness of her Wob-Wob.
Jackie was forming a Jack club, so far consisting of her and Jack Cole, and Jack Sparrow if she could convince him, and meanwhile Liz and Liza were forming an Elizabeth club – they had been reluctant to let Elizabeth join, but had in the end. Kathryn and Jackie were also reminiscing over their previous adventure, and remembering the lovely experience of drinking an entire poolful of rum. Terreis and Liza were making friends, because they were united in both being older than most of the crew and an adoration of Jack Sparrow (but of course, they weren't alone in this)
Helen was quickly befriending Mro, Tobias and Tanuki, having heard so much about them from her brother Mort, and they'd quickly accepted Jack Cole into their group. On a ship where the ratio of teen girls to boys was 2:1, they found that they had to stick together or go mad.
Jack and Will however had met at the end of the ship at the beginning of the voyage and brought up the subject of their little bet on the last quest. Both seemed to believe that if they had had a little longer, they would have persuaded Gemma to like them – and both were so firm in this belief that they decided that they would try again. "But remember," said Jack, "No informing Gemma of this bet."
"And try not to scare her this time," said Will, "Don't you remember when you accidentally made Alex drop her off the edge of the ship?"
"I meant to do that," said Jack defensively.
"Hey! Will!" called Eowyn. Will went over, feeling slightly apprehensive. "Watch. I can move things without touching them."
"Really?" said Will, momentarily relieved that this girl seemingly didn't like him in that way, "How?"
"Watch." She went up to the deck, where Jack was looking over the prow of the boat towards where Rum Island would be appearing on the horizon. She left it on the deck behind him, then went back to Will. "I bet that in one minute, that bottle will have moved, and not due to waves."
As they watched, Jack turned round, saw the bottle and immediately grabbed onto it, an expression of confused delight on his face, and drank half of it in one go and then walked back to the wheel of the ship, still holding onto it. Eowyn looked at Will triumphantly.
"But – that doesn't count-" said Will.
"Why? I didn't touch it after setting it down, and I didn't tell Jack to do anything. Ergo, I moved it without touching it. I win! Pay up!"
"What did we bet?" said Will bewilderedly.
"Umm... a sword."
"Oh! OK!" said Will relievedly, "Which one do you want?"
"Umm – that one," said Eowyn, pointing to one labelled 'The Stabmeister'.
"Oooh! Can I have one?" said Liz, walking over, "I've always wanted a sword."
"Haven't you already got one?" asked Will.
"Well, it's not much good," said Liz, pulling it out of the scabbard, "I mean, look-"
"Oh dear, oh dear oh dear oh dear," said Will, taking it and looking critical, "This is terrible handiwork, I mean, look at the bad balance of the blade, and it's bad quality metal – where on earth did you get this?"
"I ordered it from some blacksmith in Port Royal," said Liz. Most of the crew looked up at Will to see how he reacted. He seemed to be fighting to keep an expression of indifference on his face.
"Must have been Mr Jones who made it," he said airily, and handed Liz a new sword. She took it eagerly and started swishing it around.
"Jack, are you sure about this?" said Mr Gibbs, coming up to him as he stood at the wheel of the ship, "One woman on board's unlucky, but isn't fifteen pushing your luck slightly?"
"Don't worry, Gibbsy," said Jack reassuringly, "There'll be eighteen on board if all goes well at Rum Island. Save your worrying for then."
***
Im a Brandybuck – Ugh. Cough drops. Ugh. UGH. Yes, for a brief while, you were the only girl on the ship besides Elizabeth who liked Will. Sadly, you now have competition again.
TBI – Beads are underappreciated! After this, people will never think of beads in the same way again!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Tanuki Yasha – Hello, not suicidal. I could never do that to Jack Sparrow! And only, like, a little bit of gold... and you don't need it, your girlfriend's a debutante!
Quietly Making Noise – Sorry that you didn't get in. There were just too many applicants to let everyone in. Again, really sorry. (gives muffins to apologize) I hope you'll keep reading anyway!
Elf with a Lightsaber – Anakin, YES, definitely. Obi-Wan, hmm, I guess. But LUKE? Too much like Frodo Baggins!! "Your uncle wanted you to have this when you were old enough." "It's a Ring!" "You must go to the Dagobah system and cast it back into Yoda's stew pot from whence it came!"
Theshiz – Yes, I wonder why... hmmm... is it because of the excellent lighting?
Pirate-strumpet - *ack chock* MR COTTON?? And tell your sister that Geoffrey Rush is in a film with Pierce Brosnan and Jamie Lee Curtis, and in it he takes his shirt off. I discovered that rather unwillingly tonight.
One of your many fans – I have fans... that's so weird... I'm fifteen and I have fans???
Hobbit Hugger – You've never seen it before? I've seen enough of it to last a lifetime... I got stuck on a bus on a hill in a blizzard for about four hours, and ended up walking a mile or so downhill STILL in the blizzard to get to my friend's house. Carrying my schoolbag and biology folder, possibly the heaviest folder ever. And also helped in trying to push the bus up the hill in the meantime, and was nearly squashed by it. Yes, I'm not too fond of snow.
CrazedElfStalker – I don't know, because I don't know your real name. Sorry. If you did, congrats! Enjoy the ride! If not, sorry, take the conciliatory basket of muffins.
Gilraen Ar-Feiniel – Then you've come to the right author.
Alteng – Ah. Right. Clarified it slightly for me. Sorry, I've made the mistake before of assuming someone was a girl. And they didn't just complain, they called me an embarrassment! Ah well, they've never liked me anyway.
Elderberry – Thank you. But I have to revise Chemistry anyway... damn GCSEs... 'Alkaline metals have only one electron in their outer shells and react very violently with acids, because of the fact they contain positive hydrogen ions'... Who cares? People who like mixing alkaline metals with acids, I guess...
Terreis – Complicated... that's a very good way to describe me... actually, no it's not. I'm a LOTR obsessed girl/hobbit. Who likes swords. Er... that's it. (sound of crickets chirruping)
Lady Shinimegami – I only ever saw that one episode. Sorry. But I'm guessing they defeated the pirates and got to go home, as it was on a children's channel. Was Mars the island boy with the brown curly hair? Hmm... may have to agree with you there...
Reasonably Crazy – (gasp) Jealousy. JEALOUSY. Howard Shore? AND ROTK??? Some people have all the luck!
1100100101101011100000101100010101001 – All answers to queries will be published in a follow-up Smith manual, coming soon.
Hyper-Elf – I don't know what it has to do with anything either. Who cares? Without randomness, the world is too predictable.
Bulma Greenleaf – Hope you liked your appearance! And the Wob-Wob! If they don't normally fit on your shoulder, then this is a mini-Wob-Wob. What contribution could the Wob-Wob make to the crew?
Happy Easter, by the way!
Chapter 5 – Another 'able-bodied' crew?
"Look!" said Helen excitedly, gesturing to the bunch of people standing on the quay. She'd raced up the gangplank only seconds before and woken everyone up from a rum-induced slumber – Jack had not been happy at all. But now she'd dragged everyone up on deck, with the help of Mort. "See? Leave me one night, and I find you the best crew there is in the Caribbean!"
Elizabeth squinted at the group of people. "They're all girls," she said disappointedly.
"Uh, I'm not," said a voice in the middle of the group. A boy stepped forward. Jack looked at him.
"You're Jack Cole, aren't you?"
"Uh, yes," said Jack Cole, looking slightly unnerved.
"Knew your father," said Jack, "Good pirate, that man. And I hear you've been doing a little pirating for yourself?"
"Just a bit," said Jack Cole smiling.
"First Jack Sparrow, then Jackie, now another Jack?" said Frankie in desperation to Gemma, "How are we going to keep up with it all?" She was interrupted by a squealing flash hurling itself upon her. Once it had slowed down to less than the speed of light, and stopped trying to hug her to death, she recognized her as Alex. "ALEX! You came!!"
"Oh no, they're back together..." said Will fearfully.
"And we're louder than ever!!" said Alex, looking scarily evil.
"And, ahem, the saner crewmembers are?" asked Elizabeth, surveying this group of girls on the quayside, most eyeing Will or Jack or even Mort, Mro, Tanuki and Tobias with interest.
"I'm Liza," said one of the girls.
"Is that short for Elizabeth?" asked Elizabeth interestedly.
Liza pulled out a sword. "If anyone mentions that again, they die," she said angrily. Elizabeth backed away.
"No kidding! I'm called Liz!" said a girl next to her. Liza cheered and high-fived her.
"Liz? Is that name short for Eliza-" began Will.
"TSH!" said Liz, glaring, then seemingly getting a better look at him and breaking into a smile. Will looked alarmed.
"And what about you?" he asked another one of the girls, who seemed to have a blue ball of fluff on her shoulder. "And what is THAT?"
"I'm Bulma," she said, looking up defensively at him, "And this is not a THAT, it is a WOB-WOB."
"What the hell is a Wob-Wob?" said Anamaria.
"That," said Bulma, pointing at the blue ball of fur on her shoulder.
"Oh yes, Wob-Wobs," said Jack. He noticed Will looking at him confusedly. "What? Came across them in my travels. They're from one of the smaller regions of Holland, not good at much but are incredible at playing tic-tac- toe. I knew a pirate who had one – good man, went by the name of Wazinski, had a hilarious little brother, now here's a funny story-"
"Save it," advised Will.
"Don't interrupt him," said one of the girls, glaring, "That's wrong on so many levels."
"And you are?" said Elizabeth.
"Terreis," she said, "And don't take that tone with me, young lady, I'm older than you, savvy?" Elizabeth blinked.
"I like her," said Jack gleefully, throwing her a bottle of rum.
"What about you two?" Will asked the last two girls hurriedly, seeing Elizabeth's murderous glare at Jack.
"I'm Elderberry, and this is Eowyn," said one of the older girls, gesturing to the younger looking girl at her side, who was waving her sword around making 'vwoom'ing noises.
"What's she doing?" whispered Will. Elderberry shrugged.
"Well, time to get underway," said Jack, spotting Tanuki and Tobias staggering back from the shops, laden with large caskets of rum, "Now that we've got our new crew and supplies. Everyone to the Black Pearl!" He downed the last of the rum in his bottle and threw it over his head; it hit a seagull, which fell into the sea with a loud squawk. "Whoops."
"That's not more foreshadowing, is it?" asked Will worriedly.
"It's a conspiracy!" said Eowyn suddenly and so dramatically that it made Will jump slightly.
"What is?" asked Frankie.
Eowyn looked at her, still with a dramatic facial expression. "Seagulls." Gemma backed away worriedly, but Frankie beamed, having found a kindred spirit.
***
They set out from Tortuga as soon as all the rum was loaded on board. Those already on the crew from the previous adventure were making friends with those who had just joined and bringing them up to speed with their quest this time.
Eowyn had immediately been accepted by Frankie, as she seemed to be just as strange as she was; Gemma was admired by half of the new crew for being able to resist both Jack AND Will, but she herself had made friends with Bulma, having been captivated by the sheer cuteness of her Wob-Wob.
Jackie was forming a Jack club, so far consisting of her and Jack Cole, and Jack Sparrow if she could convince him, and meanwhile Liz and Liza were forming an Elizabeth club – they had been reluctant to let Elizabeth join, but had in the end. Kathryn and Jackie were also reminiscing over their previous adventure, and remembering the lovely experience of drinking an entire poolful of rum. Terreis and Liza were making friends, because they were united in both being older than most of the crew and an adoration of Jack Sparrow (but of course, they weren't alone in this)
Helen was quickly befriending Mro, Tobias and Tanuki, having heard so much about them from her brother Mort, and they'd quickly accepted Jack Cole into their group. On a ship where the ratio of teen girls to boys was 2:1, they found that they had to stick together or go mad.
Jack and Will however had met at the end of the ship at the beginning of the voyage and brought up the subject of their little bet on the last quest. Both seemed to believe that if they had had a little longer, they would have persuaded Gemma to like them – and both were so firm in this belief that they decided that they would try again. "But remember," said Jack, "No informing Gemma of this bet."
"And try not to scare her this time," said Will, "Don't you remember when you accidentally made Alex drop her off the edge of the ship?"
"I meant to do that," said Jack defensively.
"Hey! Will!" called Eowyn. Will went over, feeling slightly apprehensive. "Watch. I can move things without touching them."
"Really?" said Will, momentarily relieved that this girl seemingly didn't like him in that way, "How?"
"Watch." She went up to the deck, where Jack was looking over the prow of the boat towards where Rum Island would be appearing on the horizon. She left it on the deck behind him, then went back to Will. "I bet that in one minute, that bottle will have moved, and not due to waves."
As they watched, Jack turned round, saw the bottle and immediately grabbed onto it, an expression of confused delight on his face, and drank half of it in one go and then walked back to the wheel of the ship, still holding onto it. Eowyn looked at Will triumphantly.
"But – that doesn't count-" said Will.
"Why? I didn't touch it after setting it down, and I didn't tell Jack to do anything. Ergo, I moved it without touching it. I win! Pay up!"
"What did we bet?" said Will bewilderedly.
"Umm... a sword."
"Oh! OK!" said Will relievedly, "Which one do you want?"
"Umm – that one," said Eowyn, pointing to one labelled 'The Stabmeister'.
"Oooh! Can I have one?" said Liz, walking over, "I've always wanted a sword."
"Haven't you already got one?" asked Will.
"Well, it's not much good," said Liz, pulling it out of the scabbard, "I mean, look-"
"Oh dear, oh dear oh dear oh dear," said Will, taking it and looking critical, "This is terrible handiwork, I mean, look at the bad balance of the blade, and it's bad quality metal – where on earth did you get this?"
"I ordered it from some blacksmith in Port Royal," said Liz. Most of the crew looked up at Will to see how he reacted. He seemed to be fighting to keep an expression of indifference on his face.
"Must have been Mr Jones who made it," he said airily, and handed Liz a new sword. She took it eagerly and started swishing it around.
"Jack, are you sure about this?" said Mr Gibbs, coming up to him as he stood at the wheel of the ship, "One woman on board's unlucky, but isn't fifteen pushing your luck slightly?"
"Don't worry, Gibbsy," said Jack reassuringly, "There'll be eighteen on board if all goes well at Rum Island. Save your worrying for then."
***
Im a Brandybuck – Ugh. Cough drops. Ugh. UGH. Yes, for a brief while, you were the only girl on the ship besides Elizabeth who liked Will. Sadly, you now have competition again.
TBI – Beads are underappreciated! After this, people will never think of beads in the same way again!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Tanuki Yasha – Hello, not suicidal. I could never do that to Jack Sparrow! And only, like, a little bit of gold... and you don't need it, your girlfriend's a debutante!
Quietly Making Noise – Sorry that you didn't get in. There were just too many applicants to let everyone in. Again, really sorry. (gives muffins to apologize) I hope you'll keep reading anyway!
Elf with a Lightsaber – Anakin, YES, definitely. Obi-Wan, hmm, I guess. But LUKE? Too much like Frodo Baggins!! "Your uncle wanted you to have this when you were old enough." "It's a Ring!" "You must go to the Dagobah system and cast it back into Yoda's stew pot from whence it came!"
Theshiz – Yes, I wonder why... hmmm... is it because of the excellent lighting?
Pirate-strumpet - *ack chock* MR COTTON?? And tell your sister that Geoffrey Rush is in a film with Pierce Brosnan and Jamie Lee Curtis, and in it he takes his shirt off. I discovered that rather unwillingly tonight.
One of your many fans – I have fans... that's so weird... I'm fifteen and I have fans???
Hobbit Hugger – You've never seen it before? I've seen enough of it to last a lifetime... I got stuck on a bus on a hill in a blizzard for about four hours, and ended up walking a mile or so downhill STILL in the blizzard to get to my friend's house. Carrying my schoolbag and biology folder, possibly the heaviest folder ever. And also helped in trying to push the bus up the hill in the meantime, and was nearly squashed by it. Yes, I'm not too fond of snow.
CrazedElfStalker – I don't know, because I don't know your real name. Sorry. If you did, congrats! Enjoy the ride! If not, sorry, take the conciliatory basket of muffins.
Gilraen Ar-Feiniel – Then you've come to the right author.
Alteng – Ah. Right. Clarified it slightly for me. Sorry, I've made the mistake before of assuming someone was a girl. And they didn't just complain, they called me an embarrassment! Ah well, they've never liked me anyway.
Elderberry – Thank you. But I have to revise Chemistry anyway... damn GCSEs... 'Alkaline metals have only one electron in their outer shells and react very violently with acids, because of the fact they contain positive hydrogen ions'... Who cares? People who like mixing alkaline metals with acids, I guess...
Terreis – Complicated... that's a very good way to describe me... actually, no it's not. I'm a LOTR obsessed girl/hobbit. Who likes swords. Er... that's it. (sound of crickets chirruping)
Lady Shinimegami – I only ever saw that one episode. Sorry. But I'm guessing they defeated the pirates and got to go home, as it was on a children's channel. Was Mars the island boy with the brown curly hair? Hmm... may have to agree with you there...
Reasonably Crazy – (gasp) Jealousy. JEALOUSY. Howard Shore? AND ROTK??? Some people have all the luck!
1100100101101011100000101100010101001 – All answers to queries will be published in a follow-up Smith manual, coming soon.
Hyper-Elf – I don't know what it has to do with anything either. Who cares? Without randomness, the world is too predictable.
Bulma Greenleaf – Hope you liked your appearance! And the Wob-Wob! If they don't normally fit on your shoulder, then this is a mini-Wob-Wob. What contribution could the Wob-Wob make to the crew?
Happy Easter, by the way!