ROPE-WALKER

By Jashi

N O T E: Pirates of the Caribbean isn't mine. All the Spanish words I'm getting are from

Go there for all your foreign language translating needs.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Tades awoke the next morning, the early morning sun wakening her. She viewed the red sunrise. It was crimson, farther from the sun it was dark like blood, and nearer to the sun was bright. The clouds were both anger and passion, twirling and entwining with each other across the sky. It could have been an oil painting, and she could have reached out and touched it and smeared the colors across the sky.

It was as beautiful as it was ominous.

"Red sky at morn, sailors take warn." she frowned on the horizon. Tades took up the rope and slid down it to the deck. Will was coming up from below the deck.

Tades knocked on Jack's door. No answer. She opened it and peered inside. She sighed. Jack wasn't in there, of course.

"Good morning, Tades."

"Aye, Turner."

Will glanced at the bloody sunset. "That's a sight to see, isn't it?" he smiled. Tades' brow furrowed.

"Looks like the moon killed the sun an' it's bleedin' everywhere. What a bloody mess," she said. She started off the boat in the direction of the Longshanks.

"That was such a happy thought," he mused sarcastically to himself.

"Will, rouse the rest of the crew. We're settin' sail ta-day. Was Ana down there, do ye know?"

" Yes, she was. I'll get them up," he responded, and made his way down below deck.

She walked down the road, casually looking about for any sign of Jack. She would ask Romulus what had happened to her, and she had a dead-on feeling that he knew. Knocking on the door of the Longshanks, she let herself in, though the bar didn't open until noon.

The bar was messy, with a few tables turned over and several chairs broken and thrown off to the side. Romulus was awake and washing down the long bar counter.

"Buenos dias, hermana."

"The morning doesn't look so good, Romulus. Did ye see the sky?"

Romulus looked at her slowly.

"Ahora no está el Time to Live en el pasado." he said. Now is not the time to live in the past.

"Sé." I know.

"Incluso no comience tan abajo de ese camino, Tades," he finished sternly. So don't even start down that road, Tades.

"Muy bien, usted rata ignorante estúpida de un hermano," Tades muttered bemusedly. Fine, you stupid ignorant rat of a brother. Romulus only laughed.

"Anyways, do ye know where Jack is?"

Romulus raised an eyebrow. "He's in the back, actually. Decided to buy some more rum for the voyage…"

Tades rolled her eyes. "Half the ship's filled with rum already. Si nos hundimos, todos los pescados sentirán bien a alcohólicos."

If we sink, all the fish will become alcoholics.

Romulus laughed and pointed to the door leading into the back room.

"Get him out of here before he drinks all of my rum and I go out of business, savvy?" said Romulus in a mocking tone.

"Aye, with pleasure." Tades ducked into the back room.

Jack was looking through the rum bottles very decisively, picking them up and feeling their weight, searching for the date of creation on the bottle, sniffing their contents. If they seemed to meet his requirements, he set them off to the side. He was in the middle of tasting one when Tades walked in. He promptly gagged on the beverage and spit it out.

"Bad rum?"

"No, bad image."

Tades rolled her eyes. "I truly hope yer gonna pay for all that," she gestured to the small accumulation of rum bottles.

"Eh…it didn't really cross my mind."

"Jack---" she began.

"Tades!" he cut her off sharply, "It's CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow."

"Alright, CAPTAIN," she glared at him, "I hope yer aware of the fact that at the moment we have more rum on the ship than we have water."

"The sea has plenty o' water, lass."

"Very funny, sir."

Jack snorted and took another swig.

"Go ready the crew, and I'll be out there soon. I want us ready to go in an hour. Shoo, Tades."

He pushed her out the door and closed it quickly. Tades found herself at the bar counter again.

"Come, Romulus. You'll want ta see yer lass off." she grinned at her half-brother. The bartender sighed, threw his rag down on the counter, and followed his half-sister out of the tavern.

The Black Pearl was chaos. Men were everywhere, taking inventory on supplies, swabbing the decks, cleaning the rails, and preparing all their firearms. Just in case.

Tades was up in the rigging, as she usually was, retying the sails and untangling ropes; she checked every length of rope and every inch of sail.

Romulus helped load a few more barrels below deck. Ana was down there, along with Will, checking the gunpowder and making sure they would have enough in case of battle.

For there was always that one-hundred eleven miles of treacherous pirate territory to go through, and they would perhaps need every particle of gunpowder, every single solitary bullet, and every shot they had.

If only fate was kind to pirates.

Jack finally came onboard, with a good load of rum which Romulus helped him deposit below deck.


"…Is everyone here?" he shouted to the scurrying people.

"I believe so, cap'n," yelled Gibbs from the bow.

"Right. So…if we've enough food and water and rum and bullets and rope…we'll go."

This got a happy shout from the entire crew, including Tades as she climbed down from the crow's nest.

Jack disappeared below deck for a good fifteen minutes. He came back up again, eyes gleaming and a grin on his face.

"All right, me crew. Hoist the anchor! We set off now."

Romulus held Ana with his gaze, and she winked at him. He turned and began his way off the Pearl.

"So long, hermano." Tades gave him a smile as Romulus got off the ship.

She climbed up to the crow's nest and stared forwards into the skyline. Jack took his place at the helm, his hat firmly on his head.

As the ship began to move, Tades did not look back. She preferred not to ever look back, it made her think she was second-guessing herself. So she stared into the rising sun and the lovely, dark blue waters of the Caribbean.

Romulus watched from the land as the magnificent Black Pearl began to sail away. He spied his sister in the crow's nest, taking no looks back at Tortuga. He smiled.

"Tome todos lo que usted puede y no dé nada detrás, la mujer que camina las cuerdas."

Take all you can and give nothing back, Rope-walker.

~

And so the adventure truly begins…to be continued.