AN (10/2): Hi, all! Well, hi all that read the silly author's notes I have at the beginning of each chapter. I'm updating this rather than passing out campaign signs (like I should be right now), so you should all feel special. Speaking of feeling special, my friend Katie (who is the only person that's read both of my stories on paper) told me to change the names and get it published. Good idea? Maybe. I'd like your input.
Chapter 13: Superstition
"This is your boat?" Rebekah asked, glancing over the Black Pearl like some sort of teacher giving a wayward child an inspection. The Pearl was peacefully bobbing in the docks in the fading light, oblivious to the world around her as she concentrated on keeping some of the larger waves from kissing her deck, a little girl afraid of some little boy that kept chasing her.
"Ship. This is me ship," Jack corrected, trying not to lose what little patience he had with the girl now. The whole walk back here had been full of annoyingly personal questions that Jack didn't want to answer. "Her name's the Black Pearl." Jack's voice had a touch of reverence every time he referred to his ship as the Black Pearl. Bordered on worship, actually.
"The Black Pearl, eh? I've heard her name mentioned once or twice." Rebekah smiled, giving Jack a sisterly shove on the arm before setting off to the ship running. Her skirts flew up like birds trying to escape from a cage, only to be violently pulled down again as she went forward. It was fairly funny to watch, and Jack was struck with a rather violent case of laughing as he tried to follow her. She seemed so childish now that she was outside of her stifling home, and Jack felt rather embarrassed as several of his crew eyed her suspiciously as they neared the Pearl.
"Rebekah!" he called out as he caught up to her. "Please don' run near me crew. I really don' think they'll give ye any respect if ye do. It'll be hard enough for me t' keep them from usin' ye." Perhaps that was why Jack had acquiesced to her request. His cabin happened to have a lock on it. Now, Jack normally wouldn't try to limit his crew's fun with a girl so willing to join them, but he had the feeling that Rebekah wouldn't help if he let them do anything more than give her a lewd glance.
"Fine," Rebekah replied with a sigh, suddenly stopping her run towards the ship with black sails and resuming a normal walk. Jack nearly tripped as he did the same thing. She glanced at him with a slightly worried look in her eyes, as though she were suddenly having second thoughts. "Using me? What do you mean by that?"
Jack bit his lip slightly, wishing she had more sense in that way. "I mean tha' they might try t' take advantage of ye, Rebekah. Ye'll 'ave t' be constantly watchin' out for yerself." Jack shook his head as he realized Rebekah had a blank look on her face still. Apparently her mother hadn't ever explained this particular subject to her before. "Look...me crew is male. Yer a pretty woman. Figure it out."
Rebekah still looked a bit puzzled, but she didn't say anything else as she followed Jack up the gangplank of the Pearl. Jack led her to his cabin, stepping inside before her and placing the satchel down on an armchair. "Ye'll be stayin' 'ere," he commented, waving towards a rather tastefully decorated cabin with a large bed in the center covered in a red bedspread.
"Nice cabin," Rebekah commented as she looked around and sat down on the bed, running the smooth fabric under her fingers.
Jack had to try not to cringe as she did that. He smiled slightly. "Make yerself comfortable. We're goin' t' shove off." With that, he hastily shut the door and walked over to a group of his crew who'd been watching him with avid curiosity.
"Who's the strumpet?" Matthew asked, his brown eyes glancing between Jack and the cabin. He was sitting on the deck of the ship next to Bootstrap and Stout Sam. They'd been discussing their plans for tomorrow, eager for some action in the small port.
"She's no' a strumpet," Jack insisted, taking a seat next to Matthew. "An' she's comin' wiv us."
"'S bad luck t' bring a woman on board," Stout Sam protested. Everyone turned their heads to look at Stout Sam. He wasn't one to talk much, nor was he one to question the captain's motives. "Wha's so important abou' 'er?"
It took Jack a moment to find his voice as he tried not to gape at the short man. He'd never protested about Mary and Anne under Calico Jack. Actually, Jack could only remember hearing Stout Sam speak once before. And that was to ask Jack for a forward on his pay. "Uh," he said, trying to remember what he'd been about to disclose. He glanced away to Matthew. "Ye remember tha' map ye gave me?"
Matthew slowly nodded, his brown eyes registering surprise. "Aye, Cap'n, I do. Bu' wha' does tha' strumpet 'ave t' do wiv the map ye said you'd worked out already?"
"She's the key," Jack responded. "I'd only worked out a small bit of the map, mate. Gave me an address to 'er house. Anyway, tha' "strumpet" is Captain Butler's granddaughter. An' she's the only one on earth who knows 'ow t' get t' the treasure." He smiled triumphantly at Matthew.
Matthew grinned back. "Perfect," he responded softly, greed lighting his eyes up, making them appear to be about the color of amber in the sunlight. There seemed to be a weight to the word perfect, but Jack couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was. "When do we leave?"
"Righ' now," Jack replied. "Now, I know tha' I promised ye we'd sack Portobello...bu' tha's rather dangerous. Besides, Butler's treasure is rumored t' be thousands of doubloons."
Neither Bootstrap or Matthew seemed disappointed in the news that they wouldn't be sacking Portobello. Stout Sam, however, seemed quite alarmed. He didn't say anything, however, for any pirate that didn't want to find gold without much effort wasn't much of a pirate.
Jack smiled and stood up, scanning the decks for any sign of Barbossa. They needed to leave immediately. He didn't want to be stuck with Rebekah in his cabin for too long. It would drive him over the brink, for he was already stumbling near the edge between insanity that could be called genius and insanity that was just plain mad.
"Wha' island?" Jack asked, blinking. He was sitting in his room at his desk with Rebekah standing next to him, pointing at a rough map he'd bought years ago. He could've sworn she'd just said the word Rasguño. That was impossible, though. There was nothing on that small spit of land...right? Stories about it varied as greatly as stories about the Black Pearl.
"Rasguño, Captain. That one." Rebekah tapped her slender finger on the island shaped like a crescent moon. "That's where my grandfather buried his gold." She smiled slightly, the faintest hint of pink on her cheeks as she glanced Jack in the eyes.
"Are ye sure?" Jack asked, hoping that she was wrong somehow. Some of the stories about this island were very dark. Tales of men being forced to stop there and hit with mysterious ailments from the water were rampant. That didn't even touch on the accounts of men stopping there and leaving with a very significant piece of equipment missing.
"Of course I'm sure," Rebekah replied. "Why wouldn't I be? That's all my grandfather ever talked about." She sighed softly, pulling her hand off the map. "I'm tired, Captain. Do you think you could leave?"
Jack sighed to himself and slowly nodded. "As ye wish," he muttered, only half-sincere as he folded the map back up. "G'night, Rebekah," he said lightly as he stood. Well, he could understand why she was so tired, but it was only ten o' clock, for goodness sake! They'd only been on the Pearl for about an hour and a half. But she had thrown her old life away, after all. Sighing again, he left the cabin without another word, loathing the second he'd caved in and allowed her to stay in his room.
Jack's crew had nearly choked to death when he mentioned their destination the next day during lunch. Even the ones without food in their mouths had spluttered, coughing on their own spittle. It had taken quite a while for Jack to convince them that everything would be alright. It was just an island, after all. Curses don't exist. But many men couldn't help but wonder if they truly did.
Pirates and sailors have always been superstitious. Going out to sea was a great risk, and men didn't want to accidentally anger the gods of the sea. Often, if a bird landed on a certain side of the ship, the captain would refuse to set sail. Women and children were never allowed on ships other than transport vessels. They would bring bad luck to all of the sailors and could cause a massive storm to come up and swallow the ship whole. Of course, men like Jack didn't believe in those sort of stories. He was the sort of man that didn't believe in the bad luck of broken mirrors or black cats. It was just codswallop in his humble opinion.
It only took about three days for the Pearl to reach Rasguño from Portobello. The sea had been about as calm as it could be, quieting the worries of Stout Sam, David, and Wade that Rebekah would be bad luck. Actually, she seemed to be rather good luck. There had been a series of near accidents on the Pearl, but none of them had resulted in anything more than a rope burn or a paper cut. As a bonus, she'd stepped in as cook on the ship, replacing Marvin's predictable gruel each night with much more delectable dishes. Most of the crew towards Rebekah as some sort of mother-figure, telling her their problems even though they'd only known her for about three days.
Jack's opinion of Rebekah remained unchanged, though. She had a hard time talking to him when he confronted her about the map. Seemed she couldn't find the right words whenever he looked at her. Jack personally found her little crush annoying. He needed to know what was going to happen when they reached the small island. Jack couldn't get the words of that disembodied voice out of his mind, no matter how hard he tried to forget the eerie experience.
"So, tha's Rasguño?" Bootstrap asked softly as he stood near the helm, glancing at the approaching spit of land with a rather unreadable expression on his face. He hadn't said much about the whole treasure map thing. Actually, he hadn't really said anything of value to Jack for the past few months.
"It is," Jack replied, tearing his gaze away from the island to look at his oldest friend. Jack doubted the air of tension between the two of them would ever completely disappear. "Doesn' appear to be tha' disturbin'."
"Well, looks are often decievin'," Bootstrap replied with a slight shrug, suddenly feeling quite uneasy with Jack looking at him like that. He studiously turned his gaze towards Ragetti and Pintel, who were quarreling as to whom should go with Jack on the island.
"True," Jack flatly commented. They'd been reduced to talking about things in general. Nice. With a great sigh, Jack glanced back at the island. "I suppose we should head out there, then, eh?"
"I suppose so," Bootstrap replied. "Best to get this nonsense behind us." That comment hung in the air for a moment, floundering like a fish on Jack's face. So Bootstrap found the whole treasure map idea nonsense. Well, it was too late not to go searching for Butler's treasure. Bootstrap bowed slightly towards Jack, leaving the bridge to break up said quarrel between Ragetti and Pintel. The two inept pirates seemed to be constantly at each other's throats these days, because Pintel would inevitably make fun of Ragetti and his lost eye.
Jack sighed to himself again. He was getting sick of the way Bootstrap was acting. If he were any sort of man at all, he'd just admit that he'd been the one who'd shown Meagan to Jack's room that fateful night. This whole avoiding the issue thing was most aggravating. "Oh well," he muttered softly to himself, straightening as Rebekah stepped out of his cabin. "Gents," he announced loudly enough to be heard over Ragetti's whimpering. All noise instantly ceased as his mostly new crew looked up at him expectantly. "Tis time t' go."
A rather ragged cheer reached Jack's ears as he hopped off the bridge. Half of the crew were absolutely excited to be going after treasure. The other half were terrified of the island itself and the talk of curses on the gold. "'Alf of ye will stay behind t' watch the Pearl," Jack commented, quickly picking about fifteen men that he wanted to accompany him. They were mostly of the stock that wanted to go, so there wasn't really any squabbling. "Barbossa will be in charge in me stead."
Barbossa nodded at this point, his blue eyes almost daring the crew left behind to misbehave. The energy in the crew staying behind seemed to be magically restrained as he glanced at them that way. "Good luck, Captain Sparrow," he said with grand flourish, turning his gaze towards Jack.
Jack nodded, motioning for his team to get the small skiff lowered into the sea. He really wanted to get this finished so he could pay off Ragetti for losing his eye and drop Rebekah back off in Portobello. Once the skiff was lowered into the waiting waters, Jack motioned for Rebekah to climb in. She did so, and was soon joined by Matthew, Bootstrap, David, Wade, Kael, Rafe, Dario, and a mess of others that Jack couldn't remember the name of. Saluting Barbossa, Jack got into the boat as well, and soon their little adventure was beginning.
Kael and Rafe quickly rowed the small boat to the shore. It was only a few leagues away, after all. Once they'd reached the off-white sandy shores, Jack had his crew pull the boat up onto the sand to keep the hungry ocean from stealing their ship. When that was accomplished, Jack glanced anxiously around the small island, surprised by how much vegetation there was. Flowers of almost every color imaginable were peacefully sitting on lush green grass. Some were climbing up fairly large palm trees, giving the tan wood the appearance of being dressed up for a ball. Large bushes dotted the island. Wide succulent leaves hid small red berries that looked very appetizing, even from the shoreline. It seemed to be a tropical paradise.
Glancing over at Rebekah as she brushed at some imaginary particles of dust, Jack asked, "Where do we go first?" Most of the crew were staring at the flowers, bushes, and trees with a look in their eyes reminiscent of when they were children at Christmas time.
Rebekah seemed un-phased by any of the scenery as she pulled the map out of her small handbag. She studied it intensely for a moment, turning her head to different angles to try and figure it out. Apparently she got her bearings, for she suddenly pointed towards the left. "That way, Captain Sparrow. For about a thousand paces."
Jack nodded to show that he understood and glanced at his crew. "Well, ye 'eard the woman. Go tha' way for abou' a thousand paces. An' leave the bushes alone." Something about those lip-red berries made Jack rather wary.
Laura: Well, that whole crazy brick secret passageway thing came from my armpits, which is why tis a bit confusing. Anyway, what the disembodied voice said isn't supposed to make sense yet. It will eventually, I hope. And I wouldn't turn it down either...silly Rebekah. And you're welcome for explaining that more...it was a bit confusing. Thanks for the review!
Alteng: I don't even want to picture what Jack had to do to get Barbossa out of his cabin...anyway, he's just a big pushover, despite what he wants you to think. Anyone could really get him to do anything, especially at this point. Won't be until after he gets betrayed that he stands up more for himself. And the idea of the stowaway kitty did cross my mind...but then I'd eventually have to write said kitty's death, and that would be too sad.
And I'm sure that whatever you have for your next chapter, it will be amazing! I can't wait to see it, as a matter of fact. And I think most towns are like that...amazing what sort of gaps there are in the world...
PussInBootsAndMonkeyzNamedJack: Well, I think I was going for confusing people. You know, I even confused myself...anyway, thanks for the review! Sorry this chapter was a day late...
Daisy: It was not short. Honest, it wasn't. Just as long as the chappie before it. Actually, this one is a bit shorter. Anyway, I have a certain limit I strive for...about 3,000 words per chapter. And last chappie met all the criteria. Anyway (again), I'm sorry that I blamed you. Wrong of me. So, you can have a loverly autographed copy of a Jack Sparrow picture. Or maybe an autographed picture of Billy Boyd. Take your pick. And the mysterious person wasn't supposed to make sense. That would make it too easy. Honestly, it should all make sense in the next chapter or two as to what he was talking about. Key word being should...
Jack: Well, Jack is a pushover towards women. Can't say no. Feels guilty about the way he treated Meagan, I suppose...dunno. Anyway, thanks for the review and all your support!