Chapter Eight: To Neverland, among other things.
Donkey, Jack, and Puss sat in their small cabin in the bowels of the ship, staring at each other.
"We've been in here for four hours," Puss said. "Four hours, and we're all bored out of our minds. It's still going to be another day and a half before we reach Neverland, and we have nothing to do. Any ideas?"
"Find a way to entertain yourself," Jack said.
Immediately, Donkey's face lit up and he pursed and blew out his lips, making a pop-ing sound. Jack looked at him, and he did it again.
Pop.
"Puss, do you think that-"
Pop.
"We could possibly-"
Pop.
Jack started to look annoyed.
Pop.
"Play cards or something?"
Silence.
"I'll play," Puss said enthusiastically, willing to try anything to alleviate the boredom.
"Me, too," Donkey added.
Jack looked aggravated for a moment, and sighed. "Fine. Puss, will you please get a deck of cards out of my bag? It's in the small pouch in the front."
Puss got the deck of cards out of Jack's large brown leather pack and handed it to Donkey, who passed it to Jack. The cards came out of the case, revealing themselves to be long with strange designs on the back that looked to have the symbol of a sun, moon, and stars.
"What kind of cards are these?" Donkey asked.
"I got them from Avalon. You can buy anything there, from Diet Ale to human lives. So, what game?"
"Poker?" Puss suggested, just as Donkey said enthusiastically, "Go Fish!"
Jack groaned. "You are kidding me, right?"
"What's wrong with Go Fish?" Donkey asked.
"Go Fish is probably the easiest card game to play. Do you know anything else?" Puss asked Donkey.
"I know Blackjack, and I know a little bit of poker, and Rummy, and War."
"Blackjack."
Jack dealt the cards and they started playing while waiting for nightfall and the chance to sleep, and to find out sleeping arrangements.
After fifty hands, Puss was losing quite badly, Jack was doing little better, and Donkey was king of the hill.
After a hundred hands, the stats were the same, only two hours had passed, and as Jack was dealing the one-hundredth and sixteenth hand, a small bell on deck chimed, signaling that it was dinnertime.
With groans of relief, they got up off of the cold wooden floor and exited the small cabin and headed for the galley. Tonight's menu featured rum and pigeon pie, and they were all eager for any food.
After dinner, the three went back to their cabin to try to get some sleep, only to find a problem that none had noticed before; they were three, yet there were only two bunks.
"This could be a problem," Puss said.
"Don't worry," Jack said. He yawned and stretched his arms up- and coincidentally one landed around Puss's shoulders. "You can sleep with me."
"No. Way." Donkey ground out. "He's sleeping with me."
"Sorry, Ass. I called him first."
"Rock Paper Scissors?"
"Fine."
"Rock, Paper, Scissors, sh-"
"Dynamite!" Donkey yelled gleefully.
"There is no 'dynamite'," Jack groused.
"Yes there is! See, you splay your fingers like this and-"
"Donkey, there is no 'dynamite' in Rock Paper Scissors. As you two cannot decide who gets to sleep with me for the night, I will sleep on the floor. Comprende?"
He was met with blank stares from the other two. "Understand?"
Donkey tried to protest. "You can sleep with me! Jack won't mind."
"Yes I will!" The bounty hunter shouted.
"Oh, stop it, both of you! I'm sleeping on the floor and that's final!"
The next day and night went much the same way with the only variation being that the game was Mancala, and Puss managed to beat the other two. He wound up sleeping on the cold, hard wooden floor again, despite his protesting back. His now-hurting-very-severly back wasn't what awakened him before dawn, though.
"Land Ho!" A sailor's cry came crying into the cabin.
"Whazzaat?" Donkey mumbled from his half-gymnastic position of one leg behind his head and arms locked in an uncomfortable-looking way, head twisted at an angle.
"I think it's land," Jack slurred from his own bunk. "'S Neverland. We won' make landfall 'til later this morning, though. Sleep now."
And with that he fell back onto his bunk, but Puss couldn't get back to sleep because his back was hurting so much and besides- he was curious to see this Neverland. He made his way out onto the deck where even now there were sailors; albeit few, but there were enough to keep the ship on course; and all gave him semi-odd looks when he stopped and rested at the railing on the port side. He shook his head muzzily and tried to find the sun to stare at so he would wake up faster. 'Must be that if any passengers are ever on this ship, they all sleep late.'
Got it. He'd found the sun; now all he had to do was stare at it until the light registered in his sleep-mazed brain and he woke up a bit.
He folded his arms and leaned them on the railing, resting his head on top of them and searching for the seemingly nonexistent land that the sailor had spotted. There was nothing but water for miles in any direction.
Water, water everywhere until it melded with the pink light of dawn behind the ship and the still-starlit ebony expanse stretching in front of them.
'Pretty,' he thought abstractedly while looking for a smudge of land on any horizon.- preferably the one they were sailing for, but any land would be good. Eventually as the sun peeked its golden crown over the edge of the world he spotted it- a tiny bit of horizon that was darker than the rest of the thin line dividing water from sky. He squinted and thought that he could see a few mountains, but gave up when his eyes started to ache. When he finally got bored with watching the skyline, he wandered back into the bowels of the ship to sit in the galley with his back braced against the wall, watching the few sailors rolling dice through half-lidded eyes, and tried to persuade the pain in his back to go away. He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew; there were sounds of yelling and pounding feet from up on the deck as they were apparently docking. The galley was deserted, and Puss stretched with a satisfied purr.
He walked up the set of stairs leading to the deck to find it filled with running, shouting men and Captain Sparrow was standing at the helm, shouting orders and looking very… well, roguish would be one of the words that Puss would have used to describe him. Cocky would be another. A self-satisfied smirk played about his lips as he surveyed his crew and ship, and Puss felt a sudden wave of- nothing. And realization. He'd felt a tad bit of attraction to the man before he'd met him, but the Captain seemed a bit too… self-centered for Puss's tastes. He dismissed the thought and searched the throng for his companions. Jack was nowhere to be found, but Donkey was at the stern of the ship, apparently pestering the faithful Mr. Gibbs, who was answering all of Donkey's questions with a ragged patience as he struggled to winch in one of the smaller sails.
A small imp of guilt tapped him on the shoulder as he realized that he'd left the Attention-Deficit-Donkey with nothing to do but ask questions of people that most likely didn't want to be bothered. He cast his eyes to the railing of the ship and an idea formed in his mind. 'Might as well show off. I've nothing better to do these days.' And he launched himself at the railing, swinging over it and catching a rope swinging from the mast. Holding the coarse rope firmly in his hands, he ran horizontally along the side of the ship until he'd reached the other side, then flipped back over the railing to land behind the portly man and the dark-skinned human. He tapped them both on the shoulders. "Guess who," he whispered, green eyes sparkling. Both men spun around, the not-quite-used-to-ships Donkey losing his balance and toppling onto Puss, effectively spoiling his fun.
"Uh, hi," he whispered in a slightly choked sort of voice, and Puss could feel Donkey's heartbeat speed up. It wasn't hard; Donkey was sprawled over Puss like a blanket- not that the cat was complaining, of course.
Puss was suddenly captivated by the deep chocolate eyes. "Hi," he whispered back.
They stared into each other's eyes, captivated until a surly voice broke the connection. "If you two lads are finished, would you like to help me with this?"
"Oh, Mr. Gibbs! Of course." Puss shot out from under Donkey and grabbed the winch, winding it back and around and around counterclockwise until the first mate told him to stop.
"Thank you, lad," the older man said, shooting him a grateful look.
"Uh- de nada."
Gibbs stared at him for a moment, then shook his head. "Sure."
An hour later they were standing on Neverlandian soil; the beach was quite short in this area, and it had only been a sort trek up through the white crystal sands to the forest that bordered the shore.
"We'll wait for you here," Gibbs said shortly. "If'n you're not back by tomorrow night, you'll have to make friends with the natives an' wait for the nex' boat, understand?"
All three men nodded; Jack had been found back in his bunk, still sleeping, and Donkey had gleefully accepted Puss's offer to take the dinner-bell and ring it scant inches from Jack's ear. The bounty hunter was now determinedly ignoring both Donkey and Puss, and only said things to them when it was desperately needed. Now armed with weapons of good make, and proper fitting- Jack was armed with a crossbow slung over one shoulder; Donkey had armed himselfwith quite a few daggers and a borrowed two-by-four; and Puss was using a rapier borrowed from Captain Sparrow himself. "It comes back or none of you will," the dark man had said, with a tone of complete seriousness contrasting with his normally jubilant tones. Puss had gulped and nodded and taken the rapier and swiftly left the cabin.
With grim determination, they took their first steps into a jungle paradise haunted by a lonely, flying menace and forgotten children that laughed and played with danger that no child should ever know.