Before The Dawn

Chapter XI: Of Epiphanies and Departures

By FalconWing

Contrary to popular belief, Jack was not a heavy drinker. As with singing there were times one indulged and times when it was simply inappropriate. Once again, 'when marooned' was featured in the 'appropriate timing' listing.

Yes, oftentimes he certainly appeared somewhat intoxicated, what with his odd walk and flamboyant gestures, but if that led others to believing he had taken leave of his senses, then so much the better. And on the rare occasions he did become a tad inebriated – just a tad, mind – he had a tendency to become more introspective rather than extreme and wild.

Indeed, he could count on one hand – okay then, maybe two – the number of times he had drunk himself into a stupor. Even then he never appeared any drunker than was natural for him and was perfectly capable of holding a civilized conversation right up to the point where he dropped to the ground, unconscious. Needless to say, the incident on the island with Elizabeth and the rum had put him on his guard against the vulnerability that being in a drunken daze left you in.

So he wasn't quite sure why he was sitting in the Jolly Mary, downing his fourth mug of rum, in between assailing fellow crew members with the conclusion of his account of the sacking of Nassau Port.

"And ye did all o' this withou' even firin' a single shot?"

This disbelieving remark came from his left and Jack turned to regard the owner of the voice, blatantly invading the other man's personal space as he leaned forwards. His arms flounced about as though in an attempt to reconstruct the scene in front of himself. "Precis'ly, mate. Ye see, all we really 'ad to do was find the Gov'nor and put a gun to 'is 'ead. He was practic'ly beggin' to show us to all the goods he 'ad stored away…"

His words became more and more slurred and he let his voice peter out as he reclined backwards again and took another gulp of rum. He glanced around and noticed that more of the Jolly's crew had joined them to listen to his tale. In fact, now that he thought about, he observed something strange.

Aside from the captain and first mate, the whole crew was in this one pub. He briefly wondered why – the chances of it being a coincidence had to be so completely outrageous that it was all but impossible.

He scanned the room, and locating the man he was after, raised his voice to be heard over the general chaos of the tavern. "Hey Dan, come over 'ere fer a sec will ye?" Big Dan looked around for the source of the call and spotted Jack waiting patiently. He headed over and Jack couldn't help but notice the way even the drunkest of louts moved aside to allow the unusually large man in their midst to pass through unobstructed.

Big Dan had finally been relieved tonight of his guarding of Elizabeth, or to be more accurate, of the door to her allocated room. Jack didn't know the man who had taken Dan's place but Jack hoped he had a least a small decent streak in him. Elizabeth may be capable of taking care of herself in many situations – and likely this one too – but Jack did not want any hitches.

"Aye Jack?" he inquired, at reaching Jack's side. While at sea he was required to call him sir, but on shore Jack had no problem in being identified by his given name by the crew.

He paused to think for a moment. It wasn't that his mind was muddled by the drink – that wasn't it at all. It may have begun to inhibit his speech but his brain was working just as fast as always. No, it was more the fact that while he liked Dan enough, the man had been one of Clavell's henchmen long before Hack had come onto the scene and he didn't want to draw undue attention to himself by asking the wrong question at the wrong time. But then on the other hand, nothing risked, nothing gained.

"Say, do you 'ave any idea why all of use are 'ere in the exact same tavern? Surely there's somewhere else fer ev'ryone else to go. And while I'm on a wee tangent o' questioning, where did Clavell an' Brock vanish off to?"

Big Dan didn't appear particularly ruffled by this line of questioning and Jack relaxed slightly. Instead the man replied rather gruffly, "Captain's orders. Drinkin' allowed in the Jolly Mary only. No exceptions. No one knows why 'cept maybe Brock." But he didn't elaborate or answer Jack's last query until Jack gave a not-so-subtle expectant clearing of his throat. Even then the man fidgeted before relenting and supplying a satisfactory reply.

"Don't know really. Disappeared upstairs a while ago and 'aven't been seen since. Jus' said they 'ad 'important business' t' discuss and it's imperative not to bother them."

That said, when it came down to it, it wasn't really what Jack would consider a satisfactory reply. Instead he felt like throwing down his bottle of rum and storming out the tavern like a petulant child. And it was a mark of just how frustrated he felt that he would even consider throwing down his rum – heavy drinker he may not be, but he never was one to waste even a single drop of the drink.

Important business to discuss? Imperative not to bother them? That must have been a direct quote as he was pretty sure that 'imperative' was not a resident in Big Dan's vocabulary. And important business? That sounded like something he wanted to know.

His mind sharpened so it was as though the four mugs of rum have never been. He stood up abruptly, the chair crashing to the ground behind him. He tilted his head in Dan's direction. "Thanks mate." The drunken slur was gone and while his voice returned to a speech pattern that was normal for him, it was a well acknowledge fact for all those who knew him – either of him – that his way of talking would never be considered normal.

Big Dan returned to whatever it was he had been previously occupied with but Jack stayed. He turned to the men in his proximity and proclaimed in a loud voice: "Well mates, it's been good drinking with ye but now I think it's time for me to find myself some better evening entertainment than you lot."

With that, he took one last gulp, draining the mug and planted it firmly on the bench. The he turned and swayed off into the crowds, to all intents and purposes in the attempt to find some pleasurable company.

In reality, he was busy skirting the people he knew while trying to make his way unobtrusively to the staircase. The best way to do this was to blend in and he did this with little difficulty. For all he spent most of his time standing out, the ability to make yourself inconspicuous was a necessary one for someone in his line of work; at least when it came to going ashore at a respectable town.

When he finally reached the foot of the stairs, he glanced around once to make sure he had no observers and started up them. They were constricted and steep but he made it up them, the only difficulty being when a bloody great parrot-like bird flew squawking around the bend about halfway up and nearly frightened the life out of him.

At the top was a narrow corridor with doors on either side. Jack made his way along them, pressing his ear up to each door in turn to listen for the sound of voices within. All were silent and he had nearly given up and turned to leave when he spotted a notice pasted to the far wall. Curious, he walked slowly over and studied it. It was printed in nice, tidy handwriting and it was clear that this person knew their letters and was the possessor of an extensive vocabulary. Or at least one that was considerably larger than one would expect to find in a pirate town.

It contained a relatively simple message. If anyone needed a scribe to write out notes of any kind (and no doubt that was hinting that ransom notes would be included in that) then there was a master willing to do it for a price to be negotiated. The delivery of the letter could be included in the deal if necessary.

He pondered the changed circumstances as he returned downstairs. This certainly added a new facet, one that he hadn't counted on and it would surely cause a hitch to his plans. But they would still be successful.

He was just left to wonder if Clavell had already sent the ransom note – for that was surely what he was here for – or if that's why he had come here now.

 –         –       –       –          –

Clavell re-entered the Jolly Mary, Brock at his side, through the back stairs he had exited it with, fairly steaming with frustration.

He had not received a reply to his note. The scribe assured him that it had been delivered, but had been 'unable to disclose further information.' How the bird had even known where to go was just as much of a mystery to Clavell as that Daniels character.

The man was simply a black sheep, a bad egg (and he blamed Daniels for the fact that these were the first descriptions to spring to mind as often at night when he thought he was alone, he had taken to singing some blasted song that invariably got stuck in Clavell's head). And whatever else he was was completely overrun by the fact that he was just plain odd.

But he didn't want to go down that path. Musing on Daniels only ever lost him time and left him feeling even more stumped over the man, his actions and his motives. Even promoting him to a position (or in this case two positions) that entailing more interaction with the captain, Clavell had not been able to find out more about him.

But there he was losing control of his ruminations again. He put all thoughts of Jack Daniels out of his head and instead thought about the conundrum he found himself in. He had countless hostages, all off high standing and yet he had not received a reply to his ransom message. He didn't want to stay in Tortuga for much longer as the crew wanted to put their hands on some gold, something they were admittedly short of at the moment.

The only thing he could think of to do was to go back to sea and spend some time looting other ships. He would have to get Daniels to help them with tactics but he felt that with the months they had spent at sea, the men should be capable of taking a merchantman. They could stay nearby and check back in few weeks to see if a reply had arrived by then.

Decision made, he walked the rest of the way down the stairs and into the tavern. Drawing his sword he thumped one of the benches three times with the pommel to gain his crews' attention. When all eyes were on him he raised his head and made his announcement loudly and clearly. "Gentlemen." There were a few snorts at this but he continued unfazed. "We'll be leavin' port tomorra with th' dawn tide. Our ransom reply hasn' yet arriv'd and until it does we will have a bit o' fun wi' some merchantman!"

The crew cheered and toasted to the plunder they would get but Clavell couldn't help but notice Daniels sitting with perfect composure eyeing him with a speculative look on his face that Clavell didn't like.

He would have to watch that man.

–  – – – – – – – – – – – – –  – – – –  –  –

Thank you all for reading again. It's actually another long chapter. Wow, two long ones in a row. Next thing you know the pigs in the pen will grow wings and fly away, eh? Anyway, don't forget to let me know what was good, bad, needed improvement, etc and to notify me of any grammatical, punctual or spelling errors so I can correct them. Reviewers will be held in perpetual adoration.

Reviewer's Thanks

Riddle-Me-That: Oh yay, a new reader. Or have you just not reviewed before? Thank you for your review and it wasn't lame – it was a review and that's all that need be said to make it good.

Oneiriad: Thank you for all your reviews throughout. They are enormously appreciated.

Inu Lover: Thank you for reading and reviewing and an extra thank you for going through and reviewing more than just the last one!

Crazydominodragongirl: There will be more with the Pearl's crew, probably chapter after next in fact. We do a lot on alcohol at school too and he's in my head the whole time. And I just have to ask before I die of curiosity, what on Earth made you think of your name?

OpraNoodlemantra: Thank you for reviewing and don't worry, a lot of people took awhile to click with the Jack Daniels thing. And how did you think of your name?

Gabwr: Thank you for reviewing my story.

Alaawya: Well it would crack you up wouldn't it Rach? Lol.

Quiet Infinity: I think I'll use your suggestion for the text 'cause it does sound better. And I've always thought that my Jack might be turning a wee bit too normal as the story progresses, which is why I'm trying to bring him back out more. What do you think?

Savvyness: Thank you for your review and your nice comments. They are much esteemed.

Peachfreak: Congrats for being the one hundredth reviewer of Before The Dawn. But don't stop reviewing now.

Pirate Shy: I forgive you for coming to it late, so long as you keep reviewing. Lol. And thanks for the nitpicks. I'll have to go back and have a look at them.

Shei1dmaidenofrohan: Hey, I don't mind nitpickyness. Any corrections are good because I don't like having a story riddled with mistakes. And thank you for going back and reviewing seven of the ten chapters. It is really great when you do that because then – apart from getting more reviews – you get what people thought at the actual time. Thank you for reviewing.

Beregond'sGirl: I know that you didn't review this chapter – and I did miss your review pouts – but I just wanted to thank you for recommending me to shei1dmaidenofrohan.

Love y'all…

FalconWing.