Hey! Well, I took my first driving test and failed! That sucks but it wasn't my fault! Honestly! The guy just didn't like me. My sister's boyfriend had the same guy and he failed him to so it's a little okay! Man, I'm mad! Oh well, I'll get over it! Keep up the reviews! Thanx
Chapter Eighteen: Seduction
Norrington returned to the Dauntless a short time later and looked around for Sparrow but he was missing. Sighing impatiently, Norrington instead made a beeline for Gibbs who was sitting on the steps to the wheel, drinking from a hip flask...water.
"Where is Sparrow?" He waited impatiently as Gibbs took a long draught of water, some spilling from his mouth into his beard. Norrington looked away, disgusted and wondering how this man had ever been allowed on his crew before the turned back, waiting as Gibbs wiped his beard, burped and capped the flask. He simply pointed over Norrington's shoulder. "Thank you." Norrington muttered courteously. He turned around and came face to face with the infamous Jack Sparrow. How had he snuck up on him like that?
This close, Norrington could tell there was something wrong with the pirate. Last time they had been this close, he could remember the eyes being brighter, the skin around his bones being looser and the cold that permeated him...radiating off him was new.
"Mr. Sparrow." Norrington said, taking a step back and hiding his surprise and suspicions. Sparrow grinned and also stepped back, he seemed pleased about something but Norrington wasn't sure at the moment. "What have you been up to?"
"I might ask you the same thing." Jack said quietly, his eyes sliding across the ship to the island. "What did you find?"
Norrington raised an eyebrow. "I asked you first." Sparrow shrugged making Norrington sigh. "How do you know I found anything?"
"Because, you came back to soon for spying on people and you have nothing with you...you saw it, didn't you?" Norrington raised an eyebrow. "The bottle. You saw it." Norrington hesitated then nodded slowly, his heart pounding. Sparrow's smile widened. "Well then, you may actually prove useful...Commodore. Are we going?"
"Yes." Norrington replied. "We are going now." He turned to Gillette. "Fetch some irons for Sparrow, Gibbs and the female pirate." Gillette nodded and hurried off to get said items while Norrington and Sparrow watched each other.
"Is that really necessary?" Sparrow asked in a mock hurt voice. Norrington's turn to smile had come and he did it as blandly as possible but he couldn't hide the amusement in his eyes.
"What do you think?" Norrington asked. Sparrow's smile died on his lips and he allowed Gillette to put the cuffs on his wrists. Norrington held up the large skeleton key that fit the locks, showing Sparrow quite clearly that it was on a chair around his neck before he tucked it under his shirt. After Gibbs and Anamaria were also chained, they were led to a rowboat and lowered into the water. Two Navy men rowed, moving them closer and closer to the island. As they steadily made their way to land, James Norrington couldn't help but feel like life was going to take a very unpleasant turn soon enough.
Anamaria sat beside Jack who had leaned back in the boat, his three-cornered hat low over his eyes. She knew he was awake but she let him rest and let her mind drift off across the water to the island. She watched the rocky shore intensely, her eyes scanning the tree line and slipping through the forest's interior to the other side where Marco waited. Nicholas would want this, she tried to convince herself, and he'd want me to kill his murderer. Deep down, however, Anamaria knew that Nicholas was very disappointed in her.
Anamaria closed her eyes and let herself get swept away in her memories...
"Good morning Ana." Nicholas rolled over and stroked her face making her smile, opening her eyes. Outside their locked window, the streets of Tortuga bustled and the pre-dawn gloom seeped through the glass and into the small one room house. "Good morning Ana."
"Morning?" Anamaria muttered, squinting at the window through tousled hair. "Is it morning?" Nicholas laughed, his deep voice echoing off the walls. "How did you sleep?"
"I'm used to being on a ship but..." He sighed and rolled over, cradling his head in his folded arms. "I'll get used to this...my wife...my love..." He took her hand and kissed it, moving up her arm to her neck and then up her neck to her cheek. In her ear, he whispered, "My beautiful Anamaria."
"How beautiful?" Anamaria asked, needing to hear the words. Nicholas sighed and watched her.
"How handsome am I?" Anamaria surveyed his face with their high cheekbones and his tousled black hair. She giggled and bit her lip. "What?" Nicholas asked, grinning. Anamaria laughed and looked away, towards the locked door. The paint was peeling off the wood and soon they'd need to fix that annoying squeak. "What? Am I not handsome?"
"No..." Nicholas laughed. "I mean 'yes', you are handsome and I will never love another like you." Nicholas's smile faded and he sat up, his bare chest lightning in the shine from the window. Anamaria propped herself up on her elbows, her smile now gone to. "Honey? What's wrong?"
"Nothing...I'm just worried is all." Anamaria's brow furrowed. "Why would you ever think you'd get the chance to love another?" Anamaria shrugged.
"It's an expression Nicholas." She said quietly. "I just said it. Why?"
He leaned down and kissed her, when they broke apart, he said softly, "There will never be the need to love another. You'll never be alone because I'll look after you. We'll be fine. I know we're in a rut right now..." Anamaria squirmed guiltily, her mind slipping to her prostitution. "...but we'll get through this. I don't want you to worry. I have it all sorted out, you'll see. And, when we get over this little bump in the road we'll be able to think about maybe having kids and a family." Anamaria smiled.
"I'd like that." She said, kissing him again. "I'd love that." That night Nicholas died.
"I'm sorry sir, she was adamant and we tried to talk sense into her but she wouldn't listen. She refused to be left behind." Gillette whispered to Norrington as Elizabeth was helped out of the rowboat. Norrington watched her coming up the beach with the doctor in tow and sighed.
Behind him, Jack also watched the scene, smiling. He had to admit, besides the whole rum thing, he liked Elizabeth and he knew she'd make a very hard foe to beat if ever the time came. Sighing, he turned around and addressed Anamaria and Gibbs.
"We have to find a way to get Norrington to take these bloody things off." He lifted his hands to show them the shackles. "Maybe, luv, you could offer him something like..."
"No I will not!" Anamaria hissed loudly, offended at what he was mentioning. Jack stared at her for a moment. "How dare you Jack Sparrow you pig!"
"I was going to say, 'you could offer a plea of some kind. Maybe leverage like that ring that you wear around your neck'." Anamaria felt her face growing hot with embarrassment. "What did you think I was going to say?" There was suggestion in his voice.
"You bloody well know what I was going to say so don't make me explain to you."
"Well, you were obviously thinking about doing it or else you wouldn't have come up with that conclusion." Jack said absently, staring over her head and into the trees behind her. Anamaria was about to reply when Jack held a finger to his lips. "Shh, luv. Listen." He brushed past her, much to her annoyance, and approached the tree line. Norrington, who saw the movement out of the corner of his eye, rushed forward and grabbed the back of Jack's shirt, effectively halting him.
"Wait." He hissed, pulling Jack back a few steps. "Wait until we're all grouped. This is strange." Jack sighed audibly and smiled.
"Commodore, when have you ever known anything in this life to be normal?" He asked. Norrington smiled blandly back and let Jack's shirt go. "Now, please. What am I going to do?" He held up he cuffs. "Honestly."
"Don't wander off." Norrington warned, turning and walking back to the other navymen. With the eyes of Gibbs and Anamaria on him, Jack walked into the cool trees. At first, he thought his ears were deceiving him until he heard singing. He didn't know the tune or the words but, underneath the vocabulary, Jack could distinctly hear them calling his name. Distantly, in some tiny part of his brain, a warning claxon sounded but he pushed it away and pushed on, following the voices.
There was a bottle in a clearing, the glass a glowing red orb, reflecting it's eerie red onto the stone around it. Jack moved forward cautiously but entranced, his heart speeding up as he longed to touch the glass surface. His insides were battling each other. He knew to touch it would be deadly but to refuse would be sorrow. He had to touch it.
Through a haze, Jack extended his hand, wrapping them around the bottle. As his skin made contact with the bottle's surface, the singing around him stopped and every sound, including the chirping of birds and the surf on the shore faded and he was left deaf, holding the bottle up to his eyes, his mind clearing.
"I was lucky you weren't a surface deadly there." He whispered, thinking back to the stories. If it didn't kill him touching the container, then the potion inside surly would. Jack was about to put the bottle back on the crumbling plinth when the outside began to change, the side between his hands taking the shape of a woman's body.
"Jack Sparrow." The echoing voice said inside his mind. Jack would have dropped it in surprise had he the strength to do so. "We meet at last. Who am I? I am Morliana."
"That's impossible." Jack whispered, bringing the bottle closer to his eyes. "She stayed in India. She died in India." The bottle figure's small mouth turned upwards and she laughed lightly.
"Who told you that? Perdolin? The fool. He knew nothing of what I had to go through. How do you know the story?"
"I was told." Jack whispered back, slightly surprised. "Morliana died in India. I'm sure of it."
"Then you are a fool also. I stowed away in the Fated Parting...I loved the captain and I died with the crew in the storm." An image came to Jack's mind of a beautiful woman being tossed around like a twig in fifty-foot high waves, her soaked black hair clinging to her face and neck. She was sinking, sinking beneath the waves and watching the island near by, the one she would never get to, disappear from her grasp. Jack gasped and stepped back, still holding the bottle. "My women warriors, the three who accompanied me also died in the storm. The fourth still haunts the island, neither in form nor spirit. She lingers here." Jack felt a chill run down his spine.
"How does she linger if she is neither spirit nor form?" He asked, using Morliana's own words to try and better understand. How would this warrior be still here but not? It was impossible...then again, Barbossa's men were neither living nor dead so...
"She exists as a spell, a rain, a wind. She is the island and she dose not like men." Morliana's voice was cold and hard but Jack had had enough of her. Mastering himself, he regained control of his body and put the small bottle back it's rocky shelf.
"Jack!" Gibbs was at his shoulder, shaking him. Jack spun around, tripping over a protruding root and knocking into the altar, tipping the bottle off. It hit the ground and rolled away through the grass, coming to a stop at the base of a tree, unscathed. "We've been calling your name for minutes captain."
Now, as Jack looked around, it was hard to imagine that he had missed this many people. The clearing was empty naught thirty seconds ago. "Calling?" Jack asked, startled. Gibbs nodded.
"You were muttering to yourself, staring at the bottle. You reached for it a few times but Norrington stopped you from touching it." Gibbs explained, nodding to Norrington who stood behind Jack. "You seemed to be having a fit or something. We couldn't get you to talk sense." Jack watched the bottle under the tree, the men around it giving it a wide space as though it were diseased. "Are you alright Captain?"
"I'm fine Gibbs." Jack said, drawing himself up to his full height. "But the whelp isn't so, we should go and find him, eh?" Gibbs nodded and together, pirates and navymen pushed on together through the trees.
Will was pushed through the trees, roughly bumping into trunks and tripping over protruding twigs, Mulan's hand on his back. "I can't believe you betrayed Jack." Will hissed over his shoulder. Mulan just laughed.
"Well, it doesn't matter now." Mulan said gruffly, unconcern in his voice. "He's dead isn't he?" Will smiled maliciously.
"Is he really?" Will asked. He could tell, by the feeling of Mulan's hand tense up, that he was suddenly worried.
"You tell me. Is he here now to save you?" Mulan laughed. "No. So, shut it whelp." Will grumbled on his breath and turned his attention to the men in front, leading Bill.
The sun beat down hot and heavy through the trees above, making sweat trickle down Will's face. It was way to hot to be walking around out here, looking for the bottles. They didn't even know which one it was!
The singing around them would have been more effective if Will wasn't in so much pain from all the rough handling. The female voices tugged at the corners of his mind, willing him to slip away to them, consent to be theirs. The songs, though in Indian, were almost calling to him in English, whispering to his half numb brain, "We will free you, we will bring them all back...just touch us William Turner...touch us."
"Does it feel like someone's watching us?" One man who was behind Bill asked. Will's brow furrowed. Yes, it did feel like they were being watched, from all angles. It felt like the island itself was watching them and it was more eerie then the voices.
"Shut up Dawson, you'll scare the girls." Another man replied. The man named Dawson laughed out loud and watched Will for a moment before pushing after Bill and his captors. Will didn't care, there was more important things on his mind like finding a way out of this mess.
To my reviewers:
PussInBootsAndMonkeyzNamedJack: Hey, like the name. Thank you so much and please keep reading. It'll get better, I swear.
DragonHunter200: Man, I love those favorite line thingies. Yeah, I love Canada but, like all countries, it has it's...you know...bad parts but over all I love it! Especially the national colors though I'm not much of a hockey player. Yeah, our money is pretty. That's what my cousins from Texas said to when they saw it. They were asking me who all the prime ministers were on them but I really didn't know. In the United States, isn't your money all one color? The last time I saw it, I was ten or something. I like the pictures on yours though and of course we always have a lot of American pennies. I always have one in my change. But, now they're thinking about making all our money into coins! I thought it was stupid with the ones and twos! Man, our pants would be really heavy! The eye thing? Do I do it on purpose? I'm hurt and offended! (mock sadness) Course I don't! It all just fits! Strangers...dangers...have fun with the pillows!
Gaze: Hey! Another Canadian! I was so happy to find out you were from Canada as well! Outside Toronto? Do you watch Canadian Idol? If so, who did you vote for? The funny thing was I voted for Teresa, Kalan and Jacob. Jacob was my favorite but, of course, he was gone. Kalan was cute and I wanted him to get second and I wanted to have Tereasa third, even though she is from my home town of Saskatoon Saskatchewan! I live outside Saskatoon now but it's only been two years away. I live in a really small town, 60 people or so and go to school in another town because my town doesn't have a school so...I'd love to go to Toronto some day. I hear you had a big storm there just a few days ago with really strong winds. Jack getting respect? Yeah right! I wish! Oh, and the bloodshed...just because you asked for hardly any bloodshed...I won't be very specific but I have already wrote the next two chapters so...some things I won't be able to change. Thanx.
Corinne sparrow: Yeah, my story is pretty long. Some are longer though so...It's good to be determined. I'm like you in that aspect. I'm reading a story in French and I don't know much French. It took me half an hour to read, interpret and understand two lines so...it's a 7 chapter story so far! Yeah, I knew about the one paragraph mix up, other people pointed it out. I was having troubles with the computer that day and I apologies. Sorry again.
I HOPE I DIDN'T FORGET ANYONE! YOU ALL ROCK! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
