Disclaimer: POTC isn't mine.
Only a handful of crew members set foot on the island. Jack takes the lead, map in hand, followed closely by Squirrel, Ana, Gibbs and Mister Cotton. Mister Cotton's parrot flits through the trees like a winged child.
"Pieces of eight!" He squawks at Squirrel. Squirrel looks back over her shoulder at Mister Cotton, wondering if it is the pirate excited about the treasure, or the parrot wanting another nut. In the end, Squirrel decides it's both, and gives the blue-and-yellow bird a walnut and the pirate a slight smile. The bird sits silently on his owner's shoulder from then on, trying desperately to crack the round shell open, muttering in frustration every time it slips.
As the small party treks further and further inland, Squirrel can't help but be overcome with strong feelings of deja vu. That rock… she sat on it once. That tree… she climbed. That section of sand… she made a sandcastle there once. But everywhere around her is the heavy oppressive feeling of fear. She was hiding here, scared of something. She wishes she brought her cloak, so she can shrink into it and make the bad feeling go away. Something terrible had happened here.
But why can't I remember?
After a while, Ana notices Squirrel's tortured expression, and calls to Jack to slow down. Squirrel leans heavily against a tree, trying to catch her breath. As soon as she realises she had leant against the same tree in exactly the same way, she leaps aside with a short yelp.
"I've been here!" Squirrel explains to a confused bunch of pirates. "I know I have. I just can't remember when…"
Jack and Ana exchange glances, then Jack hands Squirrel the map. "Maybe it would be better if you lead the way then, luv. Unless you want to go back to the ship…?"
"No." Squirrel takes the map and staggers onwards. "I have to know. I have to."
Every few steps, Squirrel slows, seeing something she recognises, something else that prods her in the right direction. Soon, she doesn't need the map to know where to go. She hands it back to Jack and moves ahead.
After about five minutes of walking inland, the group reach the spot which is marked with an 'X' on the map - a sandy clearing under several huge trees which engulf the space like walls and a roof. Suddenly, Squirrel realises why this place seems so familiar. Squirrel looks around the clearing, seeing with sudden clarity where she is.
"It's Tortuga!" She nearly screams. Everyone looks at her as if she's crazy. But Squirrel casts her mind back. That rock was a bench, the tree was an old ship they had grounded and turned into a tavern - the 'Fallen Angel', and the patch of beach where she once built a sandcastle… That was the beach at Tortuga where Squirrel sat and ate her breakfast every morning. And the feeling of fear that seems to be everywhere, like a bad smell… It's what she felt everyday of her life, hiding, running, slipping between shadows and crates. It's what she lived with every day while in her uncle's tavern.
It is as if someone designed this island to resemble her home.
"Now that you mention it," Ana comments, "The way we came did remind me of the streets you walk from the docks, past the 'Fallen Angel', then towards the gate-house district." She looks around thoughtfully. "I feel like we're inside a house now…"
"My house." Squirrel licks her lips, eyes flickering back and forth. "And that means my father's treasure is right here. In 'Tortuga'."
Jack chuckles. "So you're good ol' daddy never left Tortuga at all, did he?"
Gibbs looks around, scratching his chin. "So what do we do? Start digging? Or is there some secret passageway in your 'house' that we should know about, Miss Grey?"
Squirrel's eyes flick back and forth, then up. Without a word, the girl clambers up a tree, which has rungs carved into the side of it. Everyone's heads crane backwards as Squirrel disappears into the foliage.
"In the attic!" Squirrel's voice and a few dead leaves come down to them. "We always kept everything in the attic!" There is a creak in the branches, and several vines fall away to reveal a wooden platform. The wood is rotten and weak.
"Be careful, you fool!" Ana calls up.
"We didn't come all this way for you to die!" Jack says at the same time.
Squirrel stares across the wooden rafters set high in the trees. She risks a brief look down, and instantly regrets it. It's much higher up here than it was in the rafters of her uncle's tavern, or in the attic of her home long ago.
I must be at least ten metres up! Squirrel thinks, shifting her weight carefully from foot to foot, setting the ancient timbers creaking. Chance of finding this 'treasure'? Squirrel spots a chest wedged in the middle of the framework. She smiles slightly. 100 per cent. She takes a careful step forward.
Something creaks and snaps. Squirrel leaps back, grabbing onto the tree as a plank gives way beneath her and tumbles to the forest floor. The pirates below call out in alarm.
"Squirrel!"
"You alright?"
Chance of me actually reaching the treasure? Squirrel stares at the mouldy wood. 34 per cent. Suddenly, a memory comes floating back to her.
Last night, Jack had said, "There's no chance that I'm going to be handing over two of the most important things to me to some over-dressed tramp…!" One was the map. So that means the other was…
Another piece of timber gives way, tumbling to the ground in a shower of wood flakes. Squirrel swallows, forcing the thought away, then looks closer at the chest. If this framework falls away, she casts her eyes quickly around the area, scanning it quickly like she scans card and dice players, Then the chest will stay up here, held up by vines and plants that have grown around it. So if I want to get the chest, I have to get it now! With a muttered curse, Squirrel slowly and carefully makes her way across the rotted wood. Her soft leather shoes hardly make a sound, but the wood itself creaks every time a leaf falls on it. She's slim for her age, and light enough not to disturb much more than a few leaves. Every now and then, Squirrel has to find another piece of wood to stand on, as even her light weight threatens to collapse the whole structure. Ana, Jack, Gibbs and Mister Cotton's parrot call up words of encouragement, but Squirrel can barely hear them. Her entire focus is on the chest.
There's a snap under her, and Squirrel falls through the hole. Thinking quickly, she snaps her legs around a branch and heaves herself upright. Just like I did in the Port Royal blacksmiths, she thinks briefly, then tiptoes onwards, carefully moving towards the chest.
"Got it!" Squirrel leaps onto the chest as the entire framework gives way beneath her. The vines are strong, and only stretch briefly under her added weight. She looks down cautiously. The pirates pick themselves up from where they took cover from the falling debris.
"I got it!" Squirrel calls down. "But now I'm stuck!"
Ana shades her eyes, staring up into the mass of branches and vines. "Stuck? How?"
"I'm caught in the vines… But I have the chest!"
"Drop it down then!" Ana calls.
"Don't drop it!" Gibbs calls up. "Open it first, Miss Grey! Find out if it's breakable, then tell us whether it's safe for you to drop it down!"
"Pieces of eight! SQUAWK!"
Squirrel frowns. Too much information! But it would be a heavy blow if, after all this time, her father's treasure would be accidentally destroyed. Taking a deep breath, Squirrel repositions herself in the vines, and faces the lock. Another flash of memory surfaces. Taking the amulet from her neck, she slides the coin into the wide hole and turns it. With a click, the lock comes undone.
Squirrel slips the amulet back around her neck, and slowly lifts the lid of the chest. The first thing Squirrel pulls out a piece of paper, covered in red wax. "To Whom It May Concern" is scratched into the wax. Squirrel scrapes it away, careful not to tear the paper itself. She reads the letter slowly, hardly able to believe what she sees.
"Ahoy up there!" Jack calls. "You still alive, Squirrel?"
"Yes." Is the reply. After a moment, it's followed by a short laugh, and then, "I'm dropping the chest now! Stand clear!"
A heavy metal box falls from the trees and lands in the soil below with a thunk. A length of vine slithers down from the heights, and Squirrel shimmies down on it, a paper in her hand.
"Open it, lass!" Gibbs says, rubbing his hands together with glee. "What's in there?"
"You can have it." Squirrel says, smiling slightly. "All I want is this." She waves the paper in the air. When the pirates look at her strangely, she only smiles, then opens the chest for them.
Squirrel watches their reactions with a smile. They're pirates, all right. She thinks, They can't take their eyes off that chest. Well, I guess its payment for saving my life and taking me this far. Squirrel sits down on the ground and reads through the letter again.