By Kitty
A/N: Allo luvs! Sorry, sorry. I know I'm FOREVER AND A DAY LATE, but I was working on my brother's wedding video and his bride's shower video (or game, rather, the Soon-to-Be Newlyweds Game). He just got married. Merci Dieu (thank God), that's over... Out Stats right now...
Reviews: 121?!?!?! CRIKEY!!!!!!!
Favourite Story or Favourite Author of: 11 readers
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Not much else to say in the A/N. But I'm here are two main fthings we're workin' on, savvy?
1) Finish story on its 1-year anniversary
2) Think of a better title, think of a better title!!!
Got it? Good. Even though I am in summer school (mutters damn environmental science, never takin' that again...) it is summer, so I will have a lot of time to work. I'm not travelling anymore like I was continuously doing a few weeks ago, I have NO MORE FINALS, and this summer school class is easy peasey lemon squeezey. So much that I am definitely gonna be exempt from the final exam. So yay! And now we should get star--.
ERIC: Wait, Kitty!!
What? Who? sees Eric waving wildly Oh. You. "Wait." Why?
ERIC: You forget to mention thing #3!
Oh! Ai, thanks Eric. Almost forgot about thing #3! It--. Hmm. Um... contemplative silence
ERIC: Well?
sheepish chuckle Um, what...was thing #3 again??
ERIC: AAGH! I'M the forgetful one! Kitty, stop taking my job! calms down The thing. Uh, about the story?
DORY: Uh-huh.
ERIC: When you finish it.
DORY: Uh-huh.
ERIC: And you change some names.
DORY: moves head and thinks about it Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnno. No, can't remember. Can't remember, squat! Diddly squat!!
nods I'm with Dory. light bulb Ah h--!!! flickers, dims Hmmm. flick ding O}= Ah haa!! Now I remember. After I finish the story, I was going to turn it into one of the books that I try and publish. All I would have to do would be change some names, places, trademarks and such, and I still think I would have a pretty good story. I'd have to write more of course to explain it all, since there'd be no movie about it. What do you guys think?? OK, enough ROTA (Ramblings Of The Author). ONTO THE STORY!!!
After only a few moments of hesitation, the pirate threw aside the sheets and pulled on his boots. Somefthing's wrong, he thought as he hobbled to the door, still trying to put his left boot. I've gotta go get Lela. He managed to clumsily open the door and get his other boot on, but his luck ended and he fell to the ground where his hands flew about trying to protect his precious face. "Ow," he muttered in a rather matter-of-factly tone. Limping overdramatically for a few feet he brushed his hands off and walked in the direction he had seen Lela walking when he watched her after she left the room. Well, you know, I wasn't spying or anyfthing, he mused. I was, uh, uh...hmmm...perhaps I was. Jack shook his head. Doesn't mattuh, gotta find Lela, stay focused stupid, stay focused! Remembering there was no one to watch his theatrical display of pain, Jack walked very quickly in his normal swaying way.
As soon as he reached the wooden door near the bow of the ship, Jack stopped. The anxiety had increased and it made him wary. Something told him not to go in. A warning from a nameless power? A sixth sense? Not quite. Lela said not to go looking for her. She even made me promise specifically. Jack leaned back, putting his weight on his heel. Girl seemed very tense'n'troubled. Shaking his head, he turned on his heels and quickly made his way back to Captain Lela's cabin. Elle's a big girl, he reassured himself, she can take care of herself. I hope. Only chancing one look at the closed door, he all but fled back to the room and practically jumped into the bed. He pulled up the covers and nearly slammed his head down on the pillow. Forcing his eyes to close, he tried to forget the disturbing noise that had woken him. She'll be all right, he kept thinking to himself, nofthing's wrong and she'll be all right.
Although he had been sleeping soundly, comforted by thoughts of Lela, as soon he lay down to bed once more, Jack was haunted by his worries. He twisted in Lela's bed, tossing and turning. Jack felt like he was half-asleep, half-awake, torn between dreaming and the waking world.
Jack walks through a dark street. Fog is surrounding him and he can barely see. Holding up his hands to his mouth, he calls out to Lela. She doesn't answer. Jack tries to call her again. Again, silence. It seems to get colder, and darker too. There are shadows all around him, but one stands out amongst the rest. Why is it so noticeable? Jack wonders. He stares closer at the prominent shadow. Now he knows why it sticks out so: it's moving. At first, Jack thinks it is a trick of the light, because it's barely moving. But it IS moving.
Lurking in the shadows... Something large, but low to the ground, covered in thick black fur. And eyes glare at him, with evil intentions, blood red staining the pitch darkness. Jack hears a low growl. It's coming from the creature. Creature? Something else now pierces through the night: teeth. Gleaming, threatening, white teeth, dripping with saliva and blood. Jack tries to move but it feels like his legs are stuck. He looks down. His feet ARE stuck. No, they're sinking into the ground! Jack struggles but that only makes him sink faster. The spot below him is swirling with colour, distorting its shape, and now Jack's legs are becoming part of the spinning vortex.
Out of the fog, comes a deep ominous voice...
"A vain struggle it is, a vain struggle indeed." Jack looks up and sees someone walking towards him. It is a woman, old, obviously, many wrinkles on her face and a shrewd expression. But her hair shows no age. It looks like it was once dark brown but run through with large streaks of luminescent violet-red dye. Her violet eyes are clear, her olive skin without mark, and her back, straight. A single gold hoop hangs on her left ear. She wears a full, layered skirt of deep blue, textured with a pattern of dark green fern leaves and indigo-coloured irises. Her loose blouse, a creamy rough linen, billows slightly at the wrists. Finally, her open vest is an impossibly dark scarlet, almost black, sharing a similar pattern. Impossibly old, wise beyond reason, but still as full of life as a child. Jack nearly stumbles as he watches the imposing woman that emanates power and knowledge come closer. "Don't run away anymore, boy."
Jack finally realises she is talking to him, but he doesn't understand. "Wha...What did ye say?"
"Don't run away anymore," the lady sage repeats. "The Fates do not care for those who run from their destiny."
"What...what are you talking about?" The woman seemingly pays no heed to Jack's question.
"Even now they try to detain you," she says, contemplatively glancing at the blurred spot of earth below him, "but you apparently do not accept their judgement. Why? Even when your fate stares you in the face, you are blind to it. It wouldn't do to upset Lachesis. She has a reason for everything that occurs."
"Lachesis?"
"The Fate who weaves the Thread of Life after her Sister Atropos, the Thread that delineates your destiny." Jack shakes his head and tries his best to stop moving.
"Look, you're not makin' any sense. Why do you think I'm running?" Jack narrows his eyes and smiles coldly and rigidly at the youthful hag, as if to reiterate the ridiculousness of her words. "I know my destiny: Lela. Lela's my destiny. Always has been, always will. Not you...or some arrogant deity wiv a thread'n'scissors...can tell me otherwise." The old woman smirks.
"Would that you completely believed that." Jack blinks, wondering what she means. She begins to circle Jack, looking at him, trying to discern something. "Or perhaps you do believe it..." Suddenly, she smiles knowingly. "Perhaps...you lack the courage go through with it." Jack looks down, not in shame, but in confusion. Was what she said true? "Ah," the woman says slowly, nodding her head. "That is it." She stretches out one bony finger and lifts Jack's chin. She stares into his eyes with frightening intensity, the wicked grin still dancing on her painted lips. "You feel hesitation, not because you doubt your love for her...but you are left in the dark," as if on cue, the sky darkens more and low thunder shakes the sky, "as to what she thought then, what she thinks now...what she has been through, what secrets she keeps..."
The thunder grows louder...no, the growling of the creature in the shadows. Jack fearfully glances at it from the side of his eyes since the woman still had her grasp on his face. She speaks again and draws away his attention. "It won't leave you, boy..." Jack leans closer, prompting her to continue her strange and secretive advise. "That," she says pointing with her free hand, "is what you fear. It lurks in the shadows of your mind for you yourself do not know what it is. It won't leave you...until you do know...and you conquer it."
The ancient woman releases Jack's chin and grips his shoulders. "You can only receive so much help," she lifts him partly up out of the vibrantly coloured whirlpool, "but in the end, it is you who must take control of your destiny..." A shining bubble, solid in that it doesn't move outside its boundaries, liquid in that it moves and pulsates, grows and floats in the woman's weathered hand adorned with rings. It swells within her palm and both she and Jack gaze into it. Inside Jack sees flashes of images depicting him...and Lela. When they were children, playing...best friends, growing up together...a young man and woman, falling in love...adults, traversing similar paths of thieving, riches, and adventure...Jack winces and guilt fills his heart...him leaving, Lela heartbroken...Lela leaving, defiant, despairing, and delusional... Wrapping her fingers around the shifting sphere, the old woman squeezes it into nothingness. She once more authoritatively glares at Jack. "It is one thing to know the road you must take," she whispers, and behind her dozens of twisting roads appear, each with an indecipherable sign, "it is quite another...to gain the blind faith to traverse that path. You must find that destiny, Jack, and live it."
Seconds before, Jack has pulled himself from that churning pool of hopelessness. But when he hears the old crone say his name, he calls out to her as she walks away. "Wait!" She doesn't listen. "Damn it all, wait!" He tries to run after her, the sides of the buildings in the alley stretching and blurring, as she gets farther and farther away. "How do you know my name?" he shouts, still running. "How do you know about Lela? About US?!" All fades to darkness...
And they that did dream, dreamt no more...
Below the troubled Jack, beneath the captain's room, down in the bowels of the Siren Fire, the first misty violet orange glimmers of daylight filtered down to the face of the equally troubled Lela. Groaning, she finally woke up after an eternity of secluded darkness. Lela felt groggy, sore, and terribly hung-over. Leaning on her arm to hoist herself up, she grimaced at the multitude of tiny cuts there. Glancing to the corner of her cage, she saw and dually noted the smashed bottle, little pieces of brown glass reflecting the weak rays of sunlight. Lela forced herself to turn over, and used her other arm to push herself up into a sitting position. "Ugh," she moaned quietly, "my head. Oh, my head! Jaysus..." She roughly shook herself, trying to wake up fully. Her vision blurred and became dark and splotchy. She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes until bright spots of colour rippled behind her eyelids. Upon opening them, Lela's attention was drawn past the barred door to what lay about 2 or 3 metres in front of her: the ring of keys.
Lela sighed and crawled closer to the door. "Eros," she called softly. "Eros!" In the last cage on the left (or the first cage on her right), a slight tremor ran through the smallest of the beasts within. The baby leopard looked as though it were about to get up, but then, like a child delaying their going to school, let out a big yawn and snuggled closer to his mother. Lela smiled and shook her head. "Come on then, Eros, ye lazy lit'ul fthing." The small cat's ear flickered. He slowly opened his big brown and black eyes and raised his head in the direction of his mistress. Eros saw her waving at him and he quickly got up and walked to the edge of the cage. Lela began to point at the key ring on the floor and motion that he should get it for her. Delighted at the prospect of being able to help his caregiver, he spun around and pounced at the door of the cage.
Unfortunately, the reason he was so delighted to help Lela was because he was very little, and not very strong. And so instead of shoving the door open and bounding out, the poor little thing just rammed his head into it. Eros flopped back to the floor, landing on his backside. He shook his head from side to side...and then leaped at the door again. And again, his ill-fated little noggin clanked against the metal bars. The rather pitiful display repeated only once more before his consistent pounding woke Eros's mother, Aphrodite. Practically rolling her large eyes, the lovely leopard effortlessly and gracefully nudged the door open with her paw, just as her small cub was undauntedly running at the door yet again. This time, though, the door was already open. So instead of bashing his noggin into metal bars, he flew out of the cage and collided headfirst with the wooden floor, and rolled over and over till he smashed into the door of the neighbouring cage opposite to Eros and Aphrodite. Although Lela looked a little worried for the cub, his mother merely shook her head and lay back down to sleep.
Upside down, rump in the air, with his back against the cage, Eros slid down and shakily sat himself upright, wagging and shaking his head again. Finally, he was outside his cage, upright, and able to get the key ring. He leaned down, caught it up in his mouth, and proudly pranced to the end of the room where his imprisoned mistress eagerly held out her hands. While the right lifted the slightly slobbery metal ring from the jaws of the beast, the left appreciatively patted the small cub on the head and scratched his chin. With a growling purr of delight, Eros, puffed with pride, complacently strode back to his mother and properly lay down to sleep.
Only one little chuckle escaped Lela's lips before Eros's head snapped up. Lela quickly stopped and looked around. "Who was that then?" she asked to the surrounding creatures. "Come, come, now moi dears, confess, admit!" She looked dejectedly back at Eros. "Wha? What, ye think I was laughing?" She held out her hands, her mouth open, as if wondering aloud how in the world could she be blamed. "Oh, that hurts dear! Really it does. I promise to find the scoundrel and pop 'em one in the snotbox! Yep, s'right, tha's wha ye get f'laughing at moi lit'ul Eros." Apparently pleased with her rather lengthy 'I didn't do it' speech, Eros finally settled down for good. Lela was careful this time and only smiled as she held onto the bars of the door to pull herself up so that she could stand.
After a few moments, she felt strong enough to stand on her own and let go of the door. Jingling the keys, she flipped through them and found the one she was looking for. Reaching outside and twisting her arm through, she finally managed to place the key in the lock, and with a clank and a creak, the cage door swayed slowly open. Lela stepped out, wobbling a little, took the key out of the lock, and turned to go up on deck. As she walked down through the two rows of creatures, she gazed at them lovingly. "Thanks, luvs, f'putting up wiv me again last night." She started up the stairs and turned back only once more. "Now I must go'n'brave somefthing even more dangerous than you," she murmured, smiling wryly.
The early morning fog swept across the deck and the only sounds were that of the creaking of the ship and the rush of the sea as it lapped at the hull. Once up on deck, a chill ran through Lela and she shivered. But as she looked down, she realised her shivering was because of her clothes: they were shredded and ripped, some beyond repair. "Well if I don't look like a bloody bang from Turkey..." she mumbled, quietly embarrassed at the excess of skin she was showing. I'll have to go change before Jack...oh no...Jack. He's still in my room, asleep. Or at least, I hope he is. No telling what he'll do if he sees me like this.
Lela would've walked through her doors right away, but something...or someone...or someoneS...lying on either side of the entryway grabbed her attention. It was Collette and Minou, the lovely Frenchies. Collette was leaning against the wall, her head leaning down slightly. Minou was curled up on the ground like a little...um...minou. "Now what were you two up to?" Lela said softly.
The previous evening...
(A/N: Just to make it easier to understand, Collette and Minou's dialogue is going to be in English--mostly--rather than French...)
"Zut alors, Collette, why am I doing this again?"
"Parce que, tu doit!!" (Because, you must!!)
"Well...then...so do you!"
"Shh! Be quiet, or they'll hear us!"
"But they haven't said anything the whole time we've been here."
"We've only been here 5 minutes."
"It seemed longer..."
"Oh, wait! The one called...um, Paque?"
"No, no, Jacque."
"Ah, yes. He is saying...something."
"Ooh, that helps."
"Ferme la bousche..." (Shut your mouth...)
"Hmm?"
"Rien." (Nothing.)
"Teehee, I bet I know what he's saying."
"What?"
"He's talking to Capitaine, and saying 'Voulez vous coucher avec moi...ce coir?' Heeheeheehee..."
"Minou, quelle horribles parler!" (Minou, how awful to say!)
"Tsk, tsk, you know you think it's funny."
"Well...well, yes."
"Voulez vous coucher avec moi..."
"Ce soir?"
"Ha ha ha! Hey...that could be a song..."
They looked at each other. But concluded with a simultaneous...
"Nah!"
"Hmm," Lela murmured. "Oh well." She laughed. "It's not like they were spying or anyfthing!"
Lela finally walked into her cabin, quietly opening and closing the door. She took a quick look at her bed and there was Jack, still asleep and in one of his 'fitful slumberings', just as she had said the day before. He was sprawled out on the bed, occasionally tossing, and quietly snoring. Lela smiled and then tiptoed to her armoire and pulled out a chemise, a loose pair of bloomers, a white collared shirt with ¾ length sleeves and laced up in the back, a tight-fitting pair of brown trousers, and a long purple scarf embroidered with Indian patterns and designs for her hair. She had to be very quiet since her armoire was right next to her bed, and Jack was lying there. Gathering her clothes in her arms, Lela crept to the other corner of the room and slipped behind the standing screen. With a little manoeuvring, she was able to get out of her tattered garments. Lela threw them to the side and continued to change into her underclothes. But she still hadn't noticed that her scarf wasn't there...
A/N: Lala la, lalala la, another chapter done! I was determined, I was fierce, I never gave up!! Time to write the next chapter!
DORY: Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...
And this time I PROMISE to be FASTER, AAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!! runs off into the distance waving laptop, coffee, and PotC DVD...
To Be Continued...Very Soon...I Hope...Oh, Dear...
PS
Does anyone know why I can't use the little carrot things on the keyboard anymore (Shift6)? I can't make my Japanese computer smilies, waaaaaagh!!!!!!!