Eden Isle
By: L'Morgan
Only Disney owns or can make money on anything to do with Pirates of the Caribbean. I-just-borrowing-to-play-with-for-personal-entertainment-and-giving-back. Can I be any clearer? NO profit being made here by or for me!
Summary: Mystery and Adventure await Jack and his crew in this 'Colonial Journal'. Some characters and background story elements are from a previous story 'Aftermath', also by me. You might want to read that one first!
Action/Adventure Rated: MatureTeen for violence, innuendo and some language. Mild W/E pairing, J/A pairings.
CHAPTER TWO: SKY DRAGONS
"Professional secret. See what happens if you actually let the ship's doctor get near you? Sometimes it helps?"the doctorasked a bit teasingly and the pirate gave him a rueful look as he moved his shoulder again and seemed pleased.
"All right, so on occasion ye can be a useful variety of a pest - I suppose." the pirate said in a bit of a grudging tone and Gibbs nearly choked on his drink and then gave the doctor a wink as he grinned approvingly at him.
"You done for the night Jack?" Ana asked hopefully and he nodded.
"Yeah - there isn't really anything to do at the moment. As long as we stay on this heading anyway. We have to get over to where the French merchant ship will come by before we can look for them. Should be a quiet night." He said and she smiled as she came over beside him.
"Where are we anyway?" the doctor asked as he considered the map on the table and the pirate looked at the maps and pointed.
"Well, we left Port Royal here, and then we went northwest to the Cayman Islands, where we sold those crates I had in the hold. From there, we went back south of Jamaica, then east and south of Hispaniola, over to Puerto Rico. That's where we spent those two days in San Juan." He said and the doctor gave him a reproving look.
"And where you nearly got thrown in jail by the Spanish? What was it you were doing? Selling them back their own - whatever it was?" he asked and Gibbs sighed and rolled his eyes.
"All right - so I forgot to check to make sure which one we were selling to who! It was a mistake! It's dark down in that hold! I would have sworn it was the French wine Jack, I told you that! And I had no idea that ring was in that little chest. It sure didn't look like some kind of Spanish royal emblem to me!" he said and the pirate smiled broadly and waved him silent.
"No worries mate. It all worked out in the end. We got away didn't we?" he asked and the doctor gave him a reproving look.
"By the skin of your teeth," Ana muttered down at him with a reproving but gentle tug on his hair in the back and the pirate beamed a bemused grin up at her.
"That's all it takes love, that's all it takes! After that, well that's when we went up to visit Bellamy in the Virgin Islands." He said and the doctor had to conceal his smile.
"You mean that's where we hid out until those 3 Spanish ships that were looking for us had gone by, that's what we did, You and and Gibbs and Marcus playing cards until dawn" he corrected and Jack gave him a mockingly injured look as he rose.
"You don't think I went to see a fellow member of the Brethren of the Coast, just purely on the basis of a fraternal social call? We pirates have to stick together mate, we're all we got! 'Sides, Marcus Bellamy is a very old friend of mine." He said with a pout and hand briefly over his heart. The doctor grinned.
"So I assumed! Do all pirates claim an island someplace out in the middle of nowhere as their very own, or is he an exception?" he asked and the other three shrugged.
"Not many do." Ana told him and physician shook his head mildly with a smile.
"That was a nice place I have to admit. I'd never seen any of the Virgin Islands before there." He said and Jack shrugged.
"They're all right. A bit too close to the Spanish for my likin', but he seems to do alright with them. After we left Bellamy, we came out on the Atlantic side of the Caribbean and we've been going northwest ever since. The ocean currents are a lot stronger on this side of the Caribbean so that's why we aren't making headway quite as fast.. Plus that little storm that we found blew us east a bit more than I care for." He said as he moved his finger along the map and the doctor looked.
"Norrington once said you favor the Bahamas. We're almost there aren't we?" he asked and the pirate gave a gold toned smile as he nodded.
"Aye, I do like the Bahamas. A zillion and one islands, tons of old lava formation caves, coves and lagoons all over the place. There's one place that has a cave that is so big that we literally sail the Pearl right into the thing when we stop there. Very protected island there. The center of that island was apparently a volcano. Looks like it kind of collapsed in on itself, in the middle, leaving part of the mountain as the outer ring of it. A very interesting place actually." He said, hands describing his words vaguely. The other two pirates smiled at him and the doctor looked between the three of them.
"I take it that island is kind of 'your place'?" he asked and the pirate smiled secretively and half shrugged.
"You might say that I suppose. But we don't need to stop by there on our way out - not this time." He told him with a dismissing wave and half sway to his step as he moved around the table now and the doctor seemed amused.
"You can actually sail this ship into a cave there?" he asked as Jack pushed all the papers towards the center of the table and Gibbs nodded with a broad smile.
"Aye, that ye can! Same cave has just a maze of tunnels branching off of it for stashin' swag in, and outside the cave, the inner circle of that cove has some really pretty waterfalls and a beach like you can't ask for better of. Jack put an actual dock in a few years ago when he first got the Pearl back. That's where we fixed her up. Now you don't even need a row boat to get from the Pearl to the land. Makes it a lot easier." He said and the doctor smiled broadly.
"Do you have a name for this place? Or am I not supposed to know about it?" he asked and Jack seemed amused as he shrugged.
"The boys call it 'Swallows Cove". Mostly because of the cliffs full of birds' nests you see going in. Plus I refused to let them call it anythin' that would attract attention. If ye were to just happen to say you're going' to 'Treasure Cove' - even whisper that in some tavern some night - you'll have the attention of every scoundrel an' scallywag in the house and then some. Say you're going to Swallows Cove' - and nobody is really gonna think about following ye.." He said and paused a beat as he looked down at the map, "Unless or course, they have some sort of obscene obsession with birds nests." He added with an offhanded lazy gesture, and the doctor laughed while the other two grinned widely.
Suddenly there came a knock on the cabin door and they all looked over to see a rather young sailor stick his head in.
"Sorry to interrupt ye' Capt'n Jack - but ye should come look at what's goin on out here maybe?" he asked as if a bit alarmed and Jack frowned as he left the maps on the table and headed towards the door.
"What is it?" he asked as he claimed his long grey coat from a hook on the wall and the man shrugged. Jack stepped outside as he donned his coat, followed by all the others; Gibbs pausing only long enough to blow out the lantern. Jack quickly looked around the deck and didn't see anything out of order. As he reached the circle of sailors on the deck he found them all staring skyward.
"What's goin' on Capt'n?" asked another younger one in a rather fearful tone. Jack followed his gaze upwards to see the stars as always, but then a streak of a falling star, joined by another, then another. He scanned the sky widely to see it full of them.
"Falling stars!" Ana Maria observed with a smile and the younger man looked at her.
"You don't think that's a bad omen of some sort Ana Maria? All I've ever heard is how a bunch of fallin stars means something bad is gonna happen. Really, really bad. Kings dyin, armies getting beat. Entire fleets gettin' sunk by hurricanes. What do ye think is goin' on?" he asked fearfully, and his thoughts were echoed by the uneasy sailors around them. She looked at Jack who smiled as he moved over to stand beside the uncertain young sailor and clapped an easy hand on the lad's shoulder.
"It's called a meteor shower Jeremy. Not unusual for them to happen in the fall actually. As for being lucky or unlucky, well if one hit the ship I'd be worried, but I've never heard of that happening. Even then we could probably patch it up if we were half way lucky. Supposedly they come down as little rocks, most of em no bigger than yer hand. They won't hurt ye. I don't know what makes them, but I have heard a bit of a story about them." He said and the men there all looked at him as he now came around to stand near the lanterns in the center of them and drew a carved pipe from the pocket of his great coat.
"Well, it was when I was over in Singapore. They have some very unusual things over there, and some very strange explanations for things, but ye can bet your share of the stash that many a black hearted pirate floating in Singapore Bay is rejoicing tonight if they're seeing what you're lookin' at lads!" he told them in a spellbinding tone, with a slow dramatic wave of his hand at the stars raining around them. One of the sailors beckoned him over and filled the bowl of the Captain's pipe from his own little bag of tobacco.
"Why's that Capt'n? What do they think they mean?" another asked and the pirate grinned as he turned back to them, tamping down the contents of his pipe with a finger.
"Well, as the story goes, they call 'emSky Dragons - cause of the way you can see the long tails behind em. And they think they're bringing treasure down to earth and hiding it here and there in the ground, under the water, in all kinds of places. Gold, Silver, Jewels, you name it." He said and they looked at him rather doubtfully. Jack raised his hands outwards in a gesture of innocence and with his most winning gold toned smile.
"Don't look at me lads, I didn't make it up - but I heard it more than once there. I didn' say I believed it - but oh I bet there are pirates rejoicing around bonfires tonight if they're seeing all of these. A hundred new searches for treasure will be started in the next few days, you mark my words boys, a hundred at least! Each dragon's gotta find his own place to hide the goods ye see, so there's plenty to hunt for after a night like this!" he told them, and then used a small stick lit from another sailor's pipe to light the bowl of his own.
He inhaled deeply on the pipe and then he turned back to the first uncertain young sailor. "But no, don't worry about 'em son - I've seem 'em before and I'm still here to tell ye that I did." He said very reassuringly and the gathered crew smiled at him as he took another puff and exhaled a smoke ring up at the falling stars with a completely 'at ease' air about the gesture.
After a moment of silence Jack turned to them with a suddenly mischievous grin.
"Well, since thesky dragons are doin' such a fine job for us tonight of replenishin' the treasure to be found, who's got a story to tell of a treasure that's already been found? You boys must've been findin' some pretty good hauls someplace to bring out so many treasure deliverin' dragons all in a single night! You lads been holdin' back on yer ol' Capt'n? Finding swag the last dragons didn't hide so well and fergettin't' tell me, are ye?" he asked teasingly with a dramatic flourish of one hand as he slowly swaggered back and forth with an exaggerated air.
The gathered crew all laughed and drew a little closer around him now; forgetting the mysterious happenings in the sky as their infamously flamboyant Captain commandeered their attention instead.