The Oldest Story in the Book
Chapter 27
Author's Note: Okay, more fighting. This I have to give credit to Spotted Paw for, because it would suck if it weren't for her. I can't write fighting scenes to save my life. So enjoy
"They had best stay out of this," Bootleg said, aiming a hard blow at her head. Her hair stirred, trinkets jingling musically as she shifted to avoid the blow and intercept with her own sword.
"They will." Pearl turned the blow aside, following up with one of her own. "They believe in honor, which is more than I can say for some."
Metal rang through the clearing as Bootleg met her sword. "And when I take you? Are they going to watch you scream out my name?"
Norrington stiffened, impressed with Pearl's ability to keep a steady head. He knew Bootleg said it only to upset her, but it seemed to be working much better against him.
"I'll slit my own throat first." Pearl grunted as Bootleg made swift use of his superior height, metal taking a sharp bite from the flesh on her right. She slipped smoothly out from under his sword, nearly catching him along his back for the trouble.
"Now, none of that. You gave me an oath."
Pearl laughed. "Have you not noticed? You've no deal, Bootleg. They boy is gone. He's down on the beach waiting for us. You've not given him to me, which was part of the deal. You've nothing, Brendon, just as before." She evaded his flourish easily as he cried out in anger. Pearl laughed as she met his next thrust, nearly sinking her blade into his side in following. "Mayhaps I'll take the other eye this time. An arm perhaps. I'd hate for you not to be able to walk at all. Eternal dankness though, that seems fitting."
And just like that the fight changed. Pearl's eyes widened as Bootleg began raining blows on her, his blade clashing hard against hers as he put all of his strength into the swings, driving her back toward the forest.
Perhaps inciting his anger hadn't been the best idea.
Norrington gripped his sword hilt, only to have Jack wrap a commanding hand around his and push down to keep it firmly in place. Norrington shrugged him off with a glare. He didn't care, he realized suddenly, about demons. If she spent every moment for the rest of her life weeping, if he had to search her every day for daggers lest she end her life, he didn't care. All he knew was that after 16 years he was so close to finally being able to hold her in his arms. He loved her and he would get her through it, whatever that required, scurvy old pirate captains that claimed to care for her be damned.
Bootleg continued to force her back toward the tree line and she continued to fall back as she fended him off. She cried out as he caught her across the left arm again, the sound of victory rumbling deep in his throat. "Now we're even," he informed her, raising his sword high over his head, firm grip on the handle, anxious to attack her again.
Jack and Norrington followed them into the tree line, keeping a fair distance.
The forest was thick here, steal catching tree limbs as it cut the air. Leaves rained around them. Monkeys chattered in the trees overhead. Rocks cropped up under their feet, making them stumble as they fought.
Blood dripped from Pearl's left arm, which she still held up for balance. Bootleg cut and parried. She returned. Both were gasping now, sweat beading on their faces in the even more sweltering proximity of the lush vegetation. Norrington was starting to believe Pearl was taking back the upper hand when Bootleg thrust forward suddenly, cutting the air before Pearl with a flurry of strokes that forced her swiftly back.
She stumbled over a moss-covered rock, sprawling onto her back, her sword landing in a bush to her right despite her desperate attempt to retain her hold, rocks clattering around them.
Bootleg didn't hesitate for a moment. He flew toward her.
Pearl caught a sapling in her hand, rolling herself roughly out of his path and lashing out with her right leg to pull his good foot from beneath him. His peg leg landed on the same mossy patch that had been her downfall, his momentum carrying him forward. He crashed through the brush, rolled, and ... was gone. Without a trace, without a sound, as if the earth had opened up and swallowed him whole.
Everyone froze, Pearl gazing toward the hole in the foliage he had disappeared into, gasping to reclaim the breath the desperate fight, the fall, and her near-end had stolen from her. She rolled herself back into her original spot, supporting herself on her left hand which dripped blood onto the grey stones as she cast about desperately with her right for the lost sword. After a few moments she gave up the search, pulling one of the daggers from its hidden catch and crawling toward the spot Bootleg had disappeared into. Her left hand left a bloody outline each time it descended.
Norrington and Jack followed carefully to the spot Pearl gazed through with wide eyes.
Sitting back on her knees she suddenly viciously caught at the leaves around her, removing them so that they would see where the broken rock gave way to utter nothingness. Rocks shifted as she moved, clattering over the edge of the jagged drop off, upsetting the foliage as they rolled down the cliff Pearl was now perched on. There was no sign of Bootleg.
Pearl looked up at that. "Okay. That's one I owe to the man upstairs," she sighed.
Taking this to indicate the end of the fight, Norrington hurried over to kneel by Pearl as Jack went over to more closely examine the hole in the foliage, gazing down the cliff.
Pearl shrugged Norrington gruffly off, spattering him with blood from her left arm in the process. "Can you see him?"
Jack shook his head. "Can't see much. Too much green. Looks like a goodly drop. I'd wager he'd done with."
"Not good enough. Edward, my sword," Pearl ordered. She stumbled to her feet as he retrieved it. Taking it she moved to the ledge, fingering the foliage as she studied the cliff.
"You can't climb down," Jack said. "Leave it alone, luv. Please."
Pearl shook her head. "I have to find him. You go back to the beach. I'll search and-"
Jack caught her by the shoulders, forcing her to look into his eyes. "It's time to let go. He's wounded, and the forest is thick. That was a good fall. Say he's dead. We'll go back to the ship. Sink his, leave Marden to guard the bay. If he were unlucky enough to live we'll leave him to starve to death. It's better than he deserves."
"No. I need to see the body, Jack," Pearl said.
"You'll never find it. The forest's too thick. You'd never get to it. And that's saying you wouldn't take a tumble off the cliff. And if he's alive and stalking you through the forest, and you bleeding to death...it isn't worth the risk. You've won."
Shaking, Pearl dropped her head and nodded. Jack wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry. I know it doesn't feel complete, but you've won and that's all there is to it. Let's get down to the boat. Your son and daughter need to get home."
Pearl laughed dryly. "My son." She let her father help her to her feet, turn her around and lead her back toward the clearing as she sheathed her sword. "Don't call him that. He isn't, not yet anyway. Your grandson," she added with a poke at his ribs.
"Shut your bloody mouth!" he ordered. "You make me sound old."
"You are. You're an ancient bloody scallywag," Pearl teased as they returned to the clearing. Norrington set to examining her arm as they moved toward the beach.
"Aye. But I look considerably younger than my years. And the lasses still chase after me."
"That they do," Pearl agreed. "I've been thinking on that. You really do look much younger than you should. I think it may have something to do with the Aztec gold debacle. Will still looks younger than he aught as well. Which is to the benefit of all women and some men, rea-Ow!" she cried, pulling her wounded arm away from Norrington. "You did that on purpose!"
"I would never do such a thing," Norrington answered with a grin.
"Lying Commodore. You had best be careful or I'll tie you up and punish you properly."
Jack rolled his eyes as Pearl sent him a saucy grin and tossed her hair over her shoulder. She was obviously feeling better already.
If others had been around Norrington may have been embarrassed but after the eventful afternoon he felt bolder than usual. "Do you promise?" he asked.
"Only if you're really bad," she answered.
"Tease," he accused. "In all seriousness, that's a deep wound. It needs some thorough attention. I don't know if you'd want to let it alone until Port Royal."
"We could stop by the gypsies. They're nearby and your mother would like to see you," Jack suggested.
Pearl snorted. "Edward and Ethan with the gypsies?" She untucked her shirt as she spoke, using a dagger to rip a long bandage and began wrapping it around her arm. Norrington took over after a moment, wrapping it more firmly and tying it securely.
Jack broke into a grin. "It would be a learning experience for certain."
"Or it would leave him running screaming for the ship," Pearl said.
Edward looped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. "Never. You're mine now, Miss Sparrow."
"Pearl Sparrow," Pearl corrected gently. "On the ship the crew calls me Pearl. They call Emmie 'Miss Sparrow.' They could be confused if you got in the habit of referring to me that way."
"No indeed. I intend to get into the habit of calling you Mrs. Norrington as soon as possible."
Jack wailed at that. "My daughter taking on the name of Norrington. It's too horrible even to consider," he sobbed.
"We'll see," Pearl said quickly. "We've much to discuss between now and then. Asides, I'm fond of the name Sparrow." They came onto the beach then.
Emmie saw them and rushed across the beach with a cry, hugging her mother. "Oh, Mama, I was so worried!" she sighed.
"You should know better," Pearl scolded, kissing her daughter on the top of her head, wrapping an arm around her and heading down the beach.
"Doesn't stop my worrying," Emmie said. "Is Bootleg dead then?"
"He took a tumble off a cliff. Jack believes he is."
"Speaking of which," Jack broke in. "Did you not worry for me? Not even a bit?"
"'Course not," Emmie chirped. "Wherever you're going when you die, the overseer wants no part of you. I'd imagine most of the heavens are conspiring to keep you alive, and all of those below."
"Well said," Jack laughed, waiving to the Turners who were keeping watch over the cove.
"Was everything uneventful?" Pearl asked.
"Mostly," Emmie said. "We weren't attacked, but you need to talk to Ethan." Norrington caught sight of him sitting further down the beach, letting the waves break over his feet. "The pirates told him a lot."
"Good. Saves us having to do it," Pearl said.
"Not all of it was true. It seems there's a rumor going around that my mama is Ethan's as well."
Pearl burst out laughing as they approached. "They think he's mine?!" Emmie nodded as Ethan looked up. "As if I'd let a bloody commodore raise MY son."
"I think I've just been insulted," Norrington remarked.
"Well, why do you think I gave her to the Turners?" Pearl asked, nodding toward her daughter. "I wasn't going to let you squeeze all the wild out of her. If it weren't for Maggie I would have seriously considered forbidding her being around you all together."
Norrington rolled his eyes, and turned his full attention to his son. "Are you all right? They didn't hurt you?"
"No." Ethan rubbed his rope-burnt wrists. "I'm fine. Emmie told me she's my sister. But the other isn't true, is it? I mean, my mother was-is-Maggie Norrington?"
"She had better be. Do you know how many days I spent running around Port Royal trying to find goat's milk so the servants could make cheese for her? Goat cheese of all things!" Norrington cried.
"With me it was chocolate. Jack must have spent a fortune with those Spaniards," Pearl remarked.
"That I did," Jack agreed. "When Nikko couldn't be prevailed upon, or ran out of cocoa beans."
"How long was your confinement?" Norrington asked.
Pearl laughed. "Confinement? I was in Tortuga, Edward. We aren't pampered Ladies. We do what needs doing, and if we give birth in the street so be it."
"Or on a dock, as the case may be," Jack put in.
"You gave birth on a dock?" Norrington asked in apparent horror.
"No. I went into labor on the dock. Jack got me inside the Black Pearl and sent for the midwife. So you see my darling one was born on the sea." Emmie grinned. "Poor Ethan. You look terrified," she added with a laugh.
"That will get worse before it gets better, I'd wager," Jack said.
"I'm not terrified. I'd just expect you to find a proper midwife and a proper room. Who would let you give birth on a pirate ship when it was in port? How could that happen?" Ethan asked.
"Well, you see, when a man and a woman find one anther attractive-" Pearl began.
"Pearl!" Norrington cut her off.
"All right, all right. And if they LOVE each other-"
"Pearl!" Norrington screeched again.
Will and Elizabeth, who had been sitting on the overturned boat (Will must have retrieved it in their absence) chose that moment to join them. "What's she doing now?" Elizabeth asked Jack.
"Attempting to explain the bedroom habits of men and women to young Mr. Norrington," Jack said.
"I certainly hope this isn't how you educated our daughter," Norrington commented.
Emmie burst out laughing at that, as did Pearl. "No. That was fairly simple," Pearl said. "She just asked me what Aunt Ruby and that man were doing in the corner."
Norrington's eyes grew wide. "Please tell me you're joking."
"She isn't," Emmie said.
"Come, Edward, this was Tortuga," Pearl said.
Emmie giggled again. "I probably know more about that sort of thing than you do," she informed her father with a laugh as his eyes grew wider.
"I wouldn't count on that," Pearl said. "Maggie was surprisingly knowledgeable on several subjects. I'd wager she taught him a thing or two."
"How would you know what exactly Maggie knew on those subjects?" Norrington demanded, knowing he would come to regret it the moment the words left his mouth.
"Oh, we had several very nice discussions, Edward. Most centered around you, in fact."
"Me?" he repeated.
"Well, I had taken an oath not to chase after you. I had to get my kicks somehow. Maggie was actually surprisingly willing to share."
"I think I'm going to be ill," Norrington remarked.
"Well, that doesn't speak very highly of Maggie's skill," Pearl said. Emmie nodded agreement.
"Wait, she never shared with me!" Jack cried in outrage.
"You didn't ask nicely enough," Emmie said.
"I think it's time to go!" Will said quickly.
"I asked plenty nice!" Jack objected.
"Yes, but you didn't want stories, Jack. You wanted to sample the real thing," Pearl put in.
Jack shrugged. "You can't blame me for that. I don't know many lads as didn't. She was a pretty young thing and I was a pirate. I HAD to chase after her a bit. Couldn't have the men thinking there was something wrong with me."
"I still believe we need to go," Will broke in again.
"Indeed. They'll be worried about us on the Black Pearl," Elizabeth put in.
Ethan stared wrinkled his nose at Jack. "My mother and him?"
"No, deary, not your mother," Pearl put in as she helped the boy to his feet and they headed back toward the boat. "Jack's a flirt. If it has two legs and a pulse Jack will chase it. Your mother handled him very well. Your father, on the other hand, has a good taste for pirate flesh."
"Let's go back to the ship!" Norrington called.
Pearl laughed, but she moved to help turn over the boat. She was immediately scolded by Elizabeth, Emmie, and Norrington, and ordered to sit quietly on the beach with Ethan to guard her and her injured arm. Of course the 'quietly' part was negotiable, as she yelled loudly from her seat, attempting to squirm closer without catching the watchful noble's attention. She failed miserably in the attempt.
Finally the boat was readied. Ethan was helped inside, as was Elizabeth.
Jack and Norrington stood beside it, both offering Pearl their hands.
"I can get into the bloody boat myself," Pearl argued.
"The world may never know," Jack replied, seizing her uninjured arm.
Pearl pulled quickly away. "It's my bloody arm. How exactly is that going to stop me getting into the boat?"
"You could fall and rip it further open," Jack put in. "You could bleed to death right before us."
"I won't fall," Pearl said.
"You've lost a lot of blood," Norrington put in. "You could faint."
Pearl glared at him. "Sure, now you take his side. You know what else could happen? My sword could accidently unsheathe itself and gut you both."
Jack rolled his eyes. "I'm terrified," he said sarcastically. "Norrington?"
"Quaking," Norrington answered. He moved suddenly, scooping Pearl into his arms as she squealed. Jack stepped into the boat and held out his arms to receive the screaming woman.
"Sparrow!"
The yell reverberated around the enclosed bay, booming like the ever-lessening cannon-fire. Everyone froze for a moment, then turned to look toward the forest.
Bootleg limped his way out, sword drawn. "Leaving already?" he called.
"Not now," Pearl answered. "Put me down, Edward."
He obeyed, forcing his white-knuckled hands to release her, watching Pearl straighten and size the pirate up. "Leaving so soon, girlie, or was it running away?"
"Never," Pearl answered. "I thought you were dead, but I'm mighty glad you aren't. I want to finish this properly."
Author's Note: Oh, the evilness of me. I'm stopping there. If you want more you'll have to review. And for heaven's sakes, now you see how good spotted paw is so you can read Honor Brite! Now! I'm very disappointed in all of you. So is Diamond. She has a secret buried in there, if you go looking.