Drinking Tales

Summary – The Princesa and the Gentleman

The Princesa put out her anchor in Tortuga early that morning; herCaptain ordered for supplies to be loaded as soon as possible so that they could get on their way. The bay about the Spanish ship was empty except for a few other pirate ships. Captain Laurens de Graff knew two of those ships as belonging to Condent and Morgan.

Laurens hadn't counted on seeing those two particular Captains' in Tortuga, but it wasn't his acquaintances that interested him. Instead, the ship that seemed to sail with fog following her, with black sails and a Captain that could be brave and daft by definition caught his attention.

Captain Jack Sparrow – yes, the only pirate that would not join Blackbeard in his bid to control the ocean's. The man who basically spat into Blackbeard's face when he told the Pirate King to bugger off and leave him to get drunk on his own time. Jack Sparrow was an amazing man, if one could call him 'amazing' by just uttering a sentence that sent Blackbeard into a rage.

"Men!" Laurens called in a deep voice that was pleasant to the ear.

"We shall stay here for a few day's load the supplies and then you all have a day of shore leave," he said. The men cheered their Captains kindness before going back to their work with fervor. Laurens stood on the deck, contemplating the ship with black sails.

He had heard about Sparrow's run in with Blackbeard, it was luck that had gotten that pirate through that particular battle. Laurens smiled to himself; maybe, just maybe he would be able to fight Jack Sparrow. Laurens wanted to see if all the legends abut this particular pirate were true.

Jack lay in his bed, contemplating that he felt nothing, at least, not with all the rum he had drunk. He may have been inured, but he still had no problems captaining his ship. He had made sure that everyone knew that William were to take over if he passed out. But that hadn't happened yet!

Currently, Jack heard Gibbs directing the flow of supplies coming aboard the precious ship; and Anna Maria instructing Will on certain pirating subjects. Such as the correct thing to say when boarding a vessel; of course, Will had never been taught how to swear properly and so Anna Maria was also giving him a lesson on that as well. And by the sounds of it, Will was probably blushing!

Jack tried to sit up; he had to check his map, get a bearing on the last known hiding hole of the Armada and maybe figure out if they needed to stop off at Isle De Morta before hand. However, a sharp pain through his side and shoulder had Jack laying back with a hard sigh. He took another swig of his rum bottle before trying again.

"Bloody arse couldn't 'ave missed…" Jack muttered as he swayed his way over to his charts that sat on the round table in the room. The Captains Cabin was huge; it held a huge bed with careworn linens, blood red drapes over the windows, and the table. Jack had gotten rid of everything that reminded him of Barbossa. Just the thought of that old bugger living in his quarters was enough to send chills of anger down his spine.

Jack tried to calculate correctly through the pain that had flared on his short ten step journey to the table; however, he had done the calculation four times over and finished more than a third more of the already half empty bottle before he decided that he had gotten it right. He wrote these down on a bit of parchment before heaving himself down in the chair off to the side of the table. Then he wondered why he hadn't noticed the chair when he had been looking at his charts.

Jack sighed, knowing that this journey would take him far away from his beloved Caribbean; he didn't want to leave these ice blue waters again, but he had too if he were ever to have the freedom that he so desperately wanted, craved for since he was a boy on the Barnacle with Arabella as his second. He wasn't one for romanticized adventures, or even one for loyalty (unless to the Turners and his crew) but he just knew that this was something that he had to do.

A knock to the door and then it opened slowly; Will put his head in and refrained from asking if Jack was all right or if he needed anything; instead, Will Turner said; "What are your order's, Captain?"

Jack smiled at him and waved at the young man to come into the cabin; Jack picked up the parchment and handed it to Will.

"Take this to Anna Maria; she'll know what to do," Jack said simply. Will gave a nod and left, not sure if Jack wanted to talk or not. Since the attack some three days prior, Jack had been quiet. He didn't sing the jumpy pirate song that Elizabeth had taught him as much as he had before; and it seemed as if he were sad for some reason. In all of his life, William hadn't seen his friend so saddened by anything. Jack seemed unimpressed with Blackbeard and his Armada (albeit, a little worried) and had waved both of the attacks on his ship and his life off with his hand as if they didn't mean a thing.

Will wasn't sure what to do for Jack; the man drank more, swayed about from being drunk, but sometimes he didn't sway so much, sometimes it looked as if he were so sober that he could cry. Sometimes in the morning, when Jack would greet Will, the charcoal was smeared, and Jack wouldn't notice till Anna Maria told him to wash his face.

Will made it to the helm and handed the parchment to Anna Maria; who gave him a look; however, Will shrugged and shook his head. He had no clue what was going on with Jack.

Captain Laurens de Gaff watched as The Black Pearl unfurled her sails and made way with the high ocean tide; it had taken them all morning to load their supplies, he mused that they must be in some sort of hurry. Which honestly did not surprise him.

Behind him, Captain Condent; a tall man in a prim red coat, with slicked back brown hair, watched as well. Christopher Condent and Laurens de Gaff had been tracking this ship for a while; months at least. She was always too fast for them, and they had lost her many times. Laurens turned to Condent with a small smile on his face.

"Well, I say, they do know how to impress others," Laurens said.

"Indeed; now, should one of us follow them and the other go to Captain Blackbeard? Or should we just follow?" Condent asked. He was put in second next to Laurens, not that he minded, the whole armada got some sort of bounty.

"We shall follow," Laurens said.

"And how do you suppose that we shant lose them again?"

"First, we know where they are going, we shall follow and take them," Laurens replied.

Condent left the Princesa for his own ship; they would follow straight after the Pearl, she was the fastest ship in the Caribbean after all. However, the ship wasn't the only thing that Condent wanted.

When the Captain finally made it on deck; staggering from pain and drink, the sun was all ready setting and they had a good easy to go still. They had left Tortuga behind them with a white wake at their heels. The strong sea breeze blew them on their way and every so often he could here shouted orders from those up in the rigging.

"Jack?" Anna Maria made her way over to him; Jack was leaning heavily on the helm, it was lashed so that it wouldn't move off course, unless someone wanted to change the ships course. Jack looked at her before sighing and swigging from the bottle of rum (his third since the night he had been attacked).

"You should be in bed," Anna Maria said simply.

"Aye, but I had to check," Jack said, forgetting to remind her to call him 'Captain'.

He must really be out of it then…Anna Maria thought; "We're fine," she said instead. Jack nodded to her but stood there, not moving, just enjoying what he lived for. Freedom. It wasn't a long word, or a short word; it wasn't something that a man just thought because he could. This was even more than just a simple word; Jack knew that he had always fought for his freedom from the bloody Royal Navy; from bloody merchants, and even from other damned pirates such as Morgan and Blackbeard. There hadn't been one instance in his own life history where he hadn't fought for this. Simply this, to be able to stand on the deck of The Black Pearl, and enjoy it!

"Ummm…I think we have a problem…" Will called from behind Jack and Anna Maria. Jack wasn't amused to be interrupted, but when the whelp handed him the glass, Jack got the same idea as Will had.

"That ship, off astern seems to be following us and I think there is a second," Will said. Jack looked through the glass, caught site of the flag and then handed the glass to Anna Maria. The ship (or ship's, but they hadn't seen any second ship) was a pirate ship; the flag was all Jack needed to see.

"We should get ready for a fight," he said.

"But you can't fight, Jack!" Anna Maria said.

"I know, but what else am I supposed to do? Hide in me cabin while you lot fight them? Hardly the way I operate, luv," Jack said.

"I know but…"

"There ain't no 'buts' here, Anna Maria. Savvy?"

"Aye, Captain," she replied. Jack turned to Will.

"If anything happens to me; finish this, I want to be able to die knowing that those scurvy dogs won't take the freedom the Caribbean afforded me while I sailed her waters," and with that, Jack went back to his cabin, to get rid of the pain and to plan.

It was late in the day when Jack was able to confirm the suspicions of his mates. There was a second ship, which had raised its own Jolly Rodger. He glared at the two ships before swinging to the helm. He unhooked it and gently took his lady to hand. The wind was blowing hard and ahead of them, Jack could see storm clouds.

"Cap'n!" it was Gibbs who came to stand besides him, "What be in ye head?"

"Nothing much," Jack replied with his customary grin. Gibbs raised his eyebrow.

"We sailing into a storm to get rid o' those two ships behind us?"

"That be exactly what is in me head," Jack replied evenly.

"Now, correct me if I be wrong Cap'n; but…won't they follow?"

"That's what I'm hoping," Jack said. Gibbs sighed, he gave up. Even thought he knew a bit about what his Captain was planning…it still didn't help that he never got details.

Jack hadn't thought about giving Gibbs any details; after all, if he knew the details than Jack just assumed that everyone else knew as well. Gibbs walked away to attend to something of no value when Jack reached for his glass again to take another look.

It looked as if the ships were closer than before and the storm clouds were drawing away. He wasn't sure if this meant there would be no storm at all or if his head was playing games with his eyes. He shrugged and then he sauntered over to the helm and lashed it once again.

"All right me maties!" Jack yelled, bringing the attention of most of the crew.

"We be followed by two bloody pirate ships that had no business with us," Jack explained, "So I was thinking of goin' into that there storm to blow them off o' our coarse,"

A cheer rose just then; everyone knew of the two following ship's and they all had a guess as to who it could be. Jack grew grim though, his swaying was more from the ocean's movement of the Pearl, and less of rum.

"I don't pretend to know what'll happen, but I promise to get you lot out of it safely," he said, and then he began to give orders. The black sails were made to catch more of the wind, and in the distance lightning lit up the sky.

Jack himself was stationed at the helm; Will was in the ships forge, repairing what he could before the storm hit them, or Jack hit the storm as it would be said after this little adventure (and by Gibbs himself).

It was almost a dream, Jack decided. He couldn't remember that last time he had done this, he couldn't even remember being so calm. His restless spirit had calmed in the face of this storm, in the face of certain danger and even if they survived this; Danger still called to him. It was like an Opera when Danger called and Jack dare not retreat.

He was no coward; and with this thought strictly stuck in his head, he started to hum. And then the hum turned into words.

"And really bad eggs……drink up, me 'earties, yo ho!" as he sung, a roguish grin came upon his face; which would have made any young lass faint from heart failure.