Estel Ashlee Snape/ Scary indeed. But she knows that the spirit will back her up... Hopefully.
NarnianPirate/ You like the twists? Yes! I was afraid that no one would like them. So glad to hear otherwise.
Koneko the demon storyteller/ Yes, I heard it recently and I said to myself, 'OMG that's perfect'. I dunno, I thought it'd fit.
Mulch Diggums/ How can you not love Bootstrap? Meh, whatever. But you're right. Maybe if he ever got... Erm... Un...seacreatured... Then maybe huggable.
JeanieBeanie33/ Ah yes, but he almost did. She would have been fish food were it not for a -ahem- particular manipulative ghostie that likes to play with people's feelings and judgements.
ta1nt3d1uv/ It's in theatres where I am at least. I don't know about you. And you're teacher was named Mary Sue? Weird.
Sorry, I wasn't specific. I didn't think anyone would get it anyway. It was Starfire, from Teen Titans. Great show. It's too bad it was cancelled. Starfire (to Raven): Perhaps we should do the hanging out. We never have before, and conceivably it could be fun. We might journey to the mall of shopping, or perform braiding maneuvers upon each other's hair, or...
Anyway, I did my best to do an action scene, but it was a lot harder than I thought.
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Maccus was in a foul mood that morning. Something would certainly push him over the edge. Someone was going to get it bad.
Meanwhile, Grace was also in a slightly bad mood. She hadn't really eaten much for a while, the weather was gross and the ever-present gloomy mood was beginning to "block her positive zen", as she most often put it. Unlike Maccus, she was quite content to simply try to make herself feel better in a quiet and civilized manner. She sat in the crow's nest, her assigned post for that day. She didn't mind much, since it was decidedly her favorite spot. She reached into her bag and unwrapped the flute from its handkerchief. It wasn't really a flute necessarily, as it was smaller and much daintier than anything like that. (AN1)
She remembered when she first held it, still warm from the forge. At the beginning, she had a surprisingly difficult time learning how to play the thing, but with a lot of practice, she wasn't really that bad. She fitted the instrument to her lips and the soft, earthy melody drifted down over the ship. The few crew members that could hear it seemed comforted by the tune and continued on with their duties. It saddened her, actually. Most of these men probably had earned an honest living and came aboard hoping to live long enough to see their family again. Poor souls.
Maccus, however, was not one of them. He shouted up to her. "Stop that stupid music, or I'll come up there and stop it for you!"
She looked down at the newly christened, 'Shark Guy' and examined her fingernails. "Alright then. Without anything to do, maybe I'll just fall asleep, and then when we come up on a ship, I can just let you sail on ahead, completely unprepared. Besides, it doesn't seem to be bothering anyone else."
"Says who?" He look around at the others, all of them nodding in agreement. Obviously they weren't about to take her side.
She dropped the act and gave him a sharp glare. "What do you want? Just leave me alone."
Now he knew exactly what would help his bad mood. "I challenge you to duel! One on one. We'll see who's so bold and brave now."
-flashback-
"No, no practice today. I've got a lot of work to do."
"Oh, come on, Will." She hopped up onto a barrel, stating that she was there to stay. "Could you talk to me then? It's either this or trying on dresses with Elizabeth. I mean, it's nice, but it gets boring after a while."
"You can't go outside?"
"Will, it's raining. I got soaked enough just coming here. Please?"
"Alright. Let's see..." He heated a sword tip in the forge and thought a moment. "Challenges. It's one of the most imporant things about swordfighting."
"Well... Shouldn't you always accept? They'd think you weak otherwise. It's that simple, right?"
"Not really." He placed the sword on the anvil and hammered away at it. "What's the point of being brave if you're just going to get killed? Of course, that's only one side of it. If you are going to accept, you should always trust your instincts, like you tell Elizabeth. You also have to be able to figure out your opponent."
"Meaning?"
He heated the sword again. "Use their weaknesses against them. If you can figure out their weakness and build your strategy around that, you'll be all set. All in all, just use your common sense." He imitated Jack. "But whatever you do, just don't do anything... Stupid." They both laughed.
-end flashback-
The man... Er... Sharkman below her was large, and probably couldn't move as fast as she. She met her opponent's eyes. They were brimming with over-confidence. In that was her advantage. She slid down the rigging and landed silently on the deck. "I accept your offer!"
There came murmurs from the crowd that had formed arond her. Everyone was sure she would decline. They watched as she drew La –after all, La was the spirit of life- and deposited her bag the remaining sword to the side. She stood in an awkward stance, hoping to give him false confidence. To her satisfaction, his smirk grew even larger and he too took up a stance.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Will fight through to the front of the crowd. "What are you doing? You can't-" He was silenced by the grave look she gave him.
Bootstrap called out to the first mate. "Call it off! She's not but a little lass!"
"Shut it! She agreed to a duel and that's exactly what she's going to get."
There were loud shouts, some for her and others against, but she heard none of it. Just like Will had taught her, she drowned out the shouting until she heard nothing but the beat of her own heart. A voice cut through the silence. "DUEL!"
He launched at her straight away, hoping to catch her off guard, but she gracefully moved to one side and slashed at his retreating back. She knew this was the only advantage she would get, as he would no longer underestimate her. Just as she had thought, he turned and growled, "You tricked me!"
"Pirate."
He charged at her again with a few swings of his cutlass, but she either blocked or avoided them all together. It was then that she noticed that his footwork was rather sloppy. Obviously he was used to just hacking down everything in his path as opposed to a one-on-one duel such as this. She began to speed it up, moving constantly: spinning, ducking, turning. She could tell he was getting worn out, but then again, so was she."You can't dodge forever!" She responded with a swift uppercut that he blocked. Catching her off balance, he slashed at her left shoulder and she cried out in pain. "Where's your old friend Jones when you need 'im, eh?"
She continued to dodge and block, since her sword arm was on the right. "I don't know what you're talking about." She finally struck back with a varying bout of swings, one of them landing a cut on his shin. She almost smiled when she saw that he began to favor that leg a bit.
"You'd be dead by now if it weren't for him stepping in. You were lucky. But you're not getting off easy this time."
So that's what had happened while she had been knocked out. Interesting. She deflected another blow and made an attack. They clashed together, swords hilt to hilt. He knew he was stronger. " Listen up, girl, and listen up good." He was toying with her now, not really trying, just keeping her from gaining the advantage. "You don't belong here. Now either you get out, or die like the sorry little weakling you are. Just like you should have a long time ago." A single tear rolled down her cheek. She felt all of stress she had been feeling since her arrival to the cursed ship blow up into one word.
"NO!" In a burst of rage, she broke off and threw a devastating flood of attacks, unable to control herself. He became unbalanced and she spun around backwards and rammed the hilt upwards into his chin. She caught his falling sword and poised them at either side of his neck as he hit the floor. Now she spoke not only to him, but to the entire crew, venom slowly dripping from every word. "If I am meant to die, than so be it. That is my fate in this world. But if I do, I'll die with honor and strength." She spat out her last words. Then she became quiet. "Just leave me alone." She tossed the rusty cutlass to the side, picked up her effects and climbed below deck, Will and his father following her.
Davy Jones turned away from the doorway and muttered to himself. "Yes, there's definitely something that I'm not seein' here."
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AHA! So, she wasn't knocked out by accident...
AN1: I was playing Ocarina of Time (A Link and Zelda game) the other day and I had this spontanious combustion of ideas in my head. I just kind of pictured Grace just hanging out playing Sarina's Song (which is pretty happy and upbeat) on the Dutchman, looking totally out of place. I put it in there more for the amusement of myself than to move the plot along. Heh.
BTW, where did all my review people go? I asked for a lot of reviews and got over ten. Now I'm getting only four or five. So I'm going to ask again in hopes that you guys will blow me away again. Pweese? -puppy eyes-