Hey all! A six-day update, still a lot better than I've been known for, savvy? Oy, I have the good news and bad news: The good news is that I finally found out I'm not allergic to bees. The bad news is that I had to find out the hard, pointy way. Now my ear hurts. Does it hurt this much to get me ears pierced? Mebbe I could deal with it after all...not like I'd care, though. Anywho, teh horses were all freaking out and they were yelling at us to get out of the woods asap by any means necessary. I was calm through the turmoil, but once it was over, I was shaking like a leaf! (You'll see how that ties into the main character in this chapter) My first bee sting. Peachy, there goes my record of almost-sixteen years! ;–; ZOMG ArmoredSoul did this awesome fanart of Jack! The coloring is a bit off, as she said, but it looks absolutely marvelous! Check it out: httpCOLONSLASHSLASHz11DOTinvisionfreeDOTcomSLASHEndlessUNDERSCOREAnimeSLASHindexDOTphpQUESTIONMARKactEQUALSAttachANDSIGNtypeEQUALSpostANDSIGNidEQUALS3795531
...wow, that's a long one... But also: SO many reviews! We may reach my goal of 150 yet! SQUEE! -runs around in circles!- Now for the praise:
ArmoredSoul: Thanks for all the sweet reviews! Are you up to here yet, or am I just talking to air? Hullooo...Well, anyway, thanks for all the encouragement! Your drawing was really awesome, you're a great artist!
Authoressinhiding: I know! It seemed to get a wee bit boring, so I just put it in. It's kind of the only chapter I have left to do that with, so I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted!
SamanthaSparrow: Midget writer's block? Wtf? Oh no, NO MORE CONFETTI! I thought the war was over, Lol!
Estel Ashlee Snape: So was I! Thanks for the review, it made me smile. XD
pirateobsessed: Sorry, unlimited amount of wishes is not within my minute power of...powerfullness...ness, savvy? Dream up something else. XP
obbits14: Here, here! Here's what happens next! Insane...insane is fuuunnnn...
Jess is a pirate: If you can believe it, I was also shy quiet and not random. That was YOUR fault, savvy? Thank you! x3 RAVE!
marauder4ever: He is a seventeen-three hand brown stallion with black points and a narrow white blaze that begins in a star and shades off into the black skin on his muzzle. He has a relatively short back, long legs and ears. Breeding? ..hmm...He's a mixbreed, that's really all I know. Mebbe a little bit of Arabian in him, for the short back and all of that and I dunno...-shrugs- you'll just have to guess on that, eh? Thanks for the review!
Molly: The best things come in small packages. Btw, ffnet messes up url's. If you need more proof, scroll up to that one link... Lol!
Noyesgirl: Lol, new reviewer! Yayy! -runs around in circles- Just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover...or...erm...a fic by its title? ...yeah...anywho, thankee much for the review!
Kei-Ookami.kara.mori: Me too! Here's your update!
Little Miss Sparrow: I acknowledge and agree with that, but that was probably the last chance I had to be random, so I used it very profusely. Besides that, I was celebrating for James' initial break of sanity! Thanks for the review, this one should be serious enough...
Destinysway114: Good, glad I made you happy. Sorry, though, no more random for a bit. ;–;
passionatepirate: You know, you seem familiar to me, too...weird...anywho, that's so sweet! Me? Inspining? ...never woulda seen that one, lol, thanks for the review! -runs in more circles-
Chapter Nineteen (nineteen! Zomg...): What's At Stake
"Commodore!" The three froze, and turned to see that they had been unknowingly surrounded by soldiers. Captain Gillette stepped forward. "What's this? Mingling with pirates?" He looked pointedly at the girl. "And their—."
"That will be quite enough from you, Gillette," James interrupted, voice a deadly calm. "I tasted piracy once, and I do not intend to do so again, understand?" The officer nodded, eyes wide at the burn of his superior's glare.
However, other tongues had not been silenced. "How do we know this to be truth, Commodore?" demanded one fool of a soldier. "You leave with that girl and no warning nor alerting of your actions or intentions, leaving us guessing and completely clueless as to what had happened to our 'beloved' Commander, and you return to us with a wanted pirate and some—." James turned and covered her ears at this. She could see the soldier's lips moving, forming ill words, and saw James close his eyes and physically bite his tongue, saw his shoulders stiffen. Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears as the insults rained down upon her nephew. She dared move his hands away, taking a hold of one and giving it a reassuring squeeze. He blinked his eyes open and smiled humorlessly at her, before straightening and turning back to the company.
"And who else among you feels this way?"
Nobody but the first stepped forward. James, however, was less than flattered by what appeared to be loyalty. He'd heard several murmured agreements among words. "Sir," Lieutenant Groves piped up, breaking the silence that had ensued and quickly changing the subject. "What of Sparrow? Shall we place him in the gaol?"
James' head snapped around, and he met the pirate's shocked expression with a look that said 'I-have-some-haggling-to-do,' and nodded for said order to be carried out. "And what of the girl? A merchant says she stole his cart and cost him a month's wages in cabbages."
In James' silence as he fought to find a believeable excuse, Gillette saw fit to answer for him, thinking it a favor. "The gaol with her, too. We'll hold a trial for her in a few days and learn her sentence. Take them away." Ellie's head shot up in alarm as several soldiers restrained the surprisingly calm pair and led them away into the night.
—————
Jack and Amy were led to the gaol. As the unusually full jail cells came into view, the girl baulked. A bayonet met her back and she jumped forward with a yelp. Jack put an arm round her shoulder and rubbed her arm reassuringly. 'It'll be all right,' he signed. 'I won't let them hurt you, luv.'
An officer, mistaking his gestures for something threatening, pinned Jack's arms behind him and belatedly slapped his wrists into a pair of irons. He stayed completely calm, however, even making faces, anything to keep the girl away from hysterics. She managed to smile weakly at him, ignoring the catcalls and whistles as they passed cell after cell of men doomed to die, desperate for one last glimmer of life before they would be cruelly thrown out of the only world any would ever know. They came to two empty cells at the very end of the row of cages. Yes. Cages, the precise metaphor she thought to Jack, and she huddled closer to him as the soldiers brought out the keys. They shoved her toward the nearest cell, other prisoners already straining against the walls of their cell to get at her. Eyes widening, she cried, "Jack!" for an odd fear of separation. The pirate struggled away from the other soldiers, before jumping over his hands and catching her shoulder for balance. Glaring at the troops, he turned her and walked her to the cell at the very end, gesturing that they would be sharing this one. Groves looked to Gillette, who shrugged nonchalantly, and unlocked said second cell. Jack's irons were removed, and the two were thrown unceremoniously into their confinement.
"You're in luck, Sparrow," said thatpompous foolGillette. "With so many men in line for the gallows, you may have the chance to see your girl," he almost spat the word, "tried and condemned. Too bad for you, there will be no escape this time." With a nod to his soldiers, the company departed.
"Jack? What are we going to do?" asked the girl, leaning against the pirate's shoulder as he sat beside her.
He wrapped a steady, protective arm around her. 'I don't know, luv.'
—————
It was within the next day that Jack became a horse, not out of need but rather out of experiment. You're sure you weren't thinking the same as I was? he nickered.
"Yes. Absolutely." She took his antics as some distraction from present predicaments, and appreciated them greatly. And yet we are still connected mentally. That's interesting...
Very interesting. Oh well, what one does not understand cannot hurt one so badly, can it?
"No...I suppose not..." A light breeze swept through the gaol, providing a welcome coolth in the heat as he changed back, shrugging off the shouts of shock and surprise from the prisoners in sight of said event. Once they had quieted, she began to hum the Davey Jones theme. Jack hugged her to his side and they swayed gently to the beat. However, they were unaware of one set of eyes that happened to not be confined.
—————
"Sir, it's a witch that must be haunting us!"
"I understand your worry, Mr Stein, but it is rather difficult to convict a witch without any proof."
"I have proof, Mr Welsh!"
"Which you have yet to explain to me." The conversation was between a very familiar soldier and a very well-respected puritan former-general. The latter was a John Welsh, dark-haired, bright eyes, appearing young save for the creases about his brow which could only be discerned at a close scrutiny. Amiable, easy to get along with, and appearing to be probably one of the most respected men around, save only for the Commodore and Governor. "Let's hear it."
"That Jack Sparrow—he turned into a horse today, and back again. I saw it with my own eyes! The wind kicked up and dust billowed around him and when it cleared, he was changed! And he speaks with his hands, which I noted last night upon their capture. She must have enchanted him, and then taken away his ability to speak so that no one might know her secret."
Stein looked to Welsh for signs of disapproval or disbelief. "Go on."
"And before I left, she began to sing. I shut my ears to the sound, but that pirate did the opposite—sir, he hugged her. And the rest of the gaol, which had been in turmoil at his changing, suddenly quieted as if to listen."
"That is enough, Mr Stein. Your account shows clear what the truth is. I'll take you as a witness. Come, while the day is still young. We have ourselves a town full of people to rally!"
—————
It was as the sun was reaching out to touch the far horizon that they came.
A rather raucous mob of townsfolk were audible outside the gaol from Amy and Jack's 'cozy' little cage. A sudden sense of foreboding had the girl on her feet in an instant. Making communication easier in her distress, Jack thought to her rather than signed. What is it? What's wrong?
"I don't know. There are a lot of people outside, and something tells me they're not here for a tea party."
Aye. ...But at least there would be plenty of finger sandwiches.
"Yes. And somehow, I think I'm the caterer. Jack what's going on out there?"
He met her panicked gaze with an apprehensive one. Luv...to be honest, I have no idea.
They both jumped as the doors to the building's entrance slammed open, and several footsteps could be heard hurrying nearer. "There, that's the girl!" The source of the traitorous voice could only have been one of the few soldiers among them, one recognizeable from the previous night: George Stein. He unlocked the door to the cell and several of the several there rushed in and restrained her.
She looked wide-eyed at the pirate. "Jack! Please, help!"
"Foolish witch, there is nothing your slave can do to save you now." She froze at the word witch, but then calmed somewhat at the secret exchange of thoughts she was sharing with the inequitably named 'slave,' and kept at the ready as they forced her away. With a snort, the wind picked up, coursing through the building. With the dust blown in their eyes, a few barely had enough time to jump out of the way as a large horse barreled its way through the small crowd. The girl, entirely prepared for such an action, grabbed onto his neck and scrambled onto his back as he raced away.
Up the steps they climbed until they broke through the barrier between hope and desolation, into the slowly dimming sunlight. Jack's mane blew back in the wind, whipping at her face and stinging her cheeks. And for that moment she allowed herself to smile, to be filled with joy at such a freedom as she suddenly felt now. That is to say, until she heard shouts all around her. Pulling back into reality, she urged Jack to go faster, holding on for dear life. But someone with a lariat brought that to a halt. It settled over her shoulders and tightened. As Jack surged on, Amy was pulled from her perch atop his back. He swerved through the crowd, disappearing into the distance, oblivious to the girl's fate as she was caught by cruel hands and carried away, fighting and pleading.
—————
James stepped out of his house at the sound of a rather obnoxious commotion, adjusting the coat of his recently donned uniform, still unshaven since his return. He nearly dropped the wig in his hand at the sight of an enraged mob of townsfolk seeming to swarm like agitated bees around a single figure, dragging it as war ants drag their prey toward some open point on the beach, near the surf. He rushed into their midst, about to shout for order when he came upon which person the chaos was centered around: Amy. He froze. Just completely froze, eyes wide, watching as the girl was dragged away. The crowd parted, and she was hoisted up into the hands of one man he had at some point in the recent past placed a very good amount of trust in. One man with whom the same thing had apparently occurred with everyone else in town, wherein he'd used that trust to misguide them in their thoughts toward the lass. Welsh stood atop a wooden platform, made out of what really looked like a random pile of wood. At its center stood a single post, like a limbless tree amid the desolation of winter. His eyes widened further as he recognized what the structure was. But here he was, so rooted to the spot at watching some sick re-enactment of that day he so wanted to forget that there was nothing he could do but watch.
Amy, meanwhile, had fought down all feeling, face emotionless as her hands were roughly tied behind her to the stake. There was a man up on the platform with her, and she supposed he must be a very well-respected force in the town when their riotous shouts were silenced with a simple raise of a hand. "Be it known that today; Monday, June seventeenth, in the year of our Lord one-thousand-seven-hundred-three-and-seventy, witnesses have claimed that this girl," he gestured to her behind him, "has committed several acts of witchcraft and devilry, and is to be burned at the stake until dead if voted guilty." He suddenly whirled around to face her. "How do you plead?"
"On my hands and knees: Innocent!"
He turned back to the crowd. "And what say you?"
"Witch! Witch! Witch!" they chanted.
"Oh come on, don't you think that if I were a witch, I would have 'poofed' myself out of here by now?"
"Come, child, your lies won't work here. Then let it be known that this girl,henceforthto be referred to as Sarah Smith, has been tried and convicted for witchcraft, and will now hereby be sent to burn for all eternity in the fires of Hell!"
"But that wasn't a trial! That was just a bunch of misguidance and unfair play!"
"Quiet, witch!"
"Witch! Witch!"
She bit back the urge to shout obscenities and instead bowed her head, letting the tears fall silently as she finally understood her fate. Stein handed the man a burning torch, which he held high in pride. The crowd cheered. She raised her face to the heavens. "God have mercy," she whispered.
"Foolish witch. The Father wants nothing to do with the children of Satan!" He jumped nimbly from the platform and held the torch to the oiled wood sticking out from its edges. They caught quickly, and she was soon surrounded by a circular torrent of fire. It could only be a matter ofminutes before they reached her. She stared into the flames that would be her death, eyes never leaving them, as if entranced by them. How could something so beautiful be so deadly? Kind of like Jack, she thought wearily. And then, someone had jumped through the flames to her side. Speak of the devil... The person cut through her bounds and picked her up with strong arms, jumping with her off the bonfire and away from that wretched fate. She looked up detachedly and saw Jack.
However, the crowd quickly figured out what had happened, and stormed toward the pair, cornering them against the ocean. Jack drew his cutlass and pointed it at them, though, still weak from lack of nutrition, he knew he would be no match. He would have to talk his way out. Voice...don't fail me now... He took a deep breath. "This is the day you will always remember as the day that a pirate was appalled by the townsfolk and their actions! You all should be ashamed, trying to kill an innocent lass. What would you gain by that but a tumultuous conscience? The girl is not a witch! Anyone with eyes can see that! Savvy?"
The front line paused, surprised at his words, before Stein shouted, "He is still under her spell! Do not listen to his lies!" And they advanced.
Jack shoved the girl behind him, leaning into a fighting stance, cutlass at the ready. There was no way out. The girl was in no condition to swim, and he was in no condition to fight. There had to be another way. He spotted James, standing rooted to the spot several yards away, watching as if in some sort of trance. He gave the man a pleading look, mouthing "She needs you," and gesturing at the girl who kneeled disengaged behind him. The Commodore merely blinked slowly, hardly stirring. The crowd continued forth, and the pirate drew his pistol, pointing it also at them. Perhaps if he took one or two out, the rest would come to a halt. But he didn't see that as likely.
Ellie stood some way off, watching the events unfold. At first, it had been almost exactly like his mother's death, first with a trial of similar proportions and fairness, then with the chanting of lies: Witch. Now...now it hit him...another family member, the closest thing he had to family, was about to be eliminated in the same way his mother had. He snapped back to reality, feeling flooding back into his body, and he looked around for some means of distraction, or perhaps an idea. But...if he went against the townspeople, it would be his job burning at the stake...the job that he had betrayed friends for just so he could get it back. It was familiar. Familiar was his comfort zone. But in such an event as this, there was no such thing as a comfort zone. Besides, said a small voice in his head, which is more important? Your profession or your family? With a blink, he realized it spoke the truth, and jumped into action.
"Have you not heard the stories, mates? Corner Captain Jack Sparrow and you're as good as dead. And if you think I am full of empty threats then step forward and see for yourself—Go on! I dare you!" But the threat, empty though it really was, seemed wasted on most of the riot. They continued toward him and the girl.
Then, out of nowhere, James jumped in beside him, sword also drawn. There were several cheers, rioters believing him on their side and finally about to put an end to Jack Sparrow when he pointed his blade at them, brandishing it slightly so that the setting sun gleamed along its sharpened edges. The crowd came to a standstill. "You. Will. Not. Touch. Her."
"But sir—!"
"No! You're fired."
"You can't—."
"I just did. Now get out of my sight, you wretched fool, before I shoot you myself!" Stein scrambled away, eyes wide, never to be seen again. "And you, Mr Welsh...you are hereby under arrest for violent conduct and, though it's not necessarily against the law, using the trust everyone had in you against an innocent mind. Take him away." The soldiers among the group, suddenly looking ashamed, led him away toward the gaol. He put his sword away and stooped by the girl, laying a steadying hand on her shoulder. "Amy?" She suddenly began to tremble, and tears once again made the journey down her face. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?" Without warning, she turned and hugged him, sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back soothingly—something he hadn't known he knew how to do. "There there, it's all right, now." Her grip only tightened, seeming as if she might never let go. He heard footsteps approaching and whipped out his pistol, cocking it and aiming it.
He turned his head to see the Governor, clearly shocked at having such a trusted friend point a firearm at him. "Commodore, what is all this?"
"Move. Away," came the reply through gritted teeth. The governor paled, but rather at his eyes than his tone—they had grown an almost black with rage, no longer possible to discern for what their true color was.
He did as told, stepping back a few paces. "As I said, Commodore, what is the meaning of all this madness?"
"I believe you have met John Welsh, Governor Swann?"
"Yes. Fine fellow."
"Had him arrested just moments ago."
Swann looked confused. "For what, dare I ask?"
"For rallying these people, misguiding them into thinking my niece here is a witch, and trying to burn her at the stake."
At this, the governor blanched. "No, not Mr Welsh, of all men..."
"It's true, mate," said Jack, coming and stooping down by the two to try and comfort the girl, a hand going to her arm. "Put it away, James. He's not looking to hurt her. And if he is, I'll run him through meself, savvy?" James' eyes darted from the pirate to the governor and back, before he nodded and put away his pistol.
The girl had fallen quiet during the conversation, and now shifted her head slightly. "James?"
He looked down at her, eyes growing soft. "Yes?"
She touched a heart-shaped locket attatched to a chain around his neck. "How long have you had this locket?"
"My mother gave it to me the day she died. Why?"
"I think I just solved the riddle of her diary."
Oki so there you have it, the longest chapter in the fic! Only a couple chapters left! REVIEW! Savvy?