25. La Isla del Oro
We take two boats ashore. Gibbs, Jack, Elizabeth and myself all row together in a boat with a few other crew members. Pintel, Ragetti, Mr. Cotton and others ride ashore in another boat.
I jump out of the boat and walk onto the beach and wait for Jack. As soon as my feet touch land, I feel some kind of magnetic or electric charge run through my body. I look briefly to Jack. Once we are all regrouped on the island, we look to Jack for further advancement.
"Accordin' t' legend, the tree o' the Sun King where he is buried is 'bout a mile 'n a half inland," Jack states from memory. I look at him curiously, unaware that he knew the legend well enough to guide us through unknown jungle. Gibbs and Elizabeth head the crew into the jungle and I pull Jack behind briefly.
"Jack," I say, grabbing his arm. "Do you feel the energy from this place?"
"Aye, I do," he says, his eye ahead, not looking at me.
"Jack," I say again.
"What is it, luv?" he asks softly. I reach into my shirt and remove the lyrics, keeping the music in my shirt.
"Jack, hold on to the lyrics should we get separated," I say handing delicately folded paper. Jack looks at me and then takes and gentle hold of the paper. He looks at it momentarily, nods, and then places it into his belt. Wordless, we trek after the rest of the crew into the jungle.
Jack takes his compass and looks at it, every so often adjusting our trek. I stick close by his side and soon Elizabeth walks beside me as well. We all walk with hands on our swords and/or pistols, just in case.
There is an unnatural breeze on the island that is neither warm nor chilling. It gives me an eerie feeling as we travel deeper into the woods.
Suddenly, Jack stops dead in his tracks. He looks around with eyes wide.
"What is it, Jack?" Elizabeth asks nervously.
Jack merely places a finger to his lips, telling us to be quiet.
"I fear we're not the only ones on this island," he states quietly and motions for us to keep moving. Elizabeth and I walk even closer to Jack. My hand is tightly wrapped around my sword, ready for anything to come my way.
We enter a clearing in the middle of the jungle and notice there are foot prints and tracks everywhere. Jack looks anxiously at me and around at our surroundings.
"We're 'ere," he says finally, "only question remains is which tree,"
"Get down!" Ragetti yells suddenly. We all duck as an arrow is shot directly above our heads, just missing mine but a few inches. We all draw our swords and pistols and begin fighting natives as they wildly emerge from the surrounding jungle.
My sword clashes fiercely with many natives as I swing furiously off their shooting arrows.
"Jack! What do we do?!" I holler at him as he too fights.
"Nothing yet!" he replies as he fights. Elizabeth fights hard beside me and the two of us fight and kill off natives from all directions. It seems that we will be able to take them, but soon enough, we realize that we are surrounded and outnumbered by a countless number of natives to this island. When we are finally encircled completely, we all look to Jack, who submissively raises his sword. We al join him in the surrender. As we raise our swords, the chief of the tribe emerges—a large and frightening man who tells his people to tie us all up. Jack walks behind me and quickly wraps his arm around my waist.
"Don't worry, luv," he whispers in my ear and then removes arm from my waist as we are tied up.
The chief weaves himself in and out of our small crew of men, Elizabeth and I. He suddenly stops in front of me, looking intently into my eyes and then quickly turning his head towards Jack. The chief then walks over to a nearby tree and places a strong hand upon the trunk. He closes his eyes and breathes in and then removes his hand.
"You have come here with the song," he says in perfect English. Elizabeth, Jack and I all exchange glances. That tree he touched is the tree. All three of us can read exactly what is going through all of our minds—that chief used the tree to get the ability and power to communicate with us who do not speak his native language.
The chief walks up to Jack and I an stands in front of us.
"You have the song and him the words. It pains me that they are not together, for whoever carries the song and lyrics together cannot be killed. Separate, they do nothing, but together, they are everything," he states with a sneer.
"I intend to die as fate wishes," I reply firmly, "and beside my fellow friends,"
"So be it," the chief replies. "You all shall die today!" he exclaims loudly, cheering his people along.
As the chief reveals a knife from his tunic, there is a shot heard from the other side of the clearing. A native drops dead before us. Out of no where, a crew of pirates emerges from the jungle—two men with big hats.
"It's Captain Barbossa!" I exclaim with a smile.
"…and Captain Teague!" Gibbs exclaims. I look over at Jack, whose face has grown to look sickish at the situation. At the sight of Captains Teague and Barbossa, Jack straightens himself in his ropes and a grin spreads across his face. The two crews begin to fight the natives and more pirates emerge and free us from our ropes.
"Luv, quickly! To the tree!" Jack calls to me as he fights more natives.
"Not without you!" I exclaim in return as I kill a native.
"Then let's to the tree!" Jack runs over to me and grabs my arm and runs with me to the tree.
"Jack! The lyrics! Quick!" I exclaim as I reach into my shirt to get the music. Jack just stands there not getting the lyrics.
"JACK! The lyrics!" I shriek.