Bonjour, le amours. Okay, I don't even know what I tried to say there... My uni writing course lecturer is encouraging us all to 'publish' ourselves - write freelance spec articles etc. Scary stuff. Just uploading to fanfiction net is scary enough for me for the time being. Finding time to write anything that is not assignment-y is also difficult. Special thanks to my very, very, incredibly loyal reviewers - DCoD (yaaaay!) xinaxheartbeat (also yaaaay) & willowred (yaaay!)
The heavily packed slave trader ship moved slowly, and although armed, was difficult to manoeuvre and difficult to fire with. However, pirates left these ships alone as they were too cumbersome to make a hasty getaway on, and slaves were a commodity too difficult to ship over the world for the inexperienced. Many thought it was simply not worth their while, and expenses far outweighed the gains. The stench on the ship was awful also – as bad as the poop deck, only ten times worse. The smell had been the very thing that had alerted the crew to their presence at the start.
Unsuspecting of foul play, and almost arrogant in their certainty that no-one would dare attack their ship, the slave traders had happily given way to let the Black Pearl pass. Which the Pearl did not. As they drew past the hulking ship, the Black Pearl suddenly laid itself aboard. The crew were thrown violently about the deck. Anamaria swore colourfully.
"What the hell is it doing? They're going to think we're attacking them!" Alex had been sitting in quiet contemplation.
"Why don't we?"
Anamaria cut her eyes from the slavers hull looming up before them and bore her dark eyes into Alex's light ones, "Why don't we what?"
"Take the slaver. Free your people." Anamaria looked taken back.
"We're saving Jack." She finally offered, somewhat weakly, "And they're not my people – they're from a neighbouring tribe. We do not talk to each other."
"I'm a linguist. That was the main reason I was hired as crew, but I haven't even barely spoken three words of anything other than English. And when I did, it was a bit of a disaster. But I'm certain I could communicate with these people. They are still your people, regardless of whether or not you speak with the same tongue. You have a duty to them."
"I have no duty to them – my people sold me into the same life these people are now facing."
"So – now's your chance to save thousands of people suffering what you had to. Tell me, do we go on to save the life of one pirate, or stay back to set free thousands of innocent souls?"
"We don't have time for this." Anamaria hissed, almond-cat eyes narrowing in irritation. Alex regarded Anamaria carefully. "You're judgement is flawed regardless." She finally concluded, "You love Jack so much you would condemn thousands of women, children and men to lives of slavery, cruelly and death."
"I don't fancy him!" Anamaria practically spat. "He owes me a ship."
"Well, take the Pearl." Alex reasoned logically. Anamaria snapped back like whiplash.
"I don't want that one."
"The Black Pearl is the fastest ship in the Carribbean; how can you not want her?"
"I want a better one."
"How about that one?" Alex gestured dramatically to the slaver now parallel to their port side.
Anamaria's eyes narrowed as she thrust her face into Alex's. Her fists were almost raised, clenched into tight balls, her stubborn jaw set forward, her mouth tightened into a scowl, eyes narrow. Alex thought she was going to literally get decked. Finally one fist slowly unfurled into a jabbing finger, and her set jaw loosened enough to allow her to growl through ground teeth.
"I ought to feed you to the sharks." Alex took a step back, hands raised in defence.
"Okay, okay." She conceded. "I'll sort it out with them. I'll explain we weren't watching the wheel, the keel's loose, the rudder's cracked, something to that effect."
Anamaria gave a swift, sharp nod of assent. "You do that."
"Okay, just let me handle it." Alex said sincerely, turning to face the slaver and the tense crew aboard it. And smiled a broad, almost Jack-like smile; - smile of crafty roguishness.