A/N: Sorry about the long delays, it's taking forever for me to put these up, and now I'm sick and have so much homework so it's really hard. But thanks for the reviews aqua and WF! If it were not 4 u 2 I wouldn't bother updating.
Chapter 5
I breathed a sigh of relief to be rid of that loathed island. My crew was equally grateful to be leaving and we all watched as the green spit of land sink into the distance. The two ships were matching their speeds knot for knot. The space in between them could easily be jumped.
"Toby! Man the ship, while I speak with Jack!" I ordered. My friend took the wheel and I gripped the rough twine rope and easily swung over to the other vessel. Gibbs and Jack were conversing. I needed to know where we would be heading next and Jack's plan.
"Let's put some distance between us and this island, and head out to the open sea." Gibbs commented as he scratched his multi colored beard.
"Yes to the first, yes to the second, but only insofar as we keep to the shallows as much as possible." Jack replied in his twisted manner.
"Uh, that seems a bit contradictory, Captain."
"I have every faith in your reconciliatory navigational skills, Master Gibbs. Now where is that monkey? I want to shoot something."
"You know on my ship, you could talk to the captain without having to look up every word in a dictionary." I approached the two, "Jack, a word."
But it was too late; Jack's attention was directed to the monkey skeleton, scurrying around with Ragetti's eye. I wondered why Jack let those two buffoons on his ship anyway. From experience, I found out that they were the two most incompatible idiots who constantly bickered and managed to screw up even the most remedial jobs.
"Jackie boy!" I called snapping my fingers to get his attention.
Will came up beside me additionally frustrated.
"Ah." Jack asked.
"Elizabeth is in danger." Will gave him the stale information.
"He knows that already." I reminded Will.
"Have you considered keeping a more watchful eye on 'er? Maybe just lock her up somewhere." Jack responded comically.
"She is locked up, in a prison, bound to hang for helping you!" His eyes grew with anger at Jack's uninterested appearance.
"There comes a time when one must take responsibility for one's mistakes." Jack spoke nonchalantly.
That was it, Will whipped out a sword that belonged to a pirate who's back was turned and pointed it at Jack.
"Whoo, take it easy Will." I cautioned, "We'll get it don't worry."
"I need that compass of yours, Jack. I must trade it for her freedom."
"Are you working with him?" Jack asked me.
"Unfortunately I am. He has already proved to be quite unpredictable and stupid." I recalled.
Jack had a knowing expression on his face, "Quite, he tagged along on me adventures not long ago. But he is incredibly stupid at times, especially when it's got to do with his infatuation with his lass." Will was growing red, I don't know if it was because of anger or embarrassment but he hated how we talked about him, "Just a heads up, mate."
"The land lovers are a backwards folk." I mused.
Jack nodded, "Mister Gibbs!" He called.
"Cap'n."
"We have a need to travel up river." Jack announced.
"By need, d'you mean a… trifling need. ?uh?a… fleeting, as in say a passing fancy?" Gibbs questioned.
Jack responded, "No, a… resolute and unyielding need."
"What we need to do is make sail for Port Royal with all haste." Will reminded us all.
"She's not going anywhere, Will. They won't hang her yet, and Beckett won't expect this to be easy." I rationalized to Will.
"William… I shall trade you the Compass, if you will help me… to find this." Jack held up a worn and watermarked piece of parchment with a drawing of a key on it. I stifled a gasp; this was the very same key that Beckett wanted me to retrieve for him. If Jack could lead me to it, then I would have half the job done.
"You want me to find this?" He asked.
"No. You want you to find this. Because the finding this finds you incapaitorially finding/or locating and your discovering the detecting of a way to save your? Dolly?dotty belle ol'… what's-her-face. Savvy?"
dog cocking head to side?rarhh?
"Congratulations Jack, I think you may have created and or swore in some strange heathen language." I spoke with sarcasm.
Will held up the paper, studying it, "This… is going to save Elizabeth?" He spoke slowly.
"How much do you know of Davy Jones?" The Captain asked.
"Not much."
"Yeah, it's gonna save Elizabeth."
Now I knew that Will was stupid, but how could he have just not gotten that? It could be that he didn't care, all he wanted was to save his fiancé, but just taking Jack's word on that! Will was the one who still blindly trusted anyone and expected things to work out in the end.
"Jack, I need to know where we're going." I asked the very unique captain.
Jack turned around and snapped open his compass, the needle quavered from one extreme to the next, "Just follow my lead and we'll head to the west."
"Why not just tell me where it is?" I questioned him irritated.
"Why not just tell me where the Acoundi Island is?" Jack spoke disinterestedly.
"You're not gonna start this again." I spoke, "You're so conceited! I rescued you from that bloody island and this is how you repay me!" I yelled. All the crew onboard the ship heard me and looked at us strangely.
"Jack, you always said you got off that island by yourself." Gibbs approached Jack with a confused look.
"As how it was, I have no idea what she's talking about!" Jack laughed, "You know there are a lot of islands in this world."
"So Jack, you lied to the whole crew about your escape?" I asked, joining the crew with the interrogations.
"No comment!" Jack began backing up. He held his ringed hands up in defense.
Jack began getting a panicked expression on his face as he realized that he was losing control over his crew. If they knew he had been rescued from that island, then they would have little respect for their captain.
"That liar!" Some of the sailors began shouting.
"I wonder what other stuff he made up!"
"Quiet!" Gibbs shouted, "Jack, we want answers. I think you owe us some explanations." Gibbs cornered him as well as the crew.
"What-but... fine." Jack grumbled.
"So she rescued you from that island the first time." Gibbs spoke, trying to get everything sorted out.
"That's right." I elaborated.
"Look what you've done." Jack gave me a dirty look.
Gibbs proceeded to interrogating his captain, "So how did you escape the second time?"
Everyone looked at Jack expectantly; Will had a small smile on his face as he watched the spectacle.
"Umm, well that is hard to remember, you see I was really drunk-
"Jack!" The crew shouted.
"Okay, okay…. Okay…alright… okay, Elizabeth torched the rum to make a signal fire. Then Norrington picked us up and I heroically saved Will from Barbossa."
"You what!" I yelled taking a few threatening steps at Jack, "MY RUM WAS ON THAT ISLAND! How could you let her set it on fire?" I continued furiously.
"It wasn't my idea! And besides, you weren't coming back for it." Jack clarified.
"I WAS SAVING IT!" I pointed my finger at him threateningly, "I was gonna come back for it later."
"I'm so sorry for your loss; I told her not to burn it." Jack sympathized.
"Well that's not good enough." I glared at him. I then spun sharply on my foot and hopped the gap over to my ship, still brooding about my rum.
"Jack Sparrow, the biggest idiot to sail the seven seas." I said under my breath. I tried to count off the times he had put me in a rut, but I lost track after twenty five.
"Land ahead." One of my men told me.
"Is that where Jack is leading us?" Toby asked from behind me.
I looked out across the sails to see a small dark green shadow on the horizon. Jacks ship was pointed directly at it. "Yep, keep it steady and we should reach it soon." I ordered, "Lower the left sails, we can cruise for most of the way."
Toby clambered nimbly up the mast and untied the sails, the green material fell heavily to the deck and some of the crew folded it up. In no time, the small green shadow had ballooned into a whole scenery of jungle and mysteries. The Black Pearl coasted silently into a narrow alcove sheltered from the elements.
Two long boats were lowered into the water and the crew loaded into them. I told my crew to do the same and soon we were heading down a dark river under a green canopy of leaves. The sun had sunken and dusk had taken over giving the forest a quiet and moody atmosphere. Fireflies darted across the reflective water and I could just catch glimpses of figures in the shadows of the trees. We glided up to a small shack built on long bamboo stilts that held it above the lagoon.
"No worries, mates. Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves. Nigh inseparable we are. Were. Have been. Before." Jack explained.
"I'll watch your back." Gibbs responded.
"It's me front I'm worried about."
Then after some confusion of who was gonna watch the boat, the large party entered the shack.
Candle light escaped from inside as Jack carefully opened the door, within, a snake hung from the ceiling, hissing. I looked around noting that it looked like a gypsy's fortune telling tent. Strange nick knacks were distributed everywhere inside the room. The lot of us pilled into the small space as Jack and Tia Dalma said hello.
"Jack Sparrow!" Tia Dalma explained in a heavy accent. Her dark hair frizzed around her head.
"Tia Dalma!" Jack greeted her, overly enthusiastic.
"I always knew de wind was goin' blow you back to me one day." She spoke; her teeth were dirty, as if she had taken a bite out of a clump of dirt.
She then spotted Will standing by the door and walked up to him, "You. You have a touch of… destiny about you, William Turner."
"You know me?" Will asked astonished, yet skeptical.
"You want to know me." She replied lucidly.
"There'll be no knowing here. We've come for help and we're not leaving without it." Jack said in the most confusing way possible. Then he whispered to Tia, "I thought I knew you."
"Not so well as I had hoped. Come." She beckoned in a voice enveloped in mystery.
"Come." Jack gestured.
"What… service… may I do you? Hmmm?" She asked seductively and caressed Will's chin. He seemed to be the most uncomfortable yet, "You know I demand payment."
Tia Dalma seemed to be very touchy feely, and didn't give a rat's ass about whatever people thought of her. She seemed like the standard friend of Jack Sparrow.
"I brought payment." Jack reassured her, "Look!" He cocked his pistol at Barbossa's monkey and blasted it, who was imprisoned in a cage.
"An undead monkey! Top that!"
Tia lifted the cage door and let the monkey scamper out.
"No! You've no idea how long it took us to catch that!" Gibbs spoke.
"The payment is fair." She replied.
"We're looking for this." Jack laid out the picture of the key, "And what it goes to."
"The Compass you bartered from me. It cannot lead you to dis?" Tia asked.
So that was where Jack got his "broken Compass" from.
"Maybe. Why?"
"Ayee… Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants! Or… do know, but are loathe to claim it as your own. Your key go to a chest, and it is what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?" Tia Dalma elucidated.
"What is inside?" Gibbs asked.
"Gold! Jewels? Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?" Pintel asked with wonder and excitement on his face, like a boy right before he opened a present.
Ragetti piped up, "Nothing… bad, I hope."
"An organ." I lazily offered.
"How could something that big fit in a chest?" Ragetti asked stupidly.
I scoffed at him, "Not and organ, an organ."
Tia Dalma looked annoyed at my knowledge, like I was intruding on her turf, "You know of… Davy Jones, yes?" She challenged me, "A man of de sea. A great sailor, until he ran afoul of dat which vex all men."
"What vexes all men?" Asked Will.
"What, indeed." Tia smiled, enjoying the sweetness of withholding information.
"The sea?"
"Sums!"
"Dichotomy of good and evil?"
"A woman." Jack spoke matter-o-factly.
"A wo- man. He fell in love." She told them all.
"No-no-no-no. I heard it was the sea he fell in love with." Gibbs explained.
"Same story, different versions, and all are true. See, it was a woman, as changing, and harsh, and untamable as the sea. Him never stopped loving her. But the pain is cause 'im was too much to live wid. But not enough to cause him to die."
"What… exactly did he put into the chest?" Will asked, allured by the story.
"Him heart." She spoke heavily.
"Literally, or figuratively." Ragetti asked.
"He couldn't li'erally put his heart into a chest! Could he?" There they go; Pintel and Ragetti began to quarrel.
"It was not wort' feeling what… small fleeting joy life brings, and so… he carved out him heart, lock it away in a chest, and hide de chest from the world. De keys, he keep wid him at all times." Tia Dalma ended her tale.
"You knew this? Both of you!" Will realized as he looked at me and Jack.
"I did not. I didn't know where the key was. But now we do. So all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and save your bonny lass, hey!" Jack went over.
"Let me see your hand." Tia Dalma unwrapped the cloth around Jack's fist.
"Uhhh! The black spot!" Gibbs took a step back, fearful. I saw a purplish, black mark on Jack's outstretched palm.
Gibbs wiped his hands on his shirt, spun around once to the left and spit. A/N: Freeze! Everybody clap your hands!"
"Black spot!"
"Black spot!"
Pintel and Ragetti copied him.
"My eyes sight's as good as ever, just so you know." Jack replied dryly.
Tia Dalma brushed past her beaded strings that hung in the doorway and returned with what looked like a jar of dirt. Jack quickly tried to swipe a ring off of her table.
"Davy Jones cannot make port. Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you are safe, Jack Sparrow. And so you will carry land wid you…" She handed Jack the jar of dirt.
"Dirt? This is a jar of dirt."
"Yes?"
"Is the… jar of dirt going to help?" He asked.
"If you don' want it, give it back." Tia smiled knowingly.
"No." Jack clutched it tightly.
"Den it helps."
"It seems… we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman." Will started.
"A touch of destiny!" She threw down a pair of crab claws and studied them. Tia then told Jack where to find the ship.
I about had enough of this crap, I was leaving this stupid shack. This woman was off her rocker and she freaked me out.
"Hold it." Her voice ordered me.
I turned around.
"Is there nothing the Captain of the Jade Chalice wishes to ask me?" She probed.
I gave her a unfeeling stare, "No."
"Really, I know what you want. But you will soon find dat your meaning will change."
"Thanks for the heads up." I replied sarcastically. I left Tia Dalma with the rest of my crew at my rear as we prepared to head back. I decided to ignore what Tia Dalma had said to me, I didn't understand it, and didn't want to. I did not need a mystic telling me how to run my life. As for Jack, the black spot was his problem and all I needed to do was screw him over and steal the chest for my own purposes.
A/N: I hope this wasn't too confusing. It's taking forever for this story to unroll, by the time I finish it, it will be Christmas. Chinchillas are friends not furs.
TECT Out! I have a dirdle of dirt!