Breathless, blinded through fear, she ran through the thick snow, barely able to keep up with her companion in flight. He flailed his arms as though he could find no gravity on a flat surface but how this affected his speed no longer seemed to be an illusion. She could hear them yapping and howling now, closer and closer. She dodged to avoid slamming into tree-trunks as she followed the pirate into open orchard.

Jade did not have time to comment on its beauty, the dark, naked trees dusted with the snow that had previously lain as an untouched carpet beneath. All that occupied her mind was the need for escape and the feeling of imminent sickness as the meal she had consumed threatened to resurface.

She dared to glance behind her and regretted it. Black and grey shapes were sprinting on the trail of their footsteps. They no longer needed their scent. Her gaze snapped ahead and she panicked. Sparrow was nowhere in sight.

"Jack!"

"Up!" his voice ordered from not far ahead. She darted along until she saw what must have been the oldest pear tree in the orchard. It was huge and craggy enough to climb. Jade looked up to see the Captain already in its branches, hand offered. "Quick, quick, quick!" he called urgently and helped her up. The wolves poured in around them, skittering and circling.

Trying not to lose her grip on the icy trunk, Jade bit her lip. "They can' get up 'ere, can they?"

"No," said Jack. "What worries me is 'ow long they'll wait before their masters call 'em off." She looked to him with such futility that he forced a smile. "We'll be fine, missy. We're safe up 'ere."

"F'r 'ow long?" she muttered. The branch she clung to gave a creak.

"Cam' up to this one. 'S got less snow on it an' it's tougher."

Jade scowled at him. "Don' yeh talk t' meh about climbin' trees. I've climbed more'f 'em in m' time than yeh've 'ad 'ot dinners."

"That still doesn't mean I don't know that that branch ain't goin' to 'old much longer."

"There en't room," she disputed. The branch crackled and she went pale. Jack lurched forward and snatched hold of her arm. He hauled her up to his branch an instant before hers snapped off and dropped to the wolves.

Jade lay in silence for a few moments, propped against the fork of three large branches. It seemed precarious but the structure cradled both of them like the palm of a thin hand. There was no space between them and she was forced to lie at least an inch over Jack. She could feel the blood colouring her cheeks.

"I think we'll die'f the cold before we starve," she mumbled, breathing into her hands and cupping them to her face to warm her nose.

Jack scoffed. "You were the one what wanted to be in the snow 'aving Christmas away from the Caribbean."

"The 'Caribbean' was a euphemism f'r meanin' you. F'r the las' two years yeh've got meh int' trouble nearleh every day."

"Then why do you not jump ship? I'm not forcing you to stay aboard nor follow my lead. Leave when the mood takes you."

She glared at him. "I can' leave, Jack. 'S because'f yeh I got this wretched mark tattooed on meh. It en't possible f'r meh t' reintegrate int' society. Yeh said women were currency, Jack, an' yeh were right, onleh the brand makes meh counterfeit; worthless. There en't anywhere f'r meh t' go."

Something about him made the pirate seem altogether too relaxed in the situation. "Is that really why you stay?" he said, provocation hanging in the air. "Or is there some'ing more to it?"

"What d'yeh mean?" She wished she'd held her tongue. "En't those reasons enough?"

He shrugged. "Aye, but there be plenty other ships to sail on. Per'aps not so many acceptin' your gender, but there're even some female pirate bands around who'd 'ave you."

"I don' want t' be a pirate, Jack!"

"Tough. Accept it. Accept that you're a pirate and accept that you stay because someone caught your eye an' you ain't leavin'."

Jade bared her teeth. "An' if tha' ridiculous assumption were true, who d'yeh assume might've won meh affections?"

Jack smirked. She scowled, begging for her blush not to show through.

"Flatter y'self all yeh like," she grumbled. "Doesn' make it fact. Yeh've jes' let what those stupid pipes did fuddle yeh brain."

"Have I?" His eyes gleamed with challenge. He offered an open palm; his compass perched upon it. "Indulge me."

"Yeh can indulge y'self until we get yeh t' the next brothel, thank y'," she snarled. "That thin' doesn' show yeh what anyone realleh feels. 'S jes' raw emotion an' what it is yeh want most at the time yeh hold it."

Without warning, the pirate captain seized her, holding her so that her back rested against him, his arms wrapping over hers to pin them still. Too frightened to struggle lest she fell from the tree, Jade watched as Jack forced the compass into her hand, flipped the lid and held it in place.

"Apologies, darlin', but I've always been one for impulse." As he spoke to her, the needle's erratic spinning came to a dead halt. Jade looked at it, aghast.

"'S rigged. Yeh makin' it say that."

Jack said nothing. The hand that was not securing the compass had drifted to make spider-like dances on the outer part of her sleeve. The compass needle whirled again before settling, pointing stubbornly at Sparrow. Mortified, Jade tried to pull away and was surprised to find no resistance. She scrambled to the safety of a higher cluster of branches.

I can' do it, her mind fretted. Wha'if he onleh ever protected meh t' get some'at out'f it? I wouldn' respect m'self if I…if I let 'im…

Like yeh respect y'self anyway? There was always that counterpoint voice. Sometimes it felt like her psyche had a personality of its own.

M' respect f'r 'im then. En't no tellin' 'ow many women 'e's 'ad but t' be diff'rent from 'em, t' be…Chris', t' be 'is friend'd be preferable t' jes' addin' t' the count."

Why be diff'rent? If yeh were special, thin's'd be even more complicated. Yeh hate complicated. Yeh said y'self yeh can' ever be part'f normal society an', in any fashion, yeh'll prob'ly die in this tree. What yeh whinin' about?

Jade sulked and glanced down at Jack. He lay with his hat tipped over his eyes, hands bunched in his sleeves and arms folded to keep out the cold.

Mebbeh I wouldn' do it because I care.

Pff, an' tha' makes sense?

Pains meh t' say it, but 'e's a legend. 'im with 'is stupid face an' 'is stupid hair, an' 'is stupid clothes an' walk an'…everythin'. 'S pointless thinkin' of it.

Then do what yeh have t'.

Eh?

But her deeper thoughts offered no further advice. Miss Starfall took a drawn out breath and quietly began to climb back down. She drew her knife, paranoid that he would hear the battering of her heart, and moved to crouch over him. Her free hand reached out and took hold of the twin braids of his beard. She tilted his hat back with the knife hand and revealed the kohl-circled eyes she knew and dreaded. The trace of triumph in his expression melted at the sight of the raised knife, unsure whether to fear for the loss of his life or style. Jade brought the quartz dagger down.

"No!" Jack yelled.

The knife embedded into the tree branch above. Jade kissed him. She kissed so hard she almost wished the emotions would pour into him and destroy him so she never had to see his stupid, sparkly-capped grin again. He made no attempt to dissuade her. He kissed gently, teasingly, in response. She tasted the sickly sweetness of his favoured liquor combined with the unpleasant harshness that was expected of a hygiene-lacking scoundrel's breath. It made her head spin. She started to make gasps for air and felt his winter-cold hands slide inside her frockcoat. They scurried torturously, occasionally turning to brush the surface of his rings against her shirt. She did not even detect her buttons unhook until an icy draft made her shiver. The pressure of her lacings gave and she hissed as a hand cupped one of the rises at her chest.

The pirate captain's arm curled about her waist. In a careful, swift motion, he shifted and rolled her beneath him. His arms slipped out of his coat, drawing it over them as shelter. He smiled waywardly and hung his hat upon the jutting knife hilt. Jade kept her eyes averted from his. She could not stomach the thought of what they were saying about her, the thought of letting them see into her, seeing what she was and stealing the last spark of her secrecy. She did not want to see the victorious, childish greed she feared would show. His hands glided down her form as though she were cast in gold. Her green eyes caught glimpses of the frosted branches and she trembled from the cold.

I'm goin t' catch m' death…

And then her attention was taken by the jingling of the trinkets in his hair and those dangling off his bandanna as he lay above her. She felt a hand tug at her belt but the buckle remained intact. Her gaze was forced to meet his. She found no vanity or mockery in his look, just an ominous patience as he waited for an answer.

Bastard. O' course he'd feign the gen'leman now…

One last chance to save herself; she had always been a doomed case. Jade kissed him and ran her hand down his chest, past his stomach and down until she found somewhere to grip. She could not elude catching his grin in the instant she made a sharp, naïve breath. She heard her belt unfasten. Her body jolted as material tugged past her hips and she whimpered at the assaulting chill. Jack cushioned her head with one hand, fingers frittering through her hair, and slid his other out of sight once more. A gasp escaped her as a wave of anti-thought shot through her system. Fear and humiliation screamed at her but they were drowned out with what he was doing to her. Steady, continuous, patterned like dancing, sending gentle shocks one after the other until she began to utter nonsensical syllables. She tremored and kicked a sheet of snow from the branch beneath her boots. Needing no more signal than her pleading grip at his sides, Sparrow shifted further under the blanket of his coat. He brought his face level with hers, battling her unease with his untrustworthy reassurance. Hands resting on the bark either side, he sank into her.

Jade pressed her head into the soggy tree and cried out without voice. Pain tangled with euphoria. She could feel the bark scratching her skin through her coat as he moved above her. He's killin' meh, she thought. Slowly, luxuriously if it wasn't for the threatening agony, he worked the charms he knew so well, the intricate sensibilities lending to his fame, hands soothing her panic, kisses tingling her throat. He's killin' meh an' I don' care. At the end of it all, her pale fingers grasped the bark beneath her and she yelled so fully that the wolves howled in chorus. With one final gasp, her head fell back against the tree and all went black.


Miss Starfall's mind brought her back into consciousness with an unpleasant start. Several things became apparent: the pain in her head; the aching of her limbs; the bedraggled state of her clothes; the dark coat wrapped about her; the other pain she was not ready to acknowledge, and… that Captain Sparrow was gone.

"Jack?" She half wished she had not been so predictable.

"Down 'ere, missy."

She leaned over and saw him standing in the snow below. "But the wolves -."

"Are gone," he finished. "Got called off an' no one bothered to check for a kill. Too busy with the Christmas spirit an' whatnot, I shouldn't wonder. Lucky for us, ay?"

Jade nodded and returned to the privacy of the tree. Wincing as she moved her bruised body, she fastened herself back to decency and threw his coat back to him. After prising her knife from the tree-trunk she made her descent. She refused his helping hand, barely regretting it when she fell face down into the snow.

Without a word she picked herself up and began to walk. Jack followed. A couple of minutes passed and then he increased his pace to match hers.

"Are you -?"

She stopped in her tracks and cut him off. "What? Am I aw'ight? Am I goin' t' speak t' yeh again? Am I goin' t' get back on tha' stupid ship whenever the hell yeh get it back?" She burst into such manic laughter that the pirate jumped inside his skin. "Why don' yeh work it out f' y'self seein' as yeh so good a judge'f m' character? As f'r what 'appened, f'get it. There en't even a name f'r it."

"Actually I was going to ask if you were certain of your heading…"

She didn't look at him. Anger welled up to mask the hurt, at odds as to whether she wanted him to alter how he treated her or remain just the same. She pinched her temples between finger and thumb and walked away again.

Jack snatched her arm and pulled her toward him. She did not fight. He lifted a hand to her face and brushed the tips of his fingers across her cheek, evoking the fresh memories. He paused suddenly and stared into the middle distance.

"I s'pose calling it a 'partridge' might be pertinent."

The slap she dealt knocked him off his feet. Sparrow groaned and peered out of his pirate-shaped trench.

"Glad tidin's dear Captain," Jade sneered, already a yard away from him. She held out her hand and let his compass dangle between her fingers. "Reckon yeh c'n catch meh b'fore New Year?"

Jack's jaw dropped. Despite the aches and pains, Jade grinned and bolted over the snowy orchard, relishing the distant "Oi!" that echoed at her back.


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Merry Yuletide, Ms Starfall/Ryalor/Topp. Have a grand end o' 2009!