Thanks LM1991 and Kairi's-twin for your reviews!
Author's Note: During this chapter, I might be doing a little switching back and forth in "points of view", although I originally planned on not doing it at all. I sort of went crazy on detail during this section, also, so enjoy that. Credit goes to my mom for the idea of how Laura escapes from Cannibal Island.
New and Old Friends
Laura was sitting in the Captain's Cabin with piles of maps strewn on the table in front of her. Two maps in particular took her attention as the captain tiptoed in, trying to not distract her since her temper was momentarily getting the better of her.
One map was a simple, but up-to-date, professional drawing of the Atlantic in general.
As the young woman tossed it aside to pick up and study another map from the floor, Jack was able to see that she had uncaringly circled an island with pen ink on the first chart.
Just as the sailor in the crow's nest shouted, "Land ho," the girl abruptly stood and shoved the map at her leader.
"Do realize where you've led us, Jack?" she accused.
Jack looked at the chart now in his hands.
It was roughly drawn and worn from age, but the words "Cannibal Island" could be easily deciphered above the drawing of an island.
Jack had sketched it himself.
Looking at his young partner, who was more of an adviser since the pirate obtained his ship and a crew, the captain randomly studied her features.
Her piercing ocean blue eyes glared at him with a mask of heat from an oval face which was framed by golden brown hair that showed a hint of red in the candle and lamplight.
(Ok, back to Laura)
The young woman continued to defiantly glower at the captain.
This had not been the first time Jack had hidden something from her since he once again became captain of the Pearl…and it was becoming irritating. From their first adventure together, he had always given her a good idea of what he was planning, until he had met Will.
-Does he suspect that Will's my brother?…hmm, unlikely-
She continued looking at him straight in the eye until she noticed that he was staring right back.
Rolling her eyes, Laura grabbed the map from Jack, walked to her usual corner, and sat down to further examine the map of Cannibal Island.
She had no wish whatsoever to go back.
Unfortunately, she wouldn't have a choice in the matter since Gibbs was faithfully and blindly following Jack in his panic.
A few minutes later, she relented and went below decks to grab her few personal belongings that she knew would be necessary for this nightmare.
After throwing on her newly found frock coat, tightening her belt, and exchanging her bandana for a string of leather around her ever growing hair (she refused to cut it), Laura began climbing the stairs which led back up to the deck.
Suddenly, Laura lost her balance and was hurled onto the steps, bruising her upper leg in the process, as the ship jolted.
-The second time I lost my balance since the lovely reunion with my brother, stupid boy-
Thinking of her brother lately was usually followed by mentally calling him or herself idiotic for the lack of Will's memory. This occurred rather often since Jack began hiding things from her and she needed someone to blame.
Limping onto the deck, the piratess saw that the crew, affected by Jack's still-occurring panic, had grounded the ship on Cannibal Island.
-Lovely-
Laura also observed that Jack's momentary calmness from their encounter in the Cabin had worn off. As soon as a ladder could be thrown over the Pearl's side, he raced down from the helm, repeating the nonsense of running over and over again.
The woman was the last one off the vessel as the rest of the crew flew down the ladder after Jack like the Devil was literally upon them.
Reaching the tree-line into which the pirates were running, Laura checked the ammo in her pistol. She knew it wouldn't do any good, but stalling was her momentary goal.
All of a sudden, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.
Turning to face whatever fate had brought to her attention, she witnessed several natives walking towards as anyone would a wild animal.
"Oh, long time no see," she nervously said. "…umm, I'll be seeing you. Au revoir!"
At this, she began racing through the forest as fast as her legs could carry her.
Then, before she knew it, she was surrounded by about a dozen of the natives.
They whispered words of recognition before Laura felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.
Glancing down, she saw a dart sticking out of her arm. The trench coat had done nothing to stop the tip from puncturing her skin.
"Bugger."
Growing faint, she collapsed, unconscious.
--
As Laura opened her eyes, she noted that she and Jack were in make-shift wood and bone throne chairs…and that they were surrounded by natives.
Making eye contact with Jack, she was greeted,
"Nice to see a friendly face."
"Oh, don't even try, Jack. You got into this mess. Perhaps you have a plan to get us out," she snapped.
The effects of the dart had left her with a headache.
"Unfortunately, no. I'm guessing that you're interested in an update," the captain replied.
The girl nodded her head.
"Well," Jack continued, "half of the crew is dead and eaten, the rest are in cages somewhere, and we're going to be burned alive this evening."
"Interesting," Laura responded.
-Well, if we're going to get out of this, I just have to forget that I'm mad at Jack for now-
"So," she relented, "I suppose that the plan is to play along until one of us comes up with a good plan?"
"Yep," was the answer.
"Alright."
--
Some time in the afternoon, after the two pirates had played god and goddess for hours, they heard a commotion further into the village.
The natives were bringing something or someone to their deity/captives.
Peering over the heads of the people in front of them, Laura could see the natives carrying an unconscious man, whose hands and feet were securely tied to a pole, over the bridge closest to her.
As the crowd parted, the man could be recognized as Will.
Laura put her head in her hands as the headache came back.
"Kali kali ten dada," one of the natives began.
Just like the last time, she was the only one with aftereffects from the darts.
When she finally looked up, Will was in front of them, regaining consciousness.
"Jack?" he asked. "Jack Sparrow! I can honestly say I'm glad to see you."
Laura almost rushed to help her brother, only to realize as Jack stood up and poked Will curiously that it would probably somehow anger the natives and end all of their lives.
"Jack," Will continued, confused at Jack's lack of recognition, "it's me, Will Turner!"
"Pase ko," Jack addressed the cannibals.
"Idada esipige," was the reply.
Finally, the tied up captive saw Laura.
"Laura! Tell them to let me down. Laura Lark!"
The girl stood up and walked over to Will.
Pitying and helpless eyes met Will's confused ones.
"I would help you if I could," she whispered urgently before quickly strolling back over to her chair.
Looking at Will, Jack was continuing his conversation with the crowd.
"Lum say say eunuchey. Snip snip."
"Jack," Will insisted, "the compass! That's all I need! Elizabeth is in danger! We were arrested for trying to help you! She faces the gallows!
Laura decided to do what she could to at least temporarily save Will's life.
"Snay say sha. Smomy lama shuku, savvy?"
When the natives didn't react, she continued,
"Bon liki liki."
"Bon liki liki!" the cannibals repeated before carrying Will away.
She heard Jack whisper to Will,
"Save me!" before joining Laura on the throne.
"Laura," Will yelled, "what did you tell them? No! What about Elizabeth? Jack!"
"I did tell them to put him in the cages, right?" she asked Jack.
After a moment of shifty eyes, he answered.
"Yeah."
Just as she was breathing a sigh of relief, Laura's froze as the ceremonial drums began.
"Jack," she asked uneasily as the cannibals put a necklace of human fingers around her neck, "do you happen to have a plan, yet?"
"Just follow my lead," he answered. "You'll know when the time comes."
As the natives were piling small wood in the middle of the clearing, Jack stood up, waving his arms.
"Oh, no no, oy, more wood, big fire, big fire, I am chief, want big fire, more wood. C'mon."
Rolling her eyes, Laura ordered the guards next to the throne,
"Aboogie snickle snickle toute suite, go on."
"More wood!" Jack concluded.
Just as the guards were gone, the pirates began to frantically run away and into the village. Jack nearly fell over a cliff in his hurry as Laura stopped short and picked a bamboo branch.
Frantically shaking his head at the idea presented by the pole, Jack raced into one of the huts.
When Laura looked away from the hut, she discovered that she was surrounded by a mass of natives.
"Oh," she said, soon followed by Jack saying,
"Oh bugger," as he emerged from the hut with two lengths of rope and paprika.
Smiling and shaking some of the paprika onto his underarms, he continued,
"A little seasoning, eh?"
--
Minutes later, the natives had suspended the two pirates each on a bamboo spit.
"Well done," the captain sarcastically congratulated the cannibals.
"Jack," Laura said after realizing that her ropes were slightly loose in certain places, offering an escape route, "now would be an excellent time for plan B."
The native with the torch ran into their section of the village.
"Ahh fie fie!" he cried.
"Oh fie fie!" the others repeated.
Laura began to panic as the torch was nearly touching the wood.
Suddenly, a cannibal came running across the bridge.
"Laguetoto laguetoto, hayva cow cow shay shay!" he said.
The piratess mentally translated it as, "the prisoners are escaping."
All of the natives looked at Jack for directions.
"Well go on, go get them," he ordered. "Paylala!"
"Paylala!" the crowd repeated before they all ran off to catch the escapees.
Unfortunately, the torch was dropped so that it was just touching the straw mingled in with the wood.
"Wait!" Jack called. "No, no, oy! No, no. Not good."
He then began blowing on the straw as it caught fire.
Laura, however, had a little more sense.
"Jack," she warned, "you're only making it worse."
Too late. The wood had already caught fire.
As it got higher, both pirates began bouncing up and down, trying to spring their way off the spit.
Finally succeeding, Laura managed to untie herself. Jack, on the other hand, was only able to release his feet.
Before she had the chance to help him, the captain ran off in the direction they had tried last time.
When Laura reached Jack's location, he was finishing a fruit throwing contest with two cannibal women.
"Stop it!" he yelled, causing the women to freeze in mid-throw.
Laura had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing out loud at Jack, who had fruit stuck on the pole still attached to him (like a modern day shish kabob).
Suddenly, the captain ran towards the edge screaming.
The front end of the pole caught the ground, sending him vaulting over to the other side.
As soon as she saw him land on his feet, Laura decided to proceed with her own gradually building plan.
Racing into the nearest hut, she frantically looked around for rope or anything that could get her down the cliff after Jack, who had apparently fallen.
Suddenly, her eyes fell on the hut itself.
Its contents had the look of a medicine woman, the most important asset of the village.
Therefore, the hut's construction was unique.
An immeasurable length of rope was what held the slats together instead of the usual separate ties.
Grinning at herself, Laura found the end of the rope.
It easily came loose.
Meanwhile, she heard the crashing of Jack becoming more distant.
The sound stopped just as she yanked her trench coat off to wrap it around the rope, which was still mostly intertwined in the hut, and jumped off the side, the coat between her hands and the rope to keep it from injuring her.
She couldn't help but laugh hysterically at her Jack-like daring attitude…
until her rope ran out and she plunged the last ten feet, landing on her back.
As she sat up trying to catch her breath and spotted Jack running in the probable direction of the beach, Laura's trench coat landed on top of her, followed by a few planks, giving evidence to the destruction of the hut.
She then jumped up and ran after the captain, coat in hand.
Reaching the beach, the girl turned a sharp corner towards the ship and began running alongside Jack, who had not turned quite so gracefully.
As they looked behind them, a hoard of natives came plunging out of the forest in pursuit.
After making eye contact, they proceeded to scream as they ran towards the Pearl and their only hope of escape.
They finally were able to reach the side of the ship and latch onto the dangling net as the craft headed away from the shore in the high tide.
"Alas my children," Jack called out to the mourning natives on the shore, "this is the day you shall always remember as the day that you almost…"
He was interrupted as a wave splashed him and Laura from behind.
"…Captain Jack Sparrow," he finished while climbing onto the deck.
Laura was soon on the deck next to him, spitting out saltwater and laughing at the same time.
"You seem to be in a better mood," Jack pointed out.
"With Will around again, I have a feeling we're in for another grand quest. And you know that I prefer the big adventures to the normal plunderings," she cheerfully answered.
Their brief conversation was cut off as Jack was approached by Gibbs, followed by Will.
Her dislike for the taste of saltwater caused Laura to continue spitting over the side of the ship.
"Let's put some distance between us and this island and head out to open sea," the first mate suggested.
"Yes to the first, yes to the second," Jack answered, "but only insofar as we keep to the shallows as much as possible."
Having cleared mouth of most of the salty water taste, Laura sped up to the helm as Jack, Gibbs, and Will strolled in that direction.
"That seems a bit contradictory, Captain," Gibbs was arguing.
"I have every faith in your reconciliatory navigational skills, Master Gibbs," Jack replied. "Now, where is that monkey? I want to shoot something."
"Jack," Will began, "Elizabeth is in danger."
The captain responded while making his way to the helm.
"Have you considered keeping a more watchful eye on her? Maybe just lock her up somewhere?"
"She is locked up, in a prison bound to hang for helping you," Will disputed.
"And how, exactly, did she help us?" Laura queried, only to be ignored…again.
Jack continued quarreling.
"There comes a time when one must take responsibility for one's mistakes."
Clearly tired of the discussion, Will grabbed a sailor's sword and put it against Jack's throat.
Laura's breath caught at the sight of Jack in peril; however, she knew that Will probably had a good reason for what he was doing.
"I need that compass of yours, Jack," Will stated. "I must trade it for her freedom."
"Mr. Gibbs," Jack began, effortlessly pushing the sword away from his throat.
"Captain?" the first mate responded from his post at the wheel.
"We have a need to travel upriver."
"You mean a need as in a trifling need," Gibbs hopefully asked, "fleeting, as in, say, a passing fancy?"
"No," Jack countered, looking at Will, "a resolute and unyielding need."
"What we need to do," Will ordered, "is to make sail for Port Royal with all haste."
"William," Jack replied in a way that made Laura become suspicious of his intentions, "I shall trade you the compass, if you will help me to find this."
Will bent down to look at the cloth Jack was holding up before grabbing it.
The drawn key brought the usual confusion to Will's eyes.
Seeing that uncertainty made Laura once again wonder why he didn't remember her.
This train of thought led the young woman to ignore the rest of the conversation.
Instead, she walked to the very front of the Pearl to think.
A minute later, she realized: maybe Will forgot because he was trying to move on after he had settled in Port Royal. His search for Bootstrap had effectively ceased at that time; why not the memory of his little sister? In that case, he was not presently directly worthy of blame.
Temporarily satisfied with her answer, Laura leaned against the railing and tranquilly watched the oncoming sunset.
Seeing the sun sink beyond the horizon had been a favorite pastime since she was a little girl.
"Are you alright?" Will suddenly asked, standing next to her.
Ignoring the question, Laura continued to stare at the setting sun. They had almost reached their destination, wherever that was.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" she said, nodding towards the horizon.
He, in turn, ignored her question.
"You walked away rather quickly while I was talking to Jack."
"I simply had no reason to stay. I knew from experience that Jack would get his way and win the argument one way or the other," Laura answered.
"I achieved my goal of obtaining his help. That's all that matters," Will stated.
"Will," the girl began, "I am only going to warn you of this once. Rarely trust a pirate unless you know perfectly well what they might do."
At this, Laura trotted back up to the helm.
--
They had finally lowered the anchor and had begun rowing their way upriver into the jungle, when Will asked Gibbs,
"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?"
Laura, who was in the same boat as Will and Gibbs behind Jack's, couldn't help but listen to hear what explanation the first mate would give.
"Well," the grizzly man began, "if you believe such things, there's a beast that does the bidding of Davy Jones. A monstrous creature with giant tentacles that'll suction your face clean off, and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness. The Kraken."
Laura mentally laughed at the storyteller voice always used by Gibbs.
"They say the stench of its breath is…Imagine, the last thing you know on God's green Earth is the roar of the Kraken and the reeking odor of a thousand rotting corpses. If you believe such things."
"And the key will spare him that?" Will further questioned.
"Well," Gibbs answered, "that's the very question Jack wants answered, bad enough even to go visit her."
"Her?" Will asked.
"Aye," was the confirmation.
A few minutes later, they arrived at one of the huts.
Jack stepped onto the small dock and turned to the crew.
"No worries, mates," he addressed them. "Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves. Nigh inseparable we are…were…have been…before…"
Laura and Gibbs had stepped onto the dock next to Jack.
"I'll watch your back," the first mate assured the captain.
"It's me front I'm worried about," Jack replied.
-So this must be where Jack acquired his compass-
Gibbs then looked at Laura and said,
"Mind the boat."
Laura in turn looked at her brother.
"Mind the boat."
All of the pirates went on with this cycle until Cotton was stuck guarding the craft.
By the time Laura, Will, and Gibbs had crowded behind Jack, the captain was peeking into the shack through a window in the door.
"Jack Sparrow," they heard a woman's voice say.
As Jack opened the door to reveal a cluttered and candlelit space prior to stepping in, he replied,
"Tia Dalma!"
Laura stood next to Will as she studied the woman's dark features.
"I always knew the wind was going to blow you back to me one day," she said before looking at the Turner twins in shock.
"You two," she began, pointing at them, "you have a touch of destiny about you, William Turner…and…Laura Lark."
-Great! Another person who hesitates before saying my pirate name!-
"You know me?" Will asked as Laura simply participated in an unspoken staring contest with the woman.
"You want to know me," Tia stated, stepping closer to Will.
"There'll be no knowing here," Jack interrupted as he moved between Tia and Will. "We came for help and we're not leaving without it. I thought I knew you."
"Not so well as I'd hoped," Tia said while sitting down. "Come."
"Come," Jack told Will.
I know…this chapter was SUPER long, but there was a lot of detail I had to get in.
Thanks for reading! Please, R&R.