A/N OK … Now that my classes are done till a week into January, I will have time to get a few more chapters written. This story is taking a lot longer to write than I had anticipated, both in time spent writing it and in length. I'm sorry if the tenor of the chapters keeps changing. That's what happens when one is as moody as I am.
Chapter 9: Questions Arise
The sails lay furled, waiting for the next trip out to sea, as the two passengers and sailors splashed ashore with their longboat tugged behind them. Jack dragged it further ashore, and thrust a mooring pin into the sand. He had noticed a gentle surf lapping the shores of the small beach, and did not want any tide to come in and steal his only dry means back to the ship. He was an accomplished swimmer, having decided early in his sailing career that it would be prudent to become so, but that did not mean that he should have to swim if he could do otherwise. Besides, if they were experiencing hunger, he surmised that they could not breathe underwater and survive, or at least be comfortable. There was no telling if they were really dead or not at this point.
Jack scanned the horizon, once again falling back on old habits, checking to see if any sails broke the line between the sea and sky. Even the speck of a topsail indicating a ship just over the horizon failed to greet his eyes, so he turned inland and took in the vision of the lush green trees. He noted a streamlet emptying into the sea, and he stumbled over to it, having not gotten his land legs back yet. At least that is what he told himself. He refused to acknowledge that the little jar of rum he kept securely knotted into his sash could have anything to do with it.
He uncorked his canteen and dipped it into the water. As it filled, glugging and bubbling as the air escaped, he surveyed the forest around him, listening intently for any signs of animal life. He had heard birds, but nothing more than the twittering inland birds, none of the seagull, pelican, or albatross types. There was nothing to give him any indication of where he was. Even the plants looked unfamiliar, not that he would be well versed in inland flora.
The canteen glubbed for the last time, and he put in the stopper. He stood and glanced at his partner. He had assumed that she would have been exploring a little, or even filling her own canteen, but when he turned, he was met with the sight of a rather shaken Elizabeth. At least, she appeared that way. Her face, even darkened by the tropical sun prior to their deaths, was quite pale. Her eyes were wide, with a little pant escaping her opened lips. Just as he took in this strange behavior, Elizabeth noticed his attention. With a last quick look around her, she shook her composure together, and with a determined squaring of her shoulders, sauntered over to the stream. As she bent to fill her canteen, she peeked back up to him, and caught him still watching her. He waited, and soon his silent but steady gaze made her cave.
"All right, then," she sighed. "I've been here. I don't know when, but I'm sure I recognize this place."
"And you are such a well traveled woman, despite the fact that you were locked up in your little mansion, playing with your china dolls," he sneered, although his stare still marked him as wary. "Have you forgotten just where we came from? We're not exactly on any chart that I have in my cabin. I do not believe we are on any charts in…"
"I know that, you idiot!" she snapped, falling back on her own old habit of disdaining him. At least she was not acting odd anymore, he thought. "Do you really think I'm that stupid and unaware? Don't answer that," she added as he opened his mouth to reply.
She took another deep breath, calming herself as she stopped to look around herself once again. "It's like a dream, or a remnant of a dream. It looks familiar, yet … wrong. Almost as if it's … old. Neglected." Her brow furrowed as her voice trailed off. She chanced another quick look at Jack again, then walked away into the woods, following some call or vague memory.
Jack, a little taken aback at her news, peered around at his surroundings, then thought better about letting her wander off alone. She may have been on the island before, but there was no reason to have her chance upon some beast that might eat her. He did not really want that weighing on his conscience, not that her own stupidity should be enough to make him feel guilty, but following her to keep such beasts at bay would probably be a good idea. So he did. Closely. That way nothing would take them both on.
The path she took was not clearly marked, as if by animals, much less other humans. There was no definite road, nor sign of any kind that anything but birds and small rodent like creatures lived there. She walked forward warily, Jack following with an eye out to the rear. Soon the woods thinned to a clearing, a tiny one, with a small pillar of stones in the middle, a pillar that had the bearing of a small marker or memorial. It certainly was not natural. The trees around the edges had the look of being cut back, pruned to keep the forest at bay from encroaching on this clearing. Although he looked for some markings on the pillar, he found none.
"I don't recognize this," whispered Elizabeth. "This was not here before." Jack looked at her exasperatedly.
"Luv, in case you had missed it when I spoke to you last, I am not living under the impression that you could possibly have been here before," he replied. Her lack of response to his goading spoke to him in volumes louder than any shouted retort. His own feeling of uneasiness grew, but at that moment, so did the growling in his stomach.
"Look," he urged. "We really need to find some edibles and fill a couple of casks before we leave. I really do not think it would be wise to stay overnight here. Do you?"
"Jack," she said, ignoring his implied plea. "We need to look around."
"Yes, for food, I said that," he agreed. "But then …"
"No, not just for food. For answers."
"Miss Swann, unlike you I have no more questions."
"Jack…"
"Captain Jack…"
"Oh, for God's sake, not now with that …"
"Well, you do have a tendency to forget …"
"It's not a matter of forgetting …"
Suddenly, their argument ceased. Both had caught sight out of the corner of their eyes a figure, which seemed to have coalesced out of the greenery surrounding them. They both stared, slack jawed, at the form of a woman clothed in nothing but the leaves and vines of the forest. She held in her hands the crook of a shepherd's staff, but her stance was one of a warrior at a cautious rest. Her long hair was bound into a knot at the nape of her neck. She glared at the both of them with hostility.
"Apparently, you have awakened my sister from her sleep," a slow, deep yet feminine voice said behind them. The pair whipped around to see another who was dressed like the first. "I saw your ship before you came ashore. Who are you and why are you here?"
