Chapter 5: Welcome to Tortuga!
We arrived at our destination some time after dark. How to describe Tortuga? In one word, piratey. It was wild, crazy and just freaking awesome!
People were running around everywhere! Men were chasing after wenches, brawling with each other over a barrel of rum and best of all, they were all bloody drunk. We walked past a man who looked like it was his goal to drink himself to death and Will nearly got trampled by a horse, twice! I can honestly say it was one of my favorite towns. So much better than Port Royal.
Unfortunately it was easy to get separated from Jack and Will. I lost them about three times, I think. Jack got so fed up he made me walked between Will and him. Whenever someone walked too close Jack would grab my arm. "Stop doing that." I told him.
"Just making sure that no one carries you off." Jack said. I sighed and let it go. Jack seemed to get more relaxed the farther we walked. It was if he was breathing in the rum in the air which wouldn't been that hard. He was explaining a few things about Tortuga as we walked through an alley. "Most importantly, it is indeed a sad life that has never breathed this deep, sweet proliferous bouquet that is Tortuga. Savvy?" he finished. "What do you think?"
Will looked around, disgust written all over his face. "It'll linger."
"Are you kidding?" I exclaimed. "This place is awesome!" we stopped to avoid getting run over by a carriage.
"I tell ya, mate. If every town in the world were like this one, no man would ever feel unwanted." Jack said. Then he must've seen someone he recognized. "Scarlet!" he exclaimed. A red haired woman wearing a red dress walked up to him. She greeted him with a hearty slap across the face. It made Jack's head spin around so he looked at us. "Not sure I deserved that." he mumbled.
A blond woman wearing a yellow dress had walked up behind him. "Giselle." Jack said, turning around.
"Who was she?" the woman asked.
"What?" Jack asked and got another slap in the face. "I may have deserved that one."
I cracked up and was doubled over with laughter. "You really have a way with women, don't you Jack?" I said wiping the tears from my eyes. Will chuckled a little.
"Shut it." Jack said and walked off. Will and I followed, still laughing.
Jack led us to a pigsty. Among the pigs was a sleeping man. He was slightly large with grey mutton-chop beard and black hair streaked with grey. "What are we doing here?" I asked, still grinning from earlier.
"Meeting up with an old friend." Jack said, picking up a bucket and filling it with water. He indicated Will to do the same. With the buckets full, Jack walked over to the sleeping man and splashed the cold water on him. The man woke with a start.
"Curse ya for breathin', ya slack-jawed idiot!" he yelled. Then he looked up and recognized Jack. "Mother's love, Jack. You should know better then to wake a man when he's sleepin'. It's bad luck." the man slurred on that last bit.
"Ah, but fortunately I know how to counter it." Jack began. "The man who did the waking buys the man who was sleeping a drink. The man who was sleeping drinks it while listening to a proposition from the man who did the waking."
"Did anyone else understand that? If you did then I need a translation." I said. Jack was rather hard to understand sometimes. Although, Mutton-Chops seemed to understand.
"Aye, that'll about do it." he said. Jack offered him a hand and helped Mutton-Chops up. Will splashed him with his bucket of water. "Blast! I'm already awake!" he roared.
"That was for the smell." Will said. The man still looked angry, but soon nodded understanding. I was already laughing.
Mutton-Chops spoke up. "The name's Gibbs by the way. Joshamee Gibbs."
"I'm Jason. Jason Serner" I said sticking out my hand. Gibbs shook it.
"Nice to meet ya, Jason. Now, Jack, how about that drink?" Gibbs said.
"Ah, right this way gentlemen." Jack said, walking off. He led us to a tavern called The Faithful Bride. When we walked in I was hit with a wave of rum scent. I started to feel nauseas. I hate the smell of rum.
Gibbs went to sit down at a table while Jack got the drinks. He indicated for me to follow. "Stay out of trouble." he warned. "And don't leave the tavern. You never know who could be lurking in Tortuga."
"Don't leave the tavern, stay out of trouble. Got it." I said. With that Jack walked away with two mugs of rum.
I stood by the bar for a few minutes wondering what to do. Almost everyone in the tavern was in some sort of fist fight. One man, I noticed, was asleep. I wish I had your talent of falling asleep in a place like this.
I left the bar and wandered around the tavern. Some times I sat down and listened to stories. One man was telling the story of a giant tentacle beast that sunk his entire ship. Hah, unlikely. Some of the others were giving him a hard time.
"Yeah right. I think ya had too much to drink tonight, mate."
"I'm tellin' ya, it's true! The beast had giant tentacles that crashed onto me ship. It sunk the whole thing. I'm the only survivor!"
I walked away. Some people shouldn't tell stories when their drunk. I found myself circling the tavern. At one point I walked past Gibbs and Jack. When I got close they stopped talking and stared at me. Gibbs looked at me like I was some sort of monster. His eyes were wide with fear and confusion. I held my hands up innocently and walked away. What's his problem?
When I was a fair distance away, I stopped walking. Why did Gibbs look at me like that. I'm not that scary. My thought was broken when some idiot spilled rum on me. I turned around and faced the drunkard. "Oi! Watch it!" I shouted.
The drunkard glared at me. "What are you talking about? You made me spill my drink, you little rat!"
"If you had a single thought in that empty head of yours you would know that you ran into me! Now my hair smells like rum!"
"Did you just insult me?"
"Obviously my assumption was correct. You don't have a single thought in that dense head of yours."
The drunkard roared with rage and punched my nose. It had so much force I fell down on my bum. I felt warm blood dribbled down my nose and into my mouth. "What was that for, you bloody git!"
"No one insults me and gets away with it!" the drunkard picked my up. The collar of shirt was balled in his hands. Geez, this guy is strong. I spat in his face. He was about to say another insult when Jack showed up.
"Put the lad down, now." he ordered. The drunkard sneered and threw me on the ground.
"You his protector?"
"I don't need protecting." I shouted from my position on the ground. Jack looked down at me briefly.
"Here." Jack said, throwing the drunkard a small bag of coins. "Take this and leave the boy alone."
The drunkard caught the bag and grinned. "You think this will keep me from punishing him? It'll take a lot more than that."
Will came up and drew his sword. "Leave now if you value your life." he sneered. The drunkard looked taken back. He shrugged and put the coins in his pocket. As he walked away he spat in my face.
I was really close to tearing that man's head off. I glared at him as he walked away. "I hope he drinks himself to death." I said, hopefully loud enough for the drunkard to hear.
"Come on." Jack said, grabbing my arm and pulling me up. He walked over to the table that he and Gibbs were sitting at before. Will and I joined them.
"Sorry about the money you lost, Jack." I said.
"It's alright. Here," Jack handed me a cloth. "For your nose."
"Right. Thanks." I took the cloth and started to wipe the blood from my nose. My hair was still wet and now smelled like rum.
"You always get into fights like that, lad?" Gibbs asked. He was eyeing me cautiously.
"Not always. Only when someone really ticks me off."
"Yeah, like that time you beat up a sixteen year-old over a piece of bread. That was interesting." Will mumbled.
"Hey, it was his fault. He should've known not to take food from a starving kid." I said angrily. I checked the cloth to see if my nose was still bleeding. It was.
"How old are you?" Gibbs asked.
"Thirteen."
"You look older."
"I'm wise beyond my years."
"We should find a place to sleep tonight." Will said, interrupting the conversation.
"The Interceptor will be fine." Jack said. "Gibbs, you'll meet us at the ship tomorrow with the crew. Got that?"
Gibbs nodded. "See ya tomorrow." he left to gather the crew. Will got up as well.
"I'm going back. Do you want to come with me?" Will asked me.
I shook my head. Will frowned. "Alright. Stay out of trouble." he walked out of the tavern. It was just me and Jack now.
I checked the cloth again. My nose was still bleeding. "Do you know how to stop a bloody nose?" I asked.
Jack laughed and shook his head. "Sadly, no. I'm going to go buy some rum. Don't go anywhere." he got up from the table and walked towards the bar.
Well there goes my chance of asking any questions. I looked at the cloth again and sighed. Then some idiot came up behind me and dumped, what it seemed, a whole barrel of the foul smelling rum on my head. I growled and turned around. It was the drunkard from earlier, and it looked like he made some friends.
They were laughing there heads off. "How you like that, boy?" the drunkard shouted. I started laughing as well, swallowing my anger. Standing up, I took a deep breath. My clothes were soaked with rum. The smell crept up to my nose and intoxicated me, driving my anger.
Still laughing as if we just shared a joke, I made my hand into a fist. Using all my force I punched the drunkard in the nose.
He stumbled back, clutching his nose. Looking at his hand I saw blood dripping onto the floor. I smiled evilly. The drunkard's buddies were too stunned to do anything. Didn't think I would fight back, eh?
The drunkard walked forward with his fits raised. I was ready this time. As he swung I ducked and stepped to the left. He lost his momentum and crashed into the table. When he turned around I slammed my foot into his gut. He made an "oof" sound as the air left his lungs.
I started chuckling. The drunkards buddies began backing up but one of them advanced. He wildly swung his fist. I easily dodged it and punched him in the face, then in the gut. He crumbled to the ground. Two down.
The drunkard stood up and raised his fist. Correction, one down. I dodged and jumped on the table. Finally taller than my opponent I kicked him in the face. He stumbled back and I jumped on him. We both crashed to the ground.
I got up first and put my foot on his chest. "Give me back the money you took from my friend." I ordered. The drunkard reached into his pocket and grabbed the bag. I snatched it from his hand and got off his chest. He stood up coughing and clutching his head. "Don't mess with me again." I warned. He nodded and walked off, his buddies followed.
I noticed then that we had attracted a small crowd. A few of the men started clapping. I grinned and bowed dramatically. Jack came out of the crowd with two bottles of rum in his hands. "Do you want this?" I asked, holding up the bag of coins.
Jack shook his head. "You earned it." I smiled and stuffed the coins in my pocket. Jack walked up and put on arm around my shoulder. "Nicely done, by the way. Although a little violent, don't you think?"
I shook my head in disagreement. "In my book, if theirs a pool of blood on the ground then it gets violent."
"Interesting." Jack said, looking down at me as if he had finally solved an interesting puzzle. He shook his head and led me out of the tavern.