I'm SO, SO, SO SORRY! Every time I sat down to write this, I ended up hangin' with my friends... well, it's summer, nothing ever goes as planned xD Please enjoy, and please don't hate me. D=

...

Chapter 7

A rather disgruntled Jack stood at the Black Pearls' tiller. Everything from the sun in his face to the way the crew was swabbing the deck annoyed him today. The frown on his face was highly unusual, and the men realized it and did their best to avoid him.

Not Pocahontas, though. They had set sail from the New World only two weeks ago, and already he was sick of her. She turned out to be a bright little thing, hurrying up and down the ship looking at and touching everything, as if touching the objects would make her understand them. Her questions never ended. There were times when she would simply sit on the rail and stare at the ocean they glided across. These moments were rare; otherwise, she talked Jacks' ear off.

Thankfully, at the moment, she was up in the crows' nest with Cotton. Jack glanced up at the odd pair. Sure enough, she was chattering at him, and he was smiling and nodding, obviously hanging on to her every word. The crew was naturally enchanted by her, once they had been assured by Jack that having her aboard would not bring them bad luck. Gibbs had not helped this matter at all: he threw a right little tantrum when he found out that Pocahontas would be accompanying them. Jack won in the end though, and Gibbs contented himself to making remarks belowdecks at dinner about their certain doom now that she was aboard. These outbursts were becoming less and less frequent - it seemed Gibbs was warming up to her as well. Contrary to Gibbs' belief, Pocahontas seemed to be a good luck charm because the winds had favored the Pearl nearly every day since they had set sail. If this keeps up, we'll be there in no time, Jack thought.

A little voice in the back of Jacks' mind remarked often that Pocahontas was as pretty as she was annoying. Jack tried to ignore the thought whenever it came up, but it was getting harder. The voice was right, but Jack, for some odd reason, restrained himself from pursuing her. He felt somehow that seducing her on their way to reclaim her true love would corrupt her moral compass. Her innocence and morality was what he liked best about her. He would hate to ruin her, which scared him. Ruining women was what Jack did best.

That didn't stop him from being irritated with her, though.

A sudden jolt shuddered the Pearl. Must've hit something, Jack thought uneasily, for they were much too far out to have hit a reef. A second bump rocked the whole ship. The crew below shouted a collective "Woah!" as they either went tumbling or grabbed hold of something. Even Jack had to loop his arm through the wheel to stay upright. He heard an indignant sqwak from above and he looked up. Both Cotton and Pocahontas were clinging to the side of the crows' nest. The parrot flapped his wings in annoyance.

"Jack," Pocahontas called, "What was -"

Her question was cut off by a third and final massive shudder. Everyone was prepared this time and hung onto whatever they had grabbed earlier. A couple of nasty ideas raced through Jacks' head, and he hoped none of them were true. When the ship righted itself again, all was deathly quiet for a second, nerves strung out. Then, a strange combination of a caw and a scream reached Jacks' pricked ears. His eyes darted upward.

"Jack!" Pocahontas cried. He followed her pointing finger down the port side and out to sea... which was frothing ominously...

A large green something broke through the film of bubbles. A pair of golden eyes with pupils like a cats' appeared next, then a snout ending in a pair of nostrils, then a mouth from which hung curved fangs...

"Sea serpent!" Someone on deck yelled, and indeed it was. After its' head came its' scaly body. Spikes protruded from its' back, growing farther apart as the body lengthened. Jack thought it a miracle that the Pearl hadn't been impaled on one. The monster rose higher and higher, until it was level with the crows' nest, until it stared threateningly down at them all. No one moved for a breathless moment while men and beast sized each other up.

"Gibbs," Jack muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "We're going to need the cannons."

Gibbs shouted, "Ready the cannons!" at the same time the serpent roared. Though it drowned Gibbs' voice out, the crew got the general idea. Half of those on deck leaped below to load the cannons. The other half scrambled up the mast to take the wind out of the sails and raced to drop anchor.

"Jack," he jumped; the voice was right behind him. He turned and met Pocahontas' wide, frightened eyes. "What are you doing? Why are you loading the cannons?"

"The cannons are being loaded to kill this here beastie." Jack jerked a thumb towards said beastie, who roared again insistently.

Pocahontas' mouth opened in shock, "Kill it?"

"Oh come on, darling, with these things it's kill or get eaten."

She grabbed his sleeve and pleaded, "No, Jack, don't, it's not even attacking us, please, it's just being defensive because we ran into it -"

"FIRE!" Gibbs bellowed.

"NO!" screamed Pocahontas, but it was too late. The cannons blasted out all other sound.

The cannons met their mark. The serpent screeched in agony as the ammo buried into its' flesh. Blood gushed from its' wounds, staining the blue of the sea with vivid red. The impact jerked the monsters' head back. It closed its' eyes against the pain. When it opened them, it looked at the Pearl with a new contempt.

"Oh, no," Pocahontas chanted next to Jack, "Oh no, oh no, oh no..."

The massive head of the serpent dived at the Pearl. The men on board screamed and scattered as that mouth gouged out a hole in the railing. The wood splintered between its' teeth and rained back down on the deck. It roared in their faces and drew its' head back, preparing for another blow.

It hadn't gone far before the cry of "FIRE!" sounded again, and some of the cannonballs hit it in the face. Blood splattered on the deck as the serpent shook its' head back and forth, roaring its' anger and hurt.

"Aim for the brain!" They heard Gibbs order the crew.

"No! Jack, please, we can't kill it!" Pocahontas begged, clutching his arm tighter. He looked at her face, twisted with fright and pity for the beast.

"We have to now," Jacks' voice was tight, "If we don't, it'll follow us all the way to England, taking huge chunks out of my ship as we go. Savvy?" Even as he said it, the serpent had struck the ship again and another round had been fired.

"But... it's in pain..." The serpent yowled again, as if it heard her and was trying to prove her case.

"I know that," Jack said a bit impatiently, "But it's too late to leave it alone now." He saw an opening and went for it, "Besides, if it's in so much pain, wouldn't it be kinder to kill it? Put it out of it's misery, like?"

Pocahontas' lips pursed as the serpent roared for a final time. Jack turned to watch. One of the cannonballs had struck it between the eyes. It flailed in the throes of death, the great length of its' body coiling and uncoiling for miles around, throwing water everywhere. The men cheered at their victory. The anchor was raised and the ship cast off again. Plans to repair the rail were already being made. Jack turned again, meaning to apologize to Pocahontas, but the snap of his cabin door closing told him quite enough.

...

Again, I'm so sorry for leaving this for so long. I wasn't too sure how to write an adventurey chapter like this, what'd you think? Leave a review and let me know! =D I'll try to get Chapter 8 up a lot faster.