Book Two - Chapter Four: The Initiation

The journey southbound was long, dodging around some of the known naval routes of not only the British navy but the crossing French and Spanish fleets as well. Amelia was able to negotiate some freedoms, mostly directly through the captain himself. She insisted on being used to the best of her abilities, of which she was more able than some of regular men. She often found herself back up in the rigging where she felt most comfortable. Ragetti was slowly getting used to having Ms. Amelia Barbossa around as she was now. Due to her duties she was able to run around more comfortably. Her layers were slowly halved and her trousers became more prominent. She had become fully transformed into her seafaring self before they reached Corvo.

Barbossa, going over the details with the navigator, dashed all of his daughter's hopes of participating in the actual plundering. In his own attempt to appease Amelia's earlier complaints he accumulated a long list of duties for his daughter to complete while the men set for the retrieval. This was not exactly what Amelia had in mind when she first made the complaint. This was an issue that even the captain did not dare to begin to touch. Barbossa made it quite clear that he was to have the last word when it came to anything about his daughter.

Finally, being completely fed up with her treatment, Amelia openly brought the debate into question.

"What exactly is the reason that I can't go?"

"It's no place for you," Barbossa replied.

"I'm here on a ship filled with pirates, one of which is my own father," Amelia stated. "What good will I be to this crew if I am never taught the trade that keeps this ship afloat. I want to earn my share."

"Amelia, it's not as simple as that. When there's thievin', there's the risk of trouble," her father warned her.

"You've taught me to defend myself. Obviously I've learned well enough to get me kicked out of London."

"It's different when gold be on the table. Men will bleed out the hearts of any who stand between him and it. I will not put ya into that situation. I will not run that risk," Barbossa finished in his most authoritative voice.

Amelia was done talking. She could not win the argument but she did conceive a plan. After supper that evening, Amelia took up one of her fellow crewmen's sword and, seeming playful, challenged one of them to a duel, first hit to win. The acceptance was reluctant until she asked if it was due to a fear of being beaten by a girl. With manhood on the line the challenge was accepted. For the first bit Amelia was mostly just keeping pace with her opponent, but she did manage to make the first hit. Seeing this, Captain Jack Sparrow rose, walked over to her for the whole crowd of men to see. He took up his own sword, and though he did not say anything to initiate another challenge, his positioning insisted upon it. Amelia met his challenge. Jack came on strong. Amelia's footwork was fairly graceful but her swordsmanship was barely keeping pace. Seeing her struggle, the captain discontinued his advance. From a standstill Amelia was able to gain ground. The captain began advancing again and coming on faster with his sword. Amelia was again struggling to keep up both the footwork and her arm motion. He had her nearly against the rail when he circled his sword around hers and forced it out of her hand. He did not take the advantage of a hit. He looked right into Amelia's eyes. She was breathing heavily from the challenge and harshly from the loss.

"You're not ready yet," he said. Then he put back his sword and picked up the one that had fallen from the girl's hand and gave it back to its rightful owner.

A strange thought came over Barbossa as he watched his daughter's defeat. While he did not have any strong opposing feelings towards his captain - despite the long list of notable incompetent behaviour - Barbossa felt poorly for his daughter. She did exceedingly well for an inexperienced young woman. No one faulted her for her attempt; in fact, she was applauded by the other men for her efforts. There was something in the principle of the matter that Barbossa could not get over. He knew that he was the far stronger man of the two. He was the eldest and by default the most experienced. He practically ran the ship single-handedly while all Jack Sparrow did was delegate his duties and take on the most luxuries. Aside from the ship being a possession of the captain's father, and the history of Jack Sparrow being his former captain already, there was no real reason to understand why Jack merited being captain.

Barbossa's thoughts were not something that he could ever openly express. Opposing the captain made little sense since since he always proved to be a just man at the end of the day. Jack never took a larger portion of the plunder. In fact, because he took on all the duties of a quartermaster, Barbossa was the only who actually handled the greatest portion of the goods to ensure that their ship and crew were to continue staying afloat. Nonetheless, Barbossa, with his insatiable pride, felt the sudden desire to show his physical superiority and weapon mastery by better equipping his daughter, the very same thing that he had been refusing to support all this time.

Barbossa brought his change of heart up with his daughter the following day. Amelia was so pleased by this that she did not even think to ask her father what had prompted this decision.

Barbossa was a fierce opponent to face in battle. He was merciless and half of Amelia's lessons were just a matter of driving that ruthless urge into her. He praised her when she did well but was terribly severe when she left herself vulnerable. Her techniques strengthened. Although her footwork was already quite smooth, she was learning to carry that into her arms and out through the point of her sword. Her aim was dramatically improved from the relentless practice.

The trend of teaching Amelia the pirating trade caught on like a brushfire. One crew member would spare a little time to show her a sword manoeuvre, another a unique pistol trick, while some of the larger and more bottom rung crew members would take her aside and show her how to throw a decent punch or two.

When it was announced that they should be coming up upon Corvo by the coming of dawn, Amelia took this as her last chance to prove herself worthy of being sent out with the 'salvagin' party.' Though, this was mostly prompted by Captain Jack Sparrow himself quite subtly.

Jack was speaking to a select group of the crew, and loud enough that Amelia, who was not invited to be apart of the discussion, could overhear everything.

"I don't see the point in sending out the lot for this. It should be quite the simple pick up once we locate the site. To be on the safe side, I want to see some of the stronger men with me on this one. Just in case the locals should be giving us any trouble along the way," he said, and then began to list off a few names that came to mind. The men around him started to give their own suggestions, either for themselves or a mate to join the party.

Pintel was the most vocal of them, giving the captain a long list of his former accomplishments, which the captain was not really paying any attention to. Knowing Ragetti's partiality for the young Ms. Barbossa, Jack asked the otherwise quiet man who he would recommend. Although his name had not actually been mentioned on the captain's original list, Ragetti did not think that he was meant to elect himself for the task.

After thinking a while in the silence that the captain ordered from the others, Ragetti slowly and self-consciously answered, "Well, Captain, Ms. Amelia has been practicin' a painful amount."

Jack smiled internally, but externally looked dead seriously upon the matter. He scanned the deck until he saw her, trying not to look as though she had been eavesdropping this whole time.

"Ms. Barbossa," he called sternly and waved his hand a single time to gesture her to come forward.

Amelia did as her captain ordered.

"Master Ragetti here has been saying that you've been practicing," he accused as though he had no idea that this had been happening, although it would have been quite impossible for him to have never noticed. "What, pray tell, have you practicing?"

Amelia replied quite modestly, "Just a few sword skills, Captain, as anyone has been gracious enough to teach me."

Jack gestured her to come even closer. He stared right at her as she approached fearlessly. She was not a foot away from him when he said point-blank, "Show me," and handed her the hilt of his sword, though it was still in his belt. She took it slowly and the captain motioned for someone to arm him. The small gathering of men backed away into a perfect circle, enclosing the new challenge. Jack did not let on that he was going to be as playful this time as he was the last. Amelia did not expect him to. He pressed hard against her, but she would not be pushed back. She held her ground firmly. She still could not gain any ground on him, though she tried, and Jack noticed this but he would make sure that she earned it this time. Fearing that there would be no optimal gain on her part at all, Amelia took a chance and stepped to the side as the captain lunged a little at her. Doing so, she just grazed his sword and directed it off its intended angle. Jack did not think that she was been ready to do something as bold and it offset his footing just a little. That temporary lapse in balance was enough for Amelia to turn on him from behind. He felt the point between his shoulder blades and stood still, slowly raising his arms to the air.

Everyone stood in silence, mouths agape, except for Barbossa who had come from below when he had heard that the captain had challenged his daughter once more. He alone laughed lightly to himself and applauded his daughter quite audibly. The captain's hands fully raised, Amelia released her hold and stepped back, sword held out ready for the captain to reclaim the hilt. Feeling that the point had left his back, Jack slowly turned, gave a nod and then took back his own blade.

"Ms. Barbossa," he said calmly, "my worthy opponent."

He gave a little polite bow, Amelia returned the gesture, and they parted their separate ways. It did not need to be said, it was established that Amelia would be joining the "salvagin' party".

As expected, they had arrived at the Corvo coast before dawn, and by the time the sky began to show light, the anchor was weighed. Up and armed like the others, Amelia followed her fellow crew members onto a boat. She was very nervous but did her best not to look it. Her attempts failed miserably.

Ragetti gave her a little waveas he helped lower the boat into the water. Amelia smiled at him. She felt his encouragement and that gave her some reassurance. Her father was sitting beside her, but he sat there stern and silent. She tried to take her cues from him but her nerves caused her hands to shake a little. Barbossa noticed and clasped her hands.

Corvo Island itself was not a terribly colonized part of the Portuguese empire compared to the larger islands of the Azores. There was no knowing if they would encounter undiscovered natives, Portuguese navy, or any other band of ruthless buccaneers. Jack was hoping that the place would lay void of people but he also knew his form of luck rarely accommodated him so well.

Two men rowed the boat ashore. Once on the beach, they followed the captain who suggested that they head into the thicket, towards the mountain face. There were definite traces of men having been here before, but which men was something still left up for questioning. The party readied their swords while both the captain and the first mate readied their pistols. The brush thickened and the evidence of men grew. Broken pieces of small boats and rafts strewed under a growth of moss. Tins were scattered every here and there. Eventually small huts were visible but they did not seem to be of native origin. They were all abandoned, most likely from the party who thought to use the place for storage. They split up and entered each hut. Some of them found chests in the huts but upon opening them they were discovered to be empty, filled only with dust and dried greenery. Some personal bundles had been found abandoned and contained a few coins or small ornaments. These the men stuffed into their pockets and continued the raid.

"There's nothing here, Captain," Pintel was quick to observe.

Jack said nothing in response to the obvious statement.

"Of course there isn't," Amelia said unexpectedly. "This is a midway point. They wouldn't have kept their greatest wealth so close to the beach. It's too easy."

She displayed a set of keys that she had picked out of a bundle, deemed invaluable by the man who had gone through it first. She held it out to the captain but he told her to hang on to them while they made their way closer to the mountain face.

The crew was quite disappointed when they reached to the foot of the mountain. There was no sign of anything. There were no caves or caverns, nor anymore huts. The men had begun to complain about being misled when something caught Amelia's eye. She leaned over to her father and whispered in his ear, pointing out the unusually small cavern at the foot, where it seemed the only place that grass had not enveloped but was instead very dry looking dirt.

"You," Barbossa said pointing to the couple of men who were the only ones present with spades, "start digging there."

They looked over at the captain who nodded his head in approval of the order. They dug obediently. It was a long while before enough dirt was removed to see the depth of the cavern and the tops of wooden boxes that filled it. Quickly they pulled one out. It was heavy which started the men salivating. One of the men began bashing against the iron lock of the chest with his spade, having no luck getting it open. Barbossa grabbed the man by the shoulder and led him aside so that Amelia could approach it with her set of keys. It was easy to determine which key was meant for the lock, it had a small corresponding symbol etched into both the lock and the key. Once the lock was removed she stepped back, letting the men open it. Sure enough, there was the sparkling treasure they had been hoping for. Now, with a great serge of enthusiasm, one of the men continued to unbury the rest of the chests while the other was sent to flag over some more helping hands from the ship.

A dozen more men came manning two separate boats and began loading the chests back to the ship and uncovering more to be sent along. There were nine chests found before the crew felt it was getting too late to continue the search. The captain also did not wish to linger more than a day with the ship anchored off shore. He ordered the cavern to be covered up again and then to get all the men back to the ship.

Once back on the Roving Maid, the captain made the whole of the crew wait until after supper to open the chests. While everyone was still eating, Amelia knocked on the captain's cabin door. Jack answered it, saw her there, and immediately recalled past awkwardness which gave him the inexplicable urge to check if he was still wearing his trousers. He thankfully was. Amelia hardly spoke to him. She simply imparted the key ring to him, mentioning something about it being better for him to display their findings to the others. Jack said nothing in reply but simply took the ring and watched her descend below deck, most likely to regroup with the rest of the crew.

When the captain was ready, he called all hands on deck who wished for a share. Of course everyone came running without delay. The captain opened the chests one by one and all the men around him stood happily wetting their lips at the sight of all that wealth aboard. They knew that they would get their fair share through Barbossa so they did not pocket anything that they touched. Before Barbossa had a chance to take hold of anything, Jack picked up a three stringed chain necklace adorned with a gold tear drop on the centre of each tier.

"Ms. Amelia," he called and tossed the item into her hands. "Well done," he said, implying her help with the salvaging.

Amelia smiled, blushed, and tried the new necklace on.

Barbossa watched with a fierce scowl on his face, but he refused to address it while his daughter was present. After the rabble had scattered, Barbossa cornered his captain and spoke to him privately and very directly.

"Captain, may I have a word?"

Jack acquiesced, noting the severity in his first mate's voice.

"It's about me daughter, Amelia," Barbossa continued.

"Aye? What of her? She proved herself capable to the whole of the crew, I would not deny her any more than any other man who proved his worth," the captain justified.

"Aye, and I am in full agreement with that. In all frankness, she made her dear ol' father quite proud today. That be not my issue, though, Jack," his captain's name was given quite a bit of emphasis, as to note that this was not to be a conversation directed to a superior but to an equal, or perhaps even an inferior. "You gave me daughter a trinket just now."

"Aye, as per your usual procedure," Jack explained. "She earned her share, I felt it right to pass it on, as you would have done."

"Aye, but that be it, Jack, as I would have done." Barbossa let out a sigh, an attempt to keep the matter from escalating out of proportion within his head. "I have given my daughter a jewel from every spoil I've bought to this ship since first I took command under ya, Jack. I do not ask for much, never have. I've been dutiful for these past years, and that ye cannot deny."

"Nor would I," Jack added.

"Let me finish!"

Jack had not realized that he had somehow offended his first mate. It startled him and caused him some worry.

"You may be captain, and Amelia may believe herself to be a pirate such as us, but she is my daughter, and any matters involvin' her must come through me. Granted that ye've been respectful thus far, but as a reminder, I'll say again that no matter the case, be it chastisin' or reward, I'll be the authority on it. That goes for any other man who so feels that he can interfere with her as he pleases. Should any man alive lay hand on her, I expect my God given rights as a father grant me yer permission to deal with him as I see fit."

Jack listened attentively to his first mate, though the fierceness that underlay everything said caused a lump in the captain's throat that could not be swallowed down no matter how hard he tried. He acknowledged Barbossa's wishes and agreed that as a man of honour he would leave all matters involving Amelia solely to Barbossa himself. Barbossa was content with his captain's assent and left in a relatively happy demeanour while Jack stood a moment longer in contemplation of what had just occurred. The captain came to the conclusion that it would be best to try and avoid Ms. Amelia all together. What he did not anticipate was how difficult a task that would be once he had made that promise to himself. If nothing else, Amelia's skills were proving to be more and more indispensable aboard the ship. On top of that, Amelia was determined to play as active a role as possible, leading her to attempt to override her father's authority by seeking out the captain herself. Avoidance was impossible.