Alternative Ending - Chapter Five: A New Trick
To keep Tristan occupied, Jack had begun to teach him some slight of hand. He gave the boy a coin and left him to practice manoeuvring it in-between his fingers. There was a lot more coordination involved than the boy had anticipated. While Tristan practiced dutifully, Jack took out the charts and began to examine them while he still had the chance. He remembered how complicated the charts were to get to world's end and back again. This time he did not want to be figuring it out along the way. He turned the panels, attempting to line them up. He hated the cryptic nature of these old maps - they always seemed so unreliable. He sat there turning and turning. He could make sense of some of it, but it just made the destination seem so much more uninviting than the captain had hoped.
"I did it!" a voice clamoured excitedly.
Tristan ran straight for the captain, coin in hand. Jack looked up.
"Look, I can do it now!" Tristan demonstrated by hiding the coin through his fingers and back again.
Jack could only smiled, shake his head, and then he refocused on the chart in front of him. Tristan put the coin down on the crate top that Jack was using as a table. Jack was turning the panels, still trying to align it properly. Tristan stood over it and watched studiously as the captain manipulated it. Jack aligned the image of the chalice. Tristan read the words, "Aqua de Vita" as they came into place.
"Water of Life," Tristan translated. "In Florida?" he asked, seeing the depiction of it on the chart.
"So it would seem," Jack replied. He continued to turn the panels.
Without warning, Tristan's hand flew down onto the map, stopping the movement. Jack looked up at the boy.
"Look," he said.
Jack didn't see anything. Tristan slowly moved the panel back until a few wisps lined up. It didn't look like anything but a sign of artistry, but as Tristan aligned it, it took form. Jack leaned in to see it better.
"What is that?"
Tristan turned the map so that the captain wasn't looking at it from an angle.
"It looks like a well mound."
"There's another one," Tristan just noticed across from it.
Jack traced his finger along the seem of the two joining panels until he came across a word that was written in Latin characters as opposed to the vertical Asian ones that adorned the map.
"What's this word here?" he asked the boy.
Tristan came round to Jack's side. Jack moved his arm to let the boy get in close.
"Under," Tristan read.
"Under what?"
"I don't know. It just says under."
"Well that's not very helpful."
There were other markings on the next panel. Tristan moved it until it aligned with another set.
"Over," Tristan read.
"You're good at these," Jack complimented the boy.
"I used to occupy myself with puzzles a great deal when I was younger. If you had a father like mine, you quickly learn to find quiet activities that keep you out of the way."
Jack thought about the activities he was occupied with when he was a boy - they were in no way quiet.
Something caught the captain's eye. He put his finger on it.
"What do you make of this?" he asked the boy.
Tristan looked.
"It's like a mist," he observed.
Jack moved his finger down.
"Fuentes."
"The fountain."
It was progress, but it didn't make sense. Two wells. The fountain. Under. Over.
"Captain!" a voice called.
Jack looked up. He was aggravated at having his concentration interrupted, but when he saw what the matter was, his eyes widened.
He quickly bunched the map back up and handed it to Tristan. Then he ran to the starboard side and took out his spyglass.
"Bugger!"