Cold As Glass

Sequel to Heart of Glass

A Pirate Lord's Adventure

Chapter 12

Limply I hung against the wood and bone binds of our cage that hung in the middle of the great chasm, next to another one, which held the other half of Jack's crew.

My legs hung through the small holes, along with my arms, while I rested my chin upon one of the binds, as I looked out at the cliff side.

How on earth am I going to get myself out of this one?

But Will's rambling broke my concentration, yet again. "Why would he do this to us? If Jack is the chief-"

Gibbs then angrily cut him off and answered," Aye, the Pelegostos made Jack their chief, but he only remains chief as long as he acts like a chief."

"So he had no choice," Will breathed," He's a captive as much as the rest of us."

Pelegostos? Why did that name ring a bell deep within my thoughts? I believe my father may have written to me about them once.

"Worse," Gibbs countered," as it turns out."

With that all of us looked up at Gibbs with interest.

"See, the Pelegostos believe that Jack is a god in human form, and they intend to do him the honor of releasing him from his fleshy prison."

Instantly I cringed.

They were cannibals.

And as if to show how intense it will be for Jack, Cotton took Gibbs's hand and bit Gibbs's fingers.

Instantly Gibbs yelped in pain, before pulling his hand away from Cotton's mouth.

"They'll roast him and eat him," Gibbs finished, with a sigh, while the rest of us all somberly returned back to our old positions, waiting and wondering.

"Where's the rest of the crew?" Will questioned, looking back and forth between our small cage and the cage across the way holding the other crew men.

Gibbs then answered, sounding like he was telling another riddle," These cages we're in, weren't built till after we got here."

Instantly I saw Will's reaction, as he let go of the bar (made out of bone) that he had been holding onto.

But this didn't frighten me.

I was only thankful enough that these bones and wood were supporting our weight.

We were all quiet for a moment more, listening to the wild drumming coming from up above.

"The feast is about to begin," Gibbs eerily announced to us all. "Jack's life will end, when the drums stop.

When Gibbs finished, Cotton awkwardly sighed and sat down next to me, causing the cage to swing slightly.

Then I got an idea.

"Well," I announced to the men, starting to stand up," we can't just sit here and wait then, can we?"

Each one of them starred at me oddly, before I grabbed onto the bars of the cage, and told my idea.

"We need to rush against the wall of the cage, all at once, causing it to lurch forward. If we do this enough times, we should be able to ram against the cliff side. Then we can grab onto the vines and climb up. Then we've made it."

At first they all starred at me like I was insane, before Gibbs gave a wide grin," Well mother's love, little Beaux is a pirate after me own heart, after all."

I happily smiled, while Marty shouted the plan, exuberantly across the gap, to our counterparts.

With that Will smiled over at me," On your count, Beaux."

I smiled, and let everyone stand up and get situated, before I counted down," One! Two!"

I took a deep breath and braced myself for the swinging motioning," Three!"

And with that we all rushed forward.

Dear god, I hope this plan works.

Yet we began swinging.

Then we all rushed back and ran forward again. And again, and again, and again, and again, each swing having increasingly wide arcs. And we kept swinging until we finally within arm's reach of the cliff.

Until finally we were able to grab onto the vines hanging off of the cliffs. And the other group finally landed upon the cliff side too.

And being one of the boys, I had to pull my part of the weight, and stuck my legs through the holes in the bars.

Gibbs followed my example and shouted to the whole crew," Put your legs through. Start to climb!"

And with that we all began to grab onto the vines, using them to pull us up, while our legs pushed and steadied us.

"Come on men!" Will shouted encouragingly. "It'll take all of us to crew the Black Pearl!"

Suddenly my body froze. It really only took six men, I mean people, because who says women can't be part of a crew.

Anyways the Black Pearl only needed six, plus a captain.

But as fate would have it a man across the way, countered," Actually, you won't need everyone. 'Bout six would do."

Suddenly everyone else froze just like I had, and starred at one another.

Will then looked over at Gibbs, who just nodded, obviously signaling that he wouldn't mind if we all raced to the top.

"Hurry!" Will shouted off, as if he was horn signaling the beginning of a race.

And with that we all lurched into motion, moving as fast as we could against the other crew, who obviously had more stronger and limber men then we did.

"Come on!" Marty shouted above me, hanging from he bars, trying to act as our personal cheer team. "Come on! Is that all you got? Go! Go!"

Yet in the midst of all our ruckus and racing to the top, I noticed one of the cannibal natives walking across the rope bridge.

Will glanced over at me and noticed my starring, and instantly alerted our crew," Wait! Stop!"

"Eh?" Gibbs questioned, only to notice the Cannibal too.

We all froze, while Will whispered across the gap between us to the, now, enemy crew," Stop! Shh!"

They froze too and noticed the cannibal.

And we stood there for several seconds just holding still and remaining silent. That was until the competing pirates, began to silently creep up.

"What are the doing?" Marty gasped in shocked, while I hissed to the opposing crew," Stop!"

But they kept going, smiling and grinning at us, even stopping to wave good bye to us.

Yet as they kept crawling forward, suddenly one of their men picked up a snake and screamed," Snake!"

And in true fashion of men who don't deserve to be called men, they all began to scream like little girls, when they saw a nasty looking snake, and let go off the cliff side.

Yet this was their downfall, and they all began to fall down, back towards their old home, only to have to rope snap. Thus they fell to their own demise.

But when I looked up at the cannibal, who was watching them fall too. Unfortunately, the Cannibal saw us and began running and shouting back across the bridge.

"Move!" Will bellowed like a horn again, and with a new speed, we raced up the side of the cliff, once again.

And as we rushed up the cliff, my pack, which had somehow still remained upon me during this whole ordeal (just as my hat had done), smacked Gibb's side, revealing the rum that was inside of it.

"You better share some of that rum, when we're through," Gibbs grunted, trying to ignore the rum, he could reach over and grab for a drink.

"As long as we get out of it," I countered again, while we began to reach the top, and awkwardly rolled up over the edge of the cliff, and now stood upon the top of it.

Will shouted in command, yet again," Cut it loose! Find a rock!"

"Better stay up high with Marty, Miss," Gibbs announced to me," We don't want you to go and breaking that rum of yours."

I rolled my eyes at him, but I grabbed onto the top of the cage, and awkwardly pulled myself up, hanging above the men, alongside of Marty.

But as the men frantically looked, I heard the roaring scream of the cannibals coming towards us.

I couldn't help but loudly groan," Not again!"

"Roll the cage!" Will shouted over me, and instantly we began pushing the cage.

"Come on!" Gibbs growled, pushing as hard as he could next to me.

I gave a growl of my own, as I pushed as hard as I could, but as soon as we began to move, Gibbs shouted to me," Protect the rum!"

Of course I gave in, and with one arm held my pack close to me, while I pushed with my other arm.

But as we pushed as hard as we could, away from the approaching cannibals, we fell down a hill. Gaining an alarming amount of speed.

I couldn't held but scream out of joy, like a child would, as we were all thrown around in the small cage, tumbling through the dense jungle.

But then we were thrown again, into the air.

I noticed Will, Marty, and Gibbs holding onto the bars of the cage for dear life, screaming on the top of their lungs, out of fear.

I just laughed at them, still holding the rum tightly against me.

But when we landed in a hard thud, we instantly began rolling again, down a hill, and up the trunk of a tree, before coming crashing down to earth.

With that each one of us pilled up upon one another, and the cage was still not broken. Much to my dismay.

"Lift the cage! Hurry!" Will shouted, as the cannibals' shouting became closer and louder.

Instantly we each began snapping up onto our feet, lifting up the cage.

"Come on, lads!" shouted Gibbs, as he began to lift up the cage. "Lift it like a lady's skirt!"

I shot Gibbs a glare, but he quickly bowed his head," Apologies, Miss."

"It's your prerogative, Gibbs," I sighed to his defense, before smirking," I just prefer pulling down a lad's trousers."

Gibbs let out a heart laugh, as we lifted up the cage," Sounding like a pirate already, Miss."

So we began running, but from time to time, I found myself just purely sitting upon the bar of the cage, that separated my legs from one another. This was only due to my short height and tall men I happened to share the cage with. But when I did find myself sitting, I had to be careful for Marty, because he was right behind me, having the same problem I was.

"Run!"

But suddenly we went right off the edge of another cliff that led into a chasm.

This time we did land in the water, but our cage broke, setting us free from the binds.

Yet, when I sank below the water surface water upon impact, I couldn't help be feel a nagging voice in the back of my head plead with me not to swim back up for air. That nagging voice pleaded for me to end my life, so I could spend an eternity with Sirius in heaven, or wherever we may go when we die.

But Will had grabbed a hold of the collar of my jacket, along with Cotton; bring us three up to the surface.

"This way, lads!" Gibbs shouted, as I broke the water surface, gasping for air, noticing my arm was still tightly wrapped around my pack, and my still hat oddly still remained stationary upon the top of my head.

But the cheers and foreign shouting of the cannibals, made all of us swim with much urgency out of the chasm, narrowly avoiding the spears, darts, and arrows that went flying towards us.

Unfortunately the hail of weapons still kept coming towards us, and it became near impossible to keep swimming.

"Take cover!" Will shouted, pulling Gibbs up against the rock wall next to him.

Gibbs next grabbed Cotton, who grabbed Marty, who thus grabbed me in return. I nodded in thanks to Marty, as I pinned myself up against the wall, and found a safe hiding place.

Yet it wasn't sounding so safe, the longer I remained there, because the arrows and spears seemed to be getting closer and closer to our hiding spot.

Until they all went silent up the cliff edge above us.

Will experimentally stuck his head out around the corner, before breathing a sigh of breath," They're gone."

"We'll lets get to going before they decide to come back to give us a goodnight kiss." Gibbs growled, and instantly we all began rushing out of the chasm and back to shore, were we knew the Black Pearl was.

Where we all knew everything would be safe and peaceful, once we were back on board. Despite the fact we didn't have Jack or his compass.

Oh well.