The current took us further down the passage. There wasn't much for any of us to do as it seemed there was only one direction we could travel in, which was just as well since most of the men needed time to recover from the Sirens. Everyone was far more wary of our surroundings than we had been previously. When we saw long lines of white flowers, growing in vines up the sides of the passages, seemingly giving out soft music instead of a scent, nobody even dared to touch them. They did not even swat away the swarm of insects gathered around us at about midday, which on closer inspection looked as if they were more human-shaped than insect. A giant bird, far more magnificent than any I'd ever seen on Earth came and perched on the mast for a while. It stayed perfectly silent and just watched us all with beautifully intelligent eyes. It unnerved some of the crew but none of them dared to shoot at it like they would have if we had been back in our world. It looked about the size of a young child, with feathers in every shade of crimson and orange and a long hooked black beak. I could hear Gibbs muttering away and debating with himself about whether or not this strange new creature was a good or bad omen. It was a tense hour or two while it sat watching us, but I think it was just interested as after a while it flew off. A single red feather floated to the ground behind it from one of its great beating wings. We crowded round it. Pintel dared Ragetti to pick it up. He did so after much deliberation and declared that it was unnaturally warm.

As dusk came a large shape loomed out of the fading light. The passage was coming to the end and the stone face of Neptune rose out of the sea before us. The current flowed directly into his open mouth. I turned to Jack. He slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me closer. I felt scared again. I had been so worn out after the struggle with the Sirens that I had gone a bit numb. But now, with this stone giant towering above us, about to swallow us whole, my heart started to beat quickly. This journey was taking a lot out of me. I needed a rest, I needed a break. Something moved inside me. Literally. My baby was moving. I could feel it. I gasped.

"Belle?" Jack's dark eyes were concerned.

"The baby…" I murmured. I was so shocked and found the sensation so odd. It was unlike anything I'd ever felt. It was amazing but so strange.

"What? What?" Jack panicked. "Is it ok? It's not coming now is it? Oh God. Oh God. Bugger… What the-"

"No, no," I raised my hand to stop his constant stream of swearwords before it started. "It's not coming. It's kicking."

"Kicking what?" he frowned.

"Me."

"Do not kick your mother!" Jack shouted at my stomach. I almost laughed when I felt another defiant little kick from inside me. Even though I was sure it was either a co-incidence or just the baby reacting to its father's voice, the timing of it made me smile.

"It's a good thing, Jack," I smiled. "It's supposed to kick me. Shows it's alive. Come here…"

I took his hand and put it on my stomach. It rested there for a bit. He frowned at me, concentrating. Another kick and his eyes widened. I smiled at the look on his face and felt myself fill with happy warmth. For a moment, he was speechless. "That… it's… I… I mean it's… that…" he stammered. I laughed.

"I know," I said. "I know."

"But… it's…" His eyes were oddly bright.

"I know," I said again and reached up to kiss him. No words were needed. We had one second of bliss before the panic around us became too much to ignore. Still looking a bit dazed he took my hand. He was grinning in an infections way, I could tell by the nature of the smile it was something he couldn't have stopped if he'd wanted to.

"Well," he said. "Suppose we better let ol' Neptune swallow us up then, eh?"

Among the slight hysteria on board the ship I felt briefly calm and happy. Like I was floating a little bit above the ground, suspended by my own happiness, completely untouchable. The one look into the cavern we were sailing towards made me feel ill with fear. "Jack, it's dark in there."

It took him a moment to realise what I was getting at but the second he did he barked out the orders for the protective ring of light to be set up. It was completed just in time. We gathered in it as we reached the edge of the cavern. Darkness lay ahead, last night felt like it had been so long ago. It made me feel weary to think back to the morning. Everything around us was silent as the Pearl drifted into the cavern. We sailed between huge dome-shaped rocks that formed teeth in the mouth of this stone replica of Neptune. Every slight sound we made echoed to three of four times its usual volume. As we passed between two teeth light suddenly shot up from one of them, then the next one, then the next… until within seconds the whole mouth was being lit internally. We set about quickly putting our own candles out. We couldn't waste anything Indigo had given us. I did stop for a moment and wonder what the point in the lights was when there would be natural light coming in from outside. Then I turned to look behind us.

Neptune's giant stone lips were closing.

My hear started to beat really fast. I could see everyone else was tense too. Not that there was anything we could do about our situation. We stood helplessly, close together, as we were carried further in and further away from the outside. The place was dangerous. We were in a place where darkness could kill and stones could move.

I was suddenly very aware of my own mortality.

The Pearl came to a slow stop. We had run a ground. Slowly, tentatively, we all crept forward and peered over the side. His tongue. We had stopped on his big stone tongue. "Do we get out," someone managed to break out silence. Jack looked at the Charts.

"It's unclear..." he said eventually. "But I think so."

Before we ventured down I grabbed up everything Indigo had made us bring. Gibbs took the book in a bag because he was worried about me carrying a heavy object while pregnant. I almost hugged him. But he might not have liked that. We decided to go all together, nobody particularly wanted to stay behind. Some drew swords and pistols, more for comfort than anything else. We walked slowly across the rough stone until we reached the very end.

"What now?" Gibbs asked, looking down into darkness.

"I think," Jack gulped. "I think we jump."

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