Chapter seven

I was in some corner below deck, sopping wet from my surprise swim. My knees were pulled up to my chest, my bare arms holding them close. I was sobbing uncontrollably for my mother.

"You! Girl! What are you doing on me father's ship?"

I looked up to see a boy not much older than I. Fourteen at the most. "It's not like I asked to be sent on a pirate ship." I wiped the few remaining tears from my eyes.

"That don't answer my question."

"I ran away from home to escape an arranged marriage and to find my real father," I sneered.

He looked at me suspiciously, "You're hardly seven and yet you're arranged to be married? Ha! Thought you could pull one over on Jack Sparrow did ye?"

"Well, Jack Sparrow, for your information I'm nine, and as per Romani tradition any boy from my caravan from the ages nine to twelve can choose me to be his wife," I sneered.

Jack Sparrow squinted at me before he broke into a smile, "I like you. What's your name?"

"Luna. Luna Petu-" I stopped and thought for a second. That wasn't me anymore. I wasn't the well-behaved Gypsy girl. I was the daughter of a fearsome pirate. "Luna Barbossa," I told him using my father's last name.

"Luna Barbossa, eh? Nice name. I think we can find a place on this ship for you after all, savvy?" he winked at me as he helped me up.

When I woke, it wasn't without discipline. I had a raging headache and my back was sore.

Jack was already up and stumbling about. I tried to follow him without much avail.

We managed to make our way back to the boats, only to be stopped by the crew of the Black Pearl.

"You two," Ragetti pointed to us in disbelief.

"You're supposed to be dead," Pintel snapped.

Jack turned to me. "Am I not?" I shrugged as we stumbled back the way we came, only to be blocked by another group of crewmembers.

Both groups drew their pistols forcing us to stay where we were.

I sighed heavily as Jack tried to figure something out in his drunken state.

"Palulay. Palu-li-la-la-lulu. Parlili. Parsnip, parsley, partner, partner. Howdy partner. Howdy do partner? Howdy do partner," Jack mumbles.

"Parley?" I offer.

"That's the one! Parley! Parley!"

"Parley? Damn to the depths whatever man that thought up 'parley'!" Pintel said through his teeth.

Jack put his fingers on the barrels of Pintel gun and moves it from pointing at his face. "That would be the French. Latin based, of course. Inventors of mayonnaise."

"I like mayonnaise," Pintel says.

"A shame about the French. Obsessed with raisins. Humiliated grapes really. Think about it."

I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle the laugh begging to be free.

"Don't know," Pintel said.

"Terrific singers, the French," I added.

Jack halfheartedly whistled. "Eunuchs, all of them."

"That's not right", one pirate spoke up.

"I used to date a eunuch," Pintel told us.

"We'll get our coats," I stated as I pulled Jack back the way we came.

It didn't take long for us to meet up with Barbossa. Not really looking forward to a family reunion, I stuck to hiding behind Jack, gnawing on my nail.

"How the blazes did you get of that island?" my father questioned.

"When you marooned me on that godforsaken spit of land, you forgot one very important thing, mate," Jack tells him, "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."

It takes most of my will not to laugh at his oversized ego.

"Ah, well, I won't be making that mistake again. Gents, you all remember Captain Jack Sparrow? Kill him."

The men chuckled and drew their weapons.

"Aşteptaţi!" I called out. "The girl's blood didn't work, did it?"

"Hold your fire! You, wench, who are you?"

With a deep breath I stepped out from behind Jack and smiled. "Aw, tată, I thought we got along better than that."

"Luna? Is that really you?" he wondered.

"Honestly? Does no one recognize me? I mean, seriously. No one else in the world has hair like mine."

He chuckled and pulled me into a hug. "Oh, Luna, I thought you were dead."

"Obviously I'm not." I stepped out of his embrace and took Jack's hand. "We know whose blood you need."

"So you expect to leave me standing on some beach with nothing but a name and your word it's the one I need and watch you sail away in my ship?" My father chuckled.

"No. I expect to leave you on standing on some beach with absolutely no name at all, watching me sail away on my ship, and then I'll have Luna shout the name back at you. Savvy?"

I had to admit. I was enjoying myself as the bickering continued over not only a ship but the name to some random whelp. As short lived as their semi-truce was. And Jack seemed to recognize me, the monkey that is. He sat on my shoulder as I pet him.

"But that still leaves us with the problem of me on some beach with naught but a name and your word it's the one I need."

Jack picked up an apple, looking for a good one to eat. "Of the three of us, I am the only one who hasn't committed mutiny. Therefore, my word is the one we'll be trusting." He found his perfect apple and tossed me another one.

"I had no part in that, Jack, I've already told you this," I took a bit of my apple, "I even went so far as to warn you, but I guess your thoughts were, um, er… în altă parte; elsewhere." I blushed when I realized how that must've sounded. Yes, right before Jack was mutinied; we'd decided to take our friendship to the next level. And I mean right before. That's what we were talking about when the crew burst in.

Not to say we hadn't been together on previous nights, just not for years. Not since that tavern proclaimed a room to be 'Sparrow's Nest'.

"Besides the point, love," Jack said as he sat in a nearby chair and put his feet up, "I suppose I should be thanking you, Barbossa, because, in fact, if you hadn't betrayed me and left me to die, Luna wouldn't have forced you to take her back to Tortuga, and we would've had an equal share in that curse, same as you." He took a bite of his apple and offered it to Barbossa. "Funny ol' worl' innit?"

"Captain, we're coming up on the Interceptor," the bo'sun said.

Jack and I followed as my father left his cabin.

"I'm having a thought here, tată," I call, using the Romanian word for father, as he looks to the navy ship through his spy glass, "What say we run up a flag of truce, I board the Interceptor, and I negotiate the return of your precious little medallion, what say you to that?"

He smiles to me and speaks gently, "Now you see, Luna, that's exactly the attitude that lost Jack the Pearl."

"But I'm not Jack, now am I?"

"People are easier to search when their dead." I rolled my eyes at his comment and took another bite of my apple. "Lock Sparrow in the brig. Luna is to stay in my cabin."

One of the crew members grabbed Jack and dragged him away.

"With all due respect, I prefer to stay with me Captain."

"Unacceptable."

I shrugged. "Well, never said you'd agree." I walked do to the main deck and looked around. "Pintel? Lock me in the brig, would ya?"

He glanced at me as if I'd lost my mind. "Why would you want that, Miss Luna?"

"Captain's orders."

A/n: A little early for you today. I guess I kinda just wanted you to wake up to this marvelous chapter… Okay, it's kinda sucky who am I kidding?

Anyway…

Aşteptaţi – Wait

Review, alert, favorite.*

Lots o' love
Lyra Raine Sparrow

*not necessarily in that order.