James brought down the spyglass as he looked on at the brief stretch of land far off into the distance. Isla Cruces. He had had a job chartering an expedition that would bring him across this islet. In the end he had come up with a feasible account of getting information from certain prisoner interrogations about a Pirate cove hidden west off of the Islet he actually wanted to go to, he knew this because he had remembered another crew of Sailors discovering said cove in the near distant future.
These pirates from what James remembered of the story were actual real, despicable pirates, the sort that would kill children and rape the women while making the fathers watch before killing them as well and taking everything they could. These were not the Jack Sparrow types that's for sure, James scoffed at his own internal monologue, there was a time where James Norrington himself didn't dissociate between the Jack Sparrow types and the pirates he hunted for King and Country, but today he understood that just like any group of people, pirates came in all types and most of them had a code. This pirate going by the name Ned Nocks did not. He was said to be holed up in a cove not far from Isla Cruces around this time and stayed in that cove for the next six years, sailing out to raid vessels that roamed the waters but also ravaged the inland villages of their resources and people, he took the young men as crew men and the young women as his concubines.
The horror stories James had heard about this man was bone chilling, the sort of thing even Blackbeard himself would hesitate to do, was the norm of this man, and unfortunately the Navy had gotten to him only when his most brutal raids were done and over with and his lecherous tendencies had been somewhat tamed. Not enough for him to be considered even remotely human, mind but still, the Navy didn't prioritise him and he was left alive to harm too many people. So James took it upon himself to bring attention this man's deeds and the legends and tales surrounding him. And finally just last month he had gotten the go ahead to pursue Nocks.
It just so happens that on the return trip he had chartered the Dauntless to sail and resupply at Isla Cruces before heading back home.
Suffice it to say that Nocks, while formidable was no match against a fully prepared crew of men who somehow knew the exact location of their cove their main form of defence being hidden out of sight with barely anyone but the crew knowing the location. It was a clean sweep, no injuries or deaths on his side and Nocks decided to blow himself up rather than come quietly. James had shrugged, less paperwork for him. He wouldn't shed a tear for someone like Nocks, ever.
Prisoners in tow James turned and made a heading for Isla Cruces, his true mission was now at hand. As they grew closer he reminisced on the farewell he had received when he was boarding the Dauntless at Port Royal now a little over a month ago.
Both Will and Elizabeth were there to see him off. It was now a given that they were seen together, the Governor himself less averse to James's star cadet consorting with his daughter as opposed to just a mere blacksmith's apprentice. They didn't even need his library visits to meet and talk but both of them insisted on wanting to keep up the visits, which confused James but he selfishly didn't refuse them access, for some unfathomable reason James had become attached to them both and didn't want to end their arrangement until they themselves got tired of it. Something he imagined was fast approaching, they had been holding hands when they came up to him to say goodbye.
And after receiving the concealed hug from Elizabeth out of sight of people mulling about at the docks they had latched their fingers together again making James raise an eyebrow.
"Anything I should know about?" he had asked half in jest indicating the held hands.
Elizabeth smiled at their linked hands shrugging. "We're trying to work somethings out."
James frowned. "I assume things are being worked out with propriety in mind?" he asked mainly looking at Will. Out of the two of them, he expected Will to be the more responsible one.
Will didn't even hesitate. "Yes sir, I wouldn't disrespect your station that way."
His station, he guessed since Will was his responsibility any impropriety on Wills part would reflect badly on James. "I would expect that you keep her honor in mind more than my station but whatever works." His frown deepened. However responsible he believed Will to be, he imagined hormones would lead the kids to doing something stupid eventually and he could not have that.
"Wait for my return and if you've figured things out by then, I will talk to the Governor and ask that you be allowed to court Miss Swann officially."
Elizabeth looked to Will who studied her face for a moment before they both turned to him. "Thank you, Captain," Will was the one who chose to speak. "I believe that would be the best approach."
And he had been off. Thankfully, this time around the sad, lonely part of him was silent. His goals were one step closer to being fullfilled. He imagined that once they started courting he would be the last person they would think of and then he would have to figure out what to do with himself. Which is why he was here, now boarding the skiff to row to the Island where the heart of the sea was buried. His plans were half formated in his mind but one thing he was certain of, he would die in this life and ten lives over before he let Cutler Beckett have the heart of Davy Jones ever again, even if he had to risk becoming the Captain of the Flying Dutchman himself.
As that final thought crossed his mind, half way across the sea a woman with braided hair, dark skin and blackened teeth awoke and cursed his name. "Damn you James Norrington! This is not the fate I have set out for you!" she tossed her bones and read what it sad, her eyes darkened and flashed crimson for a moment.
She walked over to the sparrow perched on the railings of her stilted abode and stroked it's feathers. "Fly my lovely, fly to him! We have need of Jack Sparrow more sooner than I thought. Bring him to me. A mission I have for him."
Lol, Tia Dalma sounded a bit like Yoda there at then. Oh well she does speak strangely. Hard to capture her tone and accent on paper.
So Will and Lizzy getting closer? James hatching crazy plans and guess what? I just destroyed the entire plot of DMC with this chapter! Yay! Or at least I hope I did. I honestly don't even know what I'm writing until I actually put pen to paper or finger to touchscreen, I guess. Hehe. Review if possible. Cheers!!
