| Unnamed: Chapter 1. By: Robyn James |
| Chapter 1 Captain Jack Sparrow's smile faded as he left the tavern. Comforts of the previous nights stay...warm bed; good food, spicy drink, and extremely friendly dancers...were swiftly forgotten. The streets were engulfed in turmoil. Women and children screamed as they rushed past him into the jungle around the village. The dying cries of men could be heard as they fought at the base of the volcano buying time for the women and children to escape. But what was doing the attacking? Jack thought to himself. With a confused expression, he turned to look at the tavern, trying to discern why he hadn't heard this commotion from within. Why had it not woken him? He had, after all, been sleeping beneath the window. A cold feeling began to seep into his gut, leaking slowly out to the rest of his body. Without hesitation, Jack whipped about and tore down the hill as fast as his legs could carry him. Following the main road quickly took him to a fork. The screams had gone, but the buildings were ablaze, and from the smoke around the village, fighting could still be heard. The buildings around him were ablaze in columns of fire. With a few calculations, Jack quickly turned right, and followed the road once more downhill, towards the docks. Built on the side of a dormant volcano, Le Porte de Lumiere was one of the few ports visited only by ships under the pirate flag. An ancient village, the inhabitants were all descendents of a fleet of pirates. Their ancestors had stumbled upon the village after a storm with houses, inns and shops already built, as if waiting for them to settle in. After a thorough search for any one who lived there, and no more signs of people living there, the pirates claimed the town and quickly made it there own. They sent word to their families, and soon the village was running as if it had never been empty. One day a hidden entry underground had been discovered by one of the children. A party of men were gathered and explored what seemed to be a network of tunnels. More entrances were found leading into the network, one form each home. After a day of searching, the men found a single room, sealed of by an intimidating cast-iron door. It seemed that whatever this room was, it was the reason the network of tunnels had been built. All of the paths the men had traveled led to this one door. It was never said what the men had discovered. When they returned to the surface, the women and children could gain no answers to their questions, but were forced to watch in puzzled silence as the men sealed off every one of the entrances. Shortly after, the villagers awoke with no recollection of, nor memory, of the villagers awoke one morning with no recollection, nor memory, of the tunnels. A tropical jungle seemed to have grown up around the village and up the side of the volcano overnight. This too, was no absurdity to the villagers; they simply went on as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The jungle served as an excellent way to conceal the existence of the Porte. The only people who knew of it were pirates, and only pirates could enter it. Tonight though, the jungle was more of a curse to Jack than anything else he had ever experienced. The jungle, along with smoke from the burning village, was effectively obscuring any view of his ship from where he was. Picking up the speed in his step, Jack prayed that his ship, however unlikely, be completely out of harms way. Gasping for breath, and clutching a stitch in his side, Jack finally reached the base of the volcano. This was where anyone not staying for long could enjoy themselves. Taverns, a single inn, and plenty of supply shops lined the shore, leading to the harbor, just to Jack�s right, was the gallows. Looking at the gallows, Jack stopped mid-stride. A figure, a young girl it seemed, sat tied to the base of the gallows. Any guards she may have had, Jack assumed had fled when the fighting started. There was no sign of the fighting Jack had heard from above anywhere he looked. The attack...Jack quickly looked to where he had left his ship docked. With a smirk, he saw that his ship was in fact, completely untouched. And then he saw the figure. A dark shape, hidden under a flowing cloak, stood at the docks, facing his ship. A burning feeling crept up into Jack�s chest at the thought of that person boarding his ship. Narrowing his eyes and puffing out his chest, but Jack was forced to pause before he took a step. He had made no noise, he hadn�t called out at all. The only person who could have seen Jack was the girl at the gallows, and she was seemingly gagged, because she made no noise either. Yet, even as Jack stood frozen, watching, the figure turned slowly. It twisted, yet it did not move. Its movement was snake-like, as if it had no legs on which it turned. It did not move forwards, nor did it board Jack�s ship. It simply stood, staring at Jack, with unseen eyes. Jack�s blood ran cold under that gaze, and he stood there immobile, as the figure raised its hand and pointed at Jack. All in an instant Jack felt himself thrown through the air by some unseen hand, a searing heat at his back, and the smell of burning leather. He landed on his chest when he hit the ground, nearly winding himself. Pushing himself up, slightly dazed, he shook his head and looked around. Jack sat face to face with one of the strangest looking girls he had ever seen. It seemed; by the way she dressed and wore her hair, that she thought herself a man. The strange clothes she wore, Jack assumed was some sort of foreign man�s underwear, didn�t seem to embarrass her in the least at how much skin it was revealing. Compared to how many times Jack had been slapped for seeing half as much skin on a woman, Jack was stunned. He then realized, to his relief, that her hands and legs were securely bound to the base of the gallows. Tearing his eyes away from her, he stood quickly, looking around for the cloaked figure. He was gone, as with the fires and the sounds of combat. Everything was calm, even the smoke was gone. The only thing that was evidence to the encounter was the smell of burning leather still hovering around. Looking up from where he came, Jack saw the buildings were fine, and people were going about their business as if nothing had happened. No amount of thought or excuses Jack came up with could even start to help him figure out what was going on. Jack�s head slowly began to hurt. Turning back to the girl, he knelt down and undid the gag over her mouth. As he opened his mouth to ask what was going on, he stopped when he saw the look on her face. She sat there staring at him with a horror stricken look, as if she was staring at a ghost. Jack slowly realized that she�d been doing this for sometime, in fact, since he�d been thrown at her feet. It was then that he smelled it again. It was stronger this time, accompanied by a searing hot pain on the top of his head. With a sharp yell, Jack ripped off his flame-engulfed hat from his head and stomped on it angrily. After patting the top of his head gingerly, and assuring himself no more harm was done, he looked at the girl angrily out of the corner of his eyes. An unspoken accusation hung on the tip of his tongue. The girl had seemed to snap out of her daze when he�d ripped the hat off, and after sizing him up, smiled slightly at him and batted her eyelashes teasingly. �Look...� She began coyly. �These ropes are an awful nuisance...and such a handsome, brave fellow as yourself must be very clever...you sure made that man who attacked you look like a fool when you got up, scared him right off! Do you think you could help little �ol me out?� Jack grimaced slightly in indecision and he looked down at the girl. She didn�t seem very dangerous, and the way the locals were, she was probably just tied here for some sport...she was also the only other one it seemed, that had any recollection of what had just happened. Seeing as she was his only source of answers, an idea sprung into his mind. Putting on his most charming smile, he said in a smooth voice, �Nothing would give me greater pleasure!� Kneeling down quickly he cut the ropes behind her back, and had just picked the lock on the chains on her legs when he began to introduce himself. �My name is Captain Jack Sparrow, by the w...� But as soon as her legs were free, she pushed him backwards fiercely, landing him on his butt. She stood quickly and glared at him angrily. �Just stay away from me, you hear?! Stay AWAY!!� With that said, she ran off down the road and quickly into one of the fisherman�s taverns. Jack sat back stunned, looking after her as she ran. �Don�t I at least get a name?� |