Song of the Sea: Sunsets and Black Sails

Chapter 23: The Kraken

Aria caught up with them at the beach. It was simple, really. All she'd had to do was follow the linear path of destruction the wheel left in its wake. Well, that, and the raucous din of swords clanging. Evidently Jones' men had arrived.

Jack leaned low over the longboat, hurriedly shuffling things about.

"Did you get it?" she called to him, as she breathlessly rushed to his side.

"Jar of dirt," Jack said back quickly, a cloud of dirt and dust hanging thick as he tossed the contents of the jar back inside of it.

Something splashed loudly through the water behind them, and Aria whirled just in time to block a heavy blow from a man whose face was half-blowfish. He tried to get around her to Jack, but she pushed him back with her parries.

Jack grabbed an oar and joined the fight (where his sword had gotten to, Aria didn't know) just as everyone else reached the beach.

Elizabeth wielded one sword in each hand, while Pintel and Ragetti shared Davy Jones' chest as a weapon.

The water wheel broke the treeline at an astounding speed and finally collapsed into a stop somewhere in the shallows. James and Will climbed out, staggering, and if Aria weren't fighting for her life, she might have found the time to pity them.

Beside her, Jack suddenly spun to hit Will, with such great force that he collapsed, unconscious, into the boat. Aria hoped he'd had a good reason for that. They really needed all the hands they could get in this fight.

"Leave him lie!" Jack barked when Elizabeth ran to her fiance. "Unless you plan on using him to hit something with."

They turned to face Jones' crew together, watching as the watery pirates closed in.

"We're not getting out of this," Aria said, weighing their odds. She often tried not to be a pessimist, but now was the time to think of new solutions or die.

"Not with the chest," James said suddenly. He quickly leaned past the Swann sisters and grabbed the object of their troubles. "Into the boat!"

Aria found herself at a loss for words. She gripped his sleeve, as if that would keep him from going through with it.

"You're mad!" Elizabeth said.

James ignored her, looking Aria in the eye.

"Don't wait for me."

He tore away from her grasp and rushed past the pirates with the chest in hand. As he reached the beach and headed for the treeline, the crew followed.

Aria felt frozen. A resounding No! echoed in her mind, but she didn't know what to do to stop it happening.

Jack pulled her towards the boat.

"I say we respect his final wish."

The others agreed, and Aria let herself be put into the longboat. She shook her head, bringing herself back to the present. There would be time to mourn later.

She felt hollow.

It would have to wait. They must survive, first and foremost.

James was gone.

You can dwell on it later, she tried to tell herself. Jones is coming.

-

"Where's the commodore?"

"He fell behind."

There was a difference between leaving James but knowing he was still out there somewhere, and letting him run off to his death.