Chancing Fate - Jack Sparrow x OC

Part 3 - Chapter 2

Lena's Journal – July 15, 1729

This chart that we've gone all over the earth looking for is complete nonsense. I have never seen such a thing and I can't understand a thing on it. How does one read a map that changes? Plus, there are items drawn onto it along with words that mean nothing to me. I am starting to have my doubts about this map. How can we make it to the Locker if we can't understand the map?

Regardless of understanding the map, Barbossa has kept us on course since leaving Singapore. I can't say I have much of an idea as to where we are headed, but I have noticed a shift in temperature. Perhaps I should have prepared for a colder trip. It is certainly not the warm Caribbean I am used to.

The worst part of this trip is being on this ship with Sao Feng's men. I don't trust them. At all. When asked, Will never gives a real answer as to how he came to his agreement with Sao Feng. There must be a reason they are here, and I worry what that reason is after knowing how much he hates Jack. There is something going on here. I wish I knew what.

Enormous maintains of ice were scattered across the water, towering over the ship as it moved past them. The only sound to be heard was the water being cut by the ship and the occasional whisper of the crew, too cold to speak loudly.

Lena sat in silence beside Elizabeth, sharing the lone blanket that had been found onboard. They had little need while closer to Singapore, but their travels had taken them into the bitter cold. Muscles tense from shaking in the cold, Lena dreaded the next time she moved, knowing how stiff she would be. While she was better off than the crew, she could still feel the frostbite setting into her skin, cheeks tender from the cold and fingers numb. Her usual blue shirt did nothing to block out the cold, even with the assistance of her jacket overtop.

She let out a shaky breath as she blew the loose strands of hair out of her face, frozen over just like the rest of her hair that was currently pulled back into a braid, just to keep the ice from touching her face. They hadn't been in the freezing temperatures for too long, but she had noticed the chill coming days ago. Over a week and they had yet to find a sure path into world's end. It put a damper on her hope.

The map was cryptic at best. Shifting courses and nonsense words. She had left it to the others to decipher after giving up herself. Part of it was due to the cold. She could hardly think straight, let alone focus on reading a map, when her entire body was trying to simply keep warm. A difficult task it was when she had no desire to move.

She was pulled from her drifting thoughts as Will and Tai Huang walked up to Barbossa, chart in hand.

"Do you care to interpret, Captain Barbossa?" Will asked as he held up the charts, pointing out some of the words written on it.

Unsure what he was talking about, Lena was almost tempted to get up and see what was on the map. However, the cold won out as she remained in her spot, arms wrapped around her as she listened to their conversation.

"Ever gazed upon the green flash, Master Gibbs?" Barbossa asked, catching the attention of Gibbs as he stood just a few steps away from them, looking out at the ice around them.

"I reckon I seen my fair share," Gibbs answered, thinking back on what he was saying. "It happens on rare occasion. At the last glimpse of sunset, a green flash of light shoots up into the sky. Some go their whole lives without seeing it, some claim to have seen it that ain't. Some say..."

Cut off before he could finish, Pintel jumped in excitedly, "It signals when a soul comes back to this world, from the dead!" Pausing as he suddenly received a glare from Gibbs, he added, "sorry."

Looking back at Will with the chart now rolled up, Barbossa said, "trust me, young Master Turner, it's not gettin' to the land of the dead that's the problem. It's gettin' back."