Jolly Sailor || Elizabeth Swann

02

"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?" Will spoke aloud the question that had been nagging at him the whole journey here. Jack had refused to let the Black pearl breach deep waters, insisting that they stick to the shallows. It was not hard to figure out this reason. Jack was suddenly wary of the depths. 

Gibbs glanced round at the jungle encircling them and leaned forwards. Above, birds called and leaved blocked out the sun. The island they had arrived at was heavily coated in vegetation. The pearl had been left in a the reef and three rowboats served to carry them up the river inland. Around the banks of the water were snarled roots of trees and vines. There was a dark magic to this place, despite the bright sunshine and humid weather. It felt like people were watching them, that the island knew that they were here. Every so often they would see a shape that looked humanoid peering through the trees. (Will hoped that they weren't more cannibalistic locals).

 Gibbs kept his voice low enough so that it wouldn't travel to the two boats ahead of them. "Some say that there's a beast that does the bidding of Davey Jones. A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that'll suction your face clean off and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness. The kraken". The last word was spoke with no small amount of dramatic tone. "They say the stench of it's breath is like"... He shuddered. "Unimaginable. They say that the last thing you remember of God's green earth is the roar of the kraken and the reeking odour of a thousand rotting corpses".  He paused for half a second to drop the dramatic dark tone. "If you believe such things". 

"And the key will spare him that?" Will's voice was quiet, unimpressed. 

"Well, that's the very question Jack wants answered. Bad enough even to go visit... Her".

 Will's eyebrows twitched at the return of the foreboding pause.  "Her?"

"Aye", Gibbs continued. "If you thought our friend Ben Jim was a dark creature, you should see his relatives". 

"She's a mermaid?" Will asked in surprise. 

"Worse", Gibbs muttered. "A witch". 

The sun had set and fireflies had crept from the jungle to dance over the water by the time their destination had come into view. Will had been expecting more than the little wooden house built over the water. But as he had come to realised, expectations were never correct when in the company of Jack Sparrow. It was lit warmly but orange lamps and at the base, where the supports sunk into the river and marsh, was a little jetty for the boats. The two row boats occupants were silent as they drifted closer. There were people in the trees. Dark forms that loomed in the dark, hair and skin matching the richness of the earth. It was hard for their eyes to pick them out in the gloom but there was a general feeling of being watched by more than they could see. The house looked simple, but Will was willing to bet that it was anything but. 

There was a light thud as the boats hit the jetty. Jack sprung out and grabbed for the ladder. "No worries mates", he spoke, turning back to them. "Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves. Nigh inseparable we are". A pause. " Were. Have been. Before". 

Gibbs stood up. "I'll watch your back". 

"It's my front I'm worried about", Jack muttered back before he began to climb the ladder. 

"Mind the boat", Gibbs instructed Will, who had also climbed up onto the jetty. 

Will promptly turned round to the crewmate behind him. "Mind the boat". Then he was climbing the ladder up to the house. The man must have done the same thing as him, because when Will reached the front door, it was with five others following behind him. 

The inside of the house was meeting his expectations for witch's cottage. Jars of creepy, uncertain looking things hung from the ceiling. Candles, wax dripping over their bases and onto the floor, covered most of the flat surfaces. The light glittered off the glass and various lumps shrouded in cloth that seemed rather suspicious. Will didn't get much of a chance to see more before the witch was slinking up to him. Tia Dalma was a lithe woman with deep red brown skin and dreadlocks and braids hanging down her back. Her eyed were smudged black with charcoal and her dress was a stitched together thing of many different materials. When she smiled, fingers dancing at him, it was with ink stained black teeth and tongue.