Barbossa's Daughter

Chapter 22

"You're pulling too hard!"

"You ain't pulling hard enough!" Pintel and Ragetti argued as they tried to secure the long boat as Elizabeth sat diligently at Will's side as she waited for him to wake up.

"Both ye idiotic deck apes better have that boat secured in the next two minutes or yer going to be sleeping in it!" Cora snapped at them, and their arguing ceased.

"Aye, Miss Cora!" they sang in unison as they worked, and Cora strode over to where Elizabeth was leaning over a stirring Will.

"Ah, Mystery Man. Welcome back to the land of the living," she grinned as he blinked a few times and Elizabeth squeezed his hand worriedly.

"What happened?"

"I believe ye took an oar to the face. All for nothing too since we lost the chest and the damn key."

"What do you mean we lost the chest and the key?" Will said as he sat up.

"I think ye got hit a bit too hard. There ain't be no other way to say that we once had the chest and the key and now we don't."

Will opened his mouth to retort and Elizabeth opened hers to interject before they were both silenced as the Dutchman rose from the depths of the water, and it came to sail alongside them.

And instantly Cora's demeanour changed to one of a battle-hardened warrior.

"Look lively! Canons and guns at the ready!" Cora bellowed as the men scrambled and Jack moved to the rail as he held his jar of dirt up in the air.

"Oi, fish face! Lose something? Eh?" he asked as Jones set his confused gaze on the pirate and the scrambling ceased for a moment. And then the entire crew cringed as Jack fell down the stairs onto the main deck. "Got it!" he proclaimed as he held the jar of dirt into the air. "Come to negotiate, eh, have you, you slimy git? Look what I got. I got a jar of dirt. I got a jar of dirt and guess what's inside it?" Jack sang as he held the jar into the air again as he got to his feet.

"Enough!" Jones bellowed as his cannons were rolled out from below deck.

"Hard to starboard," Jack muttered.

"HARD TO STARBOARD!" Cora repeated as she ran for the helm. "BRACE UP THE FOREYARD AND GET THE CANNONS READY! FULL CANVAS!" She pushed Gibbs out of the way as she spun the wheel faster than he ever could. It was a relationship with the ship, one cultivated after years of sailing upon it and learning every crevice, nick and scratch on it and exactly which way you had to handle the ship to get it to work the way you wanted.

But they still weren't fast enough as a cannonball tore through the captain's cabin.

"She's on us! SHE'S ON US!" Pintel screamed as he and Ragetti ran up towards the helm.

"YE THINK?! NOW SHUT YER HOLES!" Cora screamed at them before she ducked as a lamp was shattered by a smaller cannonball to her left. Jack then came up to take the wheel but one glare from Cora had him backing away. "Touch me or this wheel and I'll feed ye to Jones," she snapped as she did exactly what Jack had been about to do as she spun the wheel to the right a little bit and out of the straight line of fire they had.

"She's falling behind!" Elizabeth announced as she, Will and Gibbs gathered on the quarter deck.

"Aye. We've got her!" Gibbs cheered.

"We're the faster?" Will questioned.

"Against the wind, the Dutchman beats us. That's how she takes her prey, but with the wind..."

"We rob her advantage," Will finished.

"Aye. Not to mention that Miss Cora is the best helmsmen of the Pearl I've ever seen, next to her father o' course," Gibbs added and Will turned to where Cora stood at the wheel, a determined look on her face as the wind blew at her dark hair, her oceanic eyes angry. No one was going to catch this ship if she had anything to say about it.