Jolly Sailor || Elizabeth Swann

17

The residents of Tortuga waited out the night in the hidden smuggler caves. The only entrances the guarded tunnels into town or via the sea water lapping over the edges of holes in floor. They waited as night turned into dawn outside. Anxious chattering, babies crying and children complaining fading in to a shared nervous and exhausted silence. It was hard to tell how many had been killed in the raid. Too many bodies crammed into the caves and too many bodies left behind. There were other hidden places around the island but they had no way of knowing who had taken refuge there. 

Benjy spent the night half submerged in the cold seawater. Jeanette and Issac having lifted him over to the entrance to one of the pools and lowered him down. The water holding his weight and cooling his inflamed ankle. He had slept there. Dozing in and out of fitful bursts of unconsciousness, body curled on a rock ledge just under the surface of the pool. Just close enough to the surface to be visible through the water with the light of the oil lamps. A dim silhouette to reassure his friends of his presence. 

He was awoken by the vibrations of the water above him. Benjy blinked blearily, gills flaring as a few bubbles escaped his mouth. He turned his head to peer through the water at Jeanette's blurry face above. 

"It's morning. The scouts say that they have gone", she murmured as he poked his head over the surface. Face still drowsy and black eyes blinking tiredly. He still hurt all over. The grips of the solider from before leaving bruises on his arm and his ankle sore and throbbing. The water was helping though, and he could tell instinctively that he would feel worse outside of it. 

There was a flurry of chatter and movement from the cave occupants. People began standing up and gathering up whatever items they had brought with them as they moved around. Isaac emerged from the crowd and crouched down by the water next to his wife. "There's no sign of the ships. Jones and the Navy seemed to have gone. The scouts didn't see their boats around the island. People are going back to their homes to salvage what they can. It's not pretty out there". 

Benjy winced at the reminder of the destruction the raid had caused. He wondered how much more damage had been caused to their homes and lives. "The Davey Jones can submerge itself. If it is lying in wait, then you wouldn't know until you were right on top of it", he grimaced. "But Beckett is holding the heart of the monster, so I guess he is going to want the tentacled man by his side for protection. Let's just hope that is the case". 

Isaac pressed his lips into a thin line but nodded. "Are you going to swim round to the harbour? How's your ankle?"

"You shouldn't swim on it too much", Jeanette fretted. Her hair in frizzy disarray and her skirts dirt stained from the ordeal. The bruise on her jaw had darkened but did not detract from the anger in her eyes. She was furious that this had happened to their home, their safe space. 

Benjy carefully flexed the limb and winced. It was still very inflamed. "I probably shouldn't use it", he exhaled in frustration. 

Isaac wordlessly held out his arms and together, the three of them managed to help Benjy get hoisted from the pool and up onto the larger man's lap. Isaac grunting as he stood with the merman on his back, arms around his neck and clinging on like a limpet. "We have to get a boat", Jeanette declared as they began to follow the group of people towards the nearest exit. 

"We?" Benjy frowned, wet hair dripping into Isaac's shirt. 

"We", she repeated firmly. "You have a broken ankle. You are also covered in silver scales full time now and your ears are pointed. You are bruising way too easily now too". She gestured at him as if to point out every injury that had still not healed. 

"You are in no shape to go looking for your mother by yourself Benjamin", Isaac stated. 

"You know, my mother left me with you because she does not have the medicines to help me underwater", he pointed out. "Also mermaids. Creatures that would lure you into the depths to make feasts from your corpses. Trust me, you don't want to know my family". 

"If you call dumping in the sand and screaming like a banshee from under the water 'leaving' you with us", Isaac snorted. Benjy blinked at the information. He had been half out of it when they had picked him up from the beach, so he didn't recall the screaming part. 

"We don't have to get close". Jeanette led the way back down the tunnel to the trap door leading up to the hut that Benjy had used the night before. She extinguished the torch and helped Isaac steady the weight on his back as he began to climb back up the ladder and into the sunlight. "We just need to sail you most of the way there. You know that you can't swim the distance by yourself. How far away would your mother be by now? You've been here for weeks now". 

It was a fair point he had to concede. His healing had almost certainly been set back another week or so by the events of last night. Although the sea water seemed to have helped somewhat. His body seemingly healing faster when he was submerged. He guessed it was just another part of the changed his body had gone through. That and his new ability to sense vibrations in the water around him with far more skill than previously. Magic was unknown and wild, and while he was half inhuman, even he did not understand it. If there were any other changes to his body, then he guessed he would just have to find out. 

He groaned as sunlight hit their eyes. The day already warm and cloudless. It seemed to emphasize the wreckage around them even further. Houses with broken down doors and ruined furniture. The streets strewn with items scattered from buildings. Clothes dangling from the windows and smoke trailing overhead from distant fires. The navy soldiers and the undead crew of Jones had seemingly raided everything. Jeanette stifled a gasp at the sights while Isaac pressed his lips in a thin line. 

Benny sighed at the view. "I guess I can't argue with you right now. But one question, where are we going to get a ship?" He asked as they reached the harbour. All the ships were either sunk or bobbed uselessly with broken masts. It was a far worse problem than they had been anticipating. 

unedited 

I lover the friendship between these three.