Captain Jack Sparow and I: A Pirates of the Caribbean Fanfiction

Chapter 3: Tortuga

Chapter 3: Tortuga

I watch the sun rise from the horizon and fill the night sky with golden light and the air with warmth. A warm breeze lifts my hair and I take in the salty smell of the sea. Never before have I realised how much I love the ocean.

I trace the rough texture of the wooden railing with my finger. When I do go home, I will certainly miss this place. I hear a gruff voice speak behind me,

"Who are you and what are you doing on my ship?" I turn around and see a man with a wide hat and scraggly beard. His face looks wrinkled and weathered by the sea. He holds a pistol aimed at my head. 

"Oi! What are you doing?" Jack calls out as he rushes towards the man. "That's the girl. The girl that will help us. The-," he lowers his voice and looks around, "Turner girl." Immediately the man lowers his weapon and looks at me then turns to Jack.

"I'd appreciate if you told me, Jack. As Captain, I'm supposed to know who is on my ship" the man says.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, seeing as you aren't the Captain." Jack says to him with a smile on his face.

"This is my ship which makes me the captain," the man says to Jack.

"Uh, no. This is MY ship which makes me the Captain" Jack argues.

"We are sailing using MY charts" says the man

"Then that makes you Chart Man, not Captain".

The man grunts at Jack who has a wide grin across his face. The man looks at me and introduces himself as Captain Barbossa although Jack made it clear he isn't the captain. I watch as the man walks away disgruntled, his steps shaky on his wooden leg. I turn to Jack who is playing around with a compass.

"Jack," I say. "Who else is on this ship?"

He closes his compass and tucks it away. "Just you, me and Barbossa, plus some other pirates. The rest of the crew got captured at Port Royal. That's why we are sailing to Tortuga, to get more crew members."

"Tortuga?" I ask.

"The pirate port, the place where no man feels unwanted" he says with a grin and a reminiscent look. I watch as he walks flamboyantly up the stairs towards the wheel. Something about Jack makes me curious. He seems very strange the way he walks and moves his hands, no doubt caused by the vast amounts of alcohol he consumes. I also wonder about his past; the mysterious history behind the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow.

A strong gust of wind pushes the Black Pearl forward. We sail through the current as we make way for Tortuga.






We arrive at the docks of Tortuga. A short, fat pirate and a tall and skinny pirate emerge from under the deck of the ship. A small monkey scampers across the floor holding a wooden eye while the skinny pirate chases it. Pirates can be strange.

"Come with me," Jack says to me, stretching out his hand. I place my hand in his and follow him out of the ship and onto the docks. I look back at the Black Pearl tied up and floating in the bay. Barbossa stands there looking back at us with an unsually cheerful look on his face. I turn back to Jack and the streets that lie ahead. We walk along the streets of Tortuga, avoiding all the drunken pirates tripping in front of us. I look around. Everywhere I look I see filthy pirates dancing, singing and drinking. I feel something at my feet. I look down and see an unconscious man, obviously drunk.

Jack leads me into a dimly lit pub which is hardly any different than the streets outside. Filthy pirates are singing and drunk all over the pub. I have to jump to the side to avoid the man falling right in front of me. This place is a mess. The air is stale and the whole pub is filled with singing and shouting. I spot a man running in our direction. The rugged man with white and grey facial hair approaches Jack, his face beaming with delight.

"Jack!" The man exclaims.

"Master Gibbs!" Jack replies as they greet each other. Gibbs sees me and looks confused.

"Jack, who's the girl?" He asks. Jack looks at me and thinks to himself. He asks me to go and get some drinks for them and leads Gibbs to an empty table. He clearly wants to tell Gibbs something in private without me hearing. Curiosity builds up inside me, eafer to know the reason I'm with them. I walk away and hide behind a pillar, my ear pressed against the cold wood. I hear them talking and mentioning my name. I listen harder but the words are hard to pick up. Most of the conversation is being swallowed by the yelling and singing of the people in the pub. I catch little bits of their conversation:

"Compass.........maps.......direction.........memory.........the girl.......Whitewater Bay........Semper..."

I stop listening immediately. 'Semper'. I'm sure I have heard that word before but I can't recall when. It probably isn't even English. I know that the word is somewhere buried deep in my memory, but I can't quite grasp it.

I listen closely again. I hear the word "immortality". What sort of rubbish are they talking about? Immortality only exists in old fairy tales and stories told to young children. I try to listen to Gibbs and Jack again but it seems like they've stopped talking. I move my head from behind the pillar in order to see why they've stopped talking. I look at the table they were sitting at but it's empty. They've left!

"Oi. What are you doing?" I hear Jack's voice behind me. I jolt at the sound of his voice and immediately turn to look at him.

"Uh, I...um" I say trying to look for words.

"How much did you hear?" He says with a worried look.

"Enough to make me concerned!" I say angrily. "What is it you're hiding from me?"

Just then, an empty glass bottle is hurled in my direction. I duck and narrowly miss it as it shatters to pieces at the wall behind me. I scan the room to find the thrower when the whole pub is broken into angry yells as the men fight each other. The whole place becomes an angry mess as the pirates battle it out on table tops, using any weapon they have or pick up. At that moment, another glass bottle comes flying towards me and shatters on my forehead. A searing pain rushes to the place it hit as I collapse to the ground.

I place my hand on the spot where the bottle hit. It is covered in blood and burns like fire. I hear Jack's voice echoing my name. I see his blurred face in front of me. The world around me has gone silent. His face starts to get blurrier and the world gets darker. For the second time, Jack is the last thing I see before I pass out.