A Pirate and His Wolf (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Chapter 28

The moment the sun rose in the morning, Will, Zachary, Astro, William took to the streets to find someone who'd either come across Jack, Gibbs, or the Pearl itself. They wandered around the various docks of Tortuga, asking every person they came across whether they'd spotted one of the three things.

By the afternoon, Will thought they would never find Jack. But Willam and Astro kept boosting morale, asking him about Elizabeth and life in Port Royal since their father left. Will kept the conversation focused on the pair and their wedding, and had no desire to tell them about the return of Lord Beckett, as well as his henchmen. Rather, he'd created a fictitious character called Lord Harold who had halted the ceremony and forced Will to hunt Jack down. He also avoided telling Zachary that it was the compass he was looking for, knowing full well that he would have discovered the truth of his mission.

Finally, around the late evening, they came across a shrimper who was sitting on the deck of a small boat, knitting a net. "Can't say 'bout Jack Sparrow," he told the pair when they'd asked him. "But there's an island just south of the straits where I trade spice for Mmmmm delicious long pork. No, can't say for Jack, but you'll find a ship there, a ship with black sails."

Will and Zachary exchanged a look, before offering the man a few coins to sail them out to the island. As the kids stood on the boat overlooking the ocean, a look of peace came across Zachary's face as he stared at them. "You love it out here and them, don't you?" Will asked.

Zachary smiled, "The beauty of it never goes away. Like, people might look beautiful when they're young, but that goes away. This-" he gestured to the sea, "it never changes, and when it does, it looks better than before."

Will looked out across the clear blue waters, and silently agreed, but part of his mind was still fixed on the mission that he had to complete.

As they came around the point, Will, Zachary, Astro, William saw it for themselves, the Black Pearl careened onto the sand.

"My brother, he will row you to shore." the shrimper told the trio. He gave a taller, round-faced man a nod as the pair climbed into the small rowboat.

Halfway to the beach, the brother stopped rowing altogether, a perpetual scared look on his face. Will and Zachary exchanged looks, "What's wrong?" Will asked. "The beach is right there."

"Ne bouges pas, c'est trop dangereux" said the man quickly.

Will raised an eyebrow, the man started talking quickly in a language neither Will nor Zachary understood.

"I guess we'll have to swim, brother." Zachary said, "Doesn't look like he will go any closer"

The pups quickly stood up and dove into the Caribbean water and started to swim to the island. Before Zachary jumped into the water and swam ashore. Will followed them and the trio soon began to draw nearer to the beach.

Will looked behind him and saw the brother feverishly paddling back to the shrimp boat. He shook his head and continued forward, wondering what they could be so scared of.

It was actually further away than either of the kids had thought and soon felt their arms started to hurt. When Astro felt sand underneath his feet, he started wading the last bit, glad that he could rest his arms now.

While William took his time to get ashore, allowing the sea to just flow around his calming lapping his wet vest. By that he'd reached the beach.

Soaking wet, the two adults walked across the beach and toward the Black Pearl. The huge vessel rested, wedged into the sand. No noise came from her decks.

"JACK! JACK ARE YOU THERE?" Zachary yelled as they walked closer to the ship.

"JACK SPARROW!" the pair called up to the ship. Zachary turned to Will, "this is a long-shot, but they might all just be drunk or dead. The children stay on the ship, you and I start in the forest." As he helped his children to quickly begin to climb up the ropes that held the ship in the sand, while Will headed towards the forest and waited for Zachary.

"You pups will stay here. While we go look for Jack?" Zachary said to them as he pushed them towards the Captain's quarters. "If you don't hear or smell us then keep quiet and if someone says they are 'Captain Jack Sparrow', you come out and explain to him, who you are and who your father is. Okay?"

"What if he does believe us and try to hurt us anyway?" William said as he stared at his father with fear in his eyes. Zachary smiled at him before taking off the two bracelets that Jack had given to him when they left each other, as he placed them onto his kid's arms. "Then you show him these bracelets and your eyes and he will believe in you then."

Astro and William looked at each other before hugging their father as they clutched onto his shirt, Zachary returned the hug giving them both a kiss on their heads. He gently pulled away from them and gave them a smile before climbing down the ship and meeting Will at the edge of the forest. Zachary turned around to face The Black Pearl as he saw his children waving at them, he smiled before entering the forest.

Suddenly something rustled in the bushes up ahead and Will and Zachary both unsheathed their swords. Then a bird flew out, it was Cotton's parrot.

"Ah. A familiar face." Will said as he recognized the parrot.

"Don't eat me." the parrot squawked, "Don't eat me."

"Well, we know that Cotton is here." Zachary said as he extended his hand to the parrot to scratch his head, "Let's look in that direction."

Zachary pointed to the bushes where the parrot had come from.

Will immediately started moving in said direction and Zachary sighed, his brother was in a hurry and that would mean that he would act before thinking.

"Do you want to come?" He asked the parrot as he patted onto his shoulder.

"No. Don't eat me." the parrot responded before it launched itself into the air and flew towards the Black Pearl.

"I guess that's a no," Zachary mumbled before he ran after his brother.

Will cut through the huge leaf of a palm tree and noticed a small, brown flask on the jungle floor. "Gibbs...." Will said quietly, recognizing the old pirate's flask.

When Zachary caught up with Will, he was holding something in his hands, stepping closer Zachary recognized it as Gibbs' flask.

"It's Gibbs," Zachary said before he started following the string that was attached to it.

"Zachary?" Will called as he walked after him, "I don't think this is right. Why would Gibbs leave his canteen behind and tie a string to it?"

As Will walked he noticed a movement from the corner of his eye.

"ZACHARY, STOP!" He shouted but it was already too late. He had pulled on the string and was flung into the air. In an instant, Zachary was pulled off his feet and dangled upside down. As he hung by his legs, immediately a group of the island's warriors appeared from the bushes around them.

They all had bite marks on their faces and bodies and were wearing what looked like human bones. Zachary and Will remembered the fear in the shrimper's eyes and the parrot's warning. The warriors lunged at them with their spears raised and began to poke at them. Zachary began to wave his claws around threateningly. "Come on!" he growled, provoking the warriors. "I'm right here!"

The warriors exchanged confused looks as one of them raised a blowgun and fired a dart into Zachary's neck.

Before Will could get close any closer to Zachary, he saw that Zachary had suddenly collapsed, a small feather was sticking out of his neck.

Will raised his hands up in the air when the men turned to him.

"Parley?" Will said before something sharp stung in his neck and suddenly everything went black. The warriors cut Zachary down.