Pirates of the Caribbean 1. Escape!

Jack Sparrow, Captain Jack Sparrow was an excellent captain, pirate, escape artist, rogue and drunk. Oh, let's not forget thief, negotiator and womanizer. Unfortunately he wasn't a very good horseman, archer or hiker. Of course none of these things mattered to him until he found himself locked in an inescapable Spanish cell, with naught but the clothes on his back and a chipped old bowl that held water. In this instance for Jack Sparrow, it was half empty.  
  
Nothing much happened here. He was the only one in prison at the moment. Something he despised, seeing as it meant he was the only one stupid enough to get caught. That and the boredom it presented.  
  
Jack didn't much like being alone, it reminded him too much of a lonely island. Except it was worse here because there was no rum and judging by the state of the water he had been given he doubted he was allowed any, even if he could speak Spanish. Which he couldn't.  
  
The island had been many years ago and Barbossa still had his beautiful Pearl. Something that held him against despair.  
  
The floor was stone, the walls were stone and the roof was stone. He was completely surrounded by unmarred, unbroken impenetrable stone. It was now late afternoon, he could tell by the sunlight that filtered through the tiny window above him.  
  
At the moment he was sitting with his back against the wall with the window, staring at the tips of his boots, which were currently painted in golden sunlight.  
  
It was here he decided that before he got hanged he would burn, destroy, or as a last resort, eat his shoes so that the hangman wouldn't get anything from Captain Jack Sparrow.  
  
Yes sir, Jack always got his way.  
  
The door flew open and the sounds of someone being dragged down steps ensured. Jack didn't move, he just listened to the noises and pretended to be asleep.  
  
From under his slitted eyelids Jack saw two pairs of highly polished guardsmen boots walking with a pair of worn, old boots being dragged between them. The door to the cell on his right swung open almost silently, this noise was followed by the heavy thump of a body hitting the stone floor.  
  
The hapless soul that had joined him made no sound as the two burly guards left. After the other criminal hadn't move for a whole three minutes Jack risked a glance. All he saw was dull grays and tan. He did a double take and recognized the shape of an incredibly small man. More like a boy, but no, not a boy. The shoulders were too broad for a boys' but the figure was too small for a full grown male. Which left the idea of a juvenile. But he was still too lean, which meant the only other prisoner in the dungeon was a female. A juvenile female and well built, he noted, as he spotted her left arm, well-muscled and loose in unconsciousness.  
  
Now this was interesting. He scooted closer, trying to see her face. His first warning that she was awake was when her fingers tightened into a fist. Then she was sitting upright and staring straight at him. He resisted the urge to jump slightly.  
  
Instead he smiled, showing all his multi-colored teeth. The youth just continued to frown thoughtfully as she scanned the cells. Then her eyes alighted on him and he realized in shock that her eyes were different coloured. One was cloudy gray, the other clear piercing green. Her brown hair was short.  
  
When she saw his face she finally smiled back, that made him feel a little less nervous. He was wondering if she could speak English when she spotted the bone in his hair.  
  
Her eyes lit up and she scooted forwards. Then in a very obvious way she pointed to herself, then to him and the bone in his hair and back to herself. Then motioned that she wanted it and stretched out her hand. Jack looked up at his bone, then back to her. She was smiling in delight and hope so he detached it and handed it over.  
  
She clasped the bone, smiled at him warmly and practically threw herself at the door of her prison. Then she reached down her top and pulled out a long piece of metal. Using both these she set to work picking her lock. Jack merely watched. He didn't really think it would work, but she may as well try.  
  
A noise interrupted her escape attempt and she jumped away from the lock, both tools behind her back as she sat down, rearranging herself to look like she had not moved since she was thrown in her confinement.  
  
The Spanish guard had a tray of food.  
  
Only one, and it had meat, gravy, a small cake and glorious rum. The man stopped outside of Jacks cell, which made his heart race as the food was brought closer to him. Then to his utter joy the tray was slid into his cell and left for him to eat.  
  
He fell upon it, scoffing down the food and trying hard to savor the rum.  
  
It didn't work very well.  
  
When he looked up from his empty tray he found the girl patiently picking the lock. She was working feverishly, with renewed need.  
  
"It'll never work love", he said just as the lock clicked and the door swung open. He looked up in surprise and she looked at him in shock.  
  
"You speak English?" she said incredulously.  
  
"So do you?" he asked, somewhat relieved now that he could talk his way out of things.  
  
"Thanks for the bone" she said passing the bone to him through the bars and looking around warily as she ascended the stairs.  
  
"Hey" he hissed. She looked at him in question. "Let me outta here would ya?"  
  
She hesitated. "Pirate right?"  
  
"Aye" he acknowledged.  
  
"Do you have a ship?" he shook his head sourly.  
  
She frowned. "There is only one way you can make it out of here without being caught and the harbor is not it." She told him cautiously.  
  
"How do I get out then?" he asked intently trying to get her to free him.  
  
"That'd be inland. Not that hot this time of year, but they'll be after you. Since you're to be hanged tomorrow."  
  
"What? Tomorrow?" he asked grinning, but a little upset that he wasn't informed.  
  
"Surely you know a last meal when you see one" she semi-answered him and set to work on his lock. When she had opened the door she passed the bone back to him again.  
  
Then they both silently climbed the stairs and took out the two guards at the door. But escape wasn't going to be that easy.  
  
They both sidled down the halls, looking around each corner before moving. As hard as Jack tried he could not match the stealth the girl walked with. She was as silent as cloud, which made Jack sound like an old seadog that had just found out there was no rum.  
  
He was just studying his feet when her hand shot out in front of him and brought him to a quick halt. There was a fast and hurried conversation in progress down the hall. Jack had no idea what was being said, since it was all in Spanish but the girl seemed to be listening.  
  
The conversation finished and both guards ran in opposite directions.  
  
She turned to him. "They've realized we're missing. We're gonna have to get outta here fast if we still want to avoid the noose."  
  
"You speak Spanish?" he asked slightly confused. She had no hint of an accent.  
  
She raised an eyebrow and darted across the hall, Jack followed. She seemed to know where she was going and he had been too drunk to see anything past his nose when he had been dragged through here.  
  
Finally she got to the front door, where she ducked behind a low wall-like pot plant. It was wide open, except for the thirty or so guards that patrolled it. Jack cursed softly but the youth beside him just sat and stared intently.  
  
"Ok, here's our chance to escape" she said motioning towards the hay cart in the outer garden. Jack looked at her quizzically, but she was already moving. Crawling along behind the flowerpot they were currently hiding behind. There was nowhere to go from here though. It was too big a space to get across without being seen and caught.  
  
It seemed that she had already thought of this though, since she was now shimmying up the curtain that covered the wall on the right.  
  
Jack wanted to swear out loud.  
  
He could not climb that, she didn't seem to notice as she carefully walked around the outer ledge that encircled the room. She made her way to the window and without a second glance dropped right off the building. He was never sure how she had managed to survive that but the next thing he saw was a very small hay cart driver yelling at a mule that appeared to be running away. The mule raced into the main room that Jack was still hiding in, and managed to drop a bundle of hay cart driver clothes, which were 'accidentally' kicked his way.  
  
As the guards went to assist, Jack was dressing in his gear and rising to take the mules reign, making it look like he had caught the animal. His escape-artist friend said nothing, just scolded the mule and went back to business.  
  
The guards stopped half way and returned to their guard duty.  
  
******************************************************* 


	2. Horses!

The creaky old hay cart rambled out of the gates; it was stopped at the gate to be thoroughly pitchforked. They were searching for two escaped prisoners, unfortunately the Spanish guards did not think to look under the extremely floppy hat of the tall cart driver.  
  
They took no notice of the dirty young driver girl; evidently out to see the fort with her father, by the look of wide-eyed excitement on her face.  
  
Besides a criminal would never be brave enough to go out in plain sight.  
  
Or would they.  
  
By the time they began to doubt, the hay cart was well into the city, and out the other side. Rumbling further inland.  
  
Once inside the cover of forest, sparse as it was, the girl dismounted and unhooked the mule.  
  
Then she turned it towards the city and slapped it into moving.  
  
Jack stared after the beast as it lumbered back down the road. Then he turned towards the youth, who was wrapping a piece of rope she had taken from the cart round her shoulder.  
  
"What'd ya do that for?" he asked in his usual impassive voice. She turned back to him, still sitting in the hay cart driver seat. She looked slightly surprised that he was still here.  
  
"I've got horses", she explained casually.  
  
"Ah, so you're gonna get the horses to pull the cart" he clarified, but she shook her head.  
  
"No, the cart is too slow. We'd be caught" she saw his slightly creased brow, "We're going to ride the horses" she said slowly.  
  
"What!" Jack yelped. "Oh no, I don't ride horses. Stupid animals" she arched an eyebrow at this and turned into the nearby bushes.  
  
"You don't have to come if you don't want to" she called back crisply. Jack turned back to the city and spotted a guard of about 12 men galloping up the road at breakneck speed. His eyes widened and he chased after the lock picking, hay cart stealing, half-crazy teenage girl.  
  
She wasn't far ahead; when he caught up she was taking pirate steps to get somewhere, although it all looked the same to Jack. She took eight right, then three right again and pushed back a few leaf litter to reveal a rope. Which she pulled hard on, lifting a door to a passage way in the orange cliff face in front of them both. She concealed the rope and entered.  
  
Jack followed without hesitation.  
  
**************************************************************** 


	3. Dan

He kept his hand on the wall on his left as he dogged her steps. There was the sound of a match being struck and then there was a lantern lit, leading the way ahead. Presently Jack became aware that the ground was sloping up.  
  
Finally he saw light ahead and the lantern was left on the ground. He stepped into the sunlight blinking. He was on a plateau and there was a herd of horses grazing here. There didn't seem to be a way down.  
  
"How'd they get up here?" he asked curiously.  
  
She tried to hide it from him. Her face closed up completely, and she answered seemingly casually.  
  
"Oh, the same way you did", her shoulders were extremely tensed.  
  
He flashed a grin. "You stole them all?" he couldn't help the smirk on his face; it was impressive. She spun fast and he almost instinctively went to block her slap, but she wasn't about to slap him, her arms were rigid at her side.  
  
She glared at him, then let out a high-pitched whistle and a brown horse stepped forward.  
  
He had forgotten how big these animals were and he leant back as it came closer. She took the beasts' nose and brought its head down to his eye level. There Jack saw what she meant. Its' face was horribly scarred, cut and burnt deliberately.  
  
"Stole or saved, I don't really care either way", was the only thing she said about where the horses came from.  
  
For the next hour Jack was taught to ride a horse. She helped him up onto a passive looking mare, which she saddled for him. He sat there for about three seconds and then slid off the other side.  
  
He fell in an ungraceful heap, spitting out the grass he had swallowed when he opened his mouth to yell. He half expected her to laugh, but she was merely waiting on the other side of the horse. Arms folded and mouth down turned. He sighed; he really hated horses.  
  
No matter how hard he tried he could not sit on the horse, let alone ride one. After falling off eight hundred times and getting very hot and bothered, the girl stopped him.  
  
"I think we'll start off smaller", she said decidedly and took the mare away.  
  
She came back with a pony, not much higher than most dogs he had seen. He searched her face for any sign of amusement. But if she felt any she hid it well. Somewhat begrudgingly he clambered on. It was small enough to allow for his feet to touch the ground on each side.  
  
She instructed him to dig in his heels and lean forward, he did so and to his surprise the animal started forwards. He immediately fell off.  
  
She finally cracked.  
  
With an impressive leap she jumped onto the ponys' back, positioned him in front of her and took the reigns. He was safe inside the barrier her arms made, and he soon got the feel of the creatures' movements. Then she passed the reigns to him. He was able to control the creature easily.  
  
She hardly weighed a thing, so he didn't feel it when she slid off the back of the creature, and soon he was riding by himself. Even if he didn't realize it.  
  
He rode in a circle and found the girl standing right in front of him. He nearly fell off in shock. She smiled up at him, and instructed him to get down. He went to do her bidding, but his foot got caught and he stumbled off, staggered sideways and fell flat on his back. He sat up with a groan.  
  
She stood over him and told him to choose a horse for himself. He looked up at her accusingly and she smiled brightly.  
  
Then she offered him a hand, which he took. "Dan" she said.  
  
"What?" he asked in confusion.  
  
"Danielle, but I'd rather Dan", he creased his brow in confusion then understood.  
  
"Ah, Jack, Captain Jack" he replied, emphasizing the word Captain. She looked at him quizzically.  
  
"You said you didn't have a ship." she stated.  
  
"Well, I .uh" he stuttered trying to think up some story.  
  
"You're in the market?" she said knowingly.  
  
He flashed her a metallic grin. "Aye, that I am".  
  
"Well Captain, I think you're ready to ride yourself a horse. Go ahead and choose one."  
  
Jack looked at the twenty or so beasts. Most looked mean spirited, too flighty or outright scared of him. He weaved his way through the animals. Finally he came to the stream that ran down the mountain, across the plateau and over the edge.  
  
Drinking here stood a roan coloured mare. He approached it cautiously. It didn't bolt or run. It merely watched him approach calmly. He now stood next to its side. It was watching him from over its shoulder.  
  
He gingerly placed one of his hands on its back, expecting it to spin and bite off one of his fingers any second. It continued to watch passively. The girl was also watching from the other side of the field. He patted its neck, and ran his hand up to its snout. Gently he clasped both sides of its face and led it back to the girl who was looking at the two in surprise.  
  
The good-natured beast stopped in front of her. He patted its neck, trying to keep it calm. So as to preserve his fingers and features.  
  
"What?" he asked as she continued to stare.  
  
"That one has never let me near her, always snapped and was generally bad tempered", she explained.  
  
He looked at the mare; it stared back at him with doleful eyes. The girls' assessment of the creature made him slightly paranoid. Was it a monster in disguise?  
  
"Don't worry, I may look too much like its' former master. That's all" she said indicating to the stripes that covered its back.  
  
"Whip" was her one word explanation.  
  
She then showed him how to saddle a horse and led him down the corridor, her horse in tow.  
  
"Where are we going?" he asked. He thought they'd spend the night on the plateau.  
  
"You're a pirate, I have a small boat on the northern side of the island. It's in a relatively calm bay, and it can be crewed by one man. It should take you at least half way across the Caribbean".  
  
He stared at the back of her head in the dark.  
  
"You're giving me a boat?" he was thoroughly shocked.  
  
"If it's still there. I probably won't use it, since they've never found me in the wilderness. It was a last resort that I can do without. Besides, I can't feed you as well as me. It's a nice way to get rid of you".  
  
He smiled widely. "Aye, a very nice way" he agreed  
  
She stopped her horse and told him to wait. Then she turned to her left and disappeared into a small hole that he hadn't noticed on the way in. She came out carrying some sort of bundle and continued forward. They got to the entrance and she opened the door. After the horses were safely through she slid it into place and concealed all signs of them having been there.  
  
Once they were in the sunlight and his eyes had adjusted, Jack noticed that she now wore a quiver of arrows and had a bow strung on her shoulder.  
  
He supposed that was how she caught her food, and it explained why her arms were strong.  
  
They rode for the better half of the day. Jack only fell off twice, and then got the hang of it. The horse was very steady; he liked that in a horse.  
  
Her clothing was well blended. He also noticed she rode with ease on her horse. A stallion of all things; strong proud and huge.  
  
She looked exceedingly small on it. It was brown in colour, with a few black patches randomly placed on it.  
  
He snorted at the disproportion of them both. She turned back at him questioningly.  
  
"You look ridiculous on such a big horse" he chuckled.  
  
She smiled, liking the insult. "Well at least mine's not pink!" she drawled at him.  
  
"Hey!" he yelped indignantly. "She is not pink".  
  
The teenager in front of him laughed lightly. "Is too" she retorted softly. Jack let it go.  
  
His horse wasn't pink! it was a red brown colour. The colour of expensive wood. He was so preoccupied with the thought of a pink horse that when he realized the girl had stopped it was too late, and his horse crashed into hers. She spun in her saddle to glare at him.  
  
"Hey, I didn't know how to stop" he said raising his hands in defense.  
  
"I think someone's out there", she said quietly.  
  
"What do you.?" Jack began but never finished the sentence.  
  
The bushes to his right rustled, and a figure burst out of them. He leant back to avoid the stranger knocking him out of his saddle; the green-clad man flew right past him.  
  
"Run!" she yelled and kicked her steed into a gallop. His horse reared as she felt the weight of her rider pull back.  
  
"No, No! Forward" he said and leant forwards, still vertical. The horse fell back onto her four hooves and charged ahead, after the girl who was already out of sight.  
  
The sensation of plummeting through the undergrowth at breakneck speed was not pleasant. Jack couldn't see anything, the trees whipped at his face and he had to duck all kinds of branches.  
  
He became aware of another horse beside him. It was white, and its rider was another green-clad man. He also, Jack noted in alarm, clutched a vicious looking knife in one hand. The white horse pulled closer to his, the man swiped at him. He threw his weight to the opposite side, only just avoiding the deadly weapon. The man pulled away to dodge an upcoming tree, then came back for another swipe. Unfortunately Jack still wasn't prepared for high-speed horse fights. When he tried to dodge the next attack he leant too far on one side and slid out of his saddle.  
  
He let out a scream and gripped the reigns as he tried to pull himself up. But every time he got close, the horse bumped and he slid back down. He continued to yell as he was thrown around, his beads clacking madly.  
  
Finally he got hold of the tall pointy bit at the front of his saddle, he'd forgotten what the girl called it, and clambered up. Two other horses and their riders now joined the white horse. One rider had a very sharp looking spear, which was currently aimed at his chest.  
  
The man leered at Jack from under his mop of curly brown hair. Jack only had enough time to register that he was dead this time, and that Barbossa still had his ship, when suddenly an arrow bloomed from his attackers chest. It was suddenly there, the man looked surprised as he slid from his saddle to hit the ground, roll a few times and remain still.  
  
The other two looked back at their fallen companion. As did Jack, who couldn't quite believe what had happened. Then they looked back at each other. The next one fell, the last one spun to look at the direction the arrows had come from; Jack looked too. It was Dan, she was firing arrows from her horses back. Jack found that amazing, he could barely even see while riding.  
  
Her next arrow was close but not quite. It buried itself into a tree trunk, which was right next to henchman 3's head. The man pulled off to the side and disappeared into the forest. Dan pulled up sharply and waited for Jack to catch up. He caught up, but kept going. He still didn't know how to stop.  
  
She chased after him, gaining on him quickly because her horse was faster and seemed hardly tired. She matched him stride for stride. Then leant over and gripped the reigns to his mare. She pulled back on them and the horse stopped as if it had struck a wall. Jack went flying from his saddle, right over the roans' head and roll/landed on the ground a good few feet away. It took him three seconds to get his bearings, then a few seconds more to realize he was unscathed. Then he began laughing.  
  
Laughing like he hadn't done in ages.  
  
Laughing hysterically and in wild abandon.  
  
He was all right, after that awful chase and crash-landing he was safely on the ground again. He spotted the young woman perched atop her brown stallion looking at him in concern.  
  
He giggled and sat up, then lay back down again as a wave of nausea swept through him. He felt like he wanted to be sick.  
  
He was still smiling when a twig snapped on his left; he turned to see a boot and when he looked up he was looking down the shaft of an arrow.  
  
His smile faded.  
  
There was a shout from the green clothed men as the girl threw herself from her horses saddle and rolled/ran into the bush. This was followed by the crashing sounds of her retreat. Four men followed in pursuit.  
  
The man with the arrow motioned him to his feet. He got up, his hands raised, then he was motioned to turn around and he felt the arrowhead nudge him in the back. He walked ahead of his captors, who appeared to speak Spanish.  
  
It was all quite frustrating really.  
  
*********************************************************** 


	4. Crazy Muchacho!

He ended up in a small clearing where a makeshift camp was set up. He could only count five of the men before he was led into a big camouflaged tent, and pressed into a chair next to a desk. Across the desk sat another man, who had white hair and a crooked nose.  
  
His clothes looked better, and they had some embroidery on them. Jack guessed he was a leader of some kind.  
  
The white haired man said something in Spanish. It sounded like a question. Jack nodded, completely unsure of what was just asked. The man said something else. Jack answered with, "Buenos Diaz", the only Spanish word he knew. The man across from him frowned. Then he snapped an order at one of his men, who left the tent.  
  
They sat in silence, the man looking Jack over. And Jack fidgeting under the gaze.  
  
The soldier finally returned with another soldier.  
  
"You speakas English?" the new man asked.  
  
"Yes", Jack answered. He wasn't sure where this was going.  
  
"You a know de girl you ride with?" Jack figured they were talking about Dan.  
  
"Yes" he replied, feeling like a parrot who knew only one word.  
  
"Where she hide?" he asked.  
  
Jack decided he should try to talk his way out.  
  
"Well mate, what kinda gentleman would I be to know where a lady abodes, I ain't never been to her house and I was never invited there. She keeps secrets like every other girl I ever met, I only stumbled across 'er ya know, pure luck. See I stole one of 'er 'orses and she was trying ta shoot me but your men got in tha way tha's all" he said quickly, hoping to lose the man who had a poor grip on the English language.  
  
The translator glared at him and he smiled, once again flashing his teeth. There was a shout from outside and the flap to the tent opened to emit a soldier who said something in Spanish. The white-haired man rose and followed the man outside.  
  
Dan was standing on the edge of the camp; five dead men lay sprawled around her, arrows protruding from their chests. She swung the arrow to lock onto Jacks motley crew. The old man whistled and eight men appeared, arrows on strings, all locked onto her. The man shouted something, which was evidently 'drop your weapon you're surrounded'. She looked rather angry as she threw down her bow and arrow.  
  
Possibly because she was caught or because she had been trapped. The white- haired man motioned his troops forward and they disarmed her of her knives, boots (which were full of knives), and her quiver. She kept her hands on her head while they did this.  
  
"Why'd ye come back?" Jack hissed as she was ushered into the tent with him.  
  
"They had my bag and horse" she shrugged.  
  
He didn't have a reply to this so he shut up. They were both seated across from the general, who stood across from them. His hands were clenched in fists and he leant on them, leaning towards the captives.  
  
This, in Jacks' experience, was never a good sign.  
  
The man fired a string of Spanish words. He sounded very angry and the fast pace of his language made it seem even more aggravated.  
  
When he had quite finished he glared at the two, both leaning as far away from him as the chairs allowed. His face was so red it looked like it was going to explode.  
  
"I say, I think I've made him slightly annoyed" Dan commented dryly in an exaggerated English accent. Jack grinned; it was funny, even though it was so serious.  
  
"What'd he say?" he asked her, very keen on knowing what he was being accused of.  
  
"How should I know! He's speaking Spanish!"  
  
"I thought you knew Spanish?!" Jack said slightly surprised.  
  
"What gave you THAT idea? I can't speak a word of it other than muchacho!"  
  
"Really? What does muchacho mean?" Jack said as if increasing his Spanish vocabulary was the only thing he had to do.  
  
She went to answer but was cut short as the general slammed his hand onto the desk. She looked at him in annoyance and Jack looked at him questioningly. It seemed that this was not the response he had wanted. He barked at the translator, who nodded and turned to the two.  
  
"The command-her wants to know wheres you keep your horses?" the man said slowly. Emphasizing the white haired mans position.  
  
"Why, what makes him think I have horses?" Dan said lightly, trying to bluff her way out of it.  
  
"De Command-her is been up the mountain and he is seen your horse paddock" the man explained with clipped endings on all his words.  
  
"Ah, I see" she answered. Jack could almost hear the clogs in her mind spinning into hyper-drive.  
  
"If, and I mean if I had horses what would he want with them?" she asked cautiously.  
  
"De Command-her and his men are low on horses and need more" the man explained crudely.  
  
Her different colored eyes narrowed. "Then I don't have any horses, do I?" she said huffily. The very suggestion that they could just rob her was ludicrous. She wouldn't stand for it.  
  
The commander spoke to the translator who relayed what had just happened.  
  
He stood and instead of getting into a huffing rage he smiled.  
  
Jack resisted the urge to get out of his chair and run.  
  
The commander said something that sounded all too convinced. The translator spoke.  
  
"You will give us the horses or it will be bad for you" he said solemnly.  
  
Unfortunately it seemed Dan was extremely stubborn when it came to her possessions.  
  
"Oooh NOW I'm scared" was her reply.  
  
The translator had a poor grip on the English language; but it seemed that he knew sarcasm when he heard it.  
  
The general did as well. He clicked his fingers, said something in the gibberish Jack didn't understand and both prisoners were escorted outside the tent. They were then led in different directions. Jack had to be dragged, which he thought was funny. Dan however was walking stiffly ahead of her guards and snapped at them when they touched her.  
  
Jack ended up in another tent. It was smaller, had a thin rug, was on a dirt floor and guards patrolled the perimeter every few seconds.  
  
He sighed.  
  
**************************************************************  
  
The sun made its way across the sky. It was now late afternoon; the tent was red from the suns glow.  
  
Jack was half dozing. It had been very quiet; almost too quiet the guards outside his tent had not even talked to each other.  
  
He was musing over how Dan would be taking this. And when she was going to crack. He was sure she would after a while. She was only a girl after all, albeit a murderess thief girl, but still a girl all the same.  
  
Then there was a shout across the camp. One of the guards stuck his head in the tent, saw Jack then answered the shout. There was noise all over the camp, people running, hurried feet and hurried talk.  
  
Through the thick of the rush Jack heard the Generals voice yelling commands. He grinned. It sounded like someone had escaped.  
  
Two guesses who.  
  
The racket died down as the soldiers disappeared into the forest looking for Dan. Since she had shot a great deal of them one of Jacks guards left too. The remaining guard circled his tent continuously, leaving no room for him to escape. As if he would anyway, the general had his effects. He watched the guards silhouette walk around him again and again. He also watched as the skulking smaller silhouette crept up behind the guard and sprung, twisting his neck. The bigger silhouette fell and didn't get up.  
  
Dan entered the tent.  
  
Her face was a mess. She had a nasty bruise on her left cheekbone, a split lip and there was a red stain where she had wiped away blood that had trickled down her face.  
  
"Hello, dropped in for a spot of tea?" he asked mockingly. He was slightly nervous of the way she had just killed that guard.  
  
She rolled her eyes.  
  
"Shut up you, we're getting out of here", she said good-naturedly and pulled out the guards' knife. He hadn't seen her silhouette take that.  
  
"How?" he asked.  
  
"Same way I did, we dig a hole big enough for you to sit in and then cover it with the rug. You underneath, they look in. You appear to have gone, they search the forest for you. We steal back my boots and then the horses and ride to your ship. That's that everybody's happy", she said joyfully.  
  
He grinned. And people said he was mad.  
  
"Right, let's do it then" he said enthusiastically and set about digging his hole.  
  
Dan sliced a flap in the tent wall to make it look like he had escaped.  
  
******************************************************** 


	5. In the absence of rum

Half an hour later the guards returned and saw their fallen companion. By now Dan would have filled her hole on the off chance it was discovered and Jack found. She would be up a tree somewhere.  
  
Jack crouched in his hole, the dirt making it hard to breathe in without inhaling half the ground. He heard the tent flap swish, a guard shouted and the hubbub began all over again. More people looked in his tent, the General started shouting and then everything died down.  
  
Jack crawled out from under his cover.  
  
It was now nighttime. Everything was visible though, since it was a full moon. The ground was almost clear as day. Jack scuttled towards the generals tent hurriedly. For a while he was on a flat open area and easily visible. But he made it okay.  
  
He went around the back, since the temperamental man would surely have hid his things in that desk of his.  
  
Jack silently knelt down, gripped his knife and slit the tent so that he could crawl through. He sheathed his knife in his belt and made to enter.  
  
Then he felt the hand come down on his shoulder.  
  
He froze. He even stopped breathing. Slowly he turned his head and saw a dark figure looming over him, he was currently crouched on the ground, and not in the position to run for it.  
  
He went to stand up but the figure pushed him down.  
  
His breath hitched in his chest.  
  
"Hurry up, we have to run for it while under the cover of darkness" Dan breathed into his ear. Her breath tickled terribly but Jack just continued on his recovery mission. The generals' tent was dark; the moons light didn't penetrate it so the whole thing was almost pitch black.  
  
Jack crept across the plush carpet to the desk, he knelt down fumbled for the drawer handle, found it and silently slid it out. He reached in and his hand immediately closed around his effects.  
  
He smiled grimly; revenge was still within reach.  
  
The girls' boots were here too.  
  
He passed the boots out, they felt like the were filled with metal.  
  
He strapped on his goods, even in the dark, and crawled out of the tent. Dan led him towards the post where all the horses were tied.  
  
She went straight to work freeing the beasts. Jack frowned; he could have sworn there had been a guard here earlier.  
  
He looked down at his feet to see a dark patch seeping into the sand. He shuddered, his arms getting goosebumps despite the warm evening.  
  
He hadn't even realized she had left.  
  
She hissed from the other end of the fence.  
  
"Come on".  
  
He responded and walked over to her. She boosted him onto his horse, then she told him to walk the mare as quietly as possible into the forest on the right, while she released the horses ahead. Jack nodded and nudged his horse in the desired direction. The horse complied, the sound of her hooves muted by the sandy turf.  
  
Once in the safety of the trees Jack sighed softly.  
  
It had been far too long without rum.  
  
************************************************************* 


	6. What goes up

There was a scream of a horse and a sudden stampede started, the horses rushed away, frightened by whatever it was that Dan had done. They galloped past with a noise like thunder. Dan melted out of the darkness next to him. Her black patched stallion darker than darkness itself. Jack turned to her.  
  
"We ride now, if anyone gets in the way trample them. Just don't stop, your horse enjoys that sort of thing anyway."  
  
Then her horse reared up and she sped forward, leaving a pale dust trail behind her.  
  
Jack shook his head and chased after her retreating back.  
  
***************************************************  
  
He hated to gallop through the forest during day, but at night he had no warning or heed of his certain death. He was forced to trust his horses' good sense. Which he had not much faith in at all. He wanted to yell endlessly, but the need for silence weighted his breath.  
  
Needless to say he did not enjoy the sensation.  
  
He heard faint yells up ahead and peeked over his horses' mane.  
  
Dan had met up with the trackers, who had just pulled up a net; unfortunately they were not prepared for her fast approach. The stallion bore down on them, showing no intentions of stopping.  
  
Only three of the six stood their ground and hoisted the net higher as she approached. The stallions' long strides covered the ground and just when it seemed like both horse and rider would tumble and break their necks the powerful beast leapt off the forest floor and sailed flawlessly over the half ready net, it landed on the other side. Skidding for only a second and then resuming its run.  
  
Jacks' mouth hang open for a few seconds, then the more immediate problem of how he was going to make the net hit him.  
  
"No, no stop" he said through gritted teeth as he heaved back on the reins in a desperate attempt to stop and change direction.  
  
He was alone. He hadn't really expected Dan to stay, or had he?  
  
Sometimes he wondered.  
  
He should have learnt his lesson by now. He was supposed to rely on no one but himself.  
  
The horse spun, just in time. She rose to her back feet and kicked out at the men around her. They encircled her, raising their hands in an attempt to calm the beast. But Jacks' mare would not be calmed, she reared again and again and struck out, while Jack clung on to her for dear life.  
  
He could not die yet, he had to kill Barbossa, this was not happening.  
  
There was a wild yell, that sounded like some sort of battle cry and Dan came crashing out of the forest. She fell upon the forest hunters, like a demon upon her enemies.  
  
The hell bound stallion kicked both back and front, Dan hung on tightly yelling fiercely and only adding to the chaos.  
  
The men parted and the stallion gave chase trampling one to the ground. Jack didn't look down at the mangled body. He wasn't sure he could stomach it.  
  
"Move!" she yelled at him and he turned his horse and jumped into a run in any direction he could. She was racing along side him, swerving under the few tree branches that hung low enough to knock her off her horse. Jack spared a glance at her.  
  
She smiled at him from her horses back, her teeth gleaming in the moonlight, and Jack realized with a shock that she was actually enjoying this.  
  
Her head spun to the left, then to the right and then she looked behind her. She grimaced.  
  
"What?" he shouted over the noise of his mares' hooves.  
  
"They're driving us to the cliff. The horses won't make it; we have to get out and quickly. When I say, jump off your horse, don't stop her let her keep running."  
  
"Did you say CLIFF!" he shouted in alarm as she screamed out; "NOW!"  
  
Jack was still clinging desperately to his horse; he was slightly in shock. What was she talking about?  
  
He looked at the ground beneath him, and then he looked slightly ahead. His heart stopped and his mind froze. There was no ground in front of him, his horse tensed beneath him he felt her muscles bunch.  
  
He couldn't even scream he was going to die terrified.  
  
Then an arm snaked around his chest and he was yanked full out of his saddle, his head reeling as he was jerked violently backwards.  
  
In front of him his horse reached the ridge, then with an impressive leap she flung herself over the ravines' edge.  
  
He stared open mouthed, as he hung in the air in Dan's grip. One of her arms wrapped around his chest the other gripping a tree branch.  
  
He still stared open-mouthed even as his horse made the other side. The stallion still by her side.  
  
*****************************************  
  
"Climb up" Dan gritted into his ear. The strain of holding him up was getting to her.  
  
Jack came back to himself. The guards were right behind them.  
  
He stretched up, grabbed the branch and pulled himself up easily.  
  
Dan pulled herself up too, but more slowly. He watched intently, as she moved, so slowly, along the branch. Every move seemed to pain her. She shimmied across the branch until she sat with a sigh, where the branch met the trunk. Here she leant against the tree.  
  
She seemed completely unworried by the rapid gain of her enemies below and unfazed by the fact that both horses had left. In fact she appeared to be half asleep from where Jack was crouched in the tree.  
  
He was having a difficult time staying in the tree. He was shaky from adrenaline loss and the tree did not sway like the riggings of a ship.  
  
He crawled slowly over to her, keeping a firm hold on the branch below him. When he was three feet in front of her he looked up from the branch he had been so intent on, and realized that she was not asleep, the moonlight reflecting off her eyes proved that, her eyes were merely half open.  
  
She gazed at him from under her lidded eyes. Actually they were slits rather than eyes and Jack had the huge urge to shudder. In some ways she seemed scarier than any demon Jack could imagine.  
  
Or perhaps what scared him most was that Jack; who was adept at judging character, could not place her. She was strange, unpredictable and violent at times.  
  
He had just settled himself into a bough meets trunk nook when he realized whom he had just described. He smiled somewhat ruefully to himself that, with an ironic twist he enjoyed, he had found what it must feel like for a person to meet him.  
  
Personally he didn't care for the feeling that robbed him of all sense of readiness.  
  
It seemed that he had changed a great deal. This whole adventure he had had so far seemed to consist of yelling and blundering around. Which was most unlike him.  
  
He only just managed to resist the sigh on his lips as the hunters crept stealthily into the bush below him. They moved like dark shadows across the forest floor, scouring it like ants as they searched all hiding places for Jack and Dan. Who both sat silently above them, watching their enemies make fools of themselves.  
  
* "They weren't on the horses. There is no way they could have made it otherwise" one spoke quietly.  
  
*"Sir, one of the men was trampled by the stallion. The girl managed to break up the net and a few are injured. We found Tulio with an arrow through his eye. She must've chased him down" one of them said after coming up behind the first one that had spoken.  
  
Jack couldn't tell what was being said since he could not speak Spanish, something that was really starting to annoy him, but he got the main idea when one of them dragged up the body of a companion and dumped him at the feet of the person who was evidently in charge.  
  
The body was rolled onto its back and Jack was treated to a full view of a horrible eye wound.  
  
The leader and those he was talking to, moved off still whispering to each other, and someone else replaced them. The other shadow-shrouded figure stood directly below the branch that Jack and Dan were resting on.  
  
"That girl is a menace and a beast" he said quietly to himself and walked away. Jack blinked and then realized it was the translator, which had actually spoken a whole English sentence.  
  
Jack looked again at Dan; she was asleep. Breathing quietly and perfectly still.  
  
He stared impassively at her, just checking that she was indeed asleep and not watching him still. Then her face was illuminated by the moonlight that filtered through the tree branches as the wind gentle pushed them aside.  
  
There was no gleam of eyes; she really was asleep. Although her breathing was rather shallow for someone delving deep in sleep.  
  
Jack scooted closer, listening hard to her breathing pattern. It was irregular and hitched if she inhaled too deeply. He frowned. He was no doctor but he knew when something was wrong. One of her arms was lying limply on her lap and Jack tried to look closer without waking her.  
  
The men below had cleared off, by the sounds of it they were returning to their camp.  
  
Jack supposed that Dan meant to sleep in the tree. But he wasn't so sure that he wouldn't roll out of it in his sleep, so he soon became restless. Sitting there was extremely boring and soon Jack became painfully aware of Dan' breathing pattern since it was all he could hear in the cool night stillness.  
  
There was most definitely something wrong. Finally the boredom caught up with Jack and so he decided to snap away a twig from above and poke her resting arm. He thought that if she didn't feel it then it must be broken.  
  
He poked it once rather gently and she immediately jerked awake and sucked in her breath sharply as if pained her. Definitely not broken then, Jack thought grimly as she turned to stare at him.  
  
"What?" she asked sounding annoyed. Jack blinked, how was he going to explain this?  
  
"You've hurt your arm", he stated bluntly. She stared at him.  
  
"I have NOT hurt my arm", she said moving it off her lap where it flopped ungraceful next to her.  
  
Jack continued to frown at her, and for the first time he seemed to be making her uncomfortable by his gaze. She returned it; but her eyes were fidgety and they didn't hold the cold angry kind of look they always did.  
  
"Give me the arm", said Jack, stretching out his hand expectantly.  
  
"No" she said sharply and held the arm to her chest like it was an infant.  
  
"Give it", he said trying to pull it away from her chest. She immediately started to squirm away from his grasp. What followed was a silent struggle against stubborn girl, and determined pirate.  
  
Suddenly Dans' eyes widened in shock as she felt herself and Jack plummet from the tree to the awaiting ground below. Unfortunately their small battle had edged closer and closer towards the edge of the rather broad tree branch, until finally the couple had fallen right off the edge, Dan backwards Jack almost on top of her.  
  
On an instinct, she reached her good arm out to see if she could grab anything to stop her fall. And perhaps unfortunately she did find a handhold.  
  
Her arm was twisted the wrong way around, so her hand was palm down. So as soon as she came into contact with the branch her hand clasped around it and held fast. Jack was still stuck to her arm. Partly because he hadn't realized he was still holding it but mostly out of numb fear.  
  
This all happened in a blur, one second safely on a tree branch, the next halfway to the ground.  
  
Anyway, Jack could see the painfully solid ground right below him when Dans' arm snagged the smaller tree branch. She swung backwards, Jack holding onto her injured arm tightly.  
  
Jack had of course been yelling a single swear word the whole fall, so he didn't hear the small pop and squishy sound that occurred as Dan took the full brunt of Jack and her as well as gravities momentum onto one arm.  
  
But he did hear the excruciating yell that Dan let out as he pulled on her injured arm and as her once good arm was yanked clean from its socket.  
  
The pain was too much for Dan, nor could she hold the weight. She let go almost immediately and they both continued their descent to the ground, where they landed upon the leaf littered forest floor with a soft rustling and a hard 'oof'.  
  
But their fall had been broken by Dans' interference so Jack was basically unharmed. Maybe a bruised shoulder, which had hit the ground first and taken his full weight. He slowly rolled onto his hands and knees with a groan and shuffled his way through the leaves to where Dan had fallen. She was partly covered by the brown, orange and red leaves from many autumns before.  
  
He got closer to her, and saw something that made his heart stop in his chest. Dan was still, very very still.  
  
And there was a thin trickle of blood coming from the corner of her mouth. Jack almost stopped breathing. When blood was coming out of someone's mouth they were either dead, or had been hurt somewhere in the head and where never the same again.  
  
He reached out and wiped away the blood trail, and to his sheer relief he felt where she had bit her lip. So she had merely bit into her lip, and was still fine. He had only just registered this when she sucked in a huge gulp of air. Her stomach heaving as she could once again draw breath.  
  
So she had only been winded.  
  
If he had been a religious man Jack would've thanked God, instead he thanked his lucky stars.  
  
With the return of oxygen she awoke. Her eyes fluttered half open and she let out a soft moan.  
  
From under her heavily lidded eyes, Jack saw her pupils swivel to look at him.  
  
"Now are you going to tell me you're fine?" he asked raising one of his eyebrows and flashing her a grin. Although he was still feeling shaky and sick from the pure adrenaline and fear that had assaulted him as he had fallen into the darkness below, and then found Dan the way she was.  
  
She gave a weak smile and attempted to sit up and maintain a shred of her dignity. But as soon as she got half an inch off the ground a wave of nausea overcame her and she flopped back down panting.  
  
Then her mind started to work and she attempted to ask a question, which took three tries to get her voice working. And once it did, it was thin and wispy.  
  
"Were we heard? Have the soldiers gone?" she asked only slightly worried, and more concerned about the fact she couldn't feel her fingers on either hand.  
  
"No, I think they all left luv" Jack reassured her. Now showing his many colored teeth.  
  
She gave a tiny sigh, which ended sharply as she sucked her breath through her teeth from the pain of it.  
  
Jack frowned. Surely an arm wound wouldn't affect her breathing  
  
"I'm gonna have to look at that arm luv" he crooned softly. Hoping that she wouldn't protest again. Surely not, after all that.  
  
She nodded sharply once, and with a grim determined look on her face she turned her head away. Not wanting to see what he would do.  
  
He grimaced. Pitying her for what she was about to go through.  
  
The arm that had tried to stop their fall was dislocated. He could see that right away. The other was hurt too. Whatever had been wrong before was now worsened.  
  
Gently he picked up the dislocated arm, where it was right next to her. She was amazingly un-tense about it. He chanced a glance at her face and realized that she had fainted dead away from the pain, as soon as he had touched her arm.  
  
He then rotated the arm until it was straight out from her shoulder, and then brought it a little more towards her. When he thought it was right he shoved it as hard as he could back into the socket of her shoulder.  
  
She gave a soft sound of pain, although her mouth was tightly shut. He grimaced again as he moved the arm around again. Rotating it in its' newly re-found socket.  
  
She was now breathing heavily, the pain still lingering although most likely lessened.  
  
He put the arm down. He would see to bandaging later, he had done all he could for now.  
  
Instead he moved to her other arm. There seemed nothing at all wrong with it. Jack considered the limb, before hoisting it up to eye level by holding the elbow. He took the wrist, looked down at the unconscious Dan, and then rotated it only a little. Her face twisted in agony unguarded. And Jack experienced the horrible feeling of her arm bone splinter away beneath his fingers.  
  
He pulled a face of pain for her. Ouch, was the only thing that sprung to mind. In all his years at sea he had never learnt how to fix a fractured bone. He supposed she would just have to not use it for a while. At least until the swelling went down.  
  
Looking around himself for a bandage or something similar to make a sling of sorts he realized that there wasn't one. if this place had been a ship he'd have one. He looked at his vest, the one he had stolen from a Spanish man in a bar before he had been arrested, what seemed like weeks ago. It was rather tacky, and he decided he didn't need it, so he shrugged out of it and ripped it into shreds. Which he tied together where necessary to make a good strong sling.  
  
Satisfied with his handiwork, he applied it to his still fainted patient, so that both arms where incapacitated. He grinned at the reaction she'd have when she found out, and was pleased with the fact that he could climb a tree to get away from her; she most definitely wouldn't be able to follow.  
  
He chuckled softly to himself.  
  
He then sat next to her amongst the dead and dieing leaves, waiting for her to regain her senses. He was sure she would soon. Since even now she was stirring.  
  
The cool night was filled with the sounds of crickets, and the silent glow of the stars above made it almost magical, despite where he was and all that had happened.  
  
Dan came to groggily. She felt like hell to say the least and the grinning face of Jack Sparrow that assaulted her vision as soon as she could see clearly was not the most welcoming of sights.  
  
"Aww, damnation. Am I still here?" she asked trying hard to keep the pain out of her voice. Jacks' grin broadened and he answered her question with annoying chirpiness.  
  
"Aye, you're still here and I am glad to see you're happy ta see me" he said grinning maniacally.  
  
She didn't bother replying to his statement and sat up with his help. She looked at him, crouched in front of her and watching her like a hawk.  
  
"What?" she asked in annoyance "What are you staring at.?" her question died as she looked down at her arms. Both in slings and secured tightly enough to stop her from escaping their restraints.  
  
Jack watched in a kind of breathless anticipation, wondering how she would take this.  
  
Her first reaction was surprise, then dismay at the situation, followed quickly by insurmountable rage, frustration, a hybrid of anger and self pity, then resignation and finally acceptance.  
  
The pirate captain watched them all flicker across her face almost faster than the time it took him to recognize them.  
  
When she looked at up him again her face was hurriedly schooled to calm indifference.  
  
Then quite unexpectedly she gained her feet as easily as if she had floated to them. Jack blinked as she started forwards.  
  
"Don't stand there gawking, or we'll never get you to that blasted boat" she called over her shoulder impatiently.  
  
Jack blinked again. Women, no matter how much time he spent around them he would never even begin to conceive how to understand them.  
  
He followed mutely. Watching her stumble on some hidden tree branch and the miraculously regain her balance without the use of her arms.  
  
He grinned for the next hour and a half. 


	7. Revelation

**************************************************************  
  
For the next few hours before sunrise Jack and Dan trudged along the forest floor heading in some kind of direction. Jack didn't know which because of all the blasted trees, but he supposed it didn't matter. They were on an island after all, and islands have ocean on all sides.  
  
Just as the sky was turning gray, and there was the sound of waking birdcalls, Dan stopped.  
  
"Okay, we'll. stop here for. now" she panted, which was strange since they had been walking at a very slow pace, and Dan usually almost ran everywhere.  
  
So Jack threw himself against a tree, rested his back against its base and fell into a doze. Well, not right away. For a short while before he finally blacked out, he watched Dan as she settled herself against a tree across from him. She crossed her legs and sank slowly to the ground, wincing slightly before finding herself on the ground with her legs crossed. Jacks' last image of her was a small rather battered looking girl, leaning against a tree and craning her neck to look at the sky.  
  
Then he was dozing lightly.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
It seemed only seconds before Jack was awake.  
  
There had been a noise, he was sure of it.  
  
There it was again. It sounded like someone sneaking up on the two sleepers.  
  
Jack looked at Dan; her eyes were open and alert. He opened his mouth to tell her that he thought it coming from behind her, when she shook her head slightly. So Jack shut up, and tried to breathe normally, as if asleep.  
  
It appeared Dan did the same. The noise drew closer, and closer.  
  
Then it stopped.  
  
The forest returned to normal, the birds and insects that had been quiet started to again call. Still Jack and Dan didn't move. Slowly Jack relaxed, everything was back to normal.  
  
The pirate looked at the girl across from him, she stared back openly, frowning slightly.  
  
Without warning a hand sprung from behind the tree she was leaning against. It clapped over her mouth as another arm held her stomach.  
  
Jack let out a yell of surprise and challenge as he sprang to his feet. The sneak of a kidnapper stepped out from behind the tree, one arm around Dans neck, the other around her middle, clutching her to him.  
  
The captor was a smarmy middle-aged man, with hardly any teeth and stringy brown hair with a scraggly beard.  
  
He grinned at Jack over Dans shoulder. Jack froze in his tracks at the look he was receiving. Then his survival instincts kicked in and he dodged just in the nick of time as a second attacker swung at him with his fist.  
  
Jack ducked again, and rolled to the right. He looked up to see the man stagger at the lack of contact, and using this opportunity, he snatched a glance at Dan.  
  
She was having to inhale the mans odor far too much and she was agitated. But once the second man showed himself and there didn't appear to be anymore she grinned maliciously and Jack blinked, and promptly moved away from Dan as a feral look crossed over her face and her eyes went flinty.  
  
With a wicked grin the wounded girl kicked the man that held her in the face with her boot tip. He had not been expecting that since it meant her leg was pressed against her chest. It caught him square on the nose and he let out a yell of pain and surprise, as he staggered back and alerted his friend. The second man turned from Jack and full on charged at his companion.  
  
He took a swing at Dans head, which she ducked causing the man that was supposed to be aiding his friend to hit the smarmy man in the jaw. While she was down and between the two men, Dan rammed her shoulder into the second mans stomach/groin and threw him back to the leaf cover ground. There he clutched his winded stomach and hiccupped a few times. However the first man was now recovered and in his right hand he wielded a knife.  
  
He thrust at Dan, and she sidestepped only just avoiding it. He then swung at her middle so that she could not duck nor jump without the use of her arms. Instead she fell to the forest floor and kicked the mans legs from under him, when he fell she kicked the knife away and kicked him in the face with her boot heel.  
  
This time his head cracked back and he lay limp.  
  
Dan attempted to stand; she rolled onto her knees, and began to rise. Unfortunately the second man, now clutching the knife, was standing over her. As soon as she was on her knees, she saw the unfamiliar pair of boots right in front of her, and threw herself side ways again to avoid the blow. The man aimed a kick at her as she scooted away. He contacted Dans ribs, which caused the girl to roll onto her back, and curl slightly in pain.  
  
The bloodthirsty man tightened his grip on the knife and went to drive it into her chest when Jack slammed into him with full force. The man stumbled and fell to the ground, Jack on top of him.  
  
The pirate captain punched the man in the back of the head, then lifted his head by his hair and punched him again. This time rendering him unconscious.  
  
Getting off the man he went to help Dan to her feet.  
  
When he reached her he found that she was still breathing hard, only slightly aware that the threat of her attacker was gone.  
  
When he drew close enough her eyes locked onto him, they were glazed with pain.  
  
"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.  
  
Her eyes sharpened a little at the question and he could see her struggling to breathe normally enough to answer.  
  
"I'm fine" she croaked, and tried to sit up. Which caused her to spasm slightly, so she lay back down. Jacks' eyebrows knitted together in concern.  
  
"He got you in the ribs didn't he?" he asked mildly, a thought starting to bloom in his mind.  
  
"Yeah, but it's okay, just a little winded that's all" she assured him. Still breathing erratically.  
  
Jack highly doubted that. If she had been winded for this long she'd be dead by now.  
  
But all of a sudden he was thinking over her pained actions the last couple of days.  
  
He immediately reached out before she could defend herself, and poked her sharply in the ribs. She winced and pulled away. His suspicions were confirmed. "Oh" was all he said, as the sky lightened and dawn peaked its' first golden rays into the heavens.  
  
**************************************************************** 


	8. Capture

****************************************************************  
  
"Ye've had broken ribs since the fall?" he asked accusingly, giving her a look of righteous annoyance. Much like the look a father would give a daughter when she erred.   
  
She squeezed her eyes shut from both pain and the desire to block out Jacks kohl rimmed eyes, which were filled with a look of such reprimand that she felt uncomfortable. It had been long since anyone had worried over her and she felt very uneasy about the whole affair.   
  
"No wonder you were acting like an ol' woman" he muttered as he went about fixing her broken ribs and bruises as best he could.   
  
Fortunately Dan was somewhat learned in the healing properties of plants around here. And as a result she just rubbed some sticky stuff on her bruises and together they bandaged her ribs. This time with a roll of bandages Dan kept in her boot.  
  
Jack raised an eyebrow at this discovery but Dan just shrugged it off.  
  
They traveled the rest of the day. When they finally rested for the night they were at the foot of a mountain.   
  
Dan was adamant that they had to cross it. Jack disliked the idea greatly.  
  
"Look" she insisted. "Once you're over, the ocean is not one mile away. Your ship awaits you… and it is easy traveling once you're over."  
  
They had been having this debate for the last half an hour, it wasn't so much the mountain… well it was the mountain actually. If they got into this much trouble in a forest that was practically peaceful, think of a mountain hike… Jack shuddered at the idea, but it seemed Dan knew what to press to get her way with him. The boat.  
  
"You'd be sailing again in little more than four weeks," she promised assuredly.   
  
Jack sighed in defeat. While Dan smiled contentedly. How was she going to climb a mountain without the use of her arms anyway?  
  
He sprawled himself on the ground and tried to sleep. But he couldn't. The small fire crackled merrily, there was minimum bug attacks and the ground was covered with soft leaves. But sleep wouldn't grace him with its presence.   
  
After turning every which way, he finally turned to Dan.  
  
She was lying on her back, completely at ease (he noted resentfully). The salve seemed to be doing its work.   
  
"Those men back there didn't look like the ones we met before" he let the statement hang.   
  
Dan grunted. "They weren't, they belonged to an outlaw tribe" she said sleepily.  
  
"Ah" Jack said as if he understood completely. She sighed.  
  
"The island is divided up into four different groups; the city and all its people, the military camp, which you have already had the pleasure of visiting, and an outlaw tribe. Which the military camp hunts."   
  
Jack frowned from across the fire. "That's only three…"  
  
Dan gave a lopsided smile, not bothering to sit up. "The other group is me," she said softly. But Jack heard.  
  
"The men we just met were from the outlaw tribe" she hurried on.  
  
Jack turned questioning eyes on Dan. "What did they want?" he asked curiously.  
  
"Who knows, my horses, money we may have been carrying or some other unsavory thought" she answered casually, sleep plaguing her mind.  
  
"So it's you, the Spanish military and a group of cutthroat outlaws fighting it out in this forest?"  
  
She gave an affirmative grunt.   
  
After his roguish grin slipped off his face he turned serious eyes onto her lax figure.   
  
"Why?" he asked confused. "Why don't you just ignore the fighting? Or leave the island to bigger lands. You can't hide forever…" he ventured wondering if she would just ignore him now that she seemed asleep.  
  
She cracked an eye open to regard him. As if deciding whether or not to tell him. "I can't ignore the fighting, because if one side wins they will focus their full attention on me; as for leaving. No. I shouldn't have to; besides how would I get all those horses across the Caribbean? I'd prefer to stay" and with that her eyes snapped shut and she turned away.   
  
Jack sighed. "You could just leave the horses". But he got no response from the girl.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Jack awoke in the early hours of the morning. Dan was already up. The fire had died and now only thin wisps of smoke came out of the ashes of last night's light.   
  
"Good morning Captain" she chirped grinning a huge grin. Jack was taken aback.   
  
The last time he saw her smile was when she was about to kick someone in the face and the time before that she had just trampled someone with her horse.   
  
Her cheesy grin only widened at his nervous reaction. "Have some breakfast, we have a big day ahead of us." She said as she handed him something that was burnt on the outside so he could not guess what it was.   
  
Jack studied the charcoal coated substance, which was as long as his pinkie finger and then looked at Dan suspiciously. "What is it?" he asked slowly.  
  
Dans' grin did not fade; it appeared she expected him to ask that question.   
  
"Trust me, you don't want to know" she said in her cheerful manner.  
  
Jack flashed a metallic grin, "Aye, I probably don't" and without any hesitation put the thing in his mouth and chewed.   
  
At first all he tasted was charcoal, then after biting into the thing a few times he tasted some kind of meat. Almost like chicken. It didn't have any bones or gizzards that he could taste so he swallowed it and smiled at Dan again.   
  
They were on their way up the mountain not ten minutes later.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
The first part of their mountain climb was just walking uphill through sparse forest. It got thinner and thinner as they ascended. Soon the trees were far enough apart to see where exactly they were heading.   
  
Which appeared to be up.  
  
The mountain just kept rising. Jack felt sickened by the look of it. But Dan was unfazed and continued to plod up the steep incline.   
  
After three days they were halfway up. Jack cursed the mountain with every step.   
  
It had got blisteringly colder.   
  
They could no longer get a fire starting, so they wrapped themselves in their clothes and huddled into themselves.   
  
It was now he wished he had kept the tacky coat he had borrowed from the Spanish drunk.   
  
Jack had suggested they huddle together, but had been unable to keep the cheeky grin from his face. The moment he had approached (it was a cold night) she had looked at his face for three seconds, guessed what he was about to say and flatly refused.  
  
So they continued the miserable cold journey. It hadn't snowed so far, something Jack was eternally grateful for. But the clouds only darkened the further up they went.   
  
Everyday Jack expected to wake to nothing but white numbness and wonder if he was dead or simply buried.   
  
But everyday he awoke to a darker and darker sky. Half way through the second week the usually blue sky looked a murderous black.   
  
The pair trudged all day and usually collapsed too tired to talk at the end of it. Finally the sky began to coat the two in light flecks of pure whiteness. But it promised that this was merely the first barrage. It would get them both yet…  
  
And it did. The very next day. It snowed continually and hard. Coating, suffocating and half burying them in silent chill. At times when the wind picked up Jack could not see ahead, but nor could he stop because if he did he would become a living snowman in less than a minute. The wind died down, but there was a constant, mildly strong chilly wind that seemed to cicle the mountains peak. It became more and more noticable the further up they went.  
  
Finally Jack called to Dan, almost twenty paces ahead and doing extremely well without her arms. She was so light-footed she almost glided over the snow, hardly sinking to her ankles.   
  
Jack however was used to a sturdy deck beneath his feet and had to dig through three feet of snow every step he took.   
  
"Ye've lost us!" he shouted to the young woman ahead of him.  
  
Dan turned a frowning face upon him. "Not possible, as long as we head up we're right!" She called back but not as loudly.   
  
Jack cocked an eyebrow at her.  
  
"Besides" she added, ignoring the look directed her way, "I wouldn't let us get lost, we'd run out of water…"  
  
Jack increased the height of the eyebrow. "Luv, we're on a flamin' mountain, COVERED in snow. Snow is cold water, we're right for water." But Dan wasn't convinced.   
  
"Yes, snow IS cold water. So cold it freeze the saliva in your mouth and you'd die of coldness. We need water very dearly. And I mean water not ice" she sounded slightly amused but mainly grumpy.   
  
Jack was taken aback.  
  
It was now so cold that his teeth chattered all day long. But the mountain top was merely a days journey away, and Dan seemed to be on the mend.   
  
They reached the summit a day later. Jack almost wanted to collapse on the spot. Just staying alive sapped energy up here. The air was different. It felt like there was only half the air there usually was and he could no longer feel his toes. Dan, who had been trailing behind slightly; caught up. "Why have we stopped" she huffed. Jack didn't answer, instead he flopped onto the ground.   
  
"Ah so it's like that is it" she said tiredly. Jack grunted in response. "Come on get up, you don't realise how dangerous it is to go to sleep in the snow" she prodded and staggered forwards.   
  
"I'm wiped luv, have a little sympathy eh?" Jack pleaded showing absolutely no intentions of moving.  
  
"Get up, it's all down hill anyway. And the snow has stopped" she ordered wearily. Jack grunted.  
  
"Look, I'm tired, hungry and bloody cold" he said in annoyance. Sleep was so welcoming. His eyelids became heavy and he breathed deeply for the first time in ages.   
  
Just as peaceful darknes washed over him he got a sharp kick in the ribs which hurt unbelievably, despite the fact he was half numb.   
  
"Get UP!" Dan hissed at him through clenched teeth. Jack sat up sharply.   
  
"YOUR cold, I have had the same chill in my arms BONE for at least a week!" she seethed at him. Jack blinked and leant back slightly. He had never seen her so mad.   
  
Her stare was colder than the mountain top. Jack lumbered to his feet. "I didn't figure you to be one ta kick a man while he's down" he grumbled as he rubbed his ribs where she'd kicked him.   
  
"Do it again and I will kick you all the way down the mountain if I have to" she threatened darkly and pushed ahead. Jack sighed, now his back was wet and extremely cold.   
  
She was right though. It was far easier on the way down. The snow was harder so the walking was easier for Jack. Freshly fallen snow was impossible to walk on... and in one day they where a third of the way down. Now they could sleep. Only one at a time though, and Dan was the one who was usually on watch. Something about both sleeping and dieing of cold. Jack thought it stupid since it deprived him of sleep. But Dan seemed worried enough to stay up two times as much as he was. And once, when he did fall asleep on watch he had awoken to find her on duty, cross legged in the snow. Where she'd sat for so long she had trouble moving again.   
  
Finally however they got to the otherside, where the snow was thin and melting and forest floor came underfoot.   
  
Jack felt like a walking dead man from those stories about cursed gold... of course they were only drunken tales, but it was the closest thing he could think of comparing his weariness to.  
  
Once Dan deemed them deep enough into the forest for sufficient cover they both collapsed in a heap, against respective trees and both were too tired to keep watch.   
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Jack awoke with a start, as a hand clamped over his mouth. He was slightly groggy, but the urgency in Dans grip jerked him awake almost instantly.   
  
"Move" she whispered and crawled away quickly behind the nearest tree. Jack watched and realised her bandages were off. He followed as quietly as he could. He met Dan behind the tree.   
  
"They're trying to surround us, I'm not sure who. I haven't seen them yet, but we must hide. Be as quiet as you can and...shhhh" she ducked down and peeped around the tree. Three men had entered the clearing the travellers had been in only moments before.   
  
Dan tiptoed away and Jack followed. She moved extremely quickly but remained as silent as always. When they stopped they were next to a big old, many boughed tree. Dan pointed up and Jack nodded.  
  
Apparently they were to climb.   
  
Jack leapt up and grabbed the nearest branch. At this moment a shout rang out of the forest behind him. In a flash he dropped and rolled into the undergrowth. Dan did the same in the different direction. Jack lay so low he was almost level with the ground, and although his heart raced he stopped breathing all together. A man wearing as odd an arrangment of clothes as Jack came into sight. He ran to where the pirate and the youth had been, then spun and scanned the surrounding area. And, despite Jacks silent urgings, made his way uncertainly towards the captain. Soon he was looming over the hidden pirate. Two steps and he'd step on Jack. Then Dan gave a muffled cough and the man turned and lunged towards her. Dan then took a risk, she stood and ran... away from Jack; and the man gave chase. Calling to his fellow men for assistance.   
  
Jack remained hidden for almost ten minutes before he cautiously stood and ducked back into the forest. Not knowing what to do or where to go he wandered randomly for a half hour before he stopped and climbed a tree. He knew only that he could not go back to where he had been and that Dan could probably find him. At least he hoped she could.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Three hours passed and Dan had not come anywhere towards Jack. The Captain had listened to every sound but the only noise was that of the living forest. For a while he dozed against the trees' trunk. After four hours he became worried. By now she should have lost them. And have found Jack. He waited for only five more minutes before a slight tinge of panic got the better of him.   
  
He clambered down and headed into the darker part of the forest.  
  
After going right through the dark patches Jack came to sparser forest and found his back to the mountain he had climbed.  
  
He was heading in the right direction. Soon he could here the sea. It was the sweetest sound he had ever heard in his life. He crashed through the remaining trees to come to a sheer cliff edge, where the ocean met land. For a few minutes he just drunk in the view, watching every wave listening to every gull and finally he scanned the bay. It was a very sheltered bay, and only visible from the cliff on which he stood. Down in the cove the pirates eyes made out a natural dock. And anchored there was a small, but sturdy looking boat. In realitively good condition from what he could see. His heart rate quickened.  
  
Jack searched for a way down and found one to his right, where the roots of a ancient tree, that was growing right on the face of the cliff, made a perfect ladder to clamber down onto relatively flat ground.   
  
Jack sat in the dirt and went to lower himself down. When his hand closed around a metallic object. In curiosity Jack clasped the thing and looked at it.   
  
It was an old horseshoe.   
  
The captain stared at it in thought when shouts started in the forest to his left. Then in a second Jack threw down the horseshoe and pelted back into the forest. Away from his ship to freedom and away from his domain, the ocean.   
  
******************************************************************  
  
Jack barely realised he had been running to help, until he saw the campsite. It was a military one and it was in flames and chaos.   
  
Jack did not leave the ring of trees. He was safe as long as he was out of sight.   
  
He ended up hiding behind a tree that had smooth bark. From his vantage point he was able to watch the commotion take place. The renegade men were massacring the military men. Shots rang out. Guns and arrows versus guns. The attack was random.   
  
Men hid in trees and shot military men who tried to form useless lines.   
  
There were clashing orders, terrified shouts and the general hubbub of a take over. Finally, once the commander of the Spanish army had been shot and died the men broke ranks. Scattering into the surrounding woods. Jack had to duck behind the tree as a group or three military men went rushing passed, followed by a spray of bullets.  
  
A few of the renegades gave chase after the escaping men. They didn't want the general and the main camp to know of this until they had time to prepare.   
  
But most remainded. What they had really come for was the spoils. Even while some of the wounded were still alive the renegades swarmed in. Looting and finishing the job as they came.   
  
Then there was a shrill whistle and they scattered. Taking boots, pots, cigars and weapons.  
  
After all had gone quiet and the eery peace of the dead had settled upon the former encampment Jack crept forward. He stole his way into the clearing, looking in the tents that remained standing and searching for any sign of Dan. If she had been here, if she was dead, had she run off, which way. Anything that was hers. Her bag, a bandage, a footprint. He was still searching when he heard a pistol cock and felt the hard steel of a gun in his back. He froze, put his hands up in surrender and slowly rose to his feet from the crouching position he had been in.  
  
His attacker circled around him, the pistol pointed at Jacks face.   
  
"Well, well it looks like we has you" the translator mocked as he cocked his gun. Jack, his hands still up, grinned.   
  
"So it does eh" he smiled, masking his fear. The man had a dangerous glint in his eye. The other was bandaged, blood seeping through the bandages.   
  
His one eye gleamed maniacally. Jacks' stomach plummetted. The man wanted to kill him. Then there were more shouts and more military men came into the leveled campsite.   
  
Jack felt slightly better. His fate did not rest in one madman anymore.   
  
He was efficiently cuffed and led to the three horses the twenty or so men had arrived with. He was attached to the nastiest looking horse, which tried to bite him the moment the others left him.  
  
Jacks focus however was outwards. He listened to everything the soldiers said, although it was Spanish, and searched the woods with his ears for any sounds of Dan.   
  
There were none.   
  
Finally the men returned and began the trip back to a camp. It took two days, in which Jack had to sleep bound. The camp eventually came into view, it was right next to the mountain. On the western side. Jack blinked, this must've been the reason Dan wanted to go across the mountain there was no way to get past without being caught.   
  
There was an overpowering feeling of tension in the camp. The soldiers jumped at every sound and stared at Jack with malice. If looks could kill Jack would have been dead eighty times over by the time he made it to his destination. There was a quick pitstop at the Generals tent, which Jack had to stand outside of while the two men talked, then he was led across camp to a large, well grounded tent.   
  
He approached it with a sense of dread.... 


	9. Demon of Hell

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The tent he was lead into was square and dirt floored. It was orange in colour and there were three poles in the room. Two were parallel about two meters distance between them. The other stood not four meters away.   
  
Jack hardly noticed the tent though because upon entering his eyes immediately locked onto the sole occupant of the tent.   
  
It was Dan.  
  
She was chained between the two poles. Her arms held in place by cuffs and strong chains.   
  
She did not look up at him as he was shoved inside. She was slumped over as much as the chains allowed and for a second Jack thought it was because she was asleep. However, as he was all but slammed into the wooden pole and his hands were chained around it, he got a full view of her back. It was bleeding in thin strips everywhere, her shirt all but shredded.  
  
His chains were clicked into place; Jack was now chained to the pole from behind. Slowly he sank to the ground and looked at Dan. Now he saw that her head was turned so that he could not see her face. Which meant that she was awake but definitely not in the mood to talk.  
  
His gazed wandered around the tent and then landed on the guards as they exited.   
  
Scowling at Jack and ignoring Dans existence.   
  
He gave a tentative tug on his chains. They clinked dully, but held fast. No chance of wiggling out of them then.  
  
"Jack" she croaked.   
  
Jack focused his attention back to Dan. She was now studying the sandy ground in front of her.  
  
"Aye?" he asked, keeping the pity and fear out of his voice.  
  
"Do you think I deserve to die?" she almost whispered as her voice broke again. She sounded almost fearful of his answer, and somehow defeated. As if she knew the answer and had already accepted it. Jack tried to see her eyes but her short fringe was keeping them from his view.   
  
The question tore at him, and he could not keep the sadness from his voice. What had they been telling her?  
  
"Nay luv, I've never met anyone who deserved it" he replied softly.   
  
At this Dan lifted her head and her different colored eyes locked onto his face. "You're lying Captain," she informed him, giving a weak rueful smile.   
  
Jack considered this, "Aye that I am, I've met several actually." With that said his eyes went glassy as he thought back to some part of his past.  
  
"The ones who took your ship…" she said softly in understanding. Jack blinked, and then gave her a roguish grin. He hadn't realized how much she had read into him.   
  
"Yes, but even they are misguided fools luv, and they'll pay the price" he confirmed.  
  
She sighed and her head drooped lower, so that it rested on her chest. "I think I'm paying the price for my deeds right now captain".  
  
Jack bit back whatever reply came to mind.   
  
In fact, he couldn't think of a reply to this. He highly doubted she was in the mood for making light of the situation. He also knew she would hate to hear sympathy or pity in any form. She definitely was a weird one.  
  
The tent flap swished open and six guards, followed by the general, strode in. The man stood tall in his polished armor, his white hair catching the sunlight from outside and giving him the impression of an angel of hell standing before them with a halo glowing around its head. He looked down at Dan in disgust and contempt.   
  
There seemed to be a shadow over her, in direct contrast to the shining being before her, and her very presence seemed to insult him.   
  
He sneered at her, tied spread eagle to the two poles that flanked her. Her top was tattered and torn and only just clinging onto her in shreds. The front had been ripped open, but she had a second shirt that covered the top of her chest still in tact. Even so, to the commander that stood over her she was scantly dressed, bleeding, a wreck of a person and a female that dared to oppose him and his operations.   
  
Dan herself was not looking at the man that was boring holes into the top of her head with his squinty eyes. She was staring straight forward, her eyes level with the soldiers' shins, and Jack noticed with a pang of horror there was no defiance in them. The usual spark of indignation and icy rage was gone. Suddenly she seemed so much older, her eyes showed nothing but dull expectation of pain to come. There was no emotion. No life.  
  
Her eyes said she was dead.   
  
The general said something snide. Then he snapped an order and one of the guards handed him a riding crop? Yes, that was what Dan had called it.  
  
He held it aloft, barked something in Spanish and then struck her hard across her already raw and bleeding back. Jack started at the sudden ferociousness of the attack. She closed her eyes tightly.  
  
The translator spoke.  
  
"Where are the horses?" the general struck again, and again said something in an accusatory tone.   
  
The translator spoke.  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
The thin stick struck again… "Where are the horses?", again, "Why are you here?".  
  
Throughout it Dan didn't make a sound. It was eerie. As the riding crop struck across her back, the wounds from the lash bled again. Gods did they bleed.   
  
Still Dan voiced no protest, no complaint. You could not even hear her breathe. Although she may have been timing her breathing with the strokes that were being dealt her. She was staring at the ground.   
  
Jack wanted to stop it, but it was not in his nature to take someone else's beating onto himself. He had to think, had to think…  
  
There was always a way out if you used your head.   
  
But Jack could not think. At first Dan had given no indication that she was being hit. Now however as new wounds were added to others, her jaw had clenched and her eyes betrayed the pain she felt.   
  
Dans' silent pain was preventing him from thinking rationally.   
  
The crop continued to inflict pain upon Dan. And still she made no sound. Jack looked up at the other guards. None were looking at what was happening to Dan. Some were focusing in the ground, some were looking at the roof, one had his eyes closed and one had his head turned and was looking at the tent wall.   
  
"Gutless bastards" Jacks mind snarled at them. He tried his hand at his chains once more, but to no avail.   
  
If he interrupted now he would be beaten or Dan would be beaten harder.   
  
"Why… why are you here?" the translator croaked as his voice broke.   
  
Jack wanted to curse out loud as the general seized Dans' hair and yanked it back so that she was looking at him.   
  
"At least the beating has stopped", he told himself weakly.   
  
Dan was determined not to meet the mans eyes, so she looked right passed his head. He said something angrily and shook her roughly. She still did not look. She felt horrible and crushed, but there was still an ember of defiance within her. Buried deep under the ashes of her soul. The shaking was making it grow brighter, and the yelling was only fanning the tiny spark.   
  
She hated this man, truly hated him. He shook her again and she immediately felt the irrational, hard comfort of hatred in her. Fury, blazing hot and feverish. She could not control herself any longer. She looked at the man, he had got his wish but he did not like what he saw. He stopped all movement and took a deep look into her eyes.   
  
She stared back belligerently, not blinking and not looking away. The general did the same.  
  
But it was he who backed down first; he blinked and took a step back. Then he turned his head, still keeping both eyes on Dan, and barked an order at one of his men. The soldier paled, but scurried away to do his bidding.   
  
He returned only half a minute later bearing a three-pronged lash. The commander purposefully stretched it out in front of her. Fingering it up and down.   
  
Her gaze held only malice and contempt. There was no fear.  
  
The general frowned and cracked the whip once in the air. Right in her face. She didn't even blink.   
  
He growled and circled until he was directly behind her.   
  
Jack watched as Dans look hardened and she took on a tensed stance of readiness. The whip cracked out, hitting her back in three places. Three more wounds to add to her crisscrossed back. She baulked slightly at the unexpected amount of pain, but then readjusted herself to suit it.  
  
The second time she made no reaction, other than her body shuddering.   
  
The general struck again and again, faster and harder.   
  
Dans head slunk forwards so that her hair hid her face, but not entirely. Jack saw her jaw clench and her teeth grit together. It went on for a few minutes more before one stroke caused Dan to hiss sharply.  
  
This seemed to encourage the general, but it infuriated Jack beyond belief.   
  
"Hey, mate" he called to the white haired torturer. The man didn't hear, as he was too preoccupied with Dans slowly yielding state.  
  
"Oi! General!" he said louder. The man froze, his arm poised for another stroke. Then he seemed to realize that Jack still existed and was addressing him, and he strutted over to the pirate as if he had just accomplished a job well done. Jack clenched his bound fists.   
  
The general confronted Jack head on. He placed himself in front of the bound captain and held up the lash, showing it off right in Jacks face. Jack just gave his best grin of calm indifference. The general pursed his lips in irritation.   
  
He snapped something, his head turned so the translator could hear him; but his eyes never leaving Jacks face.   
  
"What do you want?" the translator relayed, with much less zeal.   
  
"I know where the horses are," Jack said smiling his most charming smile and making his eyes widen to add effect.   
  
The translator told the captain.   
  
Dans' head came up at these words; she seemed to have trouble focusing on Jack but her face said it all. She was horrified and seemed completely shocked. As if she had forgotten Jack knew where the horse paddock was.   
  
"No, you can't" she rasped. Her shoulders shaking visibly as her control slipped.  
  
"Sorry luv, but I was getting bored" he grinned at her abashedly, but his eyes told her a different story.  
  
She shook her head, then grimaced as if the action caused her pain. She knew he was doing this to stop the beatings. But he had now rendered the whole painful experience useless. She had gone through hell for nothing.   
  
The general spun on his heel. And snapped an order as he strode to the tent door. Jack was unchained, and then his hands were chained in front of him, so that he could move. He walked after the retreating leaders form. Grinning comfortably. The general spun and looked at him hard. His right eye narrowing as he took in Jacks posture.   
  
Then he snapped another order and two guards stepped forwards and released Dans bonds. Once both arms were free of the two posts she crashed to her hands and knees, drawing in deep breaths and studying her chaffed and purple wrists. She had pulled against the cuffs when she was struck and as a reflex had tried to bring her hands to her body causing the wrists to almost bleed. She clenched her fists, gripping the sandy turf she was kneeling in.  
  
The general turned and paced out the tent. Dan was pulled to her feet where she swayed dangerously before locking her body stiffly. She brought her head up and glared at the generals retreating back. Then as soon as he was out of sight and the tent flap had swished shut. She faltered.   
  
The guards prodded her forwards and Jack questioned the translator who hovered nearby.  
  
"What are they doing with her?" he asked as casually as he could.   
  
"The general needs some, uh, how should I put this… insurance that you will do as you say" he filled in gravely and led the way forwards.  
  
Dan was dragged forwards because her legs could not hold her. But she was not harmed again; in fact the guards were being curiously gentle with her. They gripped her elbows, to keep from touching her shoulders or back, and they walked at a slow pace so that the exhausted girl could keep up.   
  
Dan was too tired to notice this or she surely would have tried to hide her weakness from the guards and have brushed them off.   
  
They were brought outside to the centre of camp. And as Jack stood there bound and Dan slumped there guarded they were approached by a young officer, who had the bearing of someone who held power.   
  
He was a middle-aged man with short brown hair and stern yet understanding eyes.   
  
He immediately struck Jack as intelligent.   
  
He stopped in front of them both and his eyes, after roving over Dan, rested on Jack.  
  
"I am vice general Miguel Fortez, second in command of this camp. I hear you have agreed to take us to the horses. This is good, as we have been searching for very long." He said it in perfect English, stopping and starting. But better even than the translator spoke. "You'll both be accompanying my men and I on horseback, unfortunately under the generals orders, the girl is to walk behind", Jacks eyes hardened. This man seemed so sure of himself and completely at ease with the state Dan was in. How could she possibly keep up with horses? She could barely stand. The man sensed Jacks reaction and looked at Dan more closely. He gauged how badly she was hurt.   
  
"I... I am sorry for your friend" he said hurriedly as if feeling guilty for apologizing. "We have lost many men recently and the general blames himself. He feels he has to be harder. Your friend has killed many of our soldiers and her horses would greatly assist our forces against the bandits in these woods." He talked lowly although the guards that were holding Dan did not understand English.   
  
Jack gave a non-committable grunt that said what he thought the generals pity was worth.   
  
The man was not affronted though. He gave a small sigh, gave Dan another look, and then caught the arm of a passing soldier. He said something in Spanish and then strode away. Back to the horses, who were now saddled and waiting.   
  
Jack tried to engage the soldier that stood behind him in conversation. But the man just scowled at him and snapped something in Spanish.   
  
The man the second in command had sent off returned with a shirt. He passed it to Dan, who took it and stood staring at it before reaching her arms in and in one swift deft movement pulling it over her head.   
  
She inhaled sharply as it touched her back but other than that she seemed grateful to be protected once again.  
  
The general strode out, mounted up and they were on their way.   
  
***********************************************************************  
  
The ropes that they put around Dans' wrists were coarse and tight. Once Jack was mounted, his hands were tied to his horses reigns, he very pointedly did not look back. Instead he strained his ears over the soldiers talk and laughter, to gauge how Dan was doing. For a while he heard nothing of her.   
  
The talk continued and the forest passed slowly by. It was midday and the only one who was alert was the general and his second in charge. Despite the fact that Jack was supposed to be leading, he was flanked by two surly looking soldiers and trailed behind the two generals.  
  
Then, as they were passing a ravine, full of water and complete with roaring waterfall, one of the soldiers hollered and the General spun in his horse to see what the problem was. Jack immediately got the feeling the commotion was stemming from Dan. He turned and was met with a most unnerving sight. Dan was on her knees in the dust. It seemed she had been dragged for a few meters before the horses had stopped. Her wrists were cut and bleeding from the rope. And her lips and mouth was covered in blood. Even as the General dismounted and stomped towards her, she continued her futile attempt to gnaw through the rope.   
  
She had tried so hard, that she had shredded her face in some places and torn the knees of her pants. Her desperation increased as the man came closer to her.   
  
Jack felt nothing but sorrow for her. She had lost her mind. The torture had made her feral and now she was insane. He had seen it happen before. He had, after all been in far worse prisons in his time.  
  
Dan struggled violently against her bonds, she looked absolutely terrified of the man as he approached her. He clenched his gauntleted hand as he drew near, and raised it as he reached her.   
  
Dan twisted in the dust like a snake in a corner. As the general brought his hand down heavily to her, she threw herself aside and came up behind the older man like a flash of lightening. Then using the rope that was attached to her hands she coiled it around his neck, placed her knee against his back and pulled the rope viciously taught. The man gasped as the coarse rope bit into his neck. Dan looked over the mans shoulders as he fell to his knees choking. She looked at the surrounding soldiers with clear calculating eyes. The eyes of a person out for revenge. She was perfectly normal.   
  
Jack was immediately uncertain whether the whole rope gnawing trick was real and how much of it was a planned assault.   
  
Some of the soldiers had dismounted and where halfway to her. But as they came she yanked the rope tighter, and they slowed. The vice general was closest to her. He regarded the situation calmly.   
  
"Let him go" he said plainly. Dans' only response was a snarl.  
  
Then a green clad soldier behind him sliced clean through the rope attached to Dans wrists. The rope went slack and the General fell coughing and gasping onto his hands. While Dan fell back with the sudden lack of resistence. She shrugged the ropes off, without so much as a flinch. Her wrists were cut very badly. The rope had been inflicting as much pain on her as it had the General. The soldiers advanced, only three.   
  
But the General recovered first, and, so as not to lose face in front of his troops, he attacked Dan. He sprung on her as she was peeling the ropes out of her wrists. She was caught off guard and as a result they both tumbled in the orange dust. A struggle between an angry man and a desperate child. Dan clawed at his face as he sought for her throat.  
  
She looked truly like a demon of hell. While the General had looked like an angel of hell, Dan was a demon. She snapped and snarled and clawed, while her hair was a tangle and her mouth coated in blood. Dan grabbed both his shoulders and rammed her forehead into the mans nose. He staggered off her, towards the cliff edge. Some soldiers grabbed her arms. She twisted away with a snap as her poorly healed arm broke again.   
  
But the position of the general, who was holding a bleeding nose, was too perfect to pass up. He was bent over, studying his hand as it pooled with blood, the suns rays behind him. He looked up to see Dan racing towards him and his eyes widen as she struck.   
  
She ran full speed into him, knocking him clean over the edge. For a split second Jack saw in slow motion both people hanging in the air, the sun behind them silhouetting them perfectly Then time sped up again and they both hurtled forwards.   
  
The general looked terrified, in a panic he reached out and grabbed the girls shirt as he fell. And Dan, who was weak and weighed far less than him was pulled down with him.   
  
He let out a shriek as he fell to his death, while Dan was a silent as the grave. Jack leapt out of his saddle to help, but was restrained by his bonds. For a second he had forgotten he wore them. She disappeared in almost slow motion as the place she had just been standing became empty and her feet disappeared from sight. The last sight Jack had of her were her startled eyes as she glanced at him and disappeared, head first behind the cliff edge, and out of Jacks line of sight. There was no noise, just the skittling sound of gravel as it followed the two beings to their deaths.   
  
Everyone was hushed in shock. The vice general bowed his head and a few made the sign of the cross. Jack shook his head. Dan wasn't dead she couldn't be. How could she die by the hand of an idiot like that? Jack sighed. It was all because of her foolish pride.  
  
The fighting, impulsive, brash young girl had gone to her death. With nothing but the chink of gravel hitting rocks below and a cloud of dust to show she had ever been alive.  
  
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* 


	10. In cold blood

--------------------------------   
  
It seemed like an age before Dan appeared back on the cliff edge. Her bruised and bleeding knuckles appeared first. The her head and her arm. Before she knew it two of the men had hauled her up to safety and thrown her in the dirt away from the edge that had claimed the life of the commander.   
  
Then one spat and one kicked and the angry, upset men took out all their anger on her. Her face was dripping with her own blood. All around her mouth, and she twisted again and again to avoid the kicks that came from everywhere. But she couldn't avoid them all and a few hit home, causing her to grunt.   
  
And suddenly the vice commander yelled out in Spanish and the men dispersed. Leaving a pile of blood soaked rags in their wake. Jack thought that was basically what she looked like when he had first laid eyes on her.  
  
She rolled onto her knees and coughed up an alarming amount of blood. Then shakily she looked up at the new captain. The man looked her over, then reached down a hand to her. She flinched away, and would not take it. The man sighed in defeat and told one of his men to do something. Two soldiers went over to Dan, lifted her up and placed her on a horse.   
  
She looked slightly dazed from shock or blood loss, Jack wasn't sure. He rode beside her, should she fall, and thought about her for a second. She had just killed a man. Attempted to throttle him in cold blood and instead pushed him over a cliff for him to break his neck on the rocks below. And she looked fine. Her eyes had shown she knew exactly what she was doing.   
  
Somehow this was worse than her trampling a man. This was cold, decisive murder. She had planned it. And she didn't care; it didn't affect her in the slightest.   
  
Next to him Dan leant to her right (away from Jack) and wretched.   
  
Well, maybe it did affect her after all. She leant against the horses neck, not asleep but far from awake. She stared off into space and her body was relaxed. She faced Jack, but didn't really see him and her eyes were more clouded than he remembered them being.   
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, a thin red stream, but she didn't seem to notice.   
  
Jack watched her worriedly. This was scary and disturbing behavior for Dan. But she had just killed someone and he didn't know how long it had been since she had eaten.   
Then, as if to add to the atmosphere it began to rain. It had been threatening to do so all day and now it did. Heavy drops bombarded the travelers. The day was gray and Dan seemed to get worse rather than better.   
  
One time the new commander rode up next to the two. Looked at Dan then refocused on Jack.   
"How is she doing" he asked quietly. Watching the fast rate of Dans breathing. Even though she was still she was breathing as if she had run the length of the island.   
Jack shook his head, her face was pale and she looked ill. The rain had drenched her completely and she was freezing cold. The general regarded her in concern. Then held up a clenched fist to halt the column. He dismounted and shouted out a few orders.  
  
"What ye doing?" Jack asked as he watched the men spread out. "Making camp. We will get a fire going" 


	11. Tipping the scales

  
The fire was beautifully warm. Jack was grateful for it, but Dan didn't seem to notice. She had retreated to wherever it was that crazed children went, and she didn't seem to be coming back.  
  
She was wrapped in a blanket. Lying on the wet ground. Her face was purely white, except her cheeks which were an alarming red. Both eyes were semi closed, the blue more than the green and her hands were gripping the rough material so tightly it seemed they would rip it.  
  
"Jack?" her croaky voice nearly threw him out of his skin.  
  
"Aye?" he asked, calming his heart.  
  
"Got anything to eat?" she asked. And Jack burst out laughing. She smiled up at him and went to sit up, or he thought she tried because she didn't move far at all.  
  
"Gods girl, you had me worried there" he said smiling.  
  
Dan looked up at him slightly surprised, then she looked incredibly weary. Jack regarded her, then a thought struck him. She was still hurt, from the beating and fight. The rain had washed her wounds, so that no blood showed and Jack had been so worried about her mental state that he hadn't given any thought to her physical wounds.  
  
"Now ye're awake, I'll be fixing up that back of yers and also the scrapes ye got when ye decided to get rid of tha' bastard".  
  
Dan looked up at him sadly. "I hate him, I still do" she said softly.  
  
Jack was about to say, 'perfectly understandable' when he stopped. This was her way of talking to him, giving these statements and wanting to be asked about them more. "Why?" he asked curiously.  
  
For a second she seemed scared that he had asked then she answered even more softly than before. "Because he got to me, made me weak again. He beat me down and I almost gave in. How could I let that happen again" she trailed off looking at the stars rather than Jack. The night was startlingly clear now that the rain had stopped. Jack watched her, then shifted his gaze to the fire. He figured that something similar had happened in her past, something that changed her into what she was now. What had the situation been? Why had she looked so despaired and hopeless when he had seen her in that tent?  
  
How could one so young really have anything to dwell on so deeply.  
  
He looked over to Dan, she was still looking up, thoughtful in the darkness, her brow slightly wrinkled, in pain or thought Jack didn't know.  
  
"Gotta see to your wounds luv" he chirped gently and Dan nodded slightly to show she had heard. Jack scooted closer to her. Her left eye was blackened. Her arm re-broken, knees scraped, scratches and claw marks all up her arms and bruises on her throat. Not to mention the sliced wrists and huge shallow cuts around her mouth.  
  
Jack saw her looking at him and grinned widely.  
  
She raised a questioning eyebrow. "Jus' glad it ain't me luv" he smiled at her. Her frown increased but he knew she was playing with him. It seemed her way when she was injured.  
  
The wounds were fixed up rather well. Her arm was once again in a sling, something which had highly amused her. The general had been generous in the bandages. She'd been fed and fixed and was lying now next to the fire. The men seemed to have gotten over most of their hatred for her, except for the translator who glared daggers from the other side of the fire. She was too hurt to hold anything against; they slept now around the fire. About four circled the camp on watch.   
Dan was staring into the fire unblinkingly, lost in a dream.  
  
"What' cha seein'?" he asked, noticing the dazed look in her eyes.  
  
"I'm running over a big green plain. The grass is warm, the sun is out and the sky is bluer than the shallows of the ocean" she whispered reverently. "My horses are running beside me and we're all truly free" she sighed longingly. Looking up at the darkened sky she suddenly turned her head to her pirate companion. "Jack" she called softly to his silhouette.  
  
"Ya?" he acknowledged her call in a bored tone.  
  
"If I get waylaid or something happens to me, and you get your ship back. Will you take the horses to the large land mass in the north? An uninhabited part, and let 'em loose?"  
  
"Nathin's gonna happen to ya" he said sternly.  
  
"Promise!" she pushed.  
  
"Okay. I promise" he answered looking down at her. Her eyes were closed and she was smiling.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The next day the men started out again. This time they were going back to camp. The new general had consulted some of his men and it seemed they were preparing for an assault on the outlaws.  
  
Dan and Jack were put back in the camp, and guarded. But they were not bothered, and not tied up. For the better half of the day they sat and talked. Jack told every story under the sun and Dan listened. It was after noon that she grew restless. No story could quell her and Jack soon realized that it was futile to try and calm her. 'May as well be shooshin' the ocean when she's in a storm' he thought wryly and let her go.  
  
She got out of the guarded tent easily, and disappeared somewhere in the camp. Jack sat on a chair, his feet higher than his head resting on the opposite chair and his hat tilted down. He figured he'd hear about it sooner rather than later.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------  
Meanwhile Dan had wandered to the generals' tent. The replacement was staring down at a map, a group of three men around him listening to what he said. She walked into the tent unheeded. In fact she was standing at the table before they noticed her.  
  
He was saying something and moving some red counters into the enemy camp. She watched his movements then spoke up.  
  
"No, you want your troops coming from the northwest, they will have more cover there near the quarry. Besides there is a slight valley which will hide you from the hill here, which they use as a lookout" she said emphasizing her point by moving the red dots into her desired positions and indicating the valley and the hill the outlaws used.  
  
The men watched her move them dumbfounded, and when they stopped two of the three looked up angrily and seized her arm, which she was in the process of withdrawing. They yelled something in Spanish at her face, and another said something murderous, she could tell by his tone.  
  
While his men bickered and scowled the general mused over Dans suggestion. She was in the process of being pulled away by the guards when he looked up from his plan smiling. He said something sharply, then something else and his men looked at him in shock. He motioned Dan closer. She hesitated then inched forwards in a paranoid way.  
  
He placed her in control of the counters without speaking and she maneuvered them into an attack arrangement, putting a small number along the left flank, to come out from the valley to the edge of the forest. The cavalry she kept on the valley lip, and sent a straggled line forwards. Then she used the blue markers present to imitate the enemies' response to the attack. Her attack was far better, almost fool proof.  
  
The general snapped something to the men and they gathered around. Dan moved out and wandered back to the tent with Jack, feeling slightly perturbed by the turn of events. Had she just tipped the scale that she wanted to keep balanced? Her head hurt, this would be a tough week.  
  
Jack greeted her slightly surprised. They sat there in a comfortable silence for a while. The shadows were lengthening before they had a guest. It was the general; he stooped as he entered the tent, and then straightened smiling at them both. His gaze came to rest upon Dan.  
  
"Your plan was, how do I say, perfect" he complimented brightly. Dan gave a sour look, then protested his judgment.  
  
"Nothing is perfect" she said stiffly and he grinned back at her. Jack slid a sidelong glance in her direction. What was this? Helping the enemy?  
  
"After this fight you can go free, both of you" he said sincerely. "I can't let you go yet, seeing as you may warn the opposition..." he had a twinkle in his eyes as he said that and Dan studied the floor. "But afterwards you both may leave. This will finish them" he was confident and Dan shook her head ruefully.  
  
"A desperate man fights harder than one behind an army, I wouldn't judge them so lightly" she reminded him doubtfully. He smiled and left.  
  
Jack looked at her. "Warn tha enemy?" he asked mildly. She flashed him a small smile.  
  
"I have to keep the balance don't I?" she said sheepishly. "They were going to be pummeled".  
  
"So why help now?" he asked.  
  
"I don't know" she said shrugging. Jack rolled his eyes.  
  
"You're a strange one" he muttered and she smiled smugly.  
  
"Proud of it" she retorted before settling down to her blankets.  
  
There were four or five minutes silence and they both dozed off into sleep. The sound of night bugs and muffled shuffling of guards the only noise.  
  



	12. Making a break for it

* * *

Jack jerked awake at the scream of a horse. Dan was crouched near the tent door, the moonlight only half filling the tent, but bright enough outside to see everything.  
  
There were shouts and the sound of fighting. Dan remained crouched. Jack crawled up beside her.  
  
"Wha's going on?" he asked still slightly bleary.  
  
"The outlaws are attacking the camp" she explained. Jack blinked a few more times and watched as men hacked into each other outside.  
  
The screams were bloodcurdling and painful to hear. Dan grimaced as a soldier fell in front of the tent. His face a mass of blood and gore.  
  
"Let's get out of here" she muttered and pulled away.  
  
Jack took one last look at the fighting and followed her to the back of the tent. "We're going to your boat. Tonight. No matter what happens we are putting you on that boat" she said firmly and Jack regarded her thoughtfully. Why the sudden determination?  
  
"If we get separated forget about it and keep going" she said. "You know where it is right?" she asked as an after thought. Jack nodded.  
  
"Aye".  
  
"Good, now we go that way when we get to the forest" she said indicating to her right. "If you keep going you'll get to the cliff, watch out cause it can sneak up on you and it is a nasty fall". Jack gave his trademark lopsided grin.  
  
"Aye" he said again. They stood and made their way to the opening.  
  
"Oh and Jack"  
  
"Aye?"  
  
"Don't forget your promise" she said flashing him a grin and ducking out into the night before he could respond.  
--------------------------------------------------------  
  
Jack followed her. They kept to the tent, and then came to the center of camp. The fastest way to the forest was across this way. But the most fighting was going on here. Dan shook her head and went to the left, evidently deciding to go around the mayhem. Jack followed at a distance.  
  
There was a horn to their left and the sound of many hooves burst into the camp. Jack couldn't see because there was a few tents separating the battleground from him, but it sounded like reinforcements for the soldiers. He kept the stately pace behind Dan, when suddenly a horse burst through a tent behind him and the man made a swing at him with a sword. Jack ducked it only just and stumbled forwards.  
  
All he heard was Dan's scream of "RUN!" as she turned and fled. Jack right behind her and three or four horses coming through the same way as the first. Jack caught up quickly.   
He may have looked like a drunk but he could run pretty straight when there were horses and men thirsting after his blood on his heels. The forest loomed into sight ahead of them when Dan staggered. Jack didn't notice for a few meters, and when he turned to find her, he saw her ducking and swerving a blade wielded by the translator.  
  
The man had a manic gleam in his eye and was hissing that it was all her fault the men were being slaughtered. He was calling her a witch and worse, but she hardly noticed. All she was interested in was the metal that flashed in the moonlight as it lunged at her crazily. The man was unstable, but that didn't matter. He still had a sword, and he was still trying to kill her.  
  
She swerved under it, then rushed forwards and wrestled him to the ground. The sword was knocked away and she rammed her forehead into his face before hearing a high pitched whinny and looking up to find flailing hooves coming down at her.   
Her eyes widened and she threw herself away to avoid them. They crashed down, instantly killing her former attacker. She rolled to her feet and stumbled back, towards the forest. She turned and saw Jack waiting on the forests edge.  
  
"Move" she called rushing forwards. Jack was turning to obey when a horse burst out from beside her. She had no time to react when a low sweeping sword slashed open her stomach.   
She crumpled and stumbled backwards still. Then fell to her knees and sunk to the ground as the mounted soldier came back and drove a pike through her crouched form.  
  
Jack stopped his forward rush towards her. She was dead now and there was nothing her could do. He felt a tremor run through him. Then he turned and fled into the dark woods, not looking back.

* * *


	13. Keeping the faith

* * *

Jack stood on the helm of his beloved Pearl, listening to the mutterings of his crew.   
They were calling him crazy again, and by the tone of them you could almost call it mutinous.   
But Jack was not worried about their discomfort. They had called him crazy many times but nothing had come of it. He felt that secretly his crew was proud to have a mad captain.  
  
"Jack?" Gibbs approached his captain friend. "We be heading straight for an island that be inhabited by the Spanish and their navy."  
  
"I know Gibbs, I've been there before" the Captain replied calmly.  
  
"Jack, those men'll blow us out of the water before we get close. Ye can't loot a place li'e that!" said Gibbs worriedly. He wasn't so sure his captain wouldn't attempt it. Jack liked to be unpredictable.  
  
"I'm not a fool Gibbs, we aren't going to sack the port. We're going around the north side of the island. There's something I've been meaning to do" and with that Jack shouted an order to his crew and swayed away.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -  
  
The ship glided silently into the protected bay. As soon as it was anchored (near a natural dock made of rocks), Jack put down a wide gangplank and went ashore. With two-thirds of his crew. He wound his way through the forest, to a familiar cliff with a very old rope.  
  
Pulling on it with the help of Cotton, Jack revealed a passage that had not been opened for nearly a decade.  
  
He left the door open and ascended the slope with his men. The horses were all there, a few were gone, and he found their bones near one edge of the plateau. But there were newer, unscarred ones. Which were proof that the horses had been foaling.  
  
The younger horses approached Jack and his fellow pirates with curiosity. The others shied away but none were aggressive.  
  
His men were surprised when their captain went forward and approached an old roan mare. The horse came forwards and snuffled into the captains' coat, getting affectionate pats on the head.  
  
"Take a horse each ya scurvy dogs!" he shouted when he realized they were staring.  
  
They all spread out to a horse and watched the captain for guidance. Jack clasped the animals face between his hands and pulled it gently with him down the slope. Some of the crewmembers got bitten by their charges for being too rough, and some of the horses bolted when the person tried to touch them. In fact only four were able to follow Jack down the slope with horses. The rest came down angry and grumbling.  
  
Jack grinned at them. "Right then, go back to tha ship and prepare to take these animals aboard." They looked at him disbelievingly. "Now!" he yelled threateningly and they shuffled off. With that Jack mounted his horse with ease, gaining a few awed stares from his men. He grinned.  
  
He then kicked his heels into his horses' sides and she moved off at a trot. He returned to his ship, took three ropes and rode back to his men. He used the rope as a line that connected all the horses, and went back to the plateau alone carrying the other two. He then used one to make a loose bridle for his roan and again formed another chain of horses with the other rope.  
  
When he got back to his ship he found his crew sitting down looking at the horses that were clustered together in the middle of the ship. Jack sighed.  
  
He rode up the gangplank on his mare, the other horses following. Then he secured the horses below deck by putting the gangplank down the stairs. After they were tied sufficiently he set sail for America, Gibbs questioning his actions the whole way.  
  
Once they reached the coast of South America, Jack and his crew released the horses and set them to running. They hurtled away into the setting sun with a sound like thunder.  
  
Jack stood there watching them for as long as he could, before the call of the ocean beckoned him back aboard his ship. Then he hauled anchor and set sail, the tide tugging him along gently.  
  
"What was all that about captain?" Anamaria asked quietly over his shoulder.  
  
"Just keeping an old promise Anamaria" Jack answered as he steered his ship for Tortuga. "An old, old promise..."  
  
FINISH 


End file.

Pirates of the Caribbean, Adventure, Humor