Sparrow's Love

Chapter 4: Swordfight

We managed to find our way to Will's shop. Jack takes his hat off and we look around to find a way to get rid of his chains. We hear a thud and see Mr. Brown sleeping in a chair.

"Don't worry about him. He's always drunk," I say. He nods and we continue looking around.

He first tries to break his chains with a hammer, which doesn't do any good. I chuckle and tap him on the shoulder and point to the machinery. He smiles at me as if he were saying, 'good thinking.'

I slap the donkeys behind to wake it up and Jack places his chains in the gears and they snap. We suddenly hear somebody come into the shop and we quickly hide in the shadows behind some barrels. I see that it's Will and he calms the donkey down.

"Right where I left you," Will says to the sleeping Mr. Brown. "Not where I left you," Will says to the hammer that Jack tried to break his chains with. He then spots Jack's hat. Will stretches out his hand to touch it, but Jack stops him by tapping his hand with his sword and then points it at him. I stay in the shadows. "You're the one they're hunting. The pirate," Will says while backing away.

"You seem somewhat familiar. Have I threatened you before?" Jack asks.

"I make a point of avoiding familiarity with pirates. Now, where's Maria?"

"Ah, then it would be a shame to put a blackmark on your record. So, if you'll excuse me," Jack says ignoring Will's question. Will gets angry and grabs a sword and points it at Jack. "Do you think this wise, boy? Crossing blades with a pirate?"

"Tell me what you did with Maria!" Will demands. Jack then slides his blade along with Will's.

"I don't think so," Jack says and they start to fight. I grab a sword, but wait for the opportune moment to cut in.

"You know what you're doing. I'll give you that. Excellent form. But how's your footwork? If I step here," Jack says moving to the right in a circle as Will moves along with him. "Very good. And I step again." Jack then moves to the left with Will copying his actions. They begin fighting again. Jack manages to get Will's sword out of his hand with his broken chains and Will somersaults away from him and picks up another sword and continues to fight. "Who makes all these?" Jack asks while looking at all of the swords.

"I do. And I practice with them. Three hours a day," Will says while still fighting.

"You need to find yourself a girl, mate," Jack says and keeps on fighting. "Or perhaps the reason you practice three hours a day is that you already found one and are otherwise incapable of wooing said strumpet. You're not a eunuch, are you?" I scoff at that last one.

"I practice three hours a day so that when I meet a pirate. I can kill it!" Will says and continues to fight. Now is my chance. I run at them and point my sword in the middle of their fight. I get surprising looks from both of them.

"STOP IT! BOTH OF YOU!" I shout. "And you know very well that I am very good with a sword," I say to Will. I then get another surprising look from Jack. Will then takes my sword out of my grasp and pulls me behind him and points his sword at Jack. "Will, stop it! I want to go with him."

"No Maria, you can't be a pirate. It's not you."

"It is me. It's in my blood. My real Father's a pirate," I say while running towards Jack. He pulls me behind him.

"Ah, so it's Will then. Well Will, you know very well that Maria here wanted to go with me. So, if you excuse us. We must be going," Jack says while we walk towards the door. Will then throws his sword at the door and blocks our way out. Jack has an angry look on his face and then puts his arm around my neck and points his pistol at Will.

"NO!" I shout.

"You cheated," Will says angrily.

"Pirate," Jack states and then we hear soldiers trying to smash their way in through the door.

"If you shoot him. I will kill you," I threaten.

"By all means, dearie," Jack says coolly and then I hear a smash. I turn my head to see that Mr. Brown has woken up and has smashed his bottle over Jack's head.

I then feel myself falling forward as Jack still has his arm around my neck. I hit my head when we land on the ground. Will pushes Jack off of me and pulls me to my feet. It feels like the world is spinning and I almost fall over but Will catches me.

"Whoa, are you okay?" Will asks.

"I think so. Why did you do that?" I ask while clutching my head. Great! That was my one-way ticket to freedom. Now what do I do?

"Maria, you're not telling anyone that you wanted to go with him, or you will be hung for helping a pirate escape, understand?" Will demands, ignoring my question.

"Yes Will," I say.

The soldiers then finally smash their way in.

The last thing I heard was, "Excellent work, Mr. Brown," before blacking out completely.