Timeless Pearls (POTC 5)

Chapter 6: Follow the Stars

Night came, and Carina was writing in her book, looking up at the blanket of stars above. I watched her draw a constellation of five stars on a page, and looked toward the velvety sky to see that we were sailing straight for it. At the line where the sky meets the sea, the stars are blurred in. The ship was dark besides a low lantern light, and Henry was standing at the stern with a spyglass.

It was quite dark, and there was not a chance that we were close to our destination so he had no reason to be looking for anything. He reminded me of a landlubber, just like his father was. I've come across Will a couple times throughout the years since he became Captain of the Flying Dutchman, and each time I see him, he looks more and more like apart of the ship. It hurts my heart. We have always have little chats when we come across each other, and it was almost ten years ago when Will told me about meeting his son for the first time. It completely slipped my mind until I met Henry back at Saint Martin.

The crew was sleeping around the deck, and I could hear Jack lightly snoring from the other side of the ship. He was sleeping against the railing, with a bottle of rum in his hand. It was a small ship.

When Henry closed his spyglass, Jack jerked awake and I jumped when he gasped, "spaghetti wolf!"

"Why did I bother coming to you?" Henry asked Jack as I eavesdropped. "The dead are hunting us down and you do nothing."

"Nothing?!" Jack was offended and gestured around with the bottle in his hand. "You call this nothing?"

"You're drunk! And you're sleeping."

"My point exactly!" Jack stood up. "I am doing two things at once."

Carina's question pulled my attention back to her when she asked me softly, "is he always like this?"

I sighed as the two men continued to bicker on their side of the ship. "Lately, yes. You could say... he's... he has been down on his luck."

"He is a mess," Carina said while shaking her head at him. "Why have you stayed with him?"

I blew a soft raspberry and closed my eyes, trying to think of a decent reason. I barely knew why myself, so it would be hard to justify it to someone else.

"Oh... you're blushing," she said softly, using Jack's words.

"What? No," I blurted, opening my eyes. "I've just known him for a long time and we have been through a lot together—" I paused to look over at him. "I trust him most of the time, and... he trusts me."

"Do you fancy him?"

I shrugged softly and snarled my top lip. I hated talking about these kinds of feelings. "Not particularly. He is a little older than me."

"He seems young," she said.

I chuckled, "criminals don't age. He must have twenty years on me."

Of course, I was merely guessing. Neither of us know our true ages, which was something that bonded us. We both see it as a way that we can never grow old, and how we can always stay young.

"Oh... well, do you at least a little? Describe ways you could fancy him."

I awkwardly chuckled, "well... he's got... he's got all his skin... still."

"Well, I hope so."

"And he's got plenty off... teeth," I added.

"But not all of them?" Carina asked.

"No—" I shook my head— "not all of them."

Carina chuckled. She paused while her face dropped and her skin got pale. She said, "I think I'm getting a little seasick. I think I might need a doctor."