#c1 p1 the life of liz

[thatlaughingbat]

The Life of Liz - Chapter 1 Part 1

"Jack, the boat!"

He looks down and sees the water slowly filling from what I assume is the hull.

"Ugh." He grunts and slides down from the rope next to him. "Bucket." He holds out his hands. I grab the wooden bucket and toss it to him. Jack starts scooping the water into the bucket and back into the ocean. The water just returns to the boat. "Do you not have the ability to help, darling?" Jack asks softly. Not as he's demanding me to help.

"Did you completely forget the fact that once I touch this, I won't be able to stand?" I respond. I gesture down to my legs.

"Ah." He smirks and nods.

"It's not working," I say, "but we're near land. Let it sink." He looks up behind me and stands. I feel a dark presence behind me. Death. I turn quickly and see skeletons being hung. Three of us. They're pirates.

Jack takes off his hat in respect. I salute and turn to the land. Port Royal, I assume. There's no way this boat is going to make it in time.

Jack grabs the rope and pulls himself back up to the top. He mumbles something I couldn't make out and wraps his arm around my torso. The wind travels through my hair. I wrap my arm around his neck to keep myself steady. The ship slowly sinks as we reach the dock.

Many children are working on the docks. Slaves maybe. They could be children of the other workers though.

Jack lets me down on the end of the dock, him following. I smile and grab his hand as we start walking. We walk past the dock keeper and a child, ignoring them. Until...

"Hold up there you two!" The man says. We turn and look at the man. He is well dressed but still dirty. He is holding a book. "It's a shilling to tie up your boat to the dock."

I look at the "boat". It's nothing but the top of the sail poking out. Unnecessary payment in my opinion.

"And I sure need to know your names."

Jack pulls three small coins from his pocket and lays it on top of the book. "What do you say to three shillings and we forget the names?" He says. The man looks at the child and back to us.

"Welcome to Port Royal, Mr. and Mrs. Smith." He says, closing the book. I sigh in relief and nod at the man. Jack clasps his hands together as a thank you. I turn and finally take in the smell. I expected it to be a bit less salty. But the air was salty and sour. It felt like I was taking my last breath every time I breathe.

Jack finds a small coin bag on the podium. He grabs it and shakes it. Seems at least 5 shillings in there. It could be useful so he takes it.

Then, we continue walking. There's a lot of people around us but they are too busy working to notice us. Jack stops. He nods his head to a large ship. A ship I've seen before. The Interceptor.

"That one?" I ask.

"It's big and it's fast. That's all we need, love." He responds. I nod and follow him to the ship.

When we reach it, there are two English guards. We try and walk past them, but they walk right in front of us.

"This dock is off-limits to civilians." One of the guards says. His voice sounds a bit shaky like this is his first time guarding.

"I'm terribly sorry. I didn't know," Jack says. "if I see one, I shall inform you immediately." He grabs my hand again and tries to walk past them but they block us again.

"Apparently there's some high-toned and fancy to-do at the fort, eh?" Jack asks.

"Shame you didn't get an invitation. Such pleasant men like yourself should have been at least asked." I shrug. The other guard glares at the other.

"Someone has to make sure this dock stays off-limits to civilians." One of the guards says confidently.

"And it's a fine goal to be sure, but it seems to me, a ship like that," Jack moves to the side and points to the Dauntless ship from afar, "makes this one here a bit superfluous, really." The two guards turn to look at the Dauntless.

"The Dauntless is the power in these waters, true enough," The same guard replies, "but no ship can match the Interceptor for speed." I laugh softly. Funny.

"I've heard of one," Jack says. "It's supposed to be fast, nigh uncatchable." He looks to me and smiles.

"The Black Pearl." We say together. The other guard laughs at our response. I tilt my head to the side.

"There's no real ship as can match the Interceptor." The other guard says in defense.

"Black Pearl is a real ship." The first guard replies. I roll my eyes and lay my head against Jack's arm. Something tells me this bickering is going to go on longer than I want it to.

As they continue bickering, Jack and I slip away while they're distracted. We walk over to the ship and climb onto the deck.

It has a reddish-brown wood on the floors balancing out with the navy and yellow lining the outside of the ship. It's beautiful. Jack walks up to the wheel and drags his hand across it.

"How's this one?" I smile.

He laughs. "Perfect-"

"Hey! You two!" The guards yell. They run towards us and point their guns at our stomachs. "You don't have permission to be aboard there, mates."

"I'm sorry. It's just... it's such a pretty boat." I elbow him. "Ship!"

"I agree. What is this, mahogany?" I tease and lean on the wheel.

"What're your names?" The guard asks. I clear my throat.

"Smith. Or... Smithy, if you like." He says. I'd laugh softly and nod.

"What's your purpose in Port Royal, Mr. and Mrs. Smith?" The guard asks smugly.

"And no lies."

Jack sighs and walks towards them.

"All right, then. I confess." He starts. "It is my intention to commandeer a ship, pick up a crew in Tortuga, raid pillage plunder, and pilfer my black guts out." I didn't expect him to say it. I mean, it does sound kind of insane now that I am thinking about it.

"I said no lies!" The guard says.

"He's not lying," I mumble.

"I think he's tellin' the truth." The other guard responds. Jack holds onto the rope and smiles.

"If he were telling the truth he wouldn't have told us." The guard says.

"Unless of course, he knew you wouldn't believe the truth even if he told it to you," Jack says a matter of factly. I smile. I've always admired his intelligence. Not a lot of people notice it.

We sit down and Jack starts to get the guards to soften up to us. He starts explaining crazy stories of ours because he knows they wouldn't believe him.

I hear a splash from afar. I turn to see a girl floating deep into the water. About my age. Maybe younger. I stand immediately and run to the edge of the ship.

"Will you be saving her, then?" Jack asks.

"I can't swim!" The guard says. Jack turns to me and nods.

"Pride of the king's navy, you are!" He takes his hat off and starts giving them his weapons to keep them safe. I sigh and pull my overshirt off to reveal a shorter top. The guards look at me with wide eyes.

"What? I got a hickey or something?" I ask. They shake their heads. I drop my weapons and jump onto the ledge.

"Do not lose these," Jack says. We dive into the water and towards the girl. There was extreme pain in my legs. I grunt softly and bite my lip so I didn't let out an ear-piercing scream. Grey travels from my forehead to my now connected legs as my hair turns a dark black.

Suddenly, I feel a vibration throughout the water. It pushes me back a little bit. Jack grabs the girl and swims to the surface. I try and see if I can get her to breathe again, but I'm behind blocked by something.

"The dress," I say. Jack sinks underwater and rips the dress off of her. I shake my head. "Something's still blocking it. Bring her to the surface." I say. He nods and guides the girl's body to the dock close to us.

I grab the edge of the dock and lift my legs and the rest of my body to the bottom of the wood so I'm fully outside of the water. The opposite of my transition from before occurs with my regular state back to normal. My muscles clench as I flip from the bottom to the top of the dock.

Jack follows, but goes the easy way and just climbs up normally. He lays the girl's body on the dock.

"The corset." I place my hand on her throat. Jack grabs his knife and slices the corset open. I allow air into her system again.

She wakes up coughing up the water and gasping for air.

"What's.." I say. Jack has already finished my sentence and picks up the gold pendant necklace around her neck. The Aztec gold medallion. The cursed Aztec gold medallion.

"Where did you get that?" Jack asks. Suddenly, we hear footsteps.

I look up to see a sword to my face and Jack's face.

"On your feet." The new commodore says. I stand and interlock my fingers with Jack's.

"Elizabeth!" The governor says and grabs the girl we just saved. "Shoot him!"

"Father!" Elizabeth protests. "Commodore, do you really intend to kill my rescuers?"

I smile at Elizabeth and the Commodore. He puts his sword down as the rest of his crew does.

"I believe thanks are in order." He held his hand out to Jack. Jack hesitantly grabs it only to be pulled forward with his sleeve pulled up. "Had a brush with the East India Trading Company, did we, pirate?" He asks.

Jack winces.

"Hang him!" The governor says.

"Keep your guns on him." The commodore orders. "Gillette, fetch some irons." He pulls the sleeve up more. "Well, well. Jack Sparrow isn't it?"

"Captain Jack Sparrow, if you please, sir," Jack responds.

The Commodore then forcefully grabs my arm and sees the same 'P' mark on my wrist.

"I assume that means you're the mermaid then. Nice to meet you, Ava Liz." He spat.

"Get your hands off her," Jack says and grabs my arm back, wrapping his arm around to secure me.

"Oh, and it's SIREN. Thank you." I say and nod.

"I don't see your ship, 'Captain' and 'Siren'." The Commodore says.

"We're in the market, as it were," Jack says.

"He said he'd come to commandeer one." The guard says.

"These are their's, sir!" The other guard says and picks our stuff up. The Commodore takes them and looks around our weapons.

"No additional shots nor powder." There is one additional shot and it's not for you. "A compass that doesn't point north." It works, you just don't know-how. "A black and gold shell necklace." It's not just a necklace. He pulls our swords out. Jack's is rusty and silver. Mine is pitch black with a few scratches around the blade. "And I half expected it to be made of wood." He slips them back into the holsters and returns his gaze to us. "You are without a doubt the worst pirates I've ever heard of!"

Jack smiles. "But you have heard of us."

The Commodore gives us a dirty gaze. Our games are pissing him off. He grabs our arms and pulls us forward.

"Commodore, I really must protest!" Elizabeth runs after us. I groan as they slip the chains onto my hands. They're tight. I can almost feel my wrists turning red.

"Carefully Lieutenant." The Commodore orders. Elizabeth walks in front of us and starts to protest to the Commodore.

"Pirates or not, these people saved my life." She says.

"One good deed does not redeem a man of a lifetime of wickedness." He spits.

"Though it seems enough to condemn him," Jack says in defense. The Commodore looks at me. I smile and shrug. The smile is genuine, though I'm sure he thought it was sarcastic.

"Indeed." The Commodore says. I pull on the chains and wince. I can already see the rust rubbing off.

The Lieutenant walks away and Jack smiles. He lifts his arms around Elizabeth's neck and pulls her close.

"Finally." He says. The soldiers point their guns at us. I rest my chin on Jack's shoulder and smile at Elizabeth. I shouldn't, but I do. She is so vulnerable and weak. She could be strong with a bit of training from myself,  but I wouldn't want to waste my time.

"What's wrong?" I ask. I get close to her ear and whisper. "Scared?" Elizabeth winces and shakes.

"Don't shoot!" The Governor protests. I look to him and pout jokingly. Pathetic.

Jack looks to me and back to Elizabeth. Her breaths are shaky and frightened.

The Commodore's men's eyes were all on me and Jack. Mostly I because of the number of clothes I had on. Currently, the shirt I was wearing was blood red that ended where my ribs did. The pants were —really— short with fishnets lining the rest of my legs. Most of my tattoos were showing. I didn't mind the amount of skin showing but I did have more covering my upper half before Elizabeth fell into the water.

"Commodore Norrington, our effects, please. And my hat. Hand all of Miss. Liz's to her and mine to.. Miss Swann here, Savvy?" Jack says. The Commodore glares at him. "Commodore!", is all Jack had to say before Norrington obliged and started collecting our stuff.

I wink at one of the soldiers to keep them intrigued. Their face flushes up a deep red and they look back to Jack.

"Elizabeth.. it is Elizabeth?" Jack whispers.

"It's Miss Swann." She sneers.

"Miss Swann, if you'd be so kind." He smirks. "Come, come, dear. We don't have all day." Norrington passes my shirt, sword, necklace, and gun to me before handing Jack's weapons and hats to him.

Jack turns Elizabeth around with a gun to her head. I stop paying attention to them and decide to distract the soldiers.

I turn away from them to my back is to their faces. I can almost feel them swallow. The sheer white shirt slips over the top of my torso. I grab my boots and bend over to put them on. Jack's eyes shift to me while Elizabeth is completing his ensemble. He smirks and looks back at the girl. I wrap my necklace around my neck and holster my sword next to my gun. I turn on my heel back to the soldiers while they peel their glaze away from me.

Elizabeth was now done and turned back to her Father and the Commodore's direction. Both Jack and I take steps back as he says, "Gentlemen.. my lady, you will always remember this as the day that you almost caught Captain Jack.. Sparrow!"

He pushes Elizabeth forward and grabs me by my torso. I smile and press my face into his shoulder, hearing a metal clanging and us being pulled up. The scent of rum and saltwater fills my nose.

"Hold on," Jack whispers. My grip around him tightens. The rope Jack is holding onto swung fast, gunshots surrounding us. I feel him land on something and try to balance.

He unravels his grip from me and wraps his handcuffed hands around the rope hanging to the next dock.

To follow him, I pull my sleeves over my hands and slide down the rope. The rope rubs against my shirt which burns insanely.

We reach the end and land on the wood, feet first. I sprint with gunshots surrounding us.

I look to the left and see the town. Jack was running in the opposite direction.

"J!" I whisper and grab his hand, yanking him towards the town.

"Woah! C-Careful, love!" He smirks and interlocks his fingers with mine. I can almost feel my heart beating out my chest. My breath stings my throat. I didn't realize how fast I was running until I turned my head to the right and saw the buildings fly by. "Here," Jack says and sneaks me behind a statue.

It wasn't very spacious. I turn my head to the right seeing Jack peering out from the gap. His eyebrows were furrowed with his eyes darting around to see where the soldiers were looking. I found myself staring at him. I loved watching him in action.

"Ava." He says, snapping me out of my distracted state.

"O-Oh! Yeah?" I shake my head and focus.

"You okay, love? You seem distracted." He asks. I smile and nod. He returns the smile and grabs my hand, pulling me out from behind the statue.

Above us was a sign. The shop was a blacksmith shop. I shrug and Jack walks into the building.

"So.. darling. Any ideas?" Jack says and looks around the shop.

"Nothing. What about you, Captain?" I say. He shrugs.

I hear a slight snoring sound behind me. My body quickly turns to see an elderly man sleeping. He looked dirty.

I nudge Jack with my hand.

"Damn." He mumbles. I let him make his way over to the man.

I turn and drag my fingers across the metal. There were beautifully made swords and other weapons. Some of them looked untouched and polished.

"WOAH!" I hear Jack yell.

"Jack." I groan and continue looking at the swords.

Suddenly, I feel a hand on my shoulder, causing me to flinch.

"I need to get your chains off, darlin'." He says calmly.

"I can do it myself." I smile and aggressively pull my hands apart, the chains breaking. Jack looks at me and rolls his eyes.

"Couldn't have done that before?" He asks. I shake my head.

"Wouldn't want the fun to end." I smiled. Sometimes I do forget I can get out of situations like that.

Suddenly, we hear the door open. Jack grabs my arm and drags me behind a table to hide.

I look up and see a young man. He had long dark hair pulled back. I assumed he was apart of the staff here.

"Exactly where I left you." I hear him say. I look at Jack and widen my eyes. He places his finger against my lips to keep me quiet. I look into his eyes. His gaze returned and he smiled.

Suddenly, he stands up with his sword on the hat next to us. I sigh and stand behind him with my sword out.

The boy's eyes lingered on Jack and then onto me.

"You're the one they're hunting," He says, "the pirates." The news must be spreading around town if he already knows.

Jack's arm extended keeping me behind him. It's not like I can't fight for myself. Oh, wait.

"You seem somewhat familiar." Jack's words were slightly slurred. "Have I threatened you before?" He asks.

"I make a point of avoiding familiarity with pirates." The boy says.

"Well, today's not sticking with that point," I say and smile. The boy looks at me and tilts his head. He does look quite familiar. I may have seen him when I was a child but I doubt it.

"She's right; it would be a shame to put a black mark on your record." Jack supports. "If you'll excuse us."

I start to turn but get stopped by the sound of metal being slid across something. The boy is now pointing one of the hundreds of swords in the shop at both of us.

"Do you think this wise boy?" Jack smiles. "Crossing blades with a pirate?"

"You threatened Miss Swann." He responds. I would act the same if someone threatened a friend of mine but somehow I'm still annoyed with him.

Jack drags his sword across Will's making a similar noise to before.

"Only a little." He says before striking at the boy. He blocks it. Again, Jack strikes and the boy blocks him.

Not long 'till the boy bests Jack. I slide my sword back to my holster and lean against the wall to watch. It's not every day we find someone as good as Jack or sometimes better.

"You know what you're doing, I'll give you that. Excellent form." He says. "But how's your footwork?"

Jack crosses his left foot over his right, "If I step here..." the boy doing the opposite. "very good." Jack does almost the same action as before, swinging his sword towards the boy, but moves his feet about 4 times more until he is standing in front of me.

"Ta." He nods and holsters his sword. Jack turns on his heel and drags me to the door.

Before I grab the wood that is locking the door, I hear something flying at my head. I duck down and land on my ass.

I look up to see the sword stuck into the door lock, keeping it unable to open. My head turns back to the boy.

"You almost killed me!" I yell. He snickers at my remark.

"You and I both know you were going to duck." He responds. I roll my eyes, refusing him to be correct.

Jack is pulling on the sword, still unable to get it out of the wood it's stuck in.

"That is a wonderful trick," Jack says through gritted teeth. He holds his hand out to me. I grab it and pull myself up. "Except, you almost just killed my right-hand girl and once again, you are between me and my way out. And now..." Jack pulls his sword out, "you have no weapon."

The boy whips around and grabs the fire poker, now burning at the tip. I stumble back as he turns back and points it at Jack's face.

I lean against the wall again and watch Jack and the boy fight.

"Who makes all these?" I yell over all of the noise. I see the boy's eyes flicker over to me and back to Jack.

"I do." He grunts and swings around the pole to strike at Jack. "And I practice with them three hours a day!" He switches positions with Jack.

"You need to find yourself a girl, mate," Jack says and swings his sword at the boy.

"Or perhaps the reason he practices three hours a day is that he's already found one and is otherwise incapable of wooing said strumpet," I question. Jack winces.

"You're not a eunuch, are you?" Jack looks down, causing me to laugh.

The boy pushes harder on the clash they're in currently.

"I practice three hours a day so that when I meet a pirate," he slashes at Jack, "I can kill it!"

I roll my eyes. 'It'. Imagine we have pronouns.

They end up on the wheel barrel. I feel myself getting more bored every second I'm just standing here.

I grab my sword and pull it out of the holster and walk forward. Jack is currently upside-down on the ceiling, trying to get unstuck from the sword he is attached to, and the boy is laying on the floor staring at Jack.

I lift my arm and flick my fingers as the boy climbs onto the wood platform. Jack falls unstuck onto the platform, flying the boy onto the ceiling railings.

"Ow." Jack grunts and stands next to me on the platform. The boy slashes a rope, dropping a sack of an unknown substance onto the other side. Jack's body flies to the opposite railing across the boy.

I run to the wall next to me and flip off of it to the railing.

We all jump to the railings next to us. I strike the boy, him blocking me. I grunt and continue striking at him, with him blocking every shot. Suddenly, one of his blocks pushes mine and Jack's swords out of our hands.

I give him an uneasy look and jump down, landing behind where Jack does. He grabs a bag of what I assume is dirt and empties it onto the boy when he jumps down in front of us.

Jack takes his gun out and points it at the boy.

"You cheated!" The boy says, holding a crowbar next to his head.

"Pirate." We say in unison.

Outside the shop, soldiers are pushing on the doors and grunting to get in.

"Move away!" Jack says.

"No." The boy says.

"Please move?!" Jack pleads.

"No! I cannot just step aside and let you escape." He opposes.

Jack pulls the revolver and narrows his eyes. I grab his arm to try and prevent him from what he's about to do.

"This shot is not meant for you." Jack croaked.

"Exactly the reason you shouldn't be pointing this-" A bottle smashes against my head, making everything go dark. I feel myself fall over and slam my head into the ground.

My eyes open to a dark stone room. I gasp and sit up quickly, a blinding pain going through my head.

"Ava?" I hear a familiar groggy voice in my left ear.

"Ow.. stop yelling.." I mumble.

"I'm not yelling, love." He chuckles softly. There are bars in front of where I'm sitting. I stand, ignoring the pain that's coursing my entire brain, and stumble over to the bars. I reach to the rusting iron bars. When my fingers touch the iron, I feel burning, like my skin is going to burn off.

"AGH!" I yell and stumble back. "Vervain.."

Jack smiles and looks back down with his elbows leaning on his knees.

"Feelin' good about yourself?" I laugh, rubbing my fingers and sitting next to him.

"Hm." He grunts in amusement.

I try and keep myself warm against him because for some reason the guards assumed it would be a good idea to take my shirt. It's not like it'd be a dangerous thing for me to be warm. Maybe they just wanted me to be weakened.

"C'mon boy!" I hear the men in the cell next to us yell. They are holding a bone outside the cell, begging for the dog with the keys to come to them. Their nagging made my head pound. I was starting to get nauseous from the headache that they were making worse.

"Jack.. can you tell them to shut it." I groan and squeeze his wrist. He turns his head with his hat still over his eyes.

"You can keep doing that forever. The dog is never going to move." Jack says to the prisoners.

"Oh, excuse us if we haven't resigned ourselves to the gallows just yet." The prisoners respond and turn away, not stopping.

Jack turns back to me with a smirk planted on his face.

"Sorry." He chuckles softly. "Want me to kiss it better?" He cooed. I smile, my cheeks heating up.

"You wish, pretty boy," I mumble and slowly fall asleep.

#the life of liz #ava liz #jack sparrow #pirates of the caribbean #elizabeth swann #william turner #will turner #chapter 1 the life of liz #c1 p1 the life of liz #port royale