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 Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 6:56 pm
Out of sight, out of mind.
The weather was not something to be admired, to be sure. Rain had been falling from the sky since early that morning in strange, sporadic sheets, a fog thinner than tissue crouching low against the damp forest floor. The thick tree cover broke most of the rainfall, splitting fat drops into flecks as they went pitter-pat through rattling pine needles. The rain didn't bother Jack, though his gait seemed much stiffer than its usual swagger. As if muscle memory were somehow telling him he should be out on the high seas in such weather, on a rocking deck, stumbling to, stumbling fro....
Jack leapt from one stepping stone in the river to another, holding a damp bit of rag aloft over the rushing water. The water below his paws was dark, darker than the slate of the sky, and heaving the bag back and forth, he sent it reeling through the air and into the foaming waters below; a glint of gold twinkled before it was swallowed by the waters.
It had to have been Chel's ill-begotten gold that had cursed him. That witch that had been spit up from the river itself. She'd made his memory reel at the thought of princesses and sour memories from before gold hair and blue eyes and sweet smiles. He had touched that woman's stolen gold and now he too was cursed, heaven help him!
Jack shook himself off - as if that would help in this weather - before giving up and jumping into the river. Soon, the silence below surface took over as he swam after the gold piece he had flung, fully aiming on burying it beneath the riverbed.
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Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:14 pm
Cream colored paws had long been stained brown from the mud that was on the forest floor, but Lizzy paid it no mind. The wiped her hair about, as well as the flaps of her coat, but she had little concern for her appearance. Her great-grand daughter had left earlier to hunt, but didn't come back after the storm had started.
She knew Elizabeth was fully capable of taking care of herself and had probably sought shelter the second the storm started, but Lizzy was overly concerned, even if said great-grandchild was also of elder status and just as big as herself now.
She headed for the river, maybe hoping to find a clue or perhaps see the winged otter hiding or having gone under the water to wait out the storm.
She stood at the rivers edge, the rushing water splashing against her paws and washing the mud off, but her attention was focused on someone or something on the other side of the river. It wasn't her great-granddaughter, the build was too small and looked more male then anything else. She saw him dive into the water and she dived in the next moment.
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Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:42 pm
It was hard; digging beneath water was much more difficult than Jack had anticipated, so he took to burying the ornate golden necklace - carved with totems and emblazoned with jewels - beneath flat river rocks. He wedged them so that not an angle could be seen of the accursed piece.
Superstitious as he was, he had taken to systematically searching out and hiding every trinket that had washed up with Chel, from the large, egg-like totems to what even looked like pairs of earrings. Coins especially, were disposed of. He had reached a some precipice in his paranoia-- for a pirate to be rid of gold was unheard of. But Jack figured - as he kicked up sand, mud and weed over the makeshift tomb of the golden necklace - it was better to be safe than... well, cursed.
And the captain knew a thing or two about curses.
The quiet below surface was deafening, and so the male hummed a lullaby his bosun used to hum once upon a time, if only to keep himself company and until his very breath was spent. She had sang it to him once when he took wandering the decks late at night. Jack smiled faintly at the memory, about facing in the water and back towards the surface when a snap of burnished gold hair twisted in the water. Jack swallowed a mouthful of river as he backpedaled away from the familiar, but not-so-familiar form, and exploded back onto the rock he had leapt from.
In the back of his quivering mind, something told him it was a river nymph, coming for him to get its due.
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Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:58 pm
Elizabeth had slowly weaved her way through the water, easily moving through the current as she made her way toward the otter down at the bottom of the river. Now that she could closer, she could clearly see exactly who it was.
Jack Sparrow. But what in the world was he doing out during a storm. Even more importantly, what was he doing burying something in the riverbed? She swam closer to see if she could see what he was really doing, a flash of something gold caught her eye. But before she could get closer, Jack seemed to had caught sight of her and she watched as he shot back up to the surface and out of the water. Looking down to where he was before, she was half tempted to see what could have made Jack come out during a storm, but thought better of it.
She swam up and broke the surface, shaking the water from her eyes and she narrowed her brown gaze at him, "Jack Sparrow, what on earth are you doing?!" she squeaked.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:47 pm
It took a full minute of staring at Elizabeth before recognition actually set in, bleeding into his memory like flame licking over an old photograph. And like a burning photograph, Jack unfolded himself with all the curling edges of quickly eaten paper. He looked infinitely slimmer when he was damp, as though he ate a lot of nothing and lived solely on his far-fetched ideas. His clothes, or lack thereof-- as his jacket had discarded and boots sat huddled near the shore, his hat hung up on a branch within sight-- was a curious sight, made him appear younger as well, the way they hung on him like a scarecrow's rags. Yet his eyes, dark with surprise, but hot with paranoia, bespoke his age.
That moment of vulnerability was swept downstream, "No 'hello Jack'? or 'good to see'y, Capt'n'? Where'er yer manners, Lizzy love? We haven't seen each other in ages."
He gave her a skeptically affectionate look, face turned away just so and furry brows cocked beneath his bandanna.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:00 pm
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and snorted a bit as she made her way to the shore and pulled herself out of the water. Taking her brown top off, she fussed with her hair as she pushed her banks from her eyes.
"How about you explain to me, Jack, why exactly you were swimming the water during a storm? Or did just not see the strong winds and feel the rain?" she asked as she sat down in front of him, giving him a half annoyed, half dry look.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:22 pm
He leaned forward with his utmost coy, Captain Sparrow gleam, "Were y'worried 'bout me, Lizzy? Thought y'd come t'my rescue?"
Jack laughed suddenly and dropped back into the water, swimming a circle in the unsteady waters before following the Pirate King to the bank. He didn't bother wringing himself off, as the mist hadn't let up a bit since he had come out.
"T'be honest, I missed all the rain and stormin'-- s'nice to pretend one's out at sea when th'weather's like this. Kinda hopin' it'll pick up summore." As if to double check if it would, Jack glanced up at the pregnant gray sky, only to have a fat drop of rain hit him square in the eye.
"I was buryin' some treasure, if y'wanted to know so bad, love," he said, tones low. "Was no good to me."
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:29 pm
Lizzy could only shake her head as she watched the male swim about before climbing back onto land with her. Deciding not to grace him with a reason why she followed him into the water, she instead stated something else, "Actually Jack, I have been looking for you. There is something of great importance I must ask and that we need to discuss." she said, picking up her jacket and folding it properly.
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Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 8:46 am
Everything was a joke to him, even the brusque tones with which Lizzy spoke. Jack watched her paws flick about, as dainty as moths, and settled down some ways from her to wait for her restless movements to cease.
"Lookin' for me, eh? Hope Barbossa hasn' caught wind yet," he said off-hand. Jack took to stroking the edge of his bandanna, suddenly wishing his hat were closer; his head was feeling dreadfully lonely.
"N' what do we possibly need to discuss, Lizzy darlin'? There isn't much pirate business goin' on aroun' these parts les' you count Shih... n' I don't count her anyway."
Jack rolled his shoulders, unworried, and looked to the river.
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Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 8:13 pm
Lizzy narrowed her eyes as she reached over her slightly bigger paw and smacked the back of Jack's head for his lip, "You should count yourself lucky it isn't Hector seeking you out right now." she stated, calming herself down, knowing Jack was just trying to get a rise out of her.
"What I came to discuss with you Jack is important. Why is it I happen to run into a female, a princess for that matter, who just so happens to have your Piece of 8, Jack?" she asked, wrapping her tail around her paws lightly and looking at him expectantly.
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Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 11:51 am
Jack's head snapped forward.
"Love-tap," he groaned, rubbing the back of his head. It had worked though; he loved seeing Lizzy so feisty. A shame she wasted all of that on Barbossa of all otters. Still pawing the back of his abused skull, Jack's eyes gave a perfunctory roll.
"Everythin' you have t'say is important..." But his voice trailed off like wine slipping from the tip of his tongue, leaving only a dry acridness behind. His entire being seemed to pause, hinged on Lizzy's discovery. Not that his Piece of 8 belonged to another now, but that she had met Aurora. He attempted swallowing without making too much noise.
"Coincidence," he said quickly, overlapping her voice just as his name came from her mouth. If one listened closely, he sounded almost irritated-- but at what? He knew Lizzy would not give up so easily. She was more stubborn than any male he knew.
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Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 12:02 pm
Lizzy rolled her eyes as she stood up and stalked around him, glaring lightly, "You know why we have those pieces Jack and why they are important. You are all otters should know this, or are you too drunk right now to recall." she said, rolling her eyes as she laid down, her back to him.
"If you feel your piece is safe with her, then I am going to trust you that much Jack. But I want to know the reasons why you gave it to her Jack and I want the truth. I am asking as a friend, not as the king." she said, ears flicking.
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Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 12:41 pm
"So suddenly we're friends?" he said with a roughly-edged paranoia that hadn't shown itself in quite some time. But the moment it left him, that air retreated as hesitant as a wave into one of awkward apology. He did not make phrase of it, however.
"I trust her," he said simply. And in saying so, he was admitting something out loud that he could barely admit in his own head. Jack didn't like trust-- did not like how easily a hole could puncture it, how deceit would eat away at it until it fell through, until it all sank. "Tha' Piece is safer with Princess Aurora than it is with me."
He looked sidelong until Elizabeth's shape came into his vision. He wished he could explain the moment to her, somehow describe how strong and gentle and genuine the Princess was.
"A princess without a kingdom and a captain without a ship..." he quoted underneath his breath. Jack shook his head, "Why-- does it matter so much?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 1:12 pm
Lizzy looked over her shoulder, the eye that could be seen looking like she was glaring, but with the rain and the hair in her face, one couldn't be sure, thus her expression was unreadable. She didn't say anything to him for a while, but instead look forward and then spoke, "I have my reasons. But....if you trust her, then I will trust your judgement, as skewed as it can be at times."
Standing up, she shook some water off, though there was no point to it, "She seems like a very sweet female, very.....innocent." she wanted to say naive, remembering how she described Jack.
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Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 7:37 pm
And he wanted to ask what Aurora had said about him, but what could she have possibly told Lizzy that he didn't see explicitly in her gaze?
"She is," he said softly, brows coming together in utter consternation. And I am more mutable than the sea.... Jack rose to his paws as well, if only to pace.
"You don' trus' me with her, do you?" he asked, and it was without aggression that he prompted the Pirate King. No, more like caution-- self-directed caution. The captain wasn't entirely certain that trusted himself, and minuscule bits-- all flotsam hidden in rollicking waters-- of this uncertainty flickered in gaze as he stared imploringly at Lizzy. "Tell me th'truth."
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