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dwgm525 words, with many thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hereswith for beta reading and suggestions.
Previous bits...
And here's today's...
56. Isla de Muerta
~ An Execrable Business, continued...
"Captain! Captain, wake up! It's Corsairs! We're being attacked!"
The yelling and pounding on the door would have been sufficient, but the sound of guns and the shudder of the Pearl as she was struck accompanied the summons and brought Jack leaping from the bed when mere seconds before he had been sound asleep with Nell in his arms.
"Get dressed!" he commanded her, doing so himself as quickly as possible. "I'm coming!" he shouted at the door, then told Nell, "Take a pistol and get down to the orlop and stay there. Damnation, where's the bloody watch, I'll have their hides! Coming!"
He was dressed, armed and out the door in perhaps half a minute, leaving Nell scrambling into her clothes.
More cannon fire and then an unholy wailing and shrieking from without. Nell ran to the cabin door, opened it, and to her horror saw that the Corsairs were boarding, that there was an enormous number of them, and that the Pearls were striving mightily to fight them off. She had every faith they would succeed—Oh, they must! But there was no possibility of reaching the orlop in safety. She slammed and bolted the cabin door, gathered weapons she could use – pistols and a serviceable knife—and slid under the bed, where Giselle was already hiding.
The cat meowed loudly, and Nell caught her and pulled her close. For a few minutes the two of them huddled together, each taking comfort from the other as the clash and crash, roars and cries of hand to hand fighting grew close, and then closer.
There came an enormous thud against the door of the cabin. Again. Again. And a fourth time, and the doors burst open, Giselle yowled like a banshee, broke from Nell's clasp and raced past the huge, scimitar-wielding intruder and out into the night of black smoke and fire. Nell prayed she had not been seen as she scooted back as far as she could toward the bulkhead, but the boards creaked under a heavy tread, and a growling shout was her only warning before the curved blade of the scimitar slashed sideways beneath the bed. It only caught a bit of her hair, but she was wholly unable to stifle her shriek of fright.
Chuckling and gloating audibly, her attacker caught the edge of the bedframe with hairy, sausage-sized fingers and lifted it, and she was revealed.
He barked a harsh command, and she had no doubt of the translation: Come out!
She skittered sideways, keeping as far from him as possible, edging away in horror. He was enormous, twice Jack's size, with oily black hair pulled back from a scarred, leering face, no shirt on his sweating torso, and a long, bloody knife stuck in his waistband.
As soon as she was clear he let go of the bed and was headed toward her on his great, stumping legs even before it thudded to the floor. There was no time to think, she set her teeth and swung the pistol up, her hands trembling very little as she took aim at his laughing, ugly head and pulled the trigger.
TBC...
hereswith for beta reading and suggestions.Previous bits...
| 1. Tortuga 2. Happiness 3. Festive 4. Last Minute 5. Calm 6. Truth 7. Bargain 8. Spook 9. Down 10. Wounds 11. Moon 12. Monsters 13. Beauty 14. Name 15. History | 16. Service 17. Advice 18. Captain 19. Awe 20. Cross 21. Mistake 22. Heroism 23. Gold 24. Echo 25. Greed 26. Advance 27. Challenge 28. Adventure 29. Sentence 30. Treasure | 31. North 32. Coat 33. Good and Evil 34. Sickness & Health 35. Lost 36. Court 37. What if? 38. Island 39. That can't be 40. Prophesy 41. Ten Years Later 42. French 43. Deed 44. Tea 45. Scarlett & Giselle | 46. Link 47. Comedy 48. Mothers 49. Fathers 50. Rib 51. Music 52. Magic 53. Pirate King 54. Freedom 55. Sea Shanties |
And here's today's...
56. Isla de Muerta
~ An Execrable Business, continued...
"Captain! Captain, wake up! It's Corsairs! We're being attacked!"
The yelling and pounding on the door would have been sufficient, but the sound of guns and the shudder of the Pearl as she was struck accompanied the summons and brought Jack leaping from the bed when mere seconds before he had been sound asleep with Nell in his arms.
"Get dressed!" he commanded her, doing so himself as quickly as possible. "I'm coming!" he shouted at the door, then told Nell, "Take a pistol and get down to the orlop and stay there. Damnation, where's the bloody watch, I'll have their hides! Coming!"
He was dressed, armed and out the door in perhaps half a minute, leaving Nell scrambling into her clothes.
More cannon fire and then an unholy wailing and shrieking from without. Nell ran to the cabin door, opened it, and to her horror saw that the Corsairs were boarding, that there was an enormous number of them, and that the Pearls were striving mightily to fight them off. She had every faith they would succeed—Oh, they must! But there was no possibility of reaching the orlop in safety. She slammed and bolted the cabin door, gathered weapons she could use – pistols and a serviceable knife—and slid under the bed, where Giselle was already hiding.
The cat meowed loudly, and Nell caught her and pulled her close. For a few minutes the two of them huddled together, each taking comfort from the other as the clash and crash, roars and cries of hand to hand fighting grew close, and then closer.
There came an enormous thud against the door of the cabin. Again. Again. And a fourth time, and the doors burst open, Giselle yowled like a banshee, broke from Nell's clasp and raced past the huge, scimitar-wielding intruder and out into the night of black smoke and fire. Nell prayed she had not been seen as she scooted back as far as she could toward the bulkhead, but the boards creaked under a heavy tread, and a growling shout was her only warning before the curved blade of the scimitar slashed sideways beneath the bed. It only caught a bit of her hair, but she was wholly unable to stifle her shriek of fright.
Chuckling and gloating audibly, her attacker caught the edge of the bedframe with hairy, sausage-sized fingers and lifted it, and she was revealed.
He barked a harsh command, and she had no doubt of the translation: Come out!
She skittered sideways, keeping as far from him as possible, edging away in horror. He was enormous, twice Jack's size, with oily black hair pulled back from a scarred, leering face, no shirt on his sweating torso, and a long, bloody knife stuck in his waistband.
As soon as she was clear he let go of the bed and was headed toward her on his great, stumping legs even before it thudded to the floor. There was no time to think, she set her teeth and swung the pistol up, her hands trembling very little as she took aim at his laughing, ugly head and pulled the trigger.
TBC...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 04:05 pm (UTC)Love the action in this small scene. You've really put me on the edge of my seat until tomorrow! :)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:30 pm (UTC)That's so good to hear! Thank you for commenting. I'm glad you liked this sequence.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:35 pm (UTC)That will certainly be an issue. I'm glad you liked the action here. Thank you again for commenting!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 11:31 pm (UTC)Not a really good sign for the Pearl if there's men to be spared to go below.
Well, what you've writ has a decided edge to it today--got my attention, Miz Ge-ma! Brang it on now, gotta know that your Nell and Jack of course are okay and will somehow triumph! Thanks for the big bang. As for the watch, somehow seems Barbossa would have had a finger in that pie.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 01:49 am (UTC)Amazing installment - it took my breath away and is still holding it, for I'm very worried about what will happen in the next one!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:39 pm (UTC)