Song of the Sea

Chapter Two: The Revelation

Diane yawned as she woke up from her sleep, and wondered why on earth her room was bobbing and lurching like a cork. And why were these sheets so different from hers? Why did they have a faintly spicy smell to them? She opened her eyes and instead of seeing her own room, she saw the captain's quarters of the Pearl. Yesterday's events came rushing back like a flood and she scowled.

Sparrow was nowhere to be seen. Diane grabbed her shawl and stumbled down the corridor and up the steps to the main deck. She didn't yet have her sea legs, and tripped several times on her way up to the helm of the ship. On deck, the crew were yelling at each other and running around frantically, hauling ropes, tying knots, pulling on odd contraptions. She swayed up to the helm--Sparrow was steering the ship, yelling out orders to the crew occasionally.

"What's going on?" asked Diane. Sparrow turned around and saw her holding on to a beam to keep her balance.

"Get below decks," he ordered.

"Why?"

"Do as I say! Get back in the captain's quarters!" He turned away from her and faced the open sea--but it wasn't open. There were four naval ships, surrounding the Black Pearl on all sides, closing in on her! Diane gasped as she saw the nearest ship roll out its cannons, ready to sink the Pearl. The pirate ship was undoubtedly faster than any of the other ships, but it was completely surrounded and cornered.

BOOM! The nearest cannon fired, crashing into the side of the ship, and the ship seemed to shudder violently, knocking Diane off of her feet. She swore as her arm painfully hit the cold, wet beams. Still swearing under her breath, she hauled herself to her feet and was immediately started heading back to the captain's cabin, when she remembered the hole that had undoubtedly been blown in the side of the Pearl. She stood there for a whole minute, tortured by indecision. A voice that sounded suspiciously like her father's told her not to bother. If the ship sank, it was none of her business, and the pirates would get what they deserved. But another voice, long-silenced by her father, told her to repair the damage, since it was probably she who'd brought this upon the ship. Finally, Diane told the first voice to stuff it, and pulled out her wand. She headed below decks, weaving her way through with difficulty and choking on the dust in the air.

"Bloody hell!" she said as she saw the size of the hole. It was half her height, and at least as wide as she was. "Magna Reparo!" The splinters and beams began to slowly repair themselves, flying and fusing together painfully slowly. The ship gave another violent shudder, again almost knocking Diane off her feet. She hurried back up on deck. Most of the crew now had guns, and the Pearl was rolling our her own cannons. A sinking feeling filled her stomach. A firefight would only mean bloodshed and death, and as much as she despised both the pirates and their captain, they didn't deserve this. Dashing up to Sparrow, she said, "Let me handle the ships."

He didn't even look at her. "I haven't any time for a schoolgirl's prattle. Get back below deck!"

She chose to ignore the insult. "I told you that I can do things that your crew could never manage. Here's your demonstration." Without waiting for his reply, she walked up to the side of the ship. The nearest naval vessel was less than fifty yards away, and the acrid smell of cannon smoke filled the air, punctuated with sharp cracks and booms. Diane aimed carefully for the ropes holding the offending ship's sails up. "Diffindo!"

She did the spell over and over again, and she could hear screaming and curses from the ship as the sails came tumbling down. After that was over with, she pointed her wand at the mast. Three Reductor Curses only managed to make it tipsy, but that was enough to distract the ship. Diane ran to the bow of the ship, and did the same magical treatment to the ship that was blocking the Pearl. After the last spell left her wand, she dropped to her knees, gasping for breath--it was difficult keeping up the energy to do many spells in succession. She grasped the wood again for support, and pushed herself to her feet. Sure enough, the ships she'd attacked were retreating, and the Pearl was already starting to outstrip the two remaining ships. She walked tiredly over to the stern, and stood there for some time, watching the vessels disappear into the horizon.

"What, may I inquire, was that, Miss Whitten?" said a sharp voice behind her. Diane wearily turned around to see Sparrow, with his whole crew standing behind him. His face was smoothly expressionless, but everyone else looked fearful, even angry.

"That, Captain Sparrow, was what I can do for your ship. That none of your crew or yourself can do."

"Answer the question, Miss," said Sparrow softly, cocking an eyebrow at her warily. One of the crew members muttered something to the man standing next to him.

"That was magic. Witchcraft. Sorcery. Enchantment. Wizardry. Whatever you prefer to call it." Her temper was starting to rise through the rapidly fading fatigue. She'd just saved all of their sorry pirate arses and their thanks was to interrogate her? Sparrow started at the words and shot a glance at one of his crew members, a middle-aged pirate with graying sideburns and hair.

"Cap'n. It's bad enough luck to have a woman on board, but a witch...we might as well do what needs to be done," he said gruffly. Diane flushed as all the eyes of the crew turned to her, and Sparrow examined her up and down, as he had when they'd first met.

"Dammit, Sparrow, stop that. You know as well as I do that if I hadn't used my magic, all of your sorry necks would be in danger of the hangman's rope, if not at the bottom of the ocean," spat Diane. She pulled out her wand again, and several crew members backed away from her. "I could help you, or I could simply erase all your memories this instant."

"You are bound to comply with my wishes, Miss, in case you forgot. Obviously, my wishes do not include harm to myself, my ship, or my crew," said Sparrow wryly. Diane bit her lip and slowly lowered the wand. "My wishes, however, do include your continued residence on this ship, and your help onboard, using your magic." The crew immediately began muttering amongst themselves, but a glance from him silenced them. "Now, as it was you who these ships were after, I think that you should aid in fixing those holes in my ship."

"I already repaired the largest one," said Diane quietly. Sparrow gave her an odd look, and she could tell that he was impressed against his will,

"Simply help my crew to fix this mess." He murmured a few orders to his crew that she couldn't hear, and the pirates scattered, still throwing fearful glances her way. She stayed above decks, repairing minor damage with her wand and retrieving lost items. As tiring as constant magic was, the rhythm of the spells was rather soothing. No matter what happened on this damned ship, she still could use her wand. In the afternoon, she went below and began fixing some of the cannon damage. The area near the Pearl's cannons was especially torn up, and it took Diane and several pirates to fix it. They rarely spoke to her, but she didn't care. Intensive fixing and cleaning spells took a lot of concentration.

That evening, Diane was completely worn out, not to mention extremely hungry. She paid no attention to Sparrow's curious glances at her and ate dinner with furious speed before collapsing on the bed. She was almost asleep before her head hit the pillow. She never felt Sparrow tucking the blankets around her, careful to avoid her wand.

"Interesting. So you are a witch, Miss Whitten. That's very interesting. So what am I to do with you now?" he murmured to himself before slipping into bed next to the young girl.

For several days, the same boring routine gripped the ship. Every morning, Diane would wake up to find that Sparrow had already left to steer his ship. Every day, she would aid the pirates in fixing damage, tidying up, healing the constant wounds and sores and headaches. The spells that she was using right now were practical, but not very interesting. Occasionally, she'd do something out of the ordinary. On her third day aboard the Pearl, the pirate who'd captured her in the first place was complaining endlessly about being cold and wet. Diane, with a spark of mischief in her eye, had conjured up a hot blue flame in a bottle, bewitching it to constantly bob after him, often knocking into him. She'd only removed it when Sparrow ordered her to, after it almost bumped the pirate overboard. In another instance, when she'd been asked to repair yet another set of ropes, she'd Vanished them and conjured another set, bright pink, in its place. Sparrow had let her keep that one, although he'd asked her to change it to red, rather than pink. Diane strongly suspected that he and the crew were rather wary of her abilities, and so much the better.

"Miss Whitten?" There's warped boards over here," said a pirate named Mr. Gibbs on Diane's sixth morning there while he was scrubbing. She rolled her eyes and strolled over. Casting a bored(A/N: sorry, bad bad bad pun) look over the wood, she pulled out her handy bottle of blue flames, letting a spark of the fire eat up the wood. Once the burning was done, she scooped up the flame.

"Inanimatus Conjurus!" she said, visualizing a set of perfectly straight and dry pink boards. When they appeared and she put them in their place, Mr. Gibbs gave her an appealing look.

"Not pink again! Change 'em!" he said with a note of exasperation in his voice. Diane merely grinned--no, she showed her teeth. What was on her face could not be called a grin.

"I do your Captain's bidding, not yours." The man closed his eyes, as if praying for patience, and hollered for Sparrow. When he saw the boards, he chuckled and glanced at her, eyes sparkling with laughter.

"I shall soon have a Pink Pearl, I see. Is it your favorite color or something to that effect?" he asked in an amused tone.

"No. I find the color revolting, but it does serve to keep things interesting."

"Spirited lass. Well, I must protest to pink. Any other color will do, just not pink. Clear, Miss Whitten?" He turned to go.

"Clear, Captain Sparrow." She murmured the Color-Change spell and the boards immediately became bright orange. He glanced at her, then the boards, and shook his head in mock defeat before walking away. Diane rolled her eyes at his retreating back, and was headed back below to continue her reading when--

"Miss? One of the sails is pretty much done for!" came a call from the other end of the ship. Diane gritted her teeth in frustration, but headed over nonetheless. All the sails were black and tattered, so she simply pointed her wand at each one, reciting the Repairing Charm. She turned two of them to blue, earning herself revolted looks from several of the pirates and another chuckle from Sparrow. When none of them were looking, she carefully marked the largest sail with the Identification Spell. When a wizard laid eyes on the sail, it would appear black, but with her family coat of arms in silver ink. With any luck, some naval sailors were also wizards.

Below decks, Diane headed for the "library" on board. It really was just a collection of rare and expensive books that Sparrow and his crew had stolen, obviously hoping to sell them someday. There were only thirty books or so, but they were the only true form of escape that she had. Puling out her bottle of flames for some warmth and light, she grabbed the volume that she'd been reading and buried herself in it.

Ten chapters later, she heard a soft rapping on the door. "Dinner, Miss Whitten." Diane sighed and put the book away and the jar of flames back in her pocket. Sparrow seemed to know that if she wasn't on deck, she'd be in the "library". Diane had explored the ship from bow to stern in her first few days, and quickly exhausted that form of entertainment. However, waving her wand around and seeing people's frightened expressions did have its merits.

"We'll be seeing dry land in a few days, Miss. There's a town that my ship needs to dock at," said Sparrow over their dinner. Curious, despite herself, Diane looked up from her food.

"Why? Surely you don't need to restock already?" She hoped with all her heart that they wouldn't be stopping to pillage.

"No, Miss. My crew have been getting rather...impatient with me. This town is one of rogues, criminals, prostitutes, and of course, pirates. I would strongly suggest you to stay aboard the Pearl. It is not a sight for a young lady to see."

"You mean, not a sight for an unarmed young lady to see." Diane idly twirled her wand in between her fingers, and Sparrow flinched slightly. She felt a satisfied smirk cross her face and continued eating.

"Count yourself lucky, Miss Whitten. If I were a lawful man, I would've had you burned on the spot," said Sparrow with a hint of steel in his voice.

"Had you been a lawful man, you wouldn't have been a pirate. And had you tried to burn me, I would've performed a simple Flame-Freezing Charm, protecting myself from harm," retorted Diane icily. "It's only the innocent who are killed by burning, Captain Sparrow."

"I'm not a wizard, forgive me if I don't know these things." Sparrow and Diane both shot nasty looks at each other, and ate in silence for the rest of the meal. She finished her wine and leaned back in her chair.

"Captain, we both are guilty; you're a pirate, I'm a witch. I've forgiven you for your crime, so please forgive me for mine," she said at last. He gave her a long, piercing look that made her feel as though he were seeing through her, but at last nodded. "Thank you, Captain."

"Call me Jack. We're going to be stuck with each other's company for quite some time--drop the formalities, Diane."

"Yes, Cap--I mean, Jack," said Diane, grey eyes sparkling. She headed up on deck, and for the first time, fully appreciated the salt spray on her skin, and the cool air whipping through her hair. For the first time, she enjoyed the smooth speed and grace of the Pearl. Stuck with each other's company for quite some time? Let's see how much longer you can put up with me, Captain Jack Sparrow...