Fic: Before the Shipwreck
Title: Before the Shipwreck
Author: meowbooks
Rating: PG
Characters: Pintel, Ragetti, Barbossa, Three Original Ones
Pairings: None
Summary: An account in their own words of how Charlie Mercer, Oliver Wainwright and Jonathan Green met the notorious and most evil Captain Barbossa of the Black Pearl
Before the Shipwreck
Intro
It sure was something I’ll tell you, just like in those stories. You know, the ones about pirates? I’ve heard plenty of ‘em. Sacking towns and poor little ports, slicing through the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea, the African coasts, the Orient, meeting with other ships manned by parrot-on-shoulder pirates with eye patches and gentlemen’s swords, though they weren’t any such thing.
Any story ‘bout them I’ve heard, sure as my name is Charlie Mercer. ‘Course my mum probably tell me to introduce myself all right and proper and be proud of being Charles Mercer, but I don’t think I’m a Charles yet. So call me Charlie, not Chuck ‘cause that isn’t me either. Now what was I talking about? Doesn’t that bother you when you lose what you were saying? Oh, I remember. It would’ve come faster if Ollie was here-were here. I know what he would’ve done.
He’d say “Aw, Charlie how did you forget a thing like that? You were going to tell ‘em ‘bout the pirates!” And of course he’d be right and I wouldn’t have to have you wait for five minutes just because I forgot. Anyway, you might not believe it, but I met a pirate.
Ollie
We met pirates. I was there, just like Charlie to leave me out. Not that means to, just who he is, Charlie my best mate through ev’rything. And when I say everything I mean it. My first memory had Charlie in it. I think we were trying to eat apples. Our mums had to snatch ‘em away on account of the fact we didn’t have any teeth yet and were likely to choke on ‘em.
I think that’s why we became friends. We almost died trying to stuff apples in our mouths. Or maybe it was because we loved apples from the very moment we set our eyes on them and met each other in the very same instance. Apples. There’s no finer fruit. Red or green or yellow, shiny, smooth skin, sweet, crunchy sounds when you bite into them, not a vegetable or a mutant bunny who sings theme songs, the best sort of fruit ever realized by all…
But I digress, plus you already knew apples were wonderful right? We were talking about the night we met pirates. It was a strange night in Port Madison. Fog had whipped out of no where. It was around midnight; we had snuck out and climbed onto a roof of a building overlooking the veiled harbor. Charlie and I had been counting how many people had feathered hats or black shoes. I was telling him that “eleventy-two” wasn’t a number when-
BOOM! BOOM! It was loudest sound I ever heard-no, next to loudest, there was this one time a weird parrot warned us about something, ‘course that’s another story all together. We whirled around to see a docked sloop disappear in a bright yellow ball. We gaped open-mouthed and said: PIRATES!
Charlie: Pirates
“Puh-p-pirates!” yelped a voice. “Let me come up there please, please?” Ollie and I looked down hoping to spy who was calling and who was there? That Jonathan Green looking straight up at us in his night cap and night things didn’t even have enough sense to change.
He’s always there. I don’t know how he does it, but every time we turn round there he is yapping away, tellin’ us off for being by the docks, or snitching we took a measly bun from the baker. It’s just weird.
It’s like he’s a puppy followin’ us around and all- I wouldn’t mind a dog, but he isn’t no dog. He isn’t one of our brothers- Ollie and me we’re not related-not even a neighbor, so there’s no reason for him to be-
Here? Just when I was-that’s scary…
Jonathan Green
You two are going to be in SO much trouble-where’d they go? Oh, hello.
Salutations! Good day! A pleasure to meet you! My name’s Jonathan Green, much obliged if you’d call me Jon. Have you seen a red-head? His name is Oliver and he’s a bit older than me and is usually with Charlie-
They were telling you about pirates? Was it the one about when we were in Port Madison? They just left? How rude of them! I’ll tell you about it if you’d like.
They had snuck out-again-around 11 o’clock and well, I certainly couldn’t just stand there and not do anything about it. So I followed them. I know I should have had a bit more sense and changed first, but I guess I wasn’t thinking properly- it was the middle of the night.
I had followed them down to the buildings near the docks, then they turned a corner, I ran after them, then they weren’t there! I looked around, under a soggy bit of abandoned canvas, behind large barrels, around some crates, peered into small dinghies and little rowboats tied to posts. I even looked in some apple barrels just to see if they might be trying to hide from me. I found a snoring man with a bottle of what was no doubt the cause of his sleepiness, but no Charlie and Oliver.
I was just about to start heading back home when I heard familiar voices:
“Eleventy-two isn’t a number!”
“You’re just sayin’ that!”
“Am not!”
“You is!”
“ ‘You are’ not ‘you is’, who taught you to talk?”
“If twenty-two is a number eleventy-two is a number too!”
“There is no such thing as eleventy anything.”
I could hear them, but I couldn’t see them anywhere! I mean it was quite disconcerting to be able to hear them, to be so close and still not find them.
I stopped for a moment, something just felt odd, and I turned around facing the harbor. At first I didn’t know what it was a dark shape, an indistinct figure, darker than the waters it glided upon, slithering silently as a sea serpent-a ship.I thought it was the strangest thing, a ship with no lanterns in this fog? I should’ve realized what that meant: It didn’t want to be seen.
A swoosh, a flash of light, a roar of sound, all were spinning to one conclusion in my mind, one that was echoed in the air: “PIRATES!”
I looked up- it was them, on top of a roof, no idea how they did it- but I wanted to be up there too. I begged them, I pleaded, I implored them, I whined- I was being ridiculous- would they please, please, let me come up there-there were pirates!
I was seven. I was an idiot. I was frightened worst than I had ever been. I was in my night clothes. Please, don’t judge me because of that.
Charlie and Oliver weren’t doing anything and they were getting closer, things were blowing up, people were running around carrying pistols, and rifles, and glass bottles, rats were in the alleyway, Santa Claus wasn’t real- I didn’t want to be there!
But they were the only people I knew, I wasn’t going to just go off on my own and get snatched, they would eat me, they would feed me to big sea monsters with teeth and whippy tails and horns and lovely singing voices, they were going to get a mermaid to kiss me, wear funny clothes, or make me eat vegetables-that’s what my mother always told me: “You go up and do a thing like messing wit’ pirates, go ahead- vegetables everyday, every night…”
They were going to do-to do, everything and anything that could possibly be bad. I KNEW they would, I just KNEW.
Part 2
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