The Birth of the Shark Tooth [Pirates of the Caribbean Fanfic]

Chapter 2: Pirate Legends

The sun rose up in the sky. The sailors woke up and began fussing on the deck. I was running around too, trying to mix with the crowd and not stand out too much. It was crucial - if they discovered I was a woman and, what was more, a stowaway, God knows what would happen. So I took all the necessary measures I could - I tied my hair down in order not to resemble a woman that much, covered my face with a hat, and of course wore manly clothes. I was energetic and adroit by nature, so it helped me a lot to look like a casual sailor, even though I had little experience in working on ships. 

I managed to fool the sailors. Soon, they began to call me 'Jean Moreau' - the name I had made up for myself. Moreau was indeed my surname - I had acquired it from my mother. But my true name posed a problem - everyone knew 'Janette' was a girl's name, so I had to go with a manly name instead. That is how 'Jean' was created - a simple one, really, since it was the closest name to 'Janette' that I could think of at that instant. 

I became an accepted member of the crew. The captain rarely came out on the deck. No other person knew all of the crew, so I could easily get by. I maximally avoided conflicts and tense situations so that I would never have to interact with the ship captain. Things went on smoothly this way.

One night (I remember it was the ninth or the tenth since we departed) we, the sailors, were sitting in our quarters below the deck and retelling stories of our past adventures (I know I didn't really have anything to tell of my own experience because that was truly the first time of mine ever going out in the open seas, but I had heard a lot of different and interesting stories from the sailors gathered in our inn, so I knew I could slip by if anything happened).

"Then a whole mess started - pops of pistols, cracks of swords... I was the only one who came out alive from that bloody battle," one of the sailors, whom everyone called Stinky Joe (he truly stunk) proudly finished his tale and pulled a cork off a rum bottle with his teeth, tossing it off.

"Hmph, you and bloody battles? Not in a million years, Joe, we're not buying it!" the sailors chuckled.

"I believe you," another guy, a middle-aged man whose salty jokes made everyone laugh – James Roland - remarked with a smirk on his face. "You'd be the only one hiding in barrels so no wonder you survived."

The company burst out laughing. I too laughed. James was truly a good man – he always remained optimistic no matter how tough the situations were.

"Shut yer trap, Roland!" Stinky Joe frowned, "We all know ye're not a valiant knight either."

"At least I'm not the one bragging about it." James smiled. "Although you're not the only one who has run into pirates in his lifetime." His face turned grim. "So many of those seadogs are sailing around nowadays... name L'Ollonais, for one."

"That filthy Frenchman? Yeah, I've heard about him..." Stinky Joe spat aside.

"Not only the French are causing turmoil," another sailor, who was French by origin, furrowed his brow. "Amaro Pargo is quite a burden, too."

"Not as much as William Kidd," now a Spanish sailor flared up.

"But still the biggest burden is that Black Pearl... No one can escape once that vessel is caught in sight," Stinky Joe remarked.

Now, this truly got my attention – I've heard of the Black Pearl many times by the sailors in the inn too, back on the land. That ship was quite engulfed in legends.

"What about the Black Pearl?" I inquired with my voice deepened on purpose to sound more like a man.

"Oh, Moreau..." they glanced at me as I had long been silent.

"Well, Black Pearl is the fastest pirate ship known to seadogs," Stinky Joe explained. "They say there's no ship that can outrun her."

"Wow..." I murmured. "So, is that ship real?"

"God knows... People talk... But there are few survivors who can attest to its existence."

"You speak of pirates, yet you forgot to mention those East Asian ruffians who invaded our Caribbean waters. Take Blood Rain, for example," a young sailor, Morris, cut in.

We all looked at him. Morris was young, it's true, but he had experienced many battles against pirates so he had quite a lot of scars covering his face and body. We all could tell he was the most experienced in battles among us, no matter how much Stinky Joe would brag about his own adventures. Rumours even claimed that Morris had fought East Asian pirates when he sailed away to the Pacific Ocean. He never liked those guys, we could tell. It clearly pissed him off that the Chinese pirates had invaded our waters too and led illegal businesses on Tortuga and other pirate islands. Those guys mainly worked as smugglers and bootleggers, but many of them would also attack peaceful ships and loot the goods just like true pirates.

One of these 'true pirates' was Blood Rain - the most ruthless of all Chinese captains. It was said that he had marauded in the Pacific and the Indian oceans, attacking everyone, even his own nation - the Chinese. So, people in the Caribbean greatly feared him - he had moved here not a long time ago and had already caused a lot of trouble. Few had survived clashes with him, and only because they had managed to escape in time. Legends also told that the cause of this bloodthirsty pirate's arrival in the Caribbean was a mysterious treasure that he sought to obtain. No one knew what kind of treasure it was, and whether this tale was true at all. Of course, hearing about this notorious Blood Rain from none other than Morris got all of us curious.

"Huh, Morris? So, you think that guy means business?" Stinky Joe chuckled, showing his yellow, caved teeth.

"I've only heard about him, but so far none of those tales has had a good ending." Morris frowned. "Just imagine - we've had enough of these French, English, and Spanish pilferers and now a guy comes from the edge of the world and messes the seas up... What a pain!"

"So true, so true..." the other sailors agreed.

I got deeply concerned. I knew the seas were dangerous, but I didn't expect them to be this much perilous - so many notorious pirates who sailed in the same sea! That was truly a burden.