The Captain's Heart

Chapter 3 - Celeste

Ngaio was quite lucky that the Crew of the Flying Dutchman were not the most observant people she had ever met. In fact, she was not even sure they could be counted as people anymore. It was also quite lucky that she could breathe underwater - that helped too. She'd managed to make her way up into the sails and had tied a bit of seaweed around her waist to secure herself up there so she didn't fall. Then she'd slept. She'd figured that the likelihood of the crew finding her at this point was pretty low, and even if they did find her... she wasn't so sure she cared anymore.

It was easy to lose track of time, just sitting up in the sails. She didn't know how long she slept for, nor how long she was awake, but her one comfort was her mother's locket. She never opened it, for fear of being heard, but knowing she had with her gave her strength. She drifted in and out of dreams, and in her dreams she would see Tia. Snippets of memory from her childhood, but today it was one in particular, just repeated on a loop.

A small Ngaio clambered onto her mother's lap. "Ngaio, I have something to tell you." "What is it, mama?" "When you were born, you had a sister. A twin. But your father took her, and I never saw her since." "Oh. Who is my father?" But Tia said nothing.

The boat resurfaced, and Ngaio sat bolt upright. They had not resurfaced for a while, and she always wanted to watch when they did. Just in case... just in case she could do something. Something to make up for what she'd already done. She squinted down at the line of people gathered on the deck, but one caught her eye. A young man with shoulder length brown hair. He looked... well, alive. She concluded that he must have come from somewhere else. That's when she spotted the other ship out of the corner of her eye. The sails were pure black and the boat was too. It looked almost charred. She stood up, holding onto the sail, and looked over at the ship, trying to make out the crew's faces. Most of them were looking over at the Dutchman (specifically at the deck), but there was one Ngaio spotted, and she intrigued her. It was a girl - this in itself was not all that common on pirate ships, but there was something else about her. They made eye contact. Ngaio knew for sure the girl was looking at her, but her attention was soon diverted. The crew of the Dutchman had boarded the other ship. Ngaio knew this was her chance - maybe the only one she'd have in a while. She carefully slid down the mast and landed with a soft thump, on both her feet, at the bottom. The man she'd spotted was looking at her, and two members of the crew stood either side of him. Luckily, she'd landed in shadow and they weren't looking in her direction. The man looked at them, and tackled them both to the ground, making sure they were out cold before he turned back to her. He looked proud of himself.

"Thank you...?" She smiled slightly, not sure if she should be grateful or scared. He smiled back.

"No problem. And who did I have the pleasure of saving?"

"I'm... Ngaio." His expression changed momentarily, as if figuring something out. "And you are..." she prompted.

"Will Turner." Ngaio smiled and nodded her head once in confirmation.

"Right. Nice to meet you, Will. You... never mind." You have a touch of destiny about you... "are you with them?" She gestured to the blackened ship and he nodded after a moment's hesitation. She continued, almost scared of the response, although she wasn't sure why, "Do you... do you know who the girl is?"

"Oh. That's Celeste. Celeste... Jones." Jones. Daughter of Davy Jones. Which meant... she frowned slightly and subconsciously reached for her locket. Without any warning, Will suddenly grabbed her arm, pulling her out of whatever trance-like state she'd been in and whispered,

"hide." The crew were coming back.

Ngaio had eventually found a safe place to hide, although it came at the cost of having no idea what was going on. Unlike when she was in the sails, here she could see nothing and hear hardly anything. That made her nervous. She hid with the cargo, taking the place of a stack of (unfortunately empty) bottles - which had presumably contained rum before. She had no idea how long she'd waited, but every sound made her nervous. She had no idea what Davy Jones did with stowaways. So it was only natural she panicked when she heard approaching footsteps. Her mind raced through endless possibilities of how she would die. In her panic, she accidentally kicked a bottle and it went rolling across the floor. Her heart stopped. Then, peering round the barricade of boxes in front of Ngaio, a face came into view.

"It's ok, I won't hurt you." It was the girl from the ship - she had come looking for her.

"Celeste?" Ngaio questioned, unsure what else to say. It was strange enough, knowing that she might have seen her twin sister, only a ship length or two away, but this? This was completely unreal.

"Ngaio." She replied in response. Ngaio had no idea how she knew her name, but she grinned and tackled her into a hug. It was a good hug, too. She wasn't sure how long it was since she'd had a proper hug, but she knew she loved them. As they pulled apart gently, Ngaio spoke softly,

"I never thought I'd find you..."

"I didn't even know you existed until today but I'm happy to have a sister." Celeste smiled back. Their moment was broken by approaching footsteps on the stairs. "Hide." Celeste whispered, and Ngaio ran.