White and Black Pearls 3 - Ten Pearl Strand

Chapter Seven

“The Flying Dutchman!” Jack blurted with a dumbstruck look on his face as he recognized the vessel plummeting to its doom.

Calypso gasped and whipped her head to the side. “No!” she shrieked. Her hands lifted suddenly – she dropped Jack’s compass in the sand – and she threw her arms into the air, fingers stretched to the sky.

A pillar of roaring water burst out of the waves and split in two, forming two hands that stretched out high into the sky and snaked up towards the falling ship. As Calypso clapped her hands together in the air, so the two hands of water slammed closed on either side of the Flying Dutchman, assuming the fall down from the sky with the ship to keep it from having a sudden lethal stop, but slowing the descent with the closer and closer they got to the water, until the vessel splashed down on the water’s surface with an enormous spray and the hands disappeared.

Calypso was left gasping, her hands trembling violently as she lowered them and visible beads of sweat rolled down her temples, throat and chest. Her fingers looked almost dislocated on her hands as her chest heaved and she stared at the ship in the water. The world seemed silent as everyone stared either at her or the Flying Dutchman, not knowing what to say or do.


__________________________________________


Will opened his eyes slowly, and looked around. It took some effort but he managed to pry his hands off the Kraken Hammer and stumble over to the portside of the ship, looking over the rails at the water below. He was visibly shaken as he looked at his father for a moment before his gaze flicked over to the shore. Will didn’t have time to say anything, however; he let out a cry of shock as a cannon ball slammed through the deck of the Dutchman from above, and looked up.

All of the men on board the ship screamed with new horrors as they covered their heads and tried to dodge the falling debris from their ship. He could hear a stomach-churning bubbling noise coming from below deck and knew exactly what it was – it wasn’t just the top deck that cannon ball had pierced. “Take cover below deck!” Will cried out. “Patch the holes in the hull, she’s sinking!”

Men moved to obey, thankful for the guidance given to them in this frightful time. They hurried below deck and grabbed whatever loose boards and tools they could find – or that fell onto the deck – while hurrying down into the ship to fix the hemorrhaging leaks.

Will reached out and grabbed one of the falling items before it could splash into the water, pulling the telescope open and swinging it straight in the shore’s direction. His stomach ache did not get any better as he saw Barbossa, Calypso, Celeste and Jack standing on the beach together. His ship was in shambles and he didn’t even have rowboats left to go out to help them; all he could do was watch from the distance and hope for the best.


______________________________________________________