Story: The House of Miller

[RobbyL9]

The battle had waged on for several minutes before it showed any real sign of turning. Before, it was being dished and doled from both sides, with both suffering losses quickly. A few swift slashes, a quick spray of blood was all it seemed to take and both sides were experiencing it to preportions not known to this area for a long while. Though the once peaceful jungles of Jamaica were playing host to the battle of the century, it seemed that the shelling had been contained in the fighting and that Jack's plan was moderately successful. "Especially the part about the colonel lying gasping for breath in the grass over there." Jack thought. Even amidst all the confusion and the sound of clanging steel on steel, Jack's men were fighting the fiercest they had since the mutiny. And though they were considerably less uniform and, shall it be said, honorable in their fighting tactics than their British Army counterparts, they were making a considerable ruckus and that was all that counted at this point. The size of the actual fighting force in comparison to the number of gun placements surprised Jack when he had enough time in between parries and thrusts to take a look around him. There were cannons lined up in the trees like they were meant to stock a Ship of the Line or two. "Lots of cannons..." Jack thought while blocking a quick attempt on his cheek "But only enough men, it looks like, to man them and fend off attempts to capture them." He quickly stepped up his slashing and knocked his blade into the other pirate. Running quickly toward the trunk of a large palm tree, he blocked anyone who tried to hit him along the way. At the base of the tree, a cannon lay fused and ready. Thinking quickly, Jack took the fuse between his fingers and lit it like a cigar. He tossed the still burning fuse into the nearby powder keg and not surprisingly was quick to make himself scarce after that!
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No poor dumb pirate dog ever won a swashbuckle by dying for his crew.

[RobbyL9]

The keg exploded in a huge cloud of flame! It blew everyone off their feet who was not wary enough to run away. Coughing from smoke and getting the air knocked out of them, a couple men got up from the ground and slapped their clothes to put them out. The keg provided enough of a diversion (and enough devastation) that the smugglers at this particular part of the line had a drop gotten on them. Redcoats clubbed the distracted men with rocks and their muskets until they were unconscious. Many of the men who didn't run had pieces of barrel thrown into them, but nothing too serious for the most part. The fighting further down the line resumed and with the sound of steel on steel. The smugglers that hadn't been blown away were surrounded by Jack's crew with sabres at their necks and hands in the air. Jack stepped quickly up to the huddle of smugglers and produced the one face he recognized. "SO?! You thought you could escape and live, hmm?" Jack shouted throwing the Spaniard to the ground and kicking him in the ribs "I'll see you in Hell before I'll see you escape the brig again!" Surprisingly, the smuggler was not afraid. In fact, he seemed quite amused. He looked up at Jack and chuckled with glee "Oh ho! You don't know half of it!" he said with a smile "You and your little boys have attacked the wrong party." The smugglers hands twitched excitedly and he began laughing like a hyena. Jack tried holding his blade closer to the smuggler's throat but it did nothing but force him to laugh even harder. It seemed as if the man had gone absolutely mad. Jack was about to command him to shut up his laughing and tell what he meant by it. But before he could get out a word of anything past shutting up, the madman obliged. "Agreed!" Jack heard him shout as he reached between his pants and produced a dagger. There wasn't anything Jack could do after that.
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No poor dumb pirate dog ever won a swashbuckle by dying for his crew.

[RobbyL9]

Jack's first mate and he sprung forth and grabbed the smuggler by his shoulders and pinned him on the ground. But they were too late, the gurgling sounds twisted Jack's stomach into knots as the smuggler jammed his dagger into his throat without a second thought. In a flash, the man stopped struggling and lay dead. "Captain, what be our course of action?!" the second mate exclaimed in response, seeming to voice a bit of panic in his tone. "Split up into scouting parties!" Jack commanded "The guards have it well in hand. Search the outskirts of town, search the inside. Look for any place that has valuable things or vital equipment. Treasuries, armories, bakeries. MOVE!" The mates saluted quickly and the men shuffled away, the second mate away from the fight to check the outskirts of town, the first heading for the center of town. Jack was left alone. Seeing that the fighting had degenerated into a rifle-butt standoff, he sheathed his sword and tightened his brace. "The governor..." he thought intently as he huffed and puffed his way across the field toward the hilltop estate. "Something just isn't right!" Jack hurried through the gates, pushing them open without stopping. The doors to the mansion were handled in the same way as he roughly manipulated the doorknob and made his way inside. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted loud enough to hear throughout the halls "Governor Snow!" No answer... He tried again "Governor, I have to talk to you, please!" Suddenly there came a sound of an opening door off in the hallways towards the daughter's room. "Dear boy, is that you?" Snow's voice asked with all the calm of a sweeping valley "Have you come... To see me?" Jack hurried up the stairs toward the hall "Uh, yeah! Listen sir," he said quickly hurrying up and almost stumbling at the top "We have to get you out of here, those smugglers are going to try something huge. They've already started shelling the town!" Governor Snow stood in the hall across from Jack now, just smiling and standing there in his bed clothes as if nothing were wrong. He shook his head and spoke calmly again "Ohhh they won't try anything, they're my... Medicine supplyers. I give them money, they give me my wife's health. A month's supply every time we meet, soon my wife will get better and be out of bed."
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No poor dumb pirate dog ever won a swashbuckle by dying for his crew.

[RobbyL9]

Jack looked suspicious, the governor was acting surprisingly calm. And even his calm attitude seemed suspicious in and of itself. "Governor, sir. What does your wife have and how long has she been abed with it?" Jack asked looking and listening very carefully. "The local doctor said she had a normal chest cold." the governor replied looking like he was trying to think, but curiously didn't sound like it "But it soon came into a rather nasty spell and she needed her medicine. Those smugglers are the only way I can get her the treatment she needs. Every month that we run out, she seems to get better but then somehow catches it again and we need to give her more." Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing, even an uneducated bucket boy from London could figure this out. Jack procured a bottle of the mint oil 'medicine' from a stray crate he noticed on the floor. "Sir, listen closely..." Jack said holding up the bottle and stepping toward the governor in the hall, trying to sound as dignified as possible before he dropped the cockney sarcasm bomb on Snow "Has it not ever occured to you, sir, that maybe you haven't been helping her ailment... But rather-" The governor's hand flew up when Jack reached the archway "That's far enough, boy!!!" an unsuspected voice shouted from inside the girl's room. A woman's voice screamed and cried repeatedly "NO NO NO!" Jack reached for his pistol and quickly threw the governor to one side, knocking him into the wall. "Lillian! You let her go, you yellow-intestined Spanish swine!" he yelled pointing his pistol at the opening door. He was surprised again to see, instead of a damsel in distress held by a villainous man with a pointly moustache, rather a thickly bearded Spanish man holding the little strawberry blonde girl in his one arm and a dagger poking her throat. She shook about in the man's arms, to no avail. "Out of romance, back to reality!" Jack mentally scolded himself awake trying to muster all of his focus into the room. The bearded man cackled like a madman for a second and placed the blade across the little girl's neck, ready to pull and kill her. Jack threw his pistol forth and flashed his eyes at the goon, while outside of his field of vision Lillian cried and threatened the man who had her by her arms. All this only served to make both of them more alert and they both tightened their grips "Not one step further, Captain Miller!" The big man holding Lillian shouted "Or we'll break your wench in two and spray the little 'un's blood on your face!!" The bearded man motioned for Jack to step back and Jack obliged. Soon the smugglers, the governor, Lillian, the girl and Jack with his pistol at the ready were all gathered in the entryway near the stairs.
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No poor dumb pirate dog ever won a swashbuckle by dying for his crew.

[RobbyL9]

"Now, now boys..." The governor said in a panic waving his hands about "We CAN come to some sort agreement, yes?" The bearded man carefully made his way down the steps, taking care not to expose himself to Jack's still-extended pistol. The poor girl in his arms being used as a human shield continued protesting with kicks and screams "Let go a' me! Mommy! I want Mommy!" To this, Lillian was breaking into tears "Don't worry, Maggie!" she cried as they were both led down the steps toward the door "Be a brave little girl!" As the door opened to the mansion and the two Spanish scumbags began to exit to make their escape, Jack's trigger finger was getting increasingly itchy with every passing moment. He walked slowly after them, treading softly on each soft carpeted step. The door quickly slammed and Jack could tell they were making a break for it. Behind the door, outside, the little girl's bravery had worn through. She and Lillian shrieked with terror now and Jack sprung into action as best he could. Jamming his pistol back into his brace and tightening it like a constricter, he rushed the door and kicked it open. The kidnappers were making an escape that assured Jack they knew what they were doing, already they were almost to the gate with the girls slung over their shoulders. Jack wasted not a single moment and gave chase, taking good care to keep them in his sight.
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No poor dumb pirate dog ever won a swashbuckle by dying for his crew.

[RobbyL9]

Jack persued the vile smugglers as fast as he could on foot, not knowing what he would do when or if he caught up with them. It had dawned on him as he began to close distance between him and the men that they might have reinforcements where they were going and Jack's crew was off somewhere, just following his orders. "Ohhhh Jack!" he growled "What the hell are you doing?!" As Jack attempted to catch up with the kidnappers, a lone man stood at the docks constantly checking the entrance into town from where he was. "Where in God's name are those men?" he asked someone up on the deck "I am getting anxious, that maybe they have failed!" The man up on deck responded with a quick burst of excitement "Not to worry, sir!" he yelled pounding the deck "I can see them, get in NOW! Gentlemen, prepare to close the hatches and cast off!" The faint sound of screaming got progressively louder as the kidnappers neared their ship. In close tow, with almost not a breath of air left in him, was Jack who saw the ship full of thugs and bandits and decided it wasn't worth it. He pulled out at the last second and dove into a storefront, crashing on top of a Jamaican lady and narrowly escaping notice by the crew. He pressed his finger to his lips and shushed the understandably frightened lady. Outside, he could hear the sound of screaming and struggling get instantly muffled after the chains of the back hatch pulled it all the way in. "Now go!" he heard the man on the dock say "My brother-in-law will be most pleased to see their faces in person at last!" This was followed by a round of evil laughs and with that, the ship was on its way. Somewhere. Anywhere...

But where?

End of Part One!
Stay tuned for the second part, lasses and cannonmen!
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No poor dumb pirate dog ever won a swashbuckle by dying for his crew.