In the depths of Davy Jones Locker, the ocean floor stirred. Great creaking noises warned off fish for miles, as The Lady In Wait lifted from her watery grave. Her captain, his soul, restored as they rose. The greatest treasure belonging to the crew, their lives restored. All at once, in slow agonizing motion, the ship and her crew regained their lives. Each of them bound to the fate of the blue stone.
Captain Augustus Lisanna opened his eyes to breathe his first breath as the ship exploded onto the waters surface in a spray of water and waves. The water around him slowly disappeared over the side and into the calm blue.
How long had they been asleep, dreaming, tortured by their fate? The fact that his eyes were open, his memory returning to the day the ship sank, the way they all drowned but did not die, and the horrible fate that awaited them all should he fail to secure the blue stone was as alive as he was now.
Augustus stretched his long creaky limbs, stumbled forward as he took his first steps away from the wheel in what seemed like ages. Regaining his balance, his sense of feeling, his sense of self, he smiled as the sun burned his eyes and warmed his skin. Salty sea air greeted his world-weary body. The air burned his lungs, his stomach growled from hunger.
"Captain?" A nervous voice called behind him. "Are we free?"
"No lad." He stretched, delighting in the feel of his own skin and bones, flesh and blood, moving again. "We must find her, and I must make her my own, or we shall die the un-death again."
"Where are we?" Another man asked.
"What day is it?" Yet another awoke.
"Does it matter?" Augustus turned to face his men. "Does it matter where we are or what day it is? We are alive!" A strong sense of purpose filled him. The stone was alive again, worn by a woman who craved true love. Who would live and die for it. A woman, who would curse any man who stole it from her with her last breath. He inhaled deeply. "Breathe in the air men. Set course for that island. She is there. I can feel it."
"You heard him, lad." His first mate, Tom Duckett called. "We won't be going back to that watery hell!"
"Here. Here." The crew cried and began the routine of preparing the ship.
He did not know how long they had been away from the world. He did not care. The only thing that mattered now was not going back. Whatever world they awoke to, it would be theirs to live in. And live they would.
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