Disclaimer~ I don’t own anybody who’s name you have seen in LotR or PotC. Or any places or ships or anything like that.

Chapter One~
Mist curled around the graceful prow of the ship as Legolas stood there in the pale light, a salty but fresh breeze blowing his hair away from his face. He was content for the first time since he had heard those gulls in Minas Tirith. Gimli stomped up behind him and grumbled,
“Are you sure this is right? I can’t see the tip of my beard through all this fog.”
Legolas sighed. “I don’t know. But all we can do is keep sailing.”
Gimli growled but tramped away. The sky was growing darker and darker by the minute, and a harsh wind was gathering in the sails. Legolas nervously twitched and tightened the knots in the fine elven rope strung about the rigging.
“Gimli, I am worried. This is not what we had expected.”
Gimli grunted. He too looked frightened. No one had ever told him that going to sea with Legolas would be dangerous. He gripped his axe, which he had refused stubbornly to part with, but he knew it would be no use against the waves that were rising and beginning to rock the small ship.
Dark clouds tumbled about in the distance, and lighting sizzled into the water.
“Gimli! We must go below! Now!” Legolas shouted, as a torrent of rain struck the boat like a fist. Neither he nor Gimli had ever really sailed before, or learned how to steer during a storm. Gimli was not at all upset to clamber through the hatch and into the cramped room below. The ship pitched and rocked in the turbulent water. Gimli clutched at his stomach and groaned, and even Legolas felt uneasy. He cared more for the safety of the boat and their lives than the queasiness of the Dwarf. It had been hard for his eyes, sharp as they were, to pierce the fog, and he was not sure if they were near any rocks or sandbars that they might run into. The ship tossed more furiously as the night progressed.
And then it crashed.
The elegant grey ship that Legolas had built himself in Ithilien smashed against a rocky outcrop of a small island. But Legolas and Gimli couldn’t see that. All they knew was that they were tipped sideways, clutching at their bedposts for balance, when there was a crashing sound and they were hurled into the roiling water as the ship splintered and sank around them. Legolas was able to see a little bit, even in the darkness- he spotted a sizable slab of wood and pulled himself on top of it, hoping it would support him and Gimli. But Gimli had disappeared.
“Gimli!” Legolas shouted, trying to hear himself over the roar of thunder and the crashing of the waves. “Gimli!”
But if there was an answer, the storm was too loud for Legolas to hear it. He yelled in vain for another minute, until an arm of water rose and splashed over him and his makeshift raft, dashing him into the wood and knocking him unconscious.

Chapter Two~
Legolas groaned and cracked his eyes open. His eyelashes were crusted with salt and his long blonde hair was matted and dirty, for the first time in his long life. He pushed it out of his face and struggled to sit up.
His little raft, hardly strong enough to support his weight, was bobbing in a wide, endless expanse of undulating blue and green waves. The sky was innocently blue, without a wisp of cloud in sight. For a moment Legolas was awed by its majesty, but it was not long before he began to realize that he was floating on a few scraps of wood on an ocean with no land in sight, no food, and no drinkable water. The briny taste of seawater was bitter in his mouth, but there was no way to relieve it. And then he remembered Gimli.
“Gimli…” he tried to shout, but he couldn’t produce more than a hoarse whisper. And he knew that there was no possibility for him to find his friend. The Dwarf, in his heavy clothes and boots, could not have survived. Legolas bowed his head and wept. L
The sun rose high in the azure sky, and the air grew hotter and hotter. Even with his feet dangling in the water, Legolas was uncomfortable. This was worse than Gondor in the summer. He was dazed with grief and thirst and heat, and was not sure what would happen. He couldn’t die, but he felt like he could. Never before had he felt these discomforts. The sensation of thirst was new to him, and even the grief was still shocking. He had always imagined that Gimli would fall in battle, if he did indeed fall, with piles of dead enemies around him. Not like this. Not lost somewhere in the depths of the sea, alone, doomed to be nibbled by fish and sharks until nothing but the bare bones remained.
For hours Legolas sat and thought such gloomy thoughts, lost in despair and hardly caring what happened anymore. But as the cruel sun began to sink, he leaned forward and strained his eyes. A hazy shoreline was barely visible on the horizon. It was miles away, but his Elven eyesight was as keen as ever, and a small glow of hope grew in him. Perhaps this was the southern shore of Gondor, and he could return to Middle Earth, perhaps go on to Valinor to join his kin. But as the beach got closer, he realized that this was some new land unknown to him. The sand was golden, and tall trees with broad, green leaves swayed in the breeze. There were no people in sight, as far as Legolas could see. Which was quite far. But at least there was likely to be water on this strange land, and maybe even food. Legolas didn’t trust himself to swim, but he paddled the water with his feet in an attempt to make the raft go faster.

Chapter Three~
The raft grated against the sand as it came to shore. Legolas staggered off the raft and promptly fell over. He spat out a mouthful of sand and stood up slowly. He looked around, hoping to find someone who could help him. There was a shady stand of those strange trees farther up the beach, so he staggered toward it, thinking that it would be nice to at least get out of the sun. He sat down against a palm tree and began to wonder what he would do next. A whole minute passed before he noticed he was not alone.
A raggedy looking man was asleep in the shade of one of the trees. His hair was far messier than Legolas’s, and it was strung with numerous colorful beads. His clothes were loose and badly matched. Legolas wondered when he had last had a bath. Legolas wasn’t sure whether to wake him or not. He had a sword, and he might not me a friend. Very lightly he tapped the napping man on the shoulder.
“Wha…?” the man sat up straight and looked around. He groaned and massaged his head.
“Are you alright, mellonnin?” asked Legolas.
“Eh? Who’s Melanie? I’m Jack Sparrow, who’re you?”
Legolas was very doubtful. He really didn’t trust this Jack Sparrow, but there was no choice but to at least try to get along with him. Still, he didn’t want to give out his real name.
“I am Vilyaem Toriner.”
“William Turner? Alright then. What’re you doin’ here anyway?”
“I am lost. My ship was destroyed and my companion killed. I have great need of water and food.”
“Well, you speak for me too, about the water and food part. My boat’s fine though, so I suggest we scurry over to Tortuga for a drink.”
He stood up and swayed.
“Whoa…. Follow me, William. Can I call you Bill?”
“Certainly, if it pleases you, mellon nin.”
“Already told you me name’s Jack. C’mon.” He tramped over the hills of sand to a calm little cove where a small ship was tied.
As Legolas climbed aboard, he looked back toward the beach where he had washed up. Two pairs of footprints led from the little grove of trees to where he and Jack now stood. Wait… two…?
Legolas blinked and looked again. Yes, there they were, two sets of footprints, one large and in a wavering line, the other straight and delicate, from elven boots. But no one had ever seen footprints from elven boots before.
Legolas jumped back into the damp sand and placed his weight firmly on his right foot. And when he lifted it, there was another footprint. The sand was far more solid than snow, but his tracks were there, as clear as any human’s.
“Hurry up there, mate!” Jack called from his ship. Legolas looked away from the puzzling footprints and climbed back onto the boat.
“Jack, may I ask you… where are we?”
“I don’t think anyone’s ever bothered to name this island, mate, but we’re some 10 miles off from Tortuga, and if you don’t know where that is, you’re no pirate worth spittin’ on.”
“Pirate? You insult me, Jack Sparrow! I am no pirate, I am an Elven prince.”
Jack snorted with laughter. “Elven prince, eh? Well, laddie, I don’t know what that means, but what on earth were ye doing so near Tortuga if you’re not a pirate?”
“I do not know of this place Tortuga. The word bears an ill aura to me. I am not here of my own choice, mel- Jack.”
“Well, boy, I suggest you get over your ill aura and your fascination with long words, because you won’t get along so well in Tortuga unless you at least act like a pirate.”
“I am no pirate!”
“Perhaps they call ‘em by some other name in Elven prince-land. Are you a buccaneer, a privateer, a corsair-“
“Corsair! Speak no word of those vile creatures to me!”
“Aye, I think you’re a corsair. Just trying very hard to hide it.”
“Nay! I am no corsair, nor any other form of thief. Indeed this was my first time at sea.”
“First time!? Well why didn’t ya say so? I see what’s been going on now. You’re far off course, no idea where you are, aren’t you? Where were you headed, anyway?”
“Valinor.”
“Eh? Never heard of it. Well, if that’s the case, I can make a pirate of ye yet. Just follow me for a while. Watch and learn.”
“But I have no desire to become a pirate!”
“Sorry, boy, but there’s really no other choice for you, other than stay here and starve. Come with me or stay here and wait for an Elven princess to come rescue you.”
Legolas scowled. “I shall come, and perhaps learn your ways for a while, but I refuse to be referred to as “boy” by someone as young as yourself.”
“Young? And how old are you, may I ask?”
“Far older than any human can imagine. Elves do not keep track of such petty matters. But for many lives of men I have wandered Middle Earth, and I shall not be called “boy” by some young human scarcely out of the cradle.”
Jack looked at him strangely as he untied the ropes holding the boat to shore.
“Hmmm. Well, I suggest we work on your vocabulary skills. Repeat after me. Swag. Buccaneer. Hearties. Bilge. Mizzenmast….”
Jack proceeded to name all the words he deemed would be important for this strange Bill Turner to know. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t just dump him overboard, but somehow he wanted to find out about his real past. Elven prince from Middle Earth. Wherever that was. Honestly.

Chapter Four~
Legolas became assured that his feeling about Tortuga had been absolutely correct as soon as he saw it. Even from a distance he could see the flashes of gunfire and hear drunken yelling. Jack was smiling slightly as he watched the horror grow on the Elf’s face.
“Like it?” he asked, very clearly trying not to laugh.
“Not at all. Even from here, far away from it on the calm sea, it’s presence disturbs me. It is as though all reason and honor has been forgotten there.”
“Believe me, boy, there’s never been any reason or honor on Tortuga. The Devil was born here. Get used to it. And remember, try not to talk like a duke. ‘No, Jack, it gives me the shivers, that island’, not all that rubbish about reason and honor.”
“No, Jack, it gives me the shivers, that island.”
“Aye, much better.”
Jack steered the boat into the harbor and threw a thick rope over a post like a lasso to tie the boat in. But before he had even finished securing the knot, Legolas had leaped onto the rope and tiptoed across it. Jack gaped at him.
“Where’d you learn that, Bill?”
At first Legolas didn’t realize that Jack was talking to him, until he remembered that his new name was Bill. He sighed. The only Bill he knew was a pony. Oh well, he’d live with it.
“All Elves can do it. I suppose there are no Elves here, since you know so little of us.”
“Aye, that’s right, no Elfs here,” Jack answered, frowning again. Maybe ‘Elves’ were the crew of some ship. Apparently they were very good at getting around in the rigging.
Jack led Legolas into a crowded tavern. Legolas shrank towards the wall at the scene that met his eyes, which turned quickly to a stressed brown, when he entered. The middle of the room was one big, drunk, fistfight. Jack pulled him over to a sagging table and disappeared for a moment. When he returned he was holding two mugs of some drink that Legolas was not eager to taste.
“Cheers!” Jack said loudly, over the din of the fighting mob, and took a large gulp of his drink. Legolas looked nervously into the tall mug. At last he took a sip. It was awful. Not fit for Orcs. But Jack looked back at him apprehensively, and he decide he’d have to drink it. It took several agonizing minutes, but eventually the cup was empty.
“Have another?” asked Jack. Legolas shook his head quickly.
“No thank you.”
Jack shrugged and got up to buy another drink for himself. Legolas looked around, trying to get over his shock at the insanity of this place. He saw a dirty man who had cornered a young woman reaching laughing and reaching toward her. Legolas instinctively reached for his bow, but it had been lost in the wreck, of course.
“All right there, Bill?” Jack had returned. He saw where Legolas was looking and chucked. “Better get used to seein’ that kinda stuff, mate. Hey- wait- that’s… is that- Vanessa! Hey! Vanessa!” He ran towards the woman, but she had already disappeared with the dirty man. Legolas almost smiled as Jack returned to the table, looking much moodier than he had a moment before.
Legolas sighed heavily and surveyed the room once more. Jack was right, he was going to have to get used to this. “From now on,” he whispered to himself, “I’m Bill.”
“What’s that?” Jack asked. Unlike everyone in Middle Earth, he seemed to notice when people talked to themselves. “Want some more rum?”
“No! No, it’s nothing… nothing at all,” muttered Bill.

~*~
Elven prince, what went so wrong?
Why is you face so lost and long?
Why do you weep, why do you grieve?
Where are those woods you had to leave?
Why are there footprints in the sand?
Why are you thirsty in this land?
Your Elven talents washed away,
When you left home that fateful day.
You now are left a mortal man,
To face the future, if you can.
Where are your friends, where are you kin?
Where are the forests you belong in?
Why did you ever leave your home?
Shouldn’t, shouldn’t you have known?
~*~