Prologue

1680, Off the Coast of Hispaniola

It was dark. Very dark. And a hellish torrent of rain met horns with the raging waves of the sea. The roar of thunder echoing through the high rocks, and the soft pitter patter of rain drops upon the deck of the Santa Isabella was all that could be heard.

She was a sturdy ship, commissioned by the Queen of Spain herself. Built out of the finest oak in the Spanish Empire, with two high standing masts that stood proud above the deck, she was a real gem. Such a gem in fact, that the Queen of Spain only ever let the finest explorers venture out on her.

Inside the captain's cabin, the last few drops of ink met the parchment upon which the pen wrote. A letter, the last of many. Not to someone the Capitan knew, but someone he wished he knew. Capitan Santiago Lopez put his pen aside and let the ink dry. While it was drying, he closed his journal, got up and grabbed 10 empty rum bottles the cook had gifted him.

Once he returned to his seat, he put every one of the letter he had written since the start of the storm in a separate bottle, plugged it with a cork, and sealed with wax, all the time knowing that if he didn't hurry up, all his hard work might be lost in vain.

He once again got up and grabbed an empty sack and put all the bottles inside. He tied a tight knot around its opening and put on his hat, and walked towards his cabin door. It opened and he took a deep breath and wandered outside.

His crew were battling the storm to keep the Santa Isabella on course. Capitan Santiago wandered towards the starboard side of the ship. A tall man draped in green attire stood there, and turned his head to face the Capitan.

"Is it time, Capitan?" he asked in a deep voice.

"It is time Amigo!" replied the Capitan.

Suddenly, a fleet of five broken ships appeared around the end of the cliff, the largest of which bore a phoenix as it's figurehead. All five had ripped sails, and a large ripped Union Jack flew from the crows nest. These ships moved unnaturally fast… for ships of the living. And these ships were not ships of the living, they were ships of the DEAD!

Captain Lopez heard a nearby sailor murmur two words. "Davy Jones." The ships descended upon the Santa Isabella, and within seconds had her cornered against a rock. The largest ship moved right next to her, and a horde of the undead boarded the ship, the surrounded the men, and Captain Lopez moved closer to the edge of the ship.

Suddenly, a Captain Lopez spotted a figure on a rope flying through the air. It let go, and floated gracefully on to the deck. When it landed, only then did Lopez recognize it, it was Davy Jones himself. He was clad in a navy blue coat and white trousers, and sported many medals above his right breast pocket. His clothes were ripped and torn, revealing rotting flesh and bone underneath. He had a large, silver sword crowned with a large green gem at his waist, and long, flowing white hair covered his bony, skeletal face, hiding his cold black eyes.. "Captain Lopez, what a pleasure it is to meet you again, Amigo!" he said, a smile appearing across his face.

"You monster," yelled Lopez, who now lent dangerously over the side of the ship. He watched Davy Jones' eyes focus in on the sack full of bottles. "What's that, Lopez?" he asked.

Captain Lopez threw the sack overboard with all his might. "You'll never know the secret of the Fools' Gold!" Davy Jones' smile quickly changed to a meancing scowl, and his bony hands unsheathed his sword, the green gem glowing all the while. "If you don't want to taste the cold iron of my blade, and face an eternal punishment in my locker, you will order your men to retrieve that bag," he snapped, aggressively.

Captain Lopez drew his cutlass. "You will never learn the secret of the Fools' Gold, nor will you ever be able to force anyone to tell you anything about, come on men, for Queen Marie!"

The crew of the Santa Isabella drew their weapons and viscously fought the undead. Davy Jones' and his men fought back too, and the two captains became locked in a fierce duel. After a few moments, Davy Jones managed to land a staggering blow upon Lopez who fell to the deck in pain.

Davy Jones lowered his sword to Lopez's neck. "I gave you a chance to live, but you didn't take it, you are a true fool Santiago Lopez." "You will never have it, the Fools' Gold will never be-." Blood dripped from the opening in Captain Lopez's neck.

- - -

The storm guided the flour sack across many miles of ocean, but somewhere near Jamaica, the sack snagged a rock and burst open, releasing its valuable cargo into the wide open sea.