Chapter: Hellhole straight ahead

"Bunny? Hey Bunny !! Are you listening to me, you deaf nut ??"
Bunny startled from her thoughts and looked at Jack.
"What is it?" She asked confused.
Jack sighed.
"Oh nothing ... Except that I've been trying to talk to you for a while and you have nothing better to do than stare into the air," he replied, exasperated.
"I'm sorry. I just have so many things on my mind. I wonder how my team is doing and if I'll ever see them again. I'm also starting to doubt that we'll ever make it onto the Grand Line. We don't even have a real navigator ... ", Bunny muttered, hanging her head.
Jack looked at her for a moment before he pushed his chair back noisily and stood up. He was about to leave the galley but then he stopped behind Bunny and put his hand on her shoulder.
"You'd better stop sinking into self-doubt and do something about it.If you want to learn about navigation, you should ask Gibbs. He knows about it. I have to go back to the others now. ", he said and he was gone.
Bunny watched him go, or rather she was staring at the closed door. Somehow he was right. She couldn't just come to terms with her fate. So she decided to go looking for this Mr. Gibbs to see if he could really help her.
She went on deck and looked around. Until now she had not had the time to familiarize herself with the ship and its crew. How would she know who this Gibbs was and where to find him?
Seeking help, she turned to the first person she came across. It was a rather graying pirate with a blue and yellow macaw on his shoulder.
"Excuse me, sir. Are you Mr. Gibbs?" She asked politely.
The man just shook his head wordlessly.
"Oh ... then maybe you can tell me where I can find him?", Bunny asked further.
The person opposite shook his head again.
"Don't you? Do you even know him?"
This time he nodded and gave her a smile that consisted of very few teeth.
It was getting too colorful for Bunny. The guy was trying to fool her.
"Then why don't you want to tell me where he is? This ship isn't that big either!" She hissed at him.
When the man finally opened her mouth, she let out a relieved sigh, but instead of answering, he held his head towards her and then opened his mouth wider until he looked like he was about to have an appointment with the dentist. Bunny inevitably threw a look into his mouth, in which she not only discovered a bunch of rotten teeth but also had to discover that this man no longer had a tongue ...
"Oh ... I'm sorry. I didn't know ...", Bunny stammered, embarrassed, and took a step back, as his bad breath almost made her senseless."Polly wants a cracker.", The parrot suddenly spoke up and Bunny's puzzled look fixed on him immediately.
"What?"
"Polly wants a cracker," the animal willingly repeated its request.
"I don't have ...", Bunny replied, still completely perplexed.
The bird was silent for a moment and it looked a bit like it was thinking.
"Do you have one when Polly tells you where Gibbs is?" He continued.
Bunny had assumed that after all her adventures there was nothing to surprise her, but apparently she was wrong.
"You ... know where he is? And ... you want to sell me this information for a cracker?" She asked incredulously.
"Aye. Deal?"
"... Deal.", Bunny replied and stumbled back into the galley to talk the cook off a cracker or something.
He didn't seem surprised at her wish. Apparently this bird did business so more often ...
Only a little later, after she had paid the cracker fee and Polly had finally given her the long-awaited information, Bunny entered Gibbs' cabin.He was a somewhat plump man, with an unusually shaped whiskers and friendly eyes.
"You want to learn something about map reading? Well, you've come to the right place.", He laughed after she had presented her request to him and led her to a large table on which a large pile of nautical charts was spread out.
"Did you draw them all?" Asked Bunny, running her fingers over the papers in awe.
"Everyone ?? God forbid! I also have other things to do. But a few are already mine.", Gibbs answered with a little pride in his voice and then bent over a particularly large copy.
"Then let's start the lesson ...", he grinned and so began a session of several hours in which Bunny learned a lot about reading and creating nautical charts, the different sea winds and navigating with the help of the heavenly bodies. Gibbs was a patient teacher, and Bunny herself was surprised at how quickly she understood everything."You really seem to be a natural," Gibbs remarked appreciatively when Bunny presented him with one of her first attempts at drawing.
"It's also really fun! Not like in school ...", Bunny replied and thought back with uneasiness about the bulldog and its detention.
"That you even went to school gives you an advantage over most other pirates. That can sometimes be very useful. I know what I'm talking about.", Laughed the navigator. Then he took off his reading glasses and rubbed his eyes.
"But we've studied enough for today, haven't we? You are welcome to ask me a few more questions if you want, but my old eyes are already exhausted from reading maps," he added and sank down on a chair .
Of course, Bunny didn't have to be told twice, so she pulled up a chair and sat down next to Mr. Gibbs.
"Can you tell me a little bit about the Grand Line?"It gushed out of her immediately and she was a bit embarrassed that she didn't even give the poor man a minute to breathe. But the question had burned her for so long that she just couldn't take it any longer .
The person opposite raised an eyebrow and looked at her in silence for a moment.
"I've heard of your plans ... But I don't know what to think of them. I'm sure you are a smart girl and you have courage too, but the Grand Line is not a children's playground! It has the most powerful pirates on their knees Forced. If you even make it there, dangers await you there that you can't even imagine at the moment! "Gibbs said in a haunting voice, but Bunny was not in the mood for such teachings.
"I know myself that it is dangerous on the Grand Line, but I chose this route! And as soon as I have found my team again, we will be on our way.Nobody can stop us from doing that! And if instead of scary stories you don't have any useful details ready, I'd better go and get me something to eat ... "Bunny replied defiantly.
A smile spread across Gibbs' face.
"Okay, I understand. No more lectures. But since I've never been there myself, I can unfortunately only tell you what I've heard from others so far. But why don't you ask Jack? He was after a while there. ", he suggested.
"Jack was on the Grand Line ??? Why didn't he tell me about it?" Bunny exclaimed, completely beside himself. Since she had moaned the guy's ears the whole time and he apparently didn't even think it necessary to tell her about his own experiences. He probably thought her plan was a crazy idea and didn't want to encourage her in the process. Why did all people have so little faith in her? She clenched her fists angrily and was about to disappear from Gibbs' cabin when Gibbs answered her."Yes, before I met Jack, he was on the Grand Line with his old crew for a year. But he doesn't like to talk about it ... The lying rats started a mutiny, abandoned him on a desert island and are with them Chopped off his ship. But he managed to escape and get the Black Pearl back. Since then he has become cautious and does not immediately put everything on everyone's lips. "
"Those lousy pigs!" Hissed Bunny and her hands cramped so much that the white of her knuckles was visible. Mutiny was one of the worst crimes Bunny could imagine. Pirates weren't exactly cultured gentlemen, but they too followed a code and betraying their own captains violated it in the highest degree.
Suddenly the door of the cabin was thrown open and the short pirate, who had previously made the acquaintance of Jack's pistol, poked his head in."Hell hole ahead! We'll anchor soon.", He called and was gone again immediately afterwards.
"What is the hellhole?" Asked Bunny puzzled. The name worried her a little.
"A pirate bar. Almost everyone comes by when he's in the area. Maybe you can find out something about your friends there.", Gibbs answered and got up with a groan.
"They also have good rum. I really deserve it now!" He added and rubbed his stomach.
"Yes, thank you again, Mr. Gibbs. I'll go see where Jack is.", Bunny replied happily and shook his hand. The prospect of being able to find out something about her friends had suddenly brightened her mood and so she strolled whistling across the deck, where the crew was already busy mooring the ship.
In the meantime it had gotten quite dark and so Bunny could not see much of the strange island apart from the pier, which was lit by torches.While she was peering into the darkness, an arm was suddenly put around her shoulder from behind and Jack Sparrow's face appeared next to hers.
"Well, beauty? Busy?" He asked with a grin and brushed a strand of hair from his face.
"Of course. Mr. Gibbs was very pleased with me.", Bunny replied proudly and refrained from squeezing Jack over the Grand Line on the spot. If he didn't like to talk about it, she would have to take it slow. Maybe a couple of jars of rum could loosen his tongue a bit ...
"I knew there was a lot of brains in that pretty little head. For that I invite you for a good bottle of rum, girl. Let's celebrate, people !!", Jack shouted to his team and there he was Jumped off the plank onto the jetty. Bunny did the same and then the two made their way to the hellhole with most of the crew in tow.
They followed a lantern-marked path that led them from the harbor through the darkness to a large wooden hut, the windows of which were illuminated by a dim red light.The crooked construction reminded Bunny a bit of Norman's island home, but this place somehow exuded an eerie atmosphere. When she looked