Jack never tired. She was so immensely and incredibly pleased that she was still so filled with life and light, splashing through the swamps. It wouldn’t cramp her style, it wouldn’t stop her or hold her back. Everything was incredible, and life was truly at its fullest. Jack had left home, and wouldn’t look back. Never looking back, not ever. At her best and most wild, Jack was splashing through the swampy grounds. Splashing and crashing through the undergrowth, the girl made her way. It was an adventure, and it was exciting. Everything was exciting. Everything was new. Her gaze trained intently on the swamplands itself, taking in as much as she could. Jack was a navigator and an adventurer by nature, and she’d learn every inch of this place. She would learn all of it. Jack was so bright with it, and so alive. With a high head in the late spring afternoon light, the girl was exploring. Everything was beautiful, and so was she.

Sparrow had already firmy decided she didn't like the swamps. Ooey, gooey, squelchy ground gave way underfoot and had the stench of things both vegetal and animal rotting. It was entirely unpleasant and not in a "ohh noo, it's gross because it's dirty" kind of way, but just because it was that thick stench that clung to your fur and to the inside of your nostrils for days to come. In the dense greens and browns of the swamp, Sparrow likely blended in. What blended in slightly less, was the woman ahead, who seemed entirely too happy to be here. "What?" Sparrow called from a distance, "You lookin' for leeches?"

There was rot and there was muck, but there was also something sorta... sorta wild about this place. Jack was wild. Somewhere as wild as she was... yeah. An adventure, somewhere to see and explore. Exploring the swamps? Sure. Hell yeah brother, let's get it. She moved through the swamps with confident steps, lifting her feet enough to cross the spongy ground with great certainty. Certain and brilliant... how wonderful. Everything was wonderful. What-- the voice came, and Jack's bright blue eyes fixed on the source. A woman, tall and rugged. Her golden head canted to the side for a moment, a rakish grin playing on her features. "Nah, I'm lookin' for an adventure," her posture was bold, tail wagging slowly at her haunches. Was this the adventure she was looking for?

The woman called boldly, confidently that she was looking for adventure. Sparrow glanced around at the mucky, swollen ground doubtfully. "That adventure beyond the grave? Cause that's where hangin' in a place like this too long leads ya." She looked over the blonde and regarded her with something the opposite of how she regarded the swamp just seconds earlier. "Where'ya from, sunshine? Cause I'm guessing you're new if this is your idea of a good time." Sparrow squelched her way over to the other woman somewhat disdainfully. She liked mud and all, this was different, this was muck. When she made it over to the woman, she gave a curt bow of her head. "Sparrow, King of the Pirates," she said. "And you, swamp queen?"

The grave? That seemed a little dramatic, though this stranger seemed to know the place better than Jack. She gave a brilliant, rakish grin and tossed her head wildly. "I'd love to see it try," a bold assertion, that was for sure. If nothing else, Jack was bold and brassy... and maybe more than a bit reckless, but at least there was confidence. The blonde woman took up high steps to close the gap between them as well, figuring that it would be good enough. Surely that was true. Sticking through the muck, feeling it squish between her toes... strange, but certainly not the worst thing she'd encountered. No, really. "New, but you gotta find something to love in every new place you see." A smirk played on her face, blue eyes drinking in all the woman before her had to offer. "And lucky for me, I think I found just the thing." It was easy, too easy for her to let the words fall off her tongue. "Charmed, king Sparrow. I'm Jack." A man's name, and (at least she'd been told), a man's confidence. While she'd never considered herself much of a queen, maybe she could get used to that. Maybe.

The woman said that she'dThe woman said that she'd love to see the area love to try to kill her. Sparrow scoffed, "Shoulda seen it during the Ooze." She wondered if this girl had seen any of the ooze at all.

"New, but you gotta find something to love in every new place you see," she had said, and Sparrow scrunched her face until the woman finished her sentence. Sparrow tossed on her best lopsided smile at the woman's coy turnabout, though the mud made her feel like the least sexy thing in the world. She said her name was Jack, and Sparrow gave jack-shit all about name connotations, mostly because she really hadn't heard enough people with the same name to even tell what would be a girl's or boy's name. "Well, then, queen Jack," Sparrow said, lifting her feet with dismal disgust, "What do you say we take our favorite thing about the swamp and ditch the rest for somewhere nicer- say... Obsidian Beach, where my pirates live?"

Well, they didn't really live there, but whatever, they owned it so it was cool enough.

The ooze-- Jack's head quirked to the side. "Ooze?" It was a question, one that played strangely in her mouth. Was there something more to it than the swamp ooze that clung to her feet in these moments? Strange... weird and wonderful, she decided. Still, the rakish grin returned after only a heartbeat of confusion. She stepped high on the squishy ground, her head tossing. There was an excitement that couldn't be chained. It lived in the air between them, and Jack would take it for all that it was. "Are you suggesting that I should be one of your pirates?" Her eyebrows lifted, and she looked King Sparrow up and down. Less sizing her up, more drinking her in-- what a brilliant creature. "That sounds excellent," her voice rang clear, words crisp as she spoke. "Lead the way." Jack grinned. This was exactly the start that she was hoping for in this strange, brilliant new land.