Hello ladies and gentlemen!

My name is tari, and I've been writing stories for quite a time now. The idea for this one came to me during a class (namely, Strategy of War & Peace ^^, ) and I just got the chance to write it down. I hope you enjoy it!

'This was good, huh?'

Tulio looked at his partner with glee and a big smile, ecstasied that his plan worked - once again. His happy features, however, turned to surprise when he saw an angry and resentful look on Miguel's face.

Without a single word to him, Miguel began pulling himself up. Tulio gave him a calculating look, trying to determine what the heck is wrong with the blond. He surely wouldn't have believed any of his words during the mock argument, it was supposed to be fake!

Tulio sighed slowly, deciding to deal with whatever problem they have firmly back on ground, not while hanging dangerously over possibly deadly waters. So he grabbed the rope a bit tighter and got ready to pull himself to safety.

However, as he looked toward the cliff on which he was hanging on, he noticed a little flaw on his line of life. The vine had begun to tear up from somewhere near the top, somewhere he will have to hurry to reach.

He heard cheers and happy yells from above. He wanted to shout back at them, to urge them to the situation, but only a small moan escaped his lips as the vines gave away a little more.

'Tulio! Tulio!'

He thought it was fair enough to tell that he had never been happier in his life to hear someone - especially a woman - calling to him. He needed to be saved, he didn't want to die, not now, not like this.

Just when he saw Chel's chocolate brown eyes and a fit of familiar blond hair, the vine snaps, and with a surprised yelp, he falls into the swirming water miles below...

--

Miguel had only just announced his decision to stay in the city when he heard Chel's frantic call for his ex-partner. Panic shots through him as his mind wanders around the possibilities - maybe they hadn't been able to get rid of Tzekel Khan after all, maybe he had survived by holding on to something, just like he and Tulio did. Bracing himself, he ran to the side.

However, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw right then.

First, he saw a tiny, almost fragile body falling slowly to the dangerous whirlpool below; and a pair of dark blue eyes staring up at him, terrified.

'No...' A disbelieving, almost praying whisper escaped his lips as he watches Tulio's thin body splashes into the swirling waters, getting almost immediately washed away. His brain seemed to stop working altogether. He heard Chel's muffled scream to the left of him, and felt that he himself is holding back a wounded scream, as if he had lost a part of himself.

It is not until the people of El Dorado gather around the two that his brain starts working again. The natives look down at their hell with a horrified expression, which had just swolen one of their beloved Gods.

'Tulio!!! No!!!' The scream he was holding back came out with full force, and he flung himself forward, ready to pull his friend back, whatever it takes. He would have done so without blinking, if it wasn't for two native soldiers holding him back in a tight lock, almost enabling him to move.

'Let go of me.' He snarled through his teeth, keeping his voice only for his friend, if, by some sort of miracle, his face shows up from the waves again, but some part of him secretly whispered to him that this is not possible. Not ever again. He felt vaguely some kind of warmth slide down his cheeks as he thought about that possibility, but he didn't understand quite what that warmness meant.

'Lord Miguel...' Chief Tannabuk tried to speak, but choked on his words. He was holding Chel close to him now, trying to soothe her out of jumping into the whirlpool herself. Though the girl seemed a bit more composed herself, probably because of knowing the reality of survival from the watery pit. After a moment of composure, he began speaking again. 'Lord Miguel, I'm terribly afraid there is nothing we can do right...' He looked away from the whirlpool, as if that could help.

'I don't care - now LET ME GO!' The blond yelled once again with all the force he could muster, and he felt himself getting considerably weaker as he struggles against the guards. The warmth on his face turns to ice as cold wind blowed pearl like liquid to the air. Miguel sank to his knees and wept some more as the futility of resistance hit him as never before.