Disclaimer: I do not own The New World or any of its characters.
Title: In the Wild
Couple: John Smith/Pocahontas (The New World)
Summary: Set after "Struggles" – John Smith finally reunites with Pocahontas in the spring while he tries to decide if he wants to live with his love in the wild again…or go back to Jamestown and obligations he accepted as the president of the colony.
Author's notes: I'd like to thank all of the reviewers who have been following my NW stories and I hope that you will continue to support me. This is another one of my favorite parts of the movie so I just had to write another one-shot about our favorite star-crossed lovers. I thought Colin Farrell had amazing chemistry with Q'orianka in these scenes and that's why I wanted to explore John Smith's feelings in this part of the film. I hope you all enjoy reading this story as much I loved writing. (Special notes: This story includes a few deleted scenes from the movie. You can check 'em out at YouTube. I also added one of my own scenes at the end.)
(John Smith's POV)
Spring had quickly arrived after the harsh conditions of winter came upon us in Jamestown. There were only 38 of us left in the colony, but there probably would have been less if the naturals hadn't come to feed us during the peak of the season's coldest time when we were out of fresh supplies and food. Men were dropping like flies daily due to starvation and drinking poisonous water, and those of us who were able to survive through the winter hoped the boats would come soon.
All except for me.
A part of me didn't care if the boats ever came because as long as they weren't here I knew that I would see her again. The youngest of the tribal king's children, Pocahontas, had unwittingly stolen my heart with her innocent playfulness, love and kindness towards nature, and boundless spirit within her soul. Our meeting was truly an act of fate, for there was no other way to describe how we were brought together. Her people captured me when I sailed up the river to negotiate peaceful trades with them in a desperate need for food, brought me into their village and were about to beat the brains out my head when she suddenly throw her body on top of mine. She pleaded with her father, Powhatan, to spare my life…it was the first act of kindness I had ever seen someone give me. The king let me live against the advice from his tribal chiefs and from then on, Pocahontas and I were inseparable. We gradually learned about each other's languages and what our cultures were like. She showed me the beauty of natural life and what a world without deception and greed was. Living in the village was a dream and I never wanted to wake up from it.
In time, our budding friendship turned to love. We became affectionate lovers, however kept our relationship a secret from rest of her people. Spending every day together, we got to know each other more and fell deeper in love with one another. Although, shortly after I left the village and returned to Jamestown before the winter season, I felt guilty for making her love me. I allowed her to get close to me, knowing we came from completely different worlds that would never accept us being together. I convinced myself that it was too dangerous for us to be involved, especially after the other colonists made me president of the fort. If they ever found out about us, only the Lord knows what they would do with her as leverage to selfishly insure their own good fortunes.
When Pocahontas persuaded Powhatan to let her guide some of their people to the fort and bring us food when we were all starving in the winter, I knew the main reason why she actually did that was to see me again. As soon as she asked me the one question that almost made my whole heart melt, I realized just how much I truly wanted to love her in the wild and not be president of the colony. "Why have you not come to me?" This spellbinding effect she had on me was so strong, so powerful that I almost couldn't refuse her. I sought to show her—right then and there—just how much I longed to touch her again…to feel the softness of her lips against my own…caress her smooth skin lovingly with my bare hands…and finally profess my undying love to her, but I knew that I couldn't. So torn between gratitude and distress, between my heart's greatest desires and my rational thoughts, I told her not to trust me because of what I knew could happen to her. Sending her away was the most painful thing I ever had to endure watching, but I understood it had to be done. I loved her more than I knew how, and if protecting her meant she had to stay away from me, then that was what I had to do.
A few of my men and I went up the river near the village so that we could trade with the naturals for food and have enough for us to live on until Captain Newport returned to Jamestown. We laid the valuable articles such as cooking utensils and belts out for them to see. They had brought food including squash and corn, and folded blankets in baskets with them. I waited along the side as the natives carefully and intriguingly examined all the articles I had brought to trade with. One of the naturals negotiating the peaceful trade began talking to me in Algonquian to the point where he was yelling at me in frustration, but I stopped listening to him when I suddenly saw my love playing in the meadows just a short distance away from us. It stunned me that she could still take my breath away with her wit and free spirit. I tried as hard as I could to concentrate on the trade, constantly reminding myself that I could not go back to the fort without food, but I could only think of Pocahontas and the beautiful love we shared. A love that only two people out of a million gets to experience in a single lifetime. Our love was precious and timeless, passionate and intoxicating, but it was only when I saw her that I could remember our love.
I took the only opportunity I had to see Pocahontas when my men were busy unloading the valuable articles we had brought for the naturals. I walked alone through the woods, listening to all the sounds of the wild, and saw her walking towards me. Entranced by her allure, I stopped walking when we were locked into a heartfelt gaze with a mixture of love and longing in our earthy brown eyes. Once she reached where I was standing, I wrapped my arms around her body and embraced her tightly, never wanting to let go. We stood there holding onto one another for what seemed half a lifetime and then finally release each other. I softly ran my hands across her forearm, trying to memorize the softness of her skin as I looked deeply into her eyes.
"There's something I know when I'm with you that I forget when I'm away," I said to her with tenderness in my tone of voice as I brushed my fingers through her loosely braided hair. "Tell me, my love, did you wish for me to come back and live with you again?"
She didn't say anything, but the love in her eyes was all I needed to know. I closed my eyes and gently rested my forehead on hers as we embraced each other once more. I was content because I knew inside my heart that I was finally in the one place where I belonged when I was with her, for life was empty and bleak without my love.
We traveled deeper into the woods, getting lost in each other's presence. Pocahontas walked along a fallen tree, gently tossing leaves to the ground where I was at. I followed her and smiled brightly, feeling so alive in the wild with my love after months of misery and bitter cold in the fort. Once she came off the tree, Pocahontas decided to lie down on the leaf-covered ground and I soon followed. As we teased each other with soft kisses, she held me in her arms with a cheerful smile on her face and I rested my head on her right shoulder. We took a small nap together underneath the shade of the trees, whispered sweet nothings into each other's ears and held each other so close that our beating hearts become one. It was perfect. The simplest pleasures of life were making my heart whole, more whole than anything I had ever felt before. She was the warm sunshine and I was the blue sky, together our love never saw a single cloud in the heavens.
After the naturals collected all of the articles they traded with us and returned to their village, I walked through the meadow while the other men from the fort loaded the food onto the boat. A small smile played across my lips when I suddenly remembered that we met in a meadow--sparks of curiosity and chemistry flew between us even then. There was something about being in the wild that brought us together. Was it destiny or was God trying to tell us something? The only thing I knew and wanted to know was that when I'm with her loneliness no longer consumed my soul and brought me anguish.
She was my love.
My true light.
Pocahontas walked over to where I was standing in the meadow with a grin on her face that could bring out sunlight into the sky on the cloudiest day and she grasped my hand. I followed her willingly, hoping she could take me away from the fort to a place where no one could find us. I would go anywhere with her if it meant I could escape this life of being a soldier and leader. That wasn't who I truly was...not really, living in Pocahontas' village had taught me that. The world isn't always black and white because there were shades of gray that confused us and make us second guess ourselves and our actions. I knew what I wanted out of my life…but I also knew that the men in Jamestown relied on me until Captain Newport returned from England.
I had two paths in front of me with only one to follow: living with Pocahontas and her people again in the woods or going back to my duties as the leader of Jamestown. There were right and wrong reasons to follow either path. There wasn't just one correct answer. I could forget everything and finally be a free man with my love in the wild or play the heroic soldier that saved the newly established colony of Jamestown from starvation and be remembered in centuries to come for what I had done. It was a choice of love or obligation—one bringing me everlasting happiness and peace…and the other giving me respect and gratitude for all the suffering I had gone through to successfully rebuild my reputation.
Many difficult obstacles stood in our way of having a real future together, but one look at Pocahontas and I just couldn't turn away from what we had. I watched her flatten out some grass in the meadow and we laid down together like we had so many times before. I watched her run around and fall on top of me in delight. Her eyes were searching my soul as I was holding her gently. I knew from our previous encounter that she wanted to be with me just as much as I wanted her, but there were complications of us being together on her part as well. Her father was growing uneasy of my presence here and he was expecting my men and I to be gone soon. I didn't know where Pocahontas and I could go now.
"We can't go into the forest," I informed her after we settled down on the grass. "Could I show you England?" I asked her as I raised my head to look her in the eyes, but then suddenly realized how much of a sacrifice that would be for her. I could never let her leave her life and family for me, not like that. "No, it's too far."
"You've come back," she said softly with a smile on her face. By the sound of her voice it seemed like Pocahontas was still surprised that we were finally reunited, but I understood why she felt that way. After our last meeting in the fort during the winter, I knew she was afraid of never seeing me again. I gave her that horrible fear, not willingly, but I would've done it again if I had to. Love isn't always logical, though it makes you put others you care about in front of yourself no matter what the cost.
"Why would I not come back?" I asked her gently and then gave her a small, chaste kiss on the lips.
For the rest of the afternoon, we did everything sweet lovers do when they've been away from one another for too long. We continued to teased each other with gentle, yet passionate kisses, we held each other without saying a single word for hours—letting our hearts say what we felt—and we slept by each other's sides until Pocahontas woke me up by stroking my left forearm which was wrapped around her body. By the time we both got up again it was nearly sunset. We watched the sun go down behind the trees, creating a serene orange and blue sky. Then, almost as if it was act out of nature, a powerful gust of wind blowing through the trees suddenly made me think of something that Captain Newport had said to me down by the river one afternoon when I was writing in my private journal before he left for England to obtain fresh supplies for the fort.
"You have the makings of a leader, Smith. Can one rely on you?"
I told myself "yes," but I also knew there was so much more to life beyond Jamestown for me if I allowed myself to take the risk and follow my heart.
That fort is not the world. The river leads back there. It leads onward too. Deeper. Into the wild... Start over. Exchange this false life for a true one. Give up the name of Smith.
I could give up everything for her…for our love, but that wind blowing was Captain Newport. He was telling me that I couldn't just think of myself, that I had to think of the others, no matter how greedy and undeserving I thought some of the colonists were. However the facts were still too much for me to ignore. There were 34 men and three young boys in the fort and I couldn't just leave them with their unquestionable inexperience in the wild to fend for themselves. They depended on me in order to survive because they wouldn't gotten this far without me or Pocahontas. I didn't have a choice anymore. When I accepted the position of being president I knew that I couldn't just walk away and give into my own desires…but it would take all my inner strength to say goodbye to my love again.
"I'm sorry," I said to her with sadness in my tone that quickly reached my eyes after the wind calmed down. "I can't stay with you. I have to go back."
She didn't say anything or look at me for several seconds, making each second feel like eternity. I knew this wasn't what she wanted or expecting to hear. I had offered to come live with her again in the village just hours earlier and was now saying that I had to return to the fort to fulfill my duties as president. I wanted her to understand that I was only doing this because I had to be unselfish and put others in front of my own happiness…but I was destroying her happiness as well. The words I had just said to her were killing me, eating me up inside. I wanted to stay with her; I wanted to be with her forever, except I couldn't. I couldn't stay with her for the time being. All I could do now was hope that she'd understand.
She finally looked back up and asked, "Will I see you again?"
"Yes," was all I could say to her, but my heart was saying so much more.
I couldn't hold back what I felt any longer. In desperation to show her how much I meant what I said I grabbed her right hand with both of my own, bringing it to my lips and fiercely kissing the inside of her palm several times. Then I ran my fingers through her hair and kissed her passionately, wanting to prove that she had all my love and that I would return to her eventually. When I felt her kissing me back with as much passion it sent shivers of pleasure and guilt through my whole body. She was everything worth anything to me now, and I couldn't go on without seeing her laugh or smile. I would travel to the ends of the world and back if it meant I could be with her again and I told myself that we would see each other again no matter what I had to do in order to make that wish possible.
"Don't worry, my love." I gently closed my eyes for a moment as I kissed her forehead softly. "I promise we will be together again."
"I'll always be with you," Pocahontas told me just before she cupped my face with her left hand and gave me one final kiss before we said our goodbyes.
I slowly walked out of the meadow, feeling her eyes watching me as we parted ways. I got back to the boat shortly after I reached the river, immediately yelled out the orders to my men for us to leave, and watched my love shirking in the distance while she gazed at me as we sailed away from her. I thought about nothing except Pocahontas and what we had together as I sailed back to Jamestown. Our relationship was dangerous, but a beautiful one and if it was meant to last then it would no matter how many odds were against us. I knew that would see her again and we would finally have the life we both wanted with each other. My obligations to the colony may have torn us apart today, but someday there will be nothing that stops us from giving into our deepest desires and when that day comes I know there won't be a single cloud in the sky.
Colin: Q'orianka is amazing. She's an insane mix of lightness and darkness of spirit. She has a smile that could light up both hemispheres at the same time, and has a depth of darkness which would make the world stand still, stop moving.
Q'orianka: Colin follows his impulses. He's such a free spirit. He finds beauty in the simplest, cutest things, like the trees and the river and stuff, and it's so gorgeous to see. And, I don't know, just his free spirit and the way he was willing to take risks in his acting and just everything.
Thank you so much for reading my one-shot and I hope that you really enjoyed it. Please review!