After fanning herself with her homemade fan for the better part of the evening, Calypso settled into bed. Cleaning the island and doing all her own chores had left her tired. She curled up into the white sheets, lay her head down on the soft pillow, and was asleep before her eyes had fully closed.
In her dream, she was standing on the edge of something – she didn't know what. In front of her was a soupy thick fog. It could have been a five foot drop or a bottomless chasm in front of her, and Calypso wouldn't know.
"Scary, isn't it?" A voice asked beside her. Calypso turned to her left. Standing with his legs firm and his hands behind his back was Chris. He turned to her, flashed his adventurous smile.
Calypso hadn't seen Chris, or thought about him, in years. He wasn't her favourite hero, not by a mile. He was cocky and overbearing, and tall. Very tall. After her first few days with him, Calypso had begun to doubt the raft would ever appear. Then one night, he took her down to the beach, and showed her the stars through his spyglass. I'm searching for a new world, he told her. Something bigger. Something better. There's more out there, and I know it.
He whispered the name Isabella in his sleep, and Calypso's heart softened. Isabella, he told her, was a princess, soon to be a queen. Ruthless, relentless, a daughter of Ares – bigger, Chris said. She was better.
"What is scary?" Calypso asked.
Chris tilted his head back. "The future," he said, tilting his chin towards the soupy fog. "It's terrifying."
Calypso turned back again to face the fog. She studied it, narrowed her eyes. "Not really."
"No?" Chris sounded amused. "It scared me."
"I thought nothing scared you."
When Calypso looked back, he was an old man, hunched over and face lined with age. "Oh, dear Calypso," he said softly, with a little wheezing laugh. "Don't you know I was lying?"
Chris stared at the fog, eyes rheumy, faraway. "Don't be afraid of the future," he murmured sagely. "Don't try to see where you'll end up. What you'll end up is stumbling."
"Did you stumble, Christopher Columbus?" Calypso spoke his full name, because he loved it. Chris had loved the sound of his own name.
He laughed, the little old wheezy laugh. "Oh, yes, I stumbled. I fell."
This time when she faced the fog, Calypso felt a little wary. Apprehensive. She wanted to see through it. "I'm not scared of it," she said again.
"Oh?" The voice beside her was different. Lighter, warmer, younger. "Ready to take a dive into the unknown, then?"
Calypso turned to face the voice. Leo stood beside her, holding out his hand.
"I can't see the future," Calypso responded instantly. "Past, present – that's easy. Future is hard."
"Because it looks like that, probably." Leo pointed at the fog. "But you can't see into it from out here."
"No?"
"No! You gotta get in there. Don't you know inside the fog you can see a little bit around you?" His grin widened and he stretched out his hand once again. "Come on, Sunshine. Let's shine a light onto the future."
Calypso hesitated. Then she took his hand.
"Bombs away," Leo said, and they dived into the unknown.
-·~·-
Calypso was standing over a pot, stirring apple cider with a steel ladle. The evening was warm and muggy, and somewhere in the background she could hear singing and the roaring of a fire. The cider smelled good. Beside it bubbled a pot of stew. She was making it over some kind of contraption – it was called a propane stove. Calypso knew it.
She was inside a tent made of canvas. One of the flaps pulled back, and Leo popped his head in. "Drinks almost done?"
"Patience is a virtue," Calypso sang softly.
"Not to a hundred hungry campers, it isn't!"
"There aren't a hundred campers out there," Calypso sighed, reminding him gently. "There's maybe twenty. And they're just children!"
"Yeah, children are even worse," Leo grumped. He was older. Not by much, but he was. It was there in the way he moved, the curve of his shoulders, the extra inch of height. One year, two years – was she older? Yes – no. She couldn't tell.
Counselor, Calypso thought, looking at him.
He groaned and buried his face into her shoulder. "Come on," he whined. "These kids are dying for some of Calypso's famous cider and stew! Would you deny the children what they want?"
Calypso swatted him away. "Off with you," she said affectionately. "I'm almost done. Go set yourself on fire for a bit – they like that."
Leo made a face at her, and Calypso kissed his cheek. He grabbed the side of her face and kissed her, full on the lips. He was just a little bit taller than her now – just a bit.
He smelled like dry wood and campfire smoke and burnt marshmallows, and Calypso didn't think she would ever smell anything that good again.
"Out, now," Calypso whispered against his lips. Leo didn't listen. He kept kissing her. He kept kissing her until the children outside started screaming his name.
"Hurry up," he said, pulling back by an inch. "All they want to do is sing songs. And I hate singing."
"Yes, I know." Calypso pressed another light kiss to his lips. "I'll be out in a moment."
"Better be," Leo grumbled.
He was halfway out of the canvas tent before he ran back to kiss her again. She laughed.
-·~·-
When Calypso awoke, her head felt foggy and her limbs lined with lead. She could barely move, so instead opted to lay on her back and stare at the crystalline ceiling.
There was a single ray of light shining through the cave entrance. It landed on her face, gently warming her skin.
A new world, Chris had said. Something bigger.
Better.
Blackberry Explosion I KNOW YOU SPECIFICALLY SAID DON'T INCLUDE COLUMBUS BUT
hey at least he didn't get a whole chapter to himself
ps his girlfriend Isabella was the Queen of Spain who I'm pretty sure never had any interaction with Columbus outside of giving him permission to find the New World but she did instate the Spanish Inquisition, so...match made in heaven?
also not edited again whoops I've been watching all the BoO booktuber clue videos and I'M SO EXCITED AHHHH