CHAPTER SEVEN: COME WHAT MAY
When Tulio woke up, he was surprised to find himself lying across a long sandy beech near the half-over turned remains of their boat. He blinked several times, coming into awareness and slowly sat up rubbing his head. They must have beached some time during the night. He looked around and found Altivo sitting on the shore, watching a crab scuttle by intently. But where was Miguel? Fear gripped Tulio like an iron vice and he was at once on his feet, looking around frantically. Luckily, he didn't have far to look.
Miguel's still figure was lying half in and half out of the water, the bright blue waves lapping at him as he laid sprawled on his back in the mid-day sun. Tulio made a staggering run over to him, dropping down beside him, resting his head in his lap as he pulled him further up the beach.
"Miguel, Miguel, say something for the love God!" he cried, beginning to spaz. Miguel made a painful moan, but didn't open his eyes. Tulip looked down at his leg to find the ankle swollen and black and blue. It was sprained badly, possibly even broken. He took off his vest to make a pillow for Miguel, slipping it gently under his head before darting over to the boat and ripping off two small wooden boards. He took them back over to his friend, and then untucked his shirt, tearing the bottom of it. He then placed the two boards on either side of Miguel's ankle, then wrapped the material around it to make a make-shift splint.
Miguel's head tossed from side to side as he began to come to, wincing in pain. "Tulio…?" he choked as his partner crawled up beside him, letting his head rest on his lap.
"I'm here." he assured him as the full extent of the pain came rushing back and he hissed loudly, hands clutching Tulio's.
"My leg!" he yelped.
"I know, I know, try to lie still. I did what I could for it." His partner replied, letting him squeeze his hand, feeling this fingers cracking under the force.
Miguel laid there, writhing in pain, taking deep breaths to try to keep himself from crying or screaming, and then finally looked up at his friend again. "Did anyone else make it?"
Tulio shook his head, looking out at the ocean in front of them. "I don't think so. It was pretty bad storm, they're probably stranded somewhere if they are alive." But all the same, it wouldn't be wise for them to linger there long. If they had beached there during the night, surely any survivors would too. And he did not want to be there when they got ashore.
"Can you walk at all?" Tulio asked then.
Miguel stared up at him. "My ankle is broken, Tulio, I don't think I can walk on it just yet." He grumbled sarcastically as Tulio eased him into a sitting position, Miguel hissing and wincing the entire time. He looped the other man's arms around his shoulders and pulled him to his feet. Miguel screamed as he put even slightest weight on his injured ankle, threatening to fall again, but Tulio held him up.
"It hurts, Tulio!" Miguel wailed, biting his hand to keep from wailing any louder.
"I understand, but just try to stand on your good foot until I get Altivo over here. You can ride on him." Tulio said, trying to remain calm as he looked around. The horse was still busily following the little crab as it scuttled along the beach.
"Horse!" he shouted. Altivo paid no attention to him.
"His name's not horse, it's Altivo." Miguel scolded him.
Tulio rolled his eyes, "For Christ's sakes Miguel, he's a horse, not a lap dog."
"Well, you'll hurt his feelings! And besides he doesn't like you much anyway and Ahhhhh!" he cried out again, having bumped his leg against a near-by stone.
"Shh, shh, hold on. Altivo! Get your ass over here!" Tulio shouted, and this time he reluctantly gave up the chase and wandered over to them.
Tulio eased his injured companion up onto the horse, not without much cussing and gasping in pain, and then took Altivo's reigns.
"Alright. Which way?" he asked, more to himself than anyone, staring into the jungle looming ahead.
"Just go past the rock shaped like the Eagle's head." his partner said from his place on Altivo's back.
Tulio blinked. "There isn't one."
"What?" Miguel asked, peering around. But the other man was right. There was no rock in sight, only the dense jungle. The stream that had been there close by was still there, but the rock was gone.
"I…I don't know. Maybe we landed on the wrong side of it." he said after a moment. Tulio blew the stray strains of raven black hair out of his face in annoyance. "Should have kept the bloody map."
"Well you're the one who ripped it up!" Miguel reminded him.
"Aren't you supposed to be in pain? Huh? You be helpless, and let me…try to find our way out of this mess, alright?" Tulio said.
Miguel smiled, despite the agony in his ankle as he jostled around on Altivo's back.
***
It had been hours now, and they were going in circles. Tulio was effectively lost. None of the icons on the map, or at least the ones that Miguel could remember, were visible anywhere. Of course, he would only say "Almost there now," and "Not much further". Normally, Tulio would have quite happily began ranting about how they were hopelessly lost and would most likely die in this God-forsaken jungle, and jaguars would feast on their bleached bones and what-not, but he didn't want to upset Miguel, who already having a hard time.
The pain in his ankle seemed to have redoubled since riding on Altivo, because while it kept the weight off the injury, it sent all the blood rushing down to it, making it swell up more and throb painfully.
For the most part, he had tried to keep his pain to himself, biting his lip, or gritting his teeth and trying to bear with it, but at last it was too much.
"Tulio, I can't go on…" he whimpered painfully then, making his companion stop.
"But we're almost there," Tulio began, looking back at him, but the look on Miguel's face told him that he didn't care if Cortez's whole frickin fleet was on their heels, he was getting off that horse.
He began to slide down himself, Tulio helping him, catching him half-way as the blonde-haired man let out a blood-curdling scream as his foot struck the ground, hard.
"Shhh, shhhh! Miguel, you'll wake up everything for miles!" Tulio gasped, trying to be heard over Miguel's cries as he finally dissolved into painful tears.
"Tulio, please! Please, I need something for the pain, for the love of God, please!" he yelped.
"Do I look like a doctor?!" Tulio cried, feeling more and more frustrated. He lifted Miguel into his arms, carrying him over a small little clearing among the foliage, laying him down on a large palm leaf in the shade of the trees. Tulio couldn't stand seeing him in so much pain, but he couldn't concentrate with his partners whimpering and wailing. Suddenly an idea struck him. In El Dorado he had watched a medicine man administer some sleeping drugs to patients. It was made of moss and berries, Tulio could only vaguely remember the ingredients, so he rushed about, leaving Altivo to comfort Miguel as best he could.
He gathered some moss and some bright green leaves off of a nearby bush, remembering that much of the mixture. It was the berries that stumped him. There were only two kinds of them growing nearby, one was bright blue, and other was dark red. The catch? Tulio couldn't remember which color had been used in the medicine, and which one was poisonous.
He stared back and forth from bush to bush, trying to look for signs. Certain leaf patterns that might give it away, but the bushes seemed identical. Finally, after hearing Miguel's cries becoming steadily louder and louder and knowing they would attract far too much attention, he decided with the best way he knew how.
"Enie-Minie-Mine-Mo…"
The blue berries won. Tulio crushed all the ingredients together against a rock, mixing them with stream water, and caught it in a leaf, bringing it over to his friend.
"Drink this," he said, praying to God and any other deity he'd heard of he wasn't poising him. Miguel did as he was told, choking on it all the way down, then laid back and waited. Tulio sat nervously beside him, watching him, heart thudding in his ears.
After a few moments Miguel's cries turned to only slight whimpers, and his body relaxed, and his breathing evened out. He gazed around him with heavy-lidded eyes, murmuring and muttering to himself, only vaguely aware of his surroundings. Tulio hadn't chosen wrong.
"Feel strange…" Miguel murmured, his head falling against Tulio's chest as he held him.
"I know, try to go to sleep now, alright?" Tulio shushed him. Miguel nodded sleepily, cuddling closer to him for warmth and protection, making his partner blush furiously. It felt oddly right to have him lying so close to him. Like he was made to fit perfectly into that little spot. And he couldn't deny how happy it made him feel to have him so close.
Feeling secure in the fact that Miguel was mostly out of it, he took the opportunity to hold him and cradle him, and run his fingers through his hair. His attentions seemed only to make Miguel move closer to him, sighing comfortably. Tulio looked down at his face, peaceful under his intoxication, eyes closed, breathing quietly.
"Miguel…" Tulio whispered after a long moment.
"Hmmm…?" the blonde murmured, blinking sleepily up at him.
"There's something…something…I've wanted to tell you." he said, unconsciously gripping his shoulders. "I…I love you. I guess I always have…I just never really understood it before. But after you left, life just lost it's meaning. Money, gold, respect…it didn't mean anything without you. That's why I came back…I came back trying to find you. I understand if you don't feel the same way…Miguel?"
He glanced down. Miguel's breathing was soft and slow, and he was heavy in his arms. He had fallen asleep before he'd even began. Tulio sighed, feeling half-heartedly irritated, and kissed Miguel's forehead lovingly. "Perhaps another time," he whispered, more to himself than anyone.
***
Days had gone by now. The drugs had helped Miguel immensely, and he was on the mend. Now he could ride Altivo without feeling much pain, and Tulio had even managed to fashion him a crutch from fallen tree branches so he could walk a bit as well.
However, they were still lost. More now than ever. At least before they had had some sense of where the shore was and could always go back if they needed to. But now they had wandered so far in, they had lost even that. Tulio was growing steadily more and more frustrated from a number of things, for one it was immensely difficult to navigate through the jungle as dense as it was, and it was slow going with Miguel's injury. Secondly, it was unbearably hot, and it seemed like they would never find the entrance to El Dorado. But what was more, was that with each passing day he grew more and more anxious to tell his companion his feelings, but always he was too afraid.
It was driving him mad.
The golden sun was beginning to dip below the tree line that evening, when the three of them found their way to a rather familiar looking stream.
"Tulio," Miguel said from his place on Altivo's back, looking down at it. "Doesn't this place look familiar?" he asked.
"They all look familiar Miguel, it's a frickin stream!" Tulio muttered in his foul mood as he wandered away from the horse, sitting down on a large boulder next to the stream, pulling off his shoes and emptying them of several small rocks and pebbles. "My feet are killing me."
"But," Miguel said again, easing himself off Altivo's back as the horse bent to accommodate him as he supported himself on his crutch, hobbling over towards him. "It really does look familiar…"
Tulio ignored him with an unintelligible grunt and wadded out into the stream, letting the cool water soak his sore feet.
Meanwhile Miguel had wandered a little further down stream, and suddenly gave a loud cry of joy. "Tulio! Tulio, I was right! This is the Piranha stream!! We're going the right way!"
Tulio's eyes widened impossibly and twitched. "Piranha's…?" He looked down in time only to see a whole school of the swimming right towards him. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" He screamed, leaping out of the water, flinging himself upon the shore, barely missing being bitten in the butt…again. Unfortunately, his shoes were not quite so fortunate. They had been lying too close to the shore, and the fish were biting, even if it was dried up leather.
That was the last straw. "Ooooh GREAT!!" Tulio shouted furiously, waving his arms around wildly as Miguel hobbled towards him, looking concerned. "JUST GREAT!"
"Tulio, what's the matter?" Miguel asked innocently. Tulio gave him a look to kill.
"'What's the matter?' WHAT'S THE MATTER??!!! THE MATTER IS WE'RE LOST! WE'RE LOST IN THIS GOD FORSAKEN PATCH OF EARTH, A MILLION MILES FROM ANYWHERE, WITH NO MAP, NO WEAPONS, AND NO FOOD!" he roared.
"It'll be alright, we know where we're going now, I--" Miguel began, but Tulio cut him off abruptly.
"NO! Just SHUT UP, alright!? I am so sick of your blind optimism, Miguel, I can't stand it anymore! Are you so naïve that you can't even see what kind of trouble we're in!?"
"Why are you yelling at me? What did I do?" Miguel asked defensively, staring at his partner.
"I'm yelling at you because I'm angry, alright! I'm angry at this jungle, I'm angry at myself and I'm angry at you!" Tulio continued to shout.
The other man was taken aback by this. "Oh, I suppose this is all my fault then." he muttered, frowning.
"Yes! Exactly. You finally get it." Tulio replied.
"What do you want me to do, Tulio? Pull the God-damn map out of thin air? Sorry, I'm not a magician." Miguel snapped.
"You could at least help me a little, you know! I have to do ALL the hunting, all the looking for water, while you lie around all day on that stupid horse of yours!" Tulio barked.
"Oh, yes, excuse me, Tulio, how selfish I've been. I'll tell you what, you can climb on my back and I'll carry you around, ON MY BROKEN FOOT!!" Miguel shouted, becoming more and more angry.
Altivo had taken quite a few steps back from the two now, blinking around. This was gonna get ugly.
"Oooh, like that's any excuse!" Tulio snorted, folding his arms across his chest.
"Maybe you'd be happier if you were lost out in the middle of the jungle with your precious Chel and your gold then, hmm? Then you could run off into the bushes and have a few quickies!" Miguel shouted, becoming red in the face.
Tulio blinked. "How dare you! You and I promised we wouldn't talk about Chel!" Tulio shouted in outrage.
"And what good is that, Tulio?" Miguel replied, rounding on him, standing only a few inches from him now. "Your promise? You betrayed it once, why should I believe you wouldn't betray it again?"
Tulio's eyes flashed dangerously. "That's hitting below the belt, partner!"
"No! Do you know what 'hitting below the belt' is Tulio!? Seeing you making out with that little whore in the temple after we SHOOK HANDS on it!!" Miguel cried, and Tulio saw to his surprise that his eyes were beginning to water as he stared angrily back at him.
"Oh like that was any excuse for you to act the way you did! You were just jealous of what I had with her." Tulio replied, a little calmer this time, although the anger was still there.
Miguel turned back to him, teeth bared. "You mocked my pain once, never do it again! I died that day!" he yelled fiercely, his voice cracking slightly as the first tears appeared.
There was no more shouting now. They simply stood there, staring at each other, breathing heavily. And then Tulio asked once more; "Why did you leave, Miguel?"
For a moment, Miguel was silent, leaning heavily on his crutch, staring down at the jungle floor. "Because…I couldn't bare it anymore." he whispered. "I couldn't bare watching you two together, the way you fawned all over her, the way you looked at her, the way she lusted after you and manipulated you. Every time I saw it was like a dagger in my gut." The words were slow and pained, but Tulio could tell they had been there for a long time, waiting to be released. The anger had drained out of him now, replaced by butterflies in his stomach.
"But…why, Miguel? I mean, I've been with other women before and you never acted this way." he said.
Miguel shook his head, giving him a rueful chuckle. "You don't listen do you?" he asked.
"What?" Tulio asked.
"You don't listen. Didn't you ever hear me? Every time I went through with one of your hair-brained schemes, whenever I let you take your frustration out on me, my 'blind optimism' as you put it…I was trying to tell you something."
Tulio's heart was pounding painfully in his ears, the whole world seemed to melt away and there was just him and Miguel.
His partner looked at him slowly, looking straight in the eyes with a gaze so deep Tulio couldn't look away. "I left, Tulio…because I loved you."
Those little words seemed to shatter Tulio's entire world. He could barely believe what he was hearing. His heart jumped into his throat and his stomach dropped to his knees.
"Wh…what, did you say?" he asked in shaky whisper. Miguel looked away, taking Tulio's shock for rejection.
"I said, I loved you. That's why I left. You broke my heart, Tulio, and I could never…I could never love anyone else again." he said, his eyes to the ground once more. "So I guess you were right when you said I was jealous."
Tulio was running towards him before he even realized it, and he had his arms around the other man, clutching him tightly, dragging the two of them to the ground.
"Oh my God, Miguel…how could I have been so blind, how could I have been so stupid!? You loved me?! You LOVED me? Oh my God…oh MY GOD!" he found himself weeping and rambling.
The blonde-Spaniard touched his face gently. "It's alright, Tulio, I understand…" he began.
"No, no, you don't you idiot! I came back to Spain because of you! I had to find YOU! I love you too Miguel, I guess I always have! I wanted to tell you before, but I was so afraid you didn't feel the same and I didn't want to scare you away again, Oh God, I'm so sorry…" Tulio rambled.
Miguel's eyes seemed to glaze over as he stared back at his partner. He clutched his shoulder, silencing him and making him look at him. "Oh Tulio…Tulio, say it again, please!" he begged in a desperate whisper.
"I'm sorry." Tulio said. Miguel shook his head frantically.
"No no! The part where you said you…you loved me too!"
Tulio smiled so big his grin nearly reached from ear to ear, he took the other man's face in his hands, running his fingers through his hair. "I love you Miguel. I love you, you and only you."
Miguel let out a gasping cry of joy and crushed his mouth against Tulio's, who greeted him warmly, clinging to him as though he'd hold him forever.
"My love, my darling, Mi amor, mi querido, mi ángel, mi solamente…" Tulio lapsed into his native tongue as he clung to Miguel, vowing silently never to let him out of his sight or reach again. Their tears mingled on each other's cheeks as they kissed feverishly, clinging to the other as though their lives depended on it.
Miguel found himself smiling against Tulio's mouth. Was he dreaming? Was this an illusion, or was he really dead and this was what heaven was? He didn't care, whatever it was, he could face Cortez's whole army alone with his bear hands now, he had Tulio's love, and that was all the power he needed.
Altivo sat aside, watching the happy lovers with a slight sniffle. It was all so terribly romantic after all…
But then another noise caught his attention. He perked up his tiny ears and looked around. Much to his horror and amazement, on the incline above them was a crouching, watching Jaguar.
It was Tulio who noticed the beast next, when he and Miguel at last broke apart, coming up for air and simply holding each other. He saw him over Miguel's shoulder. He held him tighter.
"Darling," he asked, keeping his eyes on the predator.
"Yes, mi amor?" Miguel asked.
"I don't want to worry you, but there's a Jaguar watching us."
"Really? Because I was just about to tell you the same thing." Miguel said. Another was crouched on the other side of the stream.
"On three, we jump on the horse and make a run for it." Tulio replied as they slowly stood up.
"Yes, well, that might be a bit difficult for me, dearest." Miguel replied calmly.
"Alright then, I'll throw you onto the horse, how's that?" Tulio asked as Altivo slowly moved towards them, bending his neck as the two men slipped on him, Tulio in front, Miguel behind him.
"Right, good, excellent." Miguel replied.
"One…two…RUN!!!" Tulio screamed and Altivo took off like a bullet across the terrain as the Jaguars pounced…
