CHAPTER EIGHT: THE GATES OF EL DORADO

The Jaguars gave chase, and Altivo ran like wind across the grassy terrain, galloping full speed, with Tulio and Miguel clinging to his back.

The Jaguars were faster than they gave them credit for, and were following so close that Altivo's long tail was blowing in their faces. One leaped, feeling secure enough that he could leap upon the horse's hind quarters and bring it down. It would have too, had Miguel not been quick and slashed at it with his sword. The beast roared in pain, and tumbled, but regained itself quickly enough and was gaining again.

Tulio spurred the horse on faster as they flew over fallen branches and logs, turning so sharply he threatened to throw his passengers from his back. And then quite suddenly there was no more room to run. Altivo reared to a stop at the edge of a high cliff over looking a waterfall. And the Jaguars were closing in.

"We're trapped!" Tulio cried frantically, looking at the thirty fifteen foot drop below them. "Do you think you can fend them off with your sword?" he asked, looking to his partner.

"Well, that depends if you can handle the other with your bare hands." Miguel replied.

Tulio put his head in his hands as the wild cats moved steadily closer, growling and snarling. "We'll never survive, we may as well die here." he moaned.

Miguel put his hand on his shoulder. "Don't be ridiculous, you're only saying that because it looks hopeless." he replied.

"We have no choice then?" Tulio asked.

Miguel looked him in the eyes. "Nope."

Tulio took a deep breath, and straightened the collar of his shirt, pulling Miguel closer to him, and looked straightforward. "Bring it on."

Altivo jumped. For a moment they seemed to fly out over the water fall, before gravity took hold and sent all three of them free falling towards the rapids below. They hit the water hard with a huge splash, and then everything was enveloped in blue and splashes of white.

Altivo came up for air first, kicking and splashing furiously. Miguel was next, gasping loudly for air and kicking as hard as he could with his good leg, keeping himself afloat as he looked around desperately for Tulio. He saw his partner float to the surface for a moment, eyes closed, before sinking back down again.

"Tulio!" Miguel cried, diving under the water and swimming frantically towards him. He caught his love under the airs and dragged him back towards the surface as the undertow carried them close to shore, allowing them to find their footing in the mud below and climb onto dry land.

Miguel pulled Tulio onto the bank, coughing and sputtering, patting him on the back as he coughed up water. "Are…are you alright?" he panted.

Tulio nodded, wiping his mouth against his wrist before rolling over and taking Miguel in his arms and laying with him on the soft ground as Altivo shook himself dry like a giant dog.

"We…we survived then?" Tulio asked after a moment, still breathing heavily.

"We're a hardy breed." Miguel replied, resting his head against Tulio's chest. "Is Altivo alright?"

The horse blinked back at them, somewhat irritated, but other than being sopping wet, he seemed to be more or less intact.

"We're going to die here, Miguel…that's all there is to it," Tulio ranted then, "We're simply going to wander around in this jungle until we die!"

Miguel kissed him softly looking down at him, "We can't give up now, Tulio, not when we've come this far! We just jumped over a waterfall for heaven's sake!" he pointed out. "Besides, I did not come half way around the world simply to lose you now."

Tulio smiled and kissed him again. "You're right for once, I suppose." he sighed. The two helped each other up and looked around trying to get their bearings.

Miguel was resting on a nearby rock, giving his ankle a chance to rest while Tulio wandered about muttering to himself while Altivo munched on some grass. It was then, that he noticed a small pair of eyes watching him from out of the bushes. He peered closer, and the little beast occurred.

It was that bedamned Armadillo!

At first Miguel could not believe that it could possibly be the same one, after all, all Armadillo's looked alike, but this one…

It bounded out of the bushes and scrambled right up into his lap, staring up at him, little ears twitching.

"It's you!" he cried.

"What?" Tulio asked as he wandered back over to him.

"Look Tulio, it's the Armadillo! It's Bibo!"

Tulio stared. "Oh my God, you mean that thing is still alive?!" he cried. "What, does it just sit around in the jungle all day waiting for two idiots and a horse to wandering around?"

"No, no, Tulio, don't you see what this means?" Miguel said excitedly holding the little creature. "He knows the way! He can lead us there!"

A moment of silent staring by Tulio. "Did you hit your head on the rocks when we fell?"

"I'm serious!" Miguel cried defensively. He looked to the Armadillo, "Bibo, can you show us the way to the city?" he asked.

It rolled itself into a ball and rolled right off his lap and then scurried into the bushes ahead of them. "Come on, Tulio!" Miguel cried excitedly, grabbing Tulio's hand as he limped after him.

Tulio stopped him long enough to help him onto Altivo, and then they were off again. "I can't believe we're taking directions from an Armadillo…" Tulio sighed.

***

They had been following Bibo's sporadic movements for a little less than a hour, and Tulio had fallen asleep against Miguel's back. Miguel was beginning to feel drowsy himself and had just begun to nod off, when Altivo stopped abruptly, grunting and snorting to get his attention. The blonde-Spaniard blinked up sleepily to find themselves standing at the edge of a huge waterfall. And in front of the water fall, was the large stone slab of the Gods of El Dorado.

Miguel shook his lover awake abruptly. "Tulio, we've found it!" he cried.

Tulio blinked slowly, staring at the slab. He smiled a little. "Well…we found where it used to be. But that way is blocked, Miguel, we can't get through there, remember?" he asked.

Miguel's smile faded a bit. "Oh…well, surely there's another way in…somewhere." he added hopefully.

"Yeah, but where?" Tulio asked as he hopped down off Altivo, wadding out into the water. Sure enough the rocks were still there, blocking what had once been a tunnel. "Where's that dumb pet of yours?" he asked then. He spotted Bibo off to his left, making his way back into the jungle.

"Should we follow him?" Miguel asked.

Tulio shrugged. "Why not? I mean, it's not like we have anything better to do…"

They followed the Armadillo further into the jungle, hearing the sound of the rushing waterfall slowly fading behind them. Tulio was beginning to feel rather skeptical about the whole thing, though. After all, El Dorado was completely surrounded by mountain ranges, that and the volcano. And the further they went, the more skeptical Tulio became as well.

Miguel, however, being the trusting soul that he was, never gave Bibo's judgment a second thought. In fact he was so sure of it, he had fallen fast asleep, leaving everything up to Bibo's directions and Altivo's ability to follow him.

Tulio sighed loudly, shifting Miguel so that his head could rest comfortably on his shoulder while he steered. "I hope you know where you're going." he found himself muttering to the little orangish brown blob scuttling in front of him. "Though honestly, I don't see how you could. I mean, you're a stupid Armadillo, how could possibly be able to know where we want you to take us?" he asked.

Altivo looked back at him. "Oh don't give me that look, horse." the other man grumbled. Altivo shook his head and continued to slowly follow after Bibo.

"Ugh, what am I saying!? You can't understand me…I'm talking to a horse." he added then, berating himself. He didn't see Miguel open one eye quietly and smile to himself before snuggling closer to him. Tulio smiled and kissed his cheek before looking up again to find that they had stopped at the foot of a very steep incline.

Bibo was slowly, but steadily scrambling up it, jumping from rock to rock as he made his way towards the top, which was misty in the night sky.

"You have GOT to be KIDDING me." Tulio moaned as Miguel made an exaggerated yawn, pretending to just be waking up.

"What's going on…?" he asked in his best sleepy voice.

"Your stupid aardvark lead us to mountainside." Tulio grumbled.

"Armadillo." Miguel corrected.

"Whatever! There's no way you can climb up that with your leg, and I don't know how we're going to get the horse up."

Miguel looked up at the steep hill side above them. "Well…it's not too steep. If you can pull him by the reigns, I can hobble up it." he said.

"No, no, no, there's got to be a better way." Tulio insisted.

"Even if there is Tulio, who knows how long it would take to find it?" Miguel pointed out, easing himself down and beginning to hobble up the hill. "Come along!"

Tulio and Altivo stared at each other. "You two deserve each other" Altivo's eyes said.

"Shut it, horse-meat." Tulio replied. Then slapped himself. "Argh! I'm doing it again!"

Miguel laughed at him.

***

Going up the mountain side, for that's more or less what it was, was tougher going that Miguel had first thought. The grass was slick beneath their feet, and where there wasn't grass, the dirt slid easily. They were forced the go the way half-hunched over, gripping onto rocks for hand-holds and supports, dragging Altivo slowly behind them.

Miguel was for the most part crawling on his hands and knees up the hill, since it was damned near impossible for him to make it on one foot. Both of them were breathless and covered in sweat, and tired and their muscled ached from the effort. The inclined seemed like it simply went on forever, for the top never seemed to get any closer. He glanced over at his partner, who was fighting to keep Altivo from sliding all the way back down to the bottom.

Since the loss of his shoes, poor Tulio's feet had suffered greatly. They were bruised and blistered and bleeding from the sharp rocks on the hill.

"Tell me again why we're doing this?" Tulio called over to him.

"Because we live for adventure!" Miguel replied.

"No, YOU live for adventure, I need a better reason." Tulio grunted painfully.

"Because you love me?" Miguel added sweetly, batting his eyes at him.

"Oh yeah, I had forgotten that," Tulio said in a sort of stand-offish way, that certainly would have made Miguel say something, had they not suddenly arrived at the top of the hill. Both of them knelt, grasping the edge of the ground in front of them, overlooking another steep incline downwards into the city. It was shrouded in mist still, but they could still see the tops of the huge golden temples even through the fog.

"Oh Tulio! We're here, we've found it!" Miguel cried, pushing himself to his feet, grabbing hold of his friend and lover. "We're home!"

Tulio laughed with sheer relief, and took the opportunity to kiss his partner again while Altivo wheezed beside them. Altivo looked towards the small patch of turf they were standing on, and blinked. It was beginning to move beneath them. He nudged Tulio's back in alarm, but the Spaniard simply swatted him away without breaking his kiss with Miguel.

"Tulio, I think I felt the earth move just now…" Miguel said softly as they broke apart.

"You know, I did too, love." Tulio replied dreamily.

"No, I mean, I REALLY felt the earth move!" Miguel gasped then as he noticed what Altivo had noticed earlier. But it was too late. The ground crumbled under their weight and three of them went tumbling and rolling and cursing and screaming down the hills side.

They came to a painful halt at the bottom of the hill, moaning and groaning in pain.

"Oooooooow!" Miguel screeched, holding his foot.

"Oooh, my head…" Tulio moaned. "Are you okay?" he asked, pulling Miguel towards him.

"I'm dandy…" Miguel murmured as Tulio helped him up, the two of them dusting themselves off, Altivo pulling himself to his feet.

Miguel's eyes wandered up to the city in front of them, no longer surrounded by mist. And his heart stopped.

The city was in ruins.