Iguanatopia - ONC 2021 (Completed)

Bonustopia 2: Grace/Ignacio (captain, not iguana)

Grace weighed the mango from hand to hand. The weight and smoothness of the fruit were so familiar to her fingers. It reminded her of a time past. When she was someone else.

A hand stroked across her shoulder and she looked up the see her beloved, Captain Ignacio. He was even more handsome now, on this island, than he had been before. Muscles chiseled from physical labor and complexion turned dark under the sun. He reminded her of a bronze statue of an ancient warrior.

But what made her happiest to see was his healthy clear eyes. Turned so out of abstinence from the bottle. Hopefully, they would remain that way.

"Trying to come up with a way to cook that?" Ignacio asked and nodded toward the mango as he sat down. "If you can turn turnips delicious, you shouldn't have any problems with mangos..."

"No," she said while shaking her head. Her thoughts still far away, in a hunt to capture something out of reach. "I'm trying to... remember something. Something I forgot long ago."

"What?" he asked, clear eyes turned at her with sincere interest.

Grace put the mango down with a sigh. The answer still escaped her. "My name," she said.

Confusion spread across the face of the man beside her. "Your name is Grace," he said.

She looked for his hand in the sand. "Grace I bear now," she replied with her eyes gazed at the ocean before them. "I've had many names. Most of them I remember. But not my first name. Not who I was to begin with."

"You were a princess I've heard."

She had heard the stories too. She never corrected them. People could believe what they wanted.

She laughed. "I wasn't a princess, Ignacio. It's just a story."

He looked at her with admiration and love. When he looked at her she truly did feel like a princess.

"So who were you then, Grace?" Ignacio asked and squeezed her hand.

"I was just a little girl, just like anyone else;" she replied. "I do remember that."

"What else do you remember?"

She took a deep breath, preparing to tell a story she'd never told anyone. Preparing to tell the truth. At least the parts of it that she remembered.

"I remember the mangos." Grace juggled the fruit in her hand again. Smooth as a rock and fragrant like a flower. "When you peeled them they were yellow as the sun that shone so brightly upon us. They grew in a flourishing oasis in the middle of the desert. That oasis is where I was born and spent my first few years. The water was blue, the sand was white, and the sun was hot. But that's all I can recall. I don't remember my parents and I don't remember what they called me."

"And what happened?"

"Another tribe... they raided us and took the children captive. I don't know what happened to the adults but I can imagine they weren't merciful to them. Probably buried in the white sand long ago."

A look of horror fell over Ignacio's face. "I'm sorry," he said. "That's horrible."

"It's only just the beginning," she said, a bitter smile on her lips.

"So what happened after you were taken captive?"

"I was put to work as a slave. I carried water jugs in a palace with a lush garden and long corridors. I was given a name, and I do remember that name, but it wasn't my name. I worked there for many years. Until I was no longer a child, but instead a young woman. That's when I was taken to a bustling city with high sandstone walls where I was sold on a market and put in shackles for the first time. The men who bought me were pale and grim. They acquired many slaves at the market before they led us through desert and jungle toward the ocean. We were put on a ship, stacked like goods in a warehouse, and then sailed for many weeks."

"That's how you ended up here. In this part of the world."

She nodded slowly. "I was put to work picking cotton. I was given another name. Another name I do remember. But also not my name. I survived there for many years, but I didn't live. I existed and hoped. I hoped there was something else."

"But you got out of there. I've heard the stories about the ax..."

"There was an ax. But I didn't wield it. A brave man did. I didn't know him. But he was just like me and so many others. A man called by another name than his own. He stole an ax and killed the foreman. The guards shot him immediately but that started the rebellion. It was chaos. We all ran for our lives. Perhaps I was the only one who escaped. I hid in a boathouse until the night and then made my way out on the ocean."

"That's where I found you," he said softly.

"That's where you found me," she replied in the same soft tone.

"You said your name was Grace that day. Was that what they called you at the plantation?"

She shook her head and moved closer to him to lean her head on his shoulder. "No," she said. "Grace is the name I chose for myself. It... just came to me when you asked my name that day. It felt right. It's me."

A soft kiss landed on her forehead. "You are Grace," he said. "You are my grace."

They sat quietly for a moment, united in understanding and love. The mango was still in her hand. Still reminding her of the answer she couldn't find. Perhaps she never would.

She could accept that. Because she had a future now. She had hope. She had grace.

Grace lifted her head from Ignacio's shoulder and looked for his lips. His lips were sweet, like mango, and salty, like the ocean. The perfect mix of past and future.

Author's Note: Yep, this is another sequel bait chapter. Because maybe she will one day remember, maybe she will one day go back...