Forever Young

Chapter Fifteen

    Leo laughed. "I'm not Ponce de Leon."

     "But your name? The Fountain of Youth..." I was confused. Nothing was adding up.

    "Was discovered by my father. I'm Luis Juan Ponce de Leon. The second. I prefer Leo, though. It's not as formal."

    My eyes lit up. History was my favorite, and here was a piece of four hundred year old history, alive in my bedroom. "So he really did find the Fountain of Youth?"

    Leo nodded. "He did."

    "Then why didn't he tell people? That would have been, like, his greatest accomplishment!"

    Leo's eyes darkened. "He knew that if word got out that he'd found a way to live forever, people would flock to the fountain. They'd make money off of it. They'd taint the waters. The wrong kind of people would be the ones with eternal life, and the ones who really deserved it would be left wanting. He himself drank from the water twice, and found that nothing could harm him. He would fall, and there would be no scratch on his body. My father consulted a wise elder, who advised him not to let the Fountain fall into the wrong hands. My Father's concern was that someone had seen him go into the forest where he discovered the water, but the magician told him that wasn't possible. It's like I explained to you before, the Fountain and the Village Ambrosia are a separate world from this one. The only way to find the Fountain again was if he was worthy and if he had drank the waters.

    He also explained that drinking once allowed the person to see the world, twice allowed interworld travel, and three times...well." He gestured to himself. "Not long after, my father brought my family and we all drank twice from the pond. We explored the nearby village and found people there, many of the residents thousands of years old. I'd found it strange that, even though we had to come from different backgrounds and speak different languages, no one fought, and we call all understand each other. I've lived in the Village Ambrosia many, many years, and not once has there been a war or a famine."

    "And my father. Why was he there? How did he come to be there?"

    Leo averted his eyes. "You will have to as your father. That's not my story to tell." I opened my mouth to protest, but Leo held up his hand as he cocked his head slightly to the left and listened. "Your mother is coming up the stairs," he whispered, "I have to go." 

    I turned to my door and strained my ears, but I couldn't hear any footsteps. "There's-" I began, but Leo was gone.