"So do we know the identity of our homicidal maniac in the submarine?"
"No, I don't know his name!" Lily cried in answer to her brother's question. "But, the youngest son of Kaiser Wilhelm wrote several articles about the Tears of the Moon. And if I had to guess, I would say that that's him."
"Fighting with royalty now," sighed MacGregor. "Splendid."
The chase took a lot out of them, La Quila included.
Frank was touching the boat up, muttering to it in a mix of English and Spanish.
"Does he always do this?" Lily asked Rafaela. "Talk to the boat?"
"Si. And kisses it, too."
Lily chuckled at this. Then she suddenly cried out. "Oh my God - look! MacGregor look! Inia geoffrensis! Oh how beautiful!"
"Here we call them, encantado," Rafaela told them.
"Bewitched?" Lily translated.
"Si, shape-shifter spirits."
"Yeah, don't look them directly in the eye," Frank put in. "Unless you want nightmares for life. If you believe in legends, you should believe in curses too." Lily chose to ignore him. "Hey MacGregor," he said as the ladies continued to watch the sea creatures. "Speaking of eyes - I had a girlfriend once, she was cross-eyed. Didn't work out. We could never see eye-to-eye." Both men snorted at the punchline.
"Really?" sighed Raf.
"Oh my God, is that your idea of a joke?" agreed Lily. "That is not funny."
"I'm also pretty sure she was seeing someone on the side." Another snort of laughter from the men followed.
"Ugh. Is he always like this too?" Lily asked.
"Always."
After their encounter with the encantado - and to try and avoid any further terrible jokes - Lily wasted no more time in fetching and bringing out her camera.
"Oh I love it!" she breathed.
"Of course you do," muttered MacGregor.
"You know, most people smile when they're on camera, Frank," Lily told him while she filmed. He seemed confused. "It's a moving picture camera - have you never seen one before?"
"I've never seen a moving picture."
"Oh they're so much fun! And you can experience being anywhere in the world from the comfort of your own seat! Although why would you want to when you could be here surrounded by all this, oh! It's like drifting through the Garden of Eden!"
"You really believe in all this 'Tears of the Moon' stuff, don't you?"
"Yes, of course I do. I wouldn't be here otherwise. I mean, you've heard the legends: they say one petal can heal any disease or injury. Think of the lives that could be saved! Especially with the war on!"
"So you're really going to risk your life, and your brother's life, to try and save people you don't even know?" Frank didn't seem all that convinced.
"Well I don't have to know someone to care." She was decided, determined.
"Look, I just think if you're lucky enough to have one person in this life to care about, then that's world enough for me."
Lily seemed rather impressed by his choice of words. "'World enough for me'. Hmm, how very eloquent, Frank."
"I can be, when I want to."
"Well, now that we have a moment, let's translate this arrowhead." Rafaela came and sat down before Lily who removed the artifact from around her neck. Raf held it close to her face as she examined each little detail. "Okay - 'The Tears of the Moon possess the power to cure anything-'"
"Oh, good, something we already know," grumbled Frank.
"Oh hush! Now, this word here, there's no exact translation in English, it's-" Raf pondered for a moment. "It's pain, pain to the soul..."
"Heal, heal the soul?" Lily suggested.
"Pretty much. Now, 'to prove yourself worthy, you must turn water to stone, then mend a broken heart."
"Ooh!" exclaimed MacGregor.
"'For tears to bloom, the great Tree must be under the rare crying moon-'" She looked to the sky. "There's one in two days."
"Really?" cried Lily.
"Yes," she confirmed. She didn't add, 'It's a big time for my people', but she wanted to. "'The tree hides where the moon bled. It sank into the West, over the heart of the serpent, where the fang bites its own tail-'"
"Oh my goodness-" Lily poured over her map. "Yes, yes! Of course no one's ever found it-"
Raf peered in too. "Because it's not in Lágrimas de Cristal!"
"It's here, La Luna Rota! We know where to go, it's pointing the way! Full speed ahead, Frank!"
Frank only sighed, as did MacGregor.
(I know it's been a while, and I'm sorry, but I'm back now, and glad to be! :)
As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :) More to come soon!)
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A Curse of the Heart - Jungle Cruise
Fanfiction"They say that falling in love is easy, but staying in love is a trial." "Well we've been at it for nearly four-hundred years, so what do we win?" Rafaela is from the Puka Michuna tribe, and promises to help a wild-at-heart botanist and her protecti...
