"Your wife?!"
"Excuse me, I'm sorry, but did I hear you correctly? Did you say, your wife?!" cried Lily, gawking at the two in question who nodded. "You two?" She pointed between them, eliciting another nod from them both.
"Golly," said MacGregor.
"You lied to me too?" Lily continued, eyes now landing on Rafaela. "Oh, never mind, I can't deal with this any longer! I'm going on my own!" And with that she stormed away.
"I like her," said Sam with an affirming nod.
"Francisco..." The breathy whisper was so soft at first it could have been mistaken for a rustle in the trees or a gust of wind. But then it happened again, this time clearer. "Francisco..."
"Do you hear that?" Frank asked suddenly.
"Hear what?" asked MacGregor.
"Francisco..."
"I hear it," said Raf, she and Frank exchanging a glance. They hadn't heard that voice for years, for centuries.
The two chased after Lily. "Lily! We have to get out of here, now! Give me the arrowhead-" Frank held out his hand for said treasure.
"Do you think I'm a fool? I think you must think I'm a fool," she snapped back.
Commotion arose throughout and across the village.
"Frank, they're here," cried Raf.
"Who's here?" demanded Lily. "What's going on?"
"That's what we were trying to tell you-"
A figure lunged out of the bushes, with perfect camouflage. They were part man, part forest, all in one body, but the couple knew who it was.
"Aguirre!"
A tribesman lashed out at the newcomer, only for a snake to slither out of the hole in Aguirre's face and attack the man, lunging right for his neck with it's fangs. Raf shrieked at the scene.
"You seem surprised," their old friend greeted them in Spanish while the tribesman fell to the ground at their feet, dead.
"It's impossible-"
"The myth is real," breathed Lily.
"Aguirre!" And he wasn't alone, his three fellow conquistadors were with him, one half branches, another half mud, and the other like a walking, talking beehive.
Aguirre smirked when he saw her. "Hola Rafaela."
The camp was now under attack!
"Save your people, and your family," Frank told Sam.
"Si. Rafaela!"
"Si! I know what to do!"
"I'll deal with these clowns." Frank turned to face his once friend, once brother, now enemy.
But Raf was already at it. Armed with a bow and arrows, and a spear, she was swinging at the men who were more nature than human.
"The arrowhead!"
"Lily, run!"
Lily wasted no time in sprinting off, but the cursed conquistadors were hot on her trail. Frank cut them off.
"FRANK!"Raf's scream ripped through the night. In one swift movement, Aguirre stabbed him right through the chest, right through the heart. Frank fell back, plunging several feet down, striking several branches on his way down, into the water below. "Frank!"
"Run, child!" Sam cried to Lily, pushing her onward. "Get as far away from the river as you can! Go - go!"
---------------------------------
In her haste to escape, she had lost sight of everyone. Lily had managed to outrun the conquistadors, their curse taking them back to the water, always back to the river. Shaken up, Dr. Houghton returned to the village which had taken quite a bit of damage thanks to Aguirre's attack. There she was reunited with MacGregor, Sam, the remaining villagers, Rafaela, and-
"Frank!"
Rafaela was helping him rise to his feet.
"Frank? How are you alive? I saw you die, I saw you fall - how are you alive?!" cried Lily. "How are you not hurt?"
"Well, that's not exactly true-" he countered.
"He's fine!" sighed Raf. "It's not that bad."
"How do you know?!"
"Because it's happened before - many times!"
"Lily, I don't care what you've done for me, if we ever make it out of here alive, I'm never leaving Kensington again!" MacGregor declared.
"Frank's alive!"
"Frank's alive," said Frank.
"Oh um, you - you've got a little something in your back - um, oh-" MacGregor gestured to his own back.
Lily jumped away - Aguirre's sword was still plunged through Frank's chest, right through, the end protruding out his back. "Oh Frank-"
"The name's actually Francisco. Francisco Lopez de Heredia," he told them. "And I'm roughly four hundred years old." He grinned. They did not. "Believe in curses now too?"
(And here it is, the grand reveal! ;) More to come soon!
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :) See you 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...
