A Curse of the Heart - Jungle Cruise

~Cursed Conquistadors~

"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?"

"What?!"

"I know this is a lot to take it, but we'll explain the entire story-"

"There's no blood in you-" Lily gestured to his indeed bloodless wound.

"Are you a ghost?" MacGregor reached out to cautiously poke him.

Frank, in return, batted his hand away. "No, it's complicated-"

"But clearly you're not human-"

"Vampire?" the siblings continued. 

"Okay, but it's very hard to focus when I have a sword impaled in my heart  - Sam?" he called out.

"No, I told you last time, I'm done pulling weapons out of you." Sam rather kept her distance.

"Last time?"

"I agree, this wasn't supposed to happen again," sighed Raf.

Frank turned to MacGregor, who gave a quick, "Oh, no-"

That only left- "It is Doctor Houghton, isn't it?"

"Of botany!" 

"Look at it just hanging out like that..." Lily, in the end, was the chosen one. She paced back and forth in nervousness, still trying to comprehend what was even going on here. 

"Well, that's how it's made." Meanwhile, Frank just stood casually by, waiting, as though he didn't have a long blade stabbed through his body. 

"It's got a very strange shape. I mean, have you seen it, out the back? Like, woo woo woo-" Lily waved her finger in a wave-like motion.  "-Like that."

"Well, it's not, it's kinda actually just straight."

Lily heaved another heavy sigh.  "Okay, one hand, two hands, what do you want?"

"Let's try one hand."

And so, without further ado, Lily took hold of the hilt of the sword in one hand.

"Yeah, you're gonna need two hands..."

She groaned at his antics, grabbed hold of the sword in both hands now, and pulled.

"Whoa!"

"What?"

"It hurts!"

"No it doesn't!" called Rafaela from off to the side - far off to the side - where she stood with Sam and other members of the tribe.

"How do you know?" he called back. 

"Frank, would you like to bite down on my stick?" offered MacGregor, holding said stick up in the air for emphasis.

"No thanks."

"For the pain."

"Yeah, no I understand what he means, but no."

"There if you need it," MacGregor reiterated. 

"I just feel like you're very uptight right now and it's not helping me cause I'm very nervous," Lily told the wounded Frank. 

"It's okay to be nervous, it's your first time - it is your first time, right?"

"Yes, you know it is, Frank."

"I know, I know, I can tell. I've done this hundreds of times-"

"I've done this hundreds of times!" Rafaela corrected.

"Not helping! I don't know how to take that..."

"This is special," Frank assured her.

"Is it?"

"It is."

Lily grabbed hold again, with both hands, and pulled once more. 

"SLOW! Whoa!"

"What now?!"

"Oh, you can't do it like that, that's way too hard!" he complained.

"Would you like me to give it a wiggle?" offered MacGregor.

"Yes!" cried his sister.

"Absolutely not-" Frank countered. 

"I could pop round the back and give it a once over."

"Nope, we're good."

"Okay..." MacGregor looked fairly relieved that he didn't in fact have to perform said offer.

"You know what always helps? If you put your foot on it," said Sam.

"Now I'm nervous-"

"Frank I'm going to count to three-"

"I'm counting, or?"

"No, I'm counting!"

"Oh, for God's sake-" Raf stormed in, taking Lily's place. She pushed her foot against Frank's stomach and with both hands tugged, pulling the sword clean from his body.

Poor MacGregor promptly fainted. 

"Great, now we just have to stitch up the wound," said Frank. 

Poor MacGregor had injured his foot in the chase at the camp, hence having his stick for support, so Lily, Rafaela, and Frank would be continuing on the journey just the three of them while Sam looked after MacGregor. 

Back on La Quila, Rafaela was stitching together Frank's wound. "I'm so tired of this happening."

"Won't happen again, promise."

"That's what you always say." 

"Three hundred and ninety five years," breathed Lily.

"Five months," added Raf.

"And thirteen days," Frank finished off. 

"I really thought you died."

"Were you sad when I died?"

"Oh, here we go-"

"I was very concerned."

"For my soul?"

"No, for my expedition! What are you?" Lily asked. "You don't bleed, I think you breathe. You're not possible."

"I don't know what I am anymore - but I can tell you what I was. What we were." He took Rafaela's hand in his own and she nodded.  

Lily nodded eagerly.  "Oh, yes please. Tell me!"

And so Frank began, recounting their story. "My father was a mercenary and he was recruited by Aguirre's father in Algiers. When my father died protecting him, he took me in. Raised Aguirre and me together, like brothers. In 1556, Aguirre's daughter, Anna, had fallen ill,  the same sickness that had claimed her mother's life a few years previous. That was when we first heard tell of the legend of the Tears of the Moon..."

(I just love the flashback sequence! More of that to come next time! ;) 

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))