I'm used to staring death in the eyes without being scared. What made me happy at this moment was to see a group of people so culturally diverse work together. One man tilted his bow to the side and said, "Step away from the conga. Move slowly so it doesn't try to kill you. I don't know if you know what these things can do. You're obviously new, but these things can kill a man in several ways."
"What are you talking about?" I asked puzzled. I noted that they called Alejandro a conga. "Alejandro is my... Alejandro es mi amigo." I showed them by reaching back and patting Alejandro on his chest gently. He walked closer to me so his shadow shielded me from the sun.
I heard a few mutters. Men and woman looked at me terrified, children looked at me amazed. It was as if I was an actual Santa Claus actually coming to town. I backed up and bumped into Alejandro as the men changed their aim to me. The men that had a view of me let their arrows fly, and I had a mini heart attack like when your phone isn't in your pocket, but in an instant, Alejandro's wing was shielding me, and I saw arrows falling to the ground. How could a wing make arrows bounce off of them like that?
He removed his wing and revealed me to light again. I saw his shadow move, and felt the gust of him flapping his wings, then came the ear - piercing shriek. I turned towards him and put my hands in the air, yelling with a stern voice "Alejandro! Stop right now! Only good birds get fish!" At the word fish, he sat back down calmly and looked at me with his head tilted. I could swear I had seen him smile, and you could never see a creature go from being deadly to cuddly so quickly.
In the commotion, all of the women and children ran. The men faltered, but after I calmed down Alejandro, they took their stance again. I turned towards the men and they looked at me angrily as if I had killed their dog. Taking advantage of my current situation, I stated with authority, "I may or may not have just saved your lives. You see, this conga obeys me. He's a sweetheart and only attacked after you tried to attack me. He acted purely in defense. He simply brought me here because I asked him to lead me to fruit." Men started lowering their bows and and softening their gazes. I pulled my pockets out, "As you can see, I'm unarmed. Everything you see is all I have. No food, no weapons, no shelter. It's just me and Alejandro, who unwedged me from a boulder. All I ask is that you'll supply use with food and we'll leave you."
I ended my speech, and I saw the men muttering among themselves. Their weapons were completely lowered. Maybe I was more convincing than I thought. They may have thought that I could kill them if I wished thanks to Alejandro. Or they saw me as no threat sense my skin was so light and my voice was deep yet soft and soothing.
An old Latino man stepped forward. He spoke in Spanish, "Yo soy el jefe de este pueblo, y veo que somos los únicos que hablan español. Quiero hablar usted. tendriá usted y su amigo me reunirse en la playa de la medianoche de hoy?" Which roughly translates to, "I am the chief of this village, and I see that we are the only two in this circle that speak Spanish. I wish to speak to you. Will you and your friend meet me on the beach at midnight today?"
I responded simple, "Si," and nodded my head with respect. He smiled and patted me on the shoulder, then turned to his men and said, "Well? Go get this young man some food. That's all he wishes for. Give him three baskets full of our food, we have a surplus anyway. After that, I want you all to get ready for the big feast tomorrow morning. Get to it!" I liked this man. He had a friendly aura about him. I have a sort of sixth sense, I could sense a person's aura and sort of see if their soul is good or bad.
The man turned to me after everyone left and said, "My apologies, my name is Marco, and you?"
"My name is Aron Davis. Last Hellenistic as far as I know." I put my hand out to shake his.
