Chapter 3

The darkness of the night prevailed as the storm ceased,

unwittingly, the two sailors landed on a beach in the new world,

Captain Santonio let out a scream of joy because he felt that his

mission was halfway accomplished. The two mariners were in

much need of rest so after a bit of thinking they thought it best to

lie on the soft sands of the beach for the night and recover from

the horrors of the previous hours . The next morning Captain

Santonio awakened from his sleep from the beautiful eastern

sunrise peering above the waters. The veteran navy officer had

never seen a place quite like this, the sand was as white as

sugar and there were palm trees and thick jungle all around them,

strange noises and yells came from every direction in this

unknown world.                                     

             " We must be on an unknown island Hernando. " the

captain said to Liutenant Iglesias.           

                  " Yes sir, there was no record of an island anywhere

near here on the map " replied the liutenant.                                

                      The lost spaniards had never seen such a place of

beauty, everyone who dared to venture into the unknown's of the

new world were completely spellbound by it's breathtaking

majesty and luster. In every way the new world was a paradise

just as previous explorers had described, the emerald palms

casting shade over the turqoise waters as they relentlessly beat

at the sugar white shore was nearly too much for human eyes to

behold. While Captain Santonio gazed carelessly upon on the

breathtaking scenery he spotted a small row boat, struggling and

struggling to stay afloat on the rough sea. Diego smiled as he

knew exactly who was on the tiny vessel, it was Luitenant

Vasquez and Seargent Montana who now were at the mercy of

Captain Santonio as he was the only one who knew anything of

this unknown and forbidden country having studied it for years.

The two former mutineers were overjoyed to find the captain and

liutenant Iglesias on the beach waiting for them.                          

" where are the other men? " asked the captain.                          

           " I'm afraid they are gone sir, they did not stand a chance

in those waves. "                                   

           " Then would you be so kind as to inform me what the

object floating on the horizon is? " the captain asked them.          

         As they looked towards the ocean they saw five men

clinging to a door hanging on for their lives, it was five

conquistadors who had found a door among the debris and used

it as a life raft through the violent storm, they too were also

overjoyed to have help awaiting them on the shore. The captain's

favorite sight of the day was his arabian horse named Sebastian

swimming helplessly towards the white sands of the new world

coast. Diego rushed quickly out onto the ocean without any

regards for his own safety and selflessly helped Sebastian onto

the shore.  One by one Captain Santonio's men began

miraculously being washed upon the shore, the captain decided

to let his men rest a few hours to regain their strength. Later on

that day as the men regained their strength the conquistadors

noticed some movement in the bushes, they drew their swords

and stood petrified in fear as they had know idea what would

come out. While the men stood there with their swords drawn and

their hearts racing a tiny native man came out of the brush, he

seemed just as freightened as the spaniards were. The

conquistadors and the timid native could do nothing but stare in

shock at each other the first few moments, the spanish had never

seen a short red-skinned man with face paint and feathers on his

head as well as the native had never seen white men in suits of

armour with beards and swords. After the first few awkward

moments the native started signaling for the conquistadors to

come with him, " Well don't stand there men, let's follow him! "

shouted the captain with great excitement. So the spaniards and

the native began their treck through the jungle, it was so thick the

men could barely see in front of them. " I don't think this is a very

good idea sir, he could be leading us into a trap! ", said

Seargent Montana sternly.  " Seargent when you are in command

of a mission this vital you must take chances, that is why I am a

captain and you are a seargent. ", the captain replied. " Yes sir ",

mumbled seargent Montana. As the soldiers drew closer to their

unknown destination they could hear the beat of drums, louder

and louder they became the farther they walked. When they

finally reached this unknown place they were speehless, it was

an entire village full of natives and they lived in giant cone-

shaped tents. The natives had never seen a horse before, let

alone one as beautiful and majestic as Sebastian. The natives

simply stared in awe at the arabian stallion, not one would even

come close to it as it flared it's nostrils and fiercly pawed the

ground. Two what seemed to be warriors pointed spears at the

Captain and brought him before their cheif, the captain was

stunned as he had no idea what to give the cheif as a peace

offering. Suddenly, he looked down at his uniform and saw some

of the medals he had won in combat. The captain grabbed a

medal he had been awarded for his bravery in a fierce sea battle

off the coast of morrocco, it was beautiful with a cross covered in

diamonds hanging from a wreath made of emeralds. As Captain

Santonio bowed and presented this gift to the cheif he was very

pleased, the cheif ordered a dance and a feast to be given in

their honor. The conquistadors were fed strange foods they had

never tasted before, but they were hungry enough now to eat

anything.  " Buenes nouches conquistadors ", said a native

maiden. Captain Santonio was stunned that one of these natives

could speak his language. " You speak my language? ", said the

captain with suprise. " yes ", answered the native. " Tell me, how

did you learn it? ", the captain replied. " a man just like you lived

here a few moons ago, he taught me your language and told me

there were many white men far to the east. ", replied the native. "

What is your name? " the captain asked. " they call me leaping

fawn " the native said softly Leaping fawn was the most beautiful

woman the captain had ever seen, her dark hair was as smooth

as silk and her angelic brown eyes seemed to pierce through the

darkness of the night. Her form seemed perfect in every way, the

captain stared in awe at her beauty the first time the two met. 

Where is he now? ", asked the captain. " He became deathly

sick a year ago and with his dying words he said that more like

him would come, he was right. ",  said leaping fawn sadly. " What

was his name? " the captain asked. " When he first came he told

us he was called Captain Esteban Laredo-Rivera ",leaping fawn

replied. Captain Santonio was speechless as he heard the name,

Esteban Laredo-Rivera had been Captain Santonio's closest

friend throughout his life. The Captain and his friend had known

each other ever since childhood, when the captain first joined the

Spanish navy as a young man Esteban went with him. The two

sailed together all throughout their naval careers, the last time the

two had seen each other Captain Laredo-Rivera set off on a

mysterious voyage claiming he was going to find more land in

the new world and was ridiculed for even having such a theory. "

I'll prove them all wrong Diego, you'll see " , those were the last

words Esteban Laredo-Rivera ever said to his close friend

Captain Diego Santonio. " would you take me to his grave please

 " said captain santonio desparately. Leaping fawn agreed to take

captain santonio to the burial place of his beloved friend, as the

captain looked at the grave of his deceased sailing partner.

Diego immediately recognized the beautiful sword stuck deep

into the ground Esteban loved and treasured so dearly, it was

gold and decorated with diamonds and emeralds, the sword was

presented to him by King Ferdinand for engaging three enemy

ships in battle and coming out victorious.  Tears began to run

down the captain's battle hardened face as he reached into his

uniform and pulled out a gold necklace with a cross hanging from

it that Esteban had given him when the two were alter boys at the

cathedral back home. As he hung the cross necklace on his

beloved friend's sword he said " Your accomplishments have not

gone in vain Esteban. " " Farewell my friend, for you will always

be remembered. " said the captain in grief. As Captain Santonio

and leaping fawn began slowly walking back to camp he began

to hate himself for not believing in his friend, Diego had ridiculed

him like all the rest and now felt sick because he did not have

faith in his fellow officer. When the captain and leaping fawn

arrived back  at the camp the elders were telling ancient stories

of their ancestors. Leaping fawn would translate these stories to

Captain Santonio while the elders were speaking. The oldest

elder in the entire tribe named fighting wolf slowly began to tell

his story as he struggled to stand up. " Many moons ago white

men other than these spanish men came to our land, they called

themselves crusaders. " said the old gray-haired native. Captain

Santonio was intrigued by this statement because when he was a

boy his grandfather had alwas told him a story of the crusaders

discovering an unknown world called Vinland. " The crusaders

brought with them much gold, they made peace and became

friends with our people. The crusaders wore shining suits of

armour, they came over across the great waters on many giant

canoes. They asked only one thing of our people, and that was

to help them hide their box of fire and the gold. They called their

box of fire an ark, anyone who dared to come close to it was

consumed with fire coming down from the sky . It was made of

gold with two golden birds on top with their wings stretching out to

each other, these white men told my ancestors if they would help

them hide this ark where no one would ever find it they would

give to them anything my ancestors asked for.  My ancestor was

cheif of the tribe and asked for a gold cup the crusaders brought

with them. The golden cup was their most prized treasure and at

first refused to give it to him, but my ancestor insisted on having

the golden cup. When they finally gave my ancestor their

precious cup they forced him to swear an oath to guard it with his

very life. After our ancestors helped them hide their ark they left

on their giant canoes over the great waters and never came back

again.  "  After the elders of the tribe finished telling their tales

Captain Santonio and leaping fawn talked with the oldest elder,

the captain was highly interested in what ever happened to the

crusader's gold. " would you know anything of where the

crusaders hid the ark and their gold? " the captain inquired of

fighting wolf. " You will not find their gold here. " fighting wolf

answered as leaping fawn translated for the captain.  How do you

know the crusaders ever came if you were'nt alive then? " "

Come to my teepee, I will show you how I know. " So the captain

and leaping fawn followed the aging native into his teepee, it was

like a tent mueseum filled with relics and precious heirlooms that

his ancestors had left him. The tired old man bent down and

reached for a fur pelt, wrapped in it was a golden chalice that

seemed almost to have a supernatural glow around it, it was very

old, by sight one could tell it had been around alot longer than

the crusaders. " This was the golden cup the templars left my

ancestor, it has been handed down from father to son ever since

it was given to him. " Captain Santonio was filled with wonder and

amazement as he examined this golden chalice, it was

immpossible to think that the natives could have gotten their

hands on such a valuable european artifact unless it was brought

from europe by europeans, Captain Santonio was almost

speechless as he realized the fairy tale he had been told as a

boy had just become a reality. " There must be some way to find

the ark! " exclaimed the captain. " I can never tell you where the

crusaders took their ark, my ancestor swore an oath to never tell

to anyone the ark's resting place, but with this cup you shall

surely find it. ", replied the aging elder as he handed the golden

chalice to the captain. The Captian felt very awkward receiving

this gift. He would never give an heirloom of such sentimental

importance to a stranger, therefore the captain felt obliged to

decline the elder's gracious gift." Tell him I cannot accept such a

valuable heirloom. " the captain told leaping fawn. " You must not

deny a gift from our highest elder! it is forbidden among my

people!!! " leaping fawn exclaimed. Captain Santonio, wanting to

keep friendly relations with the tribe accepted the elders gift.  He

spent the rest of the night attempting to understand what fighting

wolf meant by " With this cup you shall surely find it ". He also

could not understand why a simple golden chalice would be the

most prized possession of the knights who brought it. When he

looked at the cup more thoroughly he began to realize that it had

more of a Roman origin than a medevil european, the chalice

itself had many mysteries, especially the mysterious glow it

seemed to have around it. As he examined it more closely he

noticed a jewish inscription on the bottom, knowing that none of

his men could translate the jewish language he sat in wonder at

what was the meaning of the inscription. The next morning he

rushed to Luitenant Iglesias with great excitement the captain

exclaimed to him " I've found it! I've found it! ". " found what sir? "

asked the luitenant, " The ark of the covenant!!! I've found it!!! " the

captain replied. " What sir ? Where is it? " , " I do not know but

this chalice here holds some clue to it's location!!! ". After the

captain finished telling Luitenant Iglesias all that he had learned

from the tribe elder he too was overwhelmingly excited and

began to tell all the other men. The conquistadors were very

excited over the discovery, gold was the word that dominated the

thoughts, hopes, and dreams of every Spaniard. The captain had

no clue on how this golden cup would lead him to the ark,

suddenly he looked into the chalice as he was holding it in the

light and he noticed some old english writing engraved inside it, "

This must be the first clue! " the captain exclaimed with joy,

immediately he asked all his men if any of them could translate

the old english language. " I can sir! I learned quite a bit of it

when I studied navigation in england " yelled Luitenant  Iglesias

with much excitement, he grabbed the chalice, held it up to the

light and immediatly began to translate. The old english

enscription on the chalice read  " Find the temple to enter the

holy of holys, follow the path northwest and ye shall find it. ", the

captain was puzzled at first at the meaning of this riddle. He

inquired of fighting wolf through leaping fawn as to what this

medevil riddle meant, " Our hunters have a trail that our ancestors

created many moons ago, it is just beyond the trees, my father

told me the crusaders used that very trail. " immediately Captain

Santonio gathered his men, supplies, and aquired a few native

volunteers to accompany them as scouts to go on this dangerous

journey. Leaping Fawn insisted on going with them but captain

santonio told her " this journey is much to trecherous for a

woman, I'm afraid you must stay. " the captain told her. "  No, I will

not stay. I can translate for you and I know this country better than

any of the braves you are taking with you. " After realizing that

leaping fawn was coming along no matter what captain santonio

said the great journey through this dark world began, when they

marched through the trees and found the age- old hunting trail the

captain smiled and thought to himself " in just a day or to I wiil

have discovered the great ark of the covenant, how long could

the journey take on an island like this? ", throughout this long and

grueling oddessey the captain would find out just how wrong he

was. At first the terrain was just jungle, flowers and palm trees as

well as many other exotic plants, there were no horses so the

captain assigned 20 men for carrying duty. The mosquitoes were

terrible, they especially took a toll on seargent montana who was

being feasted opon by the retched insects, " When I volunteered

for this mission I did not volunteer to bitten to death by flying

vampires! " said the seargent furiously. " You'll live seargent,

we'll be at our destination in a day or two ", the captain answered

calmly.  The conquistadors made camp that night in a clearing by

a giant oak tree, as the sun went down over the horizon strange

cries and yells were heard all throughout the thick, dark jungle.

The stange noises terrified the brave conquitadors but did'nt

seem to bother the natives one bit, Luitenant vasquez was

absolutely petrified during the ordeal and even asked captain

santonio if he could take a group of soldiers to go out and kill

whatever was making the noises. It was a long first night in this

new world, the men did'nt get much sleep. As they continued the

long trek down this perilous path the lanscape suddenly began to

change, the ground changed from sand to soil, the trees

changed from palm to cypress, the land changed from jungle to

bogs and swamps. All of the sudden there was no ground to walk

on, dark, murky water two feet deep was all around them. it was

almost immpossible to navigate on foot but somehow the resilient

spaniards seemed to pull it off. Sebastian did'nt like the murky

water one bit, he bucked the captain off twice after being

spooked. All of the sudden a crash was heard in the water, the

conquistadors drew their swords in fear of what it could be.

Coming out of the water they saw a horrifying creature they had

never seen before, the creature was long and black with almost

an armour plating skin. It had rows of razor-sharp teeth and a hiss

that sounded as terrifying as the creature looked,  it had eyes that

seemed to be filled with evil intent. The giant reptilian creature

was the most terrifiying sight the spanish had ever seen, it

seemed to resemble the crocodiles the captain had seen in

africa. Just as the spanish were ready to retreat a native plunged

his spear into the beast, immediatley his friends helped him

butcher the terrible creature. " Are they going to eat that wretched

monster? " captain santonio asked leaping fawn with disgust. "

Yes, it is a custom of my people to eat the meat of any animal we

kill.It will provide a fullfilling meal for our journey. " answered

Leaping Fawn. The conquistadors pressed on however and

attempted to overcome their fear of the terrible beast, they began

to see multiple creatures of this nature the rest of the day.Captain

Santonio was puzzled as to where to make camp tonite, there

was not a place on the ground that was'nt underneath two feet of

water. However in this time of trouble an idea sprang into captain

santonio's head, he conceived a plan to make several giant rafts

to float on top of the murky swamp waters. He ordered his men to

begin chopping down the old cypress trees which grew in the

dark, muddy water. Once the men had cut the trees down they

were latched together with some rope riggings from the ship, the

cyrpess trees provided floating beds for the entire crew of the

expedition. Making camp on top of his raft Captain Santonio

could not understand why he had not reached this unknown

temple where the ark lies, " How large of island could this be? "

he asked himself. " Hernando, surely this island could not be so

large that it would take more than two days to cross it. "               

                        " I don't know sir, from

what you've told me Captain Laredo-Rivera seemed to believe

there was more than just islands in the new world, he even

belived there could be an unknown continent somewhere. "

replied Luitenant Iglesias. " We'll see about that. " the captain

answered arrogantly. The next morning the men reluctantly

pressed on with their journey. Seargent Montana's health was

beginning to fail him day by day, the constant mosquito biting

was definitly having an effect on the valiant seargent's health. " I

do not think I can go on sir, I am so weak that I can't even draw

my own sword ", groaned the seargent in pain. " We'll have to let

you rest seargent, as you said, you can't go on any longer. "

replied the captain regretfully. The men built a hamock for the

seargent by taking two cypress branches and a blanket and

latching them together, then they set it on top of a raft and let him

rest in it while the journey continued. The conquistadors decided

to use their camp made of rafts to navigate this unforgiving terrain,

the men had their swords at the ready because of all the reptilian

monsters which inhabited this desolate wasteland. The captain

wondered if these bogs and swamps would ever go away, the

farther they traveled inland the thicker the swamps became. That

was only half the problem, Seargent Montana's health was

declining fast and he began violently vomiting and becoming

deathly ill, " I know how to cure him! " said Leaping Fawn

heroicly. She immediately cut off some bark from one of the trees

and found a small green plant which she put in hot water and

made some sort of soup out of it, she then gave it to the seargent

and within five hours he began to fully recover. " If we did'nt have

leaping fawn we would have lost the seargent for sure! "

exclaimed the captain with great relief. Two weeks had passed

since the oddessey had left the small native village, the

landscape had totally changed now that the journey had left the

swamps, it became more of a hilly terrain with meadows and

forests. " I think I see something in the bushes sir! A small hut

made of stones!! " shouted Luitenant Vasquez   " That must be

the temple of the holy of holys! " the captain thought to himself.

As soon as the men heard the news the rushed towards the

unknown hut, their lust for gold had overcome their senses.

Captain Santonio had ordered them all back from the door so he

could figure a way to open it, when he came to the door he gave

it a violent push, it fell straight down making a loud crashing

noise. As the captain and his men looked inside it was like an

old medevil church, it had five benches in it and an alter, with

stained glass windows, in the center of it was an ingraved stone.

The captain immediately called his ever faithful Luitenant Iglesias

to translate, it read " You have traveled the right path and

endured much pain and difficulty , the road will be much

smoother now, two weeks north to the great forest and you will

arrive at your destination. "

 

Author's Note

please ignore grammar problems, misspellings, etc.

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[ByJ.T.Rogers]

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