The Road To El Dorado (Fanfiction)

You Still Have The Map

{Author's POV}

It had been about a day or two since they escaped Cortez's ship, and... let's just say that things weren't exactly... going entirely to plan.

It was a bit harder to row the boat with Altivo adding the extra weight, but they made it work. Surviving the storm was... quite the experience for all of them, especially Sophia. After having to keep both hands on the rudder, trying not to fall overboard, it took a whole hour to get her heart to settle down and her limbs to quit shaking, give or take.

When the sun came back out, Sophia fell back unconscious on the floor of the boat. But she jolted awake, sitting up in surprise when she heard the sound of water shifting and something biting down on wood. Turning to her left, she saw that a piece of one of the oars had been bitten off, she was a bit terrified for a second, before noticing that Miguel and Tulio began sobbing. She then just sighed, covering her face with her hands and fall back onto the floor, still quite exhausted.

A while later, she decided to take a turn rowing one of the oars on the boat, first sitting by Tulio, then after a while, Miguel took his place, each resting as the other two rowed the boat. Both men were honestly a bit surprised at how well she had done. She was quite strong for her age. But soon, they came to a stop.

Right now, they all were lying in the rowboat as the water gently shifted the boat around. Tulio and Miguel sat back to back, while Altivo was lying with his head hanging out of the boat, right above the water. Sophia was lying next to Tulio, resting with her arms crossed on the edge of the boat, her left forearm dangling just above the water. And by taking one good look at her arms and face, the slightly darker tan in Sophia's skin didn't go unnoticed by any of them.

"Sophia, Tulio... did you ever imagine it would end like this?..." Miguel muttered, obviously exhausted. Sophia just shrugged and hummed 'I don't know' before Tulio answered, "... The horse is a surprise..."

This surprised Altivo, while Sophia just raised a brow at him, but rolled her eyes as Miguel just nodded. "Any.. regrets?" he asked, turning his head a bit. ".. Besides dying?.. yeah. I never.. had enough.. gold." Tulio said, clutching his hands with what little strength he had left in his body.

Sophia let her eyes fall shut, but couldn't seem to fall asleep. "My regret-- besides dying, is that.. our greatest adventure is over before it began, and no one will even remember us..." Miguel returned, making tears well up in Sophia's eyes. "Well, except you Sophia." the blonde muttered, gently setting his hand ontop of hers.

The black haired girl gave it a moment of thought, before speaking softly, "My only regret is.. dying young..." Soon after, tears began to well up in her eyes and a lump formed in her throat as her heart physically ached.

Tulio glanced back at the female and set his hand ontop of hers with what little strength he had left before sighing. "Kid.. I'm sorry we got you roped into this." Tulio apologized, and Sophia smiled faintly. "It's alright, at least I got to have at least a little bit of an adventure.. I'm just sad it ended so soon. If it's any consolation... I'm glad to have met such good friends like you." she said, not mentioning how upset she was to die without falling in love.

"We'll if it's any consolation... you two, made my life.. an adventure.." Tulio said, beginning to cry around the end. "And if it's any consolation.. you two made my life.. rich." Miguel replied, his voice almost breaking at the end on his sentence as he was almost about to cry.

A few tears actually slipped out of Sophia's eyes, rolling down her cheeks, but she smiled faintly when she heard Altivo sputter and practically felt him roll his eyes. As the boat swayed ever so slightly, and Miguel took in a shuddering gasp as the boat suddenly became completely still.