Capítulo Uno

I.

The explorer Balboa brought many men with him on his trip to Panama in the early 1500's. Several hundred men traveled over with him, but not all were able to continue across the mountain to witness the "South Sea" with Balboa.

A fine young Spanish man, presumably in his early twenties, was one of Balboa's crew members. This young man was relatively tall, with dark hair, and had a very muscular body. Upon his skin showed many battle scars, but one of the scars, under his left eye, stood out the most. He was a very skilled sailor; always prepared for any squall or storm while sailing the high seas. Balboa's trip to Panama was certainly not his first over-sea voyage either. He had first traveled to Africa and India at the young age of 16, dedicating his life to the exploration of the world. So he had proven himself worthy and was now among Balboa's crew. He held no special or extra-important position, however. The young man was just one of the many regular sailors looking for adventure.

So after he helped the heavy anchor over the bulwarks of their ship, La Oración, he swiftly jumped off onto the fertile land where their ships were stationed. As far as any of them knew, this was uncharted, uninhabited land. Even despite this, though, Balboa and his crew members were excited to discover what treasure and magnificence the land held. So the main character of our story grabbed his carpet bag, and followed suit after his commander and comrades, carrying a portion or two of the rations needed for their journey. And supplies. Our fine man had the fine privilege of carrying a section of the fine medicinal items. These packs proved to be very heavy and cumbersome, especially for the back and shoulders; this obviously did not help our fine young man at all.

When all of Balboa's supplies and bags and such were loaded onto the men and horses, the caravan set off with Balboa leading the way into the thick rain-forest, along with a navigator and map-maker. These three slashed at the thick greenery and made a path for the others. Following these fellows were several men with medicines and such, and medicine-men also followed up the back of the pack. The regular supplies and several rows of make-shift soldiers were in the middle and made up the largest percentage of men.

And so, our black-haired young man was placed behind this pack, nearing the back of the caravan. This was a bit unsettling, especially when the view of the Gulf was lost among the thick vines, trees, and other tropical greenery. All these burly men who had a reputation for being fearless were now starting to regret joining the exploration, becoming a bit nervous.

Balboa himself was becoming a bit unsettled. Sudden rustling would jump up from the plants and behind trees; more than the native animals could possibly create. So all these travelers picked up their pace a bit, yet staying as silent as physically possible in the wilderness, and fruitlessly attempted to calm the horses down. They would jump and buck at any sudden noise or chirp from the animals, and appeared to be slightly pathetic. So, our explorer, readjusting his pack upon his shoulders, kept on alert eye on the comrades in front of him, just waiting for the moment when a large animal of some sort would leap out and maul them. And as he was imagining this terribly disturbing scenario in his mind, his footsteps unintentionally grew slower, not noticing the passing crewmates; then he suddenly woke up and found himself behind all of them. Many of his fellow explorers were looking back at him with concerned glares, and one man even fell back to walk him back up to the rest of the group.

Just then, an abrupt whooping and hollering erupted from the thick jungle, sending all the men and horses into a panic. Muskets were fired blindly into the trees, bouncing off tree-trunks, and the hoofed beasts kicked and thrashed about with terrified whimpering. Our sailor took a step back, searching for the source of the noise. His partner, on the other hand, took a step forward to catch up with the rest of the crew when several muscular arms painfully wrapped around the two's bodies and pulled them into the unknown land, never to be seen by Balboa and his crew again. Maybe.

~ + I'm writing this story, along with 2 other stories (one being The One Called Boy), as the school year goes on; in the margins of my notebook. And I won't be like updating everyday or anything, I'll just update whenever I feel like it (or have time..ehehe). These stories are just kind of random and really have no structure at all. So, if random works for you, good! XD comment, follow, favorite? + ~