David Golemon: Legend

"We may need this fool, Captain," Ivan Torrez said loudly so all could hear. "We may still have him up on charges upon our return, but we need his strength to fight, or to flee from this place, and, God willing, he may even redeem himself at some point in this nightmare." He placed his hand on the captain's arm as he gave Suarez a withering look.

Without dropping his gaze, Padilla slowly lowered the sword and just as slowly wiped the blood from its tip onto the red sleeve of the big man. Then he slowly slid the weapon back into the ornate scabbard at his side.

The hairless monkey was still holding onto the captain's leg and hissing at Suarez. Padilla reached down and, using both hands, gently picked up the animal and looked it over. It was breathing through its small nostrils and open mouth, but it also had what looked like the gills of a fish right where the small neck joined the head, three rows of soft skin arranged along its jawline, flaring and then closing as they, too, sought life-sustaining air. There were finlike features along its forearms and a small spiny dorsal fin, again like that of a fish, on its back, traveling the length of its spine.

"This is the most amazing animal I have ever seen in all of our travels," Padilla said softly, as the large black eyes of the creature blinked, not with eyelids like his own, but with a set of clear membranes.

"I think it looks like my mother-in-law," Torrez joked as he slapped the captain on the back, in an attempt to lighten the darkened mood.

The men laughed; Padilla smiled also, even as he chanced a wary eye toward Suarez.

"Captain, look!" one of the men shouted.

Padilla lowered the small creature and looked at the spot his men were pointing toward in the calm waters of the lagoon, where another of the monkeylike species stood holding a struggling fish in both its clawed hands. The first animal scurried up to the newcomer, waddling bowlegged on its paddle-like feet, and started jabbering loudly. The second creature looked across and then tossed the fish in an underhanded throw toward the group of Spaniards; it landed on the sand and flopped around, then lay still. Small claw marks were evident on the smooth skin of the large catfish.

As the soldiers watched in amazement, another and then another of the animals tentatively stood up and waddled from the water, to toss more flopping fish onto the small shoreline. The men nervously laughed.

"Maybe it's an offering?" Rondo ventured to no one in particular.

"Gather the fish, men, we will not waste this gift brought by our new friends," Padilla ordered. "Collect them all so we can also feed the men who are guarding the perimeter."

As the men moved forward to collect the offered bounty, they failed to notice as large bubbles appeared in the middle of the lagoon to slowly circle under the sunlight, then vanish after a moment. Nor did they hear the sudden silence that filled the trees around them as the birds grew momentarily still in their high nests and roosts, but they did see the small creatures glance at one another as they chattered back and forth and headed with apparent deliberation back toward the water. The first one, the one Padilla had saved from the murderous Suarez, was looking back as it retreated from the newcomers to its beautiful world. To the men who were watching the strange exodus, it seemed as if this animal was saddened at leaving.

Padilla turned away from the lagoon and was amazed at the horde of fish that had accumulated on the sand; he counted over ten species of varying types. But just one particularly caught his eye, and he bent over to examine it. He called Torrez over to see this wonder. The fish had huge scales and very strange fins on its lower belly, and a thick and powerful-looking tail. These most unusual fins looked as if they had small feetlike appendages on the very tips. The mouth was huge and filled with lethal-looking teeth; the jaw jutted far forward unlike that of any fish he had ever seen, almost like a barracuda's, only far more pronounced. As the two officers examined the strange fish, which was lying on its side, its eye seemed to roll and look at them and, as it did, its mouth snapped open and closed. They quickly straightened up and looked at the men, who were starting to build fires for cooking and to guard against the coming night. Padilla once again bent down toward the large fish. He thought he saw something on its blackened, coarse scales; he reached down and lightly rubbed them. The fish moved momentarily and then lay still. Padilla held his fingers close to his face and rubbed them together, as small gold flakes gently fell to the tips of his worn boots.

Padilla lay under one of the many ancient and beautiful trees that permeated the area, their massive roots projecting from the earth like a giant's arms ripping through the fabric of a blouse. He held his booted feet close to their small fire, to dry the thick leather as best he could. His diary was in his hands and he had just finished recording the observations of this eventful day. His last entry written before he closed the small book declared that the battle with the Sincaro was due to his own negligence.

He had considered not recording evidence of gold found lodged in the scales of the fish. But he had never omitted anything from his observations and would not start now. Pizarro would be amazed to read about a source of gold that was so abundant it was actually brought to the surface on the backs of fish. The captain shook his head at the thought as he placed the diary back into his tunic.

Torrez lay beside Padilla, playing with one of the strange monkeylike animals.

"What do you make of them, my captain?" the lieutenant asked, holding out a small piece of bacon for the visitor who sat on his chest, its tail swinging back and forth like that of a happy puppy. Its little claws finally stabbed the small piece of meat and popped it into its mouth. Smiling and jabbering softly at the man, its mouth worked frantically, along with the small gills.

"I think they are an offshoot or very close relative of the monkey, just one that happens to live in the water, surely not a design that God had intended," said Padilla, then he laughed. "But who knows the mind of God, but God himself?" He watched Torrez and the animal for a moment. "What is truly amazing is the fact that you can see their small gills moving like that of a fish, but then you notice that the rise and fall of its breathing is light, almost as if it is taking air through both systems. It must be difficult for them to live out of the water for such long periods of time."

"We need such devices, my captain, for breathing onboard those stinking vessels of ours."

"Yes, if our friend Rondo over there gets a belly full of beans and pork fat, the whole ship is in danger of choking to death or exploding like a musket," Padilla joked.

The two men were silent a moment as they listened to the comforting sound of the men as the soldiers spoke among themselves, talking of things other than death and this accursed mission. Then Padilla placed his diary in his belt pouch and looked over at his friend.

"When we entered the water in the outer valley, the stone monoliths, what did you think of them?"

"I was hoping that subject would not have arisen after the sun went down, if at all," Torrez said as he gently laid the small creature upon the ground and watched a moment as it scurried away. "As for what I thought at the time? They scared me." He glanced over at Padilla and he could make out the captain's eyes on him. "You know me, I fear no man or, for that matter, anything I have come across before. But those carvings gave me chills as I looked upon them, even as I ridiculed our men for the same reason."

"The watchers of this valley, gods of the lagoon, that's what I called them in my diary. They were very old carvings, I suspect even older than some of the Incan dwellings we found in Peru."