Often, when your goal is a missing friend, one wakes fitfully from sleep, your dreams terrible playgrounds of frightening thoughts. However for Mephisto his sleep had rarely been calmer, he had found the rolling waves soothing and the thought of a day at sea encouraging. It wasn't as though he wasn't sympathetic to Tony and Brandon's plight, Chris was after all one of their closest friends, further Mephisto had received much help from Chris when it came to rescuing Penelope. There was still the unshakable excitement of being out of the house and on his way for adventure, all things considered he had actually spent very little time out and about without the looming specter of doom hovering about his actions. Thus it was with little urgency that the Unicorn approached Nombre De Dios' harbor.
The town sprawled out from the shore, the local forts cannons trained on the sea, waiting for pirates, or British, whichever came first. The locals flitted about the streets with fresh produce and fruits from the adjoining jungle, or with strange artifacts and unique curios from the native populations so thoroughly wiped out after the Europeans arrival. Mephisto bowed to Arthur and gave him a small sack of gold coins, some four times the amount one would have asked for such a trip.
"Well then, we'll just wait here, seeing as how ye were so kind in payment, doubtful anyone else would pay so well for so little." Arthur tipped a little at the waist in acknowledgement of the gift and helped the scholar and chef down the gang plank onto the docks.
"No worries! We'll be back in a week or so, depending on how long it takes us to find the place again, hopefully the road signs are still up." Mephisto waved to Arthur then headed for the nearest Costa Guarda he could find to see if anyone unusual had stopped through. Spotting one well scrubbed officer, Mephisto approached with open arms. "Why hello there! Or shall I say Buenos...beuno...hmm." No, he had definitely no idea how to great someone in Spanish. "Mr. Wilson, I need your assistance with this guard, I don't know how to greet him." The guard raised a bushy black eyebrow at the strange group in front of him, he crossed his gloved hands over his arms, the sun glinting off his armored chest plate.
"I see, just a moment," Tony put a finger to his temple and looked the guard deep in the ey, then began to speak, "Hola allí mi buen hombre, estamos buscando al caballero, cerca de cinco pies nueve, los vidrios, cara huesuda. Era probablemente socarrarla en el oro, él habría podido llegar solamente hace algunos días. Él pudo haber tenido un gato en sus pantalones." With a flourish Tony opened his hands and gestured towards the docks. The guard blinked once or twice then extended his arm, moving Tony aside and turning his attention to Mephisto.
"He said something incomprehensible about a horseman with glasses and cats in pants." The Costa Guarda said in a thick accent to Mephisto, "Now then, what are you English looking for?" He lowered his hand onto the hilt of his sword none too subtly.
"Well, haha, you see," Mephisto smiled and teetered a little, kicking his heels on the cobblestone beside the sea, "Our friend is absolutely crazy with gold fever, and he went missing, so we believe he may have headed here in search of El Dorado, he should have arrived only a few days before us. He's very bony, and thin, he wears ridiculous clothes, and probably looked crazed." Mephisto gestured to Brandon and Tony to nod along in agreement.
"I see, regularly I would escort crazy people, like yourself and your friend, to the prison, but since I do not want to catch whatever must be spreading through the English island right now I'll tell you that such a man did pass through." With this Brandon exhaled a sigh of relief, "Yes, he rowed here."
"WHAT!" The three of them shouted, shocked at such a feat, with neither wind, nor stores of food he had manged to beat a sailing ship making excellent time by using his own unusually high levels of 'crazy'.
"Yes, a thin Englishmen in a cape came to the harbor and pulled his boat onto the shore, he mumbled about a lost city and promptly ran up the main street and into the jungle, following the main path. He was fast as well, you would have a hard time keeping up with him if he kept that pace in the jungle. Then again, he was probably eaten by a snake at this point." The Costa Guarda smiled at the thought.
"I told you, snake snack! I'll never get my money back!" Brandon shook his huge fist at Tony.
"What? You're looking for him because he owes you money?" Mephisto turned to the two companions of the lost scholar.
"Not entirely, but that is a concern, I just didn't want to mention it earlier because I didn't want you thinking we had ulterior motives for this search." Brandon jabbed a finger at Mephisto.
"But you did, quite clearly, not that it's a big deal, I mean I was just terribly enthused by the chance to get outside." Mephisto patted Brandon on the shoulder. By now the Costa Guarda had become worried that these Englishmen were actually crazy, and with little noise he backed away from the conversation and looked for a thief to beat up for money. "So, Mr. Wilson, do you have any other reason to find him?"
"Well, it would really stink if he was dead, but he did also owe me lunch."
"Lunch?"
"Yeah, he told me that if I completed his 'maze of death' he would buy me lunch." Tony looked up and gave a little look around, it was always interesting to see what kind of choices different towns made when it came to road placement and overall civic dynamics.
"A maze of death?" Mephsito looked to Brandon who shook his head showing he had no part of it.
"Oh, he just called it that, it was a hand drawn maze, full of weird little open spots that described some horrible way your character died, like 'lava monster', or 'dude with skulls for eyes'. He made a pretty bad mistake though, because he drew the beginning and ending paths, but forgot to make them branch out, so once you started you automatically would go to the end. So he owes me a free lunch." Tony smiled, Mephisto shrugged this off, obviously Tony was interested in finding Chris and this lunch played no part of it.
"Alright, all of this aside, lets get to the jungle, we need to find Chris before he gets poisoned, or eaten, or poisoned by something intent on eating him." Mephisto began trudging up the street towards the hills at the far side of the town.
As they approached the outskirts of Nombre De Dios they quickly saw the well marked path leading into the jungle. The dirt's was well worn and muddy in spots, the air thick with strange smells and the echoing calls of birds hidden in the brush. The group made their way into the foliage, swatting at flies and keeping an eye open for any of the various deadly animals that prowl the area. Mephisto regretted not bringing his cutlass along, knowing that at best he had a single bullet from his pistol to protect them, provided the powder wasn't too wet, or in a worst worse case scenario the whole gun exploded as they were sometimes apt to do.
The green rarely opened out from the sides of the road, it was merely a rolling, undulating part of the landscape, the gnarled roots appearing as tentacles from under the thorny bushes and long fronds from above. Small frogs hopped across the road ahead of them, and in the distance hills could be seen, also covered in brilliant jade jungles. Tony looked about in amazement as parrots flitted from tree to tree above him, Brandon sighed, the exertion was deeply annoying, as he would much rather be at home cooking crepes.
As the trio passed along the jungle road, Mephisto caught a glimpse of something, nestled in the brush on the side of the road. It was white and hairy, and as he drew closer he could see a small amount of red around what was once its neck.
"What did you find?" Brandon asked, back to Mephisto eyes watching the treeline for danger.
"It looks like," Mephisto moved a leaf from the animals head, " a goat?" Mephisto stood puzzled, it was a goat, laying on the side of the road, with circle of red holes on its neck, its body emaciated and dry looking. "Something sucked this goat to death." Mephisto pointed, waving Brandon and Tony over to see.
"That's gross, don't touch that." Tony leaned away from the dead animal.
"Man, I can't cook that, what are you trying to do here jungle, mock me?" Brandon looked to the sky, half expecting Thor to drop down laughing prepared for a rematch.
"Mr. Wilson, any clue what this animal might have been attacked by?" Mephisto squatted by the furry white body.
"Not really, strange beasts were really Chris' forte. It does appear to have been sucked to death, so we are dealing with an animal that dines on goats, and has a rounded toothy mouth, which once attached to the goat, suck the blood from them."
"Yes, I really can't remember any previous mention of such a creature."
"Well, since we are likely dealing with a new species we should name it, something in the local tongue so they'll know what to look for." Tony nodded to Mephisto, it seems they had stumbled upon an important scientific discovery and were duty bound to record it.
"Well Mr. Wilson, what is the Spanish words for 'Goat Sucker', as that is both its prey and chosen method of consumption." Mephisto rose to his feet, lowering the leaf back over the goat.
"Ughh," Tony's mouth opened instinctively and his eyes narrowed, he stood motionless and made a low 'umm' sound, finally he remembered and gestured down to the goat, "Chulupa-Cabra, I believe that's the proper term."
"Excellent, we must then be on our guard for this Chulupacabra, and hope it has not mistaken our friend for a goat." Mephisto began trudging back up the path towards the location of the lost city of El Dorado.
"What do you think the chances are of Chris being mistaken for a goat and getting eaten?" Brandon gave a look to Tony.
"I'd prefer not to think about it."
"You're right better than average."
End Part 2
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