Nothing Else Matters (Jungle Cruise)

Chapter Three

Lily sat at the desk in her room, reading essay after essay after essay. She glanced at the time- it had been almost five hours since she started. Her eyes hurt from deciphering handwriting, and her brain hurt from trying to keep track of each student's analysis of how the Tears worked and grew. It was all running together. Probably time for a break.

As if he had read her mind, MacGregor knocked softly on the open door to her room, beaming at her. Lily sat back in her chair and smiled at him. "Well you look happy," she noted.

"I am! Lily," MacGregor stepped in and over to her, and she stood. He grabbed her hands in his, and looked in her eyes. "I've met someone."

Lily furrowed her brow, and then it hit her. "Oh! Oh my goodness, MacGregor! That's wonderful! I'm so happy for you. What's he like? Is he nice?"

"Nice, and smart, and tall, and gentle," MacGregor blushed, and Lily laughed. "I've never felt this way in my entire life, Lily. He makes me feel so... giddy."

"I can't wait to meet him," Lily said, and hugged MacGregor tightly. "Oh, I'm so happy for you. And proud of you."

MacGregor's smile faded from elatement to something more humble. "Lily, I can't thank you enough for standing by me when no one else did. For... helping me be my true self."

Lily smiled and wordlessly hugged him again. She and MacGregor had grown closer after Father passed. When MacGregor had first told their family why he'd turned down a perfectly suitable marriage to a perfectly suitable lady, everyone had turned away. Lily had known his secret already, and stood by him. The family had ostracised her too, but she didn't care.

"Well, I'll have to plan dinner sometime. Does this Sunday work? In the afternoon?" Lily turned and started to gather papers into piles, organized so she could get started on them again tomorrow. "We could do a roast, or steaks. Or what about-"

She turned to see MacGregor thumbing through her notebook, the one she wrote about Frank in. "Goodness, you've studied him like a science experiment," MacGregor joked, flipping through more pages. He started to read something else. "This is fascinating."

"I know. He's sick of me bugging him about it, but I just have to get as much information out of him as I can. We'll never be able to record history like this again." Lily started to tidy up the room a bit as MacGregor took a seat and continued to read.

"It's a shame Aguirre didn't just ask for a petal," MacGregor said a few moments later.

"What?"

"He demanded the arrowhead when all he needed was one petal. The tribe had given them petals already. I'm sure they would have given him another had he just asked."

Lily frowned and walked over to read over MacGregor's shoulder. He was at the part in Frank's story where Aguirre attacked the tribe for the arrowhead.

"I... suppose you're right. Hmm. I'll have to look into it more." She made a mental note to ask Frank later.

*

"This has been positively scrumptious, Miss Houghton," William said.

"Just Lily, please," Lily said, smiling. "I'm glad you could make it. I was so excited when MacGregor told me about you, I just had to come up with something."

"Thank you for the invitation," William said. "It's not often we encounter such kindness and hospitality."

MacGregor set his napkin down and reached to grasp William's hand. The conversation continued, but Lily drifted into her thoughts again.

Frank's story had been bothering her, ever since MacGregor had pointed it out. She glanced up to Frank, who sat next to her, petting Proxima on his other side. He looked back at her and smiled at her charismatically. She smiled back and thumbed the arrowhead, which she had moved to her pocket.

Aguirre didn't need the arrowhead, did he? If he had wanted to see the Tree himself, perhaps, but from what Frank had said, Aguirre was only focused on his daughter. She couldn't help but assume that Aguirre would have gladly given up a view of the Tree for a single petal for Anna. So why did he demand the arrowhead and slaughter an entire tribe?

"I think William and I would like to go for an evening stroll, if you'd excuse us," MacGregor was saying. Lily stood to hug them, and then she was alone with Frank.

"He seems nice-" Frank started to say, but she interrupted.

"Frank, why didn't Aguirre ask for a petal?"

Frank cocked his head at the sudden question, but answered. "He did."

"No, you said he demanded the arrowhead," Lily said, pacing. "The chief had already given you and the other men petals. Why didn't Aguirre just ask for one more?"

Frank was quiet for a moment. "I'm not sure. He probably would have made it back to Spain if he had." He looked down, and Lily could see a deep, reminiscent look in his eyes. She wasn't sure if it was sadness, or closer to yearning for the past. He seemed a normal man most of the time, but others, like this, made him look like a man aged far beyond his years. Well, he was. But he hid it well, most of the time. Lily wasn't sure sometimes if Frank wished he had just died in the jungle so long ago, or chosen to rest when she gave him the petal.

"What about the chief's daughter?" Lily asked next. "You betrayed your friends and saved her from Aguirre. Aguirre would have gotten the arrowhead anyway, and so many others had already died. Why did you choose that moment? And what ever happened to the daughter?"

"I... don't know, Pants." Frank said, standing. "That's just how it happened. I don't know why everything happened the way it did."

Lily frowned and continued to pace. He reached over and stopped her, looking into her eyes. "You're working yourself too hard."

"I am not," Lily said, her eyes dry and red, her mind overworked. Frank ran his fingers through her hair, and she leaned into it, eyes closed, and let out a soft noise.

"Ah, see?" Frank said, chuckling at her. She just groaned and leaned into him, letting him hold her.

Frank guided her to bed, but she couldn't sleep with her mind reeling. She laid there for what seemed like hours, playing Frank's story in her mind over and over, looking for clues to what had made things happen the way they did, but she found nothing. The story was plausible, and it worked. It just didn't feel right. There had to be something more to it.

Though, perhaps Aguirre had been driven mad by the jungle, by his determination to get back to Anna, and grown impatient enough to act irrationally. Even if acting irrationally drastically reduced his chances of returning to Spain at all.

But, the Tears healed all. Would Aguirre's mind have been healed as well? Or did the Tears only heal physical wounds? She sighed, realizing she hadn't even considered that a possibility, and added it to her mental list of experiments to perform on the Tears. They would likely never even be tested for that. They had so precious few Tears left, and more important experiments had to come first.

She would have to return someday to get more petals. But if she did that, people would start asking questions. She had to figure out a way to explain how she was able to get them if she wasn't supposed to have the arrowhead. Besides, Frank would never let her go by herself, and she felt horrible dragging him back to the river he had spent four hundred years trying to escape.

An idea popped into her head. She could say that the arrowhead wasn't lost, but still in its place at the Tree. All she had to do was go there at a Crying Moon to get more petals, and say the arrowhead was inaccessible for some reason, and no one would ask questions. Frank had taught her how to drive his boat. She could rent another from Mr. Nilo once she got there, and make her way back to La Luna Rota herself. And while she was there, she might as well do some more research on Frank's story.

After all, he wasn't the only one who knew it.