Freedom's Horizon (WLW)

Part One: Chapter Fifteen

December 1674, Undisclosed Island in the Caribbean Sea

Esme woke to the sounds of her boat washing up against something and felt water tickling her palm. Realizing one of her eyes was swollen and rather bloodied, needing attention as soon as she was given the opportunity of escape, she peeked through her other. How she managed to hit her head on the damn sailboat diving down was beyond her, but her head throbbed with each pound of her heart and she couldn't even fully lift the lid of her aching eye. Still, she had people counting on her to get back to them and the pain would need to wait for relief.

Esme watched through one eye as Genny rose from the boat and stepped onto the white sandy beach. She giggled and walked a few paces toward the water. Esme sat up a bit and glanced over the side of the boat. She watched as Genny wiggled her toes in the sand, then glanced up at her face to see a full smile gracing it. Something was very off about her -- the real Genny wouldn't find small things like this amusing and it took an army to make her even smirk -- and it was stirring.

"I can feel your eyes on me." Genny cooed as she turned around and Esme stood, getting out of the boat.

She knew exactly where they were and had no idea just how Genny knew how to get there without Felipe or Esme guiding her. Esme turned around and walked away from her toward the jungle. There were colonials and Spanish domineering the island in some places, but she knew how to steer clear of them. She knew where to scavenge for food and supplies and would make her way there. Above all else, she also knew she needed to get away from Genny, no matter what it took.

Esme heard feet quickly padding toward her from behind and picked up her pace only to be tackled to the ground. With a mouth now full of sand, she groaned and scrambled to try and get away as she spat, but couldn't quite get her footing.

"Stop, Essie! Just listen to what I have--" Genny pleaded from atop her backside.

"Get the bugger off of me! We have nothin' more to talk about! You are goddamn insane!"

Esme elbowed her in the gut and pushed her back as she tried to get up from the ground once more. Genny wrapped her arms around her and held her so strongly she was amazed she even had that strength. It even, quite literally, took her breath away, she grasped her so tightly. Fist fighting was never Genny's strong suit. She always fought from a distance as their gunner, or with a cutlass so that she could keep space between herself and her opponent as she was such a petite person and most towered over her. Even when sparring with Esme she always lost, but now there was an overwhelming strength to her she didn't know.

Esme turned over, feeling her stomach burn from the friction of Genny's hold, and threw sand in her face. Genny sputtered and shook her head as she caught Esme's hands. She pinned them over the top of her head and Esme lost the battle. She couldn't get away no matter how hard she tugged her arms and she blew air from her nose as she dropped her head to the sand below.

Genny chuckled. "You have always done that."

Esme turned her head away and Genny leaned in. "What?"

"That nose thing. I missed seeing it when I was away." She whispered in her ear. Esme glanced back up at her and scrunched up her face, opening her mouth on the precipice of saying something back, but Genny interrupted. "I am not talking about when you and Genny were apart. I mean us before any of the real insanity ever happened. Before we ever left home. This home, that is. We really did build a life here, unlike everywhere else since we left Europe. So, in a way it is one of our homes as well, would you not say?"

Esme tried to pull away again, but couldn't budge an inch. She glared up at her and scoffed. "I ain't any idea--"

"Ubicumque is, Im 'iens." Esme fell silent, her skin beginning to tingle, and Genny leaned in. She got down to her ear once again and whispered, "Where you go, I go, Esme Caminante."