Freedom's Horizon: Spirit of Belize (WLW)

Part One: Chapter Five

April 1746, Sailing Off the Coast of Sardinia

Ines rolled onto her side as best as she could in her hammock, glancing around the darkly lit barracks of the crew's newly acquired ship and registering that Gen was nowhere to be seen. Over the last week, she hadn't wanted to appear as if she relied on her too extensively, but the fact remained that the only person whom she felt safe around was that very woman. Well, as safe as Ines could feel around strangers. Around a mysterious group of people who called themselves one another's family and operated on some type of unison she couldn't name.

Speaking of strangers, Ines sat up and noticed Trevor and Lana carrying on a conversation in the corner wherein a single lantern was lit, deciding to avoid the young adults for the time being. It wasn't that she didn't like them, they were seemingly sweet kids, but she didn't trust them. She didn't trust anyone, though the one person whom she believed one day she might wasn't there and she went in search of her.

There were still so many questions running through Ines' mind, but one stood out among all others: How had none of the people in that villa seen each other in twenty years? Some of them looked as though they were not even twenty yet and others were, but only by a smidge. There was no way Margaret was in her forties either, although she was definitely older than several others within their makeshift family. So if they split apart like Gen claimed, how did she not look a day over twenty-eight at most? These mysterious sailors were almost all that filled Ines' mind and she watched them throughout each day, remaining relatively glued to Gen's hip, an action which she appeared to not mind.

Ines had to know the answers to her burning questions and quietly journeyed up to the main deck, careful not to wake those sleeping in their hammocks. She spotted two people leaning over the starboard bow and crept closer to hear their conversation, hiding herself behind some barrels of water nearby.

"...and after that we bumped into Colel who was having the fight of her life to get a family free from approaching soldiers near the encampment." Gen explained as she leaned along the ship's banister with Esme, the ultimate captain of what they called the Ghost Crew, at her left side. Both looked relaxed with one another on a level Ines wished she could someday achieve with someone, but she shoved the yearning aside to focus on her next quieted words. "Next thing I knew, there was yelling like I've never heard coming from deep within the jungle and the soldiers fled in fear. Remind you of anything?"

"The cave...where I lost my arm. If that is even a real memory... It's still hard to tell sometimes after I have spent so many years on this earth. And the world has changed so staggeringly over the centuries." Ines felt her lips slightly part as she heard something that just couldn't be true, yet was spoken so frankly that it could be nothing else. Still, Captain Esme seemed to have all her appendages, so what were they playing at? "Do you think it's another lemure? It's not as if she was the only one. She said her mother was calling her home, yet never explained anything about that home, nor if there were others like her trapped down here."

"I don't think so. This feels different." Gen ran her fingers through her hair as she always did when lost in thought. Ines had seen her do it on many occasions over their time together and she began instinctively tapping her fingers along the wood beneath them as she waited for what she might add next. "It feels erratic. Everything the lemure did was planned, not spur of the moment, regardless of how it affected our lives then and after. And whoever is trapping those within the thorns is only picking victims who have become unfaithful to their spouse."

Esme scoffed as she leaned back from the banister, leaving her hands along it to brace her weight. "What? How do you know that?"

"We made sure of it in a parle." At this the captain straightened and met Gen's eyes. "The soldiers who were killed by the greenery were all unfaithful to their wives at some point or another. It's one of the reasons why we want them out of there. It seems the more whatever it is gets fed, the more its reach stretches in the direction of its preferred prey, which honestly I believe may be Colel. She's the only survivor with a different story. Her not being able to recall anything of whatever perils she faced must mean something. The soldiers must leave before it is too late and the vines reach the people who are still under threat of being subjugated. Those who truly need our help."