The Trip to Eldorado

Prolouge

I remember the day I met the two knuckle heads that like to call my best friends.

It was five years ago

Of course it had to be today! Curse after curse slipped from my tongue. Why can't I just be a normal goddess. You know being worshipped and stuff. Instead no, I had to be placed on the Earth as a mortal for my job. They couldn't have even been nice enough to drop me on the island that held Eldorado, instead I was dropped in Portugal and I'm a thief for a living. And that my dear friends, is why I'm running for my life. I was caught stealing jewelry from the market, and of course instead of dropping it to run, I put it in my bag and started sprinting. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but because the Gods seem to want me suffer, the market was in a different place than usual, so I didn't have the right away to the roofs. I looked back and saw the guards on my tail; this is not going to be the day I'm caught. Living the lifestyle of a thief isn't one I'm proud of, but I don't have much of a choice either. The other Gods got to decide what life I was to live in my time as a mortal, and since I'm the goddess of humanity I guess they thought it would be amazing to give me a shitty life. My parents were as I like to say, murdered, when I was seven. They were wrongfully accused of treason, they were framed by a nobleman who tried and failed to kill the king of Portugal, in an attempt to cover himself he told everyone my parents did it. In the end they were executed. I was placed in an orphanage after they were killed and everyone was weary of me, in their eyes I was the daughter of the people who attempted to kill the king and would likely grow up to do the same thing. I was treated like I was nothing. Everything I had, other than the clothes on my back we're taken and sold as payment for being "taken in" by the orphanage. I became a slave to them, I slept in the basement, made breakfast, cleaned, and was whipped when I didn't do the work fast enough. Luckily though I didn't feel all alone because being the goddess of humanity has a few perks, one being that I can talk to animals. The rats that were in the basement with me kept me company. Not exactly the best, but they were sweet all the same. When I was ten years old I got the opportunity to escape, after three years, I got out and I ran for my life. After that I became a thief, vowing I'd never trust another soul as long as I'd live. I've been a thief for the last six years and I've never been caught. That might change today, but I'm not going down without a fight. Although I didn't know that I wouldn't be getting caught by guards today, just some assholes who like to worm their way into peoples lives.
I glanced behind me to see how far back the guards were, when out of the blue I was pulled into an alleyway. I flipped whoever grabbed me onto their back before pinning them against a wall. I quickly raised my knife to their throat in a threatening manner and practically growled at them, "Who the hell are you?"
The man I had pinned and I could now see, had dirty blond hair and green eyes that were currently running rampant with emotion, the most prominent being fear, "Calm down, we're not going to hurt you," In the corner of my eye I see another man attempting to sneak up on me.
"Touch me and you along with your friend are both dead." I told them. Then I looked at the other man who I would deem fairly attractive in that swashbuckling rogue sort of way, he had black hair, blue eyes, and was fairly lean, "Who are you and why did you help me?" I questioned while letting go of the blond man, I carefully looked them over.
The man with black hair was slender. He looked like the brains of the two. He had no facial hair, which was surprising. I wondered for a moment if he shaved it or if he was naturally baby faced. Either way if I had anyone to be weary about in this little group, it was him. He looked to be either 19 or 20 years old.
The blond was the average height for a male. He was definitely definitely more built than the other. He had no facial hair either and came to the conclusion that they were both simply baby faced. I'd happily admit that a loose tunic and khakis suite him. I guessed that he was around the age of 17 or 18.
The blond finally speaks up, "I'm Miguel and this is Tulio. We saw you were in a bit of a jam and wanted to help." I realized quite quickly that Miguel tends to speak with his hands. I was pretty sure that he'd be very excitable.
"What do you want?" I question, crossing my arms. I glared at them like I was trying to solve a puzzle while missing a piece.
"Nothing." Miguel tried to convince me. If his voice hadn't gone up an octave I might have believed him. He's quite a bad liar.
I look him up and down again, "Do you think I'm stupid? No one does anything without wanting something in return." I shot back quite bitterly. I turned my head to glance at Tulio and raised my eyebrow at him, prompting him to answer the question I had asked.
Tulio looked fairly shocked that I'd want him to talk. Something tells me he's used to Miguel taking the lead, while he simply does the work behind the scenes, "You're right, we need your help."
I nodded at him. At least this bastard was honest. I can take a lot, but a liar was someone I refused to associate with, "With?" I questioned, uncrossing my arms.
He looked at me dumbfounded that I'd ask him that. He probably didn't trust people all that much either. That or I looked fairly intimidating, which I probably did, so he was shocked that I'd even think about helping. "I uh- we," he stuttered out. I raised my eyebrows at him, maybe he's not as smart as I thought.
I quickly reign back in my thoughts before deducing what they wanted from me, another perk about being the goddess of humanity is that if I want, I can read a persons true intentions. "Let me guess, you two are con men. You made a mistake while conning folk out of their money and people figured out your lie. You saw me running and decided to "save me" because you figured that I knew my way around and that I'd help you, at I right?" The pair stared at me eyes wide and jaws dropped. "What can I say I'm good at reading people." Yeah, no way I'm telling them the truth, at least not yet. I'd be sent to an insane asylum if I told anyone the truth.
The two nodded at my statement,"So... will you help us?" Miguel asked while looking like a lost puppy.
I sighed in defeat. Maybe the gods wanted me to meet them, they do kind of look like the two we sent Eldorado a vision about. Maybe they're important,. "Well it's better than doing nothing," I commented, "come with me." I motioned for them to follow.
I lead them to another alley off the one we were currently in and started climbing a ladder that lead to the roof. I looked down at them, "You coming boys?" They looked at me then nodded. They followed me and looked with wide eyes as I started jumping from roof to roof. They quickly followed suit. I didn't interrupt them because they were in their own little world, the two were in an in-depth conversation and Tulio looked like he wanted to smack Miguel. Eventually Tulio looked like he had an epiphany and nodded. They were struggling to keep up so I stopped so they could catch their breath. I realized we were on the top of my building when I saw the vines that lead to the roof. We were close to the docks, which is where I assumed they'd want to go.
"How are you not out of breath?" Miguel asked while trying to regain his precious oxygen. His hands were placed on his knees and he was crouched, as if he could barely hold himself up.
I held in my giggled at both of their exhaustion and shrugged, "Practice makes perfect."
They looked at me shocked, "This is normal for you?" They did remember that I was a thief right? We have to be in shape to escape the guards.
"Yup." I said nodding at them like they are dumb,
"How exactly do you think I get around without being caught?"
Tulio went a bit red in embarrassment, likely because he hadn't figured that out, "Why weren't you on the roof today then?" he asked me confused.
I glanced at him, fatigue was probably showing on my face, but I didn't care all too much, "Not enough time." I told them simply. "Anyways," I said while walking over to the edge of the building, "Unless you want me to walk you over and have you risk getting caught by the guards, this is where we part ways. The docks are over there," I told them while pointing, "You can jump a few more roofs before you'll have to climb into an alley way to head over there, once there can stow away on a ship and go. They don't really have good security around here," They looked at me with sadness in their eyes, "What are you going to miss me? We just met." I told them with a smirk.
     They looked at each other then Miguel smiled at me, "How would you like to join our partner ship. Come with us on adventures, explore, and get rich." Miguel asked me. I stared at him like he was crazy.
I looked at Tulio, "You seriously are asking me that?" He should shed some light on the situation.
"Hey I was the one who asked you!" Miguel whined. I shushed him.
"Yeah. That's what we were talking about on the way here. I hated the idea of having an extra person, but Miguel pointed out the benefit of having a girl in our cons," he looked concerned that I would say no. Internally I debate with myself. Well I have to get to Eldorado at some point, and they said they go on adventures. Besides I'm sure I'd be fun to go along for the ride. I nodded to myself my final decision made.
"You don't know anything about me and I haven't even told you my name," I told them watching their smiles turn to frowns, "But," I emphasized, their expressions looking confused, "if you're serious about this whole thing, I'll tell you something. I don't trust people, I haven't since I was seven years old. I have scars on my back which you'll end up having to look at, at one point or another. I'm sixteen years old and will need help to learn your cons. If you two can overlook all that then I think I'd enjoy coming along with you." I told them. I watched their faces of confusion morph into faced of joy. Miguel grabbed me and pulled me into a hug.
     "So, you still haven't told us your name," Tulio mentions.
     I pull myself from Miguel's grip and nod at them both, "You're right, well for the record, my name is Echo, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance my good sirs," I told them in a fake posh voice before slightly curtsying.
     Miguel decided to play along, "The pleasure is all mine my lady," he told me before kissing my hand. I saw Tulio roll his eyes at us.
     "Well if we're going to catch that boat later I need to grab a few of my things," I tell the two boys who nod in response.
     "Where do you keep your stuff," they ask in unison. I just roll my eyes and motion for them to follow. I quickly jump on the vines that were in the roof and slid down to my window. Once inside the decrepit room I quickly walk over to my tiny farm and used a little magic to make my crops ripe before the two idiots came in.
     "Wow, not a bad place, is that a garden?," Miguel says.
     "Well I don't have to pay for it and no one knows I'm here," I comment while nodding. I pick a few apples off of my dwarf tree and put them in my bag. I do the same with my carrots and potatoes. I then walk over and grab and put on my gold bracelet with all of the gods symbols on it, I don't wear it on my thieving runs because if I get caught they'll take it from me. The god of the seven seas gave it to me when I turned twelve in mortal years. I also grabbed an old copy of the book DonQuixote and a some currency. I turned and nodded at the boys who were watching my every move. "Lets go boys."
     And that is where our adventures began.
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I don't own The Road to El Dorado. I am revising this story, but I'm not sure if I'll continue it or not. I don't know it's honestly about my mood.