( Eduardo's POV )
Damn woman, making me feel things...I thought, as I followed Penelope to the event sign ups at the pirate games. I'm letting her pick the event, not really having a particular preference. If I was honest with myself, the katanna wielding pirate had intrigued me, and made me feel things that I had always avoided, and thought I would never feel.
I think back to how I lived when the crew was just all men, and how we would go out to bars, not really caring, and none of us really the relationship type, and sure, we would enjoy a woman for a night or two, before leaving and be done with it. I had always tried to avoid getting close to people. I saw what it did to my mom, when my father ran off. Yes, he sent money and wrote her, but he wasn't really there for her. People could be apart of your life one minute, and leave the next. So why get attached? When they could so easily leave you.
Hell, most of us would just look at women for enjoyment, until Arabella came on the ship, and she slowly befriended all of us, worming her way into our hearts in different ways. I used to get pissed watching her and Nate, not really sure at the time why. I realized though, that I wasn't actually jealous of him having her, more of I was jealous of what they had, and how seemingly easy they seemed to open their hearts to each other, when I had never really opened mine for anyone.
I had avoided feelings for as long as I could, but lately, I couldn't ignore what I was starting to feel for Penelope. The beautiful emerald green eyed young woman, who was kind yet fierce. She had a way of talking to others easily, very much the social butterfly. She had a fire in her though,which surprised me that first night when we were picking roommates. I have always been pretty sarcastic, and was used to people either ignoring it, or just getting pissed but not saying much back. Penelope on the other hand, could match my sarcasm. She surprised me that first night, when instead of just taking it, threw it right back at me, with fire in her eyes, and one hand already reaching for her katanna as she put me in my place. That was what started it all, and intrigued me.
As I watched her more though, other things intrigued me. I found her reading, books from when I went to school, books most of the crew wouldn't even touch. She was very intelligent, without being arrogant about it, and had a talent for drawing as well. I'd seen her scribbling away on her drawing pad, as she sat on deck before, and she had even made copies of some of my maps, and unless you knew which was the original copy, you couldn't really tell them apart.
"Don't they have anything different." She murmured, glancing through the list once again.
"I'm sure they do. What are you looking for anyway?" I ask, watching her as she runs a hand back through her hair while she reads.
"Just something different. There's mostly fighting, and sports, and a few other things, but something different..." She trails off, scanning the last page, before her eyes light up. "Like this! it's a puzzle of sorts, with riddles." she exclaims excitedly, showing me the event.
I nod in agreement."It does look different, lets go." I say, letting her lead the way. When we signed up, they directed us to a different part of the island, handing us a map, and a list of riddles. We followed the map, which lead us to what appears to be some form of ancient ruins on the island. Like an old temple of sorts.
"What is this place?" She asks, her eyes widening at the sight of it.
"I don't know, but lets get started." I answer simply, walking towards the entrance. It looked old, and slightly run down, the structures inside not fully intact, but enough left for you to see it was a palace or temple of sorts, possibly a mixture of both. Whatever civilization had been here was long gone, from the looks of it, they had been gone many years. "What is the first one?" I ask, looking over at her, since she had the paper with the riddles.
" Ruler over many, subject to none. Queen, Prince, Princess, Loyal subjects. I am an object, that he uses, and can see all aforementioned from where I stand. What I am?" She reads out loud for me once, though she scans it multiple times as we walk. I watch her mouth the words to herself, and I smile at her.
"Well.. Are you gonna help me or what?" she asks, smirking at me, when she catches me watching her.
I shrug, and she narrows her eyes at me, before elbowing me in the side. "Come on Eduardo." She says laughing. Is it bad If i like the sound of her laugh? Damn she's beautiful, but i'll be dammed before I admit it.
"Okay, okay. It's talking about a king right? So where would he see everyone from?" I ask her, though I think I already know the answer.
She furrows her brows, looking at the paper before looking at me, beaming. "The throne room!" she exclaims happily, and grabbing my arm, she goes off in search of the throne room. We reach it, and she looks around, before going up to a big old chair, at the front of the room. I follow her, watching her, as she bends down, and looks under the chair. "Here it is! it looks like a piece of a map.." she says, showing me the piece of paper that was tied around the chair leg.
"Good job." I say, taking the piece of paper from her and examine it. "It looks like there's more pieces." I tell her, and she rolls her eyes at me.
"Well no shit sherlock." She says snarkily, as she smirks at me. I feel a smile tugging at my lips, at her sarcasm.
"Next one." I say simply, prompting her to look at the paper once more.
"Many rest here. Some stay permanently, others only visit. Visitors often leave with heavy hearts, but those that stay cannot feel theirs. I am an object, that most make their final stay, what am I?" she reads aloud once more. "Shit. I bet it's the tombs, and we have to go in the basement." She says, not even giving me a chance to answer, and I smile at how quickly she figured it out.
"Yes. Most likely its in a coffin as well." I tease her, though actually it probably is in one.
She rolls her eyes at me, and starts to head towards where we believe we can get into the basement. We slowly walk downstairs, with only a small lantern for light.
We reach the basement, to find many coffins in the walls, with one lonely big one set against the wall, on the other side of the room. We look at each other, then at the coffin, eyeing it warily. "You scared?" I tease her, gesturing towards the coffin.
She narrows her eyes at me, glaring."The hell. I'm not scared." She huffs, before walking right past me over to the coffin. I follow her, and watch in amazement as she digs through the coffin, before producing a piece of paper. "Oh and here catch." she says, throwing something at me, that I grab out of reflex.
"Very funny." I say, rolling my eyes at her, when I look at the skull she threw out at me. She laughs, before heading towards the stairs, though she stops and waits for me at the bottom of them. I shake my head, as I follow her once again. Yes, I've met my match here, especially with the teasing and the sarcasm.
When we get back upstairs, she hands me the paper, letting me read what appears to be the last clue. " Sheep, boars, mountain lion, any above will do, to satisfy the offering, one must pay their dues. The stone gods watch the offering, held outside. I am an object that the offering is laid on, what am I?" I read aloud for both of us, before scanning the words again.
"They have some sort of alter outside then, with a big table. I wonder what kind of people used to live here." She adds, before we both head outside. She solves these quickly, and it's impressive. She truly is something, and I can't help but want to know more about her, as more time goes on. No one has ever peaked my interest as much as she does.
We reach outside, and she quickly finds the last piece of the map. We set up the pieces on the table, and look at them. "Wait, there's no more clues, but we're missing a piece." I murmur, as I look at the three pieces before me.
She takes out the riddles page, flipping it over, before placing it in the last corner of the map, making it whole. "Okay, it looks like it has two areas marked. One with a key symbol, the other a destination." She says, looking at the map. "But why the key?" She adds, still examining the map..
"Let me see the piece that was out here." I tell her, and she hands me the piece she just found. I flip it over, finding another riddle on the back. I read it out loud. "Trust in each other, and take a mighty leap, into the jaws of the sea, and within shall find the key." I read it, before putting the map together once more.
"So we have to go to where the key is on the map and dive for it?" She asks incredulously, glancing at me, meeting my gaze.
"We'll see when we get there." I answer shrugging, before we begin heading to where the key was shown on the map.
We reach our destination, and eye it warily. it was a decent drop, and there were sharp rocks all the way down the ledges, not to mention what appeared to be different kinds of sea creatures in the water below. "How the hell are we supposed to get down there." I huff, narrowing my eyes at the scene before us.
"It said to jump. There must be a safe spot to jump from." she answers simply, drawing my attention to her as she scans the area, looking for a spot to jump from. The sun catches her hair, illuminating the blonde streaks in her brown hair. It's beautiful, and I could almost reach out and touch it, but i don't know how she would react to that.
"There." she exclaims suddenly, pointing to the other side of the ledge we were on, where there appeared to be a ledge on the other side, with less rocks and no animals floating at the bottom.
"Alright." I sigh, as we walk over to the other side. "This still doesn't look safe." I mutter, though she hears me.
"What you don't trust my judgement?" She scoffs, looking at me.
"It's not that. It's just still a decent drop." i add, still eyeing it warily.
She sees the look on my face, and shaking her head, starts walking to the ledge."Fine, you don't trust my judgement, so I'll prove it, I'm going." she adds, as she gets closer to the ledge.
"No." I growl at her, as I run after her, and pull her away from the ledge. No way am i having her jump. "I'll do it." I say, as I quickly take off my shirt, and boots, and hand her my pistols, before taking a deep breath, and jumping in. It was because I trusted her judgement that I took the jump, and I also didn't want her to have to walk around soaked after this. And on the off chance we miscalculated on this, I didn't want her to get hurt.
After a brief search on the floor of the ocean, I found the key. I quickly swam up, and found my way back up to her, walking up a steep hill.
After another thirty minutes, we finally reached the last place on the map, on the other side of the ruins, in a room that held an old box, with a single keyhole in it. We turned the key, finding a giant sapphire inside, about the size of two fist. We took it, and started our walk to leave the ruins. I suddenly stopped her. "Oh wait, there's one more riddle I noticed. Here." I say, handing her a piece of paper. I find myself smiling as I watch her read the riddle, one that I actually wrote.
"Of no use to one, Yet absolute bliss to two. The small boy gets it for nothing. The young man has to lie or work for it. The old man has to buy it. The baby's right, the lover's privilege, the hypocrite's mask. To the young girl, faith; To the married woman, hope; To the old maid, charity. What am I?" She reads it out loud, her brows furrowing at the riddle I wrote for her when she wasn't looking.
She looks at me with her beautiful eyes, a question in them. "I don't get it, what does this have to do with the other riddles? Whats the answer?" she asks, and I smile, as I draw her close, her eyes widening in surprise as I do so, while I rest my forehead on hers.
"It has nothing to do with the other riddles, this one is special for you. The answer is simple.. A kiss." I whisper, before placing my hand on the back of her head, bringing her face to mine, as I kiss her gently. She kisses me back softly, after her moment of shock. We pull away from each other, and she smiles at me, a beautiful kind smile, as her face flushes a light pink.
I can't help smiling back at her, as I take her hand, as we head back towards the ship for the day. "You... you make me feel things that I'm not used to Penelope." I admit softly, even though I told myself I wasn't going to admit it at first, oh what the hell. I kind of shot keeping it a secret to hell anyway, the second I decided to give her that riddle.
She looks over at me and smiles. "Oh so you do actually have feelings huh cyclops?" she teases me, her eyes dancing with mischief, as she elbows me playfully.
I roll my eyes at her, still smiling. "Yea well." is my only response as we head back towards the ship. I was doomed from the second she looked at me with fire in her beautiful eyes that very first night.
A/N: And that was Eduardo!!! hope i did that okay Penelope!! >_<. I hope it wasn't like too out of character! Guys, I have to admit, when Penelope gave me a Puzzle as one of the choices for the event, I was like excited, and i had ideas, but truthfully, i actually suck at both puzzles, and riddles, so this was a challenge for me. Though, I also had some help with this, when I got stuck. I had some help, from both electricsparkz, as well as crazypup110, aka, Kris, and Luna, who helped me on parts I was stuck on.. So thanks ladies!!! Kris gave me the idea that the map should be in multiple pieces, as part of the puzzle, and Luna actually provided me with the last two riddles on here. So thanks you guys! >_< * throws cookies* lol and thanks for being patient Penelope. *throws more cookies to everyone* and I apologize for the first three riddles, i couldn't find any online that applied, so i had to make those up lol. Thanks for reading!!
-Jinx