The Road To El Dorado: What if you were there?

18: You Are Not Gods!

You looked back at the Jaguar. It was standing still and Tzekel-kan appeared under it. The inhuman green eyes faded. 

"And I know what you are not," he said viciously. You felt you were missing some part of his speech. "And you are not gods!"

You stared at him with your mouth wide open. You glanced at Tulio. He nodded and held Miguel by the shirt.

"Y-you're not a god?" Tulio asked Miguel. Then softly added, "You lied to me?" Miguel made no answer and so Tulio cleared his throat. You debated helping him. Tulio threw Miguel down, saying, "How dare you?"

"Hey it was his stupid plan," said Miguel.

"What?" asked Tzekel-kan quietly. 

"Oh, oh, oh," replied Tulio. "My plan was that we should lie low! But your plan was to run off and be all 'Oh look at me. Look at me. I'm a god.'"

"That's not true," you said sternly. 

Tulio turned to you, "No? Who are you kidding? You do nothing. Nothing!" He looked back at Miguel. "And you-you're buying your own con!"

"At least I'm not dating mine," shot back Miguel. 

"I- oooo low blow," said Tulio. 

"Below the belt?" you asked. He glared at you but then Miguel began walking away.  

"Listen, Mr High and Mighty," began Tulio. "The three of us would be sailing out of here with a mountain of gold if you had listened to me."

"What was it, Miguel?" you asked innocently. "Forget Miguel? Maybe Y/N?"

Tulio stammered and Miguel said, smacking the back of Tulio's head, "Well now you've got all the precious gold and Chel, what do you need us for?"

"Well maybe I don't need you anymore," said Tulio.

"You've already forgotten us, right?" you asked, shoving him. 

"Well, why don't you go back to Spain, and I'll stay here, and all both get what we want?" said Miguel.

"But we can't stay," you intervened. They ignored that though. 

"That's fine with me, Pal!" said Tulio. 

"Fine with me too." Miguel slapped him. You gave him a look and pushed him a little. Tzekel-kan seemed to enjoy this. 

"Fine."

"Okay."

They both punched Tzekel-kan and you let out a suppressed laugh. 

"Tie him up," you said, quickly grabbing some vines. Then the roaring began again and you gasped at the Jaguar waking up again. It sprung forward. "Jump!"

You jumped to the side, holding onto the vines over the cliff. The heavy Jaguar broke the bridge. Both him and Tzekel-kan fell down to Xibalba. 

You sighed in relief. Tulio laughed, "That was good, huh?" he looked down at your face and you allowed yourself the smallest smile. But Miguels eyes remained unchanged. 

You and Miguel hauled yourselves up and were met by hundreds of cheering natives. The crowd picked you both up and you landed in front of Chief Tanni. 

Miguel said to him, "I've decided to stay." He seemed decided and he looked at you, hoping you'd make the same decision. But you couldn't. Living in a lie was worse than saying one. 

"Oh, this is wonderful news!" said the chief happily. "What a glorious day for El Dorado. Lord Miguel has decided to live among us!" 

"Fortunately he isn't an imposter," you mumbled sarcastically. The chief looked at you expectantly but you shook your head. He nodded understandingly. 

You returned to were Tulio was still hanging and helped him up. Chel rushed over and frantically said, "Tulio! Tulio, is everything alright?"

You both looked back to Miguel, enjoying the praise of he crowd. "Everything is... fine," he answered at last. 

"Like always," you said quietly.