their strange jabbering and constant curiosity of the many fires the men had built up. They were a nuisance as they emptied rucksacks and even a few of their precious black-powder bags, actually spilling the contents dangerously close to the fires. Padilla had eight of the men out on watch making sure the
'What do you make of them, my Captain?' Torrez asked, holding a small piece of bacon out for the visitor who sat on his chest, its tail swinging back and forth like a happy puppy. Its little claws finally stabbed the small piece of meat and popped it into its mouth, smiling and jabbering softly at the man, the mouth working frantically along with the small gills.
'I think they are an offshoot or very close relative of the monkey, just one that happens to live in the water, surely not a design that God had intended.' Then the captain laughed. 'But who knows the mind of God, but God himself?' Padilla watched Torrez and the animal a moment. 'What is truly amazing is the fact that you can see their small gills working, moving like those of a fish, but then you notice that the rise and fall of its breathing is light, almost as if it is taking air through both systems. It must be so for them to live out of the water for such long periods of time.'
'We need such devices, my captain, for breathing on board those stinking vessels of ours.'
'Yes, if our friend Rondo over there gets a bellyful of beans and pork fat, the whole ship is in danger of choking to death or exploding like a musket,' Padilla joked.
The two men were silent a moment as they listened to the comforting sound of the men as they spoke and talked of things other than death and this accursed mission. Then Padilla placed his diary in his belt pouch and looked over at his friend.
'When we entered the water in the outer valley, the stone monoliths, what did you think of them?'
'I was hoping that subject would not have arisen after the sun went down, if at all,' Torrez said as he gently laid the small animal on the ground and watched a moment as it scurried away. 'As for what I thought at the time? They scared me.' He looked over at Padilla and could make out the captain's eyes on him. 'You know me, I fear no man, or for that matter, nothing I have come across before. But those carvings gave me chills as I looked upon them, even as I ridiculed our men for the same reason.'
'The Watchers of this valley, gods of the lagoon, that's what I called them in my diary. They were very old carvings, I suspect even older than some of the Inca dwellings we found in Peru.'
'The age isn't what concerned me, my Captain, it was the forms themselves. I would hate to run into one of those while bathing, I'll tell you.'
Padilla laughed loudly and was about to comment when a shrill piercing scream ripped through the night around them. The small creatures screeched and jabbered at the noise and shot off for the water, making little splashes as they dove for the safety of the lagoon. Padilla and Torrez were up in a second, Ivan with his sword drawn.
'What is it?' Padilla called to his men as they entered the circle of light cast by the fire. The men were angry, yelling as they pointed forward toward the small shoreline.
One man stood at the head of the others and was holding the limp and obviously lifeless body of one of the little creatures. He had the small animal clutched by its broken neck, and it dangled, almost formless in the firelight.
'You bloody bastard!' one of his men yelled. 'Why did you have to do that?'
The man who was standing and facing everyone was none other than Suarez. The huge man stood his ground and stared back at the men, almost daring them to make a move toward him. He had no armor and his scarlet shirt glimmered as if with blood in the firelight
'What is happening here?' Padilla asked, knowing all too well the answer to his question.
One of the soldiers stepped forward, a boy of only twenty, pointing to where the big man stood.
'That bastard did that for no other reason than the want of killing.'
'He bit me and I will kill anything I wish, man or animal,' Suarez said, still looking at the group rather than at his captain, shaking the lifeless body of the harmless creature.
'The man is mad, Captain, we must put him down as we would a dog with the foaming sickness,' Torrez hissed, stepping closer to Suarez and forgetting his earlier words of restraint. His sword was pointing straight at the big man's chest.
'He bit you by accident, you're the one who pulled the bread away and allowed his teeth to strike you instead of the bread,' another man said as the others shouted agreement.
'Suarez, you have caused enough trouble, and it ends here, now, tonight,' Padilla stated flatly and without emotion. He reached over and made his lieutenant lower his sword. 'This will be my responsibility; you will stand down, my friend.'
'You must not go into armed combat, my Captain, we cannot risk you. I will do it.'
Suarez tossed the dead creature onto the sand, backed up three paces to the water's edge, and slowly drew his sword.
'I will make quick work of the man who comes for me,' he said, slicing the sword through the air.
The rest of the men placed hands on swords or pistols, demonstrating their willingness to dispatch this man. They would make sure he brought them no more ill will.
'Stand down, all you men,' Padilla said as he advanced, drawing his own thin blade, not removing his eyes from Suarez. 'This is your captain's duty.'
Suddenly small explosions of water erupted from the lagoon as dozens of the small creatures burst through to the surface, some clearing the water by two and three feet. They hurriedly swam to the far side of the lagoon, and before the men knew what they were looking at, the fast and agile animals were all scrambling up trees and large bushes on the opposite shore. They jabbered back at the water they had just exited and then grew suddenly quiet. That was when the men noticed that the animal sounds in the deep night had ceased, as if the entire jungle had grown mute as the two Spaniards faced each other.
Suarez had backed further into the water waiting for the advance of Padilla. But he had turned at the sound of the small creatures and their noisy flight from the water.
'Rondo, take five men and follow the shoreline and see what you can see. Something has frightened them,' Torrez ordered.
Rondo pointed out five men, and they broke free from the group and started to walk slowly down the slim shoreline, buckling their armor and drawing their swords as they did. Rondo cocked his two pistols and then placed himself at the head of the small band of Spaniards. They walked cautiously, and then they disappeared around some bushes at the turn in the lagoon.
Padilla was as calm as the night around them as he advanced on the larger Suarez. He slowly brought his sword up toward the other man's barrel chest. Suarez smiled and moved deeper into the water and swung his own sword in a slow deliberate arc, parting it with a swish. Then as he saw the anger etching the face of Padilla, he backed deeper into the dark water.
The remaining men in camp froze when they heard the large man shout in terror as he was grabbed from beneath the water, his legs jerked out from under him so hard that one moment he was screaming and the next he had vanished. The big man surfaced briefly, splashing and in shock with the whites of his eyes showing brightly, and then he was quickly pulled into the lagoon before he could utter a second cry of pain or terror at what was happening. Suarez quickly disappeared below the roiling surface with nothing but bubbles and two quick slashes of his shining sword to mark his trail to death's door.
'What in the name of God was that?' Torrez yelled as he ran to the water's edge.
Men pointed, and then they all saw the bubbles and a sharp 'V'-shaped wake surface as something was traveling fast toward the far side of the lagoon, toward the spot that Torrez had sent Rondo and the five others. They soon heard splashing and screams of terror splitting the quiet night, and two loud reports as Rondo fired his pistols. Then amongst the screams of men and the dying echo of the gunshots, they all heard a sound they would take with them to their graves. The roar was like a deep echo of an enraged demon from their nightmares. The horrid sound reverberated and sent chills down their spines.
The screams of his men ended as suddenly as they had begun, and in an instant the night became still once again.
Torrez was suddenly at the stunned Padilla's side, pressing his armor into his hands. The captain sheathed his sword and slipped the heavy iron onto his back and chest. Then they watched the spot where the men had
