The Island In The Mist: A Dinosaur Thriller Read online

  Once outside, he used his memory and good instincts to try and run in the general direction of the beach, and more specifically, the boat. His heart raced and his head constantly swiveled in all directions as he scanned the landscape ahead for more carnivorous lizards. He occasionally did see a few, but he never stopped running. He decided if any of them were a threat to him, the last thing he should do is stop to find out. He just kept running. It had been a long time since he had been able to run so far for so long without becoming winded. He wondered how long the effects of the magical water would keep his youthfulness and stamina boosted to the level he currently felt.

  Relief set in when he jogged to the edge of the familiar large valley he had crossed the day before. The numerous herds of plant-eating lizards were still there, just as they had been before he witnessed the giant two-legger chase them all away. He crouched down in the shadows of the trees and scanned the horizon carefully for the monstrous lizard. He consumed a few berries while he watched and waited. When he was satisfied that it was safe to cross, he darted into the open. Occasionally, he looked right to left, but for the most part kept his attention on the wood line straight ahead. Suddenly, a flock of birds ahead of him and to his right scattered in all directions out of the trees. Macuya’s heart sank when the large two-legger charged into the open field. It stopped momentarily and flung its head upward. The lizard’s mouth opened and unleashed a deafening roar, purposely making its presence known to the hundreds of animals grazing across the field. Macuya began to pray that the gods would help him sneak by yet again, and he realized that he was so frightened he was praying out loud. The gods seemed to listen because the two-legger paid him no attention. It seemed to enjoy chasing the weaker lizards and the challenge that came along with it. Natural curiosity made him want to stay and watch the incredible predator work, but he focused on the task at hand.

  Macuya kept his full attention on locating the beach as soon as possible. The roar of the two-legger echoed behind him, but he ignored the loud sound. His ears were straining to hear a much calmer and gentler sound, the ocean. Soon, he began to think that he was traveling in the wrong direction. He didn’t remember the trek between the beach and the valley being as far as it now seemed.

  He finally stopped running and tried to listen intently. For a moment, he heard nothing, but just as he was about to resume running, he heard the familiar surf directly to his left. Overcome with relief, he continued onward until he finally stumbled out onto the white sand. At first, the boat was nowhere to be seen and he feared that the tide had taken it away. Fortunately, after a few moments, he spotted it a great distance up the beach. The cool sand was a welcome change for his sore and swollen feet as he ran toward his escape. When he reached the boat, his first instinct was to immediately push it into the water and paddle away from the island as quickly as possible. Then he noticed the empty water bags lying in the boat. If there was any chance of surviving the ruthless sea, he had to fill the water bags before he left. He wasted little time rushing back into the jungle and filling the bags at the nearby stream. Before he left the stream for the final time, he drank all that his body would allow him to consume. He drank so much that his belly ached, but he ignored the pain. It was absolutely crucial to hydrate his body as much as possible before he left the island. He returned to the boat and dropped the heavy bags inside. Without any more hesitation, Macuya shoved the boat back into the water and took one final glance at the mysterious island. Once in the water, he began to paddle toward the shroud of mist and never thought about looking back again. He had been asleep the first time he went through the mist, so he had no idea of how thick it was. The mist was so dense he could not even see the bow of the boat. He felt minutes click by and the mist did not seem to be thinning out at all. Not knowing where he was going was an eerie feeling, and Macuya suddenly felt disoriented. The uneasy sensation sent him into a panic and he began to paddle harder. A few more minutes passed when finally he saw something he had not seen in nearly two days: sunlight.

  Macuya felt a wonderful sense of peace as he glanced back at the ghostly mist in the wake of his boat. He decided that surely the island must be cursed by the devil himself. Sitting with his back to the bow of the boat, he continued to watch the mist grow smaller and smaller until it finally disappeared over the horizon. The golden sun dropped below the horizon ahead of him, and before Macuya knew it, he was surrounded by blackness. As his eyes adjusted, he leaned back onto the floor of the boat and stared up at the twinkling stars above. Though he was clearly joyful that the demonic island was behind him, he could not help but wonder if he would ever set foot on land again. He’d almost died the last time he tried braving the sea. Exhaustion tugged at his eyelids and the hypnotic sound of waves splashing against the boat soon pulled him into the deepest sleep he’d experienced in his entire life.

  The next morning, Macuya awoke abruptly to the sound of men shouting. At first, he thought that he was dreaming and he ignored the voices. He was not ready to start the new day and he tried to ignore the shouting he believed was the product of a dream. Unfortunately, the shouting continued. Not only did it continue, it got louder and suddenly Macuya sat straight up as he realized it wasn’t a dream at all. The first thing he saw horrified him, and he blinked furiously in a futile attempt to convince himself that he was seeing an apparition. There was no mistaking the massive hull of the Spanish ship on the starboard side of his small boat. The panic that ripped through his body overtook the grogginess he had felt and Macuya began frantically paddling away with all of his might. The attempt was useless as two Spanish soldiers leapt into the boat and snatched the paddle from his grasp. Desperation drove Macuya to become violent, and he struck one of the men across the jaw. The other man retaliated by elbowing him sharply in the back of the head. His eyes rolled back as he lost consciousness.

  Chapter 3:

  2 Days Later…

  Juan Ponce de León stroked his beard calmly as he stared out upon the ocean before him. The wind carried a cool, refreshing spray from the surf that was extremely pleasant in the intense heat he and the other Spaniards were experiencing in the new world of Puerto Rico. He had proudly accepted the role of governor two years prior, and it had been a trying chapter of his life to say the least.

  At first, the native people of the island, the Taíno tribe, had been very cooperative and seemed to be excited to see the arrival of the Spaniards into their homeland. Juan and his soldiers were just as excited to see the Taíno, but they were clearly uneducated and barbaric. Worse yet, they knew nothing of the Christian faith. He decided early on that the best course of action would be to teach the ignorant Taíno the ways of the civilized world. First, it was absolutely imperative that they learn to speak proper Spanish. This was not an easy task, and at times, seemed hopeless. He had his best men on this task, and they worked tirelessly showing the Taíno an object and then speaking the Spanish word that coincided with it. Some of the Taíno caught on faster than others but, unfortunately, they were few and far between.

  The Taíno had to work for the protection Juan and his men provided, and that in itself was a lesson on how the civilized world worked. They mostly spent their days farming and mining for gold under the watchful eye of Juan. The sooner a Taíno individual learned the Spanish language, the easier it was on everyone. For the ones that didn’t learn quickly, there was another more unpleasant method to communicate with them.

  Beatings were a normal everyday occurrence, and though Juan did not enjoy watching or giving any of the beatings, but he knew it was a necessary evil to get the Taíno to understand that they were now indebted to the Spaniards. They would farm and mine during the day, and in exchange, the Spaniards would teach them Christianity and provide protection. Juan made a greater effort to communicate with the leaders of the tribes. If he could get through to them, he could get through to them all. For a long time, it seemed to work well, and he actually began to make progress with the tribes. Things suddenly turned so
ur though as one tribe leader in particular turned everything into disarray.

  Juan had begun to trust the one called Macuya a great deal, and he seemed to be the most intelligent of them all. Through him, the Taíno were becoming more and more compliant and there seemed to be less and less beatings. Then one day, seemingly out of nowhere, the rebellion started.

  Led by Macuya, the tribe united and suddenly lashed out against the Spaniards. The Taíno were skilled in combat and very deadly with spears and poisonous darts. They had countless other deadly weapons made from stone, and he’d never met a single Taíno that was reluctant to use any of them. Juan lost several very good men in the early goings of the rebellion. However, at no time did he ever fear that he would be unable to regain control of the situation. Because no matter how skilled the Taíno warriors were at combat, and no matter how barbaric and deadly their primitive weapons were, there was one thing that the Spaniards possessed that completely threw the odds in their favor. The crossbow. It was powerful, it was deadly, and it was completely unstoppable against a primitive tribe of people. For all the Spanish blood spilled across the landscape of Puerto Rico, the Taíno blood exceeded it ten-fold. The rebellion was short-lived, and within a matter of weeks, the entire tribe had resumed their work in the fields and mines. There was, however, one curious occurrence near the end of the rebellion that puzzled Juan relentlessly. Macuya, whom he’d become quite well acquainted with, vanished from the fighting altogether. At first, he decided the Taíno chief must have been killed in battle. All of his men were ordered to search for the remains of Macuya and they were promised a handsome reward for him, dead or alive. When nothing turned up, Juan turned his attention to the tribe, and he questioned the ones that were easiest to communicate with. Juan and his men soon learned that many of the Taíno were angry and accused their leader of deserting them. None of it made any sense, and just when Juan had decided he would never know the answer to the puzzle, an incredible thing happened. A one in a million shot occurred when one of the Spanish merchant ships found a small Taíno fishing boat adrift a few hundred miles away from Puerto Rico. Inside, they found Macuya in surprisingly good condition for someone who had been in the open sea for many days.

  The merchant ship arrived in Puerto Rico in the early morning hours, and as soon as Juan finished his breakfast, he requested that the guards bring Macuya to him at once. Juan continued to stare out across the vast Atlantic Ocean as he waited and pondered what it must have been like all alone in such a harsh environment. In a way, he could understand why Macuya chose such a hopeless escape of the island. Macuya was a true soldier and a real soldier would choose death above being captured by the enemy in almost every circumstance. He understood why he would choose to face the unknown of the ocean instead of the possibility of execution by the hand of the Spaniards. What he could not understand was why he deserted his people the way that he did. And how did he manage to fair as well as he did after being so long at sea? These were questions that he would not be able to find out unless he asked Macuya directly.

  A ruckus behind him shattered his thoughts. He turned and saw Macuya being led toward him by two guards. His second-in-command, a gruff middle-aged man named Roberto, followed. When the guards got within a few feet of Juan, they stopped abruptly and yanked the shackles on Macuya’s arms and legs, tightly removing all the slack. Roberto walked around them and respectfully removed his hat which revealed his thick, graying hair. He put an arm around Juan and led him a short distance away from Macuya.

  “Governor, the translator has spent all night with him and we’ve found out a few details about our prisoner,” Roberto said quietly.

  “What sort of details?” Juan asked.

  “It seems that Macuya felt he was doing the tribe a favor by leaving. I believe he gave it a lot of thought before he acted on it.”

  Juan’s eyes widened. “He thought he was doing them a favor? By leaving them?”

  Roberto nodded. “Yes, he believed that if the tribe had no leadership, they would be forced to surrender.”

  “He was right about that,” Juan chuckled, revealing a mouthful of tobacco-stained teeth. “That answers one question. I’m also curious to know how he fared as well as he did. His face seems smoother and more boyish. His color is very healthy for someone who spent four days in the sea.”

  Roberto nodded again, and took a moment before he spoke. “Yes…we asked him about that too.”

  Juan waited for a response as Roberto rubbed the back of his neck, still collecting his thoughts.

  “Go on,” he replied impatiently.

  “From what he is telling us, Macuya did not spend the entire four days in the open sea. He told us that at one point during his voyage he fell asleep. Later, he awoke to find his boat shipwrecked on an island and he spent a great deal of time there.”

  Juan’s eyes lit up. “An island? Are we aware of this island?”

  “We’ve spent a great deal of time trying to figure that out. At first, we thought it was possible he landed on the Caribbean Islands, but some of the other things he is telling us doesn’t make it very likely.”

  “What exactly is he telling you?”

  Once again, Roberto seemed unsure on whether or not to continue.

  “Go on…what is he telling you?” Juan urged as he caught a brief glance of Macuya, watching them nearby.

  “He says the island is enshrouded in fog and that it is crawling with monstrous lizards.” Roberto paused a moment to see how Juan would react. He remained calm and only nodded. “Governor, you did understand what I just said?”

  “Yes, yes, of course. It was probably some sort of crocodile, that’s all,” he replied.

  Roberto used his hand to wipe sweat from his brow. “No, Governor, we asked him to draw a picture in the sand. What he drew did not resemble a crocodile. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

  Juan looked back out across the ocean again. There were still plenty of untouched new worlds the Spaniards had not laid eyes on. It was possible that Macuya had found one. Suddenly, his interest intensified. “Roberto, it very well could be an undiscovered island. If it is, it is also conceivable that there are new species of animals inhabiting it.”

  Roberto stood motionless and did not nod in agreement the way Juan expected. “Yes, what you say is always a possibility,” he turned and motioned toward Macuya. “But I must caution you that he spent a lot of time in the ocean and we’ve seen in the past that an experience like that could drive a man mad. An experience like that can make a man say crazy things.”

  Juan stared at Macuya a long time before he spoke again. “That does not look like a man that spent four days in the ocean. He looks refreshed, and I can’t get past the fact that he seems younger.”

  Roberto laughed, but stopped abruptly when he realized Juan was not amused. “I apologize, Governor, but it’s funny that you keep mentioning that.”

  “How so?” Juan asked flatly.

  “Well, it’s just that Macuya has been babbling on about finding some sort of cave that had a natural spring spilling from the wall. It filled a pool in the cave floor, and Macuya insists that he drank from it and—” Roberto’s words trailed off, and he snickered. “He says that the water had magical powers.”

  Juan didn’t understand why Roberto found Macuya’s story humorous. He could not think of any good reason for Macuya to make up a story like that. He was a chief of the tribe. He was a noble warrior. The very reason Macuya gave for leaving the island and his people was seen as cowardly to some. He could’ve come up with a better story to explain his absence, but he chose not to. If he would not lie about that, why would he lie about the magical water? He stared at Macuya again and studied his features. Even his body seemed trimmer, and much more youthful. “He is not lying,” Juan blurted out abruptly.

  Roberto could hear the firmness in his voice, and though he still disagreed with him, he did not make it known. “What are you thinking, Governor?”

  “Send a reque
st to King Ferdinand. Tell him of our expedition to locate the fountain of youth.”

  Roberto could not believe what he heard. “Governor, you can’t be—”

  Juan turned and gestured for Roberto to silence himself. “Do as I say. This is an age of exploration. We must find this new world, and if the fountain of youth exists, we will find it. Send the request as I have commanded and gather up a crew. Make it known that if any man mocks me or this expedition, his services are no longer needed, and he will spend his remaining days working within the mines alongside the Taíno people. Is that understood?”

  Roberto swallowed and nodded quickly. “Understood, sir.”

  Juan rolled up the sleeves on his cotton shirt and turned to walk back toward his cabin to escape the scorching sun.

  Roberto called after him, “Governor, what shall we do with Macuya?”

  Juan stopped, but still faced his cabin. “The normal punishment for his actions is death. However, I’ve always respected this man. I will allow him to live, but lock him away so that he shall never see the light of day again.”

  “Very well, sir,” Roberto replied.

  The guards dragged Macuya away and threw him into a stone prison. It would be many, many years before he caught sight of the sun again.

  Chapter 4: