Everliving: Day 20

Word Total: 120,022

Year to Date: 120,022

Summary of Events:

Quique got bored of watching everyone look for water in the Fountain, which was obviously dry, so he went snooping around elsewhere and found a box which contained a journal written by the explorer who'd found the Fountain, and began to read it to everyone. Bethania finished copying out the ultimatum for her father before Reynaldo prepared to leave again and Bethania despaired of having to leave Ñapesa if the ultimatum failed. After enjoying a supper break, Quique continued reading the journal and they discovered that the Fountain of Youth had been dry for nearly sixty three years . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"To say the mood over the group was sombre, Quique felt, as he surveyed the group before reading ahead to prepare himself, was an understatement of epic proportions.

"I feel now great regret and foolishness that I wasted the water, and did not realise that what I had discovered, as much as it was a treasure, was a finite treasure, which can no longer be replenished," Quique read on. "It is greatly unfortunate that I can no longer replenish the Fountain, nor be replenished by it, but I cannot undo what has been done, however, I have decided, being as the Fountain can no longer have the potential of being utilised for my benefit, much less the potential benefit of my king, that this book shall be put somewhere, near the Fountain, where it shall remain for all the length of days until it should be that someone shall come along and read these tales and learn of the greatness which once was here, and may possibly in time come to find water here, if such is possible, or, if not, then honour this as a monument to the greatness we could have achieved."

Quique looked up to see some of the men had removed their hats and helmets, and some even looked to be in tears.

"Signed, the Honourable Duke Alberto Carlos Ricardo Estefan Luis Marco Juan Montoya Reyes de Nelo y Torepu," Quique finished.

He looked up again and saw most of the men getting up, making ready to depart and go back to their kings with the news that the Fountain of Youth contained no water, and had not contained any for the better part of a century.

"There is nothing more?" the Ñapesan duke asked, looking pointedly at Fulgencio and not Quique.

Quique flipped the page.

"There is!" Fulgencio exclaimed.

Everyone froze and looked in Quique's direction intently.

Quique looked over the text. It was in a different hand, but he read it anyways.

"To whomever should find this book," he read. "Take heart, for there is hope. Yea, the Fountain of Youth, finite treasure though it was, is spent, and there is nothing more to be found in it, there is another Fountain, a greater Fountain."

Those who weren't standing quickly scrambled to their feet, ready to run to the fountain the writer was speaking of as soon as Quique gave its location.

"This fountain is the Fountain of Life, which shall give life everlasting to all who drink of it, as opposed to the waters of the Fountain of Youth, which only provided the opportunity to be everliving," Quique read. "To find this Fountain, it is that one shall need to undertake a journey to El Asir–"

Shouts and running feet cut Quique off and he watched in silence as everyone who was on foot ran for the ships at once, those who had been on horseback swinging into their saddles and spurring their horses on at top speed."

Pronunciations:

Alberto: ahlbehrtoe

Carlos: carlohs

Ricardo: reecardoh

Estefan: ehstehfahn

Luis: looee

Marco: mahrkoh

Juan: wahn

Montoya: mohntoyah

Reyes: reyez

Nelo: nehloh

Y: ee

Torepu: tohrehpu

Fulgencio: fullgehnseeoh

Yea: yay

El Asir: ehl ahseer

Next post will be on January 31.