The Discovery's Choice - Complete
The Island Wonder
Scene 1 of 3
Scene 1 of 3
The black sand swallowed Eleanor's boots with each step.
Steam vents hissed around her ankles like snakes.
She adjusted her spectacles. Then climbed higher.
The volcanic slope rose sharp before her.
Her breath came short. Thin air pressed against her lungs.
At the crater's rim, she stopped.
The sight below stole the air from her chest.
A garden filled the ancient bowl.
Flowers pulsed with ethereal blue light.
Petals seemed to breathe. In and out.
They glowed like captured starlight.
She opened her sketchbook with trembling fingers.
This defied every Linnaean classification she had ever studied.
The pencil scratched against paper.
Faster now. Frantic.
Stamens glowed. Leaves shimmered with impossible geometry.
One does not simply discover such wonders.
One bears witness.
Her hand cramped. She kept drawing.
The light shifted. Changed color.
Blue to violet. Violet to silver.
She captured it all. Every impossible detail.
Below on the beach, Captain Silas Wakefield watched.
His calloused thumb rubbed the ship's railing.
Weathered wood beneath his skin.
He sensed what this meant.
The discovery would change everything.
For the woman who had become like a daughter to him.
For the world that thought it knew everything.
Eleanor closed the sketchbook.
Her fingers traced the leather cover.
She carried something that would rewrite history.
The weight settled in her chest.
A terrible, wonderful burden.
She turned toward the beach.
Toward the ship. Toward England.
Toward everything she had ever wanted.
And everything she would have to choose.