CHAPTER TWELVE #2
“Watch me!” I marched myself toward the boundary of the jungle in the distance, fury fueling my every step—I was fuming with it. I felt embarrassed and foolish, which only made me more irate.
I reached the jungle, the trees and shrubs enveloping me in a raucous embrace, but I wanted to create as much distance as I could between me and that…that…degenerate man. I needed to work on my insulting skills.
I started to run, leaves slapping at my face and arms, the ground beneath me veering slowly into a downhill trajectory, its soft cushion buffering me against the jolt of my strides.
Running felt good. I ran at home, especially after a rough night at work.
It helped me order my thoughts, something I hadn’t been willing to do since arriving here in the Hundi village.
I willed my mind to clear as the bioacoustics of the jungle rose around me—every buzz, chirp, and hum a snippet of communication between the wild animals who inhabited it. It was refreshingly calming.
I knew why I was angry. He’d bested me. Humiliated me.
And used my own tactic against me—with a surprising outcome.
I knew he found me attractive. It’s the reason I wanted to flirt with him.
I was grasping for control of my situation, any way I could get it.
What I didn’t anticipate was what a worthy opponent he turned out to be.
I underestimated him and made assumptions about his intelligence because he was indigenous.
But when he pulled me close and whispered into my ear, I liked it! I shuddered.
I stopped running and screamed into the dense jungle, “What the hell is happening?!” I spun in circles.
Everything looked the same. The thick canopy of vegetation hung overhead like a green tinted tent.
Ropey vines interlaced across tall palms, and jungle moss hung like tinsel thrown on a Christmas tree.
Ferns of all kinds glittered in the sunlight that peeked through the cracks overhead.
A couple of tree kangaroos scampered from one branch to another, my presence disrupting their morning forage.
I began to feel claustrophobic in the damp viridescence, but trudged forward, having to go slower as the thickness of the vegetation expanded the deeper I went.
I walked for an hour or more before my fuming pride began to weaken. I was thirsty and tired, and the natnat bug bites I didn’t want to acknowledge before were now itching with a vengeance.
I stopped and huffed, finally allowing my logical brain to convince me of what I knew was true. I could not make it back on my own. I didn’t even know where Makia was or how far I was from the village.
I weighed my options, feeling anything was better than turning around and walking back into Hundi with my tail between my legs. But when the other options were getting lost in the jungle or death by dehydration, I knew I only had one choice.
I turned back the way I came and continued my trek for half an hour, but I quickly found I had gotten turned around and felt a sinking feeling that I was walking in circles.
The ground beneath me squished with a faint scent of life and earth and all around me the untamed jungle began to feel like a tomb that would swallow me whole.
I began to run again, my heart thrummed loud in my ears, and fought against the rising panic in my throat.
Surely it was just up this hill. But after a while, I realized I was going downhill again so I turned.
But my search only produced a replay of all I’d already seen—there were no landmarks.
Everything melded into itself in a dizzying kaleidoscope of green and gold. The buzzing and chirping seemed to rise in volume, like a roar through my mind, and I felt my hands go numb and my chest heave as the jungle liquefied before my eyes.
“Help!” I heard a scream and realized, belatedly, it had come from me.
“Somebody!” I gulped past a sob and realized I was probably having a panic attack—I couldn’t think of what to do.
I stood still, willing my heart to resume its normal beating when the sounds of someone walking through the forest caught my ear.
“Jahnu, is that you?” I walked toward the noise through the dense foliage, but it was not Jahnu who met me.
I stood motionless, my eyes wide as I came upon the largest bird I had ever seen.
It stood on two legs like an ostrich. Its sleek, black feathers covered a large, round body.
Dangling from his long, bare neck was his wattle, a wrinkly mass of bumpy, warty-looking red skin.
His beak was not nearly as impressive as the large crest of bone that crowned his head, and his beady eyes had seen me.
“Nice birdie…,” I crooned, backing away ever so slowly. He stalked forward, his movements reminding me of the velociraptors from Jurassic Park. Actually, he looked like a dinosaur, and a throaty growl emanated from him. I imagined he wanted to eat me.
I turned and ran, but I heard the bird follow. I tried to run in a zig-zag, but he was too fast. I shouted obscenities at him and thought briefly how odd it was that my death would come at the hands of a wild giant ostrich in the tropical rainforest of Papua New Guinea.
I knew I couldn’t outrun him, so in a last-ditch effort to save myself, I turned on him and flailed my arms in the air, shouting every possible indecent and immoral word I could at him, telling him to get lost and leave me the hell alone.
He stood back, stunned, but then lurched at me with that ridiculous pointy beak and sliced his impossibly large talons through the air. He was taunting me.
I screamed again and then a whooshing sound seared past me as an arrow sliced the air. The arrow missed its target, but it had stunned the bird enough to distract him from his prey, which was me.
Jahnu came bounding through the foliage, a guttural cry, not unlike the one he’d made during his dance erupting from his chest. He pulled the bow again and this time the arrow sank into the bird’s flesh, causing him to flop back.
The bird made an ungodly rumbling growl before Jahnu produced a knife and grabbed the dinosaur-bird by his longneck and sliced through it, ending its agony.
We stood breathless for several moments.
Jahnu stayed knelt by his kill, whispering something I couldn’t hear. I didn’t know what to say.
“He would’ve killed you.”
“Yes, I’m aware,” I swallowed.
“The jungle is not a safe place. Can you see?” he pleaded. He turned toward me while I just nodded my head. “I want to keep you safe. I want to return you to your people. But you must trust there is timing for all that. You must trust me! Can you do that?”
“No, I don’t trust you!” I said, incredulous.
Jahnu sighed. “Can you try? Can you learn?” He asked calmly.
He held my gaze and I felt the pull of my heart all over again.
His eyes held such depth it made me want to weep, and I seldom weep.
His lips were so full and protruded from his face so decadently I imagined briefly what it would be like to have one caught between my own.
What was it about him that attracted me?
I nodded my head stiffly, knowing I was just giving him the answer he wanted. How was I supposed to trust this savage man who equally scared and excited me?
He offered his hand and pulled me up. “You are a stubborn woman. I did not t’ink you would actually go. When you did not return—I knew your stubbornness outweighed your wisdom. You do not know the dangers of this place.”
“I’m learning,” I said, using his own argument, feeling like a chastised child. He smirked and placed his hands on my shoulders.
“You ok?”
I nodded, wordlessly. For some reason I was embarrassed by my need for his rescue yet again, and did not meet his eyes, afraid he might read on my face what I was so desperately trying to cover.
“Let us go back now,” Jahnu said, turning.
We walked in silence for a few minutes until I couldn’t help myself.
“You missed,” I poked, wanting to share the weight of some of this humility he’d brought me.
“Mmm?” He turned back to me.
“When you shot your first arrow. You missed. I’ve never seen you miss.”
“Yes, well…let us not tell the children,” he said stiffly. I smirked, seeing his discomfort at the admission, and we resumed walking.
I did not trust Jahnu, but I felt an endearment to him, and I was definitely attracted to him.
He reminded me of, well, myself, and the things that niggled at me about him were the same things I battled to like in myself.
He was bossy and controlling, manipulative and…
and…so, so annoying! But also, kind, gentle, passionate, and wise.
From just looking at him I could see the years of hardship he’d endured.
How could someone be both young and old?
Gentle, yet fierce? Scary, but alluring?
I would get back to Makia somehow. The thought brought a modicum of comfort.
He said he wanted to return me. Could I trust what he said?
When would he take me back? And under what circumstances?
What if he kept me here for a long time?
I would just have to find a way to get through to him because I was not going to just wait until he was ready.
A gentle rain started falling as we made our way back to the village. I faced a new task. A seemingly impossible task. I would have to try and break through his shell without breaking my own in the process.