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// 5 - Into Jungle Deep 
// Story: The Unpublished Origin of Daring Do 
// by David Silver 
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Yearling tapped a hoof to her chin as she looked over a large map of Equestria. So many potential places, but she couldn't just go anywhere. Hay, she could just go into her backyard and start digging and hope to get lucky, but the odds would be against her, and she'd feel silly too...

No... "I need a promising place..." Somewhere she couldn't normally go. The museum had specific rules and regulations it followed about what sites it pursued, but she wasn't working for them at the moment. She was a free agent, free to wander where her hooves carried her and free to fail without anyone but herself being upset about it.

It was as terrifying as it was liberating. She reached for a phone and soon had a friend on the line.

"Hello?"

"Sharp Eye, good to hear from you."

"A.K.? A delight," replied the other archaeologist on the line. "To what do I owe this rare pleasure?"

"So here's the situation. I'm a free agent--" He interrupted with a soft affirmative noise. "--and I want to dig." Another uh-huh emerged. "And I can dig anywhere, since no one is telling me I can't." A third agreement. "So where would you dig, if you were in my horseshoes?"

"That's a hay of a question," rumbled the stallion. "I can see why you called me about it." A.K. knew Sharp Eye had worked alone in the past. "Let me cut to the chase. Do you want safe?"

A.K. blinked softly at that. "Safe? Digging usually isn't overly dangerous."

"Do you want safe," he repeated, each word said solidly. "There are two ways for a free digger to go. You can find a nice quiet place and just get to digging, or you can go to where the museums wouldn't dare to send their people."

Her mouth felt dry, and licking her lips did little to aid the situation. "What... kind of places would those be?"

"A.K... Amy, we're friends, right? I'd rather you just found a quiet patch of dirt, to be honest."

"You've already dangled that apple in front of my face." A.K. sat up tall, holding the phone's receiver against her head. "I may never be a free agent again. I want to hear more."

A soft muttering was all she could hear for a moment, some shuffling papers? "Look, I'm still recovering from my own trek, so I can't go here, but if you want to, I have a firm request before then."

"That depends on what you're asking?" Her mind filled with odd images of being told to do terribly illegal things as favors.

"Don't get hurt."

She slumped, feeling bad for doubting her friend. "I'll try my best, promise. Is it really that dangerous?"

"It can be. There's a reason the museums shy away from it. Anyway, here." He began to describe a place. "--in the jungle, hot, wet, filled with bugs, toxic critters, and maybe a little slice of history. A  hot-air baloon spotted what could have been the stone top of a building. That's your target."

"A whole building?!" Amy squeaked. "Why aren't they already tearing that apart right now?"

"That jungle is a no-pony's land. Did I not just mention the hostile fauna? The flora's not too friendly either. If you get to the building, you will almost certainly be alone, and what you find will be yours to do with as you please."

A.K.'s eyes shone with wonder at the idea, but her giddy smile faded a little. "But here you are, telling me, instead of going yourself. Are you alright?"

"No," came the frank answer. "I'm laid up, as I said. I'd be running off towards that right now, if I could... The way I see it, I'd much rather know you got to it first, rather than some stranger."

Her cheeks warmed a little. "That's... really sweet of you, now that I think about it. Thank you, Sharp."

"Just be careful, Amy. I don't want you to rush to join me in being bedridden, right? Go in, grab something nice, and get out." There was the briefest of pauses. "Say, you're a pegasus, aren't you?"

She glanced back at her ill-frequently used wings. "In theory."

"Fly then. Probably safer. Dress light, keep the sun off your face, and move fast." Without even waiting for a bye, or giving one, she heard his receiver click, and the call ended.

She set down her own receiver. "Fly, yes..." It wasn't as if her wings didn't work, or that she didn't know how to use them. It was a fairly good bit of advice. "First..." She began to get dressed in light clothes, with a nice cap to keep the sun off perched on her head.

She looked like an archaeologist, which made sense, being one. But she was a rogue agent. No archaeological orginization knew where she was going, when she was going, or what she would find. Not that she was a thief. Whatever she found, she'd examine it delightedly, then turn it right over to experts to do what they do with artifacts.

Was there a book for that? Someone should write that... A.K. shook her head softly. "I did my side of things." She envisioned her future book, an indistinct cover on it in her mind. What would that cover become? Only time would reveal that mystery. She grabbed a bag and slung it over her shoulder, hanging so that the flap was at her side. "Supplies."

She raided the fridge, grabbing packets of dry food and bottles of water. She always made it a point to have both. They were useful when on an assignment, even free agent ones. She stuffed her bag about half full of them. With a flap of her freed wings, she launched herself out of her home, locked the door, and took off, towards adventure, she hoped.





"Is there a frequent roller program?" she asked a conductor.

He tipped his hat at the adventurous-looking mare. "There is, in fact. Would you like to sign up?"

"I would like that." She accepted the form he came back with and soon was a member. A free ride after every four paid ones? And she got a stamp for the ride she was already on. "Why didn't I get this moons ago?" She tucked the card away and turned her attention to the map of the rail lines.

The train would only get her so far. It did not push into the jungle, nice as that would have been."It's up to me," she muttered to herself, disembarking at the closest station. Being an archaeologist, she spent most of the time right on the ground, getting personal with the past. It was not a traditionally 'pegasus' calling. "A day's fly away..." Assuming she flew without stop for an entire day... She wasn't quite feeling that confident.

She watched the train roll away, a lazy trail of smoke pointing back towards her. There would be no other train for 2 days, so rarely was that stop visited. 

That didn't stop her from taking to the sky for the first leg, er, wing of her journey. The vegetation grew frighteningly dense beneath her in no time at all. The hot air baloon had spotted a stone slab in the mess of trees. She figured if she could spot the same thing, that would tell here where to land and begin exploring. Hopefully, she'd never have to actually land in the jungle proper and deal with its hostile inhabitants.

The calls and cries of the jungle natives began to become clear in her ears. Exotic bird warbles and chirps danced with soft hisses and great roars of some terrific jungle predator that could make a snack of her if she wasn't careful. "When I get tired," she said to herself. "I will rest on a tree." The ground felt especially unsafe at that moment.

Would that she could give Sharp a call. What a different would it would be in, where a pony could make a call while flying over a jungle. Seemed more like a unicorn thing, some sort of magic item. Maybe such a thing existed? She'd never heard of one, but became fascinated with imagining what one would look like and how it would work.

Her vision was suddenly obscured. There had been a sharp chorus of a cry, then things were flying all around her. The swarm of whatever they were were managing to steer around her perfectly, leaving her stunned and shocked, but unharmed as the carpet rolled over her. 

Amy's eyes darted around, but she could see almost nothing, even the sun blocked by the thick covering of the whatever-they-weres flying past. She could hear their wings flapping and their alarmed cries.. As the last of them flew past her, she could see they were some kind of birds, flying in a thick flock. They were fleeing danger, and had no interest in a random pony. That was just as well, she figured, resuming her trek.

With a loud roar, something jumped at her from the foliage. With sharp teeth and sharper fangs, a great cat was attempting to make a snack of  her. Amy squealed with terror and flapped backwards and upwards, its claws scraping one of her hooves, but not finding purchase. It fell into the jungle below, leaving her to heave for stolen breath, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. "Top... of trees... not safe..."

She was getting tired, despite that. Where could she hide for a safe little recharge? She rubbed the scratched hoof with her other forehoof as her eyes darted around, looking for something, anything. She could hide in a cloud? Surely few things would bother her there. Most things that could get to a cloud were aiming for prey much smaller than a pony to grab.

Amy craned her neck back to look skywards and a strained laugh escaped her. The rainforest had no shortage of clouds to select from. She quickly gained some altitude towards one and landed gingerly on its fluffy... soggy... surface. She skewed an ear in confusion and tried taking a few steps. The cloud supported her, but she could hear and see water squelching under each step.

This cloud would offer no dry soft bedding. Only sogginess. Still... maybe that was better than risking having some wild beast chomp her as she took a breather.

She sank down onto the wet mess on her belly and closed her eyes, trying to will herself to calm. "Thank you, dear friend." She could feel the sun bathing her, and felt glad she had been told to put on a hat, keeping it off her head and out of her eyes. "If I survive this, I admit I will be unsure whether to hug you or give you a kick." Perhaps both would work?

The soft ache of well-used wings slowly ebbed. She felt ready to take flight again and stood up. Peeking over the edge, she realized another small error on her part. The cloud hadn't stayed still at all. No properly managed cloud, it was wild and with a will of its own. It had drifted in some direction over the jungle, leaving her thoroughly lost.

"Well..." She bit back the foul word she had been dreaming up. "Let's stay calm and rational.... You didn't know where you were going. This changes nothing, in the end." She nodded, increasingly sure in her own logic. "So... Stone roofs. That's all I need to find."

She launched out in the late afternoon sky and resumed her search, eyes roaming the thick canopy for even a hint of some kind of anything that wasn't yet another tree or something that wanted to see how delicious she happened to be that day.