Into the heart of the forest
Chapter 9:
Into the heart of the forest
As the heat of the night grew warmer, the noises around her became unbearable: annoying mosquitoes were a constant struggle, probably attracted by the injured prey. The moon was shining bright above her head, painting the sky in a deep blue tint; yet that was exactly the reason why the adventurer had not yet dared close an eye.In fact, If she had by any chance fallen asleep without finding a shelter first, she would have lost her sight, for that is the dreadful power of the moonlight in those southern regions. So, Daring Do kept going on her way, fatiguingly leaping, as a large black panther had previously bitten her right leg, causing the woman a grave bleeding which, judging by Daring ’s moans, had not yet stopped:
“I wish I never met that beast” she hissed, gasping.
The adventurer found herself before an incredible number of spider webs that the arachnids had skilfully hidden among the jungle vines, forcing Daring Do to clear her path with the large dagger she brought on her belt:
“Ouch”
exclaimed the woman, not having accounted for the thorns the bushes she passed through had on their branches that kept scratching her every step she made:
“Done” whispered the girl, as soon as she had reached a clearing on the other edge of her path: “The worst has been dealt with”, sadly, the daring explorer was mistaken. As she placed her blade back on her belt, a loud road was heard, followed by the sound of frightened birds, flying away from their nests: it did not take long for Daring to understand what she had run into. She slowly turned around and noticed a large animal which, from the looks of it, must have weighted about 57 pounds, laying on a heavy branch, carefully hidden in the dark that the leaves reflected above its body:
“Shoot!” whispered the girl who could already feel a drop of sweat wetting her forehead, despite the effort she made to remain calm in front of the incoming danger. The beast’s eyes glimmered in the shadows like light bulbs, as the animal made a leap and fell on the ground, remaining hidden from the sight of her enemy. The woman gulped, while her trembling legs shortly began to loose their balance. As for the feline predator; it looked rather calm before the prospective of facing an armed opponent, but that was no surprise to Daring who knew too well what it meant to live in the wilderness: after all, even for a big and strong beast, fighting was no more than an ordinary part of the daily routine.
As the large animal decided to finally reveal itself, its view conveyed Daring an indescribable fear, something similar to a constant tremor or fire burning beneath her skin: the best was covered in thick fur black as carbon, had a pair of small ears on the top of an elongated head, its yellowed snake-like eyes were filled with a raging fire, the muscles were so developed some of its blood vessels emerged from the tissue, yet the thing that frightened the woman most was a horrendously hideous scar, shaped like a long fang, surrounding the animal’s left eye.
Seeing her opponent in the daylight, the fearless adventurer was ready to defend herself from its attack, yet the panther stood still, without moving even its tail, carefully studying her pray, waiting for the right moment to strike; and so it did.
After Daring had hidden her blade behind her back, the beast assaulted her in full might, showing off two couples of incredibly long yellow canines in its watering mouth:
“Now’ s my chance!” thought the girl, ducking to avoid the panther’s powerful paws, but this time the feline proved to be more cleaver than she had expected. Daring had thought that escaping her opponent’s attack at the last second, would give her the opportunity to launch at the beast, yet the well prepared feline predator, landing on its feet, quickly turned around and went for the woman’s leg:
“AAHHHH!!”
at that very moment a loud moan was heard, as the beast buried its teeth into the opponent’s flesh and tried to bit it off with the powerful jaw.
The explorer struggled, cried from pain, fought for her life, gasping more and more deeply; in the end she managed to free herself from the panther’s dreaded bite, after penetrating deeply the beast’s right eye with her dagger. The large animal, now partially blinded, roared powerfully and looked at the opponent with a furious gaze. At that point, as Daring Do had imagined, the panther could not hold back much any longer an assaulted her enemy once more, while the woman, dagger in hand, ducked beneath its belly.
An unbearable noise was heard, the panther feel on its back and abandoned herself to its last breath, while Daring, feeling warm blood, flowing out from the injury the animal had caused her, fell on her knees, but managed to crawl into the nearby bushes.
Now that the night had fallen, the woman had lost count of how much time she had spent in that state and was feeling weaker by the minute due to tiredness, thirst, hunger and most of all her bleeding which had not stopped tormenting her for a moment. The explorer had already started having illusions and, If she had not found shelter soon, she would have fainted any moment; luckily for her that was not meant to be her last day, for shortly afterwards she came across a small cave.
The woman slowly reached it and started a fire around which she placed a lot of dry leaves and branches so it would burn all night then, laying on a wall, she pulled out a water container and a small sugar bag from the rucksack she brought along with her. After washing her fresh injury, she spread some of the sugar on it, then took what remained of the spider webs she had chopped before facing the panther and cleverly saved in her pocket and applied it where it hurt the most:
“I hope no vampire bats live in here” whispered Daring right before falling asleep, as she felt her pain slowly vanishing; she was right to fear the presence of the animals she had mentioned, though.They havein fact caused the death of many people who slumbered peacefully in the forest at night, but she managed to get some rest undisturbed.
Hours later a bothering itching woke her up:
“Mmm...”
whispered the adventurer, rubbing her heavy eyes: “damn mosquitoes”; the fire had stopped burning for quite a while and sun was almost at its peak: “I’ve slept too long” said in the end Daring, before grabbing her hat, that she had unconsciously tossed away from her during her sleep, and exited her shelter.
Being back on her path, the girl took an old looking scroll with a map drawn on it from her bag and tried to read the ancient writings, while thinking:
“I seriously hope that merchant didn’t trick me”.
“So” questioned Daring Do, putting on a doubtful face: “are you sure this will lead me right to the ancient fortress of Doom Diamond of Zilaty?”
“Why...yes” grinned the clothed man she was talking to: “Haven’t I mentioned, yet that I am a prestigious philologist?”
“You did” replied the woman, clearly bothered by the merchant’s attitude:
“So, why do you keep doubting me? I’ve showed you all my work, I’ve already explained that, having spent the most of my life on my job, I take it very professionally, yet you still refuse to believe in my words”.
The man was not so tall and, to be honest, he was rather thin, too, wore a purple tunic or: “tawb”, as people call it in the southern regions, decorated by a long golden necklace with large emeralds carved into it; his skin was the colour of olive and, from under his suspicious hood, Daring noticed a messy curly beard:
“Well” answered at that point the girl: “It’s just that I can’t really understand why you would sell me your hard work so easily” after gulping, the man replied with a depressed tone of voice:
“You see…I certainly do my job with great passion, but this doesn’t exactly repay me financially as much as I need”, Daring answered nodding:
“I see...well, I guess I won’t find anything else that could help me, so have it your way”. After she had spoken those word, the adventurer threw a sack of golden coin to the man and grabbed the map he was handing her:
“You won’t regret this, I assure you” grinned the man, maliciously rubbing the coin between his hands:
“If you say so, farewell”. Daring Do turned around and checked the map over and over again, as she was walking away from the town square: “It looks okay” sighed the girl, looking at the old scroll she was holding: “I truly hope this doesn’t turn out to be a dead end”.
It had been hours since she had started walking and yet her final goal now seemed more unreachable than when she had started her journey, the sun was going down and soon it would disappear under the thick vegetation of the jungle, making it impossible for Daring to go on, but worst of all, it would bring the nocturnal predators out of their lairs and the adventurer wished anything but to encounter one of those beasts again: “One was enough” kept repeating the woman, as she was reflecting upon these things: “One was enough”.
She even had to eat a snake for lunch: a reptile which is considered to have a disgusting taste even by the aborigines of certain equatorial islands Daring had previously visited, and now she understood why.
While proceeding on her way, the explorer had the chance to admire some of the most beautiful animal species; the likes of which can only be found in those territories: groups of sun conures, which take their name from their incredible bright feathers, reminding the sun light, flew over her head, among the leaves of the giant meranti trees, headed to their nests to turn in for the night, small green queztals stood still on the branches, of a magnificent vatica kanthenensis, plant know especially for its beautiful red coloured leaves,curiously watching the stranger passing by, whereas a male toucan was too busy to show off his dark feathers and golden chest to a potential mate to pay any attention to the adventurer, not to mention the weird-looking turacos, a rather rare species to spot nowadays, which make everybody who sees them burst into laughter at the sight of their pompous greenish crest.
As for the ground, it was populated by the most curious insects Daring had ever seen; for starters: frog-legged leaf beetles, known for their rainbow coloured hard back, were resting on the surrounding white-orchird trees, ruby peacock butterflies were feeding on the nectars of the bright flowers of the red lauans, white-lined months enjoyed the fresh air of sunset, while showing off their rose wings.
Feeling her throat dry, Daring took a breath of relief, hearing the sound of water coming from a close stream, then moved toward that direction; yet suddenly the ground began to shake and the daring adventurer run off to climb a tall kempas nearby: she knew what was about to happen.
After a few moments the ground disappeared beneath what looked to be a thick layer of sand, yet was actually an ant army: these species are not hard to come by in rainforests, but nobody who actually knows something about them wishes to cross these furious insects, for they devour everything that stands in their way; plants, animals, nothing is spared and that is the reason why they got their dreadful name.
Daring had certainly seen many ants armies during her previous travels, but she could never get used to witness the chaos they brought along with them: how could such small and innocent-looking creatures destroy in an instant even the grass they walked on, chew up every single leaf from the surrounding plants and rid flowers of their petals?
“Gosh!” exclaimed Daring, watching the scene from the high branch she was sitting on: “It’s a luck I can climb quickly”.
After the tempest had calmed down, the adventurer got back on the ground, which now was more similar to a burnt field, and resumed her journey toward the stream, even though, as she had been forced to climb a tall tree to save herself from mortal danger, she had caused her injured leg to bleed again which gave her tremendous pain.
The girl fatiguingly strolled until she had reached her destination and kneeled before the small river to wet her heated lips and wash her open wound, but at that moment she heard the cries of pink flamingos, scared by her presence, flying away which, believe it or not, made her realize she had found more than just a stream. Startled, the woman took the map from her hand bag and checked it multiple times and only afterwards she finally believed in what she was seeing before her: she had finally made it, she had reached the ruins of the ancient fortress of Domed Diamond of Zilati.
Still speechless, Daring refused to waste time and approached the ruins which, truth to be told, appeared more to be those of a mastaba, a tomb, than some kind of fortress:
“Nice” exclaimed Daring, maintaining her usual smooth spirit that had been tasted many times in that adventure, and yet was far from being broken. Two lines of colossal columns stood before the entrance, laying open; Daring did not think twice to walk in.
The interior of the temple was gothic and had lost most of its formal might: nothing remained of the walls cloth which had left the plaster free for the spiders to sew their webs on, some parts of the roof had fallen down, so water dropped from the holes they had made in the sealing and the patterns on the floor were either inexistent or irreparably damaged and hideous thorns grew between their cracks.
The explorer walked deeper into the mastaba, through an interminable corridor, slowly breathing the humid air, until she found herself before an impressive-looking door, the tallest she had ever seen in all of her travels: it must have measured about twenty feet in hight and ten in width, it was skilfully decorated in various painting, showing different scene: a man sitting in a boat in the middle a swamp, fearless hunters, guided by their wise princess, tracking down wild boars and right at the centre a dreadful beast, resampling a giant black kestrel or a terrifying vulture with a triangular hole on its chest:
“Okay” whispered at that point Daring Do: “Let’s see, If my luck hasn’t abandoned me yet”.
“Shoot!” exclaimed the explorer, finally arriving, at the lost ziggurat she had spent days searching for: “They got here before me and destroyed everything, those scoundrels!”.
Seeing what was laying before her eyes, the woman struggled to believe her enemy’s thugs had been so foolish to demolish a whole ancient tower: over a hundred feet of history had been brought down without a second thought and she had not done anything to avoid it:
“they understand nothing but greediness, don’t care about anything else” hissed Daring angry as a viper, as it sees her eggs threatened: “But this has to end now!”.
The woman followed the fresh footprints the looter had left which disappeared under a thick layer of dust and sand. The explorer walked around a fallen column and entered a door that quickly lead her into what seemed to be the remainder of a temple hall where a large well, all alone by the corner, could be seen. As Daring approached it, she smiled with great confidence: “there’s no way those men made it this far”; then took a deep breath and dove in.
The water was freezing and cooled off the girl’s blood, as soon as she started swimming; Daring grand her teeth and did her best not to think about the pain consuming her every strength and fought to reach the bottom of the pool. There she recovered a small wooden chest with a golden lock on the front. The adventurer swam back to surface and filled her chest with fresh air, then got out of the cursed water, still trembling from cold, sneezing, feeling her hair wetting her neck:
“If this contains what I need” she whispered: “then it was worth what I’ve been through”. Daring forced the lock and retrieved a small key from inside the mysterious chest, then finally fainted on the ground.
The explorer turned the key inside the hole; then, after a loud noise, the heavy door slowly lifted, allowing the girl to crawl underneath. The room she found herself in afterwards was a thin corridor with a high ceiling from which the sunlight penetrated, brighting the whole place:
“Bingo!” said to herself Daring Do, as she laid her gaze upon what was waiting for her at the other edge of the room: an artefact shaped like a crown or a tiara, covered in gold and ancient runs with a flawless sapphire carved into it: “the crown of the two sisters...” she exclaimed: “...mine, after all this straggling, it’s mine!”.
The woman carefully stepped forward, while observing the floor: “hopefully I won’t activate any hidden traps” she thought, gulping; yet it seemed her worries were unnecessary, for no snake of poison arrow came out of the wall, contrarily to what she was expecting, being used to her intrepid adventures.
Her pupils enlarged, as she was staring at her prize: the beautiful, but dangerous crown of the two sisters: “It is said to be cursed” she thought, before grabbing the artefact: “It is said that its value drove people apart and lead them to slaughter each other without mercy… too bad I am not superstitious”.
The daring explorer took the crown and rushed to the exit, fearing that some deadly trap would catch her distracted at any moment, but nothing of the sort happened, moreover she smoothly made it to the main door and successfully escaped the fortress:
“Ah” she whispered: “who would have thought?”. Sadly, the explorer had yet to learn that in life stunning surprises come when you least expect them, especially unpleasant ones; in fact it did not take long for her to realize she was not alone:
“Greetings, Daring Do” said maliciously a manly voice: “It’s been a while”. At the sound of those words, the woman turned around and her eyes burst into flames, as she saw a familiar figure right in front of her: a man was standing not far from Daring with his shoulder resting of the trunk of a dark ebony; wearing no more than a pair of rusty blue jeans, a white silk shirt with short sleeves and a reddish foulard to cover his neck, he also had a black beard, messy, but short and clean; long dark hair reached the back oh his neck and two hard angled brows hid the most threatening pair of eyes:
“Caballeron” hissed Daring Do at his hated nemesis:
“It’s Dr. Caballeron for you” replied the man, clearly bothered by the adventurer’s lack of formal manners:
“what are you doing here?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Sorry for the inconvenience, but me and my friends couldn’t just find the time to ask you an invitation, so we just figured we’d follow you”
“Should have known you wouldn’t let me get away with the crown of the two sisters, after what you caused at the tower of Culucon” grand her teeth Daring Do:
“Yes” answered Caballeron, clearing his throat: “that was an unfortunate event, but desperate times call for extreme measures, I’ve learnt that from you”
“So, what are you planning this time, what are you gonna do with the crown?”
“Certainly something more than giving it away to a dusty old museum like you always do”
“That’s were ancient treasures belong”
“Until now, that is: don’t take me wrong; I really love this chat, yet there’s somewhere else I need to be in a few minutes, so…”the man snapped his fingers, and suddenly three thugs came out the nearby bushes: one was well built, red haired, had a fresh scar on his right blue eye, a mate of his had a short messy beard and was wearing a black fedora hat, the last one wore a white silk shirt and a pair of dark sun glasses.
The whole of them launched at Daring Do at once, furiously attempting to grab the priceless relic away from her hands, but unluckily for them, their opponent was as experienced in fighting and didn’t gave them a moment to rest. Avoiding their punches and kicks, she defended herself with all the strength she had left, counter-attacking with her hands and teeth, hitting the first one in the face, biting the second one’s arm, forcing the two remaining criminals to step back:
“It seems, you have been practising” grinned to her Caballeron:
“Oh, don’t worry, there’s plenty more where that came from; for you, too”. The woman assaulted her opponent like a rampaging beats with her soul full of fury, yet forgot that Caballeron never worked alone; a sudden pain followed and the daring adventurer fell on the ground, hit on the back of her head by a heavy crowbar, and fainted shortly afterwards.
When she woke up, the sun had not yet risen, but a fair light could already been seen beyond the horizon, humidity filled the air, while she was laying in small pond of blood and saliva, slowly dropping from her mouth:
“Ah, my head” whispered Daring Do, as she tried to stand back on her feet, but was still unable to move from pain: “Those, cursed scoundrels, they’ll pay soon... they’ll learn not to cross my path ever again!”
speaking those words, the adventurer proved she still had her unbreakable spirit inside her, yet it was hard to tell If what she was saying would happen: sure she had a trail of fresh footprints to follow, but she was still seriously injured, lost in the middle of a hostile jungle, as Caballeron’s thugs had taken care of robbing her of her map, too, without food or water and worst of all, alone…
“And that’s the end of it!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, laying on her comfy bed: “Now off to read the next book: Daring Do and the restless pursuit, so we can see how she totally whoops the bad guy’s butts!”
“Dash...” answered her Sunset, doing her best to contain a yawn: “I know Daring Do is absolutely awesome, A.K. Yearling is your favourite author of all time and so on, but you’ve been reading me stories the whole day; it’s almost sundown: can we please do something else?”.
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thanks for a great adventure and one heck of a great ending. well done!
8805031
well, surprising your readers is part of the fun, I guess!
Isn't that "worst of all"?
and,
I think that's a "read"
no spaces in "a tall kempas"
isn't that "no more"?
"waist time"
"took and deep breath" or "took a deep breath"?
"herintrepid"
"a mate OH his"
the fair light could already BEE seen
"worse of all" or "worst of all"
Wow, I was wondering is there will be a new story series or something, lol
Well, this is a good ending, seems reasonable~ xd