Jumanji: Game of the Jungle

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter 6: Need a Hand?

Everyone needed a rest. After running through the forest, trying to fight off a tribe of murderous pigmies, and had to climb up the side of a slippery cliff when gallons and gallons of rain were falling on them, all the while trying not to get swept up in a crocodile-infested flash flood – everyone there needed to catch their breaths. By the time they entered the crystalline treehouse, everyone was near exhausted, dripping wet, and paranoid of whatever they might come across.

After finding some towels in the upper level of the treehouse to dry themselves, the group rested for at least half an hour, trying to plan out their next move. They were about halfway through the game, and with each turn, they just barely managed to get out of one horrific situation after another. It was agreed, once everyone was rested up that they needed to get themselves better prepared.

The first thing they did was to gather anything useful they could use. Both within the treehouse and in the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters. Anything from weapons to tools from axes to rope, shields to a box of matches, even whatever armor could be found were gathered. They even moved anything unnecessary outside the treehouse’s lower floor so that there wouldn’t be any unwelcome surprises that might pop out. Within an hour or two, both students and teachers felt confident that whatever comes out of the game, they were surely prepared.

Setting the game in the middle of the room, Silverstream looked at her friends and teachers. Picking up the dice, she held them in her claws, pondering for a moment.

“You okay?” Pinkie asked, having a pillow tied to her head while wearing heavy hoofball padding.

“It’s just… I’ve been thinking. Every time we roll the dice, things have been getting increasingly worst. I mean, Professor Applejack nearly drowned in that flood back there. On top of the other freaky things, we’ve had to deal with today. I’m just thinking that… what if one of us gets killed? I mean… we’ve nearly died several times already and we’ve been lucky so far. What would we do if any of you get… I don’t want to think about it, but it might be likely any of us could die before anyone wins the game.”

“Silver,” Gallus reached out his claw to put it over hers’, “I know you’re scared; we all are. I don’t know what more crap we must put up with today, but as you said, we’re almost there.”

Ocellus put her hoof on top of Gallus’s claw. “There’s a saying that the night is the darkest before the dawn. I get it that things are grim, but it won’t be like this forever. One way or another, we’ll get through this. No matter what, I won’t stop playing until it’s done.”

“So will I.” Smolder put her claw onto of theirs, “We’re not gonna give up so easily.”

“Neither will we,” Twilight said, as she and the others put their hooves on their shoulders.

After a moment of silence and everyone backed away, Zecora added, “It warms the heart of such solidarity showing. But regardless of what happens, we’ll keep going.”

Nodding, Silverstream shook her claw. “Is everycreature ready?”

They were, some turned their backs in a tight ring around the game, eyeing round the room of its empty bookshelves, the windows, and the top of the stairs that leads up to the second floor.

“Okay… here we go.” Silverstream gave a final warning as she rolled the dice again.

Landing on an eight, she watched the crocodile piece move further down the path, getting closer to the end of the game than any of them. Which gave her hope of how close they are to finishing this nightmare. When the token reached its spot, the gem in the center formed a new curse, which she read aloud:

Need a hand? Why just you wait;
We’ll help you out. We each have eight.

Fluttershy blinked, “If I didn’t know any better, that sounds an awful lot like-”

“SPIDERS!” Rarity shrieked. Everyone else turned to see what she was looking at. Above them, they saw several on the ceiling. They were completely taken aback by how giant these arachnids were. As large as children, they were hairy with long, bone-like legs, and huge vangs that were slobbering in venom.

“Holy Celestia’s plot hole! They’re huge!” Spike exclaimed.

“Language, Spike!” Twilight chided, her horn blasting one nearby.

Back-to-back, the tight ring of students and teachers did what they could to fight this latest threat off. Rainbow Dash took the air to knock whatever spiders descending from above with a baseball bat. Twilight did the same while using her horn. Meanwhile, on the ground, Ocellus transformed herself into a dragon to see if breathing fire might deter the oncoming creepy-crawlies. When it seemed to be working, Smolder and Spike each took in deep breaths to fan their flames out. However, between breaths, those huge spiders kept advancing.

Using whatever weapons they could find, Fluttershy, Applejack, Zecora, Rarity, Pinkie, Gallus, and Silverstream did everything to keep them away. Zecora swung and jabbed her spear, Gallus and Silverstream chopped with swords, Applejack with a rope to whip at them, Rarity slashed with an open pair of scissors, Pinkie slapped them with a rubber chicken, and Fluttershy swung a pillow at them.

As much as they kept those eight-legged horrors at bay, they somehow kept on coming. It was as though for every one spider they managed to wack away, three more would pop up from somewhere. For a while, none of them were sure if they could keep up. They were too busy to have someone else take a turn to roll the dice. What they needed was a miracle.

And the game gave them one.

“YAK SMASH!” Suddenly a hysterical war cry was heard, and before they knew it, Yona came charging through the front door. With her horns bowed low, she came in charging at the spiders like a bulldozer at full speed. She plowed at these giant arachnids with a primal force, going round and round the room the gore, stomp, kick, bite, and wack whatever was in her way.

This sudden unexpected attack forced the army of spiders to retreat as the wild Yak went on a rampage around the room. And yet, even when the last of them had left, Yona continued with a fearful, near sobbing cry as she went around and around and around.

“Yona!” Sandbar galloped out to her, “Yona, stop!”

Even when Sandbar tried to grab ahold of her, she kept thrashing about wildly to the point it took all her friends to slow her down. And doing so, they got a good look at her. The poor Yak was tired, sobbing from a mental breakdown. Her thick fur and her green saddle were nearly shredded as though she was attacked repeatedly by some monster. There were cuts and clumps of fur missing with her hooves muddy, and her horn scratched.

“Oh dear, oh no.” Zecora dropped her spear and went into action. “All of you, let go. Please give her some air, this I must take care.”

Yona’s friends stepped back as Zecora instructed everyone what to fetch for her. While they grabbed a first aid kit and a few herbs that were about the castle, the zebra did all she could to patch her up – apologizing repeatedly all the while. It took a while to get her to calm down as Yona couldn’t talk without bursting out into tears. In the end, it took the efforts of everyone there to both clean and assure her that she was safe.

As soon as she was patched up, Sandbar hugged her tightly. “I was so scared I lost you.” He told her.

Eventually, Yona was finally able to speak, if shakingly, “Y-Y-Yona… not… o-okay.”

“What happened to you?” Ocellus asked her. “Where did you go?”

Yona with fearful eyes shook her head. “Don’t… Don’t make Yona go back…”

Sandbar hugged her tighter, “It’s okay Yona. You’re home now. Nothing can hurt you now.”

“I don’t understand,” Fluttershy said to Zecora, “How did she get back? We saw her be sucked up inside the game.”

“That is indeed true,” Zecora nodded, but looking over at the open gameboard she pointed, “but I think I have a clue.” What no one had noticed was that Silverstream had rolled an eight. She recited, “‘In the jungle you must wait until the dice read five or eight.’ By rolling the die by Silverstream, it was enough to set Yona free.”

Hearing this, Gallus marched over to Zecora with a wrathful look in his eye. “This hast to stop! We can’t keep going like this!”

“Young griff, I understand your anger, if you just-”

“No, you can’t.” Gallus interrupted. “You made this nightmare of a game, so there must be some way to stop all this.”

“Have you not paid attention; the only way is to win. Otherwise, I cannot reverse it at this state, but to have it be docile is best in this case.”

“Well, all I’m hearing is nothing but excuses! I mean c’mon! Enough is enough! Look at her!” He pointed at Yona. “Out of everyone here, she nearly died! Isn’t there anything besides continuing playing this deathtrap!?”

“And don’t you think if there was an alternative, I would have done it already? Instead of having you keep playing when you’re not ready?” Zecora snapped back. “Believe me, if I had it my way none of you would play Jumanji in the first place! Or at least, have this dreadful curse be done away in haste.”

“But-”

Zecora raised a hoof up close to his beak while she took in a deep breath. “I get it at this point all you want to do is blame and shout. But right now, that sort of thing isn’t going to sort this out. Because, yes, your friend does need help, this is true. But yelling at me isn’t the best thing to do. Besides, I already feel guilty for making this game is enough to make my pride melt but attacking me isn’t going to help.”

Fluttershy went up to Yona who draped her wing over like a comfort blanket. “Is there anything we can do for you?” She asked.

Yona shook her head. Sniffing she said, “It… It was horrible… Yona can’t fully d-describe the jungle. So dark… So sharp… cruel… Like being in nightmare but… Y-Yona couldn’t wake up. Yona had to keep running… Something with eyes and teeth always behind… Yona didn’t think… Yona would see friends again.”

Hearing this, Twilight said aloud, “I wonder if there’s any way to get you to safety. Although I don’t know how at this point since the rope bridge is cut and I don’t think I have enough magic to teleport you somewhere else.”

Wiping the tears away, Yona got back up on her hooves. “No… Don’t send Yona away.”

This surprised everyone.

“But Yona,” Sandbar protested. “You’ve been inside a nightmare and nearly got killed.”

“But so have friends.” Yona told him, “That scared Yona more. Not from monsters in darkness, but fear that Yona may have lost friends forever. Yes, it’s still scary to Yona, but friends still need Yona too.” She went over to the game board. “And look, Yona’s friends are closer to ending this for good. Only few more nightmares left now before it’s over.”

Everyone looked at the board game, Ocellus said what everyone was thinking. “She’s right. Silverstream could probably end the game if she rolls at least an eight on her turn.”

“Yeah, but if we get lucky,” Gallus pointed out. “The rest of us still have a long way to go. Besides… whose turn is it again?”

After thinking this, Smolder said, “I think it’s your turn now. I rolled for the fire, Ocellus rolled and got those weird pigmy things, Silverstream rolled doubles and got another turn so… that leaves you.”

Looking around, Gallus didn’t want to continue with this twisted game. But as much as he wanted to end this… they were closer to finishing this than ever before. With a sigh, he picked up the dice again. “Yona… We could at least try to get you out of here before I take my turn.”

Taking in a deep breath, she said, “Yona knows. But Yona’s friends need her more. Yona has been to Jungle. Yona will not let friends go through nightmares alone.”

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

Landing on an eight, she watched the crocodile piece move further down the path, getting closer to the end of the game than any of them. Which gave her hope of how close they are to finishing this nightmare. When the token reached its spot, the gem in the center formed a new curse, which she read aloud:

She landed an eight we all know what's going to happen

[Yoshifan30]

Taking in a deep breath, she said, “Yona knows. But Yona’s friends need her more. Yona has been to Jungle. Yona will not let friends go through nightmares alone.”

You're a brave girl yona

[Yoshifan30]

Okay so after that ordeal the rainfall flooding they continued playing the game try to reach the end and it was silverstream's turn but she was afraid but her friends and her teacher's we assure her that she's not alone so once she roll the dice one of the scary part well at least for me was those dang giant spiders which I do not like spiders they freak me out when I was a kid so the teachers and the students tried to fight them off but the spiders just keep on coming but then suddenly yona out of nowhere and save them when the spiders left she was still in a panic and basically crying and her friends try to calm her down again when she explained about the jungle it was like a living nightmare just like Alan ( Robin Williams ) explain and despite gallus frustration they had to continue on and Yona how much she was so scared she really want to stay with her friends and to be honest at least she wasn't stuck in the jungle that long but it's still scary well at least they have a chance until then we'll find out how this will work out next time

[Joe Toon]

Was it intentional that you had Silverstream roll an eight only to have those eight-legged freaks appear?

[CrackedInkWell]

11223162
Believe me when I say that it was literally a roll of the dice.

[Yoshifan30]

[Scyphi]

Need some help? Why just you wait;
We’ll help you out. We each have eight.

OH NO.