Goodbye to the Jungle

Chapter 1 His throat was on fire. The muscles in his legs burned. His chest felt tight, and it was becoming more and more difficult to breathe. His only desire was to stop, to collapse to the ground and rest, but the men pursuing him would never give up. He knew that. They had targeted him, and unless he could come up with a way to evade them, to outmanoeuvre them, he would be captured and sold. Jahl couldn’t let that happen. The feathery tips of the wild grass whipped against his legs and torso as he sprinted towards the jungle. He refused to take his eyes off the thick vegetation, to glance over his shoulder at his pursuers. He didn’t need to. He could hear them shouting and making noises, trying to frighten him, but they were just men. Men like him. He ran, not because he was afraid of any one of them, but because he was terrified of losing his freedom. He lived with his people in the jungle, in houses high in the trees so they could sleep closer to the gods. The world of men, and their buildings and barbaric ways, was not for him. He’d wither and die. He knew it with as much certainty as he knew the sky was blue. He was nearly there. He could smell the dampness of the leaf litter. Already he could feel the slight change in temperature. It was cooler in the jungle than it was on the open grasslands. Once he was beneath the canopy, the air would act upon the perspiration covering his flesh and cool him. He burst into the jungle, pushing through the leafy undergrowth to a place that was darker and not as easy to move through. But he had the advantage. The jungle was his home. The men would have a hard job keeping up, and they knew it. He leapt onto a low-hanging branch and clambered up the tree as well as any other primate built for life amongst trees. He smiled, knowing he had the edge over them. He could hear the men below as he leapt from branch to branch, swinging from one tree to the next with as much ease as he had run across the grasslands. “There he is!” “Where?” “Up there. Use your eyes!” Something whooshed by Jahl’s ear. A spear. He ducked, too late, but it had missed him. It struck the trunk of the tree in front of him, embedding itself and quivering for a few seconds before becoming still. “Did you get him?” Jahl couldn’t hear the answer. It didn’t matter. He was moving faster than them. Soon he would lose them. The branches presented no obstacle to him. He dug his toes into the bark as he ran, while at the same time using his arms for balance and his hands for support on the nearby branches. He went deeper into the jungle, where the undergrowth was thicker. The men would have a more difficult time moving through it. The thick snake vines that hung from branches overhead made his task easier. He could swing from one tree to the next. The only problem was his muscles were starting to tire. His stamina was beginning to wane. He closed his eyes for a moment, pressing the lids together. Focus! Concentrate! He heard the men crashing through the ferns and bushes, and the occasional shout, now coming from quite a way back. One man howled like a wolf. Another laughed. Jahl’s concentration remained fixed, his determination unfaltering. He was confident he could lose the men and make it to the safety of his village, back across the grasslands where the jungle continued. In the branches of a neighbouring tree, he glimpsed a jaguar sunning itself in a shaft of light beaming down through a hole in the canopy. It presented no danger. He was moving too quickly, and as long as he left the jaguar alone, they’d simply acknowledge each other and leave it at that. He gripped the nearest vine and swung, sailing through the air towards a nearby branch. He leapt onto the branch and something with lightning speed swung towards him. Snake! He ducked, avoiding the fangs and the venom contained within, but in the process, lost his balance. He flailed his arms, seeking purchase but finding none. He plunged helplessly to the ground, landing with a thud that rattled every bone in his body.