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Pianto opened his eyes to a sandy beach. He could hear
the sound of waves coming ashore and the wind blowing through the trees. Pianto's
whole body seemed engulfed by pain.
Turning, he could see Marana lying just a few
feet from him as she began to stir. Getting up painfully, Pianto recalled the
events, which had put the two of them here, wherever 'here' was.
"This is all your fault," he heard the Cybunny
say weakly as he walked over to his backpack, which had washed ashore just down
the beach a bit.
"Shut up," he retaliated, just as weak from the
splitting headache. "Well it is," Marana said, trying to get the final word
in.
Pianto checked the pack. The food was fine thanks
to the plastic bags they were in. The bag itself was fine too, except for a
strap, which had snapped. Pianto knew he could fix it easily.
"So, thanks to you and you're dumb adventure,
we're lost in the middle of nowhere with no food and no civilization any where
near here," the Cybunny informed, gauging the situation. Pianto was stating
to regret his decision to bring her along.
"That's not true," he replied, trying not to
shout as shouting helped no one. "I know where we are, we're on a beach. We
have plenty of food and how do you know there's no civilization near here?"
"Humph," was all the Cybunny replied.
Pianto suddenly heard a squeaking noise come
from the jungle that marked the end of the beach. Looking up, he saw a red Jubjub,
not much older than a baby.
"Oh, how cute," Marana cooed. "If there's a Jubjub
around here," Pianto reasoned. "Then there must be a town or something close
by."
It grinned at them happily, waved with one of
its feet, then took off back into the jungle.
"Hurry, after it!" Pianto cried, taking off after
the youngster. "Wait for me!" squealed Marana, following the Gelert.
Even though Pianto had longer legs than the Jubjub,
the little guy still seemed able to keep ahead of his pursuer. Coming out of
the thick jungle, Pianto came to a halt, in awe at what surrounded him.
It was a whole village of Jubjubs. Small wooden
huts populated the tribe. And what appeared to be the village square sat a table
piled high with food.
As Marana came tumbling out of the jungle into
the brush, she too gaped in awe at the sight around her. All the Jubjubs stood
by the table smiling a greeting to the two travelers.
"I guess they want us to eat," explained Pianto.
The Jubjubs, all different colors of blue, green, red, and yellow, stood bouncing
happily at the sight of their guests.
"Well then, let's eat," exclaimed Marana, lunging
for the food. "I'm starving!" Pianto remained still weary.
While Jubjubs were known to be peaceful creatures,
this all seemed a little too strange. If they had only just been discovered,
how could all this food be here already?
Though finally, Pianto gave up and decided to
forget about it and worry about the details later. He too piled in and began
to eat. The Jubjubs were glad, their plan was working perfectly.
* * *
The meal hadn't been great, but it was okay. Pianto had been hungrier than
he had thought.
"Do you want to know what I thought of the food?"
the Cybunny asked. "No, not really," replied Pianto, already sick of the pets
constant chattering. She had been talking through the entire meal.
"Humph, well I'm going to tell you anyway. I
thought it was good but not great. The soup needed more flavor and the Neowaiian
Bread could have been hotter."
"Marana, shut up!" cried the fire Gelert. "You're
going to offended them." Suddenly, six Jubjubs tackled Pianto to the ground.
Before he knew it, the Gelert was tied back to a stick.
The same had happened to his white Cybunny companion.
The Jubjubs carried the two of them to a tall wooden pole surrounded by twigs
and wood of all kinds.
"I don't think I like where this is going," warned
Pianto, the truth of the tribes pets intentions dawning upon him. The Jubjubs
fastened Pianto and Marana to the large pole.
"Pianto, what are they doing?!" shrieked Marana.
The tribe of Jubjubs began to dance around the two and chant rhythmically while
others beat drums.
"Marana, why did you have to insult them like
that?!" Pianto yelled, trying to think of a way to get out of this situation.
"Well, I didn't mean to!" she replied, frightened.
As this all went on, Pianto began cutting the ropes that bound him to his own
stick with his claws.
Then, the chanting stopped. The dancing ceased.
And all was still. The crowed parted and through it walked a huge Jubjub.
He was blue and was much larger than the others.
He came up almost to Pianto's shoulder. And in one of his feet he carried a
flaming torch. It hit Piano like a ton of bricks.
They had planned all of this out from the beginning.
That's how the food had been set up by the time Marana and he had gotten there.
Marana turned, saw the fire, and too understood.
"Ahh! I'm sorry for saying the soup was bad!
It wasn't bad at all; I thought it was good, really!"
The Jubjub leader approached, the torch burning
brightly. He turned to face his followers, said something in a language Pianto
didn't understand, and prepared to torch the two adventurers.
"Hey, furball," Pianto yelled, trying to distract
the Jubjub. With a massive kick, Pianto broke free of his restraints and knocked
the Jubjub to the ground. The Gelert grabbed the torch and set Marana's ropes
ablaze. She was instantly freed.
"Come on," he directed. Marana didn't have to
be told twice. They broke through the crowd and made for the jungle. As he ran
past, Pianto snatched up his back pack.
Pianto heard the tribe leader yell something
loudly as they ran for the jungle. He didn't sound happy. As Pianto ran blindly
through the jungle, he heard the tribe following quickly. Marana, surprisingly,
had no trouble keeping up.
They ran until the duo came out at the top of
a waterfall. Turning around, the would-be meals were pinned between the falls
and the angry, hungry tribe.
"We're going to have to jump," Pianto told Marana.
Marana gave him an "are you crazy?" look.
"No way, I'm not jumping. It's not going to happen."
There was no time for this.
"Fair enough," Pianto replied. And with a great
kick, Marana went tumbling over the falls; screaming bloody mercy all the way.
Pianto gave a salute to the Jubjubs, and then took the dive himself. Somehow,
he knew that this adventure wasn't going to turn out the way he had hoped.
To be continued...
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