| Pianto's head breached the surface, gasping for air. He
swam quickly for shore to get out of the freezing cold water. Looking up at the
cliff above, he saw the Jubjub tribe staring down at them, chanting and yelling
angrily.
He coughed and choked out the bit of water in
his lungs and turned to meet a very unhappy Marana.
"Are you OK?" she asked, her voice full of anger.
"Ya, I'm fine," Pianto replied, spitting up
the last drops of water from his lungs.
"Good," the white Cybunny replied; then permitted
to give her Gelert partner a fine slap across the face.
"That's for kicking me off the cliff." Pianto
rubbed his cheek painfully. It really didn't hurt that much.
The fire Gelert climbed to his feet. "Let's
get going," he said.
"No wait," commanded Marana. Pianto stopped
impatiently.
"I need to rest," Marana explained, rubbing
her feet.
"Look, princess, if we don't get moving that
tribe is going to catch up with us. So let's go." Pianto about-faced and walked
off into the jungle. Marana, of course, followed closely behind. The two were
off once more.
***
The duo hiked on for most of the day, with only one break. Pianto wanted to
put as much room between them and the tribe of ravage Jubjubs.
By the early evening Marana was fed up with
it. "You don't know where you're going, do you?" she remarked angrily.
"Of course I do," Pianto lied. He did know where
they were going; they were looking for a large bird of some sort. He just didn't
know where it was. Nor did he know where they were, for that matter.
Marana decided to try a different strategy.
Her angry face melted away to a face of tiredness and sadness.
"I'm tired, hot, hungry, and I hurt in places
I didn't know I had. All I want to do is rest. Can't we give up and just camp
here tonight?" Pianto turned to face the jungle ahead of him. Now that he thought
about it, the Gelert was too tired, hungry, and weary.
"Okay," he finally gave in. "We can camp here
for the night."
A smile came to Marana's face. "Oh thank you
Pianto." She rushed up to him and gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.
Then, realizing what she had just done, stepped back and regained her posture.
"I mean, that would be splendid. Thank you."
Pianto rolled his eyes and began to pitch camp.
Though secretly, when Marana wasn't looking, he allowed himself a quick smile.
***
The campfire lay smoldering and the night was quiet and peaceful as Marana
arose from her sleep. She was thirsty and wanted a drink. She walked down to
the nearby riverbed to get a drink. Checking around, though not for anything
in particular, the white Cybunny bent down and started to fill her canteen.
A crack of a stick caused her to look up. She wasn't sure where it came from,
but it sounded close.
Stop it Marana. You're making yourself crazy,
she thought to herself. She bent down and continued filling the canteen.
No sooner had she started then she heard it
again; a cracking of a twig and rattling of the bushes. Marana's head shot up
once more.
"Um… hello?" No reply. Marana, you're losing
it. There's nothing there. This adventure's driving you insane, she told
herself mentally again.
As the Cybunny turned to leave, she happened
to glance over to the opposite bank. There, among the underbrush, was a pair
of glowing red eyes.
No one ever screamed as loud as Marana did on
her way back to the camp.
"Pianto! Pianto! Wake up Pianto! Wake up!" Pianto
jumped to immediate alert at the Cybunny's screams.
"What is it, Marana," he asked, trying to calm
her down. "I was… I was… down at river… and eyes… big, red, glowing eyes…"
"What? Marana slow down and talk in full sentences,"
the Gelert instructed, attempting to make sense of the Cybunny's ramblings.
But there was no time for that.
Pianto then saw what his partner was talking
about. Out of the underbrush came the creature which had terrified Marana.
A small, yellow Mynci. It walked over on all
fours. But it didn't look normal. Drool came from his small yellow mouth and
its eyes stared as if in a trance. A group of ten or twelve followers walked
behind him, all drooling and in a trance. They stared at the two, deciding whether
or not to eat them.
"Why is it that everything in this jungle wants
to eat us?" commented Pianto, mind racing, trying to figure out a plan. Then,
a plan hit him suddenly. Pianto quickly reached into his knapsack and pulled
his mystery island lighter. Lighting it, the flame glowed brilliantly in the
darkness.
The Myncis stopped. They had never seen a lighter
before and were in awed by it. Pianto flicked the lighter out and threw it into
the bushes. As expected, the Myncis took tore into the bushes after it, wanting
to get a hold of the magic light machine.
"Lets go!" he shouted to Marana, practically
pulling her off her feet as he grabbed hold of her paw and ran into the darkness,
not wanting to be around when the Myncis got back.
***
The two traveled for a day without rest. Pianto wanted as much distance between
him and the savages as possible. It was toward the end of the second day that
the travelers stopped for the evening.
Pianto pushed through an unusually tough part
of the jungle to come out at the top of a cliff, about fifty feet up. The sight
what fell upon him was a magnificent one. At the edge, he and Marana could see
the tops of the trees of the jungle below. And at the edge sat a large stone
statue of a Pteri. The sun was just beginning to set behind them.
"Oh my," was all that Marana could say. Large,
snowy mountains provided a backdrop for the view in the distance. Pianto tore
out the piece of old parchment and read quickly.
When you look through the birds eyes
at the end of the day
the line of darkness
will point the way
Pianto now understood what the poem meant. The
Gelert climbed up the steps behind the statue and looked through the two eye-holes
where the eyes should have been. And, like magic, a long shadow, cast by the
Pteri and formed by the sun, was created. It came in the shape of an arrow and
pointed towards one of the mountains in the distance, the one in the center
with the tallest peak.
Pianto stepped back, saying to himself, "That's
where we must go, to that mountain." Marana looked puzzled.
"What do you mean?"
"The shadow pointed to that mountain, so that's
where we have to go to tomorrow." The white Cybunny shrugged her shoulders.
"What ever, as long as there isn't anything there that wants to eat us." Neither
knew what toll the wintry cold of the mountains would take on the two adventurers.
To be continued...
| 
