….The day waned on, regardless of my wishes for death. My tears burned down my cheeks to be stolen by the ball of molten hell that lingered in the sky.

Drift (Pt3)

And then in my greatest hour of hopelessness and fright, the shoreline began to quicken, the tide propelled my craft forward. Tiny cyclones in the water swirled off in the wake of my vessel, the impact of wood smacking rock crackled slowly at first. In a flash calm drift turned to violence The shard of hull turned and tipped with the bobbing tide. It jostled me from one side to the other before tossing me to the deck.

‘Here it is Phillip! The moment I’ve been waiting for.’ Yelled Ted. ‘When the consequence of your inaction shall be revealed, just ahead, you can’t see, but the rapids break on ancient rock carved sharp. You shall crash into the rocks where you will finally be cast from that plank to your death.’

White spray overtook the edge of my craft and I saw that Ted was right, and helpless me bobbed in the maelstrom in a state of panic. I cursed my inability to rebel against my fear. An eye cast sideways revealed that whatever it was in the forest kept pace with the surging river, it didn’t tire or waver in its pursuit, the silhouette sprinted forward, its parts rose and fell and weaved in between the trees. It refused to reveal its entire self, not more than muddled flesh tones and furs. It was a beast, of that there was no doubt, even in my delirium I knew it must be weary of the hunt and was prepared to strike before its prey was lost forever.

Foam and rocks revealed themselves in the distance with white film crashing and falling over their edges. The clear blue swelled to the sides and continued unimpeded unleashing an incessant roar. A cannonball thumped in my chest prepared to burst at any moment as the insidious rocks drew ever closer. Exotic fish striped in blues and reds flopped over the wall of rock which solidified my determination that the devil himself had a hand in that expedition. The screaming tide roared through my ears setting my brain abuzz. In that instant I resolved myself to death.

The vessel and I were drawn mere paces from the bladed stone wall as I sat up on my knees, I would have lectured God himself of the cruelty of such a fate, but my hands were thrust in front of me as if they would halt the force of nature. My eyes shut tight.

My eardrums broke with a crunch as I felt the platform snap under foot, and for a moment I was weightless. When my eyes opened my cannonball heart exploded and all of the blood crushed the back of my eyeballs while my weary mind shocked my limbs. My fall was eternal. I saw water crashing into frothy oblivion against jagged halberds at the bottom beyond my flailing arms and shards of ship. There too was a rolling ocean of green that gave the forest an impression of no end. Terror deflated my muscles as I plunged head first into death.

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It’s funny how brittle bones become when dropped from such heights. My wandering eyes scanned my surroundings some hours later. Every adventure of motion was met with a symphony of agony that refused to end at the leg I wanted to use, or the hip or knee.

No, I thought. Naked and broken, I lay on the earthen shore where I couldn’t be so far from the beast that it could not reach me. Waves of terror dampened the horrible pain as I faced the inevitable. If only I had swam to shore I would have the option of fighting this creature, as it was, I was little more than a clubbed fish. A rustle in the jungle just out of sight peaked my horror. Once more that day I resolved myself to death, only that time it was to be at the leisure of some hungry creature instead of my own determination.

I heard it breathing before I ever saw it. I heard its great paws fall on soft earth, still yet to reveal itself. Multiple footfalls, as though it had several sets of legs, a grand monster indeed. If this was to be my end, I thought, I would have at least liked to see what was to finish me. I closed my eyes at last.

With tears strolling down I thought again,‘I’m going to die here.’

When I came to I watched blades of sun cut through the canopy above, my destroyed body was beyond my control, and yet I moved. My eyes rolled around but there was nothing more to see than more woods. Then I heard voices, my mind no doubt playing more games with me, and for an instant I pondered what the afterlife might look like and if perhaps I died in battle and was in all likelihood in hell.

It had been days since I last heard a human conversation. They spoke in a strange tongue that I had only heard once before, in the village where last my ship had been to shore.

I pitched my head upward and brown fingers wrapped around my wrists, I locked eyes with the man that held them and with a startled expression he dropped me. Waves of new pain flooded my body. The man began to yell to his companions. They were bare chested and wore cod pieces fashioned from wood slats with strings that wrapped around their hips. Their faces were painted with red designs and they carried crude weapons.

It had been no beast that stalked me beyond my sight during my time in the jungle but the most dangerous hunter of all. Man. In the same turn it was other men who came to me in my hour of need in spite of how we’d treated them. In spite of everything they still could not leave me to my end.

In time my bones mended, with the exception of my hand which they amputated before the rot could spread. A small price for what the jungle had taught me.

The day I returned to my home in Portugal was the last day I failed to act. Fear is a far better professor than one might meet in the most prestigious of universities. There are some lessons that can only be learnt in unimaginable terror. At the very brink of sanity.