Zayara remembered this day clearly:
She was young and had so much to learn. She was born in a small area on the coast of Brazil. She was a bit different from other girls in their tribes. Her parents didn't stay in one spot permanently. They would travel around the whole land. She was gathering flowers to use for decoration. Her friends were wandering into the rainforest to watch some macaws perched on top of trees. Certain that she could do it, she spoke backward and then an orb in bright purple formed in her palms. She whispered 'Show me beyond this land'.
The orb changed into yellow then moon white. Zayara saw a strange place. It was the biggest and busiest village. Then she saw something that caught her eye. A group of light skin people in free-spirited clothes, dancing and having fun
"Zayi!" one girl called. Her best friend Iracema, came running.
"You will not believe this! I just saw the biggest canoe ever!"
"Very funny, but I'm not going to believe your tricks", the nomadic girl smirked.
"I'm, serious! They are moving down the river, strange clothes, and a few of them were white-skinned.
After hearing the last part, Zayara shot up and tried shaking her friend to and back. "Why didn't you tell me sooner!"
"Calm down girl, I saw them an hour ago".
"Were they dancing?"
Iracema just stared at her in confusion. "...They seemed too strange to start dancing-wait the first thing you want to know is if they can dance?!"
"Yes!"
"May I ask why?"
"So I can communicate with them of course".
"You are strange. And you are making less sense than usual".
"We should go take a peek-"
"We?! Oh no! I would rather NOT get in trouble", The friend swayed her arms to signal a "no".
"Fine, I'll take the underground shortcut".
"Za!" Iracema called out. But Zayara was on the other side of the bushes leading to the shortcut.
----------------------------------------
Kirk Langstrom was excited. On the inside at least. The Amazon jungle was intriguing and filled with exotic animals and plants. He traveled with a few Native Americans as he thought they could speak to any indigenous people.
He observed as the boat sailed. Then one of his friends, a young Native American man asked him something.
"Be on the alert, I have seen how violent they can be to outsiders".
Kirk wasn't too concerned. As long as he didn't do anything foolish then he could study.
The boat stopped at the banks of the river. Kirk could finally start examining anything that he could use in experimentation. He noticed that there were different kinds of birds.
Later on, after traveling, they settled in for the night. It wasn't until later that night that he had nightmares about his mother. He shot up, sweating. Then he emerged from his tent and went out. He knew taking a walk in an unfamiliar area was a bad idea but he needed to take a walk to calm down. The sky started changing into grey meaning daytime was approaching. Then he had this unpleasant feeling of someone following him.
Maybe it's an animal. He thought to himself.
----------------------------------------
Earlier on, Zayara took the 'shortcut' to the river where Iracema spotted the large canoe. She crawled to a bush where she could hide but still observe the river. Fortunately, she could see the canoe. The men seemed to be from a tribe she recognized as far north. But there was a man who had white skin. He was looking around, seeming excited about being here. He had brown hair and blue eyes.
When their canoe stopped at the banks of the river, Zayara saw (from a safe distance) that they built strange huts and went in to sleep for the night. She thought it would be pointless to just sit where she was and watch these men sleep. So she went to the river there she thought she could pass the time by climbing trees. Later on, when she saw daytime approaching, she knew somehow that the men were probably awake now. So she went back to observe. Then she saw the white man walking out of his hut. He stretched and then walked away from the resting place. The girl thought this was her chance to follow and observe.
She noticed the man was uncomfortable, maybe paranoid but he had a small object with him. He seemed to be using a small stick to press on it. Her father mentioned it being called 'writing' as he explained that people use this method of putting thoughts and keeping track of what the person knows in a rectangle object called a book. I could learn everything he knows by grabbing that book. She grinned mischievously. She kept watching the man while sneaking behind the trees.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
The man stopped at the river. He placed his book a short distance away.
Maybe books are only useful when they are dry.
Zayara waited for him to go and drink from the river. Now is my chance!
While he was drinking by the river and taking off his upper clothing, she crept silently towards his belongings. She scavenged around until she found the book. She smiled in fascination. But her heart stopped in a second from one word.
"HEY!!!", the man yelled.
----------------------------------------
Just wanted to take a quick wash and already some jungle girl is trying to steal my possessions. He was angry and tried to get his book back but the girl ran away. He ran after her completely forgetting to put his shirt back on. Now he was chasing a girl while he was topless, wonderful, he groaned.
The girl was fast and had an unfair advantage which was knowing her way around the rainforest. But Kirk could catch up. He saw her go into the nearby bush and Kirk ran through it only to come to a sudden halt that right behind the bush was the edge of a cliff. He stopped but he was unintentionally leaning forward, about to fall off the edge. Unfortunately, he fell. Screaming in fear that he was about to meet his end he landed on a tree branch still on the cliff. He held on but found a cave right next to him. Realizing the branch was starting to snap, he jumped from the branch to the cave entrance. He knew the cliff was too steep to climb back up. The other men must have started noticing he was gone and probably began looking for him. But he couldn't turn back now.
"Hey, thief!".He shouted as he went into the cave. It was dark inside, he could barely see his arm but one thing he realized was that he was in a cave, and in the cave he could hear the one species of animals that he knew lived in caves. Bats started flying to the way Kirk came in. He could see a thousand pair of red eyes around him. The bats made sure not to attack him. Instead, some of them flew around him, making it seem like he was in the center of a circle. They were flying around him at maximum speed. Then he felt...lighter. He felt as if his feet were not on the ground and he was levitating, and he was, he had no idea what exactly was going on but he felt a connection with the flying mammals. Like they were saying something.
----------------------------------------
Zayara knew she had to slide down the cliff to the entrance of the cave. The man was a newcomer so he wouldn't catch up. She entered the cave and looked for a place to sit. Then she chose to sit behind some stalagmites. She whispered a spell and a small yet moonlight orb formed above the book. As she read the pages she was intrigued. This man was practicing medicine, he must be a healer.
He was also investigating a disease that she didn’t even know existed. She found the name of said disease ridiculous. ‘Smallpox?’ she thought. Then she chuckled for a split second before hearing the man’s voice.
“Hey, thief!” He shouted. Zayara couldn’t believe this, how did he find the cave? He should have fallen into the oasis! She crushed the orb so she could hide in the dark. She heard the man’s footsteps. Then, the ceiling of the cave glowed red, and from ahead were red eyes. The red eyes approached to reveal bats. They flew to the man but what happened after that was incredible. The flying rodents weren’t attacking but flying around him so he wouldn’t escape. Zayara just wanted the book but now she put him in danger. She thought about running to him and pulling him out of the bat trap. But then from inside the bat wall, there was glowing red light shining through. Then after a while the red light died down and the bats flew out of the cave in a single formation. The man was lying on the ground, unconscious. She walked to him and tried to examine him. She rolled his body so he was lying on his backside. He didn’t look too bad for someone with unusual skin color. She tried laying her head on his chest to hear a heartbeat. Then she decided to take the man back. She opened a portal that lead to the inside of his ‘hut’, she placed him and used the cloth to tuck him in. She wanted to know more about this man so she duplicated the book and teleported with it back to where her friends were.
Iracema was there in the tribe when Zayara teleported. “Za! Where have you been?” She yelled.
“I was investigating and I have something that I want to show to my father”, she said holding the book at her friend.