Captain Jaguar Chronicles

The Jungle Spirit. Winston meets Jaguar.

A shadow flitted in the night, over the roofs of the small village, on the edge of the mighty jungle. No one saw him or heard him, everyone was asleep. He searched for a few minutes, then he saw the house. He jumped onto the roof, climbed down and carefully opened the window. Then he climbed in. The room was dark, but he saw well, his eyes fell on a small bed against the wall.

A small bundle moved in the bed, he crept over and looked at the little something in the crib. The baby woke up and looked at him with big brown eyes. Actually, it should cry out, as they all did when they saw him. But this little something smiled at him and gave a happy squeak. He slowly offered his claw to the baby and the baby reached for his finger with a tiny hand.

A few months ago, he found a crashed boat by the river. Only the baby was still alive, and just like now, it just smiled at him. It was probably the first person to ever smile at him. Carefully, he took the bundle and placed it at the threshold of the door.

When the baby let go of his finger and closed his eyes, he climbed out of the window, back up onto the roof and disappeared again into the darkness of the jungle.

...

Years later:

Jaguar was a mutant full of secrets, Tracer knew. When she investigated his house, or rather their new house together, she found out that the greenhouse in the garden was a gym that was like a very detailed reproduction of the jungle. Including a rock climbing wall, ventilation, trees, climate, a pond and even some tropical birds.

Lena had just finished some pull-ups on a tree. They had to admit that the methods Jaguar had been training with since childhood were very strenuous. Otherwise she felt fitter than ever and she saved the money for the gym.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

"Strange! Jonas wasn't supposed to be back until tomorrow!" she thought to herself.

"Lena, it's me. Are you in there?" she heard a familiar voice.

"Winston? Come in."

The gorilla cautiously opened the door and stepped into the house, looking around in amazement.

"Wow. Interesting. That reminds me of the first time I met Jonas."

Lena stopped and turned to him.

" What's that?"

"Oh, didn't I ever tell you? I met Jonas back in the Amazon jungle. That should be fifteen or sixteen years ago now."

"TELL ME!" squeaked Lena.

Winston leaned against a tree and began to tell the story:

.........

It was warm, humid and muggy. You would think that Winston wouldn't mind this kind of climate, but since the gorilla spent almost all his time in the lab, this environment was quite unfamiliar to him.

Also on board the ship that took him through the Amazon were the biologist Doctor Vivan Kelly, her assistant Samira Diaz and the jungle guide Miguel.

The four had been called here because reports had been coming in for several years that several people had allegedly been attacked and injured by a presumably still unknown species of animal.

Miguel began to report. "A few weeks ago we sent a scout into the jungle, he came back the next day and was just a whimpering heap of misery, he didn't even know his own name. The weird thing was, he had strange claw marks on his chest."

"Was he attacked by an animal?" asked Samira.

"I don't know any animal that has claws like that.... And I know every wild animal on this continent."