The Curses in Amazon

THE BEAR AND THE RIVER

Meanwhile, at the hotel, Mary's aunt and uncle were worried sick. They thought of Mary as their own daughter and now they had lost her. They informed the police of the disappearance as well, but the police simply refused to start an investigation as Mary had not been missing for more than 48 hours. Mr and Mrs Hedero thought that they would never find Mary again and they were quite right.

Back in the forest, Mary had not stopped asking questions and Diego had not stopped answering even though he was quite irritated, but he had to gain Mary's trust entirely so that she won't be suspicious.

Mary was so overwhelmed that she forgot to go back. Now they were deep inside the forest there was no returning. Diego tried to console her.

"You ought to go back tomorrow. It's getting dark and animals might come out so it's not safe to go now."

Mary was sitting on the ground sobbing, but she nodded her head and asked, "Where will we sleep?"

"You'll see," he replied." Just go and bring some sticks." Mary had no energy to ask questions, so she just did what she was told to do. She got up and started to collect some sticks for a reason that she did not know.

She came back to the spot from where she had left and saw that Diego had placed two funny looking cocoons on the ground, under a tree. Mary wondered what they were but did not ask.

It was as if Diego had read her mind and said "Well, these are sleeping bags. I always carry an extra one just in case."

"Whow! That's so cool!" Mary had never seen anything like that before.

Diego took the sticks from Mary and placed them between the two bags and started to rub two of them against each other. In a moment or two a fire had lit.

Mary gasped at the sight of the fire, but Diego said that it is just for warmth. They got into their sleeping bags beside the fire. After a while, Diego fell asleep, but Mary was wide awake.

She never slept in a more uncomfortable bed. It was almost like sleeping on hard bristly rocks. Mary was also freaking herself out by paying full attention to the animal noises. She was staring at the other side of the forest when she heard the bushes moving. She tried her best to convince herself that it was all her imagination but then she heard growling.

She hesitated and then turned around to look. A huge black bear was standing in front of her. She gave a little shriek of horror and Diego woke up. "

Shh! Just don't move a muscle." He got up and slowly went towards the bear. He made some sort of a hand jester that calmed the bear down and he proceeded closer to the bear. It seemed as if he was talking to the bear. After a few long moments, the bear turned away.

Mary was astonished to see what see saw. She tried to speak but all she could do was make funny noises.

"My madre taught me how to talk to animals. No big deal.", he said

'I – I...ok' she stammered. They both went back to their so-called beds and fell asleep.

The next morning, Mary woke up feeling still sleepy. The only change was that she did not wish to go back to the hotel at all. Diego did not look quite surprised after hearing that she did not desire it anymore. It was as if he knew this was going to happen.

"Uh... I need water." Mary groaned. Diego put his hand in his pocket and drew out a pitcher and clearly said, 'water.' Mary did not find it necessary to tell the pitcher what they wanted, but she ignored it. She drank all the water in the pitcher and thanked Diego.

They continued their journey through the thorny bushes and brambles, where Mary kept poking herself with thorns.

"How do you even know that we are going in the right direction?" Mary asked.

"I just trust mi instincts.... you know." Diego replied, "When we reach a turn, there is a sensation that tells me where to go." Mary expected a more rational answer than what she just received, but she decided to ignore the fact that they might get lost in the forest.

Mary kept following Diego not saying a word on the journey. She was too busy looking at the various types of trees and animal species. As she had her book on the Amazon forest along with her, she knew which one was dangerous and which one was not. All the dangerous animals were handled by Diego while Mary knew just how to get past the small ones (her book guided her a lot.)

After getting past the Brazilian Wandering Spider, Green Anaconda, Capybara and Three-toed sloth, (Diego almost got bitten by the Poison Dart Frog.) they reached the amazon river.

"Oh great.... Your 'instincts' have brought us to the river bank. How do you think we are supposed to cross this river?" Mary scoffed emphasising "cross". Diego was daunted by hearing Mary's words, but to her surprise, he also had an answer.

"We are supposed to cross the river by swimming across it-"

"WHAT?!?!?!" Mary replied almost yelling now. "You are the most idiotic person I have ever met. You say you want to swim across the river of Amazonia, one of the world's most dangerous forests?" Mary noticed the expression on Diego's face, then calmed down and said "explain yourself..." obtusely.

"As I was saying...... we will swim, unless you don't know how to, across the river as I've got a plan." Diego told Mary his plan on to cross the river.