Lifelike

2.

"Ah, ptuu, ptuu," Alan spat out as he came out of the massive river he had fallen into. Water had entered his eyes, mouth and nostrils. He looked around, there was dry land in the distance so he began swimming towards it.

He got to the dry land and lay on it, a few metres from the river. If he wanted anything badly, it was for the sun to quickly dry him up, the water was so cold.

"Wait, Alex!" He said and sat up looking around as he remembered he had jumped with his twin brother. Around him was the satchel which Alex had been holding.

He stood up and clutching the satchel walked up to the riverside.

"ALEX!" He shouted. He looked around the river but Alex was nowhere to be found. Seeing this, he gazed upwards the way they had fallen. Up on the cliff, the cannibals stood checking to see if the boys had survived.

When Alan's eye and the cannibal's met, the latter snickered and turned around, calling the rest of his kind to follow him.

Alan gasped. "Oh no, they know we survived, that means they will try to find another path down the cliff to catch us," he said in fright as he screamed his brother's name louder.

He looked behind him and then saw footsteps on the ground leading towards a direction where he could see smoke rising in a distance.

"Alex!" Alan exclaimed and started running towards that area.

There were bushes and trees and rocks all around him so he had to be careful not to fall as the ground was still slippery.

He saw a wall made out of sharpened wood logs with a gate at its center.

Rushing to the wooden gate, he banged hard on it.

"ALEX!" He shouted and smiled when he saw the gate was being opened. "I know he's smart but I didn't think he could do all this in just a short while," he thought.

He was however shocked when two bulky men snatched him and carried him into the settlement.

Alan screamed but the men shouted back at him roughly in their language, which Alan could not understand.

Frightened a little bit, he kept quiet. "Could they be cannibals too?" He thought.

He looked around. There were village huts and people of all kind going on with their daily lives. When the men dragged him past, the people cast a glance at him before resuming what they were doing. They were dressed in sewn animal fur and beautifully shaped leaves. Their bodies were decorated with tattoos and they looked quite primitive.

After his satchel was collected, Alan was thrown into a dark pit and the wooden lid was closed.

"Hey! You can't leave me here!" Alan said trying to plead with them to no avail.

"Alan?" He heard a voice call and turned around. It sounded just like Alex's voice.

"Alex?! Oh my!" He said as he rushed towards where he heard the voice from. It was partially dark but he managed to embrace his brother.

"What the?! You're here too", Alan started.

Alex chuckled. "Ah, I didn't see you around the riverside when I got out and then I saw the smoke and I followed it," he said.

"Ah! Same," Alan replied. "What do you think they are going to do with us?"

"I don't know, I only hear a bit of their language and when I tried speaking it back to them, they just laughed and put me here," Alex said. Their language was Native Pzalelian and he only knew about it because he had read about their tribe once in a world history book.