Undiscovered: Book One: The New Jungle

Chapter 14

Randal was glad he kept his snake stick along with his fishing spear, he could see what was attached to those eyes. This was a beast cat stalking him. He brandished his stick and began to slowly walk away, refusing to turn his back to the huge beast. Soon the cat realised that he noticed it and began to increase in speed.

Randal had little clue what to do. The cat was in it's element, not him. He began to evaluate his options. This thing was huge. The thing with cats is the fact that they are low on stamina. A lion, which is about three tall will only run for about three hundred feet before stopping. This thing is a foot and a half taller than that. If he ran than he may have a chance to outrun it, weighing significantly less than it. There were problems with that plan though. He was not a very fast runner. Not only that but, while he would end up having to dodge brush and thorns, the cat would simply smash through it like a bulldozer.

He may be able to climb a tree. While most would think that this is a horrible idea, as most cats are built for the trees, this is no normal cat. The beast cat is huge, and huge means heavy. In America there are two types of bears. While black bears climb well, a grizzly is too heavy. This may be the same for the beast cat.

He quickly found a branch he could use to hoist himself into the tree with and jumped, grabbing the branch in both hands, and pulled himself onto a sturdy branch. He climbed higher and higher until he was sure the beast cat could not reach him. He crept to the trunk of the tree and looked down. The cat began to look up and scream. The noise sent shivers down his spine and he had trouble not falling. The cat clawed at the tree and screamed again. He could tell this was a different cat than the one they had seen with the cub. This was a male. It was larger and more violent looking.

He stayed in the tree all night. The cat left a few hours after he had climbed into the tree. He tentatively climbed down. He reached for a branch and nearly fell when he saw a pair of yellow eyes the size of peas looking at him from what he though was a branch. A three foot snake looked back at him and hissed. It opened its mouth and displayed its half inch long fangs. It was viper, something a person can tell when he reads encyclopedias for fun. It was about to strike when Randal began to back away, as best he could when attached to the trunk of a tree. The viper then did something remarkable. It flattened its head like a cobra, or at least what it did could be compared to the likes of a cobra. The snake made its head into a triangle. Halfway down its sinuous body was another flattened part. Elongated ribs created another triangular shape to where it looked as if it had wings. The last flattened part was the tail. He hadn't originally noticed but the tail was flattened like a whales, as if tipped with yet another triangle. The snake then leaped from the branch and gave reason to its is draconine appearance. It began to glide.

Flying snakes are called so because they flatten out their bodies and make slithering motions in order to glide. This viper glided by using these odd flattened parts of its body in order to soar with little movement. It simply tilted slightly from side to side. Right before landing it went back to its normal shape, save the tail that doesn't change shape, and wrapped around the branch it was aiming for. The dragon viper had earned its new name.

Finally Randal made it home. He had to abandon his catch of fish due to it starting to smell. Instead he decided to catch more fish before returning.

"Randal!" Christine shouted, throwing her arms around him.

Randal, who was not used to situations like this, nearly collapsed.

"Dude, you made it." Chris said happily. "We thought the beast cat had gotten you.

"Well, funny story, it nearly did." Randal replied earnestly.

"What, tell us about it." Chris said.

The other two then sat on a log in front of him and he told them what had happened.

"Wait, there's two beast cats in the area?" Chris asked.

"Well, that would make sense, in the wild, male wildcats, called toms, will sometimes allow females they consider to be partners with to overlap territories with them." Christine replied.

The two boys both looked at her wide eyed.

"What is it with you and cats woman?" Chris shouted.

"I told you I like big cats." Christine answers. "I mean look at this."

Christine the pulled three discs out of her backpack. She was holding the three The Lion King movies 1, 1 and a half, and 2.

"Okay." Chris answered to this.

After that the group ate the fish Randal had caught and got a late start to the day.