Demons in the Jungle

Chapter 10

  Well, this sucked.

I frowned at the small pile of plant life I had gathered for the day's meal. No meat this morning; all my hunting efforts had failed, the tapir I wounded running away and squealing so loudly that it attracted a pack of wolves, and I had to stop following while the animals took it down. Nothing else crossed my path for most of the morning, so I had to give up, resolving to forage before getting back on Charlie's trail.

I wasn't sure what everything I had gathered exactly was. My dad had given me a book once on edible plant life, but I only remembered little details. I knew that the "leaves of three, leave them be" rule was generally regarded as true, so I thought I'd done a good job of avoiding poisonous leaves. I also knew that tree-growing berries were usually safe, so I did have a sprig of some sort of yellow grape-like fruit. I ate two as soon as I found them, deciding that a few shouldn't kill me, but would let me know if they were unsafe. They were pretty good, whatever the hell they were. I did a lot of taste-testing, and I realized quickly that most harmful plants try to tell you not to eat them, with a strong odor or a sour taste. One set of soft and bitter leaves had left me with a half-hour of terrible bowel distress shortly after consuming them, so I avoided anything like them moving forward.

What I ended up with was well-varied. I had the sprig of grape-things, the greens of a very sweet weed similar to dandelions, some kind of nettle, four large deciduous leaves that would serve as a fine salad base, and a single root that I was fairly sure was a sort of wild onion. To be honest, it was a pretty good haul, but I wished I had something with protein. I needed fuel to catch Charlie. As my dad always said, "salad is what food eats".

I made my way back to my shelter, a few hundred yards to my left. The salad I kept in a bag I had made out of my jacket, which had essentially become useless as a garment. I had my arrows in there too, while my new and improved bow was over my shoulder.

I could hear animals when I got closer to the shelter. I crouched lower, watching my step and avoiding making noise. I listened close, hearing the distinctive squealing cries, the chittering communication. I knew this sound.

I ran for the small clearing where I'd set up camp, drawing the kukri and gritting my teeth. I burst out of the trees and waved the knife maniacally, shouting at the top of my lungs.

"Get outta here, monkeys!" I yelled at the troop of Capuchins who were attempting to dismantle my shelter, causing them to bolt immediately, shrieking and rushing up into the nearby trees. "Fuck off!" I reached down and picked up a rock, hurling it into the trees, hearing one of the monkeys let out a surprised cry as it leaped higher into the trees and disappeared.

I sighed, checking the damage they'd done to the roof. This shelter was an improvement on the last; I had fashioned an improvised shovel out of a stone and a stick, using it to dig a hole about two feet deep. Then, I'd made a roof out of interlaced branches and leaves, securing it to stakes I'd pushed into the hole. It had proved to be much better. I'd even awoke to the sound of something attempting to get in, but the stakes held fast, and it quickly moved on.

I took what was left of the roof, using some of the branches and a handful of dry brush to start a fire. I then retrieved a little stone bowl I had carved last night and filled it from the nearby river. I figured I could boil some of the veggies and maybe improve the taste and quality. Again, it was all trial-and-error.

I ate the meal relatively quickly, not enjoying most of it, but I felt full enough to get walking. I gave the food a few minutes to digest while I used the remaining wood from the shelter to craft two more arrows and add them to my bag. Then I stomped out the fire, gathered my things, and set out to find Charlie's trail again.