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The Curse of Jumanji.
The two young witches must have fallen asleep because they were shaken very roughly awake by Mildred and Ethel - Ethel looked tired, but that was nothing compared to how Mildred herself looked; the elder brunette witch was still exhausted by using her magic the way she had the night before when they'd arrived at the tree, but she had recovered enough strength to fly across the river. Bella and Miranda both looked at Mildred from time to time, seeing the exhaustion on the older witch's face as they crossed the river. They had been travelling over the river for a good twenty minutes, and both girls were still fighting their fatigue from the night before when Van Pelt had come after them. They had barely been given any time before they were given their fresh new broomsticks when they'd woken up, and they were forced to fly over the river.
Mildred looked down from her own broom, staring at the churning dark brown water that was churning with the speed of the current, but both Mildred and Ethel knew from long and hard experience there were more dangerous things in that river. She lifted her head and focused on Miranda who was flying right beside her while Bella was flying close to Ethel. All four witches had spare broomsticks just in case something happened to the ones they were using and the younger witches had no intention of losing them, not with what was in the water far below them; they could see hippos sticking their heads out of the water, and although they were too far above to see them, they could both see enough to know they wanted to stay as far from the hippos as possible.
As they flew above the river with all the witches in the group pushing their magic into the broomsticks, they suddenly heard a thunderous sound from somewhere ahead of them.
"What's that?" Bella asked.
"Is that… lightning?" Miranda looked up into the sky, but the two older witches weren't looking into the sky. They were looking ahead of them towards the other side of the river.
"No," Mildred replied, nodding above at the sky. "If there was lightning or a monsoon, you'd know it. "
Miranda stared at the older brunette witch confused. "What do you mean?" she asked Mildred.
Mildred didn't glance back - she was still suffering from her last night's foolish moves, and she didn't trust her own safety when they were crossing the river from above. "We've been in storms here, and they're a nightmare."
"Yeah, we'd have been drenched by now if we'd been caught by a storm, but we would have been burnt to death if we'd been struck by a bolt of lightning; we've seen patches of forests demolished by lightning in the past," Ethel dropped into the conversation then. "Take a good long look at the other side of the river, and you'll see what we mean."
Bella and Miranda both did what the elder witch instructed and they both looked at the other side of the river where they saw a stampede taking place, and they watched a number of elephants running with wildebeest, buffalo, and zebra crashing through the jungle levelling everything in their path, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake; Miranda's eyes widened at the sight of the massive elephants crashing into trees with trunks which were so wide the trees were so close together that it made moving between them virtually impossible… All of it smashed to pieces as the stampeding animals ripped through the jungle.
Miranda tilted the front of her broomstick down and she flew towards the swath of ruined and trampled jungle, swooping down quite fast, but Ethel's voice cracked out.
"Hey, Miranda, where are you going?" she asked.
Miranda turned her head, and instantly the broomstick bucked but she only just managed to regain control, though she very nearly fell off - something which did not go unnoticed to the two older witches. "We're going down there, aren't we?" Miranda asked.
"No," Mildred replied firmly. "We're not."
"Why not?"
Ethel turned her eyes towards her niece. "Do you want to be caught by a tiger or a lion so easily?"
"What?" Miranda paled, remembering where she was again.
"Yeah," Mildred replied solemnly before she went ahead with her explanation for the benefit of the younger witches, who seemed to have a death wish at this moment in time. "We've found the denser the trees, the harder it is for larger animals to get to us. And besides," she nodded her head in the basic direction the stampede had gone towards, "that's not the only stampede in the jungle; we could go through the ripped up jungle like you're suggesting Miranda, but we could be caught in the middle of another stampede, and we wouldn't be able to get out of it."
"And there's also the fact you had problems with flying your broomstick," Ethel pointed out slowly, making Miranda look up at her. "We've told you already the broomsticks we've made are homemade with materials where everything here is resistant to magic, so we have to be careful on them. We're flying broomsticks where longevity has replaced safety."
Miranda felt stupid. "So where are we going?"
"As far away from the stampede as we can get," Mildred replied. "We're also trying to get as far from the swamp as we can."
Ethel saw the expression on Miranda's face, but she didn't say a word about the feelings of the younger girl since she believed it was justified. None of them had time to move on, or to say anything else; a gunshot rang out. The bullet whizzed close to Ethel's head, buzzing loudly in her ears for a second so the blonde witch thought for a moment she was going to be rendered deaf, but she recovered quickly though the after buzzing of the bullet was still ringing and she looked around desperately for the source, Mildred got there first.
"Look!" she yelled, pointing down at the ground. Everyone followed the direction of her hand before more bullets whizzed past them, but they only came close by inches, though they were a long way off.
Bella's eyes followed Mildred's finger, expecting to see the hunter (she might not have actually seen Van Pelt, not yet at any least but she had an idea she would know him when she saw him), but she was surprised when she saw five brown-skinned people holding long rifles, but they were handling the weapons so clumsily and couldn't aim properly the younger Hallow wondered why they were bothering.
"Quick!" Bella jumped when Auntie Ethel's cry ripped through the air. "Let's get to the other side before they shoot us!"
Miranda and Bella didn't need telling twice, and they instantly flew towards the ground, making sure to stay as far from the swamp as possible - Mildred was happy this time the girls were listening to them, but she pushed that thought aside as they desperately flew to the ground, thankful that this bunch were only a step below Van Pelt's skills with a gun. The group landed heavily on the ground as far as they could get from the swamp and the churned and torn up part of the jungle, relieved they were out of sight.
Miranda and Bella were both out of breath and the two adult witches weren't any better. Once they had caught their breath, Miranda got out, "Who in the name of Merlin were they?"
"Remember how we told you we weren't the only humans in Jumanji?"
"Yeah. You said there were tribes out there.'
"We did. That particular band is one of them, only they use guns instead of just bows and arrows," Ethel said.
"They're one of those tribes who've been hunting us down for a long time, and they're one of the reasons why we are very, very careful about where we live, particularly in trees because they happen to live in them as well. They're not stupid, they know only too well how dangerous this place is," Mildred added.
"Well, of course, they would, they're a part of it," Ethel pointed out, making Mildred send her a withering look.
"I know, Ethel," she said in an exasperated tone. "I know."
Rolling her eyes at the banter, Bella tried to get everything back to the matter at hand. "Does everyone in Jumanji use guns, or is it an exclusive club or something?"
Mildred chuckled. "A few people use guns here in Jumanji such as Van Pelt and those guys who attacked us," she said, "but there are others out there, tribes people, and hunters…. People who don't come from this part of Jumanji, though we don't know where they come from and we don't know why they're there. Don't worry, they're not here and the moment. We'd know," she finished in a rather cryptic manner.
"How?"
"They usually tear the jungle to bits," Ethel replied eloquently.
"I think they're loggers - people who are sent out to cut down trees and take them away for god knows what," Mildred replied, knowing precisely what a logger was in the real world away from this hell hole, "but they usually stay away from this part of the jungle."
"Have you been shot by them?" Bella asked before she winced when she realised just how stupid that question actually was. Ethel and Mildred sent her a look that spoke volumes before they shared a look for a moment before Ethel sighed. "We'd better get going; we can actually walk for a bit so we don't give anyone a target if they find a way across the river."
She and Mildred shared another glance; both witches had learnt how to speak without words after learning each others' body language and expressions after they realised there was no way out of this jungle where they would be torn apart by animals or shot at by insane hunters. It was truly fascinating and insightful how the lifting of an eyebrow could be. The smallest gesture or motion could convey ideas to any receptive minds. Mildred and Ethel had both learnt they could have a verbal conversation at one moment with each other and yet they could have a totally separate 'talk' before switching to motions and expressions.
It had saved their lives on many occasions even though it had started out so simply; a few hand gestures and the lifting of eyebrows during moments when they had both needed to keep extremely silent had saved their lives so many times over the long years they'd been trapped in Jumanji. For Bella and Miranda, the moment was brief and they didn't know what they were looking at, they just assumed the two of them were just looking at one another to see what the other was thinking about a decision, or something like that - Mildred was unsure since she and Ethel would need a fair amount of time of getting to know the two girls who were now trapped alongside them in this hell hole of a game before they could learn to read each others' expressions. But for Mildred and Ethel, the moment was a lot more complex.
"We'd better get out of here," Mildred said, standing up before picking up her spare broomstick with a sigh. "We're going to have to make new broomsticks," she added to Ethel quietly.
"I know," Ethel replied with a sigh as she picked up hers, wishing she had a classic broomstick model. She checked herself; she had been trapped in this nightmare universe for so long, trying desperately to survive she had virtually stopped wishing for things she didn't have access to while she and Mildred went about as nomads, drifting from one crisis to the next while they struggled to find food and water to stay alive. But with the arrival of her niece and her friend, Ethel had begun yearning once more for things she had taken for granted.
Ethel immediately killed that thought, guessing it was being fuelled by the presence of her niece and Miranda and the hope they could finally discover what was inside the barrier. "How are you feeling?" Ethel asked Mildred in a whisper so neither preteen overheard.
"I'm a bit tired after using so much magic in a short amount of time," Mildred admitted, looking at her friend and letting the exhaustion show for the first time, and Ethel sighed when she realised Mildred was still not fully recovered from using all that magic.
"I wonder how far we can actually go without anything attacking us," Ethel mused, but Mildred shook her head at the blonde's never ending need to think about the downsides.
"We've got no choice. Besides, we can make fresh broomsticks and carry them with us, and if there's any trouble we can simply lift off, but I don't think I can fly any truly long difference, Ethel. I am worn out; the only reason I got across the river was that we knew it was a short distance across, and you knew we'd have to walk anyway."
Ethel nodded. She and Mildred had talked about it earlier while the girls were still asleep in the tree, and they'd come to the agreement they would walk so Mildred could regather her strength. The duo exchanged another look where they had another conversation via body language and expression, and Ethel turned to the young girls.
"Bella, Miranda," she began to get their attention.
Bella walked softly towards them. "What is it, Auntie Ethel?"
Ethel had to smile at that, amazed she was an aunt still, but a subtle poke from Mildred's finger made her remember what she needed to say. "Bella, Miranda," she said again, "Mildred's still tired from last night, so we're going to walk for a bit," she looked at both girls, and she wasn't surprised by their reactions. They were exactly as she'd expected; Bella's expression of fear reminded the older Hallow of Sybil, but she pushed that aside from knowing that being terrified of HB was nothing compared to what was lurking around them.
Bella and Miranda already had a taste of what walking around Jumanji was like, and they had probably been thankful they could use broomsticks here to fly so they would never be attacked like they had been yesterday. It was so hard for them to take in it had only been yesterday they'd just arrived in this nightmare, but Ethel and Mildred were over it.
"W-walk?!" Bella whimpered, sounding more like Sybil.
"We have to," Ethel replied. "We also need to make new broomsticks, so hopefully it won't take long," she added as reassuringly as she could for the benefit of her niece and her friend.
"Don't worry," Mildred added as she stepped towards the group. "As long as you're with us, you're gonna be okay."
"I thought you got around by flying?" Miranda said.
"We can't if we need food and water," Mildred reminded her, "sometimes we get food from trees, but Van Pelt has learnt to keep watch in the skies for us; you saw what he did last night, and those Indians who attacked us earlier - okay, so they're not Indians, but you get the gist - sometimes we do have to be grounded to get around so we don't use up too much of our magic."
While she was busy rolling her eyes at Mildred's babble, Miranda nodded at the logic. "How far do we need to go?" Miranda asked.
"Not far," Ethel replied. "Just far enough so then we can find what we need to make the broomsticks."
Mildred, meanwhile, was looking around briefly for a moment before she turned back to Ethel and the others. "We'd better go now; the longer we're here, the riskier it is for us."
While she was carrying a few bits and pieces for the broomsticks they were going to make later on when they were sheltered for the night, Bella was certain she was drenched in sweat a couple of hours later - she wished she and Miranda had a watch so then they could tell the time; the sky was so bright it was virtually impossible to tell where the sun actually was so then they could see time was marching along, but they didn't - as they walked through the jungle.
But she and Miranda, judging by how her friend looked, were both tired. They hadn't slept well the night before, they had both been kept awake by the sounds of the jungle nearby, from the calls of the lions, the roars of the tigers, the snorting huffs of the hippos, and Merlin knew what else.
They both wanted this journey to end, but what they couldn't get over was just how uncomfortable they were. Their Cackles uniforms were designed for academics, not for hiking long distances through a hot jungle.
Mildred was still recovering her strength, so she stayed at the back while Aunt Ethel went up front, and as she studied them both Bella could definitely see their body language. Neither of them had relaxed in any way since this little trek had begun; both of them were both completely alert, looking around themselves carefully to make sure nothing was nearby, and indeed Ethel would make them wait for a few minutes before stating it was safe for them to move on, showing her aunt took this task very seriously.
At first, it had annoyed both Miranda and Bella, but they had both been shot down by the older witches who said they could be attacked by tigers or snakes, and they wouldn't have stood a chance because they'd been attacked by surprise. After that neither Bella or Miranda had said anything more, they just helped the two older witches gather the bits they needed for broomsticks. It surprised the two girls that truthfully they didn't need to look for anything specific to make the broomsticks; they just needed a long stick like a thick branch, or a cane of bamboo, with rushes or twigs bunched together to form a tail end.
Mildred and Ethel both had crude knives made from sharpened stone, which they used to hack and slice away at whatever they needed to get what they wanted, though for some things they needed to take their time by all accounts. Not this time, for which Bella was eternally grateful for since she didn't want to spend too much time hanging around a clump of bamboo trees. They found a couple of old tree branches which had been snapped off their trunks by the stampede, so that wasn't the trouble. The trouble was walking through the jungle while their arms were laden down with everything they needed to make the brooms.
"How much further are we going now?" Miranda whispered, taking Mildred's warnings about keeping their voices down seriously.
Ethel looked back at her. "Not far," she said. "We've got to find a large enough tree."
Bella, hearing this, groaned. "Oh no, not another tree.'
"Stop moaning," Ethel said sharply. "We're going to have to go into a tree, and trust us; living in trees are safer than living on the ground, but only just."
Ethel wished she could kill herself when she saw Bella and Miranda exchange a really scared look, though they had already gathered enough from the last night it would not be peaceful; they had drifted between sleep and wakefulness earlier, and they'd occasionally been shocked by the sounds from the animals that lived in Jumanji. They'd been soothed by Ethel, and by Mildred when the brunette felt strong enough to actually do it, but their first night in Jumanji had been far from pleasant.
Mildred and Ethel were used to it, but they had grown up with it in their ears. Their first night had been as bad here as Bella and Miranda's first night, so they sympathised with them.
The party moved on for - Miranda and Bella were both unsure, but they estimated it was an hour - before they came across a particularly large tree. Miranda gave it a once over, guessing Mildred and Ethel were going to choose it because it's gnarled, twisted appearance that put her in mind of nature being warped and twisted so much the tree itself had started out as pure as the trees in the real world before being corrupted.
The canopy was like a leafy curtain, but underneath the tree branches were vines. Thick and strong ones.
"That one?" she nodded at it, glancing at the two adult witches.
Ethel and Mildred exchanged another look, Mildred inclining her head in agreement. "Don't see any reason why not," Mildred whispered.
"How are going to get up?" Bella asked, looking at the pieces of broomstick in everyone's arms.
Ethel pointed at the vines. "We're going to climb," she said.
"Climb?!"
"Trust me, you'll get used to it," Mildred said while Ethel was already walking over to the vines after carefully putting down the broomstick supplies. The blonde took one and tested its strength before she began using it to climb up. When she was in the tree, Ethel took a moment to look around, finding the branches were wide enough for them to walk on and strong enough to take their weight, and there was a large part they could use to rest in and make the brooms and cover the distance, hopefully, to the Barrier.
She went back to the branch she had climbed onto and knelt down. "It's okay so far," she said to the others. "You'd better pass up the bits and pieces."
Mildred nodded and she picked up the pile Ethel had left behind and she gently tied them with the vines, Ethel bent down and pulled the vine up slowly while Mildred stood underneath in case anything dropped to the ground. After seeing what Mildred and Ethel were doing, Bella and Miranda grabbed a couple of vines and tied what they had to them. While Miranda's bundle fell out of the vines, it took only a short amount of time for them to get into the tree. The hard part was getting the girls into the tree since they were not used to the idea of climbing, but Mildred Hubble seemed to have anticipated that; she was the last person to climb the tree, and she helped both Bella and Miranda climb up the tree.
Dinner consisted of a number of fruits picked by Mildred while Ethel looked after the girls. With Ethel's help, Miranda and Bella both learnt how to make broomsticks while Mildred went out to find some food. The brunette was gone about an hour, and when she came back she was carrying a number of coconuts and some fruits like bananas and mangos, and she'd also found some watermelons.
But dinner consisted mainly of a few fish Mildred had caught in a nearby stream - Miranda, remembering the dangerous animals lurking in lakes and rivers, was not sure she wanted to know how the witch had gotten hold of them.
"I hope you're not allergic to any of this," the older witch said while Ethel took the net sack woven with vines Mildred and Ethel had made and stashed inside the satchels both carried.
Bella shook her head while she and Miranda helped Mildred and Ethel prepare the food while the older blonde went down to the ground with the vines, and brought back a number of thick but fairly rocks which were brought up when the blonde put them in one of the net bags and it was pulled up by the vines along with some rushes and some wood.
Watched by Miranda and Bella, the two witches began carefully placing the rocks down on the wood before they placed the wood Ethel had collected on it before Mildred clicked her fingers and the wood caught alight. After carefully removing the bark from some of the remaining wood, they impaled the fish so they could cook it. Bella flinched and she knew she would have bad dreams about that moment for the rest of her life, impaling a fish on a stick of wood, but she quietly held the fish to the fire like the rest.
"Sorry there's no seasoning," Mildred apologised while she prepared the fruits to go with their meals. She used one of the stone knives to crack open a hole in the coconuts to get to the milk but also to the flesh inside the coconuts.
Bella shook her head, though she wished they had fish the way mum made it. Lovely fried fish, wrapped in a casing of batter or covered in breadcrumbs, or poached salmon. But this would have to suffice.