Jungle Jim Returns
Chapter 49
XLIX
"Okay, aim the cameras right over here. I'm going to be standing right here when I open. Then I'll turn and walk into the Nan-Torel… and you guys will follow me with the cameras… into the Nan-Torel… Got that?"
The camera crew nodded.
"Good! This show is going to happen gentlemen… and lady," Jim said, nodding toward Obyal Var of Video XSO Xarius. "I had to bring you guys all the way from Xarius, but it'll be worth it. I'm gonna teach these Antarians about their fauna if it kills me."
Jim thought about that last statement a moment… "And I don't mean like the Antarians think it's going to, either!"
There was some chuckling from the camera crew, which consisted of four large, beefy Xarian male cameramen and Obyal Var, the well-known female correspondent from Xarius.
"Okay, let's do it," Jim said, staking out his position in front of the cameras. "Action, gentlemen!"
The cameras came on, and Jim smiled as they panned dramatically across the dark Nan-Torel and came to rest on his face.
"Hello, and welcome to the Jungle Jim Show! Last week I promised you that I would return and we would take a trip into the Nan-Torel. Today, that is finally going to happen. I want to thank the team from Video XSO of Xarius for coming here to film this for you today." Jim motioned toward the camera crew, and one of the cameras panned slowly over the five Xarians. Each one smiled and waved in turn.
In the square in the center of town, Antarians were already packed around the public viewing screen. The rest were all in their homes watching. The Return of Jungle Jim was unquestionably the most eagerly anticipated event to ever hit Antarian "TV."
"They're all gonna get eaten," one Antarian woman said, as she and a friend watched in the public square.
The other woman chuckled. "They're taking bets down at Rag'lyng's on how long it will take till the first one gets eaten… and what will eat him."
The first woman shook her head. "Well, I hope Jungle Jim doesn't get eaten myself. I'd like to see him come back every week. He's interesting… and he's kind of good looking…"
Her friend nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that, too…" Then she added, "But don't get too attached to him. He's going to get eaten."
Jim turned and motioned to his crew, then he walked toward the edge of the Nan-Torel. The crew followed, much to Jim's relief. There were no real paths in the Nan-Torel… at least not ones made by human feet. No Antarians ever went in there voluntarily. But there were smaller trails… ones made by… well… no one really knew what.
The first thing that became obvious as they plodded into the Nan-Torel, was that there was not an abundance of light available. The trees and jungle-like growth were dense everywhere. Fortunately, the Xarian cameras, like their Antarian counterparts, had advanced power cores that could run for days without recharging. The lights could also burn for as long as was likely to be needed without any recharging, so lighting would not be a problem.
The camera crew followed, recording every step Jim took and every plant he pushed out of the way, as they pressed on for the next fifteen minutes deeper into the Nan-Torel's dark depths. About half a mile inside the forest-jungle, Jim stopped and turned toward the cameras with a smile…
"Folks, this is something I want to show you." Jim held up the branch of a Guma plant. Its huge orange, purple, and red mushroom-like leaves waved and undulated as if they were alive.
"This is a poison Guma fungus plant. The leaves of the Guma plant are not normally deadly to touch, but they can leave some very painful reminders of why they are called 'poison' Guma plants. These leaves move around almost as if they were… well, I would say alive, but the fact is, they are alive. All plants are alive, and all plants move! They just normally move too slowly for us to notice. You have undoubtedly seen that many flowers open in the day and close at night… the Yura flower always faces the sun… and the Dyswo plant lies down at night but reawakens and creeps slowly back up as the sun rises in the day. The poison Guma plant moves, too. The difference, of course, is that its movements can be observed. It is saying to keep away. That is why, as you can see, I am being careful to touch only the branches and not the beautiful fungus leaves."
Jim carefully let the branch back down, and the camera crew turned sideways to squeeze by the plant, giving it a wide berth. Suddenly, everyone heard a noise… something that sounded like a flutter of wings. The camera crew looked around somewhat nervously, but no one saw anything. Jim searched the trees. He didn't see what had made the sound, but he did see some trees that interested him.
"These are Ama trees," Jim said, smiling broadly. "You may be familiar with a smaller subspecies of the Ama tree. It grows outside the Nan-Torel, and its leaves, which are also much smaller, are often used to make salads. A smaller, less-poisonous relative of the Guma plant can also be found outside the Nan-Torel, and it is often detoxified and eaten in salads. The leaves of the giant Ama trees of the Nan-Torel fall densely on the forest floor in many places, and they can be very useful to you if you should ever happen to spend the night out here."
Around TV screens all over Antar, more than a few viewers chuckled at Jim's last statement. "There's no chance that's ever going to happen," seemed to be the comment heard from most of those watching.
"The fact is," Jim continued, "when Zan was forced to flee into the Nan-Torel to escape from Kivar's soldiers during the Battle for Antar, he slept under piles of Ama leaves at night. And do you know why? I'll give you a clue… It wasn't to stay warm. The Nan-Torel is quite warm. Sleeping under a big pile of Ama leaves was the only means he had to protect himself from the bat-like rob-jeta that descend on any unprotected living thing in the Nan-Torel at night like flying meat cleavers. The rob-jeta can devour a shebble –or an Antarian for that matter- down to the bones in just three minutes while it sleeps.
"Well, only if someone is crazy enough to sleep in the Nan-Torel," one of the viewers in the square said, eliciting another round of laughter from the crowd gathered there.
Not seeing the source of the sound they had heard earlier, Jim led the camera crew further down the small, unknown trail… or what appeared to be a trail. Then he stopped again, this time to carefully pick up a ten-foot-long snake that he spotted in a bush. The snake was red with brilliant blue zig-zags that somewhat resembled lightning bolts along its sides. Above the zig-zag pattern, there were small, luminescent greenish spots that glowed brightly in the Nan-Torel's darkness. The belly was a very light minty green color.
"Look at this little beauty," Jim said enthusiastically, holding the snake up, as the camera crew backed away a few feet. "What a find this is! This is just extraordinary! I can't believe our good luck! What I have here is none other than an Antarian green-spotted fire snake. Many of you have heard of the fire snake… but most Antarians believe it is merely a myth. And yet here it is… one of those legendary snakes, my friends, live and… hissing its displeasure at us…
Check this out!"
Jim picked up a small branch from the ground and carefully pulled the snake's tail with the branch until the tip of the tail touched the snake's head. As soon as it did, the entire snake lit up then seemed to explode, throwing a roaring sheet of flames high into the air. The camera crew backed up quite a bit further, and some of them looked around nervously.
"Don't worry," Jim said, smiling, as he gently draped the fire snake back over its bush. "The snake was not harmed. The sheet of flames she shoots out is her way of defending herself. In the Nan-Torel every creature must have some means of defense to survive. Few other creatures will mess with a fire snake."
"I can see why," one of the cameramen mumbled. Obyal Var swallowed and nodded, her eyes still wide.
As Jim turned to lead the crew down the trail a bit further, one of the cameramen tripped and fell headlong on the ground. The other cameramen stared as the ground rose up where the fallen cameraman had gone down… then the ground moved to one side. Obyal Var turned a camera on her fallen comrade and followed the moving mound of leaves and grass, which continued to grow higher and higher. Jim rushed over to it and attempted to lift it so that the cameras could get a better view.
"Help me out here someone. This guy's heavy!"
The camera crew seemed unsure.
"It's just a wiffer," Jim said. It's a large animal similar to a turtle. It's harmless. The leaves and grass stuck all over its back are its defense. It stays camouflaged."
Two of the large Xarian men decided to assist Jim, and together they lifted the wiffer for Obyal Var to get a good shot of it. It did look very much like a turtle, but it was probably something entirely different. The head had a pair of stiff combs or ridges that were vaguely reminiscent of a dinosaur's. The tail was armored and had spikes on the sides. In spite of its appearance, though, the wiffer appeared to be quite gentle and harmless. The three men set it back down, and it quickly used its spiked tail to dig into the ground and bury itself again, leaving only a few inches of its camouflaged shell protruding above the ground. So this was what the cameraman had tripped over.
Having seen and touched the gentle wiffer, the camera crew seemed more relaxed, calmer, and less nervous… but that was only until they heard the shriek. It pierced the darkness like a stab going through each one there. And it was followed by a series of short shrieks from the other side of them.
"Oh! Excellent!" Jim said. "That was the sound of the wild pawgor and its mate answering him!"
Jim turned around to address the cameras, but they weren't there. In homes all over Antar and in the public square, viewers watched as bushes, underbrush, and poison Guma plants rushed by. All they could see were feet running as the cameras bounced aimlessly around, held by the camera crew running for their lives.
In the palace, Liz and Max watched and smiled, then they looked at each other and both began to laugh.
"Oh God, I shouldn't be laughing," Liz said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I feel guilty. Jim is our friend. He's like family."
In the countryside, at his own home, Jim's oldest son, Kyle, was feeling no such guilt as he rolled on the floor with laughter, causing Jeliya to smile in spite of herself.
"Kyle, you're awful, you know that? He's your Dad."
"I know," Kyle said, breaking into another fit of hysterical laughter.
"Aren't you worried about him?"
"Who? Dad? Naw… He'll be fine. He may not be amused, but he'll be fine, Jilly. This reminds me of a low-budget movie some college kids made back on Earth called 'The Blair Witch Project' or something like that. It was just a bunch of people running and all you saw was their feet and bushes and the ground going by." Kyle lapsed into laughter again. "I know Dad's not going to be amused, but it's funny as hell!"
**********
Jim was sitting next to the Starkeen River tossing pebbles into the water when Kyle walked up.
"How's it going, Dad?"
"I'll live," Jim said, tossing another pebble into the water.
"Aw, Dad… You still steaming about the Xarian camera guys running out on you?"
"I looked like a fool, Kyle. What was I thinking?"
"Maybe you were thinking that Antar needs a little education about its natural heritage. Maybe you were thinking that they would learn something… and enjoy it… and you'd enjoy doing it."
"Maybe I was an idiot," Jim said quietly, tossing another pebble into the river.
"Well, the VideoAntar News teams don't think so, Dad."
Kyle sat down next to his father. "They were saying this morning that you've done something that no one ever expected or ever has before. You've awakened a real interest in Antarians in their natural heritage. They want more."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah! The Jungle Jim show outperformed every other show in Antarian history."
"That's just because everyone wanted to see me get eaten."
"No it's not, Dad. Antarians just have a sense of humor."
"So I'll laugh while I'm being eaten."
"You don't get it, Dad. They don't really want you to get eaten. They just enjoy saying that. It's like a big joke. They like to have fun with everything. And now they say that there's a real interest growing in the fauna of the Nan-Torel, and it's because of you."
"Yeah? You really think so?"
"I know so, Dad. I've heard it everywhere. They want more of Jungle Jim!"
Jim sighed and tossed another pebble into the river. "It's no use anyway, son. I'll never find a crew that won't run the first time something howls out there. I can't blame them really. They don't understand the wildlife in there. They're scared. They don't want to get eaten… and if they went in there without the proper understanding and respect for the wildlife, they would."
"Exactly, Dad… and that's why Jungle Jim is needed."
Jim looked at Kyle and thought about what he had said, then he nodded. "Yeah… so the message is really gettin' through, huh?"
"Yeah, Dad. It is."
"Alright. Alright, then. I'll give it one more go." Jim stood up and dusted himself off. "Let's go up to the house and have some coffee. We can talk about how I'm gonna hogtie the next camera crew and keep 'em on a leash."
Kyle laughed. "Well, the Xarian crew won't be able to return for quite a while."
"Why's that, Kyle?"
"The news on VideoAntar said they were all suffering from poison Guma plant rashes. Seems they weren't as careful when they were running to get back out of the Nan-Torel as they were going in."
Jim laughed. "Well, they'll get over it."
"So will you, Dad. Come on! Let's get that cup o' coffee you promised me."
tbc