Jungle Jim Tries Again
Chapter 55
LV
"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," Jim said, noticing that his words sounded a bit déjà vu.
"Okay, let's do it," Jim said. "Action, gentlemen! Uh… or whatever…"
The cameras came on, and Jim smiled as the crew panned dramatically across the dark Nan-Torel and came to rest on his face, just as the previous crew had done.
"Hello, and welcome to the Jungle Jim Show! I promised you that I would return and we would take this trip into the Nan-Torel. The last time, we made a valiant effort, but, well… I guess the Nan-Torel is not for the faint-of-heart."
Antarians, already packed around the public viewing screens and living room VidScreens for "Jungle Jim Tries Again," chuckled at Jim's understatement; and the mantra, "They're all gonna get eaten," seemed to still be the popular belief… or at least the statement that was heard the most wherever there was a VidScreen. There was no questioning that the show had not lost any of its popularity despite two previous "failed" attempts… well, failed in Jim's opinion… Antarians considered them the most entertaining thing to come along in recent memory.
Jim turned and motioned to his crew, then he walked toward the edge of the Nan-Torel. The crew followed. As Jim had told his audience before, there were no real paths in the Nan-Torel… at least not ones made by human feet. No Antarians ever went into the Nan-Torel voluntarily. Of course, this was not news to Antarians. But there were smaller trails… ones made by… well… no one really knew what. Jim set out with his latest crew, pushing aside undergrowth, bushes, and poison Guma plants. Soon, they came to one of the small trails that lead to mysterious places unknown in the deepest Nan-Torel. Jim followed it, and his crew followed him.
Inside the Nan-Torel, the trees and dense jungle-like growth blocked most of the sun's light from reaching the ground. Fortunately, the Antarian cameras and lights being used today had advanced power cores that could run for days without recharging.
The camera crew recorded every step Jim took, as they pressed on for the next thirty minutes deeper into the Nan-Torel's dark depths along the strange little trail. About a mile inside the forest-jungle, Jim stopped, as a noise of fluttering wings got his attention. Jim searched the trees. He had heard this same sound the last time he had brought a crew into the Nan-Torel, but that time, they had never seen the creature that had made the sound. This time, Jim glimpsed it, as it fluttered from one dark treetop to a nearby dark treetop.
"These are Ama trees," Jim said to the cameras. "As I told you last time, they are a larger relative of the smaller Ama tree that grows outside the Nan-Torel. The leaves of that tree are used to make salads. A smaller, less-poisonous relative of the Guma plant can also be found outside the Nan-Torel, and it is detoxified and eaten in salads, too. The leaves of the giant Ama trees of the Nan-Torel fall densely on the forest floor, and they can be very useful if you should ever happen to spend the night out here. Of course, as I have been amply informed since my last show, nobody on Antar is likely to ever do that… present company excluded, naturally."
Around VidScreens everywhere, viewers chuckled and nodded at Jim's second understatement of the day.
"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, because that 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- down to the bones in just three minutes while it sleeps. If you will look up in that far tree, you will see a large nest. Shine the light on it, Gorath. Yeah, there it is! See? That is the nest of a colony of rob-jetas. There may be as many as three thousand in there. The fluttering sound we heard a few minutes ago was a rob-jeta scout moving from one tree to another. It is probably keeping a watch on us, not unlike the way a large bird called a vulture on Eluymer circles and keeps a watch on a wounded animal or being, waiting for it to die. The difference, of course, is that the rob-jeta do not wait for their prey to die. Still, we will be safe from them as long as we do not go to sleep out in the open or are not seriously injured or incapacitated."
The camera crew looked at each other, acknowledging Jim's words judiciously. They did not seem overly concerned, however. Jim led the crew further down the small, mysterious trail then stopped again.
"You will remember this creature from our last show, I'm sure."
Jim bent down and carefully picked up a six-foot-long red snake with a light mint-green belly and an electric blue zigzag pattern on it sides. Above the zigzag pattern, there were small, luminescent greenish spots that glowed brightly in the darkness of the Nan-Torel.
"The one we saw last time was almost twice the size of this little guy, but this one still has all the fire power of it's larger relative," Jim said enthusiastically, holding the snake up. "This is an Antarian green-spotted fire snake. Most Antarians believed it to be a myth before seeing the one on our last show."
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 brightly like an atom bomb that had just exploded. Then the snake threw a roaring sheet of flames high into the air. The camera crew backed up and looked around cautiously but did not seem intimidated by the sight of the fire snake or its unusual display.
"I explained last time that the flames the fire snake shoots out are its way of defending itself. In the Nan-Torel every creature must have some means of defense to survive. Few other creatures will mess with a fire snake. Now, some people have wondered why it is that the fire snake, here in all this dense jungle growth with trees and leaves and bushes everywhere, doesn't set the Nan-Torel on fire with its defense mechanism, and I am going to tell you why. It is because the flames of the fire snake are an illusion. They are not real at all."
Jim placed his hand over the fire snake and touched its tail to its head again. Again the fire snake lit up, this time throwing out a sheet of "flames" so intense that it went right through Jim's hand then through his entire body, causing the viewers at home to actually see Jim's skeleton in a sort of X-ray effect… and making it momentarily appear that he had been simply vaporized. Gasps were audible all over Antar; and for the first time, Jim's camera crew appeared to be a little unnerved.
Slowly returning to his normal non-transluscent state, and with the radiation-like glow all over his body starting to subside, Jim smiled and carefully laid the snake back down on the trail, where it quickly slithered off again into the underbrush.
"Was that amazing or what?" Jim exulted with a huge grin. "You know, the flash of fire that the fire snake gives off is a function of two factors. First, as you have just witnessed, the fire snake gives off a type of radiation in massive bursts. This is non-lethal to humans or Antarians but can be lethal to smaller animals and to some larger animals with susceptible nervous systems. On Eluymer, where I come from, this dosage of radiation would probably have put me in the hospital and might possibly have killed me, but in Antar's atmosphere, the radiation effect is limited. Also, you have ways to readily counteract it here. The "flames" of the fire snake are not based solely on this radiation burst, however. At the same time as the fire snake gives off its flash, it sends out a fairly powerful signal from its brain. This signal enters through the eyes of the predator and causes a kind of mind-altering effect that allows the predator to actually see the radiation flash appear as flames. The flash is real… it just would not be visible, or certainly not as impressive, without the sensory boost from the snakes mind. This snake is truly one of the great wonders of your planet."
"I know there are some of you out there who are asking right now, [i]'How is it that Jungle Jim knows so much about these animals and what makes them function?'[/i] And that's a good question. I never brought a fire snake out of the Nan-Torel to study it, it's true. I did bring a dead rob-jeta out once, but most of what I know I have learned from observation and from a most unusual source… one that most of you have not had available to you… my son, Danyy, and his friends, the pawgors. You see, Danyy can talk to animals and ask them things. But since neither Danyy nor I have ever seen many of these animals, Danyy's pawgor friends have described them to him, and he, in turn, has told me about them. Also, Zan has told me of some of the things that he learned from the jah-ee long ago concerning the creatures of the Nan-Torel. There are some very strange creatures in the Nan-Torel!" Jim smiled and leaned in close to the cameras as he said this and added mysteriously, "The pawgor has told us of some that I hope we will see… and of some it might be best if we never see!"
This information seemed to worry the camera crew somewhat, and they looked at each other momentarily, but then they seemed to decide that any danger was probably based solely on the more vulnerable nature of these flimsy creatures called Antarians and Hu-Mans and was probably over-rated in their case.
Turning to lead the crew down the trail even further, Jim almost tripped over a wiffer. Gorath turned a camera on the armored creature and followed the moving mound of leaves and grass under which it was hiding.
Jim brushed off the turtle-like creature for the cameras to get a better view. 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 docile.
"The wiffer is harmless," Jim said. The leaves and grass stuck all over its back are its defense. It stays camouflaged." To emphasize the wiffer's docile nature, Jim offered it a piece of fruit from his pocket, and the wiffer took it gently from his hand. Then Jim carefully sat down on the huge turtle-like creature's shell, and it moved along, carrying him for about ten feet on its back before it suddenly decided to go underground again. Using its spiked tail to dig with, the wiffer quickly reburied itself, leaving only a few inches of its camouflaged shell protruding above the ground.
Now the camera crew was smiling, and many of the viewers were imagining themselves having a wiffer for a pet or riding on it. That's when they suddenly heard the shriek. It pierced the darkness like a stab going through everyone there. And it was followed by a series of short shrieks from the other side of them. Jim looked at his camera crew, expecting to see their backsides running through the bushes, eyes wide with terror, dragging their cameras and lights behind them or carrying them dangling at their sides, as had happened with the Xarian crew last time. (The Antarian crew had refused to go in the Nan-Torel at all.) To his surprise, the camera crew was still there… every single one of them. Jim smiled.
"Excellent! That was the sound of the wild pawgor and its mate answering him! The wild pawgor is a very dangerous and ferocious animal, and I would not recommend anyone to confront or mess with one ever. But there are ways to defend oneself… mainly by avoiding being attacked in the first place. If you are attacked, there is probably nothing that will save you, so you definitely want to avoid being attacked at all cost. What we have learned from the pawgors themselves is that pawgors prefer to attack anything that runs. In fact, if you run when you see a pawgor, you are making yourself pawgor food. Standing still alone does not guarantee that you will not be attacked, it merely makes it less likely. But if you run you are guaranteeing it will attack. So if you run, you'd better be fast!" Jim laughed. "Since I doubt any of you are as fast as a pawgor, I don't recommend that. There is one thing, though, that can almost eliminate the possibility of an attack one hundred percent, according to our pawgor friends."
i"Yeah,"/i Varec said to Amy, as they watched on their VidScreen. i"Stay out of the Nan-Torel!"/i Amy laughed and nodded.
"The pawgor," Jim said, "will never attack a creature that bends over and places both arms or forelegs flat on the ground and remains that way until it is gone. I suspect that is a form of surrender or acknowledgement of the pawgor's dominance. In any case, it works I am told. We may have the opportunity to test that here today."
The camera crew looked much more concerned when Jim said this. They knew what a pawgor was, and none of them really wanted to challenge one, even with their superior Dragon physiology and strength. It hadn't been enough when Danyy's pawgor had ripped into them on their own planet the first time they and the Antarians had met. Then, the Antarians were rescuing their kidnapped children who had been sold to the Dragons by the Ghor slavers for the Dragons' barbaric New Year's feast of Vyatu-Xi. Later, after the Dragons learned that the Ghors had also enslaved many of their own children and sold them… and after Michael and Max rescued their children along with many others, the Dragons became allies of the Antarians.
"Let's move on down the trail a bit," Jim said, walking off, following the mysterious little trail deeper into the Nan-Torel's depths. The Dragon crew followed along behind him with the cameras and lights. After a few minutes, Jim stopped and turned to the cameras, placing his finger over his mouth to indicate quietness. Nobody spoke. Momentarily, a small creature flew into view. It looked like a large dragonfly at first, perhaps eight inches long. The wings made it look quite pretty, and the body was vaguely human-like, not in a pretty way, but human-looking nonetheless. As the creature spotted Jim and the others, it stopped in mid-air and backed up. Then it flew around them, examining each one.
"Do not touch it," Jim said, warning the Dragons. He didn't have to tell them. They remembered Ee-l'wee, the little Aklatian fairy. Ee-l'wee had been much prettier than this creature and quite obviously much more evolved. Ee-l'wee was highly intelligent and highly civilized. This creature was clearly not as evolved or particularly intelligent. By comparison, it was more like a chimpanzee to a human. But it was beautiful all the same. The wings were especially lovely.
"Some of you," Jim explained to the cameras, "may remember Ee-l'wee, the little Aklatian fairy. Ee-l'wee was able to give off a powerful shock that could burn out many creatures. In fact, she stopped two of Hosk the Ghor's hearts when he tried to capture and enslave her. This little creature, which I call a 'Nan-Torel fairy,' is not civilized like Ee-l'wee. It's also not really intelligent in our definition of intelligence, but she is not at all defenseless. She packs the same electric wallop that Ee-l'wee did; and in some primitive way, it is tempting to believe that she, though native to the Nan-Torel here on Antar, is a sort of primitive Aklatian fairy."
As Jim said this, a portion of a tree nearby seemed to detach from the trunk. Then it sprung at the little flying creature. As it's body came within two feet of her, an electric charge so powerful erupted from the little fairy-like creature that the tree trunk attacker was burned to a crisp and fell smoking to the ground.
"That," Jim said, "was a brown bark snake. It attaches to the side of a tree and looks like part of the tree. When its prey comes along, it detaches and springs on it."
Jim picked up the still-smoking reptile. "This one will no longer be attacking Nan-Torel fairies… or anything else it would appear. It's quite dead."
As Jim looked back at the little fairy, the creature suddenly darted off. Jim looked around to see what had frightened her away, and not twenty feet from him stood a full-grown male pawgor, almost twice the size of a Siberian tiger. Jim froze in his tracks. Carefully, he glanced back at his camera crew. It seemed they had been listening. Every one of them was bent over, arms flat on the ground.
The pawgor looked at Jim and let out a threatening, bone-chilling shriek. Seeing that his crew was apparently taking his advice, Jim took his own advice and bent over, placing his arms flat on the ground. He had to drop to his knees to get both arms, not just his hands, on the ground. As they all remained perfectly still like this, the pawgor walked around them, making an unusual rumbling mewing sound. Jim wasn't sure what it meant. Gorath felt a cold nose sniffing his backside, as the large saber-toothed cat passed behind him. He grimaced and vowed to demand more money when they got back to civilization. The pawgor walked on around the group, sniffing each backside in turn, nudging Sharno so hard that it momentarily lifted him off the ground with its nose. It seemed less interested in Jim, giving him only a passing sniff. Then the huge cat walked away, apparently uninterested in anything it had seen. After a few minutes, Jim decided it was safe to get up, and he struggled to his feet. After having been on his knees with his arms flat on the ground for the last ten or fifteen minutes, he found it a bit difficult to just stand up. The Dragons got back up, too.
"Jim," Sharno said, "Dragons don't normally wear clothes like Antarians do, except for a vest on celebratory occasions, but if you want me to come back into this jungle with you again, you're going to have to have the Antarian tailors make me some pants!" Gorath, Kharsom, and Danjat mumbled their agreement.
Jim nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
**********
That evening, at his ranch, Jim was being congratulated by a group of friends and family for finally completing a whole show without his crew running away.
"That was an amazing show," Kyle's wife, Jeliya, said. "I really learn a lot from your show, Jim!"
"Thanks, Jilly," Jim said. "I guess it went pretty good… except for that part where the pawgor showed up."
"Oh, that was the best part," Kyle laughed. "I loved that! But I admit, I was a little worried about you there for a while."
Jim shrugged. "Well, Danyy never told me that bending over with the front legs on the ground is a mating offer to the male pawgor."
Kyle was laughing so hard that he had to wipe tears from his eyes.
"Don't
laugh, Kyle," Jim said. It kept us all alive!"
"Dad, did you ever think that maybe some of us would rather get eaten than the possible alternative here?"
"Oh, I don't think the pawgor is interested in non pawgors. It just sniffed us and left."
"Yeah, well, you aren't a Dragon, Dad. You had pants on."
Jeliya smiled and began to giggle, and Michael grinned and slapped Kyle's hand… "If you ask me," Michael said, "I'd want body armor from the waist down… maybe something like knights used to wear, before I'd take a chance like that. My body belongs to Maria."
"Yeah, yeah! Laugh it up you guys," Jim said. "But I'm the one with the top-rated TV show."
"Yeah, let's hear it for Jungle Jim!" Max said, raising his glass.
Everyone raised their glasses and toasted to the success of Jungle Jim, the Pawgor's Friend.
tbc
Coming: Max and the others zero in on the source of Maya's visions, and they make a decision.