PRIMORDIUM NULLA RETRORSUM
Chapter 10
AUTHOR: TowandaBR, Thisbee, Lady Cris Krux
Translation, Lady Cris Krux
DISCLAIMER: All of the characters of the series "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" are property of John Landis, Telescene, Coote/Hayes, DirecTV, New Line Television, Space, Action Adventure Network, Goodman/Rosen Productions, and Richmel Productions.
SPOILERS: After HEART OF THE STORM
To all people who keep TLW alive by any means.
Cris, Hmm, Katybelle, Santa Crux. For you all, thank you very much!
Also in Portuguese: "PRIMORDIUM NULLA RETRORSUM"
For a long time they had imagined how their arrival to Belem would be like.
The harbor, in crisis since 1914 with the depreciation of the rubber, was crowded of people: few merchants and dockworkers, but dozens of inhabitants of the city ran for there whenever some passengers' ship arrived. Black, white, mulattos, and natives had fun seeing that luxurious embarkation moor at the wharf of 1.869 meters.
Except for the passengers who disembarked, nobody wore well cut suits. The residents were humble people in simple clothes, many of them barefoot, with their families and noisy children having fun with craft toys.
After the immigration's disencumber, the three of them awaited for their luggage. Actually, each one had just a small bag.
Under the scalding heat of a sunny and humid morning, a boy awaited for them. It seemed that he was barely eighteen or nineteen years old. Wearing pants of cotton fabric, shirt of short sleeves and boots made of ox leather, he approached.
"Mr. John Smith?" - He asked in a loud voice, trying to be heard above the noises surrounding them.
"That's me." - Roxton said, under the curious glance of his friends when they heard that name.
"Everything is ready, sir." - He handed a small briefcase to the hunter.
"Thank you."
"Sir?" - the boy handed him an involucre made of bamboo - "This was gave to me some minutes ago by a man by the pier entrance. He told me to hand it to one of you. I don't know what it is about."
Roxton looked at the object and was curious to open it, but he preferred to examine its content in a more reserved place. He opened the briefcase that he had just received and put the bamboo thing inside it.
"Please, follow me."
Lost in their thoughts, none of them talked during the car itinerary to the magnificent Grande Hotel. As in the ship, the hunter had made reservations in the best available accommodations.
John dismissed the boy, giving him precise instructions to pick them up at dawn in the following day.
The three went to their rooms, where they took a shower and rested in beds covered with expensive sheets and perfumed with lavender. Despite of the comfort of the ship, the anxiety allowed them just a little sleep during the trip, and they were exhausted.
Malone was the first one to wake up, and sat by the desk, taking pen and paper.
"I, who one day imagined to make this journey alone, now am here with my best friends."
"No word can describe the relief that I feel at this time. Relief for the first time in my life knowing who I really am and where I want to go to."
He thought about what else he could write, but he concluded that those few words expressed everything.
If they could choose, they would have penetrated deep into the woods as fast as possible, but reaching the goal for which they have prepared for so long required everything to be done very carefully.
They met again hours later, in the lunch served at a reserved room exclusively for them, with a sight to a square planted with lots of mango trees, in front of the Teatro da Paz (Theater of Peace).
"Roxton, now you are really looking like a nobleman." – Challenger teased, when seeing his friend.
"You too." – Actually they had all got rid of their suits and elegant and hot hats, and they dressed pants and shirt-sleeves made in regional fabric, much more comfortable and appropriate for the Amazonian heat.
After the tasteful and relaxed lunch, where they were introduced to duck in tucupi, with jambú leafs, and açaí mixed with manioc flour and sugar for desert, Roxton took the briefcase. He explained to Challenger and Malone that, at the same time that he ordered to deliver the supplies bought in Europe in the warehouse that he had rented in Belem, he sent the receipts to a company in the city. Now, in possession of the papers, he could take the provisions, including the balloon in which they intended to try to arrive to the plateau as they had done in the first time. He had also already provided all the loaders that they would need.
"You were really very cautious." - eulogized Ned.
The hunter recalled the mysterious involucre that he had received. It took some time to open it, and when he managed to do it, he found a piece of fabric carefully coiled. Cleaning a space over the lunch's table, he extended the cloth so that the other ones could also see what it was about. Despite being very simple and primitive, it was obvious that the drawing done with craft paints represented some kind of map.
Malone knew some topography, which he had learned during the war, and John also had a good knowledge on the subject. However, it was Challenger who noticed what it was all about.
"Gentlemen, I believe that part of the effort in the preparation of this whole trip was unnecessary. I can be wrong, but we won't need supplies, loaders or even the balloon." - He took the fabric before continuing - "As it seems, our journey will be calmer than we could ever expect."
The following day, Roxton paid and dismissed all the loaders. They collected what were in the warehouses and distributed almost everything among the people of the city. About the balloon, they were careful enough to destroy it definitively, in order to prevent it to ever being used.
Finally, wearing clothes made in serge and boots, and just carrying their backpacks and hunt weapons, they left…
From Belem to a small city, from there to a smaller one, later to the closest town. From there they proceeded to a village, from where they went along the Amazon River. In the middle of the journey, they started to be escorted by natives that they had known in a time that seemed very long ago.
Differently of the first time, they smiled frankly when they finally arrived to the small and rustic village, where they were warmly welcomed. It seemed the whole tribe was around them.
If when they left the plateau they had been gifted with the best that tribe could offer them, during their return the situation was not different.
Taken to the shallow part of the river, where it formed small swimming pools of running water, they were bathed with herbs, wore in clean clothes, and fed, before they were installed at the small cottage where they slept almost immediately, absolutely exhausted of the calm, but very long trip.
When they wake up, they walked through the village.
Challenger was still enchanted with the women's ability in the art of weaving baskets from natural straws. He also visited the farming and he was satisfied when seeing that what he taught had been useful and that the crop would be more than plenty.
Malone was taken by the hunters who made jokes about his small ability to hunting. If he needed, he would be able to provide his own sustaining, but he would never be an expert hunter. He cut firewood that was used to roast bread in the mud oven that he had helped to build.
Roxton came out of the village and using signs made the children follow him to the river, where they spend a lot of time raising them by his shoulders, using him as diving-board and summoning him to join them in the recreation. He noticed that many of the native ones to whom he had taught some hunt techniques now showed ability even bigger than his.
When darkness fell, they met up with the native chief close to the bonfire. He gave them a bag filled with tobacco showing how they should inhale it.
After some minutes, they felt light and completely opened to listen to the words that would come next.
"When you arrived here at the first time, I told you that this community has been here to receive those who left the plateau. And now I tell you that we also exist to help all those who want and deserve to go back."
"That's the reason why you were guided back here." - he made a pause under the three men's attentive glance - "As well as it was allowed to you to leave with a very precious thing, this time you can choose one thing that you would like to take with you."
Challenger and Malone thought a little.
"There is nothing that I want to take with me." - the journalist said.
"I can't think about anything that I would want and that is not already in the plateau." – Challenger smiled, when reminding of the laboratory that had set up at the treehouse.
They looked at Roxton.
"I will take back the only thing that I brought with me when I left." -smiling, he caressed the picture that he always had with him.
All of a sudden, the three men expressed their concern.
"There is a very big expedition being prepared to try to find the plateau. We tried to mislead them, but we're afraid that one day they can reach their objective." - Challenger said, concerned.
"Persistent as you are, I'm sure that you did a great job. But don't worry. Who knows how far your false clues had sent them, maybe even farer than what you could ever imagine." - The native calmly answered.
"The map that you sent to us... Were you sure that we would return?" - It was the time for Roxton to ask.
"Yes. Since the beginning." - Again the man's answer was calm.
"And why didn't you tell us, instead of allowing us to loose so much time until now?" - Ned was inconvenienced.
"Would that stop you from returning to your origins?"
None of them answered. And no answer was needed.
"I have one last question." - Challenger was curious - "You will show us the entrance to the plateau..."
"Yes. One of them, at least..."
"Also knowing the exit, can we leave the plateau when we want?"
The native smiled.
"You are free to go and to come when you want to. But something gives me the certainty that we will never see each other again."
And that was how they went up river and, once again, threw themselves in the waterfall, sure about leaving behind the world that they knew so well for finally coming back to the place that was their home: the plateau.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Please R&R
Teatro da Paz – A theater. A landmark build in Belem in 1874.
Açaí (Euterpe oleracea) – small fruit of the açai Tree, a lanky palm tree that reaches 30 m of height and produces bunches with dozens of round pits (fruits) – The pronounce is something like 'assaee'.
Jambú (Spilanthes acmella) – flowering herb used in culinary and as a medicinal component.
Tucupi – A cassava sauce