Ants!
Delilah awoke to a hazy blur of red ants. One ant alone could not do much damage but a whole colony of ants was sure to inflict some pain. They had completely covered Delilah.
Dr.Dismay may be on the way to discovering a deadly plant poison but he wasn't there yet. His poison had only knocked Delilah and Julius out for 28 hours.
She got up quickly but stumbled to the ground. The plant poison had some lasting effect but within minutes it was gone and Delilah stumbled to the nearest body of water. She found a small waterfall that fed into a small lake. She took her shirt, pants, and shoes off and jumped into the lake, drowning all the ants. She quickly scrambled to land after she was sure all the ants where gone. She dried her self off and shook out her cloths and put them back on.
Julius! Where's Julius?
"Julius!" she called out, but to no avail. Her partner was nowhere to be found. She continued her search for a half an hour before she realized how hungry she was. She was certain of what plants she could eat and what they looked like; it was mostly fruit, yams, and some of the mushrooms. She gathered up the fruit from the trees, went back to the lake to wash them, and then she ate them.
Fifty kilometres away Julius was just waking up. He was lucky and the ants spared him. He didn't feel great and for the first twenty minutes after he woke up, he could not stop throwing up, and not knowing where Delilah was made him worried beyond belief.
He searched and searched but could not find his partner. He did find a stream. Fast running water was as close to clean water as he was going to get out here. He drank the cool water and it made him feel a little better. But he would not rest until he found Delilah and knew she was safe. All of his equipment was gone which would make finding her all the harder. He was her partner and he knew her best, so he tried to think of what she might do.
But what if she can't do anything. What if she is dead! He thought and suddenly became much more alarmed. I have to find her! He was yelling at himself but he hadn't the slightest clue where to begin or where he was for that matter.The one thing he did know was that he loved Delilah and he needed to find her. He started up the river.
Delilah was not near the same river that Julius was by, but she wasn't far. A short five kilometres away would take her to the same river but she didn't know that. But by chance she started walking in that direction. She had a feeling that going that way would be good and she trusted her intuition.
The terrain was wet and slippery all of the time and it rain every twenty minutes or so. It was a bad time to be lost in the rainforest. The rainy season brought life to the rain forest but, hence the name, it brought tones of rain.
Crunch…Crunch…Crunch…
Delilah herd something walking, it was very close to her. She froze and looked around to see if she could see what was coming.
"Stay back!" She said and prepared to fight whatever came at her.
Crunch…Crunch…Crunch…Stop.
It was only a Tapir. Tapirs are harmless little land mammals that are very cute. This one took one glance at Delilah and plodded off. She was relived that it wasn't a tiger because she didn't have the strength to fight it if it wanted to.
She wandered on for a while longer and came to the river. The river was too wide and to fast to cross so she decided to follow it. Upstream or down? She wondered and decided to go downstream. It was unfortunately taking her farther way from Julius, in the opposite direction. She went on following the river for twenty kilometres, occasionally taking a drink, when she reached a small village of Pygmy people that Dr.Dismay and Lady Devilish had not yet destroyed. She hoped that Julius would somehow be there waiting for her. But no such luck, she was greeted by the curious Pygmy children instead.
"Amba ni enyi?" (English translation: Who are you?) One of the braver children asked, not fully expecting to get and answer.
"Mie ni Delilah Devonshire. Pata mie sema kwa zako mbari akida?" (English translation: I am Delilah Devonshire. Can I speak with you tribe leader?"
"Yakini," (English translation: sure.) The child, who looked about eight or nine, went to get their tribal leader. When he came he looked welcoming and not hostile at all. Many of the villagers came out of their homes to see what was going on.
"Mie wa Maliki, karibu katika angu chengo!" (English translation: I am Maliki, welcome to my village.)
"Mie ni Delilah Devonshire. Mie wa angalia kwa angu msharika Julius Chevalier. Yana enyi onekana mzungu ghulamu abiriwa bi?" (English translation: My name is Delilah Devonshire. I am looking for my partner Julius Chevalier. Have you seen a white man pass through here?) She was hopeful but she was almost sure he hadn't.
"Pole, ndisi sina onekana o-ote rejea," (English translation: Sorry, we haven't seen anyone come by.) Seeing her sadness he added: "Lakini assa enyi latit habu katika baki angra hapa, enyi wa karibu katika baki na sisi sote," (English translation: But if you would like to stay the night, you are welcome to stay with us.)
Delilah stayed the night with the Pygmy people. They fed her and cleaned her up a bit and gave her a place to sleep. She determined that in the morning she would go find Julius.