Moon of the Honey Bear

At night, the Amazon is a different world. Only the light of the moon pierces the darkness, but the rainforest is alive with shadows and sounds. Suddenly, beneath their feet, the ground begins to shake, and some old trees fall, blocking the path. Shhh! The movement goes on for a few minutes, as Linka and Jose run for safety. As they get into the trees, she tumbles to the ground.

"What was that?" Linka asks, putting her head up and looking around.

"An earthquake!" Jose replies, slowly getting up. "They're somewhat common here in Brazil. It's the aftershocks you have to look out for."

"Short Boxny!" Linka says rubbing her side for a moment. "I don't like earth quakes!"

Jose grins, but says nothing, as he helps her to her feet. They look around for a second, before continuing on down the dark path. Around them, everything is wet, and a light fog settles over the area. With a nod, they slowly move on, down a dark trail, pushing through thick leaves and sliding in the mud.

Squeak! Cheep! Squeak! Squeak! A strange, almost chirp like sound fills the air, causing them to pause and look around for a moment. In the blackness, nothing seems to be there. Linka scans the trees once more, then takes a step down a small ledge. It's a mystery world of shadows, and behind them, one seems to follow. Coming to a small clearing, they hear it again. Cheep! Cheep! Squeak! Startled, Linka turns and looks up, slowly scanning the trees.

"If I believed in ghosts, I'd say this place was haunted!" She says, looking once more, before moving on. "But there has to be a rational explanation for all of this."

"Not a ghost, an animal!" Jose says, pushing some bushes aside and stepping through. "Around here, lots of things only come out during the night. That actually sounds a little like a monkey."

"Monkey?" Linka asks, as they wander through the clearing.

He nods. "Yep, this area is supposed to be full of monkeys."

Linka rubs her arms. Grabbing a branch, Jose climbs a small hill, then turns and reaches back to give her a hand. For a moment, she slips on the hill, but he pulls until she gets over the hump.

"What is it like to live out here?" Linka asks.

He shrugs. "I don't know. I live in the suburbs of Humai. There's a pizza parlor two blocks from my house. Until I met your friend Ma . . ."

"Ma-Ti!" Linka adds.

"Yea, that's it, Ma-Ti!" Jose says with a nod and a chuckle. "Until I met Ma-Ti, I didn't think real people lived in the forest. All of this is new to me. I'm not even sure where we are going."

Linka stops. "You're not?"

Jose shakes his head. "I wanted to help with the protest. I love nature, but we don't get to see this where I live. Mama took me along, and I thought it would be fun to see if this place was real. I wasn't planning to actually spend time out here."

"Then, we should get you home. This isn't an adventure; we do serious stuff."

Jose pauses, looking up at the moonlight as a bat flies by. Taking a deep breath and sighing, he shakes his head.

"What's wrong?"

"Linka, now as we stand here, with a bat above me in the tree eating fruit, and Honey Bears climbing up in the canopy, I feel like there is something I want to fight for." Jose says. "For most of my life, animals were something I have enjoyed. We hear every day that they are disappearing, but children like me are too young to make a difference. Don't you get it? For once, I have a chance to do something important to me. I can say don't get rid of all the monkeys, and the parrots, and the other amazing animals, and someone will actually listen. Ma-Ti changed things. There really is a child, my age who lives in this wonderful place."

"Da!"

"So why did you come?" Jose asks. "You have an accent, as if you are not from here."

"I'm from Russia. I care because for years, the birds have been my companions. Lately, they are beginning to disappear." Linka says softly. "I just wanted to bring back the birds I remember as a small girl."

Suddenly, the ground underfoot begins to shake again. They quickly grab onto nearby trees.

"Bozhe moy! Another earthquake!"

"No, only an aftershock." Jose says, holding on until it stops.

Getting her balance, Linka looks around for a moment, before letting go of the tree and taking a few steps. Then, something darts from the shadows causing them both to jump. Pausing, she turns to Jose, looking him over.

"The water is not as polluted as we feared. If it was, you should have had a reaction by now to being in it. That is some good news."

Jose looks at his hands, then shrugs. "You came all this way to tell me that?"

"No, I was upset!" Linka replies, digging in her pocket. "I have to calm down so I can think. Let's find some landmarks, so we can get back. Where is my compass?"

"What exactly are we looking for out here?"

Linka leads him up the trail, pausing to pull an old compass from her vest pocket and take a bearing by moonlight. "We're west north west of the hill. If we hold this heading and walk about 300 paces, we should come up on the far side of Plunder's compound."

"So, what do you plan to do when we get there?" Jose asks.

For a moment, she rubs her chin as she looks around. "I think it is time to figure out how they have avoided the authorities all this time. Mining this close to Kayapo tribal lands can't be legal. Most indigenous lands are protected by treaties."

"How do you know for sure where the Kayapo people live?"

"Simple, Ma-Ti knows the area where he came from. He's a member of the Kayapo." Linka says. "It helps to have the right friends. Earlier, we found Greedly's mining map, and it shows the area where Ma-Ti's home is."

Moments later, they come to a huge wall in the blackness.

"You were right, Linka! This is it!"

Quietly, they duck behind a bush and look around. The coast is clear. Walking along, they find a clearing. Linka looks up and along the wall.

"Time to drop in on Plunder and Greedly!" Linka says, looking up at the wall. "Hold on tight."

"How do we get over a wall with barb wire on top?"

"Like this." Linka says, pointing her ring at the ground. "Wind!"

Her ring glows and a small tornado whirls up around them, lifting them high into the air and over the wall. She focuses as the twister carries them into the shadows and drops them behind a bush. After a moment, they slowly peek around the bush, watching for any guards. Everything is clear, so they crouch and sneak across the compound to a large building in the middle, trying to remain in the shadows. Linka grabs onto him.

"Hold on! I'm going to get us up on the roof, and we'll try to sneak in through the vents." Linka says. "Wind!"

Once more, her ring glows and a small tornado whirls up around them, lifting them up onto the roof. For a moment, they lie in the dark, looking around, before crawling along the roof to a large air vent with a grate over it. Carefully, she takes a small plastic card from her pocket, and uses it to remove the screws. Looking around, she nods. Jose grabs the other side, and they silently remove the grate, and slip into the duct. Jose crouches on the balls of his feet and creeps into the darkness, with Linka close behind. For the next few minutes, they crawl through the blackness following the twists and turns until they come out in a dark room. Silently, they scurry across the floor, to a computer. Switching it on Linka climbs into the chair and begins to type.

"It's locked!" Jose says. "We can't use the computer."

"Give me a moment. I'll get there." Linka says with a wink. "I used to play this game at home with my cousin Boris when we were kids."

Click! Click! Click! Tap! She hits the enter, and a bunch of files and folders appear on the screen. Taking the mouse, she clicks on a folder and begins going through the files. They watch as a map opens before them.

"They lied to the authorities!" Jose says. "We can get them now."

"Good, let me copy a few things to my computer, and we'll open it later. This is how you catch the bad guys."

"You're a hacker?"

"Yea, it was one of the daring things I got away with back home." Linka says, as the files finish copying. "And Greedly knew it was protected land before he started mining. Someone's going to be in big trouble!"

SNORT! SNORT! "And you're going to be that someone miss nosy!" Hoggish Greedly says, opening the door. "This is the second time I caught you snooping in our business. Hands up you two!"

Turning around, they can just make out Greedly in the blinding beam of light that falls on them. Linka pinches her eyes and turns away, as the light moves closer. Now, neither of them can see. In the last moment, she jumps to her feet and makes a dash for the door, only to trip over a cord and crash to the floor.

"Ah!" She cries out.

"Not good!" Jose says, freezing in his tracks.

"On the contrary, this is great for me." Greedly says with an evil laugh.