Two Brothers Under the Sun
Chapter – XXVIII
The Queen's Ankus
The Great Circle of Life keeps on turning.
The elephants patrol, the hippos roam the riverbed, gorillas circle the Green Mother, animals laisure by Hakuna Matata Falls, the lion overlooks his ranges (Simba was working, how strange was that?), the crocodiles crawl the swamps... and each day brought back some of the Hairless Ape's confidence.
Tarzan, who never forgot that he owed Louie for bringing his brother to Kaa, went to the orangutan's domain more often when he once never crossed the plains edged between it and the westernmost of the panther's hunting grounds. The Bandar-log accepted him, as they did to most who visited their demolished homes, and brought him all the new flavors of drinks he had yet to taste.
Their tribes, however, were raiding in the Jungle that afternoon, and so Monkey City stood oddly empty and silent as the sun lowered towards the horizon.
As for the youthful Black Back, he currently sat on the highest tower's stone ledge. Louie had called it an 'observatory', Tarzan believed, where the Blue Flower once bloomed in the moonlight. Stretching and twisting against the rocky peak, this healthy young man seemed finally at peace with his godfather's condition.
"You're dexterous and clever, cus, I'll give you that," Louie remarked, his feet perched on the tower's ornamented top. "But it's still not enough."
"I am strong," said Tarzan, under his breath, before finishing his acrobatics.
"You got nice wooden claws and teeth." The monarch then stated: "But, for Shere Khan, you will need more."
"Please, Lou, tell me you are not talking about the Red Flower." Baloo, who followed them for he knew all too well that an excited Louie might lead to trouble somehow, voiced his apprehension from the lower, wider ledges.
"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of... an Iron Tooth," said Red Ape, as though he had suddenly remembered something wondrous.
Tarzan, questioning, turned quickly to his side. "An Iron Tooth?"
"Yes. They are very rare, but I think you can find one somewhere in my treasure."
"Treasure?" parroted the Naked Ape, these words sounded most peculiar even for one who knows most of the tongues in the Bukuvu. "What is that?
"Oh, treasure is riches." The king immediately perked up at the chance to talk about one of his favorite things in the world: man things. "It is simply anything and everything you ever wanted!"
"Anything and everything I ever wanted?" Baloo grinned after blinking momentarily. "Like a lifetime of the most delicious food and drinks without having even to catch them?"
"Even more special: two lifetimes!"
"I like the sound of that!" The half-slobbering big fella jolted to his feet, yet his head was on the clouds.
"Or all of man's secret knowledge." Louie addressed the youth once more. "Treasure, cus, that's what you need!"
"I don't know, sounds farfetched." Tarzan opined. This treasure thing was eluding the young man's grasp.
"I am with Tarzan on this one, Lou," Baloo said now that his head was back down to Earth. "I get that's a good story and all, but what is the deal with all this man stuff anyway?"
"Oh, skeptics, ay? Here's an idea, I will show it to you." Louie leaped down from the ledge and looked up at his 'cousin'. "Take it from your personal, 'man expert'. Everything you are looking for is downstairs, cus."
As the orangutan made his way down from the roof, the godson and godfather duo watched him go. They exchanged a look until, ultimately, the boy nodded.
"So what are we waiting for? Let's go hunt this treasure thing!" Baloo declared, he and Tarzan running to join the jazzy primate.
"Next stop, the Underlair!"
Monkey City. The enchanting kingdom of a dead and forgotten past. The city of the hairy and hairless beasts. City of stone and mortar with as much history as the surrounding jungles.
City that reaches both for the heavens and the depths.
Thankfully, contrasting with the Theluji caves, finding one's way through its tunnels was much easier.
"These caves hide men's treasures. Come on, just follow me."
Louie had led them up to the ruins of the 'pavilion' that stood on the terrace, swung over the rubbish, and dived down the half-choked staircase that went underground from the center of the pavilion. Tarzan and Baloo followed, the latter on his hands and knees so as to not hit the ceiling. They crawled a long distance down a sloping passage that turned and twisted several times, and at last came to where the root of some great tree, growing thirty feet overhead, had forced out a solid stone in the wall. They crept through the gap and found themselves in a large vault, whose domed roof had also been broken away by tree roots so that a few streaks of light dropped into the darkness.
Where once was a battlefield had been cleaned of all the lifeless bodies left in the wake of the pythons' attack. Once again, these caves where men dwelled, played, and did their business were as much the domain of the monkeys as the trees in the vicinity.
The men were long gone, but their treasures remained.
The floor of the vault was buried some five or six feet deep in golden and silver peebles, all of which were flattened into circular shapes with no imperfections to be found whatsoever. Shiny and smooth of surface like the scales of a shedding python.
Louie said Hista's kind slithered within these tunnels many Seasons ago, could all of this have come from his gigantic nest?
On it and in it and rising out of it, as pigs lift through the mud, were statues of darker stone than those on the surface and with noticeable joints for complete articulation. There were those headpieces of rock and wood in the image of monstrous beasts the monkeys liked to cover their faces with to prank others and each other. Moveable dens apparently for carrying queens. Thin and soft pieces of colorful coats like the one that covered the pinkish ape's loins. Shells bigger than those of any turtle. Beautiful rocks of all types of color. Shiny pots men wore on their heads, at least according to Louie. Some golden tools that were unlike anything the youth had back in his lair, of all shapes and sizes too; many of which the monarch claimed men kept on their person. Water with terrible taste but enjoyable smell, both of equal strength. Tarzan inhaled strange powders the monkeys had freed from the pots during their first explorations, causing him to sneeze. A few objects he recognized as made of wood, though far cleaner and more polished than what one could find in the jungle even in the many trees of the Wakalu.
He had heard the monkeys call those rocks and playthings 'sparklies' and only now understood why. They were deep underground but the sunlight seeped through the cracks in the ceiling and reflected upon the golden piles, causing them to sparkle like a thousand stars hiding in a sandy dune.
But Tarzan could not understand what these trinkets meant. The tools interested him a little, but they did not balance as well as his own, and so he dropped them.
"Nice lair," Tarzan recognized nonetheless, rising to his firm feet. "They are beautiful."
"Men's stuff." Louie began. "These caves came with the city. I just made my kingdom on top of them." He shows them around the basement. "There are so many chambers and lots of things here that even I don't know about."
"Well, now, lookee here." Baloo went and grabbed something. Whatever it was, it was thinner than a twig and as long as the bear's arm. One end had a tip that stung like a pesky hornet while the other fit perfectly in the ursine's grip.
Chuckling, Louie searched another pile and got himself a—what was it called again? Oh yeah—hat to put on. "Dig these cu-ray-ze threads."
"Louie, it's youie." Baloo laughed and started imitating Tarzan's movements with that innocuous fang. Though his godson wasn't sure that little thing could be called one.
"Swab the poop deck." Louie skipped his step.
"Scuttle that scuttlebutt!" his friend quipped next.
"Whose words are those?" asked the curious youth.
"Man's Words. At least from the ones in the floating dens." said the orangutan, reminding Tarzan to ask him later about those. The young man took a look around as well.
"So many... what's all this for?" He mused while playing with a thin, hollow circle of gold by twirling it around his arm.
So this is man's treasure. What are the secrets of these mounds? Which of them hides this Iron Tooth?
He stared with puckered-up eyes around the vault and then lifted from the floor a handful of little thingies that glittered.
"Oho!" howled Louie, getting his attention, "This is like the stuff our little ones play with, only this is yellow and theirs are brown."
Squatting, Tarzan puts one in his mouth and confirms: just as stale too. Baloo sniffed the air and found the smell of the room to be equally bland. The bear scratches his back on a slanted column.
"I have searched here many times. Let's try this way."
He showed them a secret passage: less of a cave system and more like a single, albeit pretty wide tunnel. Not for the first time, Tarzan couldn't help but wonder how long the men of these lairs spent scraping the ground to make these caves.
"Check this out. It's my bet we are gonna find something good down there."
Tarzan let out a "Wow."
Baloo whistled, also impressed: "It sure is a long way down."
"Yeah, glad to have you with us, Baloo." The king said, moving behind the ursine and pushing him forward towards the obscured stairway. "The more the merrier, after all."
"Why do I suddenly feel like you just invited me for some extra muscle?" There was little excitement in the bear's voice when he said that.
Deeper into the hole, they went either way. A riggling sound accompanies every step.
Aside from the steep stairs and all the gathered dust, the interior wasn't that different from the city itself; with walls and ground made of smooth, flat rocks lined and stacked on top of each other. Its passages even of appearance, akin to burrows in the soil rather than the rough caves within the Theluji slopes.
Touring the hidden ruins, the ursine stayed strangely silent as he moved in front of the group, giving room for his companions to have a private conversation in the deep, pitch caves.
"You know what the Chief's problem is? He always plays by the rules." Louie replied once his cousin mentioned the Mangani's name. "And, sometimes rules are meant to be... well, not necessarily broken, but certainly bent. And definitely reinterpreted." He quirks a curious eyebrow at his fellow ape. "Don't you think?"
"...I am not really sure." Tarzan, who was raised under the guidance of the most dutiful of the animals in the Bukuvu and taught in the ways of Hakuna Matata, admitted. Opting to change the subject, he asks: "Do you think I came from a place like this?"
"Could be." Louie rubs his chin in thought. "I don't know, cus. Does anything here look familiar?"
"Not really." The Naked Ape shakes his head. "All I remember is living with the Troop. They are my people."
"Yeah, I suppose... but can I tell ya just one thing?" Getting his focus, the red primate started: "What I saw your kind do back in the day, I've never seen anything like it since. Neither from the gorillas nor the pachyderms."
"Because they used their tricks."
"What tricks?"
"You know... making stuff like my fangs and this place." Tarzan paused lest he found himself delving too deep into such thoughts. "It's not the gorilla way."
"Who cares?" Louie bluntly asked. "'The gorilla way.' That's the Tarzan way. That's the Louie way." He looks at the youth right in the eye. "That's our way, the Ape-Man Way."
"...The Ape-Man Way?"
"Yeah, that's how we get things done." The king nods in genuine fervor. "I can't even imagine what kind of potential you'd have if you had somebody like me helping you out."
Tarzan stared, just stared back at him. A faint bit of incredulity colored his eyes before he turned away and stared off around the cave.
"So what if the men are gone? I say you can be a man right here. But I would personally appreciate it as a personal favor to me, personally... if we just worked together, tricks and all. I think it would be interesting to see what we could do together. Whatever I could do to make your trickiness happen I will do... for a price."
Tarzan regarded him again. "What price?"
"Think about it, cousin. I got everything. I have plentiful food, endless treasure, and command vast legions. But there's one thing I don't have... and that's the one thing you can give me."
'The Red Flower.' The Mangani's features pinched up. "I don't have that. I was told to not go near it."
"Again, with the listening to Bagheera." Louie rolled his eyes and rubbed his forehead.
"Hey, he's my friend, okay?" Tarzan chided, slightly raising his guard.
"Do you know why he and the folks in the jungle tell you that? Because once you have it, you rise to the top of the food chain. Shere Khan is more powerful than you think. But together we'd be unstoppable." He declared before putting a hand on Tarzan's shoulder. "You've been thinking too much about how, but ever thought about why you survived?"
The jungle man had no answer to give.
"Because there's something great within you. But you are a man-cub no longer. You are a man, you gotta choose your own path."
The King of the Monkeys extended his hand to him.
"We just need one thing to reach our full potential. I got desire, you got the fire, but the dream I dream takes two."
...
"Come on, cus... all the Jungle's treasures would be ours."
Tarzan twitched, tilting his head enough to pay attention entirely to the extended hand as if it were a scorpion that was preparing to sting. Of all the things the Black Back thought could happen today when he woke up... this proposition was something he expected... but had yet to figure out a definitive answer.
Without even thinking about it, Tarzan stretched out his hand to meet Louie's own, tempted by the latter's words.
But then... as if he just touched something foul, the young man immediately retracted his hand after certain memories crossed through his trance.
Memories of a panther's teachings.
"I can't."
"You can't or you won't?"
"I can't." He repeated, shaking his head warily.
A coldness grows across the monarch's face, turning his mirth bitter-sounding. "Bagheera's fall left a big hole where your heart drummed, huh?" He then gazed solemnly at his 'cousin'. "You will, eventually. You're a man, that's what makes you a one. You can summon the Red Flower... and control it."
Tarzan said nothing, simply contemplating the cave floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. But his mind wasn't truly focused on the sparklies shining like the sunset over the Hippo Lanes.
"Trust your instincts, cus. Gotta go just a little deeper to find your roots." The red ape speeds up his pace. "Let's see if anything here helps."
He carried on, leaving the boy lagging behind to consider his proposition.
The 'Ape-Man' paced slowly as a cloud of doubt hung over his head... until he stumbled into a hairy, broad back.
Snapping from his stupor, Tarzan saw he had caught up to his beary godfather and accidentally came face-first onto him.
He waited for a response and received none... but that wasn't what shocked him next.
It was the mournful expression that overtook the ursine's usually positive disposition that stopped him short, as well as the empty eyes that accompanied it. The far-off look on his face also helped the godson realize that his old guardian was remembering something... something that brought him pain.
"Baloo?"
On command, the bear blinked and spun his head frantically.
Done that, he looked at Tarzan, who, in turn, was looking at him concerningly.
"It's nothing, Little Britches." He insisted. Tarzan caught the insincerity even in the darkness. "Let's get going."
They silently catch on to the monarch.
"Shame the others had to miss this," Louie remarked.
"Nah, Timon hates tunnels. You better believe it." Baloo sniffles a little bit, inquisitively. "Where are we, Lou?"
"The bottom of the well, for real."
They searched around only to find nothing.
"It's empty... there is nothing to eat here." Turning to his friend, the ursine frowned. "Lou, what gives? There is no treasure."
"You are standing on it."
Tarzan also looked down. All around them, spread out on the floor, are even more sparklies.
"What do you take us for, Lou?" Baloo picked and inspected one. "Look, this gourd even has a hole in it." He looks through the orifice, then tosses the trinket aside. "I thought treasure was everything and anything you ever wanted."
"A treasure worth the whole jungle to one might be utterly worthless to another," Louie replied, putting on his best wise elder accent.
"More shiny stones? What a cop-out!"
Tarzan wasn't listening to them... for he heard a whisper of movement.
Next, he saw something white move in the middle of the cellar. Its form but a shade in the dark room. Little by little, there stood up a cobra, the sneakiest of Kaa's cousins, a very big one—nearly eight feet long, and bleached by being in darkness to an old ivory-white. Even the spectacle-marks of the spread hood had faded to faint yellow. Their eyes were as red as rubies, and altogether this creature was strangely elegant.
Of course it had to be snakes. Maybe they should have brought Kaa.
"Who disturbs my slumber?" The serpent's mouth curled into a snarl.
"Tarzan, quick, say something!" urged Baloo.
"I don't speak Cobra!" His godson exclaimed as he stared off self-consciously at the snake.
Even so, he would try his best.
"Good hunting!" Tarzan said, as he carried his manners with his fang and never left either of them on a regular day. "I am Tarzan of the Great Troop, and this is my family." His speech sounded more like a hiss.
"Intruders." The Cobra ignored his greeting and, instead, chose to stalk around him—leering and even sniffing his tongue at the young man, looking about ready to strike. "You don't look like a child of Opar. Where are you from?"
"...The Wakalu." Tarzan quirked a brow. "What is Opar?"
"What is Opar?" said the White Cobra in disbelief. "What is the great, walled city—the city of a hundred elephants and twenty thousand zebras, and cattle past counting—the city of the Queen of Twenty Kings?"
"The only city above our heads is the monkeys' turf." Baloo chimed in. "It is pretty big but not that big."
"Of which I am the proud ruler." The orangutan stepped up. "King Louie right here, at your service." He formally presented himself. "Nice place you got here, Mr. Cobra."
Tarzan mused. "I only know Colonel Hathi and his herd of elephants. And the zebras prefer the fields over the forests."
"The city—the great city of the forest whose gates are guarded by the Queen's towers—can never pass. They built it before my father's father came from the egg, and it shall endure when my son's sons are as white as I!"
"It is a lost trail," said Tarzan, turning to the others. "I don't know his talk."
"Me neither." Baloo shrugged. "Can't even figure out that accent, he is really old."
"Do you know who you are talking to?" The stranger barked before speaking: "I am White Hood, Warden of the Queen's treasure!" The bleached cobra properly introduced himself to Tarzan in particular. "Who are you sitting down before me, unafraid, knowing not the name of the Queen, talking our talk instead of your own? Who is thee with the spear and men's modesty?"
"Tarzan they call me," was the answer. "I am of the Jungle. The apes are my people, and Louie here is my cousin." He tried his luck at the reptile's talk. "Greatest of Cobras, who art thou?"
"I am the Warden of the Queen's Treasure. She built the stone above us in the days when my skin was dark so that I might teach death to those who came to steal." White Hood continued: "Five times since I came here the stone has been lifted, but always to let down more, and never to take away. There are no riches like these riches—the treasures of a hundred kings. But it is long and long since the stone was last moved." His gaze became downcast. "To think that my city has forgotten."
"The city is still up there." The sloth bear mentioned. "Look it up. Just watch out for the roots of the trees, they are tearing apart every stone."
"Men has left the city to us." Louie took the chance to explain. "Tarzan is the only man left."
"The city can't die."
"That's why we are here. So it won't." Tarzan told him. "We don't want anything from here except for the Iron Tooth. If you show us where it is, we can avenge the people of this city."
"None shall take from this treasure as long as I guard it."
"Mr. White Hood, sir." The Ape-Man tried again. "Please, we didn't come here to fight. We come here to learn."
"Learn what?"
"The secrets of men."
The warden hissed in fury. "Like MY secret treasure?"
"Pal, personally, I think you should take a long overdue day off and be out there in the jungle, get some sun on those scales of yours," Louie said, not very secretly eyeing the room for any hint of something interesting this 'queen' left behind. "Hmm. Obviously, I would be more than happy to keep an eye on your treasure while you're gone."
White Hood scowled and flared his fangs.
"He didn't mean it like that!" Baloo declared with haste, pulling the ape away. "Look, Tarzan is a man, and this is men's treasure. So, if you don't mind showing us that tooth, we will just be leaving."
"Little fools. This is Man Treasure, and it is man that I guard it for... and from."
The White Cobra hissed savagely:
"Twice and thrice have men found their way here, but they never spoke till I came upon them groping in the dark, and then they cried with their last breath. But ye come with lies and would have me believe the city has fallen, and that my wardship ends. Little do men change over the years. But I never change! Until the stone is lifted, and the Queen takes me to the light again, I—I—I, and no other, am the Warden of the Queen's Treasure! The city is dead, ye say, and here are the roots of the trees? Man with ape for a cousin, look by thy foot! What is that there?" Tarzan picked up something white and smooth. "It is the bone of a man's head," The watcher said quietly. "And here are two more." He shows it to the trio. "They came to take the treasure away many years ago. I spoke to them in the dark, and they lay still."
"Oi, White-Worm-of-the-Dark, I told ya already, there is neither queen nor Opar!" shouted Louie. "The city is mine!"
"There is still the Treasure."
Baloo rubbed his head in defeat. "He is mad, all right."
"Father of Cobras, I see nothing here to take away." said the youth, between his teeth.
"You said you seek the Iron Tooth."
"Because we need it. Let me take the Iron Tooth so we can kill the one who slaughtered your masters." Tarzan pressed, hoping this one could be reasoned with just like Kaa. "I do not fight when I don't have to, and I was also taught the Safe Word of the python."
"There is but one Safe Word here: mine!" The old Cobra lisped. "You claim you can understand our tongue. I have but to touch your neck and the jungle will never hear yours again. No Man who came here went away with the breath under his ribs. So it spoke the Warden of the Treasure of Opar!"
Feeling in his bones where this was headed, the Black Back brought out his fang. "You have only dealt with men of this city until now. You do not know me," Tarzan whispered coolly. "You have asked for this hunting. Let us do this."
He had been standing with the weapon held point down. He flung it from him quickly and it dropped crossways just behind the great snake's hood, pinning him to the floor.
The red eyes burned, and the six spare inches of the head struck furiously right and left.
And smoke escaped from his mouth.
Something streams out from the maw like water except it is red, emits light... and burns, causing the trio to disperse.
Out of his impromptu shelter made up of fallen pillars, Louie gagged in a mix of horror and excitement. "Fire... the Red Flower is on his tongue!"
The Cobra spews out some more, its bite both vicious and scalding.
"Run for it!" Baloo cried.
They escape from the warden by running in a zigzag sprint, serpentine-style around the room. Their attempts to surround the cobra are rendered moot once the serpent spins its fiery breath at them, convincing ape and bear alike to back off.
"Little good that will do for you, mangy monkeys! I have been feeding on trespassers for decades."
During a split-second, the three got their eyes off him and he vanished amongst the scattered treasures. White Hood was so fast that, in the darkness of the basement, one could mistake him for a two-headed serpent. Tarzan was careful to keep to the other side of the wall; the White Cobra had been following him closely.
After so many years hearing by word-of-mouth of the mysterious and dangerous Red Flower, the White Ape found it wasn't so bad as his imagination had made him expect, though he could see why the jungle folk feared the flame; the heat alone was enough to spur his body to jump away.
But, while the old Cobra mumbled and twined lovingly around one of the many support beams, his prey found that the flames came out weaker each time and snuffed out ever quickly as well.
"Enough!"
In a flash, Louie's weight was upon the writhing body, paralyzing it from hood to tail. For his size, the orangutan was surprisingly agile.
"Kill!" said Louie, as Tarzan's hand went to his fang. Once dead, they could look for the fire in his stomach.
"No," the youth said as he drew the blade. The agonizing antelope and his close encounter with the Khan were still fresh in his mind, eroding his already minuscule desire to draw blood. "I will never kill again save for food. But look at him." He caught the snake behind the hood, forced the mouth open with the blade of the knife, and showed the terrible poison fangs of the upper jaw lying black and withered in the gum, emitting nothing more than a tiny, harmless smoke ring.
The White Cobra had outlived his scorching poison, as a snake will.
"It is dried up," said Tarzan; and motioning his cousin away, he picked up his spear, setting the White Cobra free.
"That snake is a has-bin?!" asked a gobsmacked Baloo.
"Come closer and I shall have your neck!" The has-bin in question refused to let them be despite his state.
"What are you gonna do, calm us into submission?" Louie scowled, hiding his disappointment over the extinguished flame. With his poison dried up and his fangs but a memory, he was about as poisonous as the average mango pit.
"The Queen's Treasure needs a new Warden," Tarzan said gravely. Perhaps he should consult with Kaa about this.
"Do it, kill me." All of them looked at the cobra. "If I can't uphold the Queen's will, my life no longer has any meaning. All I have left is shame."
"There has been too much talk of killing. We will go now." Sympathetic, Tarzan tried talking to him one last time; perhaps hoping to work something out.
But the warden wasn't having any of that.
"Surely you don't think you can leave that easily."
White Hood's mouth EXPLODES like a small lightning bolt, blasting Tarzan off his feet and spitting great jets of fire into the rock above. Louie and Baloo leap one way and Tarzan hurls himself in the other as rubble rains. The snout of a stone cobra attached to a column is pushed by a flying chunk, crashing the whole thing and causing a section of the floor to move aside from its original position, revealing a hole underneath for the Ape-Man to fall in. Tarzan defuses the impact of his sudden fall by landing flat on his butt and rolling on the ground. Faster than he could anticipate, the youth found himself crawling through the hole into the passage again, and the last thing he saw was the White Cobra striking furiously with his harmless fangs at the solid, golden faces of the men on the crumbling wall.
The warden was buried by the very treasure he sought to protect.
Through the settling dust, Tarzan sits up and squints; a solid wall of broken rock seals the tunnel between him and his companions.
"Tarzan!" His godfather called from the other side. "Are you still kicking? Riggling maybe?"
"I am fine. What about you two?"
"We're okay, can't say the same about ol' White Hood," Louie replied, glancing at the unburied tail of the serpent.
"What now?"
"Wait here." Tarzan gazed down the underground passage. "I'll go on and... find another way out."
Louie nodded. "We'll try and shift some of this rock. So you can get back through."
"See you in a bit."
Now on his own, the young man glances at the snake skin at his feet and moves off, stepping carefully through the shadows.
What dark calamity did he fall among?
The quietness of this place alluded to its mysteries. Not even the bats ventured that far underground. Within the cave, a flight of concrete steps, worn hollow by centuries of use, rose before him, disappearing at a sharp curve down the passage a few yards ahead. Into this narrow alley, Tarzan made his way; turning his shoulders sideways so that they might enter at all. Through winding corridors, he ventured farther and farther into the remoter precincts of the underground lair. The walls had faint traces of drawings made of rock and color. However, it was impossible to tell what those marks showed, for not even his trained eyes could penetrate the darkness and the depths.
At the next turn, the stairs ended, and the path was level. Tarzan wheeled and passed on into the profundity of the tunnel until he came upon a dead end marked by a rude, barred door that still stood, and as he put his shoulder to push it in, an alluring voice rang out almost beside him. It was evident that he was being called to enter this particular room by more than just curiosity or lack of option, especially since he briefly felt the sensation of unseen eyes upon him. Still, he could not be sure that it was more than his imagination.
If it was, could there be a trap or perhaps within lay the secret to freedom?
Testing his chances, he forced it open. Within, all was black as everything else. There was no window to let in the faintest ray of light, and as the corridor upon which it opened was itself in semi-darkness, even the open door shed no relieving rays within. Feeling the floor before him with the butt of his spear, Tarzan entered the nightly gloom until his eyes finally adapted to the darkness, revealing that the youth had come into a great chamber in the center of which stood a stony mound shaped in the likeness of a tree stump.
As the Ape-Man stood gazing in varying degrees of interest at this ancient structure right underneath the monkeys' realm, he became aware of movement within the chamber. Dim, shadowy shapes appeared to be moving about in the semi-darkness of the interior. There was nothing tangible that Tarzan's eye could grasp-only an uncanny suggestion of life where it seemed that there should be none, for living things seemed out of place in this weird, dead place of the long-gone past.
Surely nothing could live down there... but the wicked spirits from the spooky tales of his cubhood.
Like the one he realized was behind him.
Tarzan nearly fell over but steeled himself as he turned around, spear in hand, waiting for the enemy he fully expected was about to pounce on him.
Of all the things he expected, a colorful bird was not one of them.
The Mangani was rendered stunned for a moment, staring at the fluttering creature that was now flapping circles around him. Befuddled by this turn of events, the youth straightened up from his stance as the feathery fellow perched on top of the mound. Now that it was still, Tarzan was finally able to get a good look, at least as much as the dark room would allow. At the same time, the bird examined him from head to foot with every indication of considerable curiosity.
"Um… hi?" Tarzan offered, completely wrong-footed by this sudden arrival.
They spoke in turn, still looking intently upon Tarzan.
"I do not understand your language," said the pinkish ape. "Possibly we may speak together in another tongue?"
Slowly they crept toward him, and now 'she' spoke, but this time there fell upon Tarzan's surprised ears a language he could understand. "Will this suffice?"
The Common Tongue used by all during the great gatherings of the Bukuvu. Although taken aback again, he answered in the vocabulary of the jungle folk: "Were you the one singing?"
"Of course!" the bird, a female, giggled. "How else would I have gotten you here, Tarzan?"
Like that, he was baffled again. How did she know his name? "Have we met?"
She shook her head. "No, but please allow me to introduce myself." She did a curtsy, showing off her impressive wingspan. "La, emissary to the Queens of Opar, at your service."
"How did you end up here?" He inquired. "Were you stuck?"
"No, I merely needed somebody who could help me. And now that I know you can, I wanna be your friend."
The Ape Man paused, thinking about her words and remembering his encounter with the cobra. "The men of this city are dead," He figured she should know straight out. "Shere Khan killed them."
"I am aware. I went into hiding in these caves to escape the tiger," explained La. "For many years I have waited for someone like you."
"...Someone like me?"
"Yes. Someone who can help me defeat the tiger."
Tarzan perked at that. "The Khan is strong, how can we beat him?"
"I can teach you how." She leaned to look straight at his face. "I am sure you have questions."
"Yes... what is this place, exactly?" His eyes stare around the chamber. "White Hood called it 'Opar'."
"That's right." She asserted. "The City of Opar, the time-forgotten mystery of the jungle."
"How long have you lived here?"
"Most of my life. It's a sad tale, really." La hung her head, slightly depressed. "The men who lived here are descendants of magnificent people who came to this savage world long ago in search of refugium. Our cities, like this one, stretched from a great continent under the rising sun to a great sea into which the Great Bright Circle descends at night to cool his flaming brow. We were very rich and very powerful. During the summer, we would come to the palaces here and then return to our native land, far, far to the north. Many ships went back and forth between this world and our own. At one of these times, the great calamity occurred; when it was time for the teeming thousands to return, none came."
Her gaze was distant, yet her emotions were palpable. Choosing to worry about the whats and hows later, Tarzan instead focused on what was in front of him.
"For weeks the people waited. Then they sent out a great galley to learn why no one returned from our homeland. Still, though they journeyed about for many moons, they were unable to find any trace of the mighty land that had for countless ages borne their glorious empire-it had sunk into the sea, from that day dated the downfall of my people. Disheartened and isolated, one by one the cities were deserted or overcome by the monsters who invaded our territories. The last remnant was finally forced to take shelter within this mighty fortress. Slowly we have dwindled in power until we were no more than a small tribe to be purged by savage tigers."
After a split second, she continued to regard him.
"This is my home, as well as the only thing left of your kind in this jungle. I hope you consider helping me keep it safe from the tiger." With a single flap of her wings, she was on his shoulder. "There is so much we can do for each other, Tarzan."
Seemingly on command, the ground starts shaking.
A sparkling visage shines into existence and takes form, creating a bright red she-man made of a strange, flame-shaped smoke with no visible legs or feet. Wearing one of those 'hats' on her head, and several skins and jewelry all over her body. It floated opposite to the pair, towering above the altar which was now rumbling to life as something came out of the rocky structure.
This bird... she has strange powers, like the cobra.
In the span between the pink ape's blink, the image disappears along with its light.
Yet, something else defied the cave's natural darkness.
That moment was when Tarzan, snapping out of his stunned shock, knew at last he had found something truly fascinating.
It was a three-foot sparklie fang—something like a branch of modest size with one talon-like edge coming out of the equally sharpened end. The top was one round, shining stone of dark greenish-blue color, and eight inches of the handle below it were of a more rugged surface than the rest, giving a most satisfactory grip. The rest of the hilt was a shaft of white as pure as a tusk, while the point had pictures of elephants; and those attracted Tarzan, who saw that they had something to do with his friend Tantor.
All in all, Tarzan thought this strange thing looked like a blossom, although it was clearly more evocative of his wooden fangs.
"They didn't take the queen's ankus when the city fell." reveration was noticeably abundant in La's voice. "What you have is a weapon stronger than stone or bone. Is this not worth dying to behold?"
"I do not understand," said Tarzan, eyeing the strange tool which was like nothing he had ever seen before, not even in his wildest dreams. He lifts the 'ankus'. "I desire to take this away, so that I may see it in the sun."
The bird fairly shook with delight. "Assuredly I will give it... if you promise to come here, so I may share with you my knowledge of mankind's ways."
Tarzan deflated, there was that proposition again. "The jungle is no place for men's tricks." He said. "They are dangerous."
"Absolutely not." asserted La. "Their ways are simply misunderstood by the creatures of the jungle. But I assure you... I understand you."
He didn't know what to make of it. She sounded so sure of herself that she half-convinced him.
"Our sharp minds are gifts that nature has given us. How different is that from any other animal? But there are those who fear our power, and so they forbid it."
The Khan.
"But I would be happy to tell you anything you want to know."
Some of his thoughts lingered on his godfather currently sleeping under the watchful eye of a giant python and his willingness to let him delve into such subjects. Even so, the youth was truly fascinated by men. His imagination pictured the wonderful things his kind made in the city above and the magic he had witnessed here and back at the swamp, and the very impossibility of doing such things himself added a thousandfold to his desire to try.
Maybe La could help him find a way to beat Shere Khan. Maybe... she has the answers no one else has.
"I promise."
"Excellent." Her smile increased tenfold. "Trust me, and I will show you mankind's wonders."
She showed him the way out through the catacombs which wind under the entirety of Monkey City, across the Dirisha, and as far as the Cold Lairs. Then she left, gone as quickly as she came. It was quite dark afterward, but the Mangani managed to find his way despite so. Following her instructions, Tarzan came across a chamber beneath the altar room. From there, he entered into one of the several corridors leading from it. For ten minutes he groped slowly along a winding passage until, at length, the youth came to a closed door.
With a push, the wood swung in on scraping hinges, and he was free.
###
Forests near Monkey City, Bandar-log territory, northwest Bukuvu
"Slow down, Terk!" Simba exclaimed, following after the she-ape.
"Come along, Simba." She looked over her shoulder at him, changing her run for a walk. "I wanna see the city!"
"Gimme some slack, it wasn't that long ago when I fought the Khan."
"Hey now." Terk waited until he was beside her so they could continue together. "The only reason you lost was because you didn't have me there to help you and T. Why, if I had your back, we would make that striped cat beg for mercy after what he did to Baggy."
"Thanks. But I think we would need the whole Troop to take him down." admitted the lion. "That tiger is just on a whole other level. The way he moves and attacks... it's terrifying. He was waiting for that moment when we would slip up... and saw it coming before we realized it." He grimaced halfway through his sentence, never again would he wonder why everyone in the jungle feared the Khan.
Seeing this, the Mangani female decided to cheer him up... in her own, unique way. "Do you mean a moment such as this?"
She slapped his back, hard, throwing him off balance so she could sprint ahead.
"Race ya there!"
"Hey, no fair!" Simba, frowning to hide a creeping smirk, leaped over overgrown ferns to catch up. "This ain't a race!"
"No? Then why are you running?"
Without warning, she stopped, curling into a ball in his path.
'THUMP'
He trips over her form, spinning in the air and down to a patch of creeping moss. As soon as he was done seeing stars, he saw a cheeky gorilla skipping her step and singing a silly song in front of him.
"King and husko, master commander. Mighty king, of the wild!"
"I will get you for this!"
Under the predatory smile on his face, the bolting feline silently hoped Kerchak wouldn't show up and assume he intended to feast on his niece.
###
Monkey City, Bandar-log territory, northwest Bukuvu
Outside the city walls, the monkeys were howling to communicate with each other on the canopy formed by the outlying orchards. Soon enough, they would begin the last party of the day.
At long last, a trio of treasure hunters arrives on cue to participate in the nighttime festivities. For that moment though, they were just glad to get to the fresh air and daylight once more; and when they were back in their jungle and Tarzan made the ankus glitter in the evening light, he was almost as pleased as though he had found a bunch of new trees to climb on.
"Well, what do you know?" beamed Baloo, arms on his sides.
"Success, my man!" Louie jumped all jolly. "You found the Iron Tooth!"
"You were right, Louie." Tarzan laughed as he swung his new weapon to get the hang of it. "This thing feels incredible."
"Good for you, T. You found what you were looking for." Baloo congratulated his godson and then yawned, visibly puffed. "As for me? I am still hungry."
Louie's grin was now aimed at the ursine. "Baloo, old buddy, old pal, I have got just the thing for you: a nice, tasty banquet!"
All of a sudden, Baloo remembered he had all the 'treasure' he could ever want right then and there. While their friend went to slouch by the fruit pile, Louie took a good look at the 'man-thing' before handing it back.
"Well, cus? Have you considered my offer?" He leaned over towards the youth, with that manic gaze in his eyes again.
"...Yes, I wanna learn more too." Tarzan declared although he hesitated telling him of La. At least for now.
"Atta boy!" A very eager Louie clasped him on the shoulder. "This is gonna be great, cus. I just know it!"
"But I also wanna learn how to be a city ape."
"...Come again?"
"I already am a Black Back of the Troop, but I swore I would become the very best." He mentioned, jogging the orangutan's memory back to their conversation when he mentioned his promise to the Chief Silverback. "You're the King, you can teach me. I can't make fire yet but, in exchange, I promise you will get to see man in action."
Louie was now looking off at nothing, giving his chin a good stroke as his mind mulled over the idea. "Huh... man will teach ape to be man... and ape will teach man to be ape."
Fifty-fifty. Turning to Tarzan, his lips twitched upward.
This sounded cu-ray-ze enough to work.
"Now, son of a cat, don't scat. If I could learn the secrets of man, I would be King Louie the Must!"
The Mangani smirked back. "So we have a deal?"
"Cus, don't hold up the show. Let's go!"
But then something bowled into the scene, knocking aside the vases nearby.
"Ah!"
Snapping their heads, the pair stared after a big ball of smoke, from which the sounds of a violent struggle emanate while hands and feet protrude momentarily before pulling back in.
"Say uncle!" Simba's voice demanded from inside the cloud.
"Sure I will. As soon as I get my hands on you!" Terk shouted back.
Tarzan had to assure a confused Louie that there was nothing to worry about.
"Not the neck. Not the neck there, Simba."
"Cramp in the calf!"
"Okay, you win!"
Now that the lion had freed the she-ape, the pair finally took notice of their surroundings... and Louie took a good look at the lady.
"Sup, Louie?" Simba greeted the red ape, getting his attention.
"Simba, my main mane!" Louie high-fives his new fellow leader. "I was worried you weren't gonna show up."
"Almost didn't, I've got just enough strength in those weary bones for a dinner at your place." The former Pride Lander points at his simian friend. "Also, hope you don't mind but I brought a friend."
"Not at all." A VERY interested grin overtakes the King of the Swing as he goes to address his new guest. "Hello, gorgeous."
Terk scoffed. "Gorgeous, me? Took too many shots already, Your Majesty?"
"...Maybe." His smile becomes mischievous.
She lets out an amused snort and shakes his hand. "Terk of the Mangani."
"Louie, King of the Badar-log." He greets her in return. "I have noticed you around."
"And I have heard of you. You are happy entertaining those two or do you wanna go a few rounds with me?"
His eyebrow raises almost past his hairline. Contrarywise, both Simba and Tarzan struggled to not lose their appetites.
"I am talking about dancing."
"...That's nice too," Louie replied, coming back to reality and accompanying her to the dance floor.
As the pair got acquaintanced, the brothers groaned rather loudly and then started talking about their day.
"You went on an adventure without me?" Simba asked, a little bit upset.
"Sorry, bro. But you weren't here. Now check this out." Tarzan said delightedly as he twirled the stone. He would show it to all. "Very many men would kill thrice in a night for the sake of that one big blue stone alone."
"This is brighter than Bagheera's eyes," The cat commented, eyes never leaving the jewel.
"But the stone makes it heavy to the hand. My fangs are better; and—see! the blue stone is not good to eat."
Simba tilted his head at that. "Then why would they kill?"
The hairless brother shrugged, equally in the dark.
La had told him much but not all, likely saving it for his next visit. Until then, the Ape-Man would have only his thoughts to figure out for what use this thorn-pointed thing was made.
Afterward, they danced off through the night, Tarzan flourishing the great ankus and stopping from time to time so he and his brother could admire it. When Timon and Pumbaa came along, he told them all his adventures from beginning to end, and they glanced at the ankus between whiles.