Lela placed her head against Zen’s shoulder and said, “I know that if it can be done, you will do it. There is no place I would rather be than here with you. Thank you for helping us to escape. We could never have done it without you and Jok and your father. If we succeed, it will be great, but if we don’t, we will have tried…. Zen, didn’t you want me last night?”
“You know I did. Didn’t you feel my need as we lay close?”
Lela smiled and said, “Oh, yes, I felt you, and I was aroused. I was just wondering why you did not respond by taking me. I was ready and waiting.”
Zen took her in his arms. “You and Ador must not conceive until after we have found our new homes. I will have to wait.”
Lela smiled mischievously and said, “I understand—but you must understand that I am waiting also.”
Jok and Ador climbed down from the tree, joined Zen and Lela, gathered their weapons, and made their way to the raft.
Using their spearheads as shovels, they dug a hole in the sandy bank of the river, allowing water filtered by the sand to fill the hole. Soon the water was deep enough to bathe in.
Now that they were sure there was nothing in the water to harm them, they took turns bathing. The young men stood guard against animal attack while Ador and Lela stepped into the pond. This was the first time in a long time that they were able to enjoy a bath, and they giggled while they scrubbed each other with the sand.
“Last night … did you?” Lela whispered to Ador.
“Did I what?”
“You know, last night, you and Jok, did you?”
“Oh! No, I wanted to, but all he did was go to sleep. I was disappointed. Did you?”
“No, I was disappointed too, but Zen said we shouldn’t get pregnant until after we are settled in our new village.”
“He is right, of course, but I doubt that Jok will wait that long, and I don’t know if I want him to.”
“I don’t know either, Ador, but Zen seemed very concerned. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
The men took their turn in the bathing pool. After that chore was completed, they shoved the raft into the water and ate some of the food as they continued floating down the river.
Although everything around them was still a steaming swamp, very hot and very wet, they all felt a little better. They had slept, bathed, and eaten. The sounds of the animals and the noxious gases escaping from the mud pots were still there. The jungle seemed endless.
***
Chapter 9
The Rapids
The river had carried them into the valley, and perhaps it would carry them out if they could survive long enough. Every moment was a new and frightening experience. At every turn of the river, enormous crocodiles lay on the banks, just waiting for an opportunity to strike. They even watched a crocodile eat a tiger! It seemed inconceivable that anything could eat a full-grown tiger, but that crocodile was huge.
They saw another powerful animal struggle against the death trap of a boiling mud pot. The animal didn’t have a chance. Once the grasping mud caught it, the animal sank slowly into its slimy depths, and the sound of its cries was pitiful as it sank out of sight. They were thankful that Zen and his father had made the raft high enough to allow them to float above the river.
Finding places to spend the night was difficult, and spending the nights in complete darkness was terrifying. They had to be constantly watchful. Danger could come from the most unexpected places and at the most unexpected times. On many occasions, they had to defend the raft from reptiles that tried to climb onto it. A centipede almost as long as a man’s arm climbed onto the raft; one bite from it could have been fatal. Lela saw the centipede just before it climbed onto Zen’s leg. She killed it with a smashing blow from her stone axe. They all shuddered at the ugly sight as it writhed about on the raft before falling into the river and was promptly eaten by something hidden in the dark water.
Not knowing what lay ahead, Zen and Jok realized that time was short and that they wanted to consummate their joining to Lela and Ador. At the next location, Zen made a bed as best he could and held Lela in his arms.
“Lela, I will love you and care for you all the days of my life. Will you share your life with me?”
Lela snuggled up in his arms and replied, “Yes, I will. This moment alone is enough to make all the fears and hardships we have endured worthwhile. You are what I have always wanted, and you are all I will ever want. I am yours for as long as I live.”
Zen knew that tonight he would take Lela as his mate. He would acknowledge her womanhood by expressing his manhood. Lela would acknowledge his offer by giving him pleasure and taking pleasure in the giving. Together, they and their two friends would build a new village, and a new life free from fear and reprisals.
Zen and Lela bore witness as Jok and Ador pledged their lifelong commitment to one another and promised to love each other as long as they lived. The two couples lifted their faces to the stars and asked whatever God there might be to bless their lives with all the good things they had ever dreamed of.
They bade each other a good night, and each young man took the woman he loved to his "bed." This day, and this night, was the beginning of their new life.
***
Frightening days and terrifying nights passed but now, after their pledge to each other, they felt fulfilled. They ate the last of their food. From now on, they would have to live off what they could get from the jungle. There was plenty of fruit on the trees; they watched to see which fruit the monkeys were eating. The monkeys seemed to prefer a large yellow fruit with lots of hard, green seeds. Zen took a small bite. It was tart, with a sweet taste. The flavor was pleasant, and Zen was tempted to eat the whole thing, but his better judgment told him to be cautious. He waited long enough for the fruit to digest, and since nothing happened, he took a larger bite and had soon eaten the whole thing. When he didn’t get sick, he figured they could eat the fruit safely. At his urging, the others tried different fruits, using the same cautious method of testing. They eventually found a few trees with fruit they had determined was good.
The men speared a fish swimming near the surface of the river, but since there was no fire to cook it, they ate it raw. They could have built a fire by placing a mat of green leaves on the raft to protect the logs, but everything was so wet, nothing would burn.
Night after night they slept in trees, using vines to climb in and out of the branches. Leaving the raft to get to the trees was dangerous, but they had no choice.
The fruit they had eaten had not made them sick, so they added four different types to the ones they knew were good. But fruit was not enough to give them the nutrition they needed. They wanted meat, and a fire to cook it on. They had heard stories of how their ancestors had eaten meat raw before they learned to use fire for cooking. Zen reasoned that if their ancestors could eat meat raw all their lives, he and his group could too until they got through the valley. If only he knew how much farther it was to the other side.
The constant strain, and the lack of sleep, was beginning to wear on everyone. They were all having doubts about reaching the other side of the valley, although no one expressed it.
“I would give anything to see a beam of sunlight,” Ador sighed.
“Maybe if I climb to the top of that tall tree, I could see over the mist and get some idea of how much farther we have to go,” Zen said.
That would be a dangerous thing to do because Jok would be left alone on the river bank with the two girls. They discussed it and decided it would be worth the risk to know if Zen could see the other side of the valley.
Zen reached the top of the tree, but he saw nothing. He noticed that the fog seemed less thick and that there was what appeared to be a narrowing of the valley. It looked as though the river would be entering a canyon only a short distance ahead.
When he got back on the ground, Zen reported that he thought the river might be running through a group of low hills and perhaps it would be leaving the val
ley after going through what appeared to be a narrow canyon.
His companions were nervous. They heard what sounded like lions not far away. They picked up their things and ran, hoping to get to the raft. Their only hope was to get the raft into the water before the pride of lions overtook them.
The girls were in the lead, so they jumped onto the raft while the boys pushed it into the river. The lions tried to jump onto the raft, but Zen stopped them with the point of his spear while Jok worked frantically at getting the raft into the current, where it would be too deep for the lions to wade. The race was close, but they won.
But how much longer could they continue to win? Eventually they would lose, and their lives would end. They didn’t dare think such thoughts. They had to find the other side of the mist, and soon. They were all getting weak, tired, and discouraged.
Zen noticed that the current was getting stronger, and the raft was moving faster. There were no more steaming mud pots. Soon they could see both sides of the river and the walls of a canyon. The mist was clearing! They all shouted with glee. At last, they were free from the horrible Valley of Mist!
The river was flowing faster and faster. It was no longer placid. Now the raft was bouncing along.
“Push the raft to the bank of the river,” Zen called out.
They tried desperately, but it was too late … the current had taken control, and they were being hurled deeper into the canyon. All they could do was hang on and hope that the raft would hold together. The sound of the river became a roar and it hurled them around violently.
Zen held onto Lela, trying to prevent her from falling into the river. Her eyes were wild with fear. She was a good swimmer, but she was not sure she could survive in that swirling water.
They heard Ador scream and saw her fall backwards from the end of the raft into the river. She went under, and came up again. She was riding the current. She waved, and it looked as though she was going to be all right until she slammed into a boulder and disappeared.
Jok was half out of his mind with concern. “Ador, Ador,” he screamed and jumped into the river. He swam to where she disappeared and searched until he was exhausted. Lela and Zen pulled him back onto the raft and tried to console him.
They searched the surface of the river with their eyes, hoping to see Ador. The river continued cascading through rapids. Jok wanted to jump back in the water, but Zen convinced him that he could see better from the raft.
After what seemed too long, the river finally finished its passage through the narrows and became a smooth-flowing stream again.
It was a bright, sunny day, and they would have been happy if they hadn’t lost a member of their party. Their eyes looked everywhere, up and down the riverbanks, searching for Ador. Finally they saw her, lodged like a piece of driftwood against a large rock on the other side of the river.
The river was more than two hundred paces across, and the only way to get to her was to swim. Zen and Jok dove in and swam with all their might. When they got to her, she looked peaceful, but she wasn’t moving. They couldn’t tell if she were alive or dead.
Jok was distraught and tried to revive her by holding her in his arms. Zen had had experience with drowning victims and knew they had to get air into her lungs. Zen listened for a heartbeat. It was faint, but there. She could live if he could just get her to breathe. He worked over her until he was just about to give up, when she suddenly coughed and spit up water. He rolled her over and helped her to sit upright. As she continued coughing, she began to breathe steadily. Ador was going to live!
Jok took her back in his arms and cried, “Oh, Ador, I almost lost you.”
They gestured to Lela to let her know that Ador was okay. Lela jumped up and down, expressing her joy. The little group of friends had made it through the valley intact!
Lela thought of her mother and father back in the village of Lalock, and began to cry. She so much wanted them to know that they had all made it through the Valley of Death. Perhaps they were the very first people to see this side of the valley. When she looked up, the beautiful snow-capped mountains were still far in the distance.
Zen was waving at Lela when he saw something moving in the brush behind her. He watched carefully and realized that a lion was stalking her. In their concern for Ador, they had left Lela alone. The lion, seeing his chance to grab an easy meal, moved slowly and furtively, as is its hunting habit. Zen knew that Lela was in grave danger. For a moment, he didn’t know what to do. If Lela became aware of the lion, she would start to run and the lion would charge and quickly overtake her.
Zen knew that Lela was too far away to hear him, and couldn’t see the lion anyway. He grabbed a spear, dove into the river, and swam powerfully, trying to reach Lela, who was pleased that Zen was coming back to her. She sat on a stone beside the river to wait for him. Oh, Lela, if only you would dive into the river and swim to me, I might be able to save you, Zen thought.
Jok noticed that Zen was swimming frantically, trying to cross the river to get to Lela. Jok realized that something was wrong and then spied the lion stalking Lela. The lion was about a hundred paces up the hill and, knowing his prey was unaware, was proceeding slowly.
Jok started jumping up and down, trying to attract Lela’s attention. She saw Jok and waved back, noticing that he was pointing in her direction, but she couldn’t understand what he was trying to tell her. Then she heard Zen yelling, telling her to look behind her. Lela saw the lion fifty paces away, just as it started to charge. There was no time to run, so she turned and dove into the river just as the lion’s claws raked her lower right leg.
Lions don’t like water; this particular lion hesitated and then jumped into the river after Lela. She was a strong swimmer, but the lion was gaining on her. Zen was swimming to meet her, and they met just before the lion got to Lela. Zen braced his feet on the bottom of the river, holding his spear to kill the swimming lion. The lion was so intent upon capturing Lela that he was unaware of Zen until he felt the sharp point of Zen’s spear in his belly. The lion, at a disadvantage in the water, abandoned the chase.
Realizing how close she had come to being a meal for the lion, a trembling Lela clung to Zen. He held her in a firm embrace and soothed her as he whispered that they must rejoin Jok and Ador.
The swim back to their friends was more leisurely, but the strain of the near-disaster affected Zen greatly. He was exhausted. When he reached the bank, he crawled out, found a grassy knoll, and fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Ador, who had learned medical skills from her father, a medicine man, tended to Lela’s wounds. The scrapes caused by the lion’s claws weren’t deep and probably wouldn’t even leave a scar.
***
Chapter 10
The First Night
While Zen was sleeping, his companions had caught a fish and were trying to cook it. After the long and arduous effort of rubbing dry wood together, they managed to get a fire going. They cooked the fish and ate it with gusto. It was the first solid food they had eaten in a long time and the fish was delicious.
It was only mid-afternoon, but they needed a place to spend the night … as far away from the Valley of Mist as possible, since it was a breeding ground for large predators.
They looked downriver and saw rolling meadows with a few small trees, but none large enough to provide shelter from lions. There must be a safer place.
Across the river they could see a gap in the mountains, and through that gap were undulating plains that extended into the distance. They looked like a good place for herds of grazing animals, but not a place where there might be either a cave or a large tree. They knew there were large cats lurking in the background, just waiting to pounce upon them, and they needed shelter from those cats.
They found the raft broken up, but they managed to save most of their weapons. Now they had no choice but to walk.
“Let’s walk in the direction of those mountains,” Zen said. “There are sure to be streams draining that melting snow.”
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“Okay, Zen, you take the lead,” Jok said. “Girls, you walk between us, and I’ll cover our backs. Keep a sharp eye out for danger, and look for a safe place to spend the night. Let’s stay close to the river; it will provide some protection from the lions.”
Most of what was left of the afternoon was gone when they came upon a medium-size stream flowing into the river from a cliff on their right.
Lela said, “I see a large overhanging of rock about halfway up the side of that cliff. Perhaps there is a cave up there where we can spend the night.”
“Let’s go see,” Jok replied.
“We’d better take water with us, and the rest of that cooked fish. The climb to that ledge is going to be difficult. We’ll be hungry and thirsty before we’re ready to come down from the ledge tomorrow morning,” Zen said.
“If it is difficult for us to climb,” Ador remarked, “it will be difficult for large animals as well. We should be safe when we get onto the ledge.”
“Jok,” Zen said, “you carry the food, and I’ll fill this pouch with water to take with us.”
“Let’s go,” Jok replied.
They began scaling the cliff. The girls carried dry wood to make a fire, which would be very comforting during the long night.
The climb was even more difficult than they had anticipated. Loose rocks kept sliding out from under their feet. After quite a struggle, they reached a ledge of flat sandstone, with a good overhang of rock to keep them dry. The find pleased the two couples, who were too tired to look any more.
“It’s unlikely that an animal large enough to harm us could climb the face of the cliff without causing a rockslide,” Lela observed. “On this side, the ledge ends at a sheer cliff, so there’s no chance that an animal could climb up that way, but it would be possible for an animal to approach us from the other end.”
Beyond the Valley of Mist Page 5
