Chapter 3
Two miles northeast of the village of Kole, Africa
The Congolese Jungle
Jake woke up alone. Looking around, he noticed Lenore and Xāda just finishing their breakfast. Tatiana and Sestia were nowhere in sight. Smiling, he stood up and approached the two Amazonian warriors at the modest campfire they'd made. He paused after a step to stretch his tight muscles from sleeping on the unforgiving ground. Even with the bedroll to sleep on, the hard-packed earth still did a number on his body. His spine crackled like a giant bowl of Rice Krispies as he twisted to work out the kinks in his lower back.
Xāda grinned at his nudity. "Not going to get dressed?" she asked with a playful smirk.
"Like you said, who's going to see?" he replied with a laugh, taking the offered plate of food from Lenore.
"It is interesting to me, my king, that you slept with no clothes on last night," Lenore teased.
"Yeah, yeah," Jake replied with a roll of his eyes. "We could be in the thick of Brambles and Stinging Nettles and you girls would still have me sleeping in my birthday suit."
"At least we might have berries to eat after our evening fun," Xāda said, laughing.
"Why is nudity described as a 'birthday suit'?" Lenore asked with a quizzical expression.
"Because you were naked when you were born," Xāda answered. "Hence, that's the only 'suit of clothes' you wore on your day of birth."
"Ah," Lenore replied. "I understand now."
"Anyway, we have some spelunking to do, my dear sister. Are you ready to go?"
"Spee-lunking means exploring a cave?" Lenore asked.
"It does," Jake replied as he sat near the small fire they had made to cook their breakfast. Jake grimaced slightly when he took a bite of another piece of the snake Sestia killed the day before.
"Then, yes, my queen. I am ready to go."
Xāda smiled as she leaned down to kiss Jake. "See you later, lover boy," she said as she winked at him over her shoulder. The sway of her hips as she walked away almost made him call her back for a morning fuck-session. Almost.
After finishing his meager meal, Jake approached the lone tree in the clearing again. He struggled to ignore the rancid odor of sewage in the area as he scouted all around the base of the tree. He searched for footprints or any other evidence of recent activity in the area. Seeing none, he turned his attention skyward, looking for signs of recent activity in the branches above. However, nothing overtly stood out.
"Guess it's time to play monkey wars," he muttered with a resigned sigh.
Monkey Wars was a game he and his friends played as kids. They all lived in a cul-de-sac near a forested area and often played in the woods. Monkey Wars involved climbing trees and battling for the highest point, similar to King of the Mountain but in trees. The "battle" consisted of pushing and shoving to make opponents lose their balance. If you wobbled enough to almost fall, you ceded the branch and searched for another to claim. The one who reached and rested on the highest branch without falling won the game.
Jake looked up at the lowest hanging branch above his head that would support his weight. It seemed to sneer down from him from about six feet above his head; far higher than any normal human was able to jump. However, Jake wasn't a normal human any longer. His new strength would prove more than sufficient to allow him to leap that high.
Searching for a spot closer to the trunk of the tree, Jake crouched and jumped experimentally. Without even trying, his fingers brushed along the bottom of the branch. He smiled to himself in satisfaction after landing in the spot he leaped from. Crouching once more, he exerted a bit more strength in his leap and grasped a hold of the targeted branch. He swung from the limb for a few seconds, relaxing to allow the weight of his body to decompress his spine from the initial landing. His lower back popped a couple of times and he let out a soft groan of pleasure before pulling himself up to crouch on the tree branch.
A sudden grin spread across his lips as a bout of nostalgic euphoria invaded his senses. Examining his surroundings, he decided to test his newfound strength and agility. He leaped to a taller branch and swung forward, landing on another branch a ways away. Grinning with child-like excitement, he let his inner child out to play, running and swinging through the tree like his younger self playing monkey wars, only with far more abandon. Jake let out a loud Tarzan jungle call as he used the large tree like a jungle gym, running and leaping along its boughs and branches like it was his favorite playground structure.
Jake paused, hanging from one hand on a branch as something caught his eye that didn't belong. He dropped down on a flat section of branches near the trunk of the tree. Crouching, he inspected the foreign substance splattered on the bark of the branches at his feet, finding rust-colored splotches surrounded by a light-colored ashen substance. He didn't immediately recognize it, yet knew it wasn't a natural part of the flora, so he searched the nearby branches and leaves.
Jake discovered a large leaf coated mostly in the strange substance and plucked it for closer inspection. As he examined it, a scent both familiar and foreign drifted into his nostrils, widening his eyes with recognition.
"So," he whispered to himself as he absently searched the nearby branches, "you were here. And you were horny." He looked in the direction of his camp and grinned in satisfaction at the unobstructed sight of his and his women's bedrolls. "You were watching us last night, you dirty, voyeuristic little monkey." He brought the leaf up to his nose and sniffed, his mouth watering at the scent. "I can't wait to make you all but invincible."
~ ~ ~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~ ~ ~
Tatiana wandered downriver in a roughly southerly direction. She and Sestia had met at the location where they discovered the small water source and split up from there. The water at their splitting point was surprisingly clear and cold for it to be in the humid jungles of Africa. The further she explored, however, the muddier the water became.
She was about to turn back when something caught her attention. It was a faint sound, barely audible through the thick brush, but it was unmistakably human. She took care as she crept closer to the source, the sounds getting louder the closer she got. As she approached carefully, keeping silent to not announce her presence, she peeked through the trees as another clearing entered her line of sight.
The clearing was much smaller than the one they claimed, approximately a quarter of the size, and contained a large brown tent surrounded by six smaller two-man tents. She ducked behind a tree, remaining hidden as she spied on the small compound. A handful of men wandered about, seeing to various tasks, all of them appearing native to the area.
Ever the cautious one, Tatiana wasn't sure of the people's intention so she decided to leave them be for now. They could be hunters or explorers so she wasn't about to go on a murdering spree because they just happened to be in the same area as one of her long-lost sisters. She backed away slowly and stealthily, making her way back to her own camp to report to the others.
~ ~ ~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~ ~ ~
Sestia trekked along the narrow creek bed as it wound its way upstream, its width not more than two feet at its broadest point so far. Despite the surrounding forest's dense foliage, the water remained remarkably clear, flowing from a general northwesterly direction. As she walked along, she scouted the area for threats as she silently pondered at the pristine clarity of the water flowing atop the murky soil of the forest floor. To her thought process, the water shouldn't be as crisp and clear as it was.
Every so often, the shrubbery ahead of her would rustle violently before returning to eerie calm once more, announcing the hasty departure of some manner of creature native to the jungle ahead. Suddenly, as Sestia rounded a sharp bend, she came face to face with an aggressive adolescent crocodile. The croc, measuring about four feet in length, hissed menacingly and thrashed its tail in the water, clearly marking its territory and warning Sestia to proceed with caution.
Sestia had no intention of diverting from her intended path, however, merely ignoring the juvenile croc as she attempted to pass. When it snapped its jaws at her in an attempt to grapple her ankle, the warrior woman simply jumped out of its reach before bending down and clubbing the stupid animal in its head with her fist to knock some sense into it. However, she momentarily forgot her strength and caved in the monster's skull. With a reluctant sigh, she effortlessly picked up the dead animal and carried it along, intending to present it to her king as an alternate means of protein instead of the snake she killed the day prior.
As Sestia continued along her course, the creek bed abruptly opened up to reveal a small pool of crystal-clear water about the size of a large hot tub. The pool was surrounded on three sides by small, moss-coated rock formations about twenty feet in height. The dark-haired beauty grinned at the sight of the spring seemingly in the middle of nowhere. She gazed into the water, attempting to gauge how deep it was considering she could see clear to the bottom. Not immediately able to discern its depth, she dropped the crocodile carcass and peeled her clothes off before jumping in feet first.
The Amazon warrior almost inhaled a lungful of the icy cold liquid enveloping her body as she reflexively gasped. Her skin prickled with gooseflesh, and her nipples instantly hardened, aching uncomfortably from the freezing water. Almost as soon as she dove in, she reached the bottom and kicked back to the surface, desperate to escape the frigid depths. Her teeth chattered involuntarily as she hauled herself out of the pool's glacial embrace. She dressed hastily in an attempt to ward off the incessant chill that settled so quickly in her bones.
As the cold rapidly began to subside from the humid air around her, Sestia heard voices coming from somewhere above her location. She crouched in the dense foliage surrounding the pool of water, wondering who could be in the forest with her considering she was supposed to be alone in this part of the jungle.
~ ~ ~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~ ~ ~
Xāda and Lenore passed through the cave's entrance on cautious feet as they prepared to explore its interior. The narrow opening between two outcroppings of rock left just enough room for them to comfortably squeeze through even with having to turn sideways to do so. Xāda remarked off-handedly that Jake would have a bit of trouble maneuvering through the entrance, but not much more than the two women.
A blast of cold air washed over the pair, causing goosebumps to rise along their skin from the stark contrast between the stale, hot air outside and the moist, cool climate within the cave. The jagged walls and uneven floor were slick with condensation, the result of the clashing temperatures, creating a precarious situation for the two women.
Xāda and Lenore stepped cautiously along the narrow corridor, which angled steeply downward at a moderate slope, making their footing uncertain on the damp, rocky floor. As they traversed the unfamiliar passageway, the air grew cooler with every precarious step. They placed each foot carefully and purposefully to avoid slipping.
