Jamal XII

PA 1 – May

Another week had passed, and the group continued to progress through the seemingly endless jungles. Jamal, as had so often been the case recently, took point, cutting through the vines and foliage in their path with tireless concentration. Behind him were Yue and Fei, whose injuries while mostly healed still left them vulnerable, while Ishi took up the rear with Khalila, their duties to watch out and make sure they weren’t being followed.

It was a simple formation, but one that they’d been forced to adapt after their clash with the hunters after Khalila. And though they still stumbled through the motions occasionally, they’d now settled into their new status quo.

But, while their new interpersonal issues began clearing up, their external problems were still a big issue.

Specifically, the fact that they were still stuck in this god-forsaken jungle.

It had been weeks. And yet, somehow, they were still no closer to figuring out how to leave then they had been when they first entered. Heck, they didn’t know where that was in the first place! For all they knew, they’d been wandering around in circles! It wasn’t like they knew where they were—even the stars were different for crying out loud!

But thankfully—finally—at around noon that day they discovered a clue as to how to get out of the jungle.

“Halt, barbarians!” a high-pitched voice suddenly shouted from above, echoing through the jungle. Startled, their group came to a stop, raising their weapons and staring up at where the voice came from. “Who dares approach our territory!”

It was a kid. Maybe ten years old at most, he had tanned skin—lighter than Jamal’s but darker than Fei’s—and long, braided hair filled with feathers and ornaments. He was standing on a thick tree branch, glaring down at them imperiously as if he weren’t smaller than Khalila.

Feeling a little silly for getting so worked up, Jamal felt himself untense, actually feeling a little amused by the arrogant little shit.

“Ah, I see you tremble in fear at my presence! Smart!” the kid shouted smugly, his arms crossed over his chest. Sitting next to him on the branch was a girl of about the same age with similar features, looking much less confident with being here. A sister, probably. “But being smart doesn’t mean I’ll just let you walk around wherever you want! Tell me why you’re here, and maybe I’ll just let you off with just a warning!”

“Seta,” the girl next to him hissed almost too quietly to hear. “Mom said you need to stop doing this.”

“Be quiet, Uivi,” Seta snapped back, much louder. “I’m in the middle of my interrogation!”

Jamal shared a look with the rest of his group, before stepping forward calmly. It was just a kid, after all. “There’s no need for you to worry about us, we’re just travelers passing through.”

“Oh yeah!?” the kid—Seta—shouted again. Jamal wondered if he was always like this, or if this was just a bad day or something. “Prove it!”

Jamal stared at him for a moment, before slowly pointing to his own face—highlighting his African American ethnicity—and then at Yue’s face—whose pale, Asian features contrasted both of theirs sharply. “Do we look like we’re from around here?” he asked dryly.

“Well yeah you look ugly, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t bandits or something! If anything, that just makes it more likely!”

“Hey, kid,” Jamal scowled, his brow twitching in annoyance. “Insulting someone because they look different from you is pretty fu—pretty rude, you know.”

“Eh? But you are ugly, though?”

“Seta!” his sister hissed, tugging his arm harder.

“…He’s just a little kid, Jamal,” he sighed quietly to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Just a kid. Don’t stab the child, Jamal.”

“What’s he saying?” Yue whispered dragging his attention away from the kid. “You look kind of frustrated.”

Jamal sighed. “He’s just being a brat. Don’t worry about it.”

“…He’s annoying,” Khalila agreed quietly.

“Hey, what are you all whispering about!” the little shit shouted, pointing down at them imperiously.

“None of your damn business!” Jamal shouted back, letting some anger leak through. “Now stop shouting for a minute so I can talk to my friends!”

“Hey, I’m the one asking questions here!”

“Do I look like I care!?”

Yue tapped his shoulder, getting his attention. “Hey, can you ask him if he knows the way out of the jungle?”

Ah, that was actually a good idea. “Hey, kid! Do you know the way out of this jungle?”

The kid glanced at his sister, who just shrugged back. “What’s a jungle?”

Jamal blinked. Why didn’t that—ah, if the kids had never been out of the jungle before, they might not have a concept of what a jungle even was. Or maybe they just didn’t have a word for it, though that didn’t seem like it had been an issue before.

Or maybe he was just overthinking this.

“Uh, where do the trees stop?”

“Oh!” the kid’s eyes lit up. “You mean the dry lands!”

‘Finally.’ “Yeah, that! Do you know what direction that’s in? What’s the fastest way to get there?”

“It’s over—wait!” the kid cut himself off. “Why should I tell you!?”

Jamal sighed in aggravation, before turning to his sister. “Hey, girl! Where are these ‘dry lands?’”

“Oh, ah, um,” she stuttered, before the kid shoved his way in front of her. “Hey, what’re you picking on her for!?”

“I’m not picking on anyone—I just asked her a question!”

“Well your questions stink!”

“Oh my god would you just tell us where to go and we’ll leave! That’s all we want to do! Leave!”

“Grr… fine! It’s that way,” the kid pointed southwest-ish. “Just over the hills and past the big tree!”

A wave of relief washed over Jamal, grateful they’d finally found the way out. Still, it didn’t hurt to check. “Are you sure that’s the right direction? Like, absolutely sure that’s the closest exit?”

“Of course! After all, that’s where mother always tells us not to go—she says it’s a cursed land—but we’re strong! My friends and I went to the dry lands all on our own and we came back alright!”

“No you didn’t!” his sister hissed, tugging at her brother’s arm. “Your skin was all blistered for days! And Uti got so ill he almost died!”

‘Well, that was ominous,’ Jamal mused. Still, anywhere would be better than here.

“Well, thank you for your help,” he told them—more to the girl then the boy. Turning around, he gave them a wave, his companions following him. “I hope to never meet you again!”

“Hey, who gave you permission to leave!” the little shit shouted at their retreating backs. “Get back here and face my justice!”

“What did he just say?” Yue asked curiously as they left.

“Ah,” Jamal hummed. “He wished us safe travels and that the gods would look over us fondly.”

Yue smiled and nodded, turning to give the kids a wave. Khalila, meanwhile, gave him a deadeyed stare, but otherwise didn’t comment.

--

It turned out that when the kid had said ‘just over the hills’ he meant, ‘the hills that were at least a couple days and a hike through a dense swamp away.’

Also, those ‘hills’ were actually closer to small mountains then hills. The reason they knew that?

The sheer cliff face the five of them were staring up at made it pretty obvious.

“Not again…” Fei groaned. “I thought we were done with this shit once we left the mountains!”

“I’d hoped so too,” Jamal grumbled, squinting up the cliff. There was a small break in the trees that let him barely see the top of it, but what he saw only made his stomach drop. “There’s no way we’re making our way up that as we are. Even back before we had to deal with our injuries I don’t think we could’ve climbed that.”

“…I think I could find a way,” Yue mused, squinting hard at the rock face. “It’ll just take a bit of finagling.”

“Yue, no.”

“Come on, Jamal—”

“Yue. No. We’ll find another way around.”

Yue rolled her eyes with a small scowl, but didn’t argue.

Jamal gave her an odd look. Normally she was the most levelheaded of their group—why was she acting like this now?

He shook his head. He could figure it out later. “Come on guys, this way,” he waved them along, once more starting the grueling task of carving a path through the foliage. “Let’s follow the cliff this way. Maybe we’ll find a more reasonable way through further along.”

The group gave their assent with a collection of groans and grumbles, following behind him as he led the way.

He didn’t blame them for their grumbling. The jungle had been… stressful, for all of them. But now that they were almost out, he felt relieved. Just a few more hours—maybe a day at most—and they could finally put this whole thing behind them.

He should’ve known better than to tempt fate like that.

After about another hour of marching through the jungle Khalila—who was normally the quietest and best behaved of their group—froze, turning her head to stare out into the trees.

Jamal, who hadn’t noticed at first, made it a fair distance away before Ishi called out his name, quickly dragging his attention back over to her.

Not fast enough, unfortunately, to stop her from bolting into the trees.

“What the—!?” he yelped, shocked. “Khalila!? What—where are you going!? Come back!”

They chased after her, obviously. But unfortunately for them their large, adult bodies found rushing through the dense undergrowth of the jungle a less than simple task. And soon enough they’d lost sight of her, only the crashing and shaking of her movements echoing through the jungle allowed them to keep up with her.

And then, as suddenly as it had started, she stopped, crouching down in a clearing. Less than a minute later the rest of them caught up, panicked recriminations on their lips as they stumbled into the clearing behind her.

And then they froze, on seeing what Khalila had found.

The corpse of a tiger.

It laid on the jungle floor, half buried by ferns and roots. It’s coat—a bright orange and black—now stained red. Along its stomach he could see, faintly, two gaping holes, fresh blood slowly trickling onto the muddy floor.

“Damn,” Jamal hissed lowly, wincing at the sight. “How did that happen.”

“It bit off more than it could chew, most likely,” Yue replied just as quietly, as though if she spoke to loud the beast would suddenly jump back to life and attack them. “The fact it’s still here means it must have fought a prey animal—and failed, getting killed by its potential meal. Such is the danger of the hunt.”

Jamal hummed in understanding, stepping closer. Despite himself—despite the fact that he knew this predator wouldn’t have hesitated to kill them had they arrived an hour earlier—he couldn’t help but feel sorrow for the poor beast. He’d seen tigers alive—both in this life and the last—and there had always been an air of majesty about them. An air of power, of strength. But now, seeing one dead on the jungle floor, it felt… small. Sad. A monster, once, now dead, and any glory gone with it.

“Hey, hey,” Khalila whispered softly, leaning over the corpse. “It’s okay, it’s okay. It’ll all be alright.”

Jamal raised an eyebrow, wondering what she was doing. Was she… trying to comfort it? The corpse? He found himself wondering if that was a sign of kindness or delusion.

Then, belatedly, he realized that it might be a bit traumatizing for a child to see such a gruesome corpse.

“Er, hey, Khalila,” he gently stepped closer to her. “Why don’t we head back and—”

Suddenly, from beneath Khalila’s arms, he heard a pitifully low ‘meow.’

Freezing in place for a second, he quickly leaned around her, looking to see what she’d grabbed.

There, in the little girl’s arms, was a baby tiger. A tiny kitten about the size of her head, shivering and whining. Its fur was damp with mud and blood, but it looked uninjured, if terrified. Its claws were digging into Khalila’s arms hard enough to draw blood, but the girl either didn’t notice or didn’t care, whispering reassurance to the kitten as she pet it comfortingly.

“Khalila,” he whispered quietly. “You need to put that down. Quickly.”

She turned up to glare at him, squeezing the kitten tighter. “She’s just lost her mom! How can you say that!?”

“It’s a wild animal, Khalila,” he told her more firmly. “It’s cute. It’s sad. But it’s still a wild animal. It will hurt you if given the chance. It has already hurt you.”

She continued to glare at him. “I’ll heal in a second anyway. I’m not just abandoning it here!”

“I get where you’re coming from, Khalila, but it is still a tiger.”

“It’ll die if we leave it here!”

Jamal froze, because yeah, that was probably true. But still. This wasn’t like she’d just found a domesticated kitten on the side of the road—this was a predator. It would grow to be bigger than her in no time. And then, it would try to eat her.

But for some reason, seeing the little girl sitting there, cooing quietly over the kitten in her arms, showing more emotion than she had in the past few weeks, he couldn’t bring himself to speak them out loud.

“…You’ll have to take care of it yourself,” his traitorous tongue spoke instead, any logical arguments thrown out the window.

She set her jaw sternly in a motion that was more cute than anything else. “I will! I had… I took care of Kyti back home. I know how to take care of a cat.”

Fuck. Now he really couldn’t say no. “…Alright, so long as you know what you’re doing.”

“Jamal!” Yue hissed under her breath, grabbing his arm. “What the hell are you doing!? You can’t seriously let her keep that thing!”

Ishi nodded empathetically beside her.

Fei, on the other hand, just looked amused, the bastard.

“I’m keeping her!” Khalila told them, glaring at them as if daring them to speak otherwise. “The two of us are going to be best friends, got it!”

Ishi melted instantly. With a sigh, he agreed, stepping back.

Which just left Yue. And, seeing as she was outvoted, she groaned, dropping her head in her hands. “This is a horrible idea.”

“Yeah, probably,” Jamal shrugged, turning to look back down at their youngest member.

“…What’ll I call you,” Khalila hummed to the kitten in her arms, a small, happy smile on her face. “You’ve got sharp claws, maybe Khudush? No, no, that’s not lady-like at all…”

Still, seeing how Khalila’s face lit up, he found he didn’t mind much.

9,872 God-Kings Remain