Disclaimer- This is a work of Fiction. Name, character, places and incidents are either product of author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

All rights reserved.

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"This is bad. Seriously bad." River hissed at her wide-eyed friend who was staring through the cage they were held in.

Christopher didn't seem to hear her. He was too busy observing the tall males carrying them through the leafy heavy vegetation arching over them.

She clenched her jaw, as she glared at his ignorance. Christopher had been a good buddy of hers until her lusty feelings for him caught up with her. Unrequited lusty feelings.

She did have an agenda to change them into requited ones by signing up to be his guide trail into the deepest section of the Amazon where no mortals have gone and it was unheard of.

She was a heck of a guide, though. In truth, she could have resisted the job. She had enough money stashed away in the bank and her life was just about as good as it gets.

However, she had a nose for adventure. The thrill of seeking the unknown that made her accept Chris's generous offer and the fact she wanted to have him.

The tall lean blond was sexy as the nerds with the geek glasses could get with their heads all piled under a buttload of books.

Also, the fact she was treated not any different than he did with his friends. At first, she thought he had been playing-hard-to-get only to find out he was hardly-in-the-mood-to-get.

River didn't catch feelings as such. It's probably because of the unending loveless marriage she had seen in her parents. They had remain together for all these years with all the cheating, the lying, and the love forgotten.

Her parents may love her and probably because of her that they still stayed together in the farce of this marriage but it didn't fool River.

She knew love had its expiry date.

At the age eighteen, she moved from Rio to Belém, Brazil where the Amazon Basin wasn't a walk in the park and she started to work under a man called Tiger who taught her everything she needed to know about the mysterious river.

When she heard Chris's proposal of his course, she knew it would spike her thirst for this extraordinary expedition.

However, the place where this lead wasn't all that appealing and dangers lurked.

It was far interior and north deep into the Amazon forest. The inland they were headed would take weeks and it was about a two or three months to trek and if they do happen to find it, another more months and she was the only one who has to see through it that he gets back.

All the others guides had refused poor Chris and he had come back to her with a tail between his legs.

She had been available and the offer was hard to ignore. Three thousand dollars a week. In hard cold cash. Roughly amounted to twenty, three thousand of dollars. Ka-Ching!

Plus, he paid for all the supplies. They didn't get extra help because all of them didn't know the course up there and refused to go.

So, of course this added to her brownie points in Chris's book. If she managed to do this, she can have him right at her meeting point and then refuse him.

As much as she gets tantalized by men, she backs away when it's the real deal. She didn't know why she did that but it was her whacko brain that won't allow her to sleep with anyone.

A hard cover up in front as she watched men squirm under her and how she left them wanting more when things became out of control.

She was often referred to as cock-tease or a psychotic bitch who had a thrill for the chase and played with men's feelings.

She dangled herself like a yummy treat and she'd refused to let them eat it because as soon as she knew she had their attention, her interest flies away.

With Christopher, he had dragged this sexy chase up to whole two months, who was mainly interested in his research more than her ass shaking in front of him.

Although it began to pique her interest more. This was a ton of cash and it was looking like whatever was up there was worth more than this.

The jungle did fill with woes of lost treasure, tribal clans and myths. She wasn't unfamiliar to these legends and she had lived with the Indians who knew the back of the hand-living in the jungle which is why she was the sure bet for him.

However, it was still native deep areas they had to travel that laid in front of them. Many don't come back, the jungle eats them up and their remains forgotten.

With such dangerous parameters, precautions were required. Both had their vaccinations up to date, good supply of antibiotics, insect repellent and well-handy first aid kit.

She had also gotten a year supply for birth control pills, antivenin for poisons and healthy attitude to their expedition.

She was reliable with firearms, handy with snakes and other dangers. She had her own automatic which was easy to maintain and had enough ammunition.

Christopher had sought the Iborian Tribe. A legend of the South American Magical Tribe. He pursued these ancient fables in his young days with his own professor who believed in them but failed.

Risking his reputation, his life, Chris had followed it through.

The tales were like the ones that got lost in time only to be brought up and intrigued very hand full of people. People like Christopher.

He wanted to give the justifications for his professor and his own theories to find the lost tribe under the sea of green.

It was said these tribes had a power that made them live longer than the average human life span and keeps them hidden forever from the rest of the world.

A whole load of bullshit, if anyone asked River but things took an unanticipated twist when they headed straight for the coordinates on Chris's map.

With the help of the Indians they reached after traveling through the murky waters of the Amazon as they worked out the course en route into the deep inland of the jungle.

It was uncharted when they began to tread into the territory where the co-ordinates had just stopped.

Like all treasure hunts, there is difference between knowing something is there and finding that treasure. Due to the thick canopy, even global positioning devices didn't work.

They had gotten lost in the hopes of finding the lost tribe.

It was then snaps of traps scooped them up into two hard roped bisecting bags. It constructed them so tight she couldn't even reach for her knife which was in her backpack.

After waiting for eternal passing hours, they heard footsteps knocking on the jungle floor like continuous fists on a door.

With instinctive precision, the cords were cut and they dropped down only to shoved into the crate they were caged in.

Stupid Christopher! Instead of looking frightened, his face was lit. She recognized that look.

He had done it. He had found the tribe at last. It hit him in bone-deep conviction.

But the idiotic fool didn't know they might never see the light once they meet their captor.

Who knows how these people were? For sure, they weren't going to be welcoming.

As the passage cleared into shining bright sky and she saw a crowd of similar Homo sapiens forming a line against each side, staring at them in wonder as they passed by them.

They were all tall. A bit too tall for an average human being. Skin were tanned to crisp golden. Women were full bodied and men were strapping and muscled.

They looked human but there was something else about them that didn't feel human.

They were taken to a huge brown animal skin tent and hush of whispers of a foreign language buzzed around them. They got up, looking at them as if they were the new recruits for the circus.

They parted like the Red Sea and at the end of the vast tent lay an elderly man with white glossy mane flowing down till his back. His eyes were violet and cool as he took in them.

His chest was bare and he wore brown skinned pants and a huge furry white coat lay over his broad shoulders.

Even though he looked old, he still screamed of agile and strength.

He raised his arm and the whole tent silenced.

Deep foreign tongue voiced out to the men who had carried them in.

Not understanding, she whispered to Chris. "Do you know what they are saying?"

He only shushed her to listen to the strange conversation taking place back and forth between the men who carried them here to the elderly man.

Then, in a quiet voice Chris reported to her. "They are talking about us."

Eyes widening, she asks. "What about us? What do they plan to do?"

"They are contemplating if they should kill us."

"What?" When she squealed, all of them looked at her. She boldly gazed at the man through the bars of the cage, who was sitting in the some sort of makeshift throne again it was coated with skin of some kind of animal.

Another conversation took place when Chris shouted in their native tongue and all remained silent.

After strained long seconds, the men unlocked their crate and wrenched them out. They forced them to kneel in front of the elderly man.

"Bow and don't look him in the eye."

Hating to lower herself in front of any man, she still complied and her eyes slid to the skinned floor.

"Why have you come here?" The accent was heavy when he spoke in English and it was loud. It boomed inside the tent.

Chris with his head bowed replied with utmost reverence. "My liege, I have come here to study and learn about your clan. I have greatly respected, believed and followed your prestigious tribe all my life. If you could allow us to stay with you for the next few months to study and understand your culture, we would be honored. Deeply honored."

Wow. This man really knows how to lay it on thick.

After a few tensed seconds, a low shuffling and mumbling of their native tongue went back and forth above them.

River didn't care what was going on. All she wanted was for them to be alive and get this sorted so she doesn't have to bloody kneel like a slave.

A round silence passed and the leader commanded in his crisp English. "Look up."

When River lifted her gaze, they clashed with the two glinting onyx eyes.

Instantly, she shifted them back to meet the elderly's gaze and forced herself not to react to what she felt.

"Im Yuri Ibori, the leader and protector of my clan. No one has come this far. You must have been extra vigilant. What is your profession?"

"I'm an archeologist."

When the leader's eyes inclined to River, Chris opened his mouth to speak for her when he was cut off by Yuri. "The female will speak."

With a boast, she replied. "I'm the guide that led him here."

Yuri exchanger eyes with the tall man standing right next to him but River never once looked back at him.

For some reason, she didn't want to.

"You have an outstanding sense of direction. I'm truly impressed."

Thank you? Since she didn't know what to say, she awkwardly bowed again.

This time Yuri's lips tilted as if he was cracking a smile. He whispered something again to that tall man beside him.

River willed herself not to sneak in a look. The rising need to see those black eyes again was tethering but she managed to control.

"Since it's never happened that humans like you have found our race, I will grant you the pardon to research but with three strict rules."

Both Chris and River exchanged looks.

"You both will take a blood oath by our holy fire and made to be bound to our blood for not sharing the location of our race. If you do, our gods will find wherever you are and kill you in your sleep. Be warned. You will be monitored by the person I will appoint and if there is breach in this contract you both will be beheaded and your flesh eaten away by my pets."

The two of them gulped in fear.

"What are your names?"

"I'm Christopher and her name is River."

Yuri smiled widened at her. "I do like a beautiful name." And then, he did that whisper thing with that same man.

Her stomach clenched as she forced her eyes to remain upon Yuri. As much River enjoyed a good eye to eye dance, she also enjoyed the gruel wait.

She wanted to look at those eyes again but something in her mind told her not to.

"Alright Christopher and River, you may head towards the dragon of fire and then your blood will be taken by my son Yisrael."

When the same man moved towards them, unconsciously her eyes moved to the very tall sturdy male.

Eyes like black, he snarled at her. "You will be first."