The Knight and the Acolyte Book1 Chapter 3 The Hopless Quest
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Jungle Quest free porn video
JUNGLE QUEST
© 2001, 2012 by Anthony Durrant
I set sail on the transport ship Edward The Benevolent for Llendos for my health on a bright winter's day, and for the first part of the voyage we had smooth sailing. The view from the deck was excellent: I could see jellyfish in the water below where I stood
"Flying fish off the port bow!" a sailor cried out.
"Thank you, sir!" I shouted back.
After about thirty minutes I grew tired and went to the passenger's cabin to rest, where I lay down on the bed and fell asleep. A tremendous jolt awoke me several hours later, and I walked out onto the ship's deck - confused and disoriented - to find a storm brewing, at which point a lightning bolt struck the main mast, sending it toppling into the water. Seconds later, a huge wave smashed into the vessel and broke her into splinters. I remember flying off the deck into the water and blacking out. When I awoke, I was on the shore of an as yet unexplored continent with a broken- off piece of the ship. Digging in the sand, I uncovered a dagger, which I strapped to my waist. Looking around as I stood up, I noticed the remains of a lifeboat that had run aground in a storm years earlier. When I dug in the sand around the lifeboat, I found a cygnet ring which I put on my own finger before heading into the jungle, following a line of plants. Along the way, I picked and ate bunches of red berries that hung down in branches from plants growing on the trees above my head; I knew the short green plants I was following had grown from seeds dropped by somebody anxious to leave a trail. Eventually, the plants led to an abandoned canoe with the paddle still inside, lying on the seat. Climbing into the canoe, I took the paddle and pushed off, paddling down the river till I worked up quite a tremendous appetite and had to stop for lunch. Paddling to the river's edge, I pulled the canoe's bow onto the shore and picked and ate some more of the red berries. Again, I followed a trail of the odd-looking plants to an abandoned campsite, again left there years before, where I now ate two of the big round bunches of red berries I'd saved from earlier. As I ate, I realized why the plants were so odd.
"They're not native to the jungle," I said, "so they had to have been brought here as seeds. They were deliberately planted here to form a trail into the jungle itself!"
Feeling around the campsite, I found a pendant that had been left behind by the previous shipwreck victims. A miniature portrait of a man - a man I recognized - was in the shiny pendant, fashioned from electrum.
"Why, it's Subomar, my first teacher!" I cried.
Subomar had vanished years earlier on a voyage to the land of Coventry. With him was his pregnant wife Hypatia, also a Scholar. After putting on the pendant, I climbed back into the canoe and paddled up the river to some rapids, where I then stumbled upon a waterfall. Pulling the canoe ashore just short of the rapids, I was able to cross the river by jumping from rock to rock, and once across, I found two skeletons lying on the bank. Although the two of them were long dead, one of them was clutching a diary, which I took, and the other's arms were empty but in such a position as to indicate she'd been holding a baby. Opening the diary, I read the words written so long ago:
"Sunday, First Month of Mistaal:
"We're now marooned on an as yet undiscovered land and have left a trail of kinbara seeds to point the way back to the seashore. Hypatia's feeling fantastic and has given birth to a sweet little girl whom I have given my own name; she will henceforth be known as Subomar Junior. Tomorrow, we intend to cross the waterfall; our baby's a little sickly, so I have let her dring some of my newly completed Super-Soldier Serum. If there are any side-effects, she won't show them until later, when she's grown into a young woman. I have left my ring at the lifeboat, and Hypatia has left her pendant at my campsite. In case we don't come back, I have transcribed my complete formula for the Super-Soldier Serum on the next page. I close this entry thinking of Allowar Khaperis, my very best student. Gods bless him and help him with his studies."
I was very touched to learn Subomar was thinking of me when he wrote that last diary entry. Maybe he was still thinking of me when he and Hypatia were drowned in the rapids. Turning back toward the waterfall, I plunged through it and found a cave on the other side. There were animal and human bones in the cave and at the back was an exposed crystal of potassium which I pried from the rock with my dagger and took into my possession, then walked out of the cave and back to the skeletons. A small creature had come out of the woods; it was dark and looked like a child with a furry cat's head. As I picked the creature up, I heard a growl and dropped it; it was unhurt by the fall. A tall creature then ran to the small one and scooped it up in its arms, then turned and spoke to me:
"Thank you for not taking my cub away. In return, I wish to give you this healing mushroom used by my people, the Leopard People, who are in constant war with the Lion People over the grasslands territory beyond the waterfall. Do not venture onto the grasslands, or the Lion People will kill you for food!"
"Thank you for the warning!" I said, and she then padded away with her cub to her home in the jungle.
Taking a last look at the skeletons, I noticed a spear tip sticking out of Hypatia's ribcage. She and Subomar had made it to shore after all, only to be killed by some hunter who walked off with their daughter. Having found their diary, I was able to read the formula.
"To make the serum, I need one potassium crystal, a bunch of gooseberries, two cups of water, and walnut powder !" I said to myself. "Then I have to crush the potassium crystal into the bowl, squeeze the juice from the gooseberries into it, add two cups of water and walnut powder. I must then stir the mixture until it turns purple and say:
"Juice of berry and powder of nut
Combine with water from Heaven
And rock from the bowels of Hell,
A lightning bolt to mix them well,
To form a mind and body enhancing spell!"
I shuddered as I read Subomar's formula, especially when I realized I had to do a final step after reciting the chant and stirring the potion:
"I have to drink the resulting serum!"
Curling up beside the stream, I fell asleep, spending my first night in this new land alone. After I woke up the next morning, I decided to climb the cliff from which the waterfall tumbled into the river. After covering Subomar and Hypatia with rocks and taking their alchemist's bowl, I climbed to the very top of the cliff and gazed down at the waterfall. Dipping the bowl in the running water, I filled it to just under the brim and began to climb down the other side of the cliff. Now that I knew young Subomar might still be alive, I was determined to find her. To do so, I would need the strength only the Super-Soldier Serum could provide, so I could venture to the savannah. I noticed red berries growing on a small tree on a ledge - the biggest I had ever seen.
"These," I said, "are definitely the ones I'll use in the spell, as there appear to be no gooseberries here. They look as full of juice as one could possibly want!"
I picked the berries and took them with me, entering the savannah around lunchtime. Looking around, I stared at huge horned animals travelling in herds and a number of goatlike creatures with long horns and tawny cat people with yellow fur and heavy manes. At one point, a nameless female cat person pounced on a horned goat-beast and killed it, dragging off the carcass. The sun was high in the sky by this time, and I was so hot, I rushed under one of the trees to get out of the sun before I roasted alive. Looking up, I saw walnuts hanging down and plucked a few of them from the tree. Eating them, I saved the rest for the Serum. Now that I had everything I needed, I could finally repeat the spell. Following the instructions, I mixed the ingredients together step by step, stirred the mixture until it turned purple, then spoke the chant. Out of nowhere, a lightning bolt struck the mixture, fusing the ingredients together and filling the bowl with magic. With a delighted smile, I then drank the serum from the bowl. Suddenly, I was overcome by a pain that surged through me the way a fire surges through a forest. Everything was spinning around and I grew more and more dizzy until I finally blacked out. When I came to, I felt a good feeling go throughout me. I found that the Super-Soldier Serum had indeed augmented my physique. It had given me the lithe, powerful body of a hunter of the savannah! I was suddenly confronted by a pair of human hunters who were carrying spears and leather shields.
"Can you tell me where to find the white girl?" I asked. "The daughter of Subomar Kapec?"
"The Golden Goddess is at her temple in our village," one of the hunters said, "and you will see her soon enough - after you are brought forward to see Chief Quillecupua, who will decide your fate!"
At last I had a lead that might take me to Subomar's daughter! The hunters forced me to walk to their village, and after several hours, we were standing in front of the Chief.
"I bring berries to trade with your Majesty," I told him, "berries whose taste will make you feel young again!"
"We are already aware of the medicinal effects of the red berries," the Chief said, "and we already have a supply of them in our village. You are a different matter, outlander, for you have trespassed on the traditional hunting and fishing grounds of our people. For this, you will be taken to a cage where you will spend the night and as the first rays of the sun rise over the mountains you will be tied to a cross and burnt over the sacred fire."
Quillecapua's hunters marched me directly to a cage made of tree branches and strung together with rope. Even with all my enhanced strength I couldn't break free of the cage and watched in horror as several Lion People were tied to the big wooden crossed and burned to death roaring in pain one after the other. I heard drums beating as each of the prisoners were put to death; this spectacle was repeated many times throughout the evening and into the night, and I trembled with horror, captivated and terrified by the sight of the executions. Five hours into the ceremony two burly priests threw open the door to my cage and stood on either side of the entrance as a female vision walked into the cage. Her hair was as gold as the noonday sun and her eyes were the colour of the deep blue sea. Her skin was as pale as the finest bisque china and she was tall and very powerfully built, possibly as a result of Subomar's original super-soldier serum - for this girl could only be my precious friend Subomar's long-lost daughter, even though she had been raised to believe she was a Golden Goddess.
"My name is Allowar Khaperis," I said, "and I have come to find you. You are Subomar the Younger, the daughter of the scholar Subomar, who was shipwrecked on this continent."
"Liar!" she cried. "I am Allakupukua the Golden Goddess, and I was sent down from the sky to lead this tribe in their time of crisis!"
Swinging a whip, she brought it down upon my bare belly several times, and when I doubled up, she began to hit me across my back, leaving long scars, after which I was taken outside and led to a cross, which was then pulled by ropes into the hole the natives had dug for it. A series of longs were then brought and grouped under my legs. Suddenly, the Goddess shouted to the Chief:
"Stop! I will return and cross the waterfall with this person. If what he says is true, then my parents may lie buried under the waterfall by the river."
She then had me taken to a hut on the outskirts of the village, where I found a huge Xanti troll with long brown fur tied to a stake. Surprised to see such a creature in this area of the world, I cut its bonds with my jackknife, and after it rose to its feet, it turned to me and said:
"I am Professor Isabelle Xanth, the wife of the King of Coventry, and he it was who sent me here to look for the missing daughter of the Great Coventrian scholar, Subomar Manwheris. The Golden Goddess captured me in the forest and took me into captivity believing I was a common Xanti troll."
"Then why don't we escape together?" I asked the Professor, and she replied:
"Now that's a very good idea! I wonder why I - I, Isabelle Xanth - didn't think of it!"
She tore a section from the back of the hut, and the two of us crept out through it and sneaked past both of the guards posted at the hut, then disappeared into the night!
The next morning the goddess found us by the lagoon, where we were washing off the grime from yesterday's escapade. The goddess was amazed to see me with Professor Xanth, and said:
"So, you did help the creature escape, as my viceroy Mubutu warned me you would. Now you will face the wrath of the Fire Lizard!"
"You have that a bit backwards!" I said. "The Professor here brought me along with her."
"Even if that is true, outlander, how can you prove I am Subomar's missing daughter?"
I handed her her father's diary, and the Goddess opened it, much to my surprise, and read it. Who had taught this amazing young lady to read?
"So!" she said finally. "It seems I am indeed the daughter of Subomar, who gave his life to save my people during an attack by a rival tribe."
"Who taught you to read?" I asked.
"Mubutu, with Subomar's books!" she replied. "I will now go with you as I promised, but first, I would like to see your manly physique."
She grabbed my shirt and doublet and pulled them off, then was shocked by what she saw.
"You're a woman?" she asked, apparently shocked.
"You've got me at your mercy, Goddess!" I replied. "Yes, I am actually Kalima Khaperis, the sister of the true Allowar Khaperis who died long ago during an infestation of rats that brought the plague. Our father forced me to impersonate my brother, and as you can tell by the white sash, I became quite a scholar myself in the process. Come on, Goddess, let's leave this area and cross the waterfall."
The three of us then left the lagoon and headed west toward the waterfall.
"I wonder what lies beyond it?" I asked.
"Something never before seen by man!" Xanth cried.
Eventually, we came to the waterfall, only to discover that the pathway leading across had been blocked by a rock avalanche some time before. I said:
"If we can't go past, we must go through."
I then went into the waterfall, and Professor Xanth and the goddess followed me. The water was cold, but we endured being soaked and passed into the area beyond the waterfall, which turned out to be a large cave decorated with leopard faces on all four walls. The faces looked as if they'd been chiselled from the rock ages ago. What they were doing here, I had no idea, but I was determined to press on nonetheless. Searching the cave, we found skeletons in niches on the walls. This place had apparently been used as a burial site by someone, so where were the people who were buried here? A close examination of the humanoid skeletons revealed that they had felinoid facial features and even tails!
These people were even more of a mystery now to me then they were originally. I'd run into one of the leopard people in the jungle, and humans had raised the Goddess from a baby. The Lion People patrolled the savannahs, and I had been warned especially to stay away from them, which I had. The answer, I suspected, lay beyond the cave in the area beyond the waterfall. The three of us then left the cave through an opening on the other side, and we walked down into a vast grassland, where I saw a number of horned antelopes feeding. They ignored us as we walked through the area, and we were able to observe them quietly. My eye fell on a white stone partially visible in the ground, but when I pulled it up, I found it was a skull with a spear mark through its forehead, the head of that weapon still being embedded in the hole. Taking the skull into my possession, I was astonished to see that it was exactly like the ones in the cave nearby.
"Who could these people have been?" I wondered.
"We called them 'the Ones behind the Falls,'" the Goddess replied, and we know of them only as legend, a race of powerful hunters with the heads of large cats. They have rarely come into our territory, and now, it seems, they have become extinct or endangered over the fiullness of time, as they are nowhere to be seen in our area of the island."
The three of us decided to walk across the open grasslands, where I spotted more of the antelopes grazing all around us. As before, both of the ones we saw later ignored us, content to chew their food. It was, as we came across a small hill, then that I spotted the village. The huts were large and made of animal hides, similar to the ones in the Goddess's village, but they were in the shape of huge cones with smoke holes in the top and entrances. As we headed into the village, we were able to catch sight of the strange leopard people who inhabited it and see what they looked like at last: as the Goddess had said, they had humanoid bodies and the hides and heads of leopards. Could these be the people whose son I'd met earlier - or were they another tribe altogether. One of them stood in the entrance of a hut and I turned to her, looked her straight in the eye, and asked:
"Could you tell us where we are?"
"In the village of the Zahadum, human, a great many leagues away from the Goddess's village!" she replied, and I noticed that her voice was deep but very soft with a gentle purr in it.
I handed her the skull I'd found buried in the ground, and she looked at it and said:
"Why, this was my father's! I can tell it was him because of the broken left fang! Strangers, you have brought closure to my mother and I, and for that, she will thank you."
She then led us into her hut, where she gave us some tokens in return - protective talismans that she said would protect us from the tribe's enemy.
"It was very thoughtful of you to give us these talismans, young lady!" Professor Xanth said. "I can sense their magical power!"
It was then that a much older woman rose from a bed of straw at the back of the hut and walked toward us. Our hostess showed her the skull.
"My poor husband Hissta!" the woman cried, as if some sadness had crept into her eyes. "He went out one day to hunt, and I never saw him alive again."
"It gives me joy to see a family have closure!" the Goddess said calmly. "They're happier now."
"So it would appear!" I said.
***
Not unnaturally, our hostess, Wanita, sent word to the Chieftess of the village of what we'd done for her mother, and the three of us were taken to her hut where we were treated as honoured guests, much to our surprise. As we dove into the banquet of antelope meat she'd had prepared for us, I asked:
"Why are you treating us so royally?"
"Because Hissta was my son!" she replied. "I had named him my successor as Chief, but he disappeared before I could step aside and let him take up the mantle. Now that I know he is dead, I can at least relax and rest for a while."
"You look like you could use the rest!" I said, for the Chieftess was afflicted with severe rheumatism, a condition that caused her to spend most of her time in bed., on a large bale of straw, rarely leaving her bed and usually staying within her huge hut at the back of the village. She just smiled and said:
"I have had a dream in which I pass on the responsibilities of my office to the one who frees us from the scourge of the lion men."
"The Lion Men?" I asked excitedly, remembering the warning given to me by the Zahadum just days earlier. "Why would you send one of the tribe warn me away from this place if you needed the Goddess's help?"
"That was Padawa, my elder daughter!" she replied. "Following her husband's death - the Lion Men killed him - she turned against us, and therefore was exiled from the tribe. Today she lives alone with their son in the jungle, where none of us care to stay, and dreams no doubt of revenge as payback for her exile."
"Then she could be working for the Lion Men!" Professor Xanth cried. "And, if that is so, she may have reported Kalima's presence on the island to them. We will only be too happy to help you defeat the Lion Men, Chieftess!"
"And I would appreciate that help!" she replied.
A warrior came running into the Chief's hut and blurted out her message:
"The Lion Men are coming!"
The messenger then collapsed onto the floor, and both the Goddess and Xanth attended to her. At that moment, we all heard the sound of a horn.
"The Lion Men's attack signal!" cried the Chieftess. "Kalima, you had better put on my old battle armour and get out there. I'm counting on you to charge into battle and win the day for our tribe!"
Rushing to the back of the Chief's hut, I put on the old leather armour I found there. It covered my top nicely and fitted the feminine contours of my body very well. After I'd put on the armour, I grabbed the shield and spear that were lying on the ground nearby. When I rejoined my friend and the Chieftess, she said:
"It would appear you are indeed the promised one."
"This will be my first time in an actual battle, Chieftess!" I replied, then strode out of the hut.
It was then I saw the Lion Men charging down from the mountain; to my utter surprise, all of the warriors were actually female - and were led by none other than Padawa. I rushed to the edge of the village and shouted:
"Charge, damn you - CHARGE!"
But the lionesses were just too fast, and they fought like demons. Lunging into battle for the first time, I found myself battling not one but two of these aggressive female warriors, all of whom were wielding war clubs. I had to block their swings with my shield and fight with my spear, but I had an advantage in that the Super-Soldier Serum was in my veins. Forcing myself to the offensive, I battled my way through the lionesses toward the attack leader Padawa. A few seconds later, Padawa - who was fighting her way into the city through the ranks of make Leopard Man warriors - suddenly spotted me and shouted:
"Well, well, well! If it isn't the Coventrian scholar I tried to warn away from the waterfall. But, I never realized you were actually a woman!"
"Nobody did!" I replied. "Father used me to impersonate my poor, dead brother Allowar so as to get me the education and training he wouldn't have been able to provide by himself because of our dire financial condition at the time. Thanks to him, I became quite a celebrated scholar. But I now wish to be just plain Kalima Khaperis once again."
Padawa then roared and lunged toward me just as the Leopard Man warriors fell back. I had just enough time to order one of them to go directly to the Chieftess and inform her of events before she fell on me. She was at least as formidable as one of the Lion Men and even more aggressive. It was all I could do to hold my position where I was standing, she was so ferocious. I lunged at her with the Chieftess's spear, but she sent me sprawling to the ground, then kicked away the shield before I could retrieve it. She hissed aloud with her heavy breathing:
"Ah, so you are not as skilled a warrior as I had at first believed: your aim is off and your shield work is bad. That means I can now have the pleasure of finishing you off! You will serve me as meat for my young son Osprey!"
Enraged, I rose to my feet and slammed my fist into her shin, then grabbed the spear before Padawa could recover. The two of us then wrestled over the spear, and Padawa knocked me down and grabbed it from me. I then threw an uppercut that sent her flying backward about ten feet before moving in for the kill. Grabbing her by the neck, I punched her in the stomach and then plunged the dagger into her foul heart. As she was falling, I swung my knife in a rapid arc, and cut off her head, then made my way back into the Chieftess's hut before collapsing from my wounds and mortal physical effort.
***
When I came to, I found Professor Xanth and the Goddess dressing wounds on my left leg and on my shield arm. I smiled at her and said:
"Thank you, Professor!"
"No, thank you, Kalima Khaperis!" the Chieftess replied. "You have won us the first great victory over the accursed Lion Men: you truly are the one destined to be the next Chieftess!"
"How?" I asked, and the Chieftess replied:
"By killing and beheading my treacherous daughter Padawa, you deprived the Lion Man warriors of their attack leader in one go, forcing their retreat to the lagoon area. Hopefully, it will be some time before they attack once again."
She then called to her granddaughter Wanita, and asked her to remove the headdress from her own head and put it on mine, which she did. Then she smiled at me sadly and said:
"According to my dream, I am to die soon, before today is out, but not before the new Chieftess is acclaimed, Wanita."
Then she asked Wanita:
"Will you see to it?"
"I would be honoured, Grandmother!" Wanita replied.
She took me by the arm and led me out of the Chieftess's hut, then raised my arm over my head and shouted to the people:
"According to a dream my grandmother had yesterday evening, Kalima Khaperis of Coventry is now your new Chieftess. All hail Chieftess Kalima!"
"Thank you!" I replied. "I'm truly honoured to become your Chieftess, as it would allow me to be my true self again, and not just an impersonator of my deceased brother Allowar!"
The two of us went back inside the Chieftess's hut, where we found the warrior-messenger the Professor was helping during the final battle against Padawa's troops weeping over the old Chieftess's dead body.
"She willed herself to die, because she couldn't bear to go on living life as a bedridden cripple, Wanita!"
I said. "She'd want you to remember her as she was when you were a little girl - as a healthy active warrior and Chieftess."
"Thank you, Chieftess!" Wanita replied, and she closed her grandmother's eyes and pulled her own head cloth over the old Chieftess's face, but not before licking her on the cheek one last time.
"My grandmother's dream has come true!" she told me. "You are the one who, it is prophecied, will lead us to our true home on this island, Chieftess!"
THE END
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