News of a sighting of a non-native species spread quickly through the jungle. It reached the Brazil nut trees which served to provide shelter and a pleasant dining area for a group of nature loving friends who had spent the last few months living in this particular enclave of the jungle. The isolated position, surrounded by rivers on three sides, meant the ecosystem remained largely unchanged from week to week, month to month. The rumours of newcomers to the area therefore, had brewed an excitable atmosphere amongst the friends as they chatted incessantly over their evening meal.
“Apparently they were spotted moving through the swamps not far from where the yucca plants grows” blurted Steve, through a mouthful of freshly picked fruit. In a manner synonymous of one who considers himself a leader of his peers, Tom began to loudly discuss how the group should go about tracking down and observing these beasts when the sun came up. However, as usual, he was quickly cut short by Rachel, the object of both his affections and focal point of his loathing and frustrations.
“Be quiet Tom. We all know you’re inept at tracking. Joshua, what do you think should be the plan of action?” Joshua the youngest of those present, was nonetheless both physically strong and mentally astute. However for now at least, he was far too playful to desire the status of alpha male. Even so Rachel’s beauty had not gone unnoticed to him and so he considered it prudent to respond.
“I suppose first and foremost we shall have to match the early start which I assume they will be making. Then work out roughly where they will eat and when. We should try and catch them at that moment, when they will perhaps be most content and relaxed.” Joshua was attempting to sound thoughtful, considered even. To his eminent surprise, it seemed to work. Confirming the success of Joshua’s aims, Caroline, by far the most intelligent, but least outspoken of the group, gave his ideas her blessing.
“We should get an early night then”, she added as she finished grooming her neatly presented but by no means extravagant hair. The others agreed, Tom doing so with stoic silence and a frustrated attempt to throw the remains of the fruit he’d been nibbling in the general direction of his young adversary. For his part, pretending not to notice the pips and peel, Joshua cleared a path through the trees towards the camp where they usually rested for the night, allowing a branch to slap back and catch Tom on the forehead in the process.
As they lay amongst the jungle fauna awaiting sleep to take hold, Rachel and Caroline could be heard to reflect on just how closely related their friends were to the species which they were intent on observing. The behaviour of the males of the group had been very primitive indeed they agreed. As they chatted, both secretly suspected the other of warming to a certain playful charm in it all, mirroring each of their own real feelings.
A few kilometres away the newcomers were themselves settling down for the night. The day’s unspoken, silent squabbles were evidently lingering. Suspicious glances and shuffling of feet carried the males towards more favourable sleeping positions, alongside the females of the group. Like their potential trackers the group were five; two females and three males. Like the more intelligent jungle residents, inter-personal rivalries and battles for the attention of the minority females was fierce. Such tensions were heightened by an aching hunger which rumbled incessantly from belly to belly. The area, in which they had settled for the evening, was bereft of edible fauna. An area considered so uninhabitable by species with a greater knowledge of the land, that it lacked even the faintest hint of any other beasts. It was perhaps this vacancy which had attracted the fearful and naturally conservative group. They shut their eyes and thought of the fresh hope that the morning would bring, calming their bellies and dousing the hunger fuelled fire in their psyches.
The sun rose stealing the hiding places of formerly invisible bugs, piercing through gaps in the trees with its ferocious glare. The group of trackers were however, one step ahead of even the morning sun. Up before nature’s alarm clock, they skipped breakfast and headed off in search of their newest neighbours. They desired even the merest of glimpses in order to satisfy their excitement and justify the expedition. They walked along the jungle floor, through the trees and over marsh land towards where they hoped they may find their prize. However after less than an hour they were delayed by an unscheduled stop,
“I can’t just go on the trees like you males. I require a little more privacy!” Rachel was insisting on finding a more secluded area in which to do her business.
“OK, OK let her go.” Offered Tom in what he assumed to be authoritative tones. Rachel however had indeed already gone off to find a more comfortable spot, somewhere she could go about her business with more dignity. Joshua meanwhile filled the dormant time by demonstrating his agility and considerable skill in climbing trees to pick fruit. Four of the friends scoffed down plenty of deliciously ripe mangos. The ever jealous Tom meanwhile muttered about how the mini-feast was merely slowing the mission down further. He refused to take part. Instead he loudly and arrogantly resolved to out-do Joshua by finding a more wholesome meal for all five of them later in the day. And so with food in four of the five bellies the trackers moved along at a reasonable pace, all the while conscious of the sound they were making which could disturb and frighten their targets. As they got closer, their attempts at a concentrated silence intensified. Such stealth however, appeared beyond them.
“I knew I shouldn’t have let you greedy fools slow us down by eating!” grunted Tom, firing a glare in Joshua’s direction, a real achievement for one with a stigmatism in both eyes.
“Actually old man, I’m sure it was my call of nature which really delayed us” piped in Rachel in direct defence of her young suitor. The suitor himself was busy rooting around in the nearby bushes. His response belied his lack of interest in the politics of the group, and keener desire to complete the more crucial task at hand; find the new arrivals.
“They were here for sure! Look, banana skins!”
Caroline rushed over to examine the evidence.
“For a group of five adults this is a measly feast,” she reasoned. “My guess is they’ll have gone off to search for more food in another location.”
“Brilliant, so what are you suggesting we do? Head to Monkey Mike’s Mini-Market?”
“That’s not helpful Tom” warned Steve being as contrary as he’d ever managed in all the years since joining the group from the local sanctuary just up river towards the big city. “There’s a well known spot by the water, maybe a mile and a half from here. Plenty of fruit grows there and of course there’s fish. If indeed they are capable of making a catch.”
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” offered Rachel “most reports I’ve heard have painted them as pretty simple creatures, even if they are closely related to our selves.”
“Well I can sure as hell fish baby, and I’m hungry. Let’s head to this spot and try our luck.” The chance to impress had restored Tom’s bravado and off he went towards the supposedly fruitful location. The others followed suit, chirping away happily as they went.
In fact the tracked beasts were nothing like as jungle-savvy as their would-be observers, instead they had headed north towards the base of the mountains, the very same mountain base from which the trackers had set off, before sunrise. The two groups were inadvertently sharing the same space, but hours apart. In doing so, one of the newcomers unwittingly stumbled across Rachel’s natural deposit when searching the bushes for anything edible. The plainly stupid mammal was confused by its stiff, hard form, not to mention the now acute hunger which continued to haunt its belly. The faeces were held up to the scorching sun in order to examine there potential as a food source. He looked across at his companions only to see them jumping around in delight at his foolish mistake. The shit-picker quickly became shit-flinger, hurling the offending cylinder towards the others in embarrassed rage. Unimpressed by such immature actions, the other males grabbed makeshift weapons of broken branches, small stones and rotted fruit, launching four of the group into a minor scuffle. Head’s were cracked and friendships forgotten until the only non-combatant, the most delicate of the females, bent over to pluck an exotic flower from its stalk. Her raised behind caught the eyes of all three males and helped to channel their aggression in another direction. Weapons were quickly downed and instead the fruitless search for fruit continued in the hope of winning the flower lover’s heart, or other rewards, through satisfying her more essential hunger.
As they got closer to the river the trackers had more or less given up hope of spotting those whom they stalked. Along the route they’d seen no obvious signs of their presence and had resolved instead to ensure that they themselves ate well and enjoyed the time they had down by the river. True to his word, within minutes of trying, Tom had pulled several small fish from the water. However the genuine gratitude of the other four made him feel rather hollow and stupid for his anticipatory gloating earlier in the day. The five companions sat under the shade of the plants and habitually shared the fish around whilst accompanying their meal with another gift from the surrounding jungle, yucca.
Meanwhile, at the foot of the Andean mountain range, such indulgence could not seem a more distant dream. Instead, minds and stomachs alike burnt with the intense heat of the day’s struggles and strife. The group skulked around under the lengthening shadow of the imposing range, each lost in their own private argument which, with the help of the persistent humidity, had swamped all logical thought. Happily, the beginnings of an answer to the increasingly dominant problem of hunger presented itself, without the need for intellectual nous, in the shape of the fruity remains which littered the fertile jungle floor. However nature’s hint was insufficient for the exhausted beasts to cut through the dense cloud which hazed their outlook. Instead of relief, the sighting of the nearby food source led to arguing over exactly where the rotted fruit had come from, and indeed, which of them should go and look for it. Within two spiteful glares the three males once more slipped effortlessly into a violent confrontation; bodies flew at each other, sticks were brandished and blows dealt, energy wasted and time consumed. Still the humidity thickened the air, and still they were no closer to a meal.
Of course, all this action would have been of enormous interest to Tom and friends but their only concern as the day drew to a close was to enjoy their final moments amongst the yucca trees, before retiring to the mountain side to rest. It went unsaid but remained understood that they wouldn’t worry over their apparent failure to observe the newcomers, tomorrow was a new day, when they would happily start over.
An altogether different anticipation was lodged in the thick, sticky air as the fighting five sat awaiting sunset. Still hungry, an ever darkening jungle was no place to be. Battered, bruised and bitter, the three males sat far apart and facing away from one another. The two females, having not been physically involved in the earlier skirmish, sat closer together in a less hostile silence. As the mountains bathed in the cooling dark skies, the sound of no-one talking was broken by a rustling amongst the trees, putting the group on alert. However their dulled senses made it difficult to detect from which direction the sound came and indeed before any of the group could identify the source of the cracking branches and rustling leaves, they them themselves had been spotted.
Joshua stopped dead. He beckoned to the others to approach more quietly. The visitors had landed right where the group’s own mission had begun, in their own back yard. What luck! They stared, motionless, in awe of the primitive beasts with their sullen expressions and peculiar appearance. As if sensing being watched, the nearest of the beasts raised his head, his eyes pointing directly at Joshua’s. The two mammals held each other’s gaze for mere seconds that nonetheless seemed to stretch out and bridge the evolutionary gap. Joshua began to well-up at the beauty and magnitude of the moment. His opposite number continued to hold his gaze but reached down to raise a long, straight branch from the jungle floor. Something about the branch further mesmerised Joshua, it seemed to catch the few remaining rays of sun light, sparkling as it was raised to eye level. What was the meaning of such an act? There were no olives in this part of the jungle, but surely the gesture was equally symbolic?
Click, BOOM! A brilliant flash of light startled Rachel who stood a few feet to the left of Joshua and had been equally entranced. The branch now appeared to be smoking and had been raised into the air. She looked across to Joshua but saw only his body, his head having fallen 15ft down to the jungle floor. Aghast she looked to the others, all she could see was the merest glimpse of their behinds as they fled, swinging through the trees at the sort of mind-less speed only possible in moments of utter panic. Rachel however remained frozen. The branch was lowered once more, another click and BOOM! Rachel felt her chest pierced by smouldering lead.
The beast approached and stooped down to raise the two bodies off of the jungle floor. Looking up into the trees from where they had fallen, he slung the bodies over his shoulder and returned, triumphantly, to his companions. The mood of the hungry visitors began to significantly improve as they feasted on the bush meat. Still ignorant of the ways of the jungle, they drifted off to sleep, surrounded by the damning evidence of simian bones. They lay out in the open, exposed to nature, unaware of three pairs of vengeful eyes watching them, waiting patiently for the complete darkness of night time in the jungle.
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